The boss of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, has warned global markets not to underestimate current risks, as the US banking giant hiked its provisions for bad loans. The world’s most influential banker said that whilst the US economy had remained “resilient” and consumer and business trends were “generally healthy,” ongoing risks persisted. “Markets seem to under-appreciate the potential hazards – including from complex geopolitical conditions, the risk of sticky inflation and elevated asset prices,” Dimon…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell by 1 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US  to 543 this week, down 37 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1 during the reporting period, according to the data. Oil rigs are now at 410, which is 68 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 122, which is 24 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count stayed at 11. The…

Talen Energy is following in the footsteps of utility peers Vistra and Constellation by spending billions of dollars acquiring gas generation assets to expand their capacity and grow market share in the growing power demand market. After spending about $3.5 billion to acquire gas generation capacity in Pennsylvania and Ohio back in July 2025, the company announced it spent another $3.5 billion to acquire two more gas facilities in Ohio. With the newly announced 2.6 GW added to last year’s 2.9 GW, Talen…

Russia is in negotiations with Beijing to potentially resume power supply to China, the Russian Energy Ministry told Reuters on Friday, after a Russian media report said that China halted electricity imports from Russia due to high prices.  On Friday, Russian business daily Kommersant reported that China on January 1 stopped buying any electricity from Russia.  The Chinese refusal to buy Russian electricity was the result of high Russian export prices, which in 2026 topped the domestic power prices in China for the first time, Kommersant…

Oil markets are trapped in a Trump-driven guessing game, with Iran fears lifting prices one moment and calming signals pulling them back the next. Friday, January 16, 2026 Will Donald Trump attack Iran again or not? That has been the multi-billion-dollar question of this week, with the initial price rally seeming to suggest an emphatic ‘yes’, only for Trump to pour cold water on the war hysteria by claiming there’s no executions in Iran. With news on Venezuela lacking real market impact lately, ICE Brent’s seesawing around…

Companies operating in Egypt continue to make oil and gas discoveries and drill new wells at the start of the year, further boosting hydrocarbon production as the North African country looks to reduce import dependence.  Several companies have drilled successful wells in the Western Desert, Eastern Desert, and the Nile Delta, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Friday.   The new wells are expected to add around 47 million cubic feet of natural gas and about 4,300 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and…

Companies operating in Egypt continue to make oil and gas discoveries and drill new wells at the start of the year, further boosting hydrocarbon production as the North African country looks to reduce import dependence.  Several companies have drilled successful wells in the Western Desert, Eastern Desert, and the Nile Delta, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Friday.   The new wells are expected to add around 47 million cubic feet of natural gas and about 4,300 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and…

Iran has been a major supplier of military equipment to Russia in recent years, especially since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but experts have told RFE/RL that this support no longer plays a key role in Moscow's war effort. Iranian missile sales to Russia, including air defense missiles and ballistic missiles, have totaled $2.7 billion since October 2021, according to a January 12 Bloomberg report citing an unnamed Western security official. The volume of trade is not publicly disclosed by Moscow, and Iran denies…

Over the last week or so, crude oil futures have been volatile, with a sharp run up to over $62, followed by a dramatic dip back below $60. Given crude’s normal volatility, that is not really surprising. What is surprising in some ways, though, is the fact that this bout of volatility was driven by the words of President Trump. You would think that, by now, traders would have learned that trying to predict the actions of this administration based on what they are saying at any given moment is a fool’s errand. Opinion is divided as to…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Syria is moving into a dangerous new phase. Damascus is pushing Kurdish forces out of Aleppo. Kurdish autonomy west of the Euphrates is no longer being tolerated, and the order to withdraw east is not a bargaining position. The Aleppo advance changes leverage. Once Kurdish forces lose their urban footholds, they lose political weight quickly. That is why the protests in Kurdish areas are growing out of desperation over the loss of negotiating leverage. At the same time, Washington is running a parallel play…

