Year: 2020

(Bloomberg) — U.S. stock futures declined as investors assessed worsening American coronavirus figures as a new quarter begins. Asian shares traded mixed.Futures on the S&P 500 Index slid more than 1.5% after President Donald Trump warned of a “painful” two weeks ahead, with the country grappling to get the outbreak under control. Cases in New York state surged by 9,000. Stocks in Japan pared losses, while Australia’s outperformed. Hong Kong shares had a modest retreat even as two of the city’s largest lenders, Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc, both suspended dividend payments because of the virus. In China, …read more […]

The Trump administration plans to lease out space for energy companies to store oil in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, after a previous effort to buy millions of barrels for the emergency stockpile was canceled over a lack of funding, according to two people briefed on the matter. The new plan could help the United States deal with a growing glut of crude oil that risks overwhelming commercial storage tanks and sending world energy prices deeper into a tailspin as the coronavirus pandemic slashes demand for fuel. The plan is a change of tack from the initial scheme, …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Oil is entering a period of unparalleled demand destruction this month that promises to transform the industry for years to come.Daily consumption will plummet by 15 million to 22 million barrels in April from a year earlier, according to estimates from some of the world’s most influential energy analysts. The crash has already led to refiners slashing processing, drillers halting output and storage tanks swelling across the world.“This will likely be a game-changer for the industry,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Damien Courvalin said in a March 30 note. “It is impossible to shut …read more […]

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U.S. crude inventories rose by 10.5 million barrels last week, far exceeding forecasts for a 4 million barrel build-up, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed. Wednesday’s opening session left oil prices marooned near their lowest levels since 2002 amid the global coronavirus crisis that has brought worldwide economic slowdown and slashed oil demand. Crude futures ended the quarter down nearly 70% after record losses in March. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — The coronavirus pandemic has frozen the Chinese gold market, torpedoing demand at a time when investors elsewhere in the world are clamoring for the safety of bullion.China is the biggest buyer of gold bars, coins and jewelry, but the national shutdown to contain the virus has emptied malls, while the premium charged to buy the metal in China has evaporated. It leaves the industry staring down a long road to recovery, even as Beijing tries to jump-start broader consumption with a campaign to get shoppers out and about.The market’s struggles in China may present a headwind for prices, …read more […]