Oil prices on Friday slipped to their lowest levels for this year as traders focused on supply and demand factors, putting aside for the time being concerns about Iran and other geopolitical hot spots.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, lost US$0.78 to close at US$61.84 per barrel. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery fell US$1.11 to end at US$59.64 per barrel.
The closing prices were the lowest since Dec. 30, before the spike linked to concerns about Iran's nuclear energy program.
Fimat trading firm analyst Mike Fitzpatrick said after focusing on geopolitical tensions in the first few weeks of the year, market players have "momentarily refocused on fundamentals."
He said no immediate action will be taken against Iran, which is embroiled in a raging dispute with the international community over its nuclear program.
Similarly, Venezuela's ambassador has pledged his country will continue to supply the US with oil despite a political rift that has led to the expulsion of envoys in the past few days.
Oil prices had topped US$66 on Monday when the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to refer Iran, a major crude producer, to the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear program.
But they tumbled on Wednesday on data that revealed strong energy stockpiles in the US.
Elsewhere, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday issued a slight downward revision to its forecast for growth of global oil demand this year and said last month's supply levels were "healthy" compared with the same month last year.
In its monthly report for this month, the IEA predicted worldwide demand for oil would increase by 1.78 million barrels per day this year instead of its previous projection of 1.83 million barrels per day. Total demand is now put at about 85.1 million barrels per day for this year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained