MOODY'S - Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has today changed the outlook on Russia's Ba1 long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to positive from stable. Concurrently, Moody's affirmed Russia's long-term ratings at Ba1 and its short term rating at Not Prime (NP).

BLOOMBERG - With crude back at $70 a barrel, and a petroleum industry that cut costs to the bone after the oil crash, the stage is now set for another boom. But the good times could hamper Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s main aim of moving the economy away from a reliance on oil. As optimism now returns to the economy, signs of real progress on that project are few.

EBRD - He noted Ukraine continued to be one of the world’s most energy-intensive countries, three times more so than the EU average, and he said the country should focus on energy efficiency, diversifying energy sources and improving municipal services and infrastructure. The EBRD President referred specifically to the need for further improvements in governance. Progress had been made but corruption was still a barrier to foreign direct investment, he said. The establishment of anti-corruption institutions could make an important contribution to increasing transparency in the economy.

BEA - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.

IMF - “This macroeconomic turnaround at home and the supportive global economic environment provide a unique opportunity to carry the reform momentum into areas that have historically been hard to tackle. Deep and lasting structural reforms are needed to create jobs as speedily as needed for Egypt’s growing population,” said Subir Lall, head of the IMF team for Egypt.

FT - Excluding those items, earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2017 were 48 cents, up 78 per cent from the equivalent period of 2016 and above the average forecast of 44 cents.

SCHLUMBERGER - Full-year 2017 revenue of $30.4 billion increased 9% year-on-year. This included a full year’s activity from the acquired Cameron businesses as compared to three quarters of activity in 2016. Excluding the addition of Cameron, revenue growth was driven by land activity in North America, which increased by 82% in line with the increase in rig count. Full-year Production Group revenue increased 21%, Reservoir Characterization Group revenue improved 2%, and Drilling Group revenue declined 2%.

U.S.DT - The sum total in November of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC inflow of $33.8 billion. Of this, net foreign private inflows were $49.7 billion, and net foreign official outflows were $15.9 billion.

U.S. FRB - Industrial production rose 0.9 percent in December even though manufacturing output only edged up 0.1 percent. Revisions to mining and utilities altered the pattern of growth for October and November, but the level of the overall index in November was little changed. For the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production jumped 8.2 percent at an annual rate after being held down in the third quarter by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. At 107.5 percent of its 2012 average, the index has increased 3.6 percent since December 2016 for its largest calendar-year gain since 2010.

API - Government pension managers have a responsibility by law to seek the greatest return for their investors and pensions that invest in oil and natural gas companies have historically delivered a higher return than other investments.

WBG - The World Bank forecasts global economic growth to edge up to 3.1 percent in 2018 after a much stronger-than-expected 2017, as the recovery in investment, manufacturing, and trade continues, and as commodity-exporting developing economies benefit from firming commodity prices.

RBF - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced plans to divest the city’s five pension funds of approximately $5 billion in fossil fuel investments in an effort to safeguard the retirement plans of the city’s employees from the threat of underperforming assets. The total size of the retirement funds, $189 billion, makes New York City the largest American municipality to divest to date.

BLOOMBERG - Ukraine imported 14 billion cubic meters of gas from the EU last year, comparable to Belgium’s annual consumption. From this year, state-owned NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy should import 5 billion cubic meters annually under its contract with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC through 2019, and has to pay for at least 80 percent of that, according to the court.

BLOOMBERG - The nation’s consumption of petroleum products rose 2 percent to about 200 million tons, the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said Wednesday. That’s the slowest since 2013, when demand grew 1.7 percent while global oil prices averaged about $109 a barrel, almost double last year’s level.

PLATTS - Venezuelan crude output plummeted in December to 1.70 million b/d, according to the latest S&P Global Platts OPEC survey released Monday.