Crude oil rose to a five-week high as US consumer confidence improved and manufacturing shrank at the slowest pace in seven months, signaling that the recession may end later this year.
Oil gained 4.1 percent after a report showed that confidence last month climbed to its highest level since before the collapse of credit late last year. Factory orders and production are steadying after plunging last year as companies cut stockpiles. Prices were down earlier as US supplies rose to the highest since 1990 and fuel demand dropped.
“Like a lot of markets we are rising on hope,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst with Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “Some people think that the rise in consumer confidence will result in increased petroleum demand.”
Crude oil for June delivery climbed US$2.08 to US$53.20 a barrel at 2:55pm on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since March 26. Prices are up 3.2 percent this week and 19 percent this year.
The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment rose to 65.1, the second straight gain, from 57.3 in March. The index reached a three-decade low of 55.3 in November. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index increased to 40.1 last month, higher than forecast, from 36.3 in March. Readings less than 50 signal a contraction.
Oil in New York has tumbled 64 percent from a record US$147.27 last July as the recession in major consuming countries curbed fuel demand. US fuel use in the first quarter averaged 19.2 million barrels a day, the lowest for the period in 11 years, the American Petroleum Institute said in a monthly report on April 16.
Brent crude oil for June settlement rose US$2.05, or 4 percent, to end the session at US$52.85 on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’: Any delay in the passage of the remaining funds would weaken Taiwan’s security and play into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, the AIT said While welcoming the Legislative Yuan’s approval of a supplementary defense budget, the US Department of State said that further delays to Taiwan military spending are a “concession” to China. The remarks came after the legislature on Friday passed the budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of military equipment from the US, with total spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.82 billion). One package allocates NT$300 billion for arms sales approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, while the other sets aside NT$480 billion for an arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The
RSS