PATRICK BLOG NEWS

The list of potential pitfalls for Middle East investors next year is long. With oil in a bear market, pressure on energy exporters is mounting. Saudi Arabia’s global standing is being questioned and Washington has turned its back on Iran, opening the way for increased -- and some say destabilizing -- Russian influence. The region has never been for the faint-hearted. Traders who snapped up Saudi assets in the first half of the year, only to see the market turn against them after the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, are nursing steep losses. Bahrain’s friends only bailed out the nation after its bonds got a battering and Aramco’s postponed share sale has dealt a blow to investor confidence. Then there’s Turkey, whose currency was among the worst performers in the world this year and still relies heavily on foreign inflows. In Pics: How Mideast is buying the world But amid the tumult, Marshall Stocker, a Boston-based money manager at Eaton Vance Corp., pla...

Cristiano Ronaldo converted a second-half penalty and was booked for provoking the beaten goalkeeper Salvador Ichazo as relentless Serie A leaders Juventus beat Torino 1-0 in an absorbing derby on Saturday. Sixth-placed Torino, who have beaten their larger  neighbours  only once in the last 23 years, put up a brave show but were undone by an unfortunate mistake by  forward Simone Zaza. Having dispossessed Leonardo Bonucci, Zaza  underhit  a pass back to Ichazo, allowing Mario Mandzukic to intercept and the Croatian was then tripped by Torino's substitute goalkeeper. Ronaldo converted the penalty, despite Ichazo getting a hand to it, to score Juve's 5,000th Serie A goal and leave the leaders with 46 points out of a possible 48 and 11 clear of Napoli, who visit Cagliari on Sunday. The Portuguese ran straight at Ichazo and nudged him in the shoulder as he celebrated his 11th league goal of the season, leaving him as Serie A's joint top scorer alongside G...

The UFC’s visit to Milwaukee was an absolute wild one — highlighted by this savage stand-up knockout that was tough to watch. There were three knockouts on the undercard of UFC Fight Night: Milwaukee but none more ferocious than Joaquim Silva’s third-round finish of Jared Gordon. After a wild fight, Silva improved his record to 11-1 by standing up Gordon against the cageOn the main card, Charles Oliveira earned his revenge on Jim Miller eight years after they first fought at UFC 124, winning via submission in a battle of veterans. Sergio Pettis’ move back up to bantamweight was unsuccessful as Rob Font jabbed his way to a shutout decision. But the brutality returned as New Zealand’s Dan Hooker went to war with Edson Barboza — and copped the most savage of beatings. Hooker was to brave for his own good, taking a series of spinning kicks to the mid-section before finally being felled by a body shot in the third round. It was Barboza’s first win after back-to-back defeats a...

Katrina Kaif's upcoming movie Zero will present her portraying the role of an alcoholic movie star. In a media interaction regarding the movie, Katrina Kaif opened up about herself as a person. Read on to find out what she had to say. As reported by Pinkvilla, Katrina Kaif opened up about an aspect of her personality during a media interaction for her upcoming movie Zero. When asked what she took away from working on Zero, Katrina said, "Me as a person, I can literally not say something I wanna say for five years. I can be next to a person and not say something. If it's a touchy situation if it makes me vulnerable if it exposes me and in some way, if I have to expose my feelings to you, so, I have to say, 'You really hurt me and I don't know if I will forgive you'. If it's a personal matter or the matter of emotions, something which puts me in a possible and vulnerable position, I won't do it." Explaining further that she avoids confrontation...

The spray-painting of a swastika outside a suburban Indianapolis synagogue this summer was the final straw for Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who quickly called for Indiana to join the 45 states that have hate crime laws. "It's not only the right thing to do, it's long overdue," Holcomb said in an interview Friday. "I'm convinced the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers feel the same way." As the annual legislative session draws near, though, some warn that such a proposal could spark a bitter cultural debate that would bring unwanted attention to the deeply conservative state, much like the 2015  religious objections law  that critics widely panned as a sanctioning of discrimination against the LGBT community and that drew a stiff rebuke from big business. "If this is a big, knock-down, drag out, 'RFRA-esque' discussion, it is not going to help anyone," said House Speaker Brian Bosma, using an acronym for 2015's ...

Delta Air Lines fell 4.8 percent after saying it expects a smaller adjusted profit in 2019. TEXT SIZE EMAIL PRINT MORE Margin squeeze: Costco Wholesale Corp. dropped 8.6 percent to $207.06 Friday after the warehouse club retailer reported a fall in quarterly gross margins. The company paid higher wages, ramped up investments in its online business and cut prices amid intense competition in the grocery industry. Outlook woes: Apparel company Tailored Brands nose-dived 30.2 percent to $14.05 Thursday after the company cut its forecast for the year. Shares closed Friday at $14.48. GE juiced up: General Electric climbed 7.2 percent to $7.20 Thursday after JPMorgan Chase upgraded the stock to “neutral” from “underweight,” saying the risks and rewards to the stock are balanced. GE has lost almost 60 percent of its value this year after slashing its dividend, replacing its CEO and taking charges. Analysts are concerned that several...