Oil prices turn higher for the year on risks to crude flow in the Middle East
Oil futures finished higher for a third straight session on Thursday,...
Oil futures finished higher for a third straight session on Thursday, prompting prices to turn higher for the year, as traders awaited Israel’s response to a missile barrage earlier this week by Iran. Concerns have been growing of a wider Middle East conflict that could disrupt flows of crude from the region.
Here are Thursday’s closing energy prices:
West Texas Intermediate November contract: $73.71 per barrel, up $3.61, or 5.15%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained nearly 3%.
Brent December contract: $77.62 per barrel, up $3.72, or 5.03%. Year to date, the global benchmark is ahead nearly 1%.
RBOB Gasoline November contract: $2.0926 per gallon, up 5.37%. Year to date, gasoline has fallen less than 1%.
Natural Gas November contract: $2.97 per thousand cubic feet, up 2.91%. Year to date, gas has gained about 18%.
The risk of oil supply disruptions increases as fighting in the Middle East intensifies, but OPEC+ is sitting on a large amount of spare crude that could step into the breach, according to Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at Rystad Energy.
“This spare capacity is for now preventing runaway prices amid one of the deepest and most pervasive crises in the Middle East in the past four decades,” Galimberti told clients in a Thursday note.
Dow ends about 185 points lower, stocks wobble ahead of Friday jobs report
U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday but off the session's...
U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday but off the session's lows as traders monitored developments in the Mideast conflict and awaited a monthly jobs report in the U.S.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 184.93 points, or 0.4%, to end at 42,011.59, its biggest daily drop in roughly a week.
The S&P 500 fell 9.60 points, or 0.2%, finishing at 5,699.94.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 6.65 points, or less than 0.1%, closing nearly unchanged at 17,918.48.
The powerful rally driving stocks to fresh highs took a breather in the first week of October as the Mideast conflict intensified. Oil prices rose, and other headwinds kept investors on edge. Friday's jobs report for September will be a key data point in helping to inform the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates.
Uinta Railroad Up for Review as Supreme Court Term Begins
The U.S. Supreme Court begins its fall term...
The U.S. Supreme Court begins its fall term on Oct. 7, and its decision on a proposed railway out of the Uinta Basin in Utah could have massive implications for energy infrastructure.
At issue is the environmental impact assessment energy companies must perform when building infrastructure. As the Supreme Court’s brief on the case puts it, the question is if the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) should require “an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority.”
In other words, should an environmental impact statement include only the pollution directly caused by a project or also the pollution caused by the project both upstream and downstream?
You’re going to want to really lean into apple picking this season. With the dockworkers strike ...
You’re going to want to really lean into apple picking this season. With the dockworkers strike shutting down 36 ports from Maine to Texas, supply chains will be disrupted. One of the first casualties? Bananas.
Nearly three-fourths of bananas (the most popular fruit in the US) enter through the now-dark East and Gulf Coast ports. Because they are perishable, retailers couldn’t stockpile them like other items in preparation for the strike, and it’s too expensive to ship them by air.
Other things that might get scarce:
Hundreds of containers of coffee beans are currently waiting idle, but the good news is the cold brew will be stronger the longer the beans sit in the water.
Cherries, electronics, and alcohol could experience delays.
Supply chain experts are also worried about vehicles and auto parts. It would be nearly impossible to load the ~200,000 metric tons of auto parts that typically enter through the shuttered ports every month onto an airplane, Michigan State Professor Jason Miller said on LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, American poultry producers and soybean farmers could have trouble exporting products.
What you don’t need to worry about. Some people will find any reason to start hoarding toilet paper, but more than 90% of paper products are produced domestically.
Threat of wider war grows in the Middle East. Israeli...
Threat of wider war grows in the Middle East. Israeli ground troops clashed with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon yesterday, with Israel reporting eight of its soldiers were killed in the first direct ground fighting. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli bombings killed six people in Beirut. Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation for Iran’s Tuesday ballistic missile attack on Israel in response to Israel’s assassination of the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah. President Biden said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities but said he and the other G7 leaders “agree that they have a right to respond, but they have to respond proportionally.”
President Biden visited North Carolina to see the damage from Hurricane Helene and deployed 1,000 troops to help with recovery efforts.
LVMH and Formula 1 announced a 10-year partnership for “hospitality, bespoke activations, limited editions, and outstanding content” that will begin next season.
A doctor charged with crimes over Friends star Matthew Perry’s death pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
A WWII-era US bomb exploded at an airport in Japan, delaying flights but causing no injuries.
