Oil prices inch down on expected minimal sanctions impact
Brent crude futures dropped 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $69.08 a barrel by 1100 GMT after settling 0.35% down on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude eased by 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $67.28 after a 0.3% decline in the previous session.
The European Union on Friday approved the 18th package of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, which also targeted India's Nayara Energy, an exporter of oil products refined from Russian crude.
"The latest round of EU sanctions aren't necessarily going to change the oil balance. That's why the market is not reacting much," said Harry Tchiliguirian at Onyx Capital Group. "Russians have been very good at circumventing these kinds of sanctions."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia had built up a certain immunity to Western sanctions.
The EU sanctions followed U.S. President Donald Trump's threats last week to impose sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees to a peace deal within 50 days.
ING analysts said the part of the package likely to have an impact is the EU import ban on refined oil products processed from Russian oil in third countries, though it said it could prove difficult to monitor and enforce.
Iran, another sanctioned oil producer, is due to hold nuclear talks with Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday. That follows warnings by the three European countries that a failure to resume negotiations would lead to international sanctions being reimposed on Iran.
In the U.S., the number of operating oil rigs fell by two to 422 last week, the lowest total since September 2021, Baker Hughes said on Friday.
U.S. tariffs on European Union imports are set to kick in on August 1, though U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday that he was confident the United States could secure a trade deal with the bloc.
"Tariff concerns will continue to weigh in the lead up to the August 1 deadline, while some support may come from oil inventory data if it shows tight supply," said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
"It feels very much like a $64-$70 range in play for the week ahead."
Brent crude futures have traded between a low of $66.34 a barrel and a high of $71.53 after a ceasefire deal on June 24 halted the 12-day Israel-Iran war. - Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
29 minutes ago
- Malay Mail
Meta to ban political ads on Facebook, Instagram in EU over ‘unworkable' new rules
BRUSSELS, July 26 — Meta yesterday said it will be forced to ban political advertising on its platforms in the European Union from October because of rules the Facebook and Instagram owner called 'unworkable'. The EU has a bolstered legal armoury to rein in Big Tech, against which Meta has hit out — with the support of US President Donald Trump's administration. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been highly critical of European rules, accusing Brussels in January of 'censorship' while this week the US State Department denounced the EU's 'Orwellian' regulation of social media. Against this uneasy backdrop, and with EU-US trade tensions sky-high, Meta announced that political, electoral and social issue advertising will no longer be allowed from October in the bloc because of 'unworkable requirements' under new rules. 'This is a difficult decision — one we've taken in response to the EU's incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation,' it said. 'Unfortunately, the TTPA introduces significant, additional obligations to our processes and systems that create an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU,' Meta added. The tech giant stressed that its European users would still be able to post and debate about politics. The EU says its political advertising rules seek to increase transparency in online advertising after Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to light in 2018. Cambridge Analytica was a consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, particularly during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum. The change is set to impact Meta's flagship platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as WhatsApp — which is largely ad-free but announced in June it would be introducing new advertising features in some parts of the app. Meta said it was 'not the only company to have been forced into this position'. Google last year announced it would also prevent political advertising in the EU from October 2025 because of the 'significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties'. US 'censorship' claims Meta and Brussels have locked horns on a series of issues — most recently over the firm's 'pay or consent' system regarding user data. The EU slapped a €200-million (RM992-million) fine in April after concluding Meta violated rules on the use of personal data on Facebook and Instagram. Zuckerberg has previously equated EU fines against the company to tariffs. Facebook and Instagram also face investigations under the EU's mammoth content moderation law known as the Digital Services Act (DSA). Meta's announcement comes as US officials ramp up their attacks on the DSA. The State Department took aim at the DSA on Tuesday as it accused European countries of convicting thousands of people 'for the crime of criticising their own governments,' without elaborating on the allegation. And the judiciary committee of the US House of Representatives yesterday described the EU law as a 'foreign censorship threat' that forces 'platforms to change content moderation policies that apply in the United States'. 'On paper, the DSA is bad. In practice, it is even worse,' the Republican-majority committee said in an interim report. Staunch Trump ally Jim Jordan, committee chair, will meet the EU's digital chief, Henna Virkkunen, in Brussels on Monday. Jordan will be joined by other US Congress members in a bipartisan delegation, EU digital spokesman Thomas Regnier said. The European Commission rejected the censorship claims. 'Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in the EU. And it is at the heart of our legislation, including the DSA,' Regnier said. — AFP
Malaysian Reserve
2 hours ago
- Malaysian Reserve
