Prices of risky US companies’ debt have risen sharply this year as investors bet the Federal Reserve will bring inflation under control without triggering a damaging recession.Yields on US junk bonds — debt sold by businesses with low credit ratings — have fallen by more…

This week, a nasty fight has exploded on the US political stage. This is not about congressional votes or presidential candidates. Instead, it revolves around something so mundane that it is often ignored: water. On Tuesday, the seven states that use the Colorado River for…

Oil company profits are widely held to be a function of the commodity’s price. Yet, with Brent crude trading on average almost where it was in 2014, Shell managed to deliver $40bn of net earnings last year, more than 70 per cent higher than eight…

No one does embarrassment of riches quite like the oil and gas industry. Amid a cost of living crisis, Shell has the opposite problem: the UK-listed energy group made a record annual net profit last year of almost $40bn, double an already banner year in…

Welcome back to Energy Source. Big Oil is still in the spotlight — and not just because of the deluge of profits the supermajors have announced in recent days. Shell reported profits of almost $39.9bn this morning — the highest in its 115-year history, as…

After more than a decade of staring enviously at the tech-fuelled US stock market, European equities are finally staging a comeback. Goldman Sachs thinks this may just be the start. After all, the scale of the underperformance since 2007 is mind-boggling. Here is a GS…