Oil on Friday posted its biggest weekly gain in more than a month as supplies tightened and the White House signaled progress on US-China trade talks.
Futures in New York rose for a fourth day.
US crude stockpiles fell for the first time in six weeks, the US Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, while a critical North Sea oil pipeline was briefly shut on Thursday.
The US and China “seem to be on the glide path” to a possible signing of phase one of a trade deal in Chile next month, a White House adviser told Fox News.
“We are a little optimistic that there will be a China-US Trade deal,” Toronto Dominion Bank commodity strategist Bart Melek said by telephone.
Oil is down about 15 percent from an April peak as the trade spat between Washington and Beijing dents demand, although US President Donald Trump has raised expectations that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are making progress.
“We’re doing very well with China... They want to make a deal very badly,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery rose US$0.43 to settle at US$56.66 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a weekly rise of 5.4 percent.
Brent for December settlement rose US$0.35 to close at US$62.02 per barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange, a US$5.36 premium over West Texas Intermediate. Prices are 4.4 percent higher this week.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose US$0.01 to US$1.67 per gallon and heating oil fell US$0.01 to US$1.98 per gallon, while natural gas slid US$0.01 to US$2.46 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Gold climbed US$0.60 to US$1,499.50 per ounce and silver rose US$0.12 to US$17.86 per ounce, while copper added US$0.01 to US$2.67 per pound.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last