Continued oil market turmoil weighs on global stocks

Oil-price turmoil gripped markets once more Tuesday, a day after US crude futures crashed below zero for the first time as the coronavirus crisis crippled global energy demand and worsened a supply glut.

The commodity rout also sent world equity markets spiraling lower, as investors fretted it could compound an expected deep global economic downturn.

The benchmark WTI price collapsed Monday to an unprecedented low of minus $40.32. Negative prices mean traders must pay to find buyers to take physical possession of the oil -- a job made difficult with the world's storage capacity at bursting point.

A day after its historic slide into negative territory amid a supply glut, US oil futures finished in positive territory.

But the market remained under heavy pressure due to the oversupply as coronavirus shutdowns constrain global growth.

Storage is a particularly big problem in the US where WTI oil is delivered at a single, inland point.

In Europe, where Brent is the benchmark, there are several delivery sites and their proximity to the sea allows some of it to be stored on tankers.

"Players are now paying buyers to take oil volumes away as the physical storage limit will be reached. And they are paying top dollar," said Rystad Energy analyst Louise Dickson.

This week's massive sell-off came just ahead of Tuesday's expiration of the May contract. Most trading has now moved to the June contract, and May WTI was back in positive territory by the close of New York trading.

- 'Slice of pizza' -

Oil markets have been ravaged this year after the pandemic was compounded by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"Ever thought that it could be imaginable to see the price of US oil valued at less than a pizza? Or even a slice of pizza? How about for it to actually cost (money) to sell US crude?" said Jameel Ahmad, head of currency strategy and market research at FXTM.

While the two big oil-producing nations have drawn a line under the dispute and agreed with other countries to slash output by almost 10 million barrels a day, that is not enough to offset the lack of demand and prices have remained low.

European benchmark Brent North Sea oil for June delivery tumbled to an 18-year low, before coming off worse levels in volatile deals.

- Stock markets sink -

Equity markets were meanwhile also deep in the red on Tuesday, having enjoyed a healthy couple of weeks thanks to massive stimulus measures and signs of an easing in the rate of new infections globally.

Key eurozone stocks markets closed with declines of up to four percent, while London did a little better thanks to a weaker pound.

On Wall Street, the Dow finished down more than 630 points, or 2.7 percent.

"Continued dysfunction in the crude oil markets" was the main factor behind the decline, analysts at Charles Schwab said, "while the Street continues to assess the timing of when the US economy may be able to reopen."

Analysts warned the drop in stock markets could be an indication that the recent surge may have been hasty, and that another prolonged sell-off is possible.

- Key figures around 2030 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate (May delivery): UP at $10.01 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate (June delivery): DOWN 43 percent at $11.57 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude (May delivery): DOWN 22.1 percent at $19.93

Brent North Sea crude (June delivery): DOWN 24.4 percent at $19.33

New York - Dow: DOWN 2.7 percent at 23,018.88 (close)

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 3.1 percent at 2,736.56 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 3.5 percent at 8,263.23 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 3.0 percent at 5,641,03 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 4.0 percent at 10,249.85 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 3.8 percent at 4,357.46 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 4.1 percent at 2,791.34 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.0 percent at 19,280.78 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 2.2 percent at 23,793.55 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 2,827.01 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0859 from $1.0862 at 2100 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 107.77 yen from 107.62

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2301 from $1.2442

Euro/pound: UP at 88.27 pence from 87.30

burs-jmb/cs

Agence France-Presse

US to be 'more aggressive' in monitoring Ebola response: Obama

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pledged a "much more aggressive" response at home to the Ebola threat, and insisted that the risk of a serious outbreak on US soil was low.

After a crisis meeting with top aides at the White House, Obama underlined the importance of helping African countries stem the spread of the virus, calling such aid "an investment in our own public health."

"If we are not responding internationally in an effective way... then we could have problems," Obama said in comments aired on US television.

The meeting -- attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, among others -- came after a second US Ebola infection was diagnosed at a Texas hospital where a Liberian man died a week ago.

Obama said meeting participants discussed "monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what's taking place in Dallas" to ensure those lessons are "transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country."

