General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) will hold the company’s third Industrial Internet event today (Thursday) in New York; this event is held on an annual basis. At today’s event General Electric will make announcements regarding its new partnerships, softwares and services that will help the company expand further into its Internet of Things venture.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has been relatively successful in the last three years in terms of its services and software offerings; these offerings jumped up to 24 from just 10 in this period of time. In 2014 this figure went up to 40. General Electric hopes to extend its capability in large data analysis and connection machines beyond turbines, locomotives, jet engines and Industrial equipment.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) announced its partnership with Softbank; the ambition behind this alliance is turning vending machines into assets. General Electric’s Vice President Bill Ruh believes that in many countries people use vending machines without any knowledge of the purchasing process or machine’s status. He feels that people need to have in depth analytics regarding how these machines operate.

Ruh believes that just the way General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) can sense its jet engines’ state, which allows the company to schedule proper maintenance tasks, the company could extend this same knowledge to office equipment – a potential market in Ruh’s eyes. He said that General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is also looking to take on other infrastructure projects such as bridges and roads.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) announced another alliance with Cisco, which will enable the company to work on large-scale ventures. Cisco partnership will allow GE to use the company’s routers. It also has partnerships with Intel for its servers and chips and Verizon for its networks that will be used to connect to GE sensors.

With new goals and agendas, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) hopes to reproduce applications for Industrial Internet and other services that the company has already mastered and initiated. One such measure has been taken in the industry for Oil and Gas. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) produces valves and pumps for the sector, but now it offers smart sensors and other cloud services that allows users to manage and govern gas and oil wells that are thousands of miles away.

Ruh believes that it is important to be open in the tech world; he says that General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has partnered up with many tech leaders to form an Industrial Internet conglomerate to encourage integration and testing of technologies.

To further strengthen the field of industrial applications General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) acquired Wurldtech, which provides firewall and security technology. This was followed by the company 2013’s investment of $105 million in Pivotal, which is a vendor for large-data analysis and cloud computing. These acquisition and investments will help the company’s cause in the future.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)’s portfolio for Industrial Internet, known as “Predictivity Solutions” is expected to generate revenues of $1 billion by the end of this year and continue to do so on an annual basis.

The Dow Jones Industrial fell by 84 points, equivalent to half a percent, and was trading at 16,721 around mid-day today. The S&P500 index has dropped by 14 points equivalent to 0.7 percent and is trading at 1,932. The NASDAQ composite has dropped by 37 points equivalent to 0.8 percent and is trading at 4,385.

The problems are arising from the declining oil prices which even dropped below $90 a barrel at one point. This is due to the announcement by OPEC that oil production would be maintained at the current levels in spite of the fact that the global economy is weakening while potential for extraction of oil supplies remains high. The U.S crude oil benchmark has dropped 55 cents to $90.19 a barrel in N.Y. Brent crude, which is the international benchmark, dropped off by $1.59 to $92.57 per barrel.

This is good news for consumers.   For them it means lower prices at the fuel pumps. The problem is that it’s a dent in the profitability of U.S energy companies and others worldwide, as they make up a large part of the markets.

Energy companies such as Chesapeake Energy, Halliburton and Nabors Industries have dropped between 3 to 4 percent each.

This is the worst week in almost two months for both the S&P 500 and the Dow, both have dropped approximately 2.2 percent this week. The former index is on course for a fourth consecutive days drop since December last.

This is allied with the troubles of the European markets which sank today following the central bank chief, Mario Draghi, stating that the European Central Bank would maintain interest rates at their current record low rates and a program to buy bonds would be initiated in order to provide stimulus to economic demand. The statement about the program was low on detail however, and this had a big impact on consumer confidence right across the European continent.

The problems in Europe have been problematic to their U.S trading counterparts for a number of weeks now. Europe is a big importer of American goods as part of the global trade, if the slowdown continues it will mean a decline in US company’s profits.

It’s not all bad news for Wall Street though, as unemployment benefits are down by 8000 to 287, 000. The overall picture is that 2.3 million people are in receipt of the benefits which is the lowest since June ’06.

