Benchmark crude for May delivery added US$0.35 to settle at US$50.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday.
With the May contract ending next week, traders focused on crude stocks with a later delivery under the June contract.
Crude for June delivery increased US$0.31 to settle at US$52.47 a barrel.
In London, Brent prices gained US$0.29 to settle at US$53.35 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
“There’s still a lot of money out there that has to go somewhere,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy Economic Research.
“They see it as a good buy long-term,” Lynch said.
Investors see oil stocks as the ultimate safe haven, a commodity that will almost certainly be in greater demand next year. That is what has kept prices aloft this week despite daily reports showing the world economy is running on less oil, not more.
The government said this week that US storage facilities were bloated with the biggest surplus in nearly 19 years.
If that wasn’t enough, the US government, OPEC and the International Energy Agency all revised their demand forecasts, saying the world would consume even less petroleum this year than expected.
A few months ago, such news probably would have pushed crude prices to new lows.
But traders said they have already factored in the tepid global economy and have moved on. They are guided now by rising equities markets and a general hope that better times are ahead.
“Crude’s really moving in sympathy with the stock market right now,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates.
Analyst Phil Flynn also noted reports that China is pumping money into raw materials like oil to shield itself from depending too heavily on the US dollar.
He said in a research note that the move by China has persuaded other investors to snap up oil stocks as well.
“There is growing evidence that China will look to store oil and other commodities as opposed to US treasuries,” Flynn said.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS