Crude oil prices fell further on Friday on concerns over slowing energy demand following a dismal report on the US labor market that sparked renewed recession worries.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for October, fell US$1.66 to close at US$106.23, capping a week in which the benchmark contract slid US$9.23.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October dropped US$2.21 to settle at US$104.09 a barrel.
The downward trend was fueled by news that the US jobless rate jumped to a five-year high of 6.1 percent — a sign of recession-like conditions that will limit energy demand.
“The rapid rise in the unemployment rate points to a US recession, as such an increase has never occurred outside of one,” said Peter Kretzmer, economist at Bank of America.
The decline was tempered somewhat by the slow pace of recovery of oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico after the passage of Hurricane Gustav. US officials said about 10 percent of production had resumed on Friday after a near-total shutdown.
“Crude prices featured on the downside on persistent concerns over weakening oil demand and as the US dollar continued to appreciate,” said Nimit Khamar, an analyst at the Sucden brokerage in London.
“The outlook for global economies is looking far from rosy, and is fueling concerns over demand destruction and pushing oil prices lower,” Khamar said.
The dollar struck a near 11-month high versus the euro on Friday on news of slumping industrial output in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and as the market awaited key US jobs data, traders said.
The US currency’s swift rise was then checked when the disappointing US unemployment figures came.
A strong US currency makes dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers holding weaker currencies, dampening demand for crude, which is already falling because of a global economic slowdown.
Some caution persisted ahead of Tuesday’s meeting of the OPEC oil cartel with many market participants expecting them to reduce production.
Crude oil, which hit a record high of US$147.27 on July 11 in New York, has lost nearly US$40 in less than two months.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS