Business
Oil Rises To $74 On Equities
Oil prices rose by almost two per cent on Thursday due to an industry report that showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories and as robust economic indicators injected confidence into financial markets.
U.S. crude prices for July rose 1.15 dollars to 74.01 dollars a barrel , taking gains for the week to almost four dollars a barrel.
ICE Brent rose 99 cents to 74.74 dollars a barrel by the same time.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late on Wednesday U.S. crude stockpiles fell by more-than-expected last week, dropping by 1.4 million barrels versus market expectations of just a 100,000 barrel fall.
Oil traders awaited confirmation of the decline from government statistics due later on Thursday.
Optimism from surprisingly strong U.S. housing data and double-digit auto sales growth also extended into Thursday, boosting equities in Asia and Europe and pressuring the U.S. dollar.
“We’ve seen oil prices taking their cues to a large degree from equity market movements,” said Toby Hassall, chief commodities analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty Ltd.
“If this spike in risk aversion is reversing, you might expect the U.S. dollar to give up some recent gains.
“That improvement in risk appetite might feed into oil prices, and the typical seasonal decline in stockpiles in the U.S. would also be supportive,” he said.
In addition to the crude stocks decline, the API said gasoline stocks in the United States fell by 962,000 barrels last week, compared with forecasts for a 500,000 barrel decline.
Stocks of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 852,000 barrels, above expectations for a 100,000 rise.
Concern about a slowdown in China’s economy weighed on oil prices earlier this week, hitting sentiment already battered by Europe’s debt crisis.
But U.S. pending home sales in April rose more than expected to a six-month high, the third consecutive month of gains, fuelling optimism that an economic recovery is gaining steam in the world’s top economy.
“Crude demand will ease slightly ahead of the seasonal pick-up in the second half of this year, but we remain confident it will still grow strongly in 2010,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
