Latest news with #DNBMarkets
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
European Gas Slips But Futures Positioning Turns Bullish
1130 GMT – European natural gas prices fall in afternoon trade, with the benchmark Dutch TTF contract down 0.8% to 36.32 euros a megawatt hour. However, analysts say there is likely limited room for prices to decline over the summer amid renewed investor confidence and supply concerns. Investment funds increased their net position in TTF gas futures by 5 terawatt hours last week, according to DNB Markets DNB -0.61%decrease; red down pointing triangle. 'The recent decline in net positioning, triggered by the turmoil following Trump's Liberation Day on April 2, has now reversed,' analysts at the firm say. Meanwhile, prices also find underlying support in supply-side issues following an outage of uncertain duration at a gas field in Norway and lower LNG send-outs. (
Local Norway
10-03-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
Economists warn Norway's shock inflation figures could delay interest rate cuts
Increased energy prices contributed to a 3.6 percent increase in the consumer price index between February 2024 and the same month this year, according to figures released by Statistics Norway on Monday. 'The price development of electricity was an important reason why the growth rate in the CPI increased from January to February. Electricity prices fell from January to February last year, while they rose in the same period this year. This pulls the twelve-month growth in the CPI up considerably,' Espen Kristiansen, section manager at Statistics Norway, said. Food prices also rose significantly, 7.6 percent in the 12 months from February 2024. The 12-month inflation rate increased by 0.6 percentage points between January and February. Kristiansen said the last time such a large increase was recorded was in the lead-up to record high inflation in 2023. Norway's central bank used aggressive interest rate raises between 2021 and 2023 to try and curb inflation and prevent the country's economy from overheating. After cuts to the key policy rate failed to materialise last year, Norges Bank said that a cut was likely to arrive in March. However, economists have said that Monday's inflation figures could change the central bank's plans and delay any cuts until later in the year. 'These inflation figures were so much higher than expected that Norges Bank must think twice about cutting interest rates at all this year. The interest rate cut in March has definitely been cancelled,' chief economist Kjetil Olsen and macro and currency strategist Sara Midtgaard wrote in an analysis of the latest inflation figures. Chief Economist Kjersti Haugland at DNB Markets told the business and finance site E24 that potential rate cuts were likely to be pushed back until the end of the year. 'We are changing our forecast and are now holding out the possibility that the announced March cut will not come. We are instead estimating cuts in September and December,' she said. The bank had envisioned there being cuts to the key policy rate prior to Monday's figures being released. The key policy rate in Norway currently stands at 4.5 percent, and Norges Bank is set to have its next interest rate meeting on March 27th.
