Saudi Arabia cut the price of its main crude grade to Asia for a second straight month, though the premium for barrels to the kingdom’s largest market remained near the highest in decades. State producer Saudi Aramco will lower the price for Arab Light crude for buyers in Asia next month by $6 a barrel to a premium of $9.50 more than the regional benchmark, according to a price list seen by Bloomb...
Saudi Arabia cut the price of its main crude grade to Asia for a second straight month, though the premium for barrels to the kingdom’s largest market remained near the highest in decades. State producer Saudi Aramco will lower the price for Arab Light crude for buyers in Asia next month by $6 a barrel to a premium of $9.50 more than the regional benchmark, according to a price list seen by Bloomberg. That cut is deeper than the $5 reduction expected by refiners and traders in a Bloomberg survey . As the US and Iran drag out talks aimed at extending a ceasefire in their conflict, global oil markets remain disrupted by the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz. With tankers stuck inside the Persian Gulf and empty vessels prevented from entering to pick up new cargoes, the region has drastically scaled back production , shutting in fields and slowing or halting refineries. Read More: Israel Strikes Iran After Missile Attack, Imperiling Ceasefire Aramco has been the mainstay of Gulf crude exports because it has been diverting oil through a cross-country pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. That allows the company to ship as much as 70% of its pre-war exports while supplying crude to the country’s west coast refineries. Those facilities have been pumping out products like diesel and jet fuel as Aramco seeks to capitalize on margins that have surged for refiners. The profit from turning crude into products remains high, but slipped at the end of May, possibly reflecting declining demand as consumers deal with higher prices. Aramco traditionally prices its crude to shadow refiners’ profits, potentially explaining its decision to cut official prices for July. The OPEC+ producers group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to raise production targets for July by 188,000 barrels a day at a meeting on Sunday. The increase is largely symbolic with Hormuz still mostly shut, though it indicates that the group won’t restrict members from pumping oil onto markets once the...
(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,580-point plateau and it's expected to take further damage on Monday.
(RTTNews) - The Thai stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 25 points or 1.7 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand now sits just above the 1,580-point plateau and it's expected to take further damage on Monday.
China has discovered a new source of high-purity quartz in its western Tibet autonomous region, potentially reducing its reliance on imports of the critical material to make solar panels and semiconductors. High-purity quartz is a gold standard manufacturing material for numerous hi-tech items, including some whose global market is dominated by China. China has relied on imports to obtain the impo...
China has discovered a new source of high-purity quartz in its western Tibet autonomous region, potentially reducing its reliance on imports of the critical material to make solar panels and semiconductors. High-purity quartz is a gold standard manufacturing material for numerous hi-tech items, including some whose global market is dominated by China. China has relied on imports to obtain the important material, with most coming from the United States, because of a lack of domestic sources for...
A museum in Japan is facing accusations of “rewriting history” for replacing the Nanking massacre with the word “incident”, drawing criticism and reviving anger over the country’s wartime aggression. The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which previously resisted revisionist attempts, appeared to have capitulated to a civic group’s pressure campaign, following Thursday’s release of proposed exhibit cha...
A museum in Japan is facing accusations of “rewriting history” for replacing the Nanking massacre with the word “incident”, drawing criticism and reviving anger over the country’s wartime aggression. The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which previously resisted revisionist attempts, appeared to have capitulated to a civic group’s pressure campaign, following Thursday’s release of proposed exhibit changes by its operations council. Other amendments announced by the museum, opened in 1996, include...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Industrial equipment maker Columbus McKinnon ( CMCO ) slumped 9% Thursday following a weaker-than-expected earnings report and then slid once again in Friday's trading. With the drop, the company's stock hit new 52-week lows, and shares are only modestly above their 20-year lows at this point: Data by YCharts I have a small position in Columbus McKinnon...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Industrial equipment maker Columbus McKinnon ( CMCO ) slumped 9% Thursday following a weaker-than-expected earnings report and then slid once again in Friday's trading. With the drop, the company's stock hit new 52-week lows, and shares are only modestly above their 20-year lows at this point: Data by YCharts I have a small position in Columbus McKinnon in my buy-and-hold portfolio, where I own more than 150 different stocks. Over time, good things tend to happen to a lot of companies, be it new product lines, business opportunities, improved management, or simply steady value accumulation over the years. I like to cast a wide net and let the winners run. Sometimes, however, companies lose the plot. Columbus McKinnon, unfortunately, has turned into one of those latter cases. I was up 50% on my position in Columbus McKinnon in 2024, and it appeared the company was favorably positioned to profit from the long-term demand for warehouse automation solutions. Columbus McKinnon also stands to benefit from increased manufacturing activity in North America amid the reshoring movement. Then, one day, I woke up, and Columbus McKinnon stock had lost half its value overnight. As the above chart shows, there's been no recovery of those losses yet, either. This came due to one of the most baffling capital allocation decisions made by any company I've owned over the course of my investment career. Columbus McKinnon Mortgages the Future to Buy Kito Crosby Prior to announcing its huge M&A deal in early 2025, Columbus McKinnon was trading around $35/share. This gave the company a market capitalization of about $1.0 billion and an enterprise value of approximately $1.4 billion. Then, in one fell swoop, Columbus McKinnon announced that it was buying Kito Crosby, a fellow lifting and material handling firm, for $2.7 billion in cash. Stop and read that again. A firm with a market cap of $1.0 billion decided to buy a firm twice its size. Columb...