Oil prices dropped on Monday on weak manufacturing data from China, the world’s largest importer of crude, as markets await the Opec+ meeting later this week on supply adjustments in a tight market.
Brent, the global benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, was trading 1.37 per cent lower at $102.55 a barrel at 1.20pm UAE time on Monday. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, was down 2.10 per cent at $96.55 a barrel.
Manufacturing growth in China slowed in July as the government continues to enforce its “zero Covid” strategy to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The official purchasing manufacturing index dropped to 49 in July from 50.2 a month earlier. The private sector Caixin PMI also fell in July, to 50.4 from 51.7, on the manufacturing index, well below market expectations.
“The persistence of the [zero] Covid policy in China remains a negative for global growth, as highlighted by the IMF [International Monetary Fund] in their latest World Economic Outlook,” said Edward Bell, senior director of market economics at Emirates NBD.
The IMF last week lowered its growth forecast for the global economy for the second time this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and an economic slowdown in China.
The Washington-based fund now projects global growth at 3.2 per cent in 2022 and 2.9 per cent in 2023, revising it down 0.4 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points from its April forecast, respectively.
Renewed lockdowns in China have slowed the growth momentum in the world’s second-largest economy. Its economic output is forecast to grow 3.3 per cent this year, after expanding 8.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF.
Oil prices have remained volatile in recent weeks as investors consider concerns about demand growth amid an economic slowdown against supply constraints as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues.
The market is also keenly watching the Opec+ meeting on Wednesday.
The super group of oil producers, which includes Russia, is set to meet on August 3 to decide what to do with spare capacity once the production pact expires at the end of this month.
The group has been unwinding record output cuts put in place during the pandemic.
“This week, Opec+ will be in focus and what strategy the producers’ alliance will take from September onward,” Mr Bell said.
“The Russian and Saudi energy ministers met at the end of last week with a pledge to be 'firmly committed to the goal of the Opec+ agreement on preserving market stability', which may be a signal that markets shouldn’t expect a radical change in policy.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
Results
2pm: Al Sahel Contracting Company – Maiden (PA) Dh50,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: AF Mutakafel, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
2.30pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: El Baareq, Antonio Fresu, Rashed Bouresly
3pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.30pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Alkaraama, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
4pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Lady Snazz, Saif Al Balushi, Bhupat Seemar
4.30pm: Hive – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
5pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – (TB) Handicap Dh64,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Remaining fixtures
Third-place-play-off: Portugal v Mexico, 4pm on Sunday
Final: Chile v Germany, 10pm on Sunday
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness'
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams
Rating: 3/5
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