Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
Crude oil futures continued their march lower on Monday during the Asian trade session. Chinese financial markets reopened after being shut last week for the Lunar New Year holiday and a private Caixin survey showed that manufacturing in China expanded but is being affected by the coronavirus.
Oil traders are worrying about global oil demand as the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread around the world. There are more cases reported in the United States and several airlines have suspended travel into China.
Both the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and international Brent crude futures contracts fell for the fourth week in a row last week. This weakness comes after airlines are cancelling flights into China. Global supply chains across the region and in China are being disrupted.
As of 1 am GMT, the Brent crude oil futures contract was down about 80 cents or 1.4 percent to trade at $55.83 a barrel. This contract saw its worst month since November 2018 as it shed over 12 percent in January.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell was also lower. This contract fell fifty cents to fetch $51.06 a barrel. This contract, in January, tumbled 15.6 percent.
Crude Oil Traders watch Chinese Data and Monitor Output from OPEC
According to the private Caixin survey, for the month of January, showed that factory orders stalled as export orders fell. The markets expected a big fall lower thanks to the coronavirus.
Looking at OPEC, output fell in January to its lowest level since 2009. Several member nations, led by Saudi Arabia, over compensated on cutting production and the supply out of Libya fell.
In Hong Kong, thousands of medical workers will go on strike today if the City does not shut its borders with mainland China.
This strike will include up to 3,000 and will go into effect at 6 pm Hong Kong time if the City’s government does not respond to their demands. An additional 3,000 workers will also join the strike bringing the total to six thousand from Tuesday.
