Oil prices gain on demand expectations amid improving economy
Brent crude futures rose 29 cents, or 0.42%, to $69 a barrel by 0105 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 40 cents, or 0.6%, at $66.92.
That reversed two days of declines as the market downplayed the potential for supply disruptions after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on purchases of Russian oil.
Prices have seesawed in a fairly tight range as signs of steady demand from an increase in travel during the Northern Hemisphere summer has competed with concerns U.S. tariffs on its trading partners will slow economic growth and fuel consumption.
However, major oil producers are pointing to improvement in economic growth for the second half of the year and Chinese data showed growth there remained consistent.
"Strong seasonal demand is currently providing upward momentum to oil prices, as summer travel and industrial activity peak," LSEG analysts said in a note.
"Increased gasoline consumption - especially in the U.S. during the Fourth of July holiday period - has signaled robust fuel demand, helping offset bearish pressures from rising inventories and tariff concerns."
China data showed growth slowed in the second quarter, but not by as much as previously feared, in part because of frontloading to beat U.S. tariffs. That eased some concerns about the economy of the world's largest crude importer.
The data also showed that China's crude oil throughput in June jumped 8.5% from a year earlier, indicating stronger fuel demand. That was the highest since September 2023, as state-owned refineries increased operations and saw a recovery in profit, consultants said.
Additionally, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forecast in a monthly report on Tuesday that the global economy would do better in the second half of the year, boosting the oil demand outlook.
India, China and Brazil are outperforming expectations while the U.S. and EU are recovering from last year, the report said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
26 minutes ago
- ITV News
Jaguar Land Rover to cut up to 500 UK jobs
(JLR) has announced it's cutting up to 500 UK-based jobs amid pressure on sales due to trade tariffs. The automobile company, which has a plant in Castle Bromwich in Solihull, said it would be axing management jobs as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme. The Tata-owned firm said around 1.5% of its UK workforce would be affected by the job cuts. A spokesperson for JLR said: "As part of normal business practice, we regularly offer eligible employees the opportunity to leave JLR through limited voluntary redundancy programmes." It comes after JLR revealed last week that retail sales plunged 15.1% in the three months to June after a temporary pause in exports to the US and the planned wind-down of older Jaguar models. The company said the significant fall in sales was partly driven by the pause in shipments to the US in April after US President Donald Trump's administration introduced new tariff plans. In April, the US government said it would launch an additional 25% tariff on car imports into the US, in an effort to encourage more car production within the country. However, the US and UK have since agreed a deal which would see a lower 10% tariff applied to the first 100,000 UK-manufactured cars imported into the US each year. UK cars imported to the US beyond this threshold will however face a 27.5% tariff. JLR halted new shipments to the US in April but restarted exports in early May amid hopes that a trade deal for the sector would be struck. Wholesale sales in the UK were also heavily down, by 25.5% in the second quarter, after the planned wind-down of older Jaguar models. Jaguar stopped selling new cars in the UK late last year as it shifts its production to new electric models, which are set to go on sale in 2026.
North Wales Chronicle
26 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
UK unemployment jumps to highest since 2021 as wage growth slows
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate of UK unemployment increased to 4.7% in the three months to May, from 4.6% in three months to April. It said this marked the highest level since June 2021. Meanwhile, average earnings growth, excluding bonuses, slowed to 5% in the period to May to its lowest level for almost three years. The figures point towards further pressure in the UK labour market, days after the governor of the Bank of England warned that the Bank is prepared to make larger interest rate cuts if it sees that the job market slowing. It also comes amid a backdrop of recent weakness in the economy, with UK GDP (gross domestic product) shrinking in both April and May. We've published the latest labour market figures. Commenting on today's figures, ONS Director of Economic Statistics Liz McKeown said: (quote 1 of 2) Read the Labour market overview ➡ — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 17, 2025 ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: 'The labour market continues to weaken, with the number of employees on payroll falling again, though revised tax data shows the decline in recent months is less pronounced than previously estimated. 'Pay growth fell again in both cash and real terms, but both measures remain relatively strong by historic standards. 'The number of job vacancies is still falling and has now been dropping continuously for three years.' The rise in unemployment is worse than economists had expected, having predicted that the jobless rate would remain at 4.6% for the month. Nevertheless, average wage growth was slightly higher than the 4.9% predicted by economists. In March to May 2025, average weekly earnings were up 5.0% on the year both excluding including bonuses. At 5.5%, public sector pay growth continues to outstrip the private sector, at 4.9%. Read the article ➡ — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) July 17, 2025 But the rate of wage growth was still the weakest figure since the three months to June 2022 and represents a drop from a revised level of 5.3% in the three months to April. Wage growth continues to outstrip inflation, reflecting a rise of 1.8% after taking Consumer Prices Index inflation into account. Pressure in the labour market for the three months to May comes as firms swallowed significant increases in national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage in April. Firms have also been impacted by intensifying economic uncertainty after US President Donald Trump launched a new tariff regime in April, leading to heightened global trade tensions. The figures also showed job vacancies in the UK fell by 56,000 to 727,000 in the three months to June, compared with the previous quarter.