"This is not a situation in which, like a flu, the risks of a rapid spread of the disease are imminent," Obama said, adding he "shook hands with, hugged and kissed" nurses who had treated an Ebola patient at Emory University hospital in Atlanta.

"They followed the protocols. They knew what they were doing and I felt perfectly safe doing so," he said.

"I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease here in the United States... The key thing to understand about this disease is that these protocols work."

The White House said Obama had canceled plans to visit Rhode Island and New York on Thursday so he could follow up on the Ebola meeting.

So far, Ebola has killed nearly 4,500 people, the vast majority of them in West Africa, where the outbreak began early this year.

Since the announcement last month that the United States would send at least 3,000 troops to West Africa to help fight the outbreak, Obama has repeatedly criticized the international response to the health crisis as insufficient.

source: interaksyon.com

Tuberculosis killed 1.3 million last year: WHO

GENEVA - Tuberculosis claimed 1.3 million lives last year with drug-resistant forms of the infectious disease -- the deadliest after AIDS -- a huge global concern, the WHO warned Wedesday.

Worldwide efforts to rein in the killer airborne disease helped drive the toll down 100,000 from the previous year, the World Health Organization said in its annual report on the fight against TB.

But the toll remains the world's second-highest for an infectious disease, after HIV/AIDS.

An estimated 8.6 million people caught tuberculosis in 2012, with India alone accounting for 26 percent of cases, and China, 12 percent.

According to the WHO, close to one-third of TB cases were in Southeast Asia, just over a quarter in Africa and around one-fifth on the Western Pacific region.

Looking at the longer-term picture, the number of infections fell by nearly half from 1990 to 2012.

But experts reckon only two-thirds of last year's 8.6 million new cases were actually diagnosed, leaving an estimated three million people unaware they had the disease.

Those most at risk are typically among the worst-off groups of the population, the report said.

"To find the three million TB cases means we need to reach beyond the current health services, we need to look at where these cases are," WHO expert Karin Meyer told reporters.

"These are often vulnerable populations, displaced populations, migrant population, quite difficult to reach," she added.

Global health experts also warned of the growing threat posed by a strain of TB that resists drugs used to fight the classic form.

Multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, which emerged due to erratic treatment of the regular strain or excessive use of anti-TB medication, claimed 170,000 lives last year, the WHO said.

Some 94,000 people were diagnosed with MDR-TB last year, twice the figure in 2011.

But the true number of cases is thought to be around five times higher, the WHO added.

'A real public health crisis'

The highest density of MDR-TB cases is found in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Those are places where TB programs have long been in place, but where failings in health services have allowed drug-resistance to build up, officials said.

In contrast, Africa has seen lower levels of MDR-TB, in part because of weaker access to standard TB treatment in the past.

Other countries hit hard by MDR-TB include China and India.

"The unmet demand for a full-scale and quality response to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a real public health crisis," said Mario Raviglione, head of the WHO's TB program.

The standard drugs used to treat TB are isoniazid and rifampicin. Vaccines are in development, but are not expected to hit the market before 2025, the WHO said.

MDR-TB is able to ward off both isoniazid and rifampicin.

It can be treated with bedaquilin, which came onto the market at the end of last year and is the first new TB drug in four decades.

But bedaquilin is costly, the WHO stressed, with a $30,000 (22,000-euro) price tag for a six-month course of treatment in developed countries, and some $1,000 in the developing world.

Since the WHO launched a major anti-TB drive in 1995, a total of 56 million people have been treated and 22 million lives saved, the agency said.

"Quality TB care for millions worldwide has driven down TB deaths," said Raviglione.

"But far too many people are still missing out on such care and are suffering as a result. They are not diagnosed, or not treated, or information on the quality of care they receive is unknown," he added.

The agency also warned funding for its anti-TB campaign was falling short of its target.

A conventional two-year course of TB treatment costs between $4,000 and $10,000 in developing countries.

The WHO said it needed to bridge a $2 billion annual gap in order to meet its overall requirement of up to $8 billion a year to fight the disease in low and middle-income countries.

source: interaksyon.com