Aurelia Butler

The company concludes fourth-quarter reports from the world’s top oilfield services providers. International demand also helped rivals SLB and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) beat estimates amid slowing activity in the U.S. shale region. International rig count, an indicator of future production, stood at 948 on an average in 2023, 11.4% higher than a year earlier, as per Baker Hughes data, while U.S. rig count fell 4.4% to 689.Baker Hughes reported a 15% rise in international revenue for its oilfield services segment, while North America revenue slipped 1%. Revenue from its industrial and energy technology segment jumped 24% to $2.88 billion.The company has also benefited from equipment supply contracts from new LNG producing facilities as energy firms are betting on long-term demand for the super chilled commodity.An “unprecedented surge” in LNG projects coming online from 2025 is set to add more than 250 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year of new capacity by 2030, the International Energy Agency said in October.On an adjusted basis, the company posted net income of 51 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with the average analysts’ estimate of 48 cents, according to LSEG data.Shares were marginally higher after the bell. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.Investor sentiment towards China has picked up following a report that Beijing is considering a hefty package to support its ailing markets, and Wednesday’s trading activity will give some insight into whether it will be fleeting or something more lasting. Elsewhere in the Asia & Pacific region on Wednesday New Zealand inflation, purchasing managers index reports from Australia and Japan, and a monetary policy decision in Malaysia all have market-moving potential. The broader mood music, however, will probably be set by the S&P 500’s third consecutive record closing high, and by how Chinese and Hong Kong markets trade. The performance of Chinese stocks on Tuesday was not particularly strong – Hong Kong stocks rallied much harder – but any rebound has to start somewhere. Authorities and China bulls will be hoping this has legs. And it might if policymakers can mobilise about 2 trillion yuan ($278 billion), mainly from offshore accounts of state-owned enterprises, as part of a stabilization fund to buy shares onshore through the Hong Kong exchange link.By some measures, these markets are attractive. Valuations are cheap, indexes are the lowest in years, and if authorities can put a floor in, then a fair bit of the capital that has fled China and Honk Kong lately could be tempted back.Perhaps.The CSI 300 index’s rise of 0.4% and the Shanghai Composite’s rise of 0.5% on Tuesday were not big by most measures. But they were the biggest rise in almost a month, and enough to lift the indexes up from five- and four-year troughs, respectively.In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng and Hang Seng tech index jumped 2.7% and 3.7%, respectively, for their best days in two months, but they too are coming from low bases. The Hang Seng is flirting with levels it was at when Hong Kong returned to China from Britain in 1997. Before Tuesday’s spike, Hong Kong tech stocks were down 20% this month. Japan’s equity bull run took a breather on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan stood pat at its policy meeting but appeared to err on the hawkish side, while the yen eventually gave back its initial gains and drifted down to 148.50 per dollar.There was something for everyone, however, in Governor Kazuo Ueda’s comments, as he noted that inflation seems to be heading back toward the bank’s 2% target in a sustainable manner. If this narrative prevails, expect the Nikkei to resume its upswing and the yen and bond yields to remain under pressures.Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia is widely expected to leave its overnight policy rate unchanged at 3.00% on Wednesday and hold it there until at least the end of next year. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Wednesday: – Australia PMIs (January)- Japan PMIs (January)- Malaysia interest rate decision (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Bill Berkrot) More

SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian regulator is reviewing how pension funds value unlisted assets, ranging from private equity to office towers, as part of a long-term push to limit risks within the illiquid holdings popular in the A$2.5 trillion ($1.7 trillion) sector.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) requested information from multiple pension funds in late 2023 as part of the review into unlisted asset valuation governance, according to a previously unreported November 2023 letter seen by Reuters.The review is part of a broader focus on system-wide risk and covers commercial property, private equity and credit as well as potential liquidity risks associated with exposure to unlisted assets, the letter showed.APRA declined to comment on the review. The A$160 billion Aware Super, Australia’s third largest fund, said it had received a request for information relating to a review of unlisted asset valuations. AustralianSuper, the largest fund, also said it had received an information request.Unlisted assets, ranging from wind farms and warehouses to private company shares, are popular in the pension sector and holdings can reach as high as 40% of all assets in some funds.The review reflects long-standing concerns at APRA about how the sector prices these assets which rarely trade. A 2021 review found revaluation frameworks were “typically inadequate”. New standards were introduced last July, including quarterly asset valuations. However, a September study into how pension funds valued private equity stakes in Australian technology startup Canva found that while the majority of governance practices were appropriate, “several areas required improvement”.Funds need to provide information about how they value unlisted assets, in particular the board’s role in the process, according to a source familiar with the request who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak with media.($1 = 1.5198 Australian dollars) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday said it was redesigning hundreds of types of notices mailed to taxpayers to make them simpler, clearer, and understandable in the hopes that this will help improve compliance and reduce taxpayer anxiety.The IRS and the U.S. Treasury rolled out the “Simple Notice Initiative” with 31 redesigned notices for the 2024 tax filing season, which starts on Monday. WHY IT’S IMPORTANTThe changes are part of the IRS’ modernization drive using $80 billion in new funding over a decade, an amount that will be reduced by about $20 billion under a bipartisan top-line spending agreement.The agency wants to show continued progress after changes that aided the 2023 tax filing season, including the hiring of 5,000 additional staff to answer phones, new scanning technology that speeded the processing of paper returns, and a focus on wealthy individuals that had failed to file returns.KEY QUOTE: “When a letter arrives in the mail from the IRS, we all catch our breath. So given the initial apprehension, it’s really important for us to get the information clear and understandable to help taxpayers,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters.”If it’s not about an unpaid tax bill, we need to mark it clearly as ‘this is not a bill.’ If it’s just a question about a tax return, we need to mark it clearly as ‘this is not an audit,'” Werfel added.BY THE NUMBERS The IRS sent a redesigned 5071C notice, which guards against the filing of fraudulent returns and asks taxpayers to verify their identity, to 60,000 taxpayers, stating more clearly what steps needed to be taken immediately.It said there was a 16% reduction in taxpayers who phoned the IRS as their first action, and a 6% increase in taxpayers who verified their identity online, freeing up staff for other tasks.By the 2025 filing season, the IRS said it will redesign up to 200 individual income tax notices that make up 90% of the total notices sent to individual taxpayers. More

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