Series of incidents boosts oil prices

News for today, Thursday, January 20

Oil prices continue to hover near to 2014 level following supply disruptions and strong demand. This week has been quite eventful for the oil industry: it all started with Yemen’s Houthi group attacking the UAE, then followed up with an incident on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. All of these, together with Russia, the world’s second oil-producing country, enlarging military presence next to Ukrainian borders, build-up concerns regarding stable oil supply.

China eased monetary policy to boost economics. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was lowered 10 basis points to 3.70%. Reacting to this, Asian stocks finished its five-day decrease although European and American stocks have been showing depressive trends recently This caused Shenzhen Component to increase 0.01% and the Hang Seng index by 1.80%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has also jumped 0.57%.

The price of Brent crude is $88.10, WTI — $85.60, GBP/USD — 1.3628, EUR/USD — 1.1351, and gold costs $1840.75 per ounce.