China urges global consensus on balancing AI development, security
SHANGHAI — China's Premier Li Qiang warned Saturday that artificial intelligence development must be weighed against the security risks, saying global consensus was urgently needed even as the tech race between Beijing and Washington shows no sign of abating. His remarks came just days after US President Donald Trump unveiled an aggressive low-regulation strategy aimed at cementing US dominance in the fast-moving field, promising to 'remove red tape and onerous regulation' that could hinder private sector AI development. Opening the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Saturday, Li emphasised the need for governance and open-source development, announcing the establishment of a Chinese-led body for international AI cooperation. 'The risks and challenges brought by artificial intelligence have drawn widespread attention… How to find a balance between development and security urgently requires further consensus from the entire society,' the premier said. Li said China would 'actively promote' the development of open-source AI, adding Beijing was willing to share advances with other countries, particularly developing ones. 'If we engage in technological monopolies, controls and blockage, artificial intelligence will become the preserve of a few countries and a few enterprises,' he said. 'Only by adhering to openness, sharing and fairness in access to intelligence can more countries and groups benefit from (AI).' The premier highlighted 'insufficient supply of computing power and chips' as a bottleneck. Washington has expanded its efforts in recent years to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, concerned that these can be used to advance Beijing's military systems and erode US tech dominance. For its part, China has made AI a pillar of its plans for technological self-reliance, with the government pledging a raft of measures to boost the sector. In January, Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled an AI model that performed as well as top US systems despite using less powerful chips. At a time when AI is being integrated across virtually all industries, its uses have raised major ethical questions, from the spread of misinformation to its impact on employment, or the potential loss of technological control. In a speech at WAIC on Saturday, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Geoffrey Hinton compared the situation to keeping 'a very cute tiger cub as a pet'. 'To survive', he said, you need to ensure you can train it not to kill you when it grows up. In a video message played at the WAIC opening ceremony, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said AI governance would be 'a defining test of international cooperation'. The ceremony also saw the French president's AI envoy, Anne Bouverot, underscore the 'an urgent need' for global action. At an AI summit in Paris in February, 58 countries including China, France and India — as well as the European Union and African Union Commission — called for enhanced coordination on AI governance. But the United States warned against 'excessive regulation', and alongside the United Kingdom, refused to sign the summit's appeal for an 'open', 'inclusive' and 'ethical' AI. — AFP
Malay Mail
3 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Wall Street hits records as investors bet on more trade deals, but global markets lag
NEW YORK, July 26 — Wall Street stock indices ended at fresh records yesterday as US investors bet on additional trade deals following this week's breakthrough with Japan. US President Donald Trump cautioned that striking a deal with the European Union to reduce import tariffs will be a challenge. Trump has set an August 1 deadline for an accord. 'I would say that we have a 50/50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50/50 chance of making a deal with the EU,' Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday. But US investors have adopted an optimistic stance about further accords given Trump's record of suspending or delaying the most onerous tariffs. The S&P 500 finished at a fifth straight record and the tech-rich Nasdaq at a third straight record, capping an upbeat week. Equity markets elsewhere were more subdued. London, after a strong run on positive corporate news, finished slightly lower as did Frankfurt, while Paris closed just ahead after Asia lost ground. 'There is no unifying theme across financial markets this month — instead markets are moving to the beat of their own drums,' concluded Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. Sentiment had been lifted earlier in the week by the announcement of a Japan-US deal, as well as signals that the EU could be closing in on its own accord with Washington. The 'momentum has not been kept up, and European stocks are weaker at the end of the week,' noted Brooks. The EU is still forging ahead with contingency plans in case talks fail, with member states approving a €93 billion (RM461.5 billion) package of retaliatory counter-tariffs. With few positive catalysts to drive buying, Asian markets turned lower heading into the weekend. Tokyo retreated after a two-day rally and Hong Kong declined following five days of gains. Shanghai was also down. The dollar gained against major currencies, a reversal of the trend throughout much of 2025. The dollar fell the most in the first six months of 2025 since 1973. Trump said yesterday that a weaker dollar can boost exports and tourism. 'It doesn't sound good, but you make a hell of a lot more money with a weaker dollar, not a weak dollar, but a weaker dollar, than you do with a strong dollar,' he told reporters at the White House. In corporate news, German auto giant Volkswagen said US tariffs had cost it 1.3 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) in the first half of the year as it reported falling profits. After an initial drop, shares in the carmaker rose four per cent in Frankfurt. German sportswear maker Puma saw its shares tumble around 16 per cent after slashing its sales forecast and warning of a full year loss. Intel dropped 8.5 per cent after reporting a US$2.9 billion loss as it announced further cost-cutting initiatives. The company said it has cut about 15 per cent of its workforce. — AFP
