OPEC Talks Up Oil Prices as Shorts Grow in Numbers
OPEC’s just had it with you short sellers. So it’s going to… meet. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Oil had another little bounce on Monday after OPEC’s president said oil’s bear market was temporary — NB: that’s something you kind of have to say if you head OPEC — and members would hold an informal meeting next month.
The latter, especially, may raise memories of the “freeze,” the proposed agreement between OPEC and Russia to cap production that didn’t come about but helped tee up the spring rally after the market meltdown at the start of the year. This time, Russia stands aloof and there’s only talk of a meeting. Still, OPEC’s verbal intervention echoes the start of the year in one interesting way:
Speculative net length in WTI crude oil futures and options just fell below the equivalent of 300 million barrels for the first time since March. And the latest move was much more about shorts taking on positions rather than longs simply unwinding.
The summer rally has crumbled as booming gasoline demand has turned out to be less booming than previously thought and oil prices recently fell through a number of technical floors in rapid succession.
U.S. Household Debt Rose $35 Billion to $12.3 Trillion
From 2008 to 2013, total household debts dropped by more than $1.5 trillion. But first student-loan and auto-loan balances began to rise, and then mortgages and finally credit cards. Total household debt balances are now $400 billion below their 2008 peak.
The average Chicago household that now pays $686.04 a year for water and sewer services will pay $53.16 more in 2017 and $225.96 more in the fourth year. Emanuel has ruled out alternatives and blamed the Wall Street rating agencies.
On Monday, Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry and current OPEC President, Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, said in an official OPEC press release that an informal meeting of OPEC member countries was slated to take place on the sidelines of the 15th International Energy Forum in Algeria between September 26 and 28, 2016, but OPEC’s official statement abstains from referring to any talks on an oil price freeze.
People Are Calling Natural Gas a ‘Bridge’ to a Sustainable Future—They’re Wrong
For America to reach full renewable energy, we need to re-focus our investments — and divest ourselves of some dangerous ideas about natural gas. Natural gas coming out of the ground in Taiwan. (Photo: Naplee12/Wikimedia Commons) It’s been a hot summer, with record-breaking heat in the United States and around the world, and the same can be said for all of 2016 so far. According to new reports from National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Goddard Space Institute , 2016 is on course to be the hottest year on record around the globe. That makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a warming record — which should cause us grave concern. Indeed, the severe effects of climate change, including both drought and flooding in some of the poorest countries in the world, will lead to population dislocations that will likely exacerbate many of the dangerous […]
