Business

Anyone who has ever invested in distressed securities is intimately familiar with the many games that companies play to avoid a bankruptcy filing.  The easiest game, and the most obvious red flag for investors to spot, involves stretching out payables and managing down receivable days to build cash so you can live to fight another day.  While this may provide a temporary cash boost, it's typically the beginning of the end as vendors simply move payment terms to COD and the game quickly comes to an end.

For the 24th week of the last 26, oil rigs rose (by 2) to 474, the highest since January 2016. US crude production rose again last week tracking the lagged trend of rising rig counts in the US.

Notably US crude production looks set to rise given the rig count moves (and if OPEC agrees