The monthly jobs report is being closely monitored by investors and are to be released tomorrow by the Labour Department. Forecasts are that US companies added 215,000 new workers last month and the unemployment rate will remain at 6.1 percent.

New Chief Financial Officer of CBD Energy Limited (NASDAQ:CBDE) is Mr. Jeffery Tischler, who will be stationed at Company’s New York office.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Rochester and is a Certified Public Accountant, NY State. He also has a MBA degree with bi-majors (Finance and Accounting) from William E. Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. Tischler is highly experienced in capital management, handling issues associated with mergers and acquisition, keeping shareholders and stakeholders satisfied, and leading strategic planning initiatives.

Tischler has a well proven professional record. Beginning his career with KPMG, he joined Reliance Group Holdings and became VP-Financial Planning and Analysis. Later on he was appointed as CFO of Commonwealth Land Title and afterwards took over as CFO of a NYSE company-combined LandAmerica Financial Group. In his last appointment as Principal of an asset management company-Prospect Capital, he was managing assets over $ 7 billion.

Mr. Richard Pillinger, a Chartered Accountant with a degree in Production and Operations Management, is made Senior Vice President (Australia, Asia & UK). For the last three years, he remained CBDE’s CFO and as SVP is now entrusted with the challenging task of developing and implementing growth strategies (Short, medium and long term) for company’s business units in these regions.

Mr. Kevin Pollack, is made part of CBD Energy Limited (NASDAQ:CBDE) Board of Directors as an Independent Non-Executive Director and concurrently he has been appointed to Company’s Audit and Compensation Committees. Presently, Kevin is the President of Short Hills Capital LLC in addition to holding Board of Director’s seats of many public companies. He graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and completed his J.D and MBA from Vanderbilt University. Kevin possesses rich experience of asset management at Paragon Capital. He also worked as securities attorney at Sidley Austin and investment banker at Banc of America Securities.

CBD Energy Limited (NASDAQ:CBDE) was established in 1989 with its Headquarters in Sydney and regional offices in New York and London. As a diversified renewable energy company, it has undertaken projects spread over four continents in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Thailand, Italy, Germany, UK and USA. Being a Global leader in solar systems, CBDE is marketing residential and commercial solar installations as brand name Westinghouse Solar under WESTINGHOUSE® trademark.  The company has concentrated on integration of domestic solar, commercial and industrial solar and wind projects in Australia, UK and U.S. CBDE has to its credit installation of more than 17,000 residential systems and large renewable energy projects like 107MW wind farm in Taralga, NSW.

The application to the United States Department of Energy Office of Fossil and Energy was sent in sometime during May of this year. The document was 23 pages long, and outlined a request to construct, own, and operate a compression and container loading factory in Freeport, Texas. This facility will be able to ship about 60 billion cubic feet of compressed natural gas each year.

Compared to the larger liquefied natural gas projects, this project quite small. However, the proposal emphasizes Morgan Stanley’s ability to use its position as on of the two banks on Wall Street which are legally allowed to own and operate facilities that produce, store, and operate raw materials. The other bank entity is Goldman Sachs.

The activities in the physical commodities space of both banks were cut short when they turned into bank holding companies when the financial crisis struck more than 5 years ago.

This move displays a new and effective method to export cheap gas domestically, which could replace the oil used for power plants in Caribbean nations. The United States produced a record high amount of gas from its revolution in fracking.

This strategy also avoids the multibillion dollar investments that must be made upfront, long lead times, and the strict application process that is a part of building liquefied natural gas facilities. Instead, it makes use of affordable container ship vessels and readily available containers. There has not been another project like this in the industry.

Morgan Stanley plans to ship the compressed natural gas to countries that have a free trade agreement with the United States, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

These countries mainly use oil to operate their power plants. Natural gas is often used in the United States to power buses and trucks, and could prove to be a cheaper alternative for these countries.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Untied States gas can be collected at $4, shipped and gasified at $1, brought in at $5. Those countries, on the other hand, are paying $20 and sometimes more for fuel. Clearly, there is an opportunity to make money.

A spokeswoman from Morgan Stanley refused to comment on the matters beyond the filing of the proposal.

