Qatar central bank says country has $340 billion in reserves, can weather Arab sanctions

Qatar has $340 billion in reserves that could help the Gulf country to weather the isolation by its powerful Arab neighbours, central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah Bin Saoud al-Thani said. Al-Thani said the central bank has $40 billion in reserves plus gold, while the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund has $300 billion in reserves that it could liquidate. Qatari stocks have weakened and the riyal has been volatile in the spot market since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of backing terrorism.

Will the Qatar crisis be resolved?

Becca Wasser at RAND Corporation says rifts occurring among countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council have been solved in the past, but it's taken time.

Kangaroos, road chaos challenge driverless technology

As companies race to develop the next autonomous breakthrough, the obstacles that are uncovered can help measure progress.

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Day of reckoning for rail commuters arrives in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — The day of reckoning has come for rail commuters into New York City.

Facebook’s Oculus cuts price of virtual reality set, matching rival

Oculus, the virtual reality company owned by Facebook Inc, is temporarily cutting the price of its hardware, as the industry tries to figure out why the technology for immersive games and stories has not taken off among consumers. Oculus is cutting the combined price of its Rift headset and Touch controllers to $399 for six weeks beginning on Monday, said Jason Rubin, Oculus vice president for content. Vive, a virtual reality set developed by HTC Corp, is listed for sale at $799 on its website, and it has not recently cut the price.

Jawbone's demise a case of 'death by overfunding' in Silicon Valley

Consumer electronics company Jawbone had more than enough money to take on Fitbit and other health-tracking devices in the "wearables" market. Top-tier venture capital firms Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and then a sovereign wealth fund, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Jawbone, lifting its valuation to $3.2 billion in 2014. Ultimately, all that money couldn't save San Francisco-based Jawbone, which began liquidating proceedings in June after its fitness-tracker product failed to take off.

Gold Prices Crack Finally

Gold prices finally cracked as it broke through the strong support region around 1220 and fell through and continues to trade weakly as of this writing. We have been talking about the weakness in the gold prices for long and we had also mentioned about how crucial the gold support around 1220 would be and … Continue reading Gold Prices Crack Finally