VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Surpassing Russia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has regained its lost status as top oil exporter to China in January 2016. However, China's oil imports eased during the month, while Russia suffered major drop in its exports. As a result, Saudi's market share rose to 15.9 percent highest since June 2015.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's largest oil producers, have come to an agreement to reduce oil production into the January level. This is the first time for the two countries working together in efforts to fix the oil industry, which has been dropping for years.

The Pentagon on Tuesday unveiled its plan to boost spending in defense mechanism in 2017, aiming to increase its military capability to back its European NATO allies. The US Defense Department requested a budget seeking 7.5 billion US dollar for operations in Syria and Iraq for the year 2017.

Oil prices rebounded on news that there may be production cut by OPEC. US Brent futures recouped losses by 6.8 percent and US crude pared 9.3 percent losses during the week. In overall, oil prices rebounded by over 25 percent after hitting 12-month low in January. Oil price hit $27.10 on 20 January 2016.

Speculation over production cut and held the oil price to around $30 a barrel, but uncertainty still lingers. Meanwhile, U.S inventories are reported to reach its highest level of crude stockpile.

Russian ruble is decreasing and hits all-time record low against dollar last week. Starting this week, the currency started its way to recover and reach 10- day high.

The move to legalize online poker started six months ago and a few changes have been seen since then. The legalization is expected to stop illegal online gambling that has been going on in the country since the activity was banned, and in turn, could also increase tax revenues for Russia. The rest of terms and time measures on this remain unknown.

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced that his country had found two vaccines to cure Ebola. However, the announcement has drawn some skepticism among experts who have previously developed other vaccines for Ebola.

In order to ensure faster processing of foreign arms sales in the US, the government is putting immense effort. In the financial year 2015, the foreign arms sales heaved 36% to 46.6 billion. Besides, as per pentagon official's view, the sudden surge expected to remain strong in the coming years.

The steep fall in oil price is impacting Russia's foreign trade more in a negative way, while the financial markets are witnessing renewed interest from overseas investors and fund managers as well.

The world's largest and second largest economies have established 'Space Hotline,' a new communications channel to serve as a diplomatic safety valve.

The Russian economy slipped 4.1 percent during the third quarter as against the drop of 4.6 percent in the second quarter. The consecutive third quarter of contraction signals recessionary situation in the Russian economy.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the Italian-US automobile company being the parent company of Ferrari, floated to the public 17.18 million shares accounting for nearly 10% of Ferrari at $52 a share at its IPO at the NYSE.

Hyundai Motor Co's net profit for the third quarter ending September fell 23 percent. The steep fall in China sales coupled with aggressive global incentives impacted the South Korean automobile major's performance in a more negative way.

The United States imposes sanctions upon 30 individuals and groups linked to the Islamic State. Fifteen people were designated by the Treasury Department as Islamic State supporters, while 10 individuals and five groups were tagged by the State Department as foreign terrorist fighters.