Oil prices rose on Friday on the possibility that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.
Price gains were limited, though, as the US has said it is not now seeking sanctions against Iran, OPEC's second-largest oil producer. The IAEA board adjourned until yesterday morning without reaching a consensus.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose US$0.69 to US$65.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after sinking to as low as US$63.95 earlier in the day. The contract had dropped US$1.88 a barrel on Thursday.
March Brent futures rose US$0.51 to settle at US$63.39 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange.
"The market is uncertain as to what it wants to do at this point. Supply is not the issue," Alaron Trading Corp analyst Phil Flynn said, referring to ample US crude and product inventories.
"The uncertainty about Iran is the issue," Flynn said.
Participants on both sides in the IAEA meeting have said referring Iran to the UN body seemed unavoidable. The UN Security Council could impose sanctions if the agency reports Iran. Even though Iran's oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh has said Iran won't link the country's oil exports to its nuclear dispute, analysts say the issue is nevertheless a factor in the energy markets.
"Iran needs the money, and the world needs the oil," Flynn said, but any sanction against the country "would increase the anxiety and definitely increase the risk in holding futures."
Heating oil rose more than a US$0.01 to settle at US$1.7816 a gallon (US$0.47 per liter) on the NYMEX, while gasoline gained more than US$0.01 to settle at US$1.6817 a gallon. Natural gas rose US$0.266 to settle at US$8.613 per million British thermal units.
Iran claims its program is peaceful and aimed only at generating electricity, while the US and some European nations fear it could be used to develop weapons.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
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 —
RSS