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Australian prime minister indulges in panda diplomacy a China state visit nears end
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited a panda breeding facility in the final stages of an extended state visit that has cast China as a fellow champion of a global fair trade system under threat from the United States. The panda diplomacy stop Thursday in the central Chinese city of Chengdu highlighted Australia's special status as the only Southern Hemisphere country to host a pair of the rare Chinese native animals. Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon visited a pen where they saw Fu Ni, a giant panda who had been on loan to Australia's Adelaide Zoo until last year. 'A great ambassador for China and a great friend of Australia,' Albanese said of Fu Ni as she chomped on bamboo. China loans Australia pandas Premier Li Qiang used a visit to the Adelaide Zoo last year to announce Fu Ni and her partner Wang Wang would be replaced by another China-born pair that will hopefully breed . The new couple, Xing Qiu and Yi Yan, made their public debut in January at the zoo in the South Australia state capital where they are a major tourist attraction. Albanese's China, which began Saturday and ends on Friday, is extraordinarily long compared with Australian state visits over the past decade and marks a normalization of bilateral relations that plumbed to new depths under the previous Australian government. Albanese said he had visited Chengdu and the Great Wall of China, as well at the usual diplomatic destinations of Beijing and Shanghai, as a show of respect to the Chinese people. 'The Great Wall of China symbolises the extraordinary history and culture here in China, and showing a bit of respect to people never cost anything. But you know what it does? It gives you a reward,' Albanese told reporters. 'One of the things that I find about giving countries respect is that you get it back,' he added. In 2020, Beijing banned minister-to-minister contacts and imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers on commodities including wine, beef, coal, barley and lobsters that cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year. This was a response to Australia's previous government demanding an independent inquiry into the causes of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic was the final straw, relations had been deteriorating for years over issues including laws banning covert foreign interference in Australian politics and Australia banning Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei on security grounds from involvement in the national 5G network rollout. The trade barriers have all been lifted since Albanese's center-left Labor Party was first elected in 2022. But now, the United States threatens to become a major disruptor to global trade through President Donald Trump's tariff regime. Chinese president urges Australia to hold course Chinese President Xi Jinping told Albanese at the outset of their bilateral meeting in Beijing Tuesday that the important thing their two countries had learned in repairing relations was that equal treatment, seeking common ground and pursuing cooperation served the interests of both. 'No matter how the international landscape may evolve, we should uphold this overall direction unswervingly,' Xi said through an interpreter. The comment was widely interpreted as a reference to U.S. tariffs. Albanese replied that his government welcomed progressing cooperation under their decade-old bilateral free trade agreement. 'Australia will remain a strong supporter of free and fair trade,' Albanese said. The United States has allocated Australia the minimum 10% tariff on U.S. imports. Australia argues that any tariff cannot be justified and that the U.S. has enjoyed a trade surplus with Australia for decades. The greater economic damage for Australia would likely be from a Chinese economic downturn caused by its U.S. tariff treatment. Around a third of Australian exports go to China. Australia shifts away from the US James Laurenceson, director of the University of Technology Sydney's Australia-China Relations Institute, described China's presentation of itself as Australia's ally in defending free trade as 'self-serving." 'It's not so much Australia aligning with China. It's really just about Australia and China agreeing they've got a shared interest in the existing system, and it's the U.S. that's walking away from that,' Laurenceson said. 'I don't think the big shift this week is Australia getting closer to China. I think the distance with the United States is getting wider and wider,' he added. Albanese's political enemies have criticised him for now having four face-to-face meetings with Xi – including two in Beijing – while the prime minister has yet to meet Trump in person. Albanese and Trump were to hold a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in Canada last month, but the U.S. president left early. Albanese said this week he expected to meet Trump this year. 'I look forward to a constructive engagement with President Trump. We have had three constructive phone conversations,' Albanese said. ______
