Category: The Energy OverView

The focus remains firmly fixed on Europe’s dilemma as it should be, with aggregate demand jeopardized. Policymakers huddle to find resolution, so far with little result save hopeful commentary. They have embarked on a series of rescue packages designed to prop up banks, keep vulnerable peripheral countries countries inside the euro,and help them begin…

Crude oil extended Friday’s losses in the overnight Asian session as they played catch-up in responding to the disappointing round of economic data at week’s end, particularly the US jobs numbers. Europe continued that path as it opened for business this morning, posting a new low for the move at 81.21.… Read more

European policymakers continue to slouch towards the Armageddon that financial market participants are voting is imminent. No mistaking the almost 18% monthly drop as anything but that. The people of the EU’s members have been the beneficiaries of a comprehensive social safety net since WWII.… Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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