Saudi oil exports to China hit one-year low

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Early Bloomberg tanker tracking data showed on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports to China dropped by 20% last month when compared to November, recording the lowest level of Saudi crude sales to China in 2017, oilprice.com reports.

Key Details:

“According to the tanker tracking figures, less than 3.5 million tons of crude oil, or 25.6 million barrels of oil, left Saudi Arabia en route to Chinese ports in December.

The route takes around 20 days to complete, and China will publish its December country-by-country crude oil imports data around January 22, which would confirm whether the Saudis had in fact drastically cut crude shipments to China last month.

For December, the Saudis had cut total crude oil exports by 120,000 bpd from just above 7 million bpd in November, reducing shipments to all regions, including a 10-percent reduction of oil exports to the U.S.”

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

AUD/USD clinches five-week highs; focus is on 0.7100

AUD/USD has pushed harder on Wednesday, further extending its recent break above the key 0.7000 yardstick. Indeed, the renewed downside pressure on the Greenback lent legs to the Aussie, opening the door to a potential revisit to the 0,.7100 zone.

USD/JPY sticks to modest gains above 157.50 as traders await Fed, BoJ meetings

USD/JPY attracts buyers for the third straight day, recovering further from a one-month low ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC decision and the BoJ policy update on Friday. Meanwhile, expectations that the BoJ may hold off on aggressive rate hikes weigh on the Japanese Yen, and the US Dollar advances to a nearly two-week high, supporting the currency pair.

Gold hovers around $4,050 after Fed's announcement

Gold ticks higher after the Federal Open Market Committee kept the Fed funds rate unchanged at 4%. XAU/USD advanced as Chair Kevin Warsh explained that hikes are working, cooling down hopes for an aggressive 50 bps hike in December.

Bitcoin and Gold Forecast: BTC bulls hold $80K as XAU defends $4,000 ahead of Fed

Bitcoin (BTC) ticks lower near $80,000 on Wednesday, while Gold (XAU/USD) holds above $4,000. Both assets reflect the broader risk-off sentiment as focus remains on the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate decision later in the day.

Fed's recap: A cautious hold with a clear warning on inflation

The Federal Reserve (Fed) held its policy rate steady at 3.75%-4.00%, but it wasn’t a unanimous decision. Among two officials who wanted a 25-basis-point hike were Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack, while Chair Kevin Warsh said the Fed would use the coming flow of information to decide whether further action is needed. The statement presented a resilient economy.

Anthropic pledged $270 billion to Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Here's who actually gets paid

Anthropic owes Amazon, Google, and Microsoft at least $269.4 billion for computing power, even if it uses less. All three sell its models and handle its billing, and Amazon and Google own stakes and lend it money, so they get paid regardless of how the IPO goes. The Dario Amodei-led Anthropic filed its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday, seeking a listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT.