World oil prices held above US$94 per barrel in Asia yesterday in steady trade ahead of a rare weekend OPEC summit.
In afternoon trade, New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was US$0.03 higher at US$94.65 per barrel after dropping US$1.70 in New York trades on Monday.
Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was US$0.05 lower at US$91.93 per barrel after slumping US$1.20 in London.
Oil futures have pulled back from a record-breaking run that pushed them to all-time highs last week of US$98.62 in New York and US$95.19 in London.
"What really was pushing it up was speculation," said Steve Rowles, an analyst with CFC Seymour in Hong Kong.
Prices should ease further as speculative funds move into other products, with downward pressure also coming from selling ahead of the December contract's expiry on Friday, Rowles said.
He said that concerns over slowing US growth were also weighing on the market.
Researchers at Societe Generale said there have been conflicting signals from ministers in the OPEC ahead of the leaders' summit in Riyadh this weekend.
Oil ministers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said on Sunday that OPEC would consider the possibility of raising production if needed.
But in an interview published yesterday, Saudi minister Ali al-Nuaimi told the Financial Times that "there will be absolutely no discussion" of short-term supply this weekend.
Ministers are also scheduled to hold a special meeting on Dec. 5 in Abu Dhabi.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS