Oil prices recover slightly but US tariffs, OPEC downgrade weigh
Brent crude futures rose 19 cents, or 0.28 per cent, to US$68.83 a barrel as of 0037 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude ticked up 26 cents to US$66.83 a barrel, up 0.39 per cent.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in its 2025 World Oil Outlook published on Thursday, cut its forecasts for global oil demand in 2026 to 2029 because of slowing Chinese demand.
Global demand will average 106.30 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, OPEC said, down from 108.00 million bpd expected in last year's forecast.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a 35 per cent tariff rate for goods imported from Canada, starting Aug 1, and said the United States planned to impose blanket tariffs of 15 per cent or 20 per cent on most other trade partners.
Earlier in the day, President Trump threatened punitive tariffs on Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, and laid out plans for duties on copper, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
The European Union is expected to propose a floating Russian oil price cap in a new sanctions package this week, after a fall in oil prices made the current cap irrelevant, according to EU diplomat sources on Thursday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
24 minutes ago
- The Star
SEC ends lawsuit against Ripple, company to pay $125 million fine
FILE PHOTO: A representations of cryptocurrency Ripple is seen in front of a stock graph and U.S. dollar in this illustration taken, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it ended its case accusing Ripple Labs of selling unregistered securities, leaving a $125 million fine intact and ending one of the cryptocurrency industry's highest-profile lawsuits. Ripple and the SEC agreed on Thursday to dismiss their appeals of the fine imposed by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan and her injunction against the sale of Ripple's XRP token to institutional investors. XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value, trailing bitcoin and Ethereum, according to the market service CoinMarketCap. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, near the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's first White House term, accusing it of selling XRP tokens without registering them as securities. In a mixed ruling in July 2023, Torres said XRP was covered by securities laws when sold to institutional investors, while XRP that Ripple sold on public exchanges was not. She imposed the fine in August 2024. Following Trump's reelection, a more crypto-friendly SEC began retreating from some enforcement cases, and together with Ripple asked Torres to lift the injunction and reduce the fine to $50 million. She refused, saying neither side came close to showing "exceptional circumstances" that outweighed the public interest in enforcing the injunction and $125 million fine. The SEC said the dismissal of the appeals means the injunction and fine remain in effect. Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's chief legal officer, in a post on X referred to the SEC's actions and said the dismissals mark "the end" of the case. Since Trump reentered the White House, the SEC has also ended civil lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase and Kraken. The case is SEC v Ripple Labs Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-10832. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Joe Bavier)
Rakyat Post
44 minutes ago
- Rakyat Post
Trump Calls For Malaysian-Born Intel CEO's Resignation Because: CHINA! CHINA!! CHINA!!!
Subscribe to our FREE US president Donald Trump has called for the immediate resignation of Intel's new CEO, Malaysian-born Lip-Bu Tan, accusing him of being 'highly conflicted' due to past investments in Chinese companies — some allegedly tied to the Chinese military. The demand comes at a delicate moment for Intel, which is undergoing a sweeping strategic overhaul under Tan's leadership, The Star Since taking over in March, Tan has announced plans to slash the company's workforce by 22% to 75,000 employees by year's end and pause construction on certain manufacturing plants as part of a cost-cutting drive. Trump's comments, posted on his Truth Social platform, followed a Reuters Reuters previously reported that between 2012 and late 2024, Tan — personally or through venture funds he founded — Intel, in a The controversy adds to Intel's challenges. Once the dominant name in chipmaking, the company has slipped behind Taiwan's TSMC in manufacturing capabilities and has little presence in the booming AI chip market dominated by Nvidia. Still, Intel remains a central player in Washington's push to boost domestic semiconductor production, having secured nearly $20 billion in federal grants and loans last year — the largest award under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. From Malaysia to the helm of Intel Born in 1959 in Muar, Johor, Malaysia, Lip-Bu Tan was raised in Singapore, where he graduated with a physics degree from Nanyang University at age 19. He earned a master's in nuclear engineering from MIT and later an MBA from the University of San Francisco. In 1987, Tan founded Walden International, growing its assets from US$20 million to about US$2 billion by 2001. The firm became known for backing semiconductor and tech startups across Asia, with Forbes dubbing Tan the 'pioneer of Asian VC'. Tan served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021, where he drove a revival that more than doubled the company's revenue and boosted its stock by over 3,200 percent. Intel READ MORE: Share your thoughts with us via TRP's . Get more stories like this to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter.
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Canadian economy shed 40,800 jobs, mainly in permanent employees
The bulk of job cuts affected youth aged 15 to 24, whose unemployment rate climbed to 14.6%, the highest since September 2010. (EPA Images pic) OTTAWA : The Canadian economy lost thousands of jobs in July, sending the share of people employed in the population to an eight-month low, data showed on Friday, as the labour market gave back substantial gains seen in the prior month. The economy shed 40,800 jobs in the month, compared with a net addition of 83,000 jobs in June, taking the employment rate, or the percentage of people employed out of the total working-age population, to 60.7%, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The loss of jobs was concentrated among permanent employees, StatsCan said. The unemployment rate however remained steady at a multi-year high of 6.9%. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the economy would add 13,500 jobs and the unemployment rate would tick up to 7%. US President Donald Trump's sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos have hit the manufacturing sector hard, and this has rippled across other sectors, reducing the hiring intentions of companies, the Bank of Canada has previously said. But the effects of tariffs have not yet spiraled into a total meltdown of the jobs market and employment in some areas has held up well, the data showed. Overall, there has been little net employment growth since the beginning of the year, StatsCan said, but clarified to say that the layoff rate was virtually unchanged at 1.1% in July compared with 12 months earlier. The bulk of the job losses occurred among younger age groups, primarily those between 15 and 24 years, whose unemployment rate edged up to 14.6%, the highest since September 2010 excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Policy rate The youth unemployment rate is usually higher than the country's average. The employment rate amongst this group, which accounts for around 15% of the total working-age population, sank to 53.6%, the lowest since November 1998 if the pandemic years are excluded. The Bank of Canada kept its key policy rate unchanged last week, partly due to a strong labor market, which has not shown signs of widespread weakening, but indicated it might reduce lending rates if inflation stays under control and economic growth weakens. Money market bets show odds of a rate cut at the next monetary policy meeting on September 17 at 38%, up 11 percentage points from Thursday. The Canadian dollar was trading down 0.07% to 1.3753 against the dollar, or 72.71 US cents. The biggest decline in employment in July was observed in information, culture and recreation, which lost 29,000 jobs, followed by 22,000 in construction and 19,000 in business, building and other support services. Employment rose in transportation and warehousing by more than 26,000, or a jump of 2.4%. The average hourly wage of permanent employees – a gauge closely tracked by the Bank of Canada to ascertain inflationary trends – grew by 3.5% in July to C$37.66 per hour, against a 3.2% increase the month before.
