Oil prices are virtually unchanged on Wednesday morning after rising the day before.
The price of February futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange at 8:05 a.m. Moscow time is $79.94 per barrel, which is $0.05 (0.06%) lower than at the close of the previous session. Those contracts rose by 19 cents (0.2%) to $79.99 a barrel at the close of trading on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for February at electronic trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $76.17 per barrel by that time, which is $0.06 (0.08%) below the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $0.85 (1.1%) to $76.23 per barrel at the end of last session.
The previous day oil quotations were supported by decline of the US dollar rate, which increased the attractiveness of oil as an object for investments of holders of other currencies.
In addition, investors are following the situation with the coronavirus in China. The removal of quarantine restrictions and government stimulus measures are believed to be positive factors for fuel demand in the long term. At the same time, rising COVID-19 infections are dampening the market’s optimism, MarketWatch notes.
“After a long period of liquidating long positions, the market has become more balanced, and a bullish mood is gradually returning to oil traders,” SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes wrote. – Despite all concerns about the recession in the economy, there are still those who want to buy oil after a decrease in its quotations. This demonstrates that oil is one of the most needed commodities in the world.
At the same time, reduced liquidity in the market, which is traditionally observed at the end of the year, puts pressure on quotations, the expert added.
The U.S. dollar is strengthening moderately against major world currencies on Wednesday morning after a sharp decline the day before, caused by the decisions of the Bank of Japan.
The index calculated by ICE, which shows the U.S. dollar dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) is rising by 0.13% after a 0.6% decline on Tuesday.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0616 by 9:04 a.m. Moscow time, versus $1.0625 at the close of Tuesday’s session; the euro is down about 0.1%.
The dollar/yen exchange rate rose 0.3 percent to 132.15 yen from 131.70 yen at the end of last session.
The day before the yen soared against the dollar by more than 3% after the Bank of Japan on the results of the December meeting unexpectedly decided to expand the corridor within which the yield of ten-year government bonds may fluctuate to plus/minus 0.5% from plus/minus 0.25% previously.
Many economists saw this move as laying the groundwork for an exit from the long-standing ultra-soft monetary policy (TFP).
The pound is losing 0.2% and is trading at $1.2164 versus $1.2184 at the end of last week.
Ports of Greater Odessa on Tuesday shipped 129 thousand tons of agricultural products as part of the “Grain Initiative”, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported.
“Today a caravan of four ships left the ports of Greater Odessa, which will deliver 129 thousand tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe. In particular, the bulk carrier Ince Atlantic with 44 thousand tons of Ukrainian wheat for Kenya”, – indicated the Ministry.
According to him, in the ports involved in the “Grain Initiative”, 27 ships are under the processing, they are loaded with 1 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Also in the “grain corridor” there are two vessels with the loading of 63 thousand tons of agricultural products.
A total of 569 vessels have left the ports of Greater Odessa since August 1, exporting 14.3 million tons of Ukrainian foodstuffs to Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Cabinet of Ministers postponed for another year the implementation of the resolution adopted in July 2019 to increase teachers’ salaries by 20-70%.
According to the representative of the Cabinet in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnichuk in the telegram channel, the relevant decision was made at the government meeting on Tuesday.
In particular, stopped until December 31, 2023, the Cabinet resolution of June 10, 2019 № 822 “On remuneration of pedagogical, scientific-pedagogical and scientific employees of educational and scientific institutions”.
As reported, on July 10, 2019, the Cabinet approved a reform of teacher pay with an increase to four subsistence minimum wage by 2023. The plan was for teacher pay to be 2.5 living wages in 2020, 3 living wages in 2021, 3.5 living wages in 2022 and 4 living wages beginning in January 2023. Later, due to lack of funds for the reform implementation in the state and local budgets, the decree was suspended until December 31, 2020. Its implementation was also postponed in subsequent years.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has fined the private companies Fialka and Style-Decor UAH 92 million for collusion in the tender for the reconstruction of the Avangard stadium in Rivne, the agency’s press service has said.
According to the statement, the committee found evidence of coordination between the two companies during the participation in the tender due to which the competition between them was eliminated. The expected cost of works at the tender was UAH 202.2 mln, the AMCU notes.
For the concerted actions at the auction the companies, in addition to the fine, are banned from participating in public procurement for three years.
According to Opendatabot, the owner and beneficiary of the private industrial and commercial firm “Fialka” (Sumy) is Vahid Kurbanov. According to the company’s financial statements for 2020, it was not engaged in economic activities.
The owner and beneficiary of LLC “Style-Decor” is named Vera Rozhchuk. In 2020 the company received 151 thousand UAH of net loss and 23 million UAH of income.
Ukraine on Tuesday received from the Netherlands EUR200 million of credit funds on concessional terms through an IMF-administered account, the Ministry of Finance said.
According to its release, the loan amount bears interest at an annual interest rate equal to the IMF prime rate of interest (IMF basic rate of charge, fixed at 3.641% per annum).
The final repayment of the loan is carried out 10 years from the date of the sample of the loan, taking into account the grace period of 4.5 years from the date of the sample of the loan, the Ministry of Finance said.
The loan funds are designed to finance the cost of the general fund of the state budget, the ministry said.
As reported, in early July this year, the Netherlands announced a decision to allocate another EUR200 million to Ukraine through the IMF account. “The funds will be spent on the current needs of the Ukrainian authorities, such as salaries of civil servants, teachers, medics,” said Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands Lisie Schreinemacher at the International Conference on the Recovery of Ukraine in Lugano, Switzerland.
