– This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on August 12, Friday.
Welcome to CNBC Business Daily, I'm Qian Chen.
Oil prices rose more than 4 percent on Thursday on comments from the Saudi oil minister about possible action to stabilize prices and as the International Energy Agency forecast crude markets would tighten in the second half of 2016.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said OPEC members and non-members would discuss the market situation, including any action that may be required to stabilize prices, during an informal meeting on Sept. 26-28 in Algeria.
The comments by the minister of the world's top oil exporter triggered fund buying and some algorithmic trades, giving a boost to prices, traders and brokers said.
However, most traders remain skeptical of the outcome, expecting a repeat of the Doha meeting in April when talks fell through after Saudi Arabia backed out, citing Iran's refusal to join in a so-called production freeze.
The IEA, which advises large developed economies on energy policy, forecast a healthy draw in global oil stocks in the next few months that would help ease a glut that has persisted since 2014 on the back of rising OPEC and non-OPEC supply.
Global demand growth is expected to decline from 1.4 million barrels per day in 2016 to 1.2 million bpd in 2017, the IEA said, after a revision to the global economic outlook.
[SARAH COTTLE S&P Global Platts / Content Director, APAC] "And if you look a little bit furthur out towards October, sour crude loadings in the Middle East for Asia are looking quite weak, so I dont think we are gonna see a surging demand from China or great Asia anytime soon."
As concerns about global economic growth set in, expectations have been dampened expectations even further.
Meanwhile, gold prices are in the spotlight as well.
Investors' rabid appetite for gold is showing no signs of abating, as figures from the World Gold Council show record investment in the first half of 2016.
The trend for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to pile in to the precious metal, a classic safe haven amid uncertainty in the global economy and the search for yield, sent the price of gold soaring by 25 percent in the first half of the year, the biggest price rise since 1980. For the first time ever, investment, rather than jewelry, was the largest component of gold demand for two consecutive quarters.
Demand by investors set a record of 1,064 tons during the first six months of 2016. For comparison, this was 16 percent higher than in the first half of 2009, when the financial crisis raged.
CNBC's Qian Chen, reporting from Singapore.