Oil capped its fifth week of gains on continued signs of robust demand and strained crude supplies that have taken prices to seven-year highs.
Futures in New York edged lower on Friday, just above US$85 a barrel, but were still up 1.6 percent for the week.
Oil neared US$88 earlier this week for its highest level since 2014 as geopolitical tensions threatened greater supply outages alongside strong demand numbers, despite the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
As prices rise, much of Wall Street has been growing steadily more bullish. Morgan Stanley has joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc in forecasting US$100 oil later this year, and Bank of America reiterated that it expects oil to hit US$120 a barrel by the summer.
Citigroup Inc said that sticking to a bullish view could be dangerous after this quarter.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for March delivery fell US$1.76 to US$85.14 a barrel on Friday, but rose 1.6 percent for the week.
Brent crude for March delivery on Friday fell US$0.49 to US$87.89 a barrel, but added 2.1 percent weekly.
Markets also dissected the strong picture of demand that multiple reports provided this week.
The International Energy Agency said the oil market was looking tighter than previously thought, with demand proving resilient, despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
Additionally, US demand is still running hot, with the total volume of oil products supplied to the market at the highest for this time of year in at least 30 years, the US Energy Information Administration said.
Earlier on Friday, futures fell more than 3 percent alongside broader equity markets and raw materials, including copper.
While commodities have been extremely resilient at the start of the year due to supply risks and geopolitical concerns, they would not “continue to be completely insulated,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management.
Crude’s bumper rally had pushed many of the main futures contracts into overbought territory on a technical basis.
Brent, WTI and heating-oil futures all moved out of that zone amid the sharp price pullback early on Friday.
Oil’s rally has also caught the eye of the White House as it poses a political risk for US President Joe Biden. The US is considering accelerating the release of strategic oil reserves, but many of Biden’s options to address the rally would be limited and likely short-lived.
Additional reporting by AP
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
People walk past advertising for a Syensqo chip at the Semicon Taiwan exhibition in Taipei yesterday.
RSS