Latest news with #AccessMiddleEast
CNBC
an hour ago
- Business
- CNBC
Adnoc Drilling second quarter profit rises
Adnoc Drilling posts record first half profit and revenue grew over 30 percent to $2.37 billion. CNBC's Emily Tan speaks to CEO Youssef Salem on Access Middle East.
CNBC
18-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Saudi Arabia reckons with its costly megaprojects as $500 billion 'The Line' is reviewed
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is reassessing its flagship $500 billion futuristic city called The Line. The public investment fund has tapped consulting firms to conduct a strategic review into the feasibility of the 105-mile linear city, located at Neom — itself a huge new development in Saudi Arabia. Neom confirmed the news, first reported by Bloomberg, saying that strategic checks are "common practice" on long-term megaprojects. But the move comes amid global scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's ambitious infrastructure agenda, as well as growing pressure on public finances. Neom did not detail what the review would be focused on, but "it's likely that it's going to look at technical feasibility, financing and also economic impact," according to Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute. "I think these are all areas where people have had questions in the past; is the technology there to actually achieve what Neom wants to do? Is the cost of development too high? That's clearly become an even more pressing issue as oil prices have headed down the last couple of years," Callen told CNBC's Access Middle East on Friday. The site of The Line, in Saudi Arabia's northwestern desert, is currently a sprawling construction site replete with cranes and pile drivers, and a recently built road. Long parallel tracks cut through the sand, comprising the spine of what planners say will be a high-speed rail system. It's designed to be a high-tech city sandwiched between two glass skyscrapers — each more than 1,600 feet high — which the Saudi government says will eventually house 9 million people. The project is just one of the hyper-futuristic venues planned in Neom, the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and a region that the kingdom hopes will bring millions of new residents to Saudi Arabia and revolutionize living and technology in the country. It's a core pillar of Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil revenues and create new jobs and industries for its burgeoning young population. The cost of Neom as a whole has been estimated to be as high as $1.5 trillion. After many years of seemingly unlimited spending, 2024 began to see an abrupt shift as the Saudi budget deficit grew and the price of a barrel of oil fell well below what the kingdom needs to balance its budget. "It's clear that if oil prices, as you were saying earlier, are around $70 a barrel, that's a very different environment than if they are $100 a barrel, where they were on average in 2022," the Arab Gulf States Institute's Callen said. International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $70.15 per barrel at 2:15 p.m. London time on Friday. "So many of these projects are going to have to be reassessed, reprioritized. Does that mean Neon is not going to happen? No, I think Neom will definitely continue in some form. But whether it's on a smaller scale and over a longer duration than originally envisaged, is quite likely, I think." There has also been a fair amount of criticism for what some in the kingdom describe as a "yes-man" mentality at Neom, where consultants and advisors are said to provide highly optimistic forecasts and cost-revenue projections in an effort to stay in their employers' favor. "I don't think expectations were managed well from a leadership perspective at the project level," Tarik Solomon, chairman emeritus at the American Chamber of Commerce in Saudi Arabia, told CNBC. "For a project of this scale to succeed, it has to adjust to market realities and it has to build trust." Solomon praised Neom and The Line as being "one of the boldest ideas I've seen that has actually gone into execution," but added that "the architectural and consulting firms involved have an important role here and they should have more of a sense of ownership and responsibility to carry." In tandem with the planned "assessment" of The Line, job cuts are planned across Neom as a whole, one consultant who works for the project told CNBC. "They're finally starting to make financially sound decisions," the consultant, who asked to remain anonymous due to restrictions on speaking to the press, said. Neom did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
CNBC
18-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Israel's stock market outperforms Middle East counterparts despite multi-front wars
Israel's stock market is at a record high and has seen the greatest gains of any country in the Middle East over the 22 months of war that began on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has been waging multi-front wars, sustaining the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops that would ordinarily be part of the workforce, it's currently facing charges of war crimes in international courts, all while grappling with a large protest movement and political turmoil at home. Despite this, its economic landscape remains buoyant – lifted by significant foreign investment and more recently by renewed investor confidence following its 12-day conflict with Iran. Initially dropping as much as 23% in the month following the October Hamas attack and Israel's declaration of war, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had rebounded to and exceeded pre-war levels by the first quarter of 2024. As of July 17, the TASE is up over 200% from its Oct. 2023 low. The country's GDP for the last quarter of 2023 shrank nearly 20%, following a deep contraction in private consumption and investment triggered by the war. The full year nonetheless finished with modest growth of 2%, and a further 1% GDP growth in 2024, driven mainly by government spending. In June of this year, the OECD forecast 4.9% growth in economic activity for Israel in 2026. "In 2024, about 161,000 new trading accounts were opened in the Israeli capital market," a July report published