6 Most Important Things in Business Today: OPEC Breakup?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 3:09PM EST · Published Nov 9, 5:50AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today: OPEC Breakup? — © Josh Hallett / Wikimedia Commons

The U.K. economy did well in the third quarter. According to Reuters:

Britain’s economy kept up healthy momentum during the third quarter, but this may prove a high watermark ahead of Brexit, official figures showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product in the three months to September was 0.6 percent higher than in the previous quarter, matching the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.

A court brought a stop to the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline. According to The Wall Street Journal:

A federal judge in Montana on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s permit allowing the Keystone XL pipeline and barred any construction of the long-delayed project until completion of a supplemental environmental review.

Siding with environmentalists and indigenous rights groups, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris ruled that President Trump’s 2017 cross-border permit of the pipeline expansion by TransCanada Corp. to take oil from Alberta to Nebraska hadn’t considered all impacts as required by federal law.

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OPEC might be broken up. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Saudi Arabia’s top government-funded think tank is studying the possible effects on oil markets of a breakup of OPEC, a remarkable research effort for a country that has dominated the oil cartel for nearly 60 years.

The effort coincides with new pressures on the Saudi government, including from the U.S., where President Trump has accused the cartel of pushing up oil prices, and from investors who distanced themselves from the kingdom after the brutal killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist.

E-cigarettes might be harder to buy. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Food and Drug Administration plans to sharply restrict the sale of most flavored pod-style e-cigarettes, effectively pulling them from most convenience stores and gas stations and requiring strict age verification controls for online sales, according to senior FDA officials.

The actions, expected to be announced as early as next week, are aimed at limiting access to the e-cigarettes most popular among children, whose use is surging. Many e-cigarette companies, including market leader Juul Labs Inc., sell nicotine liquids with flavors like mango and cucumber.

The bottom has fallen out of oil prices. According to Bloomberg:

Oil extended a run of declines after falling into a bear market, heading for its longest losing streak on record.

Futures in New York fell for a 10th day, extending a dramatic plunge that’s dragged prices down more than 20 percent from a four-year high reached in early October. In London, the Brent benchmark sank to a six-month low. The drop comes just days before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets with partners in Abu Dhabi, having signaled it may cut output next year.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) will launch a service to compete with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX). According to CNBC:

Disney’s new streaming service will be called Disney+ and launch in late 2019, CEO Bob Iger announced on the company’s earnings call Thursday.

The company announced in August 2017 it would pull all its movies from Netflix in 2019, and start its own streaming offering for its past titles. Disney also purchased Fox for $71.3 billion in cash and stock, further bolstering its library.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.