The political strife in Libya caused oil prices to soar. Brent crude traded at well above $115 a barrel in London and West Texas Intermediate at around $100 in New York. Investors turned to precious metals as a haven, helping to push up the price of silver to a 31-year high. See article

In Côte d’Ivoire the internationally recognised winner of November’s disputed presidential election extended a ban he has imposed on cocoa exports from his country, in an effort to make the incumbent president stand aside. Cocoa stocks are piling up in ports, increasing the chance of the beans decaying. There was more violence in the west African country this week.

Apple’s board of directors was challenged by investors at the annual general meeting to reveal the succession plan it has drawn up to replace Steve Jobs should the chief executive not return from medical leave. In a vote shareholders backed the board, which argues that disclosing the plan now would only help competitors. Mr Jobs did not attend the meeting.

The bottom dollar

Wal-Mart reported another poor quarter in America, with revenue dipping again from stores that have been open for at least a year. Sales from the retailer’s international business, which accounts for around a quarter of its profit, boosted its overall results. Wal-Mart is facing stout competition at home from the spread of discount chains that offer even-cheaper goods to consumers who feel particularly cash-strapped.

Making good on its recent undertaking to conduct more of its business in emerging markets, BP bought a stake in the maritime natural-gas assets owned by India’s Reliance Industries. Potentially worth around $9 billion, the deal is one of the biggest-ever foreign investments in India.

BHP Billiton boosted its energy portfolio by agreeing to pay $4.8 billion for shale-gas assets in Arkansas. The mining company earns a fifth of its profit from oil and gas resources.

Trade secrets

Huawei, China’s biggest maker of telecoms equipment, reversed course and accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that it revoke its acquisition of assets owned by 3Leaf, an American technology company. Huawei had already bought the assets, but officials at the Pentagon asked the CFIUS, which considers the national-security implications of takeovers, for its opinion. If Huawei had persisted, the White House would have had to rule on the deal.

Alibaba’s chief executive and chief operating officer both resigned after taking responsibility for a scandal at the Chinese e-commerce website, in which some 2,300 online dealers conned their customers. The sellers had used fake documents to set up their businesses on the site, allegedly with the help of a small number of Alibaba staff. See article

HP’s share price fell sharply after it delivered a weaker-than-expected set of quarterly earnings that showed sales declining in the company’s IT services and personal-computing businesses. HP shaved $1.5 billion from its revenue target for the year.

A judge in Manhattan ruled that the sale of Lehman Brothers’ American business to Barclays in 2008, shortly after the investment bank’s spectacular collapse, was in order, throwing out a claim from Lehman creditors that they were entitled to an $11 billion “windfall” from the deal. It was widely expected that the creditors would lose their case.

Meanwhile, there was another political fuss in Britain over the activities of big banks when Barclays was forced to reveal that it had paid just £113m ($176m) in British corporation tax in 2009, equivalent to 2.5% of its global pre-tax profit that year. Barclays coughed up more than £2 billion in other British taxes in 2009, mostly in payroll-tax contributions, but, as with other banks, was able to reduce its corporate-tax liability in Britain by offsetting bad-debt charges it took during the financial crisis.

Carrots and sticks

An experiment conducted by the Nottingham School of Economics suggested that the payment of bonuses to workers did not encourage greater effort, and actually led to more shirking. But when penalties are introduced for slacking, worker efficiency is enhanced, reducing shirking by half.

Joseph Flom, a legendary lawyer who participated in many of the big hostile takeovers of the 1970s and 1980s, died at the age of 87. Mr Flom’s clients included T. Boone Pickens, James Goldsmith and Ron Perelman. His services were sometimes retained by companies as a defence against those corporate raiders. A poor boy from Brooklyn, Mr Flom entered Harvard Law School without having earned an undergraduate degree.