World oil prices slip
Oil prices fell on Friday, weighed down by a drop in the US equities market, but Brent still marked a weekly increase, supported by easing trade tensions and a temporary shutdown by Saudi Arabia of a key crude oil shipping lane.
Brent crude futures fell 25 cents to settle at $74.29 a barrel, but notched a 1.8 percent weekly increase, its first increase in four weeks. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 92 cents to settle at $68.69 a barrel, and marked a fourth week of declines, falling about 2.4 percent. Depressing oil prices, US stock markets broadly fell on Friday.
Crude futures at times track with equities.
US energy companies added three oil rigs in the week to July 27, the first time in the past three weeks that drillers have added rigs, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday. Hedge funds trimmed their bullish wagers on US crude, cutting their combined futures and options position in New York and London by 11,362 contracts to 412,289 in the week to July 24, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday. That was the lowest level since late June, the data showed.
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India rice rates slip on weak demand
Rice export prices in India slid to a 15-month low this week as the rupee remained weak and demand was sluggish as buyers held off purchases on hopes of deeper price declines, while Vietnam rates fell further on mounting supplies.
Rates for India’s 5 percent broken parboiled variety fell by $2 per tonne to $386-$390 per tonne, the lowest since April 20, 2017. Indian rupee has lost about 7 percent so far in 2018, increasing exporters’ returns from overseas sales and allowing them to cut prices.
Farmers in India have planted paddy rice on 11.67 million hectares as on July 13, down 8 percent from a year ago. India earlier this month raised prices paid to local farmers for common grade paddy rice by 13 percent from a year ago to 1,750 rupees per 100 kg. The move could ease the country’s exports from October, industry officials said. Imports by Bangladesh, which emerged as a major buyer last year, will slow down as the government imposed a 28 percent tax on rice imports to support its farmers after local production revived.
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New York gold higher on lower dollar
Gold inched higher on Tuesday as the US dollar slipped and market watchers anticipated US economic growth data on Friday.
Spot gold gained 0.13 percent at $1,225.70 per ounce by 1:36 p.m. EDT (1736 GMT), while US gold futures for August delivery settled down 10 cents, or 0.01 percent, at $1,225.50 per ounce. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.2 percent after touching a one-year high last week. Market watchers largely expect second-quarter U.S. economic growth to top current forecasts of 4.1 percent.
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India raises sugar cane floor price by 7.84pc
Indian cabinet has approved raising the price that sugar mills must pay for cane in the next season beginning Oct. 1, to 275 rupees ($4.01) per 100 kg, up from 255 rupees a year earlier, a federal minister said on Wednesday.
The federal government raises the floor price for cane every year, but northern Uttar Pradesh state, the country’s top cane producer, invariably raises the floor price further to woo million of cane growers, an influential voting bloc.
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Bangladesh tea prices rise for ninth week
Tea prices in Bangladesh rose at the weekly auction for the ninth time in a row on strong demand for quality leaf and tight supplies. Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 261.46 taka ($2.7) per kg at the new auction centre in Srimangal on Monday, compared with 257.73 taka at the previous sale in the port city of Chittagong. About 2.3 percent of the 1.79 million kg offered in the auction was left unsold. At the previous auction, around 1.95 million kg was offered, of which 1.8 percent went unsold.
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Zimbabwe raw milk production projected to grow
Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) chairperson, Kudzai Chirima, told in an interview that they expected milk production to reach 70 million litres in 2018. We can see the increase from January. For instance, in January 2017 we were on 5.5 million litres of milk and in the same period this year we were on 6,1 million, which is a 10% increase.
In February, we increased by 5%. In March, we had a break-even. In April, we increased by 15% and in May we increased by 16%,” Chirima said.
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Lowest offer at Egypt’s wheat tender
The lowest offer for wheat presented at Egypt’s state grain buyer’s GASC international purchase tender on Tuesday was at $217.95 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB). The offer was made by GTCS for 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat. GASC is due to announce results later on Tuesday.
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China sells 19,000 tonnes of cotton at auction
China sells 19,000 tonnes of cotton at auction of state reserves at an average price of 15,006 yuan ($2,209.69) per tonne, industry website cncotton.com said on Monday. Sale represents 63.31 percent of cotton available at the auction.
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Palm oil slides on expectations of rising production
Malaysian palm oil futures declined on Monday, marking a second session of losses in three on concerns that production could rise in the coming weeks.
The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.1 percent to 2,169 ringgit ($534.10) a tonne. Trading volume stood at 61,707 lots of 25 tonnes each. Palm oil output typically starts to pick up in the second half of the year, but industry players are divided on when production will peak.
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Copper bounces on short-covering as inventories slide
Copper received a boost from short-covering and falling inventories on Friday following steep losses that had been driven by trade tensions.
The gains were broad-based throughout the base metals complex, with zinc and nickel, mainly used in the steel sector, also bolstered by increases in Shanghai steel prices. US President Donald Trump said he was ready to impose tariffs on an additional $500 billion of imports from China, threatening to escalate a trade clash with the Asian nation before this weekend’s meeting of the financial leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies in Buenos Aires. Copper, which has shed 16 percent since touching a 4-1/2 year peak in early June, fell 1.5 percent this week.
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India’s coal demand rose 7.5pc
India’s coal demand rose 7.5 percent to about 900 million tonnes in the year ending March 2018, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal told lawmakers on Wednesday. Coal is expected to remain India’s main energy source for the next three decades, even as the country encourages the use of renewable power generation. India, the third world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter and one of the world’s largest coal producers, depends on coal for about three-fifths of its energy needs.