Svmuu News: Oil prices edged lower on Friday, offering some relief to battered global stock markets, but Asian stocks are still set to post their biggest weekly decline in six years as the conflict in the Middle East shows little sign of abating. Reports that the U.S. government is considering intervening in the futures market to curb rising oil prices caused prices to drop, but the week is still set to mark the largest weekly gain since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began; oil prices have risen nearly 20% this week. Michael Brown, Senior Research Strategist at Pepperstone, said oil prices are consolidating temporarily, fluctuating near current levels, as a wait-and-see attitude has temporarily taken hold. Dalip Singh, Chief Global Economist at PGIM Fixed Income, noted that the market needs to assess a range of more extreme scenarios, but reliable information regarding the likelihood of each scenario and its transition phases is currently scarce. (Jin Shi)