Shell's "AA" Credit Rating Cut to "AA-" by Fitch due to Takeover of BG Group

Moody's has also said it is reviewing credit ratings of oil, gas and mining stocks. These companies are selling assets and slashing headcount due to the rout in commodity prices. On the flip side, the deal makes Shell the UK's largest publically owned company, with HSBC in second place. Shell rival BP is around number 6 in market cap.

BHP Billiton Announces Dramatic Asset Spinoff

BHP Billiton is demerging - creating a new, smaller yet-to-be-named offspring, focusing on the aluminium, manganese, nickel and silver parts of the business, with the main, larger business (96% of earnings in 2014) focusing on iron ore, copper, petroleum and potash.

Coal will be common to both, and BHP is active in both metallurgical and thermal variants. The President of the coal business, Dean Dalle Valle, has been with BHP for a truly impressive 36 years and ran the Uranium business for three years and started his career as a mine apprentice. He has been profiled in The Australian.

BHP Billiton, which was formed in 2001 from the merger of BHP and Billiton, is a global mining giant, known for acquisitions and its failure in 2005 to take over rival Rio Tinto. One of CEO Andrew Mackenzie's priorities since taking the helm has been to simplify BHP's portfolio. Andrew has a PhD in Organic Chemistry. He worked in BP Research, moved to the Finance division, and became Head of Capital Markets, and the rest, as they say, is history. He has also worked at Rio Tinto as head of the industrial minerals division.

Tim Cutt who heads the Petroleum (and Potash) Business has a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana Tech. BHP is a big player in deep water exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The iron ore business is principally in Pilbara, Western Australia, and is led by Jimmy Wilson.

Vedanta Increases Oil and Gas Production, Tullow Monetises Assets

Vedanta's oil and gas production has increased thanks to Cairn India (a subsidiary) which has made its 26th oil strike in Rajasthan. Its iron ore operations suffered due to suspensions in Goa (Western India, with an Arabian Sea coast) and Karnataka. Silver production was up to 13m ounces. Goa put a ban on iron ore transportation due to accidents on the roads.

Tullow Oil, another FTSE oil and gas producer, as part of its "portfolio management and asset monetisation" process, will be selling its assets in Bangladesh to Singaporean company, KrisEnergy, for $42m. This gives Kris a 30% stake in Block 9, which includes the Bangora gas producing facility. Tullow is named after a small town in Ireland, about 35 miles South of Dublin. It's Founder and CEO is Aidan Heavey.

Commodity Currencies get the Blowtorch Treatment, FTSE Falls

AUDUSD was punished in Asia Tuesday 25 May as commodity-driven currencies get a thrashing.

The Wall Street Journal mentions the Euro could be an attractive funding currency for the carry trade going forward. The ECBs decision to buy goverment bonds of weak eurozone countries has increased doubts of the eurozone itself.

FTSE falls 3% in seconds over Korea tensions and Eurozone debt fears. Last week FTSE fell below the 5000 barrier.

FTSE loses billions of pounds (~helprequest(_AIG, _USGovt, 2009).)

down(_FTSE, percent(5.3), 3625). % lowest since outbreak of Iraq war May03
down(_HSBC, percent(10), pence(399)).
down(_Lloyds, percent(15), pence(49.4)).

helprequest(_AIG, _USGovt, 2008) -> bailout(_AIG, usd(150bn), 2008).
helprequest(_AIG, _USGovt, 2009) -> bailout(_AIG, usd(30bn), 2009). % emerg.aid

countries(_AIG, 130), customers(_AIG, 74m).
max( aircraft_owner(X), world). ? X = _AIG.

stock(_AIG, dollars(46), 2008), stock(_AIG, cents(42), 2009).

RBS shares fall 67% to 11.6p (Low of the Day 10p), KBC drops 20%, $19m Compensation for Bartz

RBS, 58% owned by the government, slumped to a 23 year low today. FTSE closed at 4108.5 (38.6 points down).

KBC, whose stock trades on Euronext Brussels, slumped 20%, going from about 16 euro to 12 euro and finishing around 13 euro. The stock has been tumbling since a Moody's report Thursday said it had revised assumptions used to evaluate KBC's CDOs. KBC were forced to issue a statement saying the share price had come under pressure as a result of rumours circulating in the market.

In tech, Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz, will reportedly get $19m in compensation, in addition to bonus and stock options (base == $1m). She will not be able to exercise her options until after 4 years. Carol's board memberships are detailed here. She made her career at Autodesk, her profile is here. In 2007 rumours of a Microsoft bid for Yahoo send YHOO stock up 18% in one day. Will Microsoft bid again for Yahoo in 2009?

S&P 500 -38.5% (worst perf since 1931), FTSE -31.3% for 2008

According to S&P all sectors performed poorly in 2008. The least worst sector was consumer staples which was down 18%. Biggest winner on S&P in 2008 was consumer staples firm Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO). This was the worst year for the S&P since 1931, the middle of the Great Depression.

Citi's bosses said top execs won't take bonuses. They also sold off their Global Services Business to TCS for $512m. KBC announced it would not pay any bonuses in 2010 for earnings in 2009. KBC received 3.5bn EUR government aid in October, together with Fortis, Dexia and ING.

FTSE Trading closed at 12:30 GMT for Wednesday 31 Dec 2008. Its value was 4,434 points, down from 6,457. HBOS and RBOS have lost roughly 90% of their value. Whittard of Chelsea (formerly owned by Iceland's Baugur investors) has been sold over the Christmas period for an undisclosed sum to EPIC private equity partners (who are into MBOs and MBIs). They have 130 stores selling tea, coffee and crockery. Overexpansion? Bad outlets? You decide.