According to its Assistant Chief Executive for Business Development and Government Relations Barrak al-Subeih, Zain’s possible decision to sell its African operations would be made in order to “look for expansion opportunities in other areas with higher growth rates, such as the Middle East or the Far East.”  Hitherto, the Kuwait telecom firm has spent upwards of US$12 billion in Africa since 2005 (when it purchased Celtel International), including roughly $3b in Nigeria alone, the continent’s most populous nation, while continuing to expand and operate in 23 countries across the Middle East and Africa.  Per Bloomberg, Zain has around 40.1 million subscribers in Africa, a figure that constitutes nearly 62% of its client base.  Additionally, more than half of its $7.4 billion of annual sales in 2008 came from Africa.

The strategy of chasing higher growth rates is not without concern, however.  A study published last year by

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If you are like me, you must be annoyed at the price of oil. From $145 to $35 in 6 months with no major event. If anything, the Israel attack on Gaza and the production cuts would drive oil the other way. Some argue recession and a lack of demand from China and India, but such things don't change over night.The real reason for this move is speculation. Oil should not have been at $145 to begin div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:XhI0_UKdTUU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?i=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:XhI0_UKdTUU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?i=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?i=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?a=1c2Yxkq-JwM:DT9pc9fBSos:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/StocksAdvice?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/StocksAdvice/~4/1c2Yxkq-JwM" height="1" width="1"/

Russian gas deal, Gaza ceasefire ease supply concerns… World oil demand expected to fall in 2009… U.S. holiday leads to low trading volumes…

Oil fell more than $2 towards $34 a barrel on Monday after Russia and Ukraine signed a 10-year gas deal clearing the way for the resumption of supplies to a freezing Europe.

Implementation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza also eased supply concerns as the market remained under pressure from expectations that the weakening global economy would erode oil demand.

“Right now the economy is dominating,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, analyst at BNP Paribas. “The market is very volatile and the signs are that demand is weakening.”

U.S. crude oil futures for February delivery dipped to a low of $33.89, down $2.62, before recovering to trade at $34.53 by 1800 GMT.

Traders said the February U.S. crude oil futures

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MSCI world equity index down 0.85 pct at 212.56… Rally after UK bank rescue package evaporates… S&P ratings downgrade on Spain hits euro

World stocks fell on Monday as optimism after Britain’s multi-billion rescue plan gave way to concerns about the banking sector after Royal Bank of Scotland reported the biggest ever loss in UK corporate history.

The euro tumbled after Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating, following its downgrade of Greece last week. Oil fell 6 percent below $35 a barrel, hit by worries about weakening energy demand in a slowing economy.

Britain will allow banks to insure against steep losses and guarantee their debt to stop the credit crunch pushing the economy into a deep slump. The plan raises the government’s stake in RBS, which said it lost over 20 billion pounds last year, sending shares down nearly 70 percent.

“Whilst

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President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday that an analysis of his stimulus proposal found that the capital infusion could save or create as many as 4 million U.S. jobs by 2010, nearly 90% of them in the private sector.

Obama previously estimated that his estimated $800 billion strategy for winching the American economy out of its year-long recession could save or create 3 million jobs, but the new study has found that the actual number would range between 3 million and 4 million.

The analysis was submitted by Christina Romer, head of Obama’s council of economic advisors, and Jared Bernstein, the economic advisor to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. The analysis directly follows an official government report showing that U.S. employers slashed more than half a million jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2% and bringing the number of jobs lost last year to 2.6 million — the worst showing since

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CBO forecasts $1.2 Trillion Budget deficit!  And we can expect more!  ADP shows job losses mounting big time!  Brazil’s real reverses course… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Well… There are two major things on the docket for the front and center piece today, both tell us a lot, but I think I’m going to go with the announcement of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) yesterday afternoon as the lead story, and the ADP jobs report as the second story… So, let’s go to the tape!

The CBO announced yesterday that they are forecasting a $1.2 Trillion Budget Deficit for 2009! Uh-oh! This is scary folks, and there’s plenty more where that came from! This “forecast” doesn’t even

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Oil price volatility is on the rise again. Turmoil in Gaza, combined with output cuts by OPEC and the Russia and Ukraine added dispute is also driving oil prices up. Economic data, at the same time, continues to deteriorate and drive prices down. This all adds to volatility. Today, oil fell 8% since to US$46.58/bbl. br /br /Crude inventories are at an eight-month high. Looks like the upside is limited.

Geo-political tensions are mounting in the global energy game. And that could make investing in oil right now the trade of the year, says Manraaj Singh. Buying shares of oil majors is a good move now. But Manraaj says quality mid-sized oil companies are best placed to return big profits in the next oil bull run.

This from Fleet Street Invest:

Israeli tanks have just rolled into Gaza…Almost three thousand miles away, Nigerian separatist blew-up an oil pipeline over the weekend…Meanwhile, Russia is locked in a dispute over the price of gas with Ukraine. Today they stopped deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine, Turkey and Europe to force the Ukrainians to pay up…

While fears about political instability drive the price of oil back up again, the OPEC oil barons are tightening the screws on global oil supplies…Oil was trading at just $35 per barrel on Christmas Eve. It’s over $50 this

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Oil prices had climbed 43 percent from a five-year low of $33.87 a barrel on fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to the rest of oil-rich Middle East and affect supplies. Today, however, energy prices tumbled across the board after a government report showed U.S. oil reserves were much greater than expected.

According to the Energy Information Administration, inventories rose 6.7 million barrels, well past the 1.5 million-barrel build expected by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Analyst Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said it was one of the more bearish EIA reports he’s seen in a while.

Commenting on the recent rally in oil prices, Ritterbusch said, “It didn’t have a lot of fundamental impetus behind it, and now we’re getting evidence that there’s a lot more crude and product supply out there than what we

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In the energy market on Monday, oil broke out to the upside, with crude for February delivery closing at $48.81/barrel, up $2.47 from Friday. February reformulated gasoline gained 7.19 cents, to $1.1824/gallon.

Israel’s invasion of Gaza was most often cited by analysts as responsible for the rally.

But MF Global (NYSE:MF) analyst Michael Fitzpatrick noted that while the prospect of violence in the Middle East “must be taken into account whenever considering oil prices … it must be remembered that neither side [Israel or the Palestinians] controls any oil.”

Fitzpatrick added that “rising oil prices acknowledge investors’ realization that demand does not warrant prices at current levels, particularly if stimuli under consideration involve considerable investment in infrastructure.”

Nevertheless, with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander on Monday urging Islamic nations to use crude as a weapon to exert pressure on nations supporting Israel, according to the Associated Press, geopolitics is bound to play

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