Oil prices rebounded higher on Friday, with prices in New York closing above US$50 a barrel for the first time, as traders fretted about Nigerian oil production amid a threatened rebel uprising.
The light sweet crude November futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed up US$0.48 at US$50.12 a barrel, posting a record close, on the latest Nigerian worries.
In London, the price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November rose US$0.24 to close at US$46.62 a barrel.
Oil prices hit all-time peaks of US$50.47 in out-of-hours deals in New York on Tuesday and US$46.80 in London on Tuesday amid unrest in Nigeria.
"There are still concerns about Nigeria," said New York-based Refco oil analyst Marshall Steeves, referring to Friday's closing price spike.
Unrest in Iraq and disruption to Gulf of Mexico oil output, caused by recent hurricanes that have struck Florida, have also stoked oil prices in recent weeks, tightening US domestic stocks.
"Concern about Nigeria, because a lot of Nigerian oil goes to making gasoline," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an oil trader with Fimat in New York.
"I don't know if worries about gasoline inventories are justified, [there] appears to be plenty of gasoline in stockpiles," Fitzpatrick said, adding traders often worry about supplies on Fridays as they depart for the weekend.
Traders are holding their breath that the Nigerian government, in peace talks with rebels, will be able to stave off a threatened uprising by the rebels, who said they would mount an all-out war on the government if their demands were not met. The country is a key supplier to the US and Africa's biggest oil exporter.
Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force has threatened oil installations and asked foreign oil workers to quit the region. It is one of the militias fighting for supremacy over control of the west African country's illegal oil traffic.
The group claims to be fighting for the rights of the ethnic Ijaws living around the center of Nigeria's Niger delta oil industry, which turns out about 2.3 million barrels per day.
However, just after the New York market closed, two other militias in the delta, the People's Volunteer Force and the Niger Delta Vigilante, reportedly promised they would stop fighting government forces and hand in their weapons.
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
SEMICONDUCTORS: Samsung and Texas Instruments would receive US$4.75 billion and US$1.6 billion respectively to build one chip factory in Utah and two in Texas Samsung Electronics Co and Texas Instruments Inc completed final agreements to get billions of US dollars of government support for new semiconductor plants in the US, cementing a major piece of US President Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act initiative. Under binding agreements unveiled Friday, Samsung would get as much as US$4.75 billion in funding, while Texas Instruments stands to receive US$1.6 billion — money that would help them build facilities in Texas and Utah. The final deals mean the chipmakers can begin collecting the funding when their projects hit certain benchmarks. Though the terms of Texas Instruments’ final agreement is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
Japan ramped up its warnings against currency speculation on Friday after the yen slid to a five-month low following a hint from the central bank chief that he might wait longer than expected before raising interest rates. “The government’s deeply concerned about recent currency moves, including those driven by speculators,” Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We will take appropriate action if there are excessive moves in the currency market.” The yen regained some ground against the dollar after Kato’s remarks, strengthening to as much as ￥156.89 after earlier weakening to ￥157.93. The Japanese currency strengthened a little further after currency
RSS