Traders said on Wednesday that Qatar Energy Company has launched an immediate bid to sell up to 55,000 tons of naphtha for delivery on board from the port of Ras Laffan inside the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.
The shipment is scheduled to be loaded between the 3rd and 5th of next November, with the submission period closing on Wednesday, October 28th, and the offers will be valid on the same day.
One of the company's dealers said that the previous NAFTA tender offered by the state-owned refiner was awarded to a Western trader at a double-digit discount over the prices of Middle Eastern crude oil on a free-on-board basis.
“Force majeure”
On a parallel level, an informed source reported that the Indian company Petronet LNG Ltd. had received notification from Qatar extending the “state of force majeure” on LNG shipments until the end of next November. The source, who requested to remain anonymous, said: Given the sensitivity of the matter, Petronet usually receives a “force majeure” notification from Qatar at the end of each month, regarding the following month’s supplies, according to what Bloomberg News Agency reported.
Qatar has so far delivered only 4 shipments on ships to Petronet since the outbreak of the US-Iranian war in late February.
It is noteworthy that Qatar extends the “state of force majeure” on liquefied natural gas supplies to Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Qatar extends the “state of force majeure” on liquefied natural gas supplies as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to stop.
Futures for the Nasdaq index, which is heavy on technology stocks, rose on Wednesday, supported by gains in shares of memory chip companies following the strong results of the South Korean company SK Hynix, while investors await a group of results from major companies to test the investment momentum in artificial intelligence, in addition to the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.
Shares of Micron Technology, a manufacturer of memory chips, rose by 4 percent in pre-market trading, after its South Korean competitor, SK Hynix, announced a more than seven-fold increase in its quarterly profits. SK Hynix shares, listed in the United States, also jumped by 7.8 percent, according to Reuters.
Shares of data storage companies SanDisk and Western Digital rose by 0.8 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, while Seagate Technology bucked the trend, declining by 3.7 percent after announcing its results for the first quarter.
The gains extended to the semiconductor sector, as shares of “NVIDIA” rose by 0.8 percent, “AMD” by 1.5 percent, and “Marvel Technology” by 1.7 percent.
The shares of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, also rose by 1.2 percent, following a media report stating that Open AI intends to buy Google's artificial intelligence chips.
At 4:53 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 88 points, or 0.17 percent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose by 7.25 points, or 0.1 percent, and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose by 122 points, or 0.41 percent.
The Nasdaq index had risen by about 2 percent since the beginning of the week, after sharp losses in the first half of the month, with investor sentiment improving towards artificial intelligence following the submission by Anthropic, on Monday, of an application to offer its shares for public subscription in the United States.
The results of major companies are in focus
Attention now turns to the quarterly results of Microsoft and Alphabet, which are scheduled to be announced after the markets close on Wednesday, amid expectations of accelerating business growth in the field of cloud computing.
Investors will scrutinize the two companies' capital spending plans for indications that huge investments in artificial intelligence are beginning to yield returns, in light of continuing concerns about the feasibility of financing these expenditures with debt as borrowing costs rise.
Jake Behan, head of capital markets at Direction, said: “Demand remains strong, but as capital spending continues to accelerate, the market is more focused on the actual results achieved by this spending.”
He added: “The more market doubts about the returns of artificial intelligence, the more difficult it becomes to justify current spending levels.”
Amazon and chipmaker Intel are scheduled to announce their results later in the week.
Before the markets open on Wednesday, investors are also awaiting the results of GE Vernova, which specializes in energy equipment, the pharmaceutical company Biogen, and the medical device company Boston Scientific.
The Fed's decision under the microscope
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its decision on interest rates at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, amid widespread expectations to keep interest rates unchanged, following their cut last month.
But market expectations are still leaning towards monetary policy tightening; Data collected by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) indicates that traders expect at least three increases, of 25 basis points each, by late 2027.
These expectations have risen as inflation levels continue to rise, driven by increasing energy costs in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
These expectations are expected to be tested Thursday, with the release of the September personal consumption expenditures report, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation. GDP data for the third quarter will also be released during the week, amid expectations that the economy will grow by 3.2 percent.
In other stock movements, the shares of the trading platform “Robinhood Markets” fell by 8 percent, after its profits in the third quarter fell below Wall Street expectations. Visa shares also fell by 1.7 percent after announcing its results for the fourth quarter.
