Finance and markets: business, quotes, gold, energy and releases.
Found 2019 articles
Copper prices are flirting with all-time highs again, erasing the losses triggered by stalled U.S. tariff plans. The market surge is no longer tied to Washington’s policy shifts, but rather to a desperate scramble for physical metal as Chinese stockpiles hit their lowest levels in three years.
Facing a cooling market for carbon removal and shrinking federal incentives, the engineering firm Spiritus is shifting its strategy. The company has inked preliminary deals to supply captured carbon dioxide to three U.S. oil producers, aiming to leverage the gas for enhanced oil recovery rather than storage alone.
TotalEnergies has finalized its investment decision for the Ima gas field offshore Nigeria, targeting a 2028 production start-up. The development, operated alongside local partner AMNI, aims to secure a critical supply boost for the Nigeria LNG plant as global energy firms pivot toward regions outside Middle Eastern chokepoints.
Only three commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the past twenty-four hours, marking an 80% decline from the standard ten-day average. This sharp reduction in observable traffic reflects growing trepidation among energy exporters as hostilities in the Middle East intensify and tanker security remains precarious.
A 60 percent spike in global energy demand is projected by 2060, fueled by rapid industrialization across India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria. As these nations scramble to power their growing economies, the transition to renewables is colliding with a persistent, practical reliance on traditional fossil fuel infrastructure.
Asia is set to import 23.96 million barrels of crude oil per day this September, marking the highest volume since the outbreak of conflict in Iran crippled regional supply chains in February. While this uptick signals a recovery from spring lows, total arrivals still remain 13% below pre-war benchmarks.
Oil prices extended a six-day losing streak on Wednesday, marking the longest period of decline since August 2025. Markets reacted sharply to the resumption of U.S.-Iran talks in New York, with investors betting that renewed diplomacy could stabilize Middle Eastern supply chains and alleviate long-standing regional energy tensions.
With Brent crude hovering near $100 per barrel, China is unlikely to trigger a significant global price spike through aggressive buying. Goldman Sachs projects that Chinese crude imports will rise by a modest 600,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter, signaling that high costs remain a formidable barrier to market expansion.
As Xi Jinping prepares for a September 24 summit in Washington, the prospect of reviving a $6 billion-a-year liquefied natural gas trade hinges on a 15% Chinese tariff. While the White House frames recent corporate contracts as momentum for a deal, the market reality suggests Beijing has already moved on.
A federal judge in Grand Rapids has rejected a lawsuit filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, which sought to hold oil giants accountable for allegedly conspiring to stifle the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies across the United States.
South Korea intends to slash its dependence on Middle Eastern crude oil to 50% by 2035, marking a strategic pivot away from the volatile Strait of Hormuz. The government’s new 10-year resource security plan aims to mitigate the risks that recently forced Seoul to cap fuel prices and restrict civil servant driving.
As the September 2026 deadline for a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq approaches, Washington faces a fundamental shift in its regional posture. Rather than viewing the departure as a loss of authority, the administration must pivot from a model of direct control to one of strategic, incentive-based influence.
With regional energy infrastructure crippled by seven months of conflict, the United States is pitching a $5 billion reconstruction fund to bypass the vulnerable Strait of Hormuz. Dubbed PACT, the initiative seeks to recruit Gulf allies into a $10 billion investment pool aimed at securing long-term oil export routes.
With the national average for diesel hitting a record $6.5276 per gallon, President Trump has signaled support for a potential export ban to curb domestic fuel costs. The move aims to prioritize local supply ahead of winter, even as internal administration divisions over the policy’s economic impact persist.
European manufacturers of XXL offshore monopiles face a stark reality as project delays collide with a massive surge in production capacity. After years of heavy investment to solve supply shortages, factory utilization rates are projected to plummet, putting a squeeze on supplier margins and inviting aggressive competition from China.
