» Energy

The price of the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO) appears to be headed for difficulty in the short-term. An Adam & Eve double top has formed in the last month that could lead to at least a modest correction. (From the December 9, 2011 blog for Decision Point subscribers.) Click here for FREE TRIAL! Th...

Hydrocarbons have become the lifeblood of this modern era.  And with a huge economic incentive for finding and extracting them, drillers have scoured the world in search of this finite resource.  When they do find it, there is nothing more thrilling than bringing this raw form of energy to the sur...

So goes oil…so goes the economy. Today we posted an update as to why oil price spikes hurt even more when disposable incomes are already under pressure as it acts as an additional tax on the consumer.   Of course, this additional tax on a consumer that is already receiving more than 23% of...

On July 8th, 2011 we wrote a post entitled why Oil Price Spikes Feel Worse wherein we stated that “Today, more now than ever, we are barraged with economic data of which most is lost on the average person. One data point, however, that everyone understands is the price of oil as it directly...

Each year a small portion of the world’s finite oil supply is drained.  And over time this annual draw has grown larger in a world that seems to be getting smaller.  As global commerce gains fluidity, the demand for this hydrocarbon appears to be insatiable.   Transportation is of course by...

Was the end of abundant cheap domestic oil and the end of the gold-backed dollar not coincidental, but causally related? Oil and finance are inextricably linked, for as long as the US (Fed) prints dollars, and exporters accept them in trade for physical oil, then the US is able to effectively act as...

Another fun day in the equity markets. With conviction among shorts mixed, some strong some not so and longs pretty much all in market action of late is a war but not your typical war. No longer bull versus bear it is now bear versus bear. Weak hands versus strong hands. Today the weak hands won. Th...

We set another record yesterday. This one has me scratching my head. The Brent WTI spread widened to $27.22. That’s never been seen before. There are some partial explanations for this phenomenon. Brent is lighter in grade and justifies a somewhat higher price. But not $25. Another consideration ...

It has become quite apparent that major changes are necessary in the oil futures market after the latest year of volatility which had little relation to the actual fundamentals of supply and demand in the marketplace. Oil is too an important commodity to have such a large dislocation from the actual...

Commodities seem to be following the same pattern as global stock markets. That makes sense since the stock market is concerned about slowing global economies, and slowing economies obviously mean less demand for raw materials used to produce and ship products. It can be seen in the way the CRB Inde...

The U.S. economy is never completely ready for higher oil prices, which is one reason they take a nasty economic toll when they arrive. But readiness can be enhanced by awareness of the likely outlook for petroleum prices–and the outlook today is relatively grim, although probably not disastrous...

Just why did the United States and the International Energy Agency decide to release 60 million barrels of oil next month from their strategic petroleum reserves? The IEA cites the loss of 1.5 million barrels of Libyan production but that’s been going on since February. So why has it taken unt...