Never-Ending Trade War Sinks Commodities Into a World of Trouble - Bloomberg:
The U.S.-China trade war is sparking so much fear over demand that even those parts of the commodity world that aren’t in the direct firing line are getting burned.
Oil had its biggest sell-off in four years Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump brought an abrupt end to a truce forged with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in June. That’s even though Beijing has spared crude from levies. Meanwhile, crop markets, industrial metals and shares of agricultural traders -- already roiled by the year-long tit-for-tat tariff spat -- got another whipping.
That shows how the dispute between the two major economies is overwhelming concerns over supply: tensions in the Middle East’s most important oil chokepoint are still simmering, the wettest 12 months of record disrupted planting in the U.S. crop belt and a deadly pig virus is decimating hogs in China. For investors, the threat posed by the trade war to global economic health -- and in turn, consumption of commodities -- is trumping everything else.
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Saturday 3 August 2019
Big Oil's Big Bet on Natural Gas Has Been a Big Headache - Bloomberg
Big Oil's Big Bet on Natural Gas Has Been a Big Headache - Bloomberg:
The world’s biggest oil companies have been steadily shifting investments toward natural gas, driven by an emerging globally traded market and environmental concerns. But right now they’re taking a hit as prices tank.
Supermajor energy producers -- Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., Total SA and BP Plc -- saw a steep drop in the prices they received for gas in the past quarter. Alongside a dip in refinery margins, weakness in gas skimmed off second-quarter earnings.
Gas traded at the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana is at the lowest seasonal levels in two decades as production from Appalachia and West Texas breaks records. In Europe and Asia, spot prices for the liquefied form of the fuel have sunk thanks to a wave of new export terminals pumping new cargoes into the market.
The world’s biggest oil companies have been steadily shifting investments toward natural gas, driven by an emerging globally traded market and environmental concerns. But right now they’re taking a hit as prices tank.
Supermajor energy producers -- Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., Total SA and BP Plc -- saw a steep drop in the prices they received for gas in the past quarter. Alongside a dip in refinery margins, weakness in gas skimmed off second-quarter earnings.
Gas traded at the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana is at the lowest seasonal levels in two decades as production from Appalachia and West Texas breaks records. In Europe and Asia, spot prices for the liquefied form of the fuel have sunk thanks to a wave of new export terminals pumping new cargoes into the market.