West Texas Intermediate (WTI) set its fourth straight weekly gain as product markets remain tight amid healthy demand, eclipsing concerns about an economic slowdown that have roiled financial markets.
WTI for June delivery rose 0.35 percent to settle above US$110.28 a barrel, after fluctuating in a session where equities slid closer to a bear market, weighing prices.
Despite the choppy trading, it posted its best run of weekly increases since the middle of February.
Photo: AFP
Brent crude for July delivery increased 0.46 percent to US$112.55 a barrel.
Rising demand for motor fuels and shrinking inventories ahead of the summer driving season underscored a fundamentally tight supply situation even as broader economic fears shook equity markets.
“There continues to be a disconnect between the risk financial markets associate with crude financial assets and the physical market that is trying to digest SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] releases to meet product demand,” CIBC Private Wealth Management senior energy trader Rebecca Babin said. “This dichotomy keeps markets fragmented and volatile — it could end up being a cruel summer for energy traders.”
Crude has surged almost 50 percent this year, also helped along by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent shock waves through markets.
While the US and UK have announced bans on Russian exports, flows to Asia have picked up. China is seeking to replenish strategic stockpiles with cheap Russian oil even as officials grapple to suppress COVID-19 outbreaks. India has also boosted purchases.
There were mixed signals from China on Friday. While banks cut a key interest rate for long-term loans by a record to bolster a slowing economy, Shanghai found the first cases of COVID-19 outside quarantine in six days. It raises questions about whether the easing of the city’s lockdown would be affected.
Traders are also keeping a close eye on the refined products market, as a a global crunch on inventories coincides with the beginning of the summer driving season.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS