Oil giant Shell posted a Q4 loss (the first quarterly loss for 10 years) with oil prices falling to a record low.
NEVERTHELESS, annual profits reached a RECORD level up 14% from $27.6 to $31.4bn. Shell warned conditions remained "challenging". CEO Jeroen Van der Veer,born in Utrecht, boosted dividend by 11%. He said the company would continue "competitive and progressive dividend payouts". Oil is trading below $50 after a record high in mid July 2008 of $147.
China Premier's Wen Jiabao's comments at Davos, that the country had been hit hard by the world financial crisis, raised concerns on falling demand for oil. he also commented that financial regulators had failed to keep pace with "financial innovation" thus facilitating the credit crisis.
Offsetting Shell profits, Ford posted a full year loss for 2008 of $14.6bn, the worst ever performance in its 105 year history (FMC was incorporated in 1903). US rivals GM and and Chrysler have received billions in emergency bailout funding from the US government.
Ford pioneered the moving assembly line, allowing workers to stay in one place and do the same task repeatedly.
Meanwhile, hedge funds fight back with "recessionary innovation" to entice investors "sitting on the sides" in this recession. Osmium Capital Management, a hedge fund based in Bermuda, with $178m worth of assets under management, is launching a new class of shares denominated in troy ounces as opposed to euros, dollars or sterling. The fund hedges its exposure to gold by selling gold for cash and buying gold forward on a monthly basis.
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