U.S. sales of LNG to China expand 57%
China's imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. jumped last month as China snatched up a record volume of the fuel to meet surging demand for heating and industrial use.
Shipments from the U.S. totaled 407,325 metric tons in November, up from nothing the same month a year earlier and up 57 percent from October, placing one of the world's newest LNG sellers as the third-biggest supplier to China, behind Australia and Qatar.
"U.S. exports are ramping rapidly up, while China is the fastest growing importer," said Kerry Anne Shanks, a Singapore-based analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. "LNG trade between the two countries will continue to grow."
The world's largest energy user is struggling with a winter natural gas shortage after demand surged this year amid President Xi Jinping's fight against smog, which has focused on cutting the use of coal in favor of the cleaner-burning fuel.
-- Bloomberg News
UPS, FedEx report on-time delivery data
United Parcel Service and FedEx delivered almost all of people's presents by Christmas Day, with the former company finishing strong after a bruising late November.
Early figures signal that this holiday season is shaping up as among the most challenging for the package-delivery giants, with Cyber Monday sales alone jumping 16.8 percent to $6.6 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. The volume overwhelmed UPS in the week after Black Friday, and the Atlanta-based company responded by extending the workweek for some employees and redeploying office workers to help load trucks or deliver packages.
While some customers groused on social media about missed packages, UPS' on-time rate for items delivered by ground was 99.1 percent in the week that ended Saturday, according to parcel tracking firm ShipMatrix Inc. FedEx's rate was 98.7 percent. The rate was in the high 90s for each company for packages shipped by air.
Both couriers now have entered the holiday season's returns cycle, which also promises to be busy. UPS on Wednesday projected that returns would peak at 1.4 million packages on Jan. 3, up 8 percent from a year earlier. Consumers returned more than 1 million packages a day to retailers this month, UPS said.
-- Bloomberg News
BancorpSouth receives OK for mergers
TUPELO, Miss. -- A Mississippi bank has won approval to complete mergers with Louisiana and Texas banks that were delayed for nearly four years.
BancorpSouth announced Wednesday that it intends to complete the acquisitions of Monroe, La.-based Ouachita Independent Bank and Austin, Texas-based First State Bank Central Texas by Jan. 15. The Tupelo-based bank says it finally been approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Mississippi banking regulators.
In early 2014, BancorpSouth proposed to pay $115 million in stock and cash for Ouachita Bancshares Corp. and $210.8 million in stock and cash for Central Community Corp., the parent of First State Bank Central Texas. Stockholders long ago approved sales of the banks, but merger deadlines were repeatedly extended, in part because of federal questions over BancorpSouth's record of lending to poor and middle-income communities.
-- The Associated Press
Pending home sales up 0.2% last month
WASHINGTON -- Slightly more people signed contracts in November to buy homes, with pending sales rising just 0.2 percent as the housing market copes with a dwindling supply of properties on the market.
The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its index of pending home sales was 109.5 in November. The modest increase follows a 3.5 percent increase in October.
More Americans are shopping for homes as the economy has improved. The low 4.1 percent unemployment rate has helped lift demand from would-be homebuyers, as the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has built up momentum after years of steady but unspectacular gains. Yet the demand has done little to bring more home-sellers into the market, causing a shortage of listings that has pushed up prices and spawned a rush to buy in many metro areas.
The pending sales index has improved just 0.8 percent over the past year, as would-be buyers are finding that fewer homes are being listed for sale.
-- The Associated Press
Shell, Barclays adjust for U.S. tax law
LONDON -- Two major European companies, oil producer Shell and Barclays bank, say the U.S. tax overhaul will force them to take big charges in the last quarter of the year.
Shell said Wednesday that it expects to book between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in charges in the fourth quarter as it adjusts its measurements of deferred taxes. Barclays says it expects a charge of $1.34 billion.
The change in U.S. tax law cuts the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but also reduces companies' ability to offset tax bills with past losses.
Shell says it expects the law to be beneficial ultimately. Barclays says the benefits could be eroded by the implementation of the tax overhaul's complex provisions.
-- The Associated Press
News out of Libya drops crude-oil price
The price of crude oil slipped for the first time in more than a week on Wednesday, after reports that a damaged Libyan pipeline should be repaired next week.
Futures fell 0.6 percent in New York, with trading volumes about 50 percent below the 100-day average. The Waha Oil Co. pipeline that carries crude to Libya's largest terminal will need about a week for repairs after an explosion on Tuesday, people familiar with the situation said. Meanwhile, an American Petroleum Institute report that was said to show U.S. crude stockpiles falling by 5.96 million barrels last week didn't faze the market.
West Texas Intermediate for February delivery traded at $59.55 a barrel at 4:47 p.m. after settling at $59.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose above $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015 in intraday trading Tuesday.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 12/28/2017