Crude Oil Futures

  China's manufacturing PMI, Purchasing Managers Index, rose by 0.4%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in August with respect to that of July, although it is still below the threshold, implying the economic headwinds that China encountered since June. Despite the encouraging statistics as far as manufacturing is concerned, the Chinese media says that its Forex reserves dropped to $3.0549 trillion in August, something that is blamed on the surge in the strength of dollar and the depreciation of the Chinese yen and other currencies such as euro and the British pound: the reserves, the largest on the planet,  have fallen by $49.2 billion since July, which is a drop of 1.58%. China has been imposing random lockdowns whenever there is an outbreak of Covid-19 and sticking to a rigid Zero-Covid policy; although it successfully managed the spread of the disease, the steps have taken its toll on the economy; the Manufacturing PMI shows the impact on its economy in th

The price of crude oil did not spike due to the modest output cut announced by the OPEC+,  in order to stop the prices of the commodity from falling. The price, however, remained relatively static despite the news, as analysts and investors have chosen to focus on the bigger picture on the horizon rather than  acting on impulse. There were rumours before the announcement was made that some members of the  OPEC+ did not see eye to on the issue; Russia, for instance, as rumours have it, was against it on the grounds of sending out a 'wrong' signal of markets being awash with excess crude oil; in the end, the Saudis got their way that resulted in the output cut of 100,000 bpd. As of 11:10 GMT, the prices of WTI, Brent and LNG, liquified natural gas, stood at $86.78, $93.20 and $8.70 respectively. In recent weeks, the exponential increase in LNG contributed someway in slowing down the precipitous fall of the price crude oil; because, the industrialists in the West, especially in Eu