Energy falls on BOJ’s lack of action
The Bank of Japan took no action on their current lending program after two days of discussions between officials, surprising analysts across the globe who had anticipated big news following the meeting. The Bank of Japan currently have a $1.6 trillion monetary stimulus package being injected into the economy, so their lack of action was seen as yet another signal of a major central bank refusing to expand on their quantitative easing.
Japan are the worlds third largest consumer of energy, following only the United States of America and China in their usage. The news lead to concerns from investors around demand for the “black gold” and other energy sources in the near to medium term.
Energy stocks were not alone in their declines. Commodities, certain currencies and equities all tumbled on the news. After the announcement the only stocks index which looked likely to end its days trading in the green was the S&P/ASX 200, which made slight gains of 0.41 percent.
The announcement led Western Texas Intermediate crude to a second successive day of declines, sliding by 1.8 percent at its lowest. At the time of writing WTI was down to 1.24 percent to $94.58 per barrel for July delivery. Brent crude oil was down by 1.43 percent for the day, resting at 102.46 after shedding $1.49 to the barrel. TOCOM crude oil was down by 3.17 percent, leading the oil declines.
RBOB Gasoline slid by 1.45 percent, along with NYMEX Heating Oil and ICE Gasoil, which registered declines of 1.40 percent and 1.24 percent respectively.
