Oil on Friday closed higher for the third day in a row as a deal to reopen the US government eased investor fears while political turmoil in Venezuela roiled one of the world’s biggest suppliers of heavy crude.
Futures in New York rose 1.1 percent, gaining steam on reports that US President Donald Trump agreed to a three-week pause in the government shutdown to pursue bordersecurity talks with Democrats.
In Caracas, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido, the opposition leader, gave dueling speeches.
“There’s some optimism now that the government shutdown, at least temporarily, may be behind us,” said Brian Kessens, who helps manage US$16 billion in energy assets at Tortoise Capital Advisers LLC in Leawood, Kansas. “That’s got markets feeling a little bit better.”
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for March delivery climbed US$0.56 to US$53.69 a barrel at the close of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent for March settlement advanced US$0.55 to US$61.64 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, and traded at a US$7.95 premium to WTI.
Despite those gains, both grades finished lower for the week, enduring their first weekly loss this year, with WTI slipping 0.2 percent and Brent losing 1.7 percent.
Prices leaped about 20 percent to start the year, buoyed by output cuts by OPEC, Russia and other major producers.
However, the rally has faltered amid shaky economic forecasts and record production of US crude.
Troubles in Venezuela, owner of the world’s biggest oil reserves, provided a boost as the week wound to a close.
The Latin American nation could see crude production drop by one-third this year, analysts at Fitch Solutions said on Friday.
“There’s an upward bias here, considering there’s supply-side outages and potential ones lurking,” RBC Capital Markets LLC commodity strategist Michael Tran said by telephone. “The market could be tighter than what people previously anticipated.”
In a news conference, Guaido, who this week declared himself acting Venezuelan president, said he is preparing to dismiss the head of state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA as well as the board of its Houston-based refining arm, Citgo Petroleum Corp, taking on two of the power centers that help to bankroll the Maduro government.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last