The United States is setting up an air defence coordination unit in Qatar while publicly warning Iran about the use of lethal force. The unit itself is small and specific. It pulls together radar feeds, satellite warnings, and airspace tracking so U.S. systems and Gulf partners are looking at the same picture if something is launched. It does not plan strikes. It does not pick targets. It does not authorize action. Its job is to reduce confusion in the first minutes after an incident. The move raises the profile, but it is meant to contain what…

Light crude oil futures posted one of their most volatile weeks in months, swinging nearly $4 from a low of $58.45 to a high of $62.36 before settling at $59.17 on Thursday evening—up just $0.05 or +0.08% for the week. The dramatic price action was driven primarily by escalating and then rapidly diminishing geopolitical tensions surrounding Iran, compounded by the resumption of Venezuelan oil exports. Iran Takes Center Stage as Primary Market Driver The week's dominant narrative centered on Iran, where massive protests and a violent government…

If anyone is still wondering whether the Trump Administration’s goal of $50 per barrel oil price would hurt American drillers, the answer came this week from oil tycoon and wildcatter Harold Hamm, who is ceasing drilling operations in North Dakota for the first time in decades. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview published on Friday.  “There’s…

If anyone is still wondering whether the Trump Administration’s goal of $50 per barrel oil price would hurt American drillers, the answer came this week from oil tycoon and wildcatter Harold Hamm, who is ceasing drilling operations in North Dakota for the first time in decades. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview published on Friday.  “There’s…

Two years after abruptly ending the EV subsidies due to budget constraints, Germany is returning the incentives for buying electric vehicles with federal funds of $3.5 billion (3 billion euros) by 2029.   With the return of the incentives, Germany plans to prop up its ailing automotive sector, which has suffered a lot in recent years from surging costs, supply chain issues, and Chinese competition in EV sales.  The end of the previous EV subsidy scheme in Germany at the end of 2023 under the previous government resulted in a plunge…

Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR has started delivering Azeri natural gas to Germany and Austria, in another milestone for Europe that looks to ditch Russian gas by 2027.  SOCAR has started selling significant volumes of gas via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the European segment of the Southern Gas Corridor, to the markets of Southern and Central Europe.  Starting January 2026, Azerbaijan’s gas is being supplied to buyers in Austria and Germany, too, SOCAR said in a statement on Friday. The gas supply to Austria and…

U.S. President Donald Trump is taking action to protect American consumers from soaring electricity bills with plans to direct the biggest U.S. grid operator, PJM, hold an emergency power auction in which Big Tech would bid for power supply for their new data centers and effectively pay for new power plants.  President Trump and governors of several U.S. states, including the data-center hotpots Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, are expected to announce the plan later on Friday, Bloomberg reports. Under the plan, PJM Interconnection will be…

Chevron has announced the final investment decision regarding production expansion at the giant Leviathan gas field offshore Israel. “Our decision to invest in the expansion of Leviathan’s production capacity reflects our confidence in the future of energy in the region,” said the president of Chevron Upstream, Clay Neff. “Pragmatic U.S. and regional energy policies are helping to strengthen energy security across the Eastern Mediterranean and foster an environment that encourages investment in the Middle East and globally.”…

The U.S. stock market finished strongly in the green in 2025, with the broad market benchmark, S&P 500, returning 16.4%, marking its third straight year of double-digit gains. Interestingly, all 11 market sectors finished in the green, underscoring the broad market momentum. Not surprisingly, the tech sector topped the performance tables once again with a 24.6% gain thanks to the ongoing AI data center buildout and semiconductor upcycle. Industrials delivered an impressive 19.3% return, thanks to infrastructure investment, reshoring activity…

Despite a 20% slump in oil prices in 2025, the world’s biggest international oil firms saw their stocks rise by 4% to 18%, breaking the correlation between crude prices and oil stocks. Last year, investors appreciated the returns that were kept despite the oil price slide. They also cheered the strategic pivot of European majors to focus back on boosting their upstream production, Exxon and Chevron’s record-breaking Permian output, the synergies the U.S. supermajors began reporting from recent multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, and…