Oil future prices climbed to a new high in New York on Monday as a strike began in Nigeria—Africa's largest exporter of crude oil.
Crude oil for November delivery rose 33 US cents to $53.64, surpassing Friday's record settlement price of $53.31 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia vowed on Sunday to maintain a cushion of spare supplies of up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) to meet future demand growth.
"There is no shortage of oil, and there will be no shortage of oil, and we are willing to meet demand as it rises," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters ahead of an oil exhibition in the United Arab Emirates.
Rupert Murdoch last night outlined concessions designed to allay fears that the tycoon would be given too much power over News Corp by shifting its domicile from Australia to the United States.
Oil prices shot up more than $1 a barrel Monday as traders focused on the changing path of Hurricane Ivan, which prompted several large oil and natural gas producers to evacuate rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's all fear, it's all speculative buying," said Agbeli Ameko, managing partner at the Denver-based energy research firm Enercast.com, adding that the actual loss of supply, at least for now, was negligible.
British Airways plans to sell its A$1.12 billion (435.1 million pounds) stake in Australia's Qantas Airways in the next two days to cut debt and take advantage of future consolidation in Europe.
Europe's second-biggest airline, which has undertaken the most radical restructuring among its peers in the past three years, said the sale of the 18.25 percent stake would have no effect on the business relationship between the two carriers.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies a third of the world's crude oil, can raise production capacity by 1 million barrels a day by year-end, OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.
LOCAL stocks moved into the black today with help from miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton following rises in nickel and copper prices on the London Metal Exchange.
Strong performances from offshore markets also set the tone despite a Labour Day holiday in the US.
OIL prices gained yesterday on fears that Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos, could be forced to halt production after a Moscow court granted prosecutors the go-ahead to seize £1.4 billion from the bank accounts of Yukos’ key subsidiaries.
THE competition regulator will reportedly grill senior Telstra executives this week over allegations of predatory internet pricing by the telco.
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Seven Network Ltd. was cut to ``sell'' by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Goldman Sachs JBWere after the company reported profit that missed the brokers' forecasts and TV advertising growth that lagged gains by the industry.
