Oil on Friday capped its longest string of daily losses this year as hawkish signals from US Federal Reserve officials added to concerns about a glut of crude piling up in storage.
A significant increase in US inventories and a broader risk-off sentiment sparked by the prospect of continued rate hikes from the Fed have weighed on oil this week.
The headwinds were exacerbated by the federal government’s plan to continue drawing down the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with 26 million more barrels set to be released into the market.
Photo: cnsphoto via Reuters
West Texas Intermediate for March delivery fell 2.74 percent to US$76.34, falling 4.24 percent from the previous week.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, for March delivery dropped 2.51 percent to US$83, down 3.92 percent weekly.
Crude has been stuck in a narrow channel since early December last year. Expectations that China’s return from COVID-19 lockdowns would boost global demand are being tempered by a US economy that is threatening to tilt into a recession under the weight of Fed hikes.
“The renewed range-bound trade in oil is causing the market to become wary, demanding more cyclical evidence to invest in the structural bull case,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc analysts led by Jeff Currie wrote in a note to clients.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS