As much as 5 Billion each day according tojpmorgan analysts. Us retailers, automakers and other businesses now face Ballooning Freight rates ahead of the crucial festive shopping season. Large retailers have pulled forward imports of much of their Holiday Merchandise and made reservations with west Coast Ocean and Rail Carriers in hopes of avoiding any disruption. Lets speak to peter sand, chief analyst at xeneta, an Ocean Freight analytics firm. Hello to you. I know you have already calculated what this could mean if the Strike Action goes ahead, so do tell us more. A disruption like this always comes at a bad time for European Exporters into North America as well as North American exporters out of thE East Coast And Gulf coast. It will be impacted at first but this seems to be a first for almost 50 years, has the potential not only to lift Freight Rates higher due to the disruption from the strike, but certainly also to have wider implications, one or two months later down the road w
Unified Opec Plus Group d are particularly after and also someone left the cartel. Now were seeing that there and it also a sign that opec plus are really showing a strong defence of 80 a barrel floor in pricing. What theyve done here is really built a fence, surplus will keep the market in deficit with a view for demand and return more strongly in the second half allowing cuts to be unwound and actually deficits to be sustained through the course of the year, keeping that curve, keeping prices elevated. Is this cut priced in then or are we likely to see a bit of impact on brent prices . We have already seen thejump in the immediate aftermath of this. There is already uncertainty as to how this plans out but a structurally bullish outlook for the rest of year where, if demand does recover, Particularjet Fuel and some emerging economies in the second half, sustained deficits on top of what was on already precarious with stocks and on geopolitics. But, if the market does end up being wea
Where there were questions over how unified opec could be are particularly after angola left the cartel. Now were seeing that there and it also a sign that 0pec are really showing a strong defence of 80 a barrel floor in pricing. What theyve done here is really built a fence, surplus will keep the market in deficit with a view for demand and return more strongly in the second half, allowing cuts to be unwound and actually deficits to be sustained through the course of the year, keeping that curve, keeping prices elevated. So is this cut priced in then, or are we likely to see a bit of impact on brent prices . We have obviously seen thejump in the immediate aftermath of this. There is already uncertainty as to how demand plans out but were seeing a structurally bullish outlook for the rest of year where, if demand does recover, particularly injet fuel and some emerging economies in the second half, sustained deficits on top of what was on already precarious with stocks and on geopolitic
if you have joined if you havejoined us, you are welcome and we are looking at the top business stories. we start here in the uk, where there is some relief for millions of people facing soaring housing costs. lenders have started the new year by slashing the cost of mortgages as financial markets bet the bank of england will soon begin to cut interest rates from their 15 year high. from today banking giant hsbc becomes the first major lender to bring back mortgages below 4% since last march. it comes as rival halifax slashed almost a percentage point off some of its mortgage rates this week. and it s raised hopes of a price war between banks. hsbc is offering a five year fixed rate mortgage at 3.94%. it s only available to people remortgaging their home not to first time buyers. but it s far below rates of almost 6.5% that borrowers were facing just a few months ago. and it will be a welcome development for many uk households as our cost of living correspondent kevin peach