Crude oil dropped after a report showed the US jobless rate at a 25-year high, adding to concern fuel demand will slide further.
Oil fell as much as 3.1 percent after the US Labor Department said the economy lost more than 650,000 jobs for a fourth consecutive month. Total daily fuel demand averaged over the past four weeks reached the lowest since October, the US Energy Department said on Wednesday.
“If the turnaround in the economy isn’t going to happen as soon as people had hoped, then oil remains under pressure, and we’ll start testing the lows from the beginning of the year, back below US$35,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
Crude oil for May delivery fell US$0.13, or 0.3 percent, to settle at US$52.51 a barrel at 2:49pm on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has risen US$0.13 this week, for a seventh consecutive gain. That’s the longest stretch of increases since July 2007. Prices are up 18 percent this year.
Crude rose 8.8 percent on Thursday, driven by the G20 plan to foster global economic recovery. It touched US$32.70 in intraday trading on Jan. 20.
Total daily fuel demand was 18.9 million barrels in the four weeks ended March 27, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the US Energy Department.
Lower demand by refiners is prompting some sellers to reduce prices.
Saudi Arabia may lower prices for crude oil sold to Asia for the first time in four months as processing profits declined, refinery officials said. Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the world’s largest oil producer, may cut its Arab Heavy and Arab Medium oil grades, according to a survey of refiners in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and China. Saudi Aramco, as the company is also known, is expected to provide prices next week.
Brent crude oil for May settlement climbed US$0.72, or 1.4 percent, to US$53.47 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.
The Brent contract had risen 10 percent in the past two days and is now US$0.96 a barrel more expensive than May crude traded on the NYMEX, the most since Feb. 24.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
RSS