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Oil Higher on Hopes for US Stimulus, Demand Recovery

French Privacy Watchdog Opens Preliminary Investigation Into TikTok

PARIS—France’s data privacy watchdog CNIL said on Tuesday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok after it received a complaint. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is already under investigation over privacy concerns by U.S., European Union and Dutch authorities. “A complaint about TikTok was received in May. This complaint is now under investigation,” a CNIL spokesman said, confirming a Bloomberg report. He declined to elaborate on the nature of the complaint or the identity of the plaintiff. In the United States, officials have said that TikTok poses a national security risk because of the personal data it handles. President Donald Trump has threatened to ban TikTok and has given ByteDance 45 days to negotiate a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft. In June, the…

Oil Higher on Hopes for US Stimulus, Demand Recovery

LONDON鈥擟rude oil prices rose on Tuesday, underpinned by expectations of a U.S. stimulus to help jumpstart the world’s biggest oil consumer, a rebound in Asian demand as economies reopen, and a stronger stock market.

Brent crude added 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $45.28 a barrel, by 08:19 GMT. West Texas Intermediate U.S. crude rose 38 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $42.32 a barrel.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that top congressional Democrats wanted to meet with him on coronavirus-related economic relief. The talks between Democrats and the Trump administration broke down last week.

“A deal on the support package is not a foregone conclusion but if a mutually acceptable accord is struck stocks and oil will get a short-term boost,” Tamas Varga of oil brokerage PVM said.

Signs of recovering Asian oil demand also boosted prices.

On Sunday, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said he sees oil demand rebounding in Asia as economies gradually open up.

China’s factory deflation eased in July, driven by a rise in global oil prices and as industrial activity climbed back towards pre-coronavirus levels, adding to signs of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Prices also found support from a rally in European stocks which rose for a third straight session on Tuesday as automakers gained on firm China sales data.

U.S. passenger airline traffic, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, was down 80 percent in June from a year earlier, official figures showed, but still nearly twice the levels of May.

Energy companies have begun taking back millions of barrels of oil from the U.S. government’s emergency stockpile after renting storage in the facility to help manage a glut of crude this spring after energy demand collapsed during COVID-19 lockdowns, a Department of Energy website showed on Monday.

By Ahmad Ghaddar

Focus News: Oil Higher on Hopes for US Stimulus, Demand Recovery

Kodak Shares Drop After Loan Paused Amid Insider Trading Allegations

The agency had signed a letter of interest with Eastman Kodak on July 28 to provide the company with a $765 million loan. President Donald Trump announced the deal on the same day. The federal loan was intended to launch Kodak Pharmaceuticals to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for generic drugs, to help reduce the United States’s reliance on other countries. The deal marked Trump’s 33rd use of the Defense Production Act. Kodak shares skyrocketed more than 1,100 percent just two days after the deal’s July 28 announcement. It reached a high of $60 a share on July 29. Kodak shares closed at $14.88 on Friday, and at $10.73 by Monday. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter on Aug. 3 asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an independent U.S. government agency that regulates…