Oil prices reversed declines and ended slightly higher Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude stockpiles fell to their lowest level since October 2018 last week amid record demand for refined product. Futures extended their gains in mid-morning trading, with WTI up 1.2% at $90.71/bbl and Brent up 0.9% at $92.41/bbl. U.S. natural gas was 1.8% lower at $3.94/MMBtu.
New York’s state pension fund will sell $238 million worth of stock and debt it holds across 21 shale companies, half its shale portfolio, due to their weak environmental commitments.
Japan’s biggest oil and gas explorer will invest up to $38 billion in growth the next nine years, about a quarter of which will go toward decarbonization areas such as hydrogen and ammonia.
France’s TotalEnergies will pay 100-euro vouchers to low-income households to help with rising energy bills.
Greece plans to add to the $2 billion it has spent since last September in subsidizing customer electricity and gas bills.
The Texas Railroad Commission approved $3.4 billion in financing for exorbitant energy prices racked up by customers during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri.
Norway will invite its first ever bids for offshore wind projects in the North Sea this year, with hopes to build at least 1.5 GWs of capacity by the end of the decade.
Ocean shipping should start to normalize in the second half of this year, according to officials at the Port of Los Angeles and executives at Maersk.
Maersk, which handles almost one-fifth of the world’s container traffic, recorded an all-time high $18.7 billion in profit last year. The carrier sees a 2%-4% expansion in the global ocean shipping market this year, and is continuing on its path of acquiring overland logistics providers, including last-mile delivery firms.
A global spending spree on LNG-fueled vessels continued last month with orders for 40 more of the ships.
Freight rates for large bulk carriers are 90% lower than last year’s peak due to lower demand for iron ore in China, the world’s largest steel producer.
New orders for Class 8 heavy-duty trucks fell 8% from December to January to 21,400 orders, according to FTR.
The average weekly revenue per truck at Schneider National hit $4,521 in Q4, up 18% from the same time last year as fewer trucks were on the road.
The White House said its $5 billion plan to create a national network of electric vehicle charging stations would build rapid chargers on interstate highways before expanding into remote rural and crowded urban areas.
The U.S. reported 215,748 new COVID-19 infections and 3,435 virus fatalities Wednesday. The CDC predicts up to 61,000 more virus fatalities over the next month.
First-time unemployment claims fell by 16,000 last week to 223,000, the third weekly decline.
U.S. inflation jumped 7.5% year over year in January, more than economists expected and the highest rate since February 1982.
Some economists predict higher-than-expected inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by as much as 50 basis points next month, which would be the largest rate hike in more than two decades.
AstraZeneca warned that sales and profits could decline due to lower sales of COVID-19 products.
Toy maker Mattel reported better-than-expected quarterly results and expects sales to rise 10% this year, up from its previous view for a mid-single digit gain.
Walt Disney crushed quarterly expectations on rebounding visits to its theme parks and higher-than-expected subscriber growth on its budding streaming service.
Uber’s revenue climbed 83% in Q4 on a surge in ride-hailing activity and continued demand for food deliveries, with its total number of active customers rising to a record 118 million.
Consumer goods giant Unilever reported a 4.9% gain in quarterly sales driven entirely by higher prices, as volumes remained flat.
Hybrid and electric vehicles accounted for 11% of U.S. light-duty vehicle sales last quarter:
International delegates met yesterday on an EU proposal that would ban wildlife markets — the likely source of COVID-19 — and incentivize nations for reporting new viruses and variants.
Growth forecasts for China’s economy this year and next have fallen from around 8% to around 5%, weighing on the price of commodities and making it harder for some firms to grow business there.
Flight bookings at European budget airline Ryanair have risen sharply over the past two weeks amid a broad easing of pandemic restrictions across the continent.
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