Global oil prices fell about 2% on Monday after falling similarly on Friday due to investors' disappointment with the Chinese government's weak economic stimulus package.
In another bad sign for China's economy, the Singles' Day online shopping holiday was disappointing, posting the lowest sales since the event began in 2009.
Phil Flynn, Senior Analyst, Price Futures Group said Reuters reported on Monday that the U.S. Veterans Day holiday and last week's election of President Donald Trump could also be factors in lower oil prices.
Mr. Flynn said Veterans Day slowed trading for a day, but Trump's “drill, baby, drill” promise may have “taken away some of the incentive to go long.”
Traders also note that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has plans to: increase production Soon, long-term price forecasts will be revised downward. Sources within OPEC+ (the group that includes Russia) say: said In late October, the company announced that production increases may be postponed until global demand increases.
Flynn and other analysts believe China's economic weakness is the main reason for the oil price decline. Chinese demand is currently weakening, and President Trump's impact on global oil markets will not be felt until late next year at the earliest.
China's already sluggish economy was thrown into a slump last week due to Beijing's policies. announced The long-awaited economic stimulus package. The plan appeared to be primarily aimed at bailing out local governments from huge debts. I'm very sorry Percentage of investors who were willing to invest heavily in growth initiatives.
This disappointment was immediately felt on Singles' Day, which was originally a public holiday. cast It was established in the 1990s as a day for young Chinese people to explore dating and courtship in a culture that favors arranging marriages to unite men and women. November 11th was chosen because the date is written with all 1s, or “singular”: 11/11.
In 2008, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba came up with the idea of turning the popular holiday into an online shopping festival, encouraging buyers to splurge on their significant other, or on themselves if they're alone. One of Alibaba's early Singles' Day slogans was “If you don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend, at least you can shop like crazy!”
In fact, over the years that followed, people shopped like crazy as more e-commerce companies joined the shopping festival. Turning Singles' Day into China's answer to Black Friday has become a point of pride for many shoppers. Similar to Black Friday, this event expanded to eventually span an entire week and continues to grow. The first Singles' Day sale of the year is spotted October 14th, over a week earlier than last year.
The longer duration of the shopping event has made it harder to judge its success than in the first few years, when Alibaba and its competitors posted impressive single-day sales. Associated Press (AP) noticed On Monday, the overall impression of Singles' Day 2024 was disappointing, with many customers saying they stuck to essentials and dismissed the big holiday “sales” as just a prank.
This year, while purchases of luxury items fell sharply, sales of discounted items and basic items were strong. Alibaba and several other major platforms will stop publishing their sales numbers in 2022, suggesting they have nothing to be proud of. Many retailers pulled out of the Singles' Day extravaganza, feeling that the increased sales were not worth the exorbitant advertising fees.
“People are not interested in spending and are refraining from purchasing big-ticket items. Since October 2022, everything has been discounted all year round due to the economic downturn, and even on November 11, we cannot expect discounts to be higher than the previous month,” China said. Sean Lane, founder and managing director of Market Research Group, told The Associated Press.
Alibaba, the inventor of Singles' Day as a shopping event, will apparently shift its resources to offering free worldwide shipping to overseas buyers rather than spending large amounts of money promoting the shopping holiday. I have decided that.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said Market analysts said on Monday they expected “solid growth” for Singles' Day and would interpret any decline below that as a sign of declining consumer confidence.
Consulting firm VO2 Asia Pacific predicts 15% growth on Singles Day in 2023, forecasting sales to reach around $167 billion, but Chinese consumers will reach discount threshold He also warned that people have developed the habit of buying in bulk until then returning most of it. Because they bought, the final sales figures are likely to be much lower than what the companies will announce on Tuesday.
