All was right with the energy world as the new year dawned, no more so than in the bruised oil-field service sector.
The industry finally looked like it was emerging from two years of slashing rates, reporting losses and cutting staff. Oh, to return to those innocent days of late December.
Oil and gas prices had climbed and energy-company clients fattened their drilling budgets, prompting oil-service providers to call idled crews back to work. Private-equity investors even readied the apparatus to take companies public.
It did not take long for complications to set in.
Now, one initial public offering is on hold, another is being priced down and a takeover battle is being waged at prices that offer a fraction of the value that the target company was worth 2 1/2 years ago. Bears have feasted on the shares of virtually all the service providers. Story
Goldman to move hundreds of staff from London ahead of Brexit
Goldman Sachs will begin moving hundreds of people out of London before any Brexit deal is struck as part of its contingency plans for Britain leaving the European Union, the Wall Street firm's Europe CEO said.
"We are going to start to execute on those contingency plans," Richard Gnodde, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International, the European arm of the Wall Street bank, told CNBC on Tuesday.
"For this first period, this is really the period as we put in place contingency plans, this is in the hundreds of people as opposed to anything greater than that," he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger EU divorce proceedings on March 29, launching two years of negotiations that will shape the future of Britain and Europe. Story
DAILY DEALS
L'Oreal's sale of British retailer The Body Shop has drawn interest from a series of private equity investors who are lining up indicative bids ahead of a mid-April deadline, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. Story
A push by Canadian companies and pension funds to aggressively pursue overseas acquisitions is helping global investment banks to win a bigger share of M&A advisory mandates and prompting once-dominant domestic rivals to beef up their international operations. Story
Investment banking business in India should be enjoying bumper fees after a record year of dealmaking. It's not, and big banks blame in-house teams of advisers that have proliferated as the country's top family-owned conglomerates tighten their grip. Story
ELSEWHERE IN FINANCE
Banking isn't really about moving money around: In truth it is an information processing business. On that score, information overload continues to dog the banks. Story (WSJ, subscription required)
The flash boys aren't as flashy as they used to be. High-speed trading gained notoriety after Michael Lewis's 2014 book Flash Boys. These days, the industry is struggling with another problem: It is having trouble making money. Story (WSJ, subscription required)
The auto-finance sector has taken a bad turn. An investor update on Tuesday from auto lender Ally Financial, formerly the auto-lending arm of General Motors, added to building evidence that trend lines are negative in the industry. That ranges from rising defaults to falling used-car prices. Story (WSJ, subscription required)