Crude futures prices fell slightly on Friday, capping off a 5 percent decline from a week ago, as worries about low winter fuel inventories dissipate amid rising oil supplies.
Light, sweet crude for December declined US$0.10 to US$47.32 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, settling nearly US$8 below the late October peak of US$55.17. December Brent crude traded at US$42.31, down US$0.71 on the International Petroleum Exchange in London.
A research note by Credit Suisse First Boston said the downtrend in oil prices had reasserted itself after the markets rose Wednesday following the US government's latest petroleum supply report. That report showed the supply of distillate fuel, which includes heating oil, shrank for the eighth consecutive week -- a disappointment to many traders who had been expecting a break in the trend.
By Thursday, though, confidence that the refining industry would produce enough heating oil before winter reemerged, sending prices US$1.44 per barrel lower and reversing all but a nickel of Wednesday's gain.
"The US$55 per barrel prices seen in October were never warranted by the market fundamentals, and with no new supply threats appearing the market could not sustain the rally," the London-based World Markets Research Center said. "However, prices are unlikely to slide below US$45 in the immediate future, given the still precarious distillate situation in the US and the upcoming Nigerian general strike."
Wednesday's US Energy Department report showed commercially available supplies of distillates dipped by 100,000 barrels last week to 115.6 million barrels, or 13 percent below year ago levels.
Heating oil for December was unchanged at US$1.3636 per gallon on Nymex, where gasoline futures rose US$0.12 to US$1.2569 per gallon. Natural gas futures settled at US$7.16 per 1,000 cubic meters, a decline of US$0.76.
Markets have been tense for months due to the world's limited excess production capacity, now only around 1 percent above the daily consumption of 82.4 million barrels, leaving little room to maneuver in the event of a production outage. Such a disruption could come next week as Nigerian unions vowed to defy a court order blocking a strike set for Nov. 16. Nigeria produces 2.5 million barrels a day and is the world's seventh-largest exporter.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS