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Oil prices settled higher on Friday but fell week-on-week after health authorities in China eased some of the country’s heavy COVID-19 curbs, raising hopes for improved economic activity and demand in the world’s top crude importer. Brent crude futures settled up $2.32 at $95.99 a barrel, extending a 1.1% rise from the previous session but falling 2.6% on the week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled up $2.49, or 2.9%, at $88.96 a barrel, after climbing 0.8% in the previous session but down nearly 4% on the week. The easing curbs include shortening quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers by two days, as well as eliminating a penalty on airlines for bringing in infected passengers. The benchmark oil contracts fell during the week due to rising U.S. oil inventories, and lingering fears over capped fuel demand in China, but late-week gains limited the losses. “China’s changing response to stubbornly high COVID-19 cases has added to the oi...

A worker in protective clothing keeps watch near metal barriers set up around shuttered shop houses that were locked down as part of COVID-19 controls in Beijing, on Nov. 10. Andy Wong/The Associated Press China on Friday eased some of its strict COVID rules, including shortening quarantines by two days for close contacts of infected people and for inbound travellers, and removing a penalty for airlines for bringing in too many cases. The loosening of curbs, a day after President Xi Jinping led his new Politburo Standing Committee in a meeting on COVID, cheered markets even as many experts warned that the measures were incremental and reopening probably remained a long way off. Under the new rules, centralized quarantine times for close contacts and travellers from abroad were shortened from seven to five days. The requirement for three further days in home isolation after centralized quarantine remains. China will also stop trying to identify “secondary” contacts – a major annoyance...

Foxconn said on Thursday a pay-related “technical error” occurred when hiring new recruits at a COVID-hit iPhone factory in China and apologized to workers after the company was rocked by fresh labour unrest. Men smashed surveillance cameras and clashed with security personnel as hundreds of workers protested at the world’s biggest iPhone plant in Zhengzhou city on Wednesday, in rare scenes of open dissent in China sparked by claims of overdue pay and frustration over severe COVID-19 restrictions. Workers said on videos circulated on social media that they had been informed that the Apple Inc AAPL-Q supplier intended to delay bonus payments. Some workers also complained they were forced to share dormitories with colleagues who had tested positive for COVID. “Our team has been looking into the matter and discovered a technical error occurred during the onboarding process,” Foxconn said in a statement, referring to the hiring of new workers. “We apologize for an input error in the comp...

Epidemic control workers move a barrier fence in an area under lockdown in Beijing, on Nov. 24. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images China reported record high COVID-19 infections on Thursday, with cities nationwide imposing localized lockdowns, mass testing and other curbs that are fuelling frustration and darkening the outlook for the world’s second largest economy. The resurgence of infections, nearly three years after the pandemic emerged in the central city of Wuhan, casts doubt on investor hopes for China to ease its rigid zero-COVID policy soon, despite recent more targeted measures. The curbs are taking a toll on locked-down residents as well as output at factories, including the world’s biggest iPhone plant, which has been rocked by clashes between workers and security personnel in a rare show of dissent. “How many people have the savings to support them if things continually stay halted?” asked a 40-year-old Beijing man surnamed Wang who is a manager at a foreign firm. “And even if yo...

An epidemic control worker disinfects an area behind a barricade outside a community under lockdown in Beijing, on Nov. 25. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images Frustration simmered on Friday among residents and business groups in China navigating stricter COVID-19 control curbs as the country reported another record high of daily infections just weeks after hopes had been raised of easing measures. The resurgence of COVID cases in China, with 32,695 new local infections recorded for Thursday as numerous cities report outbreaks, has prompted widespread lockdowns and other curbs on movement and business, as well as pushback. China’s COVID response is taking a mounting toll on the world’s second-largest economy, and on Friday its central bank made a widely-anticipated move of support, cutting the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves. This releases 500 billion yuan ($69.8-billion) in long-term liquidity. The French Chamber of Commerce in China urged authorities to properly implement COV...

Shares of Apple Inc AAPL-Q fell about 2 per cent on Monday as growing unrest at a key Chinese plant fanned worries of a bigger hit to the already constrained production of higher-end iPhone 14 models. Reuters reported on Friday that the Foxconn-operated plant, which is the world’s biggest iPhone factory, could see a further drop in November shipments due to worker unrest and rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Separately, Bloomberg News reported citing a source earlier in the day that there could be a shortfall of 6 million iPhone Pro units this year due to production-related problems. “The ongoing challenges around delays in returning to a normal level of production at the Zhengzhou facility could limit the pace with which supply-demand equilibrium can be reached in the coming months,” J.P. Morgan analysts said. They added that lead times for Pro models have moderated except in China where the timeline remains elevated. Customers in the United States wait for about 33 days for the...

Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max model shipments could miss market expectations by up to 20 million units in the holiday quarter due to labor unrest at a major Chinese factory, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said. Kuo is the latest to flag a hit to the world’s most valuable company from protests over pay and strict COVID-19 curbs at the world’s biggest iPhone factory, the Foxconn-operated plant in the central city of Zhengzhou. He trimmed his estimate for quarterly iPhone shipments by about 20 per cent to between 70 million and 75 million units, compared with the market consensus of 80 million to 85 million units. Apple shares were trading down more than 2 per cent, set to add to the 6 per cent decline so far this month as worries grow over shipments in the all-important holiday sales season. Kuo, in a blog post on Tuesday, also predicted that the supply shortfall could erase demand for the more popular Pro models, instead of deferring sales, as consumers also grapple...

Analysts at Piper Sandler on Thursday cut their revenue and iPhone sales estimates for Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q December quarter, as Beijing’s strict lockdowns crimp production at the world’s biggest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China. The brokerage now expects $119-billon in revenue for the current quarter from an earlier projection of $127.3-billion, with iPhone unit sales of about 74 million against 83 million previously expected. “More than 50 per cent of assembled iPhones come from Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant. Majority of the disruptions took place in the month of November where utilization for the plant may have fallen to 50 per cent or below,” the analysts said. China’s manufacturing and services activities shrank further in November to seven-month lows, official data showed, stung by the country’s zero-COVID policy and rising infections that analysts said will hurt the economy well into 2023. Production woes for Apple were heightened by a rare example of large-scale labour unrest in ...

Apple AAPL-Q supplier Foxconn’s founder-director Terry Gou had warned China that the government’s zero-COVID stance would threaten the position of the world’s second-largest economy in the global supply chain, the Wall Street Journal reported. The appeal, sent by Gou in a letter more than a month ago, played a major role in convincing China’s leadership to quickly reopen the economy and move away from its zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy, the report said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Gou’s office said in a statement that it “sternly denies” the facts in the report. Foxconn, which is the biggest assembler of iPhones, declined to comment, while China’s State Council Information Office could not be immediately reached for comment. The Taiwan-based company’s Zhengzhou plant, which saw a month-long unrest in November, has lifted its “closed-loop” management curbs on Thursday. The Zhengzhou plant had been grappling with strict COVID restrictions that fuelled discontent...

Employees work on the production line at a Beijing Benz Automotive Co factory, in Beijing. FLORENCE LO/Reuters China’s economy lost more steam in November as factory output slowed and retail sales extended declines, both missing forecasts and clocking their worst readings in six months, hobbled by surging COVID-19 cases and widespread virus curbs. The data suggested a further deterioration in economic conditions as lockdowns in many cities, a property-sector crunch and weakening global demand pointed to a bumpy road ahead even as Beijing ditched some of the world’s toughest anti-virus restrictions following widespread and rare public protests. Industrial output rose 2.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, missing expectations for a 3.6 per cent gain in a Reuters poll and slowing significantly from the 5.0 per cent growth seen in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Thursday. It marked the slowest growth since May, partly due to disruptions in key manu...

A China Southern Airlines plane in Colomiers, France, on Nov. 26, 2018. REGIS DUVIGNAU/Reuters China Southern Airlines has scheduled two Boeing 737 Max flights for Friday, its mobile app showed, which if completed would be the first commercial services for the model by a Chinese airline since a March 2019 grounding. The scheduled flights are domestic journeys from the southern city of Guangzhou to Zhengzhou and from Guangzhou to Wuhan, the app showed. China Southern had also initially scheduled a return to commercial service for the 737 Max in October 2022 but did not use it on the planned flights. Boeing BA-N said it would defer to airlines to comment on flight operations, while China Southern did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia but has returned to service around the world with the exception of China and Russia after modifications to the aircraft and pilot training. Foreign air...

A Boeing Co 737 Max made its first passenger flight in China in nearly four years on Friday, marking a major milestone in the U.S. plane maker’s attempt to rebuild its business in the world’s second-largest aviation market. The China Southern Airlines Co Ltd domestic flight from Guangzhou to Zhengzhou departed at 0445 GMT using a Max plane, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. The best-selling Boeing model was grounded in March 2019 after fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, but returned to service around the world starting in late 2020 after modifications to the aircraft and pilot training. “Boeing continues to work with global regulators and customers to safely return the 737 Max to service worldwide,” the plane maker said. The company’s shares were down about 0.5 per cent in U.S. premarket trading. China is the last major market to resume flying the Max amid ongoing trade tensions with the United States, and the return comes as domestic travel demand rebounds af...