The Gasoline Market

The recent boom in production of natural gas in the United States has pushed prices down to less than $4.02 per million British thermal units (BTU). Contracts involving natural gas outside of the United States are usually associated with oils with higher prices, which can increase the cost of gas.

The total natural gas production in the United States is predicted by the United States Energy Information Administration to reach 73.9 billion cubic feet a day. This figure also has the capability of sustaining low prices going into the future.

It takes roughly 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas to produce 1 million BTU. 5,800 cubic feet of natural gas is the rough equivalent of one barrel of oil.

Companies are investing billions of dollars into complicated export terminals for liquefied natural gas, which must go through specialized equipment to cool the fuel to turn it into a liquid form, then to warm it at the receiving end. These structures take years to build.

For example, Cheniere Energy is pouring $5.6 billion to grow its terminal at the Sabine Pass in Louisiana to export liquefied natural gas. This facility is expected to be ready for operations by 2015.

The process to get approval for the permit is also lengthy – nearly two dozen applications are still waiting for approval.

Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, has estimated to spend between $30 million to $50 million to build its plant. Minimal investment activity is needed on the receiving end of the operations. Most of the money would be spent on purchasing the thousands of containers need to ship the gas.

Industry experts predict that it will take 12 months to finish building the plant from the time that the company gets approved.

According to Andy Weissman, an lawyer dealing with energy cases at Haynes Boone in Washington, the proposal by Morgan Stanley was the first compressed natural gas project that he was aware of.

In November of last year, Emera CNG LLC, an energy company based in Florida, filed a proposal to export 9,125 billion square feet of gas per year. The status of this application is not clear and lawyers and executives of the company did not respond to requests for comment.

Logistics Issues

According to a person familiar with the matter, the proposed location in Texa is supposed to be 50 acres, and is currently being examined for suitability. Freeport is a port on the Gulf of Mexico with a draft of 45 feet, and is already a terminal for receiving larger container ships carry tropical fruit, which is imported by companies like Dole and Chiquita.

Morgan Stanley must lease the existing loading docks at the location, but plans to buy its own containers.

According to the proposal, gas will be piped into the plant through a third party pipeline that measures 11 miles long. This pipe will be connected to the Brazoria Interconnector Gas Pipeline, which transports natural gas within Texas. The gas will be compressed before traveling in the pipeline.

The gas will be further compressed and contained in the pressurized natural gas containers, then loaded onto container ships.

According to another source, putting the gas in containers and shipping them all over the world is a logistics nightmare. For most people, it is difficult to find a way to be profitable doing this.

Grandfather Status

This foray into natural gas signifies an venture into the physical commodity market for Morgan Stanley. Since five years ago, the bank sold most of its physical oil businesses, ending its reign as the largest physical oil trader on Wall Street.

The assets that Morgan Stanley sold included TransMontaigne, an oil transport and storage company. Also the bank sold its global oil trading business to Russia’s Rosneft.

According to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which was put into effect 15 years ago, only Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were the only two banks that were granted grandfather status for any activities involving commodities they engaged in prior to 1997.

Experts in the industry are unsure of whether to bank was using its position to build the natural gas plant. However, by appointing two of its commodities executives as officers of the natural gas subsidiaries shows that the company may have more control of the investment, than one that is held at an arms length by a merchant banking authority.

The proposal is filed under the name of Wentworth Gas Marketing LLC, which is a company based in Delaware with an address for business operations in Purchase, New York – the location of Morgan Stanley’s commodities group.

Morgan Stanley wholly owns Wentworth Gas Marketing and Wentworth Compression LLC, which operates under Wentworth Holdings LLC.

In the proposal, there is an agreement that Wentworth Compression will sell compressed natural gas to Wentworth Gas Marketing. This agreement is signed by two executives from Morgan Stanley, Peter Sherk and Deborah Hart.

Deborah Hart is the chief executive officer at North American Power & Gas under Morgan Stanley. She is also the vice president of Wentworth Compression.

Peter Sherk is a managing director and co-leader of commodities trading, and the vice president of Wentworth Gas Marketing.

