Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Weekly Oil report - 10:40AM

The weekly Oil report just came out. Crude oil inventories (weekly change) -4.7 M barrels While the inventory report says we drew 4.7 million barrels from inventory, the world continues to swim in crude oil. One of the largest European ports is almost filled with crude tankers with nowhere to go. The rig counts are down almost, if not, 50 percent, depending on who's data you believe. Crude extends gains as U.S. inventories fall - Marketwatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures extended gains Wednesday after government data showed a surprising decrease in crude inventories last week. Crude inventories fell by 4.7 million barrels in the week ended May 8, the Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts had expected an increase of more than 1 million barrels. After the data, crude for June delivery gained 72 cents, or 1.2%, to $59.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was up 0.4% before the data. The EIA also reported a 4.1 million barrels decrease in gasoline inventories and a 1 million barrels gain in distillates, which include diesel and heating oil. The part in bold means this - prices at the pump will be going up. We are close to the peak driving season, Memorial Day being right around the corner. The traders on the floor of the NYSE are saying oil could trade at $70 in the near future. A perfect storm is being formed right before our eyes. Let's take a little data from the Retail Sales report today: Notice the huge drop in spending at gas stations? When we consider this, plus the fact we are swimming in crude, despite the draw on inventories, we must come to this conclusion; Oil is being manipulated by the industry to drive up prices. This is a scam to take more profits for the oil companies. Sure, that's capitalism, and that's how it works, and many will defend that. Though different, this is the same kind of manipulation that got us $140.00 a barrel a year ago. This time it may backfire. Consumers are strapped, losing their jobs at alarming rate, have credit card dept up the to their eyeballs. At some point, the perfect storm will hit. We cannot handle $2.50 to $3.00 gas at the pump at this point. If the price of oil continues to climb, the economy will continue to deteriorate. This is not good.

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