OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is determined to keep oil prices trading around current levels, one strategist told CNBC Monday, but a total shutdown in Venezuelan production could soon prompt crude futures to skyrocket toward $100 a barrel. Prices in the oil market have been steadily rising since last year, with global benchmark Brent climbing to […]

Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was in Europe last week on what is being dubbed an “apology tour.” This was the first time Zuckerberg set ground on the continent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke that compromised the data of about 2.7 million nationals on the continent. This was supposed to be his […]

The leader of Italy’s largest political party has called for President Sergio Mattarella to face impeachment charges after he refused to accept a controversial choice for economy minister. Amid a deepening sense of political and constitutional turmoil in the euro zone’s third-largest economy, Luigi Di Maio of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) said Sunday […]

Insurance company Swiss Re and Softbank have agreed to end discussions about a potential minority investment by the Japanese technology conglomerate. Swiss Re didn’t give reasons for the move in a brief statement Monday. The companies had announced in February that they were in preliminary discussions. Zurich-based Swiss Re is one of the world’s biggest […]

European stocks are set to open higher on Monday morning, amid signs of thawing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. The CAC is expected to open 10 points higher at 5,544, while the DAX is poised to start up 38 points at 12,971, according to IG. Market holidays in the U.K. and U.S. were […]

Italy’s political landscape grew even shakier Sunday after the president refused to approve a proposed Cabinet minister with views critical of the euro currency and the premier-designate quit his bid to form a populist coalition government. After being summoned to and emerging from the Quirinal presidential palace, Premiere-Designate Giuseppe Conte did not say why he […]

Italy’s would-be coalition parties turned up the pressure on President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday to endorse their euroskeptic pick as economy minister, saying the only other option may be a new election. Mattarella has held up formation of a government, which would end more than 80 days of political deadlock, over concern about the far-right […]

Ireland is set to liberalize some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws after exit polls suggested a landslide vote for change in what was until recently one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries. As the vote count began on Saturday morning, the official LoveBoth campaign against liberalization conceded that the polls painted “a bleak […]

Richard Branson, the 67-year-old British entrepreneur, says he’s in a closely-fought race with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to get the first fare-paying passengers into space. Speaking to the BBC’s “You and Yours” radio show, he said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing “fantastically well” with rocket development and space transport for cargo. But, he […]

Italy’s Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte labored to finalize his cabinet team on Friday as markets tumbled on fears the incoming eurosceptic government will embark on a spending spree that will undermine fragile state finances. The eurozone’s leading financial risk indicator, the gap between Italian and German sovereign debt yields, surged to 215 basis points, its […]