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Oil prices fell Monday on the back of weak Chinese trade data, which provided a fresh signal the world’s second-largest economy is slowing. — Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading down 1.9% at $59.32 a barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange. — West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. oil standard were down 2.2% at $50.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. HIGHIGHTS China: An unexpected decline in Chinese imports and exports in December weighed on equities and commodities Monday, as investors feared a further slowdown in the ...

A conventional source of crude oil in southern U.S. region holds an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil and more than 200 trillion cubic feet (about 5,663 billion cubic meters) of gas, according to new energy research released by IHS Markit. The IHS Markit Complete Play Analysis of the Greater Anadarko Basin, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, USA, is the first phase of a comprehensive, 18-month-long project to model and interpret the large basin’s key geologic characteristics to better estimate its remaining hydrocarbon potential. The Greater Anadarko Basin, covering an area ...

Lower crude oil prices have improved the outlook for India’s oil demand growth in 2019, but the pace of rise will largely hinge on the continuity of energy reforms and economic policies pursued over the past four years, as the country gears up to hold federal elections. Oil analysts told S&P Global Platts that it’s crucial that some key initiatives of the government — such as building roads, industrial infrastructure, expansion of LPG network, as well as plans to boost the airport network — continue in the same pace after ...

Russia is gradually reducing oil production in line with the Opec+ deal and is on track to get about a fifth of the way toward its pledged cut this month. Preliminary data show the nation’s output has already fallen by more than 30,000 barrels a day relative to October levels, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday. “The companies have said they can decrease total production by 50,000 barrels per day in January,” he told reporters in Moscow. Russia has agreed with Opec to gradually implement a cut of 228,000 barrels ...

Omani oil production is already at the correct level to comply with the recent OPEC-led supply cut agreement, the country’s oil minister Mohammed al-Rumhy said. Oman is pumping 970,000 b/d, right at its quota for 2019, Rumhy told reporters on the sidelines of an Atlantic Council energy forum in Abu Dhabi. “We managed to go up to nearly 1 million b/d [in November], then the last agreement in Vienna we committed to cut 2.5% and that pulled us down to 970,000 b/d, and that’s where we are now,” Rumhy said. ...

Global stock markets and commodities took a hit on Monday after a shock contraction in Chinese trade pointed to deepening cracks in the world’s second-largest economy and sparked fears of a sharper slowdown in global growth. Data from China showed imports fell 7.6 percent year-on-year in December while analysts had predicted a 5 percent rise. Exports dropped 4.4 percent, confounding expectations for a 3 percent gain. The data reinforced fears U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods were starting to hit China’s cooling economy, while softening demand has been felt around the ...

If the government shutdown lasts another two weeks, the total cost to the U.S. economy would exceed the price of building the proposed border wall. According to an estimate by S&P Global Ratings, it will only take another two weeks to cost the economy more than $6 billion, exceeding the $5.7 billion that President Donald Trump demanded to fund his proposed border wall. The U.S. economy will have lost $3.6 billion by Friday, according to S&P. “We estimated that this shutdown could shave approximately $1.2 billion off real GDP in ...

Chinese firms have been warned that the investment environment in the United States is rapidly deteriorating in a report that also called for more government protection for the country’s increasing overseas interests. In its sixth annual report evaluating country-specific investment risks, the Institute of World Economics and Politics, a government think tank under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ranked the United States investment environment as number 14 out the total of 57 countries, a drop of 10 places from a year ago. The institute also gave the world’s largest ...

The Chinese economy is a bigger worry right now than the U.S. economy, according to an investments expert at a private bank. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Felix Brill, the head of investment solutions at Liechtenstein-based VP Bank, said investors should expect more market volatility due to the ongoing trade war negotiations between Washington and Beijing. Still, he ultimately expressed optimism that China’s leaders will keep their economy together. “The Chinese economy is, at the moment, a bigger cause of concern right now compared to the U.S. economy,” Brill told ...

Angus Dobson said he is prepared for the British economy to slump if it means breaking decisively with the European Union, an institution he views as distant, interfering and unaccountable to voters. “For me, it was all about sovereignty,” said the 43-year-old biology teacher, referring to 2016’s Brexit referendum. “What we will gain by coming out of the EU long term is worth the economic downturn.” Fifty-nine percent of voters here in England’s West Midlands opted leave the EU in the referendum, the largest pro-leave margin among the U.K.’s 12 ...

The trade war with the United States is expected to accelerate an ongoing structural change in China’s current account balance, making it a capital importer that buys more from the rest of the world than it sells to it. China’s shift to relying more on foreign money means the yuan’s exchange rate will face increasing downward pressure over the longer term to ensure to ensure adequate inflows of capital. This also means China will need to implement more transparent policies to attract foreign investors and relax capital flow restrictions so ...

Today, Monday, January 14 2019, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 22 points, reaching 1147 points.

A force majeure for Rober River lump and Fines shipments has been announced due to a fire accident at Cape Lambert port.

Increases in fronthaul iron ore spot rates from Brazil and West Africa countered declines on trans-Atlantic coal routes to leave the SSY Atlantic Capesize Index up slightly week-on-week at 7,462 points.

The SSY Pacific Capesize Index fell slightly week-on-week to 4,742 points, almost unchanged from the year-ago level. The Pacific round-voyage rate (180k dwt) dropped by $1,500/day to a six-week low of