Asian Shares Weaker as Oil Prices Continue to Slide
10 December 2014 18:06 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Oil prices in Asia slid further across Asian markets on Wednesday as dealers await the latest production figures from the United States (US) to be released. Analysts have also said that the situation is exacerbated by disappointing trade figures from China and Germany.
January contracts for the US benchmark - the light sweet crude oil, or the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) - fell by 90 cents to trade at US$62.92 per barrel, while January contracts the Brent North Sea oil dropped by US$1.01 to trade at US$65.83 per barrel on Wednesday morning, Jakarta time.
"As global overabundance remains unaddressed, the main concern among investors are production levels in the US," said Daniel Ang, an analyst for Philip Futures in Singapore, to AFP.
"Investors will be looking at the state of US oil reserves to see if whether there are changes to the growth of the US production output."
Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal have predicted that US consumption would fall by around 2.7 million barrels in the week ending on December 5.
The US Department of Energy is due to release their official report on Wednesday, although they predicted on Tuesday that the US oil production output in 2015 will decrease to 9.3 million barrels per day - down from initial estimates which puts the figure at 9.4 million barrels daily.
Ang said that weak trade figures from China and Germany are pressuring global oil prices further. Germany's export slid by 0.5 percent in October, while its imports are down by 3.1 percent.
The figures were released one day after China posted its own set of disappointing trade figures - its year-on-year export growth averaged at 4.7 percent in November, while imports declined by 6.7 percent.
Trade figures from China and Germany are often referred to by investors due to their state as manufacturing behemoths - fluctuation to their consumption rates may significantly affect international oil prices, especially the prices of Brent contracts.
ANTARA NEWS | DESY SAPUTRA
