Oil quotations grew steadily on Friday amid publication of data on energy reserves in the U.S., which showed a decline of gasoline and distillate reserves in the country last week.
The value of March futures on Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures Exchange was $79.50 per barrel by 7:05 a.m. KSC on Friday. It was $0.81 (1.03%) above the previous session’s close price. At the end of trading on Thursday those contracts grew by $0.85 (1.09%) up to $78.69 per barrel.
The price of WTI futures for February at electronic trades of NYMEX grew by that time by $0.79, to $74.46 per barrel. By closing of previous trades the cost of those contracts grew by $0.83 (1.14%) to $73.67 per barrel.
Commercial oil inventories in the U.S. rose 1.69 million barrels to 420.65 million barrels last week, according to a weekly report from the nation’s Energy Department.
Commercial gasoline inventories fell by 346,000 barrels to 222.66 million barrels.
Commercial distillate stocks decreased by 1.43 million barrels to 118.78 million barrels.
Experts were expecting a 1.5 mln barrel increase of oil reserves, a 1 mln barrel decrease of gasoline reserves and a 1.17 mln barrel decrease of distillate reserves.
Since the beginning of the week oil prices fell by about 7% due to an increase in COVID-19 disease in China, which clouds the short-term outlook for oil demand in that country.
In turn, hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) on the future direction of monetary policy are increasing concerns about a potential recession, writes Trading Economics.
The U.S. dollar rose against major world currencies in trading on Friday amid data showing the strength of the U.S. labor market, which may encourage the Federal Reserve (Fed) to keep raising rates.
The euro/dollar pair was trading at $1.0513 at 7:54 a.m. KSC on Friday, up from $1.0523 at the close of the previous session.
The value of the U.S. currency pair with the yen rose to 134.29 yen from 133.40 yen in previous trading.
The pound to dollar exchange rate fell to $1.1903 against $1.1911 the day before.
The ICE index showing the dollar’s movement against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) rose 0.23% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index gained 0.11%.
A report from the industry organization ADP on Thursday showed an acceleration in U.S. private-sector job growth. They increased by 235,000 in December, ADP said. Analysts on average had forecast an increase of 150,000 jobs, according to Trading Economics. In November, the figure rose by 127,000.
Investors are now waiting for official data on the U.S. labor market for December, which will be released Friday at 3:30 p.m. Ksk. Experts polled by Trading Economics on average expect the number of jobs in the U.S. to rise by 200K last month and the unemployment rate to remain at 3.7%.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed that none of the Fed’s policymakers thought it prudent to cut the benchmark interest rate in the early part of the year, as financial markets expect.
Meeting participants generally believed that “maintaining restrictive monetary policy for an extended period until inflation clearly moves toward 2 percent would be justified,” the minutes said.
At the same time, the U.S. Central Bank reiterated its desire to achieve a slowdown in inflation without an excessive weakening of economic activity, Bloomberg noted.
The euro/dollar pair traded at $1.0513 as of 7:54 a.m. KSC on Friday, compared to $1.0523 at the close of the previous session.
The value of the U.S. currency in a pair with the yen rose to 134.29 yen from 133.40 yen in previous trading.
The pound to dollar exchange rate fell to $1.1903 against $1.1911 the day before.
The ICE index showing the dollar’s movement against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) rose 0.23% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index gained 0.11%.
A report from the industry organization ADP on Thursday showed an acceleration in U.S. private-sector job growth. They increased by 235,000 in December, ADP said. Analysts on average had forecast an increase of 150,000 jobs, according to Trading Economics. In November, the figure rose by 127,000.
Investors are now waiting for official data on the U.S. labor market for December, which will be released Friday at 3:30 p.m. Ksk. Experts polled by Trading Economics on average expect the number of jobs in the U.S. to rise by 200K last month and the unemployment rate to remain at 3.7%.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed that none of the Fed’s policymakers thought it prudent to cut the benchmark interest rate in the early part of the year, as financial markets expect.
Meeting participants generally believed that “maintaining restrictive monetary policy for an extended period until inflation clearly moves toward 2 percent would be justified,” the minutes said.
At that, the American Central Bank confirmed its desire to achieve slowdown of inflation without excessive weakening of economic activity, Bloomberg agency notes.
Three dry cargo vessels with corn and sunflower meal departed from Ukrainian ports on Wednesday, the Joint Coordinating Centre (JCC) has reported.
“On January 4, three ships left Ukrainian ports, carrying a total of 197,851 tonnes of grain and other food under the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the JCC said.
Three bulk carriers – Presinge (70,514 tonnes of corn), Shen Yu 79 (64,667 tonnes of corn) and Mona KH (44,670 tonnes of corn and 18,000 sunflower meal) – are heading to China.
Seventy applications to join the Black Sea Grain Initiative have been submitted, the center said.
In addition, six ships are awaiting permission to enter the Ukrainian ports, 26 loaded dry cargo ships are waiting to sail to their destinations.
“As of January 4, the total tonnage of grain and other foodstuffs exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 16,630,516 tonnes. A total of 1,239 voyages (616 inbound and 616 outbound) have been enabled so far,” the JCC said.
PrJSC Zaporizhkoks, one of the largest producers of coke products in Ukraine, which is part of Metinvest Group, will focus on improving work efficiency and implementing investment projects aimed at updating the furnace stock and improving product quality.
According to the company, these are the program goals of the newly appointed acting general director of the enterprise Oleksandr Bekhter.
As specified, Bekhter has many years of experience in the coke industry. He started at the coke shop of Zaporizhkoks, reached the post of deputy head of the enterprise’s tar distillation shop. In 2015-2018 he worked in the production and technical department, then headed it. Since 2018, he has been holding the position of production director of Zaporizhkoks.
“In his new position, Bekhter will focus on improving the efficiency of Zaporizhkoks and implementing investment projects aimed at updating the furnace fund and improving product quality,” the press release states.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its main shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Prometey Group of Companies during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has implemented a number of socially oriented projects to support civilians in Mykolaiv and the region, materially meet the needs of Ukrainian warriors, and for the safety and social security of its employees.
According to a press release of the holding on Wednesday, 8 million UAH were allocated for these purposes, during which dozens of humanitarian projects were implemented.
For example, in December 2022 Prometey allocated funds to the Mykolayiv Regional Military Administration for the purchase of generators for units of the AFU.
As noted, “Prometey” was established in Nikolaev, so the company provides feasible assistance primarily to this city and the Nikolaev region.
“We buy food, medical equipment. Our help is in person, without intermediaries. We ourselves, for example, carried food to the front line of our military. Today, generators are the thing of prime necessity, so we promptly responded to the needs of the military,” the grain trader quotes Raphael Goroyan, head of the holding’s nabs council.
Prometey Group provides services in storing, processing and logistics of crops. Before the Russian aggression the holding owned 34 elevators in the Mykolaiv, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
By the end of 2021, the group planned to receive $45 mln EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 mln and in 2019 – $30.5 mln.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy after telephone talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey is ready to take part in the implementation of the Ukrainian Formula World.
“Talked with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We touched on the topics of cooperation on security, in particular with regard to the ZAZ – there should be no invaders there, the exchange of prisoners of war, the development of the “grain” agreement. I was glad to hear that Turkey is ready to participate in the implementation of our Peace Formula,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
