Energy OverView May 31, 2012

July crude oil has declined sharply under the weight of expectations that the EU’s problems will not only hit aggregate demand hard there, but that the virus will spread. The surge in Italian and Spanish borrowing costs appear to be singling out the next victims, and sending investors scurrying to the greenback, producing additional weight on crude oil prices.… Read more

Energy OverView May 30, 2012

Quite simply, the euro is under attack and dragging most asset classes down with it. Investors have little incentive to buy and hold, even at depressed levels, as long as the likelihood of a sustainable uptrend emerging anytime soon is low.… Read more

Energy OverView May 29, 2012

The weekend passes and the world did not come to an end. Bloomberg’s prediction of another Lehman like post-weekend Lehman-like meltdown did not materialize. Actually, commentary from European monetary officialdom sounded like renewed commitment to keeping Greece in the fold. After all, the social, political and economic fallout will be much greater if they do not.… Read more

Energy OverView May 24, 2012

July crude oil spent the European and early NYMEX sessions grinding higher but pared some of those gains into the close. The support was a product of a failure of talks between Iran and the West to advance further, and a sense of immediacy that resolution in Europe must be found soon.… Read more

Energy OverView May 24, 2012

EIA added the insult of another build to crude stocks, to the injury of capital fleeing to safety. In fact, a German treasury issue yesterday was snapped up even though it bore a zero coupon. In effect, investors paying the issuer to sit on their money.… Read more

Energy OverView May 23, 2012

One of our journalist friends recently compared business reportage to sports. “You know, lots of numbers, pretty girls”, she said. This morning one pundit, reporting the box score, was actually assigning a percentage probability to the re-adoption by Greece of the drachma.… Read more

Energy OverView May 22, 2012

Continuation of the Facebook inanity yesterday obscured macroeconomic machinations for another day. Specifically, a meeting between IAEA representatives and Iran’s nuclear chiefs produced no significant breakthroughs prior to tomorrow’s meeting in Baghdad between Iran and a six-power coalition over the former’s suspected weapons development.… Read more

Energy OverView May 21,2012

The happy talk from Camp David over the weekend recalls another summit a few years ago when some of these very same faces pledged to act in “unison” in dealing with the economic crisis then and serves to emphasize policymakers’ powerlessness in dealing with the weighty issues before them.… Read more

Energy OverView May 18, 2012

Market participants had little reason for optimism yesterday when data on jobless benefits showed little improvement and the Philadelphia Fed reported factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region contracted. But June WTI has moved back to unchanged levels after posting a new low for the three month sell off at 91.60 in the overnight Asian session.… Read more

Energy OverView May 17, 2012

As the market awaits the conclusion to Greece’s agony, about the only supportive possibility, right now, would be a break in talks with Iran over the nuclear issue. Initial commentary from preparatory meetings for the main event seem to make that a low probability.… Read more