“We have been accused of bias, of catalysing the Arab Spring, of having an agenda, and of favouring one group over another. We reject these allegations and our screens are a testament to our integrity.”
“The implications are far reaching, with scarcely a country in the region not at risk of being drawn in.”
“There is no question that these individuals are connected to Qatar, but the question of whether they are “terrorists” or not is essentially political.”
“In our opinion, this is not dangerous market complacency but a reflection of an abnormally tranquil macro environment, with a benign economic outlook, very supportive financial conditions, and lower political risks”…
In case you were in any way unclear about this: Saudi stocks are super excited about the possibility of MSCI inclusion somewhere down the road and, more importantly, about Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman replacing his cousin Muhammad bin Nayef as heir to the throne. The consolidation of power in bin Salman…
“It’s clearly a transition that has happened smoothly and bloodlessly. Now it’s clear, it’s straightforward. That kind of clarity lowers the risk. There’s no question as to who’s going to be in charge.”
Ok, well for obvious reasons, the headlines overnight pretty much all revolved around: Saudi Arabia China Oil In Riyadh, Mohammed bin Salman consolidated still more power after replacing his cousin Muhammad bin Nayef as heir to the throne. It was, as quite a few in the media noted, an “abrupt” change. But bin Salman was already running defense,…
“Ambassador Otaiba must certainly be aware that the United Nations and the U.S. Treasury Department list 10 times as many suspected terrorists and terrorist financiers from the boycotting countries as from Qatar.”
Yeah, so this afternoon the Fed will almost surely hike and folks will be looking for answers to a whole lot of questions. The full preview is available here, but one thing you should note is that traders will be watching CPI and retail sales first and indeed, those prints may end up dictating the…
“Qatar cannot own stakes in the Empire State Building and the London Shard and use the profits to write checks to affiliates of al Qaeda.”
“The latest incident, whereby a group of oil-producing Arab nations has cut ties with neighboring energy-exporting country Qatar, is much more than a simple diplomatic spat. Collectively, the countries involved control 29% of global crude oil and 33% of global liquid natural gas exports.”
“I spoke with my wife this morning. She said, ‘Send your savings to me now.’ I am not panicked but my family are scared,” said John Vincent, an air-conditioning repairman from the Philippines.
In a week that was supposed to dominated by James Comey, Mario Draghi, and the UK elections, Qatar has so far stolen the spotlight. If you’ve been living in a cave for the past three days, Qatar is under diplomatic siege after long-simmering regional tensions finally came to a head after controversial remarks attributed to Qatari…
Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, US officials say..
It’s probably safe to say that the early “winner” in the spat between Qatar and the Saudis is Iran. And you know that’s gotta piss Riyadh off because the whole point of this was to punish Doha for adopting a conciliatory stance toward the Iranians and, more generally, to rein in what the Sunni community increasingly views…