on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website stated. That figure represents a threefold jump in the number of accounts opened compared to 2023. The report added that the first half of 2025 saw a further 87,000 new trading accounts opened, some 33,000 of which were in investment houses. "The year 2023 was characterized by considerable uncertainty… However, already in 2024, a reversal of the trend could be identified: the public expanded its involvement in the capital market, opened trading accounts, and took advantage of the low price levels in TASE's indices to enter the local capital market, which also supported the high trading volumes," Hadar Romano, head of data at TASE, wrote in the report. Avi Hasson, CEO of Israel's Startup Nation Central, credited a number of factors for boosting investor confidence in Israel. "As a result of what has been happening in the past 22 months, global investors look at the Middle East now, and specifically at Israel, and say… 'The risks confronting Israel's security and economy are actually going down'," Hasson told CNBC's Access Middle East. In the last year, Israel has managed to significantly degrade the capabilities of its adversaries, particularly Lebanon's Hezbollah, and its June conflict with Iran – with the help of the U.S. – was widely seen as having dealt a significant blow to Tehran's abilities to harm the Jewish state. When investors "try to look at the fundamentals of the Israeli economy, and more specifically, the tech market, its dynamism, its capabilities, the baby boom, new company creation," Hasson said, "global investors and global companies are taking notice, when they try to imagine the Middle East. Not necessarily how it is today, but rather in the months and years to come." Israel's tech sector is to thank for much of the country's economic success. High-tech products and services make up 20% of Israel's GDP and 56% of its international exports, Hasson said, thanks in part to the government investing heavily into research and development. Since the start of the war, its defense sector has gained further attention from foreign countries, even in the Arab world – one visible example being the robust presence of Israeli defense firms at Abu Dhabi's IDEX defense exhibition in February of this year. Foreign investment has also played a major part in the boost to Israel's stock market and real estate sector. In May of this year alone, foreign investors bought approximately 2.5 billion shekels ($743 million) in TASE shares, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet. Since the start of 2025, it reported, total foreign acquisitions have reached roughly 9.1 billion shekels, or $2.7 billion. And according to Israel's central bank, outstanding liabilities to foreign investors "increased by approximately $27.5 billion (about 5.2 percent) in the fourth quarter, to about $554 billion at the end of the quarter." That increase, the bank said, "was primarily due to a combination of an increase in the prices of Israeli securities held by nonresidents and the continued flow of net investments in Israel by nonresidents." The Israeli shekel, meanwhile, has gained nearly 7% against the U.S. dollar following the Israel-Iran conflict in June, while S&P Global Market Intelligence expects price inflation in the country to fall within the central bank's target rate by the third quarter 2025, likely paving the way for further monetary easing.
New York Post
14-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Bitcoin surges to record high above $120K ahead of ‘Crypto Week'
Bitcoin surged to a record high above $120,000 on Monday as institutional investors and corporations fueled a rally in the coin's ETFs. The cryptocurrency traded at $121,673.10 at 9:35 a.m. ET, after earlier in the session breaking past $122,000. The surge comes ahead of the so-called 'Crypto Week,' as the US House of Representatives is scheduled to start deliberating on a series of crypto bills on Monday. Bitcoin surged to a record high above $120,000 on Monday. REUTERS Members of Congress will be reviewing legislation that aims to create clearer regulatory guidelines around the industry, like the Genius Act, which would create federal guardrails for stablecoins pegged to the US dollar. President Trump, who has branded himself as a pro-crypto president, is backing the bills. Retail investors largely took a back seat during this latest rally as institutional investors poured into Bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, which notched their largest day of inflows so far this year at $1.18 billion on Thursday. Over the last six to eight weeks, these investors have purchased $15 billion in Bitcoin ETFs, according to Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research. Bitcoin has broken several records lately thanks to 'massive unrelenting demand meeting limited supply,' Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC's 'The Exchange.' 'We expect Bitcoin to top $200,000 by the end of the year, which I know sounds like a very large number, but the flows we're seeing from institutional investors and corporations are really significant,' Hougan said over the weekend. 'They're accelerating, not slowing down, and I think they're gonna force that price substantially higher.' The US House of Representatives is scheduled to deliberate on a series of crypto bills this week. REUTERS Thielen told CNBC's 'Access Middle East' that he hopes the US will announce a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase digital currencies. Bitcoin still faces some hurdles that could stall it from surging past $120,000. Trump has continued to ramp up his trade war threats, most recently with letters sent to the EU and Mexico warning of 30% tariffs. Markets appear to have shrugged off the news for now, but this could change if lower tariff rates are not reached following negotiations. Bitcoin could also be thrown off course if the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates on fears that tariffs will reheat inflation and slow growth.
CNBC
09-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Wood Mackenzie: Sustained risk still supporting oil prices
Sushant Gupta, Research Director, APAC Refining & Oils from Wood Mackenzie joins CNBC's Dan Murphy on Access Middle East to discuss the demand and direction of oil.
