Companies & Industries

Asian Stocks Decline as Energy Prices and Profits Plummet

February 3, 2016

372

Asian stocks across the board were trading down today as energy giant BP (LON:BP) reported an annual loss of $6.5 billion, making it the worst loss in 20 years for the energy giant, and making it the latest in a long line of energy firms to see stock prices tumble.

The Nikkei and HSI, as well as several other regional markets all, edged lower as energy stocks yesterday responded to the BP earnings by declining further. Several bank stocks including UBS (-7.81%) and RBS (-3.41%) edged lower in response to the news.

Concern over crude prices continues to concern investors across the globe, with European stocks ending lower yesterday, and today’s Asian declines reflecting the fact. Just how low oil will go, nobody, seems certain, but stock prices across the world are reflecting the mood the price crash is creating.

So far this year BP, Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) have all seen stock prices tumble as the price of crude continues to slide.

Brent Crude is currently trading at $32.51 per barrel, with WTI trading at $29.67.

Jacob Maslow

Set Your Business Up For Success

Want to make this your most successful year yet? Make sure to cover all your bases. Focus on what you do best and find experts for all of the rest. Fiverr is a great place to find professional help in every field imaginable. Have countless to-dos? Fiverr’s freelancers can be counted on to do them all. On time and on budget.

Wondering where to start? Here are your 3 steps to business success:

1. Build a Better Brand
Want a brand that earns your customers’ trust and loyalty? Don’t confuse them with a bland brand.
Create a standout brand across every aspect of your marketing: Brand your logo, your website, your app, your social media.
You get the picture. (but make sure that picture looks good)

Get a world-class logo design
Design your social media to reflect your brand
Tailor your web and mobile design to fit your brand

2. Grow Your Customer Base
They’re not going to walk in your door if they don’t know who you are. Catch them while they’re browsing the Internet at home. Pop up on mobile while they’re walking around town. Whatever it takes to reel them in.
Pump up your presence online with these easy fixes:

Boost your social media marketing (SMM): Target your ideal customers and appear in their social media feeds.
Level up your search engine marketing (SEM): Pop to the top of the search results with your targeted ads.
Step up your SEO: Rank first on Google search results and get the attention your brand deserves.

3. Stay Ahead of Your Digital Game
To keep pace with the latest digital trends, you have to keep up with the times. This means you need to give your users what they demand.
Constant content updates: Who wants yesterday’s news?
Short, engaging videos: Your customers crave them.
Seamless user experience (UX): Because no one wants to waste time looking around your site for info when they can find it elsewhere faster. A clean, user-friendly user interface (UI) can clean out the clutter and make your users even more engaged.
Stay ahead of the pack with: