The US is better able to live with cheap oil than many OPEC countries and outsiders, above all Putin's Russia, which both Saudi and Yankee oilmen want to hurt.

Poland says it received sharply lower than expected supplies of Russian natural gas this week via Belarus, which made it harder to send gas back to Ukraine. Russia cut supplies to Ukraine as part of its program to back separatists in the east of the country.

Publicom will not see the light of day. The $35 bn merger of ad agencies Publicis and Omnicom has been cancelled. The idea that bigger is better in the advertising business seems to me to have been misguided from the start.

There is a parallel between the neglect of emerging markets shown by central banks and central bank hostility to gold. In both cases, the Fed and its counterparts want to operate to reach national economic goals without having to worry about the rest of the world. Plus the latest international stock news.

Russia is offering Ukraine a $15 bn loan plus reduced prices for Gazprom gas; gold producers are cutting their output, Germany's Tobin Tax; and more...