Oil posted the biggest weekly gain since July as US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sought to calm fears of a possible recession following a lackluster jobs report that was seen as dimming the demand outlook.
Futures in New York rose 0.4 percent on Friday, erasing earlier losses.
Powell said that the most likely outlook for the US and world economy is continued moderate growth, but the central bank was monitoring “significant risks.”
The market also drew support from a US report that showed the country’s rig count had declined for the third week, implying a slowdown in domestic oil production.
“The oil market and equities market are reacting positively to remarks by Powell that the Fed is not expecting or forecasting a recession,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston, Texas.
The US Department of Labor on Friday reported that employers added 130,000 new jobs in August, somewhat undershooting economists’ estimates and adding to fears of a weakening economy.
West Texas Intermediate oil for delivery next month gained 22 cents to settle at US$56.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was up 2.6 percent for the week.
Gasoline’s spread to crude, also known as the gasoline crack, rose as much as 11 percent for the largest weekly gain since July as gasoline futures strengthened.
Brent for November rose US$0.59 to settle at US$61.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, ending the week up 1.8 percent.
The global benchmark traded at a US$5.11 premium to West Texas Intermediate for the same month.
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