The U.S. artificial intelligence sector faces a mounting existential crisis rooted not in software, but in a fragmented, aging electrical grid. While Chinese rivals leverage a centralized, ultra-high-voltage power system to achieve near-parity in AI performance at a fraction of the cost, American firms are struggling against crippling energy inefficiencies.
Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline has resumed partial operations following an 11-day shutdown, yet the move offers little relief to a global oil market gripped by record-breaking shipping costs. Even as flow restarts, persistent geopolitical volatility and strained tanker availability continue to drive energy prices toward structural instability.
Crude oil inventories in the United States climbed by 1.786 million barrels for the week ending September 18, according to American Petroleum Institute estimates. This build follows a significant surge of 7.14 million barrels the previous week, even as gasoline and distillate supplies continue to drain from commercial storage.
Norway’s crude oil production surged to 1.882 million barrels per day in August, a rebound that outpaced the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s expectations by 4.4%. Despite the monthly recovery, total liquids output remains 4% below levels seen last year, highlighting the persistent volatility facing the nation’s offshore energy sector.
As President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump prepare to meet in Washington this Thursday, new customs data reveals a 21% drop in Chinese rare earth shipments to the U.S. during August. This sharp contraction underscores China’s ongoing use of its mineral dominance as a strategic lever against Western supply chains.
While Tashkent remains committed to its inaugural nuclear power project with Russia, it is now looking to the United States to guarantee the safety of the facility. The two nations signed a memorandum in Vienna this week, effectively bringing American technical oversight into a sphere long dominated by Moscow.
India’s appetite for Russian crude cooled in August, with imports sliding 16.5% to 2.1 million barrels per day. While Russia maintains its position as the nation's primary supplier, the shift arrives as Washington gains new legal authority to impose steep tariffs on countries purchasing Russian energy.
A 4-million-barrel-per-day lifeline, the East-West pipeline, has partially resumed operations following a drone-induced shutdown. This route serves as Saudi Arabia's critical bypass around the Strait of Hormuz, offering a necessary alternative for crude exports as Aramco struggles to normalize supply chains disrupted by recent regional instability.
With Treasury yields hitting 5% and inflation rattling energy markets, the math behind utility rates is shifting. Regulators, squeezed by rising costs and political pressure, may soon look toward the generous return-on-equity premiums currently enjoyed by power companies as the most accessible lever to hold down consumer bills.
With natural gas prices in the UK running eight times higher than in China and twelve times those in the United States, chemical giant Ineos is mothballing its three world-scale Acetyls units in Hull, marking the end of domestic production for a critical range of industrial and pharmaceutical raw materials.
With Houthi rebels seizing control of the Red Sea coastline and targeting Saudi energy infrastructure, the global oil market faces a precarious bottleneck. The escalation threatens the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital artery for 6 percent of the world’s seaborne-traded oil, compounding existing supply disruptions from the ongoing Iran-U.S. conflict.
An armed military faction has seized control of Valve No. 7 on a critical pipeline, forcing a steep production decline at Libya’s largest oilfield. The disruption at Sharara threatens to derail national export capacity just as global markets react to heightened volatility in Middle Eastern supply routes.
The global oil market is operating on borrowed time, sustained by temporary buffers that are rapidly vanishing. With flows through the Strait of Hormuz severely disrupted and strategic reserves at multi-decade lows, analysts warn that the current period of relative price stability is likely nearing a volatile breaking point.
Global oil markets reacted sharply Tuesday as Tehran signaled a potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within one week, contingent upon the United States lifting its military blockade of Iranian ports and halting regional combat operations, according to a senior government official speaking to Kyodo News.
Brent Crude prices shifted back toward $100 per barrel this week, tethered to the volatile intersection of Saudi export stability and mounting U.S.-Iran tensions. While the market initially signaled relief as Saudi shipments bypassed the Strait of Hormuz, new supply disruptions in Libya have reignited caution among traders.