Trading on world stock exchanges opened yesterday with sharp declines of more than 2.7% on the Nasdaq and declines of about 2% in the S & P500 index, after the leading indices on the stock exchanges opened the trading week on the eve of the holiday, Monday, with slight declines.
Expectations of a weak opening in world stock markets stemmed from several reasons, but the reason for the surprise was the oil crisis, which turned out to be a bigger-than-expected problem - China announced a shortage of inventories and world oil prices soared to a three-year high.
The shortage began with a sustained drastic decline in oil production, which continued after the eruption of the corona delta strain, which seemed to lead to a sharper and longer slowdown than actually turned out.
The recovery in world demand has caught up with China and other countries in the world with diluted reserves, even before winter began.
In the coming month, the demand for electricity is expected to skyrocket and production is currently not in line with the expected level of demand.
A new benchmark has been crossed
The UK also reported a shortage of fuel, which in some places in the kingdom reached 50% and in other places 90% of the gas stations that did not meet demand, the UK Fuel Dealers Association (PRA) reported.
Fuel prices crossed the $ 80 threshold for a Brent barrel yesterday.
Later in the trading day, prices moderated almost by $ 1 per barrel.
In the United States, the price of a barrel of oil reached $ 76. At gas stations in the United Kingdom, gas prices reached an all-time high of £ 1.36 per liter without lead (NIS 5.95), which indicates our expected prices, which are more related to prices in Europe than in the United States. "B.
In recent days, unsupervised fuel prices there have been soaring at a rate of 10-5 pence a day. The capital markets fear a decline in China's supply capacity, due to a shortage of fuel, and of course a rise in prices due to rising prices.
The shortage began with a sustained drastic decline in oil production, which continued after the eruption of the corona delta strain, which seemed to lead to a sharper and longer slowdown than it turned out
In the world, natural gas prices are soaring close to fuel prices, but in Israel, the largest consumer of natural gas - the IEC - enjoys a fixed and very low price in current terms from local gas reserves.
The shortage of fuel in China initially led to proactive power outages at factories in the country, but quickly expanded to homes in many provinces in China and giant factories, such as suppliers of Tesla, which fell 7% in mid-day trading, and Apple, which fell 1.2%.
Also in Germany
In Germany, the election results continue to be monitored and their impact on the markets assessed, but in the meantime the oil crisis yesterday led to a drop in the Dex index in Frankfurt by 0.9%.
The London Stock Exchange lost 0.6%, and the European stock index "Euro Stokes 50" fell 1.4%.
Worry on Wall Street, Photo: EP
It is interesting to note that the Chinese giant Evergrand, which was the main reason for fearing the effects of the Chinese market, jumped more than 4% yesterday, after losing more than 80% of its value in the past month.
At its peak this year, the stock traded at more than $ 20 a share, until it fell to $ 2, and yesterday stood at more than $ 2.6.
Despite the oil crisis currently occupying the headlines as well as the main concern of the markets, this challenge of the collapsing giant construction company is still far from behind us.
The world’s largest investment houses have been quick to downward update China’s growth forecasts for this year.
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The trading day will open today against the background of the declines in most of the major stock exchanges in the world and the oil crisis.
Today, the Ministry of Energy will also publish the maximum prices for fuel at stations.
Last month, a nine-month continuum of price increases was broken, when the price of self-service fuel fell by 5 agorot to NIS 6.31 per liter of unleaded 95-octane gasoline.
At the beginning of the year, in January, the price of a liter of fuel at stations was NIS 5.51.
At the height of the low and near the beginning of the crisis, in April 2020, its price was only NIS 4.89.