The Federal Reserve refused to release a comment on the natural gas project. Morgan Stanley did not comment either about which entity it was using to pursue the project.

The proposal by Morgan Stanley was filed just months prior to the purchase of Deutsche Bank’s North American natural gas trading book.

The company has spent over $140 million so far and the latest investment is for solar installations of 10.2 megawatts in Massachusetts, Maryland, California, New York and New Jersey; where the installations will be made in a total of eight facilities.

This amount is twice as much as what the company installed the previous year. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) states that Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) leads the way among the US companies with the most solar power on-site.

It is expected that the solar system will give enough green energy for over 8,500 houses per annum. Overall, it green-energy generation is predicted to offset carbon dioxide amounting to about 22,000 metric tons each year.

James Gowen, the chief sustainability officer at Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) reported that by doubling the quantity of solar energy, the company is moving towards its goal to reduce carbon intensity by 50% in 2020.

Along with installations of fuel cells and solar polar at Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Data Centers, enhanced cooling efficiency and reduced energy consumption have also been given a spot.

The strategies of energy-efficiency adopted by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) have played a vital role in meeting the company’s goals of reduced carbon intensity. Carbon intensity is basically the emission of carbon that is produced for every tera byte of data that flows through the company’s domestic and global wireless networks.

The CEO and president of SEIA, Rhone Resch, said that when it comes to the numer of in-operation solar installations Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) stands among the top 20 companies in the US. Resch further sais that the company is among top 10 companies of the US that depend on solar producing capacity.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) deployed around 14.2 MW clean power on-site that is divided between both its fuel cells and solar installations. It’s wireless network is supported by 26 cellular solar assisted sites across the US Western States.

The new installations will be handled by SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) and will include a combination of parking structure deployments, ground-mounted systems and photovoltaic panels for rooftops.

Another company that has won appreciation for having a lot of installations on-site compared to other U.S companies is the well known U.S retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). At the start of this year the giant retailer announced that it aims to double its solar projects at its U.S outlets; back in May the company had 240 projects. It also intends to get its energy by using renewable sources. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is one of the blue-chip companies that stress on utilities to simplify the renewable energy purchase so that it can be used more efficiently in the future.

Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI) announced its acquisition plan on August 10, 2014; according to the plan, the company will also get all the subsidiary companies and outstanding equities of Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE:KMR) together with El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. The company did not file for HSR approvals for its latter deals.

The deal is worth a total of $70 billion, and the respective companies are expecting it to be executed by the end of the year 2014. The deal is conditional upon regulatory approvals, notifications, and votes of the shareholders and unit holders.

The deal will help simplifying the structure of Kinder Morgan Group by bringing all the units under one roof; making it beneficial for not only the unit holders but also the shareholders.

The company is expected to report a dividend of $2 for each share for the year 2015. The management of the company predicts that the dividend will increase by 10 percent each year for a time period of 5 years if the deal is executed successfully i.e. 2015 to 2020. The company also expects its coverage to improve by $2 billion during the same time period.

Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI), once combined, will become the biggest energy company in the region of North America and the third largest energy company in the world. Market Analysts are of the view that the combined corporation will be worth a total of $140 billion.

The deal will save a lot of tax money due to the deduction of depreciation values and future expenditures from the total amount; hence, making it even more beneficial for the shareholders of Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI).

The company is expected to grow further in the near future, especially in the region of North America, if the deal goes forward. Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI) has pipelines running around 80,000 miles, for the easy and efficient transport of crude oil, natural gas, carbon dioxide etc. The company has around 180 terminals that are used for storing chemicals, such as coke, coal, ethanol and petroleum.

Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI) currently has a #3 Zacks rank on its stocks, together with a consensus rating of ‘Hold’.

Coming to the stock prices of Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KNI), the company, on the last trading day, August 26, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $40.65 and closed at a price of $40.06, after hitting the highest figures of $40.66. The company has a market capitalization of $41.61 billion with a price to earnings ratio of 34.64.

The stocks of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE:KMP), during the last trading session, started at $96.59 and ended at $95.77, after hitting the highest figures of $96.82. The unit has a market capitalization of $44.53 billion with a price to earnings ratio of 38.06.