Oil price slides as US and Iran pause fire; cancer treatments help AstraZeneca beat profit forecasts – as it happened
Oil prices have dropped by 6% as traders bet that a pause in US attacks on Iran could prevent an escalation in the conflict that would further restrict global supply.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell 6% to below $91 a barrel on Monday morning, after briefly dropping below $90 earlier in the morning. Futures prices hit $100 last week when the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea.
The US and Iran paused hostilities after 13 days offighting, with Iran saying it had stopped “retaliatory” attacks after two nights without American missiles.
AstraZeneca must operate at “Chinese speed” to ensure it does not suffer the fate of the western automotive industry by losing out to more innovative rivals, the drug company’s boss has said.
The FTSE 100 company is watching the rise of China’s pharmaceutical industry closely and collaborating to take drugs to global markets, but its chief executive, Pascal Soriot , said the US and European pharmaceutical sectors must focus on increasing the speed of innovation.
“We have to make sure we don’t fall behind,” Soriot said. “What we are learning ourselves is we have to move much faster. We always talk about Chinese speed in our company, and we want to operate in Chinese speed.”
One of the biggest energy businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange has agreed a controversial £5.7bn takeover by private equity, adding to the growing exodus of companies from the UK market.
The US private equity groups KKR and Energy Capital Partners are poised to buy DCC Energy after the company’s board recommended the offer despite misgivings from its founder and biggest shareholders.
The proposed takeover of the Dublin-based company follows recent agreements to take a host of UK businesses private, including Mitie , Tate & Lyle and the William Hill owner, Evoke . The budget airline easyJet is subject to a possible £5.7bn offer.
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Source: The Guardian. Summary reproduced for informational purposes.
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