Oil fell the most in two-and-a-half months amid signals that OPEC and allied crude producers are averse to deepening output cuts when they convene next week.
Futures dropped 5.1 percent in New York on Friday, closing the US benchmark’s poorest weekly performance since early October.
Saudi Arabia probably will indicate to the cartel next week that it is no longer willing to compensate for excessive production by others, according to people familiar with the kingdom’s thinking.
Meanwhile, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said it would be better to postpone any new supply caps until April, the Tass news agency reported.
In the US, futures-trading volume was suppressed on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, increasing the potential for dramatic price moves.
“The OPEC accord with Russia could be fraying a bit,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC. “It undercuts and undermines everyone’s perception of the commitment.”
OPEC and allies, including Russia, are expected to extend the supply pact, rather than make deeper reductions, when they meet in Vienna late next week, a Bloomberg survey showed.
That came as government data showed that the US was a net exporter of crude and refined products for a full month for the first time in at least seven decades.
Despite Friday’s slump, New York-traded futures posted the biggest monthly advance since June amid optimism that the US and China were closing in on a trade accord.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January delivery slipped US$2.94 to settle at US$55.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 4.5 percent for the week.
Brent for January settlement, which expired on Friday, fell US$2.78 to US$60.49 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange, down 3 percent for the week. The global benchmark traded at a US$7.26 premium to WTI.
NATURAL GAS
Natural gas prices capped their biggest November drop since 2001 as forecasts showed no sign of the teeth-chattering US cold needed to boost demand for the heating fuel.
Gas for January delivery fell US$0.22, or 8.8 percent, to US$2.281 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices were down more than 13 percent last month.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure