Exxon: Get used to low prices
NEW YORK – Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson expects the price of oil to remain low over the next two years because of ample global supplies and relatively weak economic growth.
“People kind of need to settle in for a while,” Tillerson said at the company’s annual investor conference in New York.
In a presentation to investors outlining its business plans through 2017, Exxon assumes a price of $55 a barrel for global crude. That’s $5 below where Brent crude, the most important global benchmark, traded on Wednesday. It’s about half of what Brent averaged between 2011 and the middle of last year.
The U.S. Energy Department reported Wednesday that U.S. oil supplies have grown to 444.4 million barrels, the highest level in at least 80 years.
DiCaprio pairs up with Netflix
NEW YORK – Leonardo DiCaprio is partnering with Netflix for a series of documentaries he will produce for the streaming service.
Netflix announced Wednesday that DiCaprio and his production company, Appian Way, have signed a first-look deal with Netflix for nonfiction projects. The company said DiCaprio and Netflix will seek to develop and acquire documentaries and docu-series “with partial focus on environmental and conservation themes.”
DiCaprio teamed with Netflix last year to release the Oscar-nominated documentary “Virunga.”
Retailer Etsy files to go public
NEW YORK – Etsy, the online retailer used by hobbyists and people who make their living selling their crafts, is going public.
The Brooklyn-based company filed paperwork Wednesday for an initial public offering of stock valued at up to $100 million. It did not say how many shares it plans to sell or specify the timing of the deal.
But the company said up to 5 percent of the shares sold in its IPO will be set aside for individual investors. That will allow U.S.-based Etsy users and others to participate in the offering, it said.
Etsy Inc. plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ETSY.”
Senator seeks flooring probe
NEW YORK – A U.S. senator is requesting that three federal agencies investigate Lumber Liquidators following a “60 Minutes” report that said the company’s laminate flooring made in China may not meet California’s health and safety standards.
The “60 Minutes” report, which aired Sunday on CBS, said Lumber Liquidators’ laminate flooring made in China contains high levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogen. Lumber Liquidators says it complies with applicable regulations for its products, including California standards for formaldehyde emissions for composite wood products.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, sent a letter Wednesday to the heads of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Trade Commission in which he called for independent testing of the laminate flooring to see if it potentially poses a health risk to the public.
China lowers growth target
BEIJING – China announced a lower economic growth target for this year and promised to open more industries to foreign investors as part of efforts to make its slowing, state-dominated economy more productive.
The growth target of about 7 percent, down from last year’s 7.5 percent, was in line with efforts to create a “moderately prosperous society,” Premier Li Keqiang said today.