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…

This week, BP announced it would take a $4–$5 billion hit to its Q4 earnings from winding down its energy transition business. The announcement followed a similar one from Ford, which said in December it would incur $19.5 billion in losses due to a substantial curtailment of its EV plans. These two are far from the only ones losing money on what was, a few years ago, considered a sure-return investment. And that’s bad news for net-zero plans. BP did not go into detail about the specific nature of the impairments it would book for the…

The United States is rushing to sell off millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil after the Trump administration ousted and detained leader Nicholas Maduro on January 3. Trump has been extremely vocal of his plans to capitalize on Venezuela’s oil reserves – the largest in the world – and build his “very own oil empire” capable of going toe-to-toe with OPEC.  Already, the United States Department of Energy is organizing the sale of about 50 million barrels of oil that the United States seized from Venezuelan tankers…

Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…

Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…

The UK economy grew more than expected in November last year, official data has shown, reflecting businesses’ nerves about Rachel Reeves’ Budget measures.  New Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed growth in the UK economy inching up Business analysts warned over several months that pre-Budget speculation had dampened spending and investment levels.  The figures will also pile pressure on Reeves and the rest of the Labour government, with economic growth being the party’s central mission. …

Ed Miliband has reaffirmed the UK’s ambitious 2030 clean power goal with the biggest ever expansion of offshore wind farms that could add as much as £1.8bn a year onto households’ energy bills. The government unveiled an auction of offshore energy sites with a total capacity of 8.4 gigawatts, far outstripping analyst estimates and enough to power roughly 12m homes. Miliband, the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, hailed the new wind farms as a “monumental step towards clean power by 2030” that will…

Coterra Energy is kicking the tires on what would be one of the biggest U.S. shale mergers in years, holding talks about a possible combination with Devon Energy, according to people familiar with the matter. Nothing is signed, nothing is guaranteed, but the market liked the idea enough to send shares of Coterra Energy sharply higher on the day. The deal would be a classic all-stock shale mashup: two midsize operators with large footprints in the Permian Basin trying to bulk up as oil prices sit stubbornly around $60 a barrel. Coterra carries a…

As Iran’s clerical rulers face one of the biggest threats to their grip on power in years and the United States threatens potential military action in support of Iranian protesters, China has few options -- and growing hesitancy -- to help its partner in Tehran. Beijing’s inaction reflects the pragmatic nature of their alignment, which is based more on convenience rather than goodwill or trust, experts say. Those limits have been on display as the Iranian authorities wage an unprecedented and bloody crackdown on mass antiestablishment…

Oilfield services company Haliburton (NYSE:HAL) says it expects to make a quick return to Venezuela, with company CEO Jeff Miller saying the company could be active in the South American country in a matter of months. Halliburton aims to help rebuild the nation’s dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure, and has downplayed the risk of responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for $100 billion in investments. Jeff Miller told Energy Source that Haliburton’s business model means that it does not face the same kind of risk as…

Oilfield services company Haliburton (NYSE:HAL) says it expects to make a quick return to Venezuela, with company CEO Jeff Miller saying the company could be active in the South American country in a matter of months. Halliburton aims to help rebuild the nation’s dilapidated oil and gas infrastructure, and has downplayed the risk of responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for $100 billion in investments. Jeff Miller told Energy Source that Haliburton’s business model means that it does not face the same kind of risk as…

The United States and Armenia have agreed on an implementation framework to develop a trade corridor that is the centerpiece of the provisional Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal signed last summer in Washington. According to the document, the United States will have a majority stake in developing infrastructure for what is known as the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, announced the memorandum of understanding following a January 13 meeting…

Following improved stability in the Red Sea, shipping giant Maersk is returning to the trans-Suez route connecting the Middle East and India with the U.S. East Coast, the Denmark-based company said on Thursday.  After the successful trans-Suez transits of two vessels in the past weeks, A.P. Moller - Maersk has decided to implement the first structural change of a service back to the trans-Suez route, the shipping giant said.  The return to the Red Sea and Suez Canal route applies to the MECL service, which is solely operated by Maersk…

Following improved stability in the Red Sea, shipping giant Maersk is returning to the trans-Suez route connecting the Middle East and India with the U.S. East Coast, the Denmark-based company said on Thursday.  After the successful trans-Suez transits of two vessels in the past weeks, A.P. Moller - Maersk has decided to implement the first structural change of a service back to the trans-Suez route, the shipping giant said.  The return to the Red Sea and Suez Canal route applies to the MECL service, which is solely operated by Maersk…

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday, proposing the creation of a $2.5 billion critical minerals reserve in the United States.  The reserve would be a move to encourage mining and refining domestically as the U.S. looks to break China’s near-total monopoly in critical minerals and rare earths supply, refining, and pricing.   The bill says that China has moved to “weaponize its influence over prices and volumes in the contest for access to critical minerals,” and asserts that the goal is…

China continues to nearly single-handedly prop up global coal consumption and new coal-fired power generation, despite being also the world’s leading investor in renewables and battery storage.  China is set to commission as many as 85 coal-fired power generating units this year, out of a total global of 104 coal projects slated for start-up in 2026, according to data by non-profit Global Energy Monitor (GEM) cited by the Financial Times. Of all the 63 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power generation expected to begin commercial operations…

With traders across the globe refreshing their X accounts every 3 seconds, expecting to see news of imminent "kinetic action" in Iran, they instead got a report from NBC indicating that military action is far from certain and could take days to launch. According to the report which cites multiple anonymous sources - including a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House - Trump has told his national security team that "he would want any U.S. military action in Iran to deliver a swift…

Canada and China signed on Thursday several cooperation agreements, including in the energy sector, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed “a new era” in bilateral relations during an official visit to China.  Energy, forestry, food safety, crime, and culture were areas in which the two economies pledged cooperation as Canada is seeking to diversify trade partners away from the United States in the face of the hostile trade policy of the Trump Administration.  In the energy space, Canada and China agreed to discuss…

Canada and China signed on Thursday several cooperation agreements, including in the energy sector, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed “a new era” in bilateral relations during an official visit to China.  Energy, forestry, food safety, crime, and culture were areas in which the two economies pledged cooperation as Canada is seeking to diversify trade partners away from the United States in the face of the hostile trade policy of the Trump Administration.  In the energy space, Canada and China agreed to discuss…