Stocks Rally, Euro Weakens as ECB Plans Reassessed; Crude Gains
Oil see-saws on Brussels bombings, OPEC freeze rumors
News of terror attacks in Belgium have shaken up financial markets and the western world generally. Oil is gauging the sentiment in broader markets and is taking its lead from that. Hence, as the U.S. dollar firms and equities look lower, crude is selling off. Here are five things to consider relating to markets today: […]
Oil futures jump on output freeze hopes; glut hurts physical prices
Crude futures jumped on Wednesday as hopes for an agreement among exporters to freeze output undertelevision reported on Wednesday, with plans to export 2.25 million bpd of those supplies. That would be up from a little over 1 million bpd under the sanctions and only slightly below pre-sanctions peaks of 2.5 million bpd. With Iran’s […]
Oil price dips on prospects for producers’ meeting
Oil prices slipped on Monday over worries that the result of next Sunday’s meeting of producers in Qatar aimed at freezing current output levels would fail to improve the current supply-demand balance. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, were down 27 cents at $41.67 a barrel at 0810 GMT, retreating from a three-week high reached […]
World shares rose on Tuesday as technology giant Apple Inc’s biggest rise in over two months and oil’s march higher to near $50 a barrel boosted investor demand for riskier assets at the expense of safe-haven bonds. MSCI’s index of global shares rose 0.2 percent .MIWD00000PUS, putting it on track for its second consecutive rise, something it has not managed in a month. Europe’s major stock markets rose as much as 1 percent before easing back, following similar gains in Asia after Wall Street had also chalked up a 1 percent rise on Monday. The rally lost some steam, however, and U.S. stock futures pared earlier gains to signal a rise of around 0.1 percent at the open on Wall Street. “Markets are once again up on higher commodity prices. Nevertheless, we should not get carried away and chase the commodity complex higher as most of these markets are still very much over-supplied,” Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis, said. Brent crude oil futures rose to their highest level in almost six months, within a few cents of breaking above $50 for the first time since Nov. 4, before drifting back below $49 by midday in Europe. At 1100 GMT, the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,321 points .FTEU3, with Germany’s DAX up 0.2 percent .GDAXI, France’s CAC 40 up 0.1 percent .FCHI and Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE gaining 0.5 percent. The basic resources sector .SXPP was among the biggest sectoral gainers, up 1 percent. Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.9 percent, extending its recovery from a two-month low set on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 gained about 1.1 percent. FOOL’S BLACK GOLD Oil’s rise to six-month highs came as supply disruptions prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices. Goldman has long warned of global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash to as low as $20 per barrel. A combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S. production, and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after wildfires in Alberta’s oil sands region all helped to lift oil prices. “The oil market continues to make an even larger fool of most forecasters than other financial assets: having caught everyone out by plummeting, it is now catching us out by continuing to rise,” Rabobank analysts wrote. Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose as high as $49.31 per barrel on Tuesday, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, touching $49.47, the highest since early November. By midday, however, they had slipped back to $48.84. U.S. crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 rose to $48.42 before giving back most of that rise, having risen 3.3 percent on Monday. Shares in Apple (AAPL.O) finished 3.7 percent higher on Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) reported taking a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Apple shares had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past month on worries about the company’s slowing sales growth. In the currency market, the British pound rose 0.6 percent to $1.45 GBP=D4 helped in part by a report that the “In” campaign held a 15-point lead over rival “Out” ahead of Britain’s June 23 referendum on Europe
he National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Moses Asaga, disclosed earlier on Joy News that government has shown commitment to repaying those debts. He said, “In terms of dollar term, the government owes about 900 million dollars for which approximately 400 million dollars was paid to the BDCs between the period 2014 and 2015.” According to plans are far afoot to repay the remaining amount which is 530 million dollars. He disclosed in order to ensure that the right amount is paid to the oil distributors, the government has employed the services of Ernst and Young to conduct some auditing and validating process. Ernst & Young is a firm operating in Ghana delivering services like assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services. He, however, failed to tell when the money would be paid to the companies. But speaking on the MultiTV programme, PM EXPRESS, Mr. Hosi said government’s indebtedness is causing a worry for the banks. He played down claims that the failure of the government to pay its debt would result in hikes in petroleum prices. He asserted, “The real problem lies in the risk it poses to the entire financial system.” He explained “If you put the banks together, one, two, or three banks will go down” because they are connected it is likely to affect most banks in the country. Touching on the cause of the debt, Mr. Hosi said the debt has come about because the government has been pm-express-banks-likely-to-shutdown-if-govt-fails-to-pay-530m-debt-to-bdcs-senyo-hosi
The Chief Executive Officer of the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs), Senyo Hosi has hinted the debt owed them by the government is likely to result in the shutdown of some banks in the country. The government has over the years been owing the oil distribution companies in the country the total sum of 530 […]
Iran has no plans to freeze oil exports, official says ahead of OPEC meeting
Iran has no plans to freeze the level of its oil production and exports, Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted on Sunday as saying, as the country tries to raise its crude exports to pre-sanctions levels. “Under the present circumstances, the government and the Oil Ministry have not issued any policy or plan to […]
