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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Singapore - Oil fell below $70 on Thursday, pulling back from the more than 5% gain a day ago on worries that a rise in US crude and distillate stocks signals weak demand when taken along with the latest economic data.
The price correction was moderated by a weak dollar, which makes crude more affordable for buyers using other currencies, led by gains for the commodities-linked Australian dollar.
US crude futures lost 69 cents to $69.92 a barrel by 05:00, after surging almost $4 on Wednesday to $70.61, the first time in a week that prices have risen above $70 and allowing crude to squeeze out a slight gain for the third quarter.
London Brent crude shed 60 cents to $68.47 a barrel.
Analysts said that despite a surprising drop in gasoline stocks, which might signal nascent recovery in US fuel demand, gasoline and crude supplies maintained their large surplus against the five-year average, and distillates increased their excess to more than 38 million barrels, the biggest seen in years.
Data from the US government Energy Information Agency (EIA) showed a 1.6m barrel drop in gasoline stocks for the September 25 week, versus expectations for a 1.0m barrel rise.
But crude stocks rose by 2.8m barrels, against forecasts for a modest 600 000 barrel build. Distillates increased by just 300 000 barrels, but were still at a 26-year high of 171.1m, coming ahead of winter demand.
"The rise in distillate inventories in the latest data is at least strike one and probably strike two for heating oil cracks, in our view," Barclays Capital said in a note.
"Another rise in next week's data would be clearly counter-seasonal and from a very high base. The potential sensitivity to that single point makes distillate longs seem overly hazardous to us at this point."
An unexpected contraction in Midwest business activity and larger private-sector layoffs than had been forecast sounded a downbeat note for the end of a quarter in which stock markets performed strongly.
Traders will be watching talks between Iran's top nuclear negotiator and six world powers in Geneva on Thursday over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme, which US officials said could offer an opportunity for a rare bilateral meeting with the Iranians.
- Reuters