Oil traders hoping for a slow down in the bearish trend, to enjoy a relaxing weekend away from the screens, may have been tripped up by the Chinese (FXI, quote) data which slipped out on Saturday, with industrial production coming in at 6.9% against a forecast of 8.8%, missing the forecast by some distance, and whipping up the perfect storm.
Brent crude oil (BNO, quote) traded near $108 on Thursday morning after unexpectedly strong Chinese data suggested rising global demand.
Overnight the HSBC Flash China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index hits 18 month high. The survey indicates high demand for manufacturing domestically as well as internationally.
The central bank will use unconventional monetary tools such as re-lending and pledged supplementary lending to maintain relatively loose liquidity, rather than turning to conventional tools including lowering interest rates or the reserve requirement ratio, said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM, quote).
Earlier on Sunday the administration had ordered that all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi Food Co., Ltd should be taken off shelf for safety concerns.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has reiterated “quality” as the mainspring of China’s growth, saying that quality growth, whether slightly higher or lower than 7.5 percent, will be acceptable.
President Xi Jinping is preparing to attend the BRICS summit as the group is generating new initiatives amid slowing economic growth, observers said.
Online direct sales companies face a bumpy road in transforming themselves into e-commerce platforms after a third-party merchant was caught selling fake lubricants on the site of China’s second-largest e-commerce company.
Oil prices continued to move firmly lower once again in yesterday’s oil trading session with the WTI futures contract for August closing at $102.29 per barrel, and ending with a wide spread down candle as the commodity lost over a dollar per barrel on the day.
With the FOMC meeting now consigned to history, and the currency markets now returning to ‘business as usual’ here is a round up for the Aussie, the British pound, the Canadian dollar and of course the euro
