BG Group is down 15% or 185p to 1068p due to a surprise announcement before its usual early February results as problems in Egypt have forced it to cut earnings and output forecasts for this year and 2015.

Its quite a week in terms of news from the U.S especially after a 318 point drop on the Dow Jones Industrials on Friday. The focus is the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting, the last with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and some big earnings announcements with the peak of the fourth quarter 2013 reports due this week.

Despite all the talk of Iranian oil entering the market due to a potential easing, worries about China and the shale oil and gas boom in the USA the oil price is remaining remarkably resilient.

The markets never go up in a straight line and after weeks of enthusiasm driven by bullish statements from the Federal Reserve and strong fourth quarter 2013 earnings from the likes of Microsoft, there has been an inevitable mild sell off.

AIM will have another North Sea oil explorer in its ranks shortly with Hurricane Energy due to float in February under the ticker HUR.

Is Bitcoin a return to a system similar to the Gold Standard? Maybe, but a system based on a physical asset that can be sold to realise value is very different to a digital algorithm with all the risks of hacking and fraud.

China’s economy grew by 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 from a year earlier according to the latest data released early this morning at 2am, confirming the country is entering a period of slowing growth not seen since the late 1990’s.

Investors in AIM listed Leni Gas & Oil (LGO) have had a wild ride over the last few years. The shares that traded at over 3p in 2011 and a lot more than that in prior years, currently sit at 0.86p after 14% rise on Friday, down 27% in the last year.

Google raised a few eye brows this week with its somewhat surprising decision to splash out $3.2 billion on acquiring home automation specialist Nest Labs Inc., the company set up four years ago by ex-Apple man Tony Fadell to reinvent unloved but important devices in the home.

So another delay in Rockhopper Exploration’s development of the Sea Lion discovery in the North Falklands with news that it has completed the concept selection process for the field with its partner Premier Oil.