Weekly News Summary for March 15-21, 2019

Friday, March 15: Oil Registers New 2019 Highs on IEA Forecast

Oil prices registered new 2019 highs on Friday after the International Energy Agency forecast better demand for the crude and signaled a deficit around 500,000 bpd in the market as soon as the second quarter this year.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose to a fresh four-month high of $58.95 overnight after easing at $58.77, while global benchmark Brent oil futures climbed at $67.45.

Monday, March 18: Dollar Hits 2-Week Low on Dovish Fed Expectations

The dollar was down to a two-week low on Monday amid expectations that the Federal Reserve will have a dovish tone at its policy meeting later this week, due to Friday’s lower-than-expected US economic data.

The US dollar index, a gauge of the dollar’s strength against six major currencies, declined at $95.92 to mark its weakest since February 28, while the 10-year treasury yield stood at 2.59% after dropping to its lowest since January 4 of 2.580%.

Tuesday, March 19: Dow Retreats on Renewed Trade Concerns

The Dow snapped a four-day winning streak on Tuesday weighed by conflicting reports over the progress of the US-China trade talks, while the S&P 500 index showed little change on investors’ optimism about the Fed’s likely dovish policy stance.

The blue-chip Dow fell 26.72 points, while the Nasdaq Composite returned to the green territory with 9.47 points and the S&P 500 dropped 0.37 points

Wednesday, March 20: Walt Disney to Own 21st Century Fox’s Assets

Walt Disney has sealed its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets on Wednesday, providing its upcoming streaming service Disney+ a variety of content as it prepares to battle Netflix.

According to the terms of the arrangement, Disney will absorb Fox’s film and TV studios, which would enable the company to broaden its portfolio of some the world’s renowned characters such as X-men and Deadpool.

Thursday, March 21: Geely Auto’s 2018 Profit Rises 18%, Shares Up 5%

Shares of Geely Automobile Holdings climbed as much as 5% on Thursday after the Chinese carmaker reported better annual net profit, although it signaled flat sales growth this year due to domestic demand uncertainty.

The company stated that its 2018 net profit rose to a record of 12.55 billion yuan, adding 18% from the 10.63 billion yuan generated a year earlier, while overall revenue grew to 106.60 billion yuan from 92.76 billion yuan in 2017.