CNBC Daily Open: Singing the OPEC blues

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This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

What you need to know today

Happy Thanksgiving
U.S. markets were shut Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. European stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index up 0.3%. Oil and gas companies pulled ahead with a 1.4% gain despite the continued fall in oil prices after OPEC delayed its policy-setting meeting.

Minute, but significant
Airlines are expecting record travel demand this Thanksgiving. Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper look negligible. New technology to assign flight gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport helped American Airlines avoid many of its planes crossing from the east side to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight, adding up to about 11 hours saved a day, the carrier said.

Crypto hack
Two cryptocurrency platforms linked to high-profile digital entrepreneur Justin Sun were hacked, with an estimated $115 million likely to have been stolen to date. The targeted projects include the HTX digital currency exchange, formerly known as Huobi, from which hackers drained around $30 million worth of cryptocurrencies, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. So-called blockchain bridge Heco Chain was also attacked, HTX confirmed.

Deutschland woes
Germany’s major banks need to increase their provisions for non-performing loans, as corporate insolvencies and credit risks mount, according to Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch. Europe’s largest economy has been dubbed the “sick man of Europe” by some economists, after entering a technical recession earlier this year while economic activity faces further downward pressure from a collapse in construction.

[PRO] Betting against AI hype
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The bottom line

The 23-nation OPEC alliance of oil producers has delayed its next meeting by four days to Nov. 30, which means it will coincide with the start of this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), hosted by OPEC member the United Arab Emirates in Dubai.

OPEC will hold its meeting online to avoid creating travel issues for its energy ministers.

Bloomberg reported the delay is due to a rift between Saudi Arabia and some African nations over output quotas to arrest falling oil prices — which may yet linger if there is a lack of agreement and compliance among cartel members. No reason was officially provided for the delay.

Ahead of the COP28 meeting, the head of the International Energy Agency said oil and gas companies need to invest more in clean energy.

“The industry needs to commit to genuinely helping the world meet its energy needs and climate goals – which means letting go of the illusion that implausibly large amounts of carbon capture are the solution,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai next week.

The technology captures carbon dioxide from industrial operations before emissions enter the atmosphere, and stores it underground. Excessive reliance on this technology has been blamed for the chronic underinvestment in clean energy by oil and gas companies.

Unless the energy companies do a course correction, dreams of transiting to a global economy with net zero carbon emissions by 2050 will remain just that — pipe dreams.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.