VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Freeport-McMoRan said that it has planned to trim up to $10 billion debt through earnings from joint venture transactions and asset sales. The mining group also reported a loss of $4.1 billion for the fourth quarter.

US oil explorers are expected to report a combined loss of about $14 billion for the year 2015, as a result of the sharpest oil price slump in a generation. Bankruptcies and disappointing debt exchanges have led the oil explorers to cut thousands of staffs, trim dividends, and abandon drilling projects to preserve capital and resist insolvency.

Aircall said that it has raised about $2.75 million in a seed funding round. The funding was headed by Balderton Capital, followed by FundersClub and US-based angels.

Business economists seem to be more doubtful regarding their companies' future profits and sales. According to a survey, these economists expect slower GDP growth.

Aramco is the largest known oil producer in the world with a daily production of 10.25 MMbpd. KSA authority has increased feedstock prices to narrow down its budgetary deficits and also increases daily production rate to cope with the soaring demands. Now it is in efforts for Aramco’s listing for IPOs. If listed, Aramco will be the world’s first corporate entity with asset value of more than $1 trillion.

Despite economy growth rate of over seven percent, the Indian stock markets are suffering from the selloff by foreign investors. The domestic stock markets may enter bear territory soon after the fall in Shanghai and Tokyo markets. The cash-strapped foreign investors are offloading in Indian stocks since November 2015. On the other hand, Asian stocks gaining momentum following the marginal rebound in oil price.

The stockpiles levels in China, the biggest commodity consumer, are impacting copper prices in the global markets. Copper price is hovering at $4,400 per metric ton and is moving in consolidation phase. Chinese smelters may cut down output and stop increasing capacities this year.

The Federal Reserve Bank have found a new partner in its struggle to confirm interest rate increase screens through the US economy. The trend of Fed borrowing billions daily to set a base under its standard policy rate has been conquered by foreign monetary authorities, Bloomberg said.

The falling oil price below $30 per barrel is impacting Canadian economy, which mostly depends upon commodities. Along with oil price, Canadian currency Loonie too declined against the US dollar. The weaker Loonie has eroded the purchasing power of Canada and is making imports costlier. Canada imports vegetables from the US. The surging US dollar made vegetables prices expensive by three folds for Canadian consumers.

Capital outflows from developing markets were higher than it was anticipated last year, according to a report by Institute of International Finance. The reason behind this oceanic change in emerging markets cash flow is China, which dragged out 676 billion US dollar.

Greatist has raised 4.5 million US dollar in Series A round. The company will utilize the funds to add more staffs, on the advertising department, to create additional custom programs like events and original content, according to Derek Flanzraich, CEO of Greatist.

Many venture capitalists like Chamath Palihapitiya prefer to park their funds in Amazon as the online retailer is forecast to grow over a decade. The reason is that it's not because of e-Commerce operations, but its cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS). Many companies will eventually pay a fixed fee to Amazon as they increasingly rely on cloud computing services to run their services.

Vietnam warned China against drilling an oil rig in borderline waters in the South China Sea. Vietnam's anxiety over the rig develops subsequent to a recent flight testing carried out by China on a fake island in Spratly archipelago.

China grew 6.9 percent in 2015 indicating the slowest growth rate in 25 years. The growth rate was 6.8 for the fourth quarter of 2015. The world's second largest country recorded 7.3 percent growth rate in 2014. Investors are cautious about the impact of slowdown in China's economy. IMF forecasts China's economy growth rate at 6.3 percent in 2016 and six percent in 2017. Chinese government has set a target of seven percent growth for 2016.

The Indian currency Rupee against the US dollar rose to highest since November 2015 on increasing outflows from Indian stocks and bonds. The Chinese markets were witnessing selloff and this also resulted in further withdrawal by foreign investors in Indian markets. The net outflow from Indian markets in January so far was at $686.2 million putting more pressure on currency reserves.