Exxon to invest $50B, expand business
DALLAS -- Exxon Mobil Corp. is set to invest $50 billion over the next half decade in a return to the oil giant's spending habits before crude suffered its worst price rout in a generation, the chief executive says.
With oil prices now hovering above $65 a barrel in New York, Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods disclosed a program that includes the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, a hotbed of U.S. shale drilling where Exxon has been aggressively expanding for years.
In a blog post on Monday, Woods, a second-year CEO at the world's biggest oil explorer by market value, cited President Donald Trump's U.S. tax overhaul as a significant enabler of the plan. But it basically just returns the investment program to levels seen earlier this decade, when crude prices peaked.
-- Bloomberg News
U.S.-run broadband proposal criticized
WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators and major telecommunications companies pushed back Monday against a proposal circulating in the White House that would put the government in control of a next-generation mobile broadband network to address economic and security concerns related to China.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, said he opposed the idea. He argued that the federal government taking control of developing 5G networks, as the mobile technology is called, could hurt the private sector and the economy.
"The market, not the government, is best positioned to drive innovation and investment," Pai, a Republican, said in a statement.
"There is nothing that would slam the brakes more quickly on our hard-won momentum to be the leader in the global race for 5G network deployment," Jonathan Spalter, chief executive of USTelecom, said in a statement.
The strong reaction was in response to reports that President Donald Trump's administration, on a recommendation from the National Security Council, was contemplating using federal money for a 5G network.
-- The New York Times
Goldman reshuffles stock-picking unit
NEW YORK -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has shaken up management of its U.S. stock-picking unit after billions of dollars in outflows and mediocre performance.
The bank's asset-management business this month merged teams overseeing fundamental U.S. equity value and growth strategies, sparking the exit of three senior portfolio managers, according to the New York-based company. At least eight U.S. equity funds got new leadership, according to Morningstar Direct.
Goldman is reshuffling portfolio managers as investors continue to move money from higher-fee active strategies into cheaper exchange-traded funds. The bank's U.S. equity mutual funds suffered about $5 billion in net outflows last year, the most of eight sectors, according to Morningstar. Over the past two years, outflows totaled $11.1 billion.
-- Bloomberg News
EU warns Trump not to restrict trade
BRUSSELS -- The European Union said Monday that it stands ready to hit back "swiftly and appropriately" if U.S. President Donald Trump takes restrictive trade measures against the 28-nation bloc.
The EU's warning comes less than 24 hours after Trump expressed his annoyance with EU trade policy.
On Sunday, Trump said in a British television interview that "the European Union has been very, very unfair to the United States, and I think it'll turn out to be very much to their detriment."
He insisted that his issues with the EU "may morph into something very big from that standpoint, from a trade standpoint."
-- The Associated Press
Tronc names editors at LA, NYC papers
CHICAGO -- The embattled newspaper company Tronc made a flurry of moves on Monday, announcing that it had picked new top editors for two of its publications, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News.
The company, short for Tribune Online Content, said it had named Jim Kirk, a veteran journalist and former editor and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, editor-in-chief of the Times. Jim Rich, who previously served as the editor-in-chief of the Daily News, would return to that role Wednesday.
Kirk, 52, was expected to replace Lewis D'Vorkin, who had held the position for less than three months.
Rich, who was the editor-in-chief of the Daily News for a 13-month period that ended in 2016, returns to the paper after stepping down as the executive editor of HuffPost in December. At the time, Rich said he was starting a nonprofit news site.
-- The New York Times
Business on 01/30/2018