Month: March 2020

Waymo, the self-driving car developer of Alphabet, has raised $2.25 billion in funding from external investors, led by tech investment firms including Silver Lake, Alphabet itself, Andreesen Horowitz, and AutoNation. Google began working on a self-driving car more than a decade ago, in 2009, and later the parent company spun the project off into Waymo, staking a serious claim in the nascent autonomous driving area. Since its inception, Waymo has logged in 20 million miles on public roads with its ride-sharing service in Arizona and in California. Last year alone,…

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The oil markets are expecting yet again that OPEC will be the hero of oil prices, and this optimism has sent oil prices up 4% on Monday afternoon, and up more than 2% on Tuesday morning. The optimism is a welcomed event after last week’s falling prices that saw oil have the worst week in years. Last week, the concern was that the coronavirus was continuing to spread to countries other than China, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases also continuing to climb. Analysts lowered again oil demand projections…

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The new coronavirus Covid-19 will end up being the final curtain on China’s nearly 30 year role as the world’s leading manufacturer. “Using China as a hub…that model died this week, I think,” says Vladimir Signorelli, head of Bretton Woods Research, a macro investment research firm. China’s economy is getting hit much harder by the coronavirus outbreak than markets currently recognize. Wall Street appeared to be the last to realize this last week. The S&P 500 fell over 8%, the worst performing market of all the big coronavirus infected nations.…

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The energy sector poses one of the biggest challenges the country faces today. It stands out as the biggest drain on both the national exchequer and the public purse. The inability of successive governments to turn around the power sector on a sustainable basis has, in fact, become a source of national disgrace. The circular debt continues to build on. Its root cause continues to be high and stubborn system losses. No effort will ever succeed unless this black hole of an aggregate 25 per cent loss is plugged. That…

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ISLAMABAD: The government on Sunday jacked up the petroleum levy on POL products for pocketing at least additional Rs4 to Rs5 billion through consumption of two major products petrol and diesel, reported. The petroleum levy on diesel has been increased by Rs7.05 to Rs25.05 per litre. If the government did not increase the PL (petroleum levy) on diesel, diesel would be cheaper by Rs7.05 per litre.  The petroleum levy on petrol increased by Rs4.75 to Rs19.75 per litre. If not increased, the petrol would have been cheaper by Rs4.75.  The…

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