The pain, said Shuntaro Takeuchi, was 10 out of 10. Not in the portfolio of Japanese stocks he runs out of Palo Alto, California, but in his appendix. It would have to come out, just as his colleagues at Matthews Asia were on a phone call to chart the $7 billion asset manager's path through a deepening market rout. "I was on a conference call two minutes before the surgery," said Takeuchi. "The nurse was like: 'Do you really have to attend this?'" In Tokyo, the Nikkei was on its way [Read more]

Oil prices rose on Friday after settling more than $2 a barrel lower in the previous session, but were set to drop for a second straight week on concerns over a prolonged trade war between the United States and China. Brent futures rose 90 cents, or 1.4%, to $64.23 a barrel by 0646 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 88 cents, or 1.5%, to $60.95. Brent is set to fall 2.1% this week, while WTI is on track to decline 1.8%. Both benchmarks declined 11% in the previous [Read more]

Oil-dependent governments are coming under pressure from the lowest crude prices since the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials preparing policy responses for a drop in revenue such as issuing more debt and reducing spending. Brent crude plunged more than 15% in the days following U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, as the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China spurred worries about recession and energy demand. The same week, the OPEC+ cartel put forward a plan to increase [Read more]

The discount of Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy crude to the North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (WTI) narrowed on Thursday. WCS for May delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $9.85 a barrel under WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, after having settled at $10.30 under the U.S. benchmark on Wednesday. * The Keystone oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. was shut on Tuesday after an oil spill in North Dakota. South Bow, owner and operator of the 4,327-km [Read more]

More than 2,600 U.S. Department of Energy staffers have opted to take the Trump administration's second round of resignation offers, two sources said on Thursday, with offices on power grid stability and loans for high-tech energy projects hit hard. The number is more than double the 1,217 staffers that took the first round offered in January, according to a document seen by Reuters. The number could go significantly higher in coming weeks as staffers over 40 years of age get an additional [Read more]

Recent developments in global trade policy are set to lower global oil and fuel demand growth through 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday in its monthly short-term energy outlook report. The U.S. Department of Energy's statistical arm cut its annual U.S. and global oil demand growth forecasts for both this year and next, as it highlighted significant uncertainty in markets from potentially lower global economic growth and higher oil supply. Benchmark [Read more]

U.S. power consumption will hit new record highs in 2025 and 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) on Thursday. EIA projected power demand will rise to 4,201 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and 4,244 billion kWh in 2026, from a record 4,097 billion kWh in 2024. Those demand increases come from data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, and as homes and businesses use more electricity for heat and [Read more]

South Bow on Thursday said it had recovered about 700 barrels of oil from a leak on the Keystone Pipeline earlier this week in North Dakota, which has shut the key conduit for Canadian oil exports to the U.S. since Tuesday. South Bow, owner and operator of the 4,327-km (2,689-mile) pipeline, is still investigating the cause of the leak while working to restore service, it said in a statement. It did not provide a timeline for the restart. (Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in [Read more]