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- Oil prices rise on Venezuelan uncertainties, gains limited by rising U.S. supply
- Shares on Wall Street advanced on temporary shutdown deal
- Abu Dhabi’s stock market index gained 1 percent on Thursday as ADCB rose
- Dollar dropped, gold rose on Friday
Oil prices
Oil prices rose on Friday as concerns over uncertainties in Venezuela threatened to tighten crude exports, but gains were limited by rising supplies from the United States.
The U.S. signaled on Thursday that it may impose sanctions on Venezuelan exports after recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president this week, prompting President Nicholas Maduro to cut ties with Washington.
Industry data showed in the U.S. that crude inventories rose by 6.6 million barrels in the week ending January 18 to 443.6 million, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 42,000 barrels.
Brent crude oil futures ended the session at $61.64 a barrel, up 55 cents, or 0.9 percent while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $53.69 per barrel, up 56 cents, or 1.05 percent.
RBC Europe predicted that U.S. sanctions could nearly double projected output shortfalls from Venezuela, according to a Reuters report.
“Venezuelan production will decline by an additional 300,000-500,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, but such punitive measures could expand that outage by several hundred thousand barrels,” it said.
Global markets
Shares on Wall Street rose on Friday after President Donald Trump confirmed he and lawmakers agreed to advance a three-week stop-gap spending plan to reopen the government.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183.96 points, or 0.75 percent, to 24,737.2, the S&P 500 gained 22.43 points, or 0.85 percent, to 2,664.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 91.40 points, or 1.29 percent, to 7,164.86.
“It does get federal workers paid, lets them collect their paychecks, so it takes that pressure off of them,” so it “should be a benefit to consumer confidence and consumer spending,” Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York, told Reuters. “But three weeks from now we are going to be back in the same situation, really without a resolution with two hard-line views.”
Middle East markets
Abu Dhabi’s index gained 1 percent on Thursday lifted by a 5.3 percent hike in the shares of Abu Dhabi Commercial bank and a 2.4 percent gain by Union National Bank.
ADCB said its board will meet during the week to discuss the potential merger between the firm, Union National Bank and Al Hilal Bank.
Saudi Arabia's index fell 0.4 percent, with industry heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries Corp slipping 2 percent.
Qatar's index increased 0.6 percent, with Industries Qatar adding 2.6 percent and Qatar Navigation rising 3.6 percent.
Egypt’s stock market was closed for a public holiday.
Kuwait’s index edged up 0.2 percent, Bahrain’s index gained 0.9 percent and Oman’s index edged up 0.3 percent.
Currencies
The dollar dropped on Friday as equities rose.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.6 percent at 96.046, after climbing to a three-week high of 96.676 on Thursday.
Precious metals
Gold prices rose on Friday on a weakening dollar.
Spot gold rose 1.3 percent to $1,297.26 per ounce as of 1900 GMT, having earlier touched a peak of $1,300.30, its highest since June 15.
U.S. gold futures settled up 1.4 percent at $1,298.10 per ounce.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)
(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)
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