"No Dead-Cats": China's Fuel Demand Strongly Grows
Dear clients,
Oil consumption in China, the world's largest importer, has strongly risen since the coronavirus lockdown was lifted, OPEC member Kuwait assured.
"There is pent-up demand that has built up during the pandemic", said Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, chief executive officer of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. "Now, after the opening, we are seeing a steady increase in demand. It's not a dead-cat rebound."
Traders are closely watching China, believing that the pace of its recovery will be the most important factor determining the movement of energy prices this year.
Brent has fallen nearly 7% since late December to just over $80 a barrel, largely because data from China showed the economic recovery has been patchy. However, analysts including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, predict that the price will exceed $100 in the second half of the year.
Kuwait is the fourth largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. It exports about 2 million barrels a day, or 2% of the world's supply, and China is its biggest buyer.
Natural Interest in Artificial Intelligence
Dear clients,
Shares of Chinese AI makers have been causing a stir in mainland markets of late as the global buzz around chatbot ChatGPT fuels speculative bets on the revolutionary computing technology.
Just two months after launching, ChatGPT, which can generate articles, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to requests, has been voted the fastest growing consumer app in history.
Although ChatGPT is not available in China, mainland investors are still pumping up shares of AI technology companies.
However, at the moment there are no signs that these companies are ready to release a product like ChatGPT. The closest seems to be search giant Baidu Inc, which plans to complete testing of its "Ernie bot" in March. Their shares rose more than 13% on Tuesday after the announcement.
"The industry as a whole tends to speculate on expectations first and then trade on the actual results," said analysts at Beijing Gelei Asset Management.
The new trend has not gone unnoticed among tech giants. Thus, the owner of Google, Alphabet Inc. announced planning its own chatbot service and increasing the amount of artificial intelligence in its search engine. Microsoft, meanwhile, said it had scheduled its AI presentation for Tuesday.
Weekly Outlook: Brent Oil, Natural Gas
Dear clients,
The market expectations on China are so high, Saudi Arabia intends to raise their oil prices. This time we'll be looking again at Brent oil, natural gas, their positions and perspectives.
Join us on February 8 at 12:00 GMT.
During webinars, FreshForex analyst will answer your questions regarding the market situation and comment on the latest news.
If you missed the previous webinars, you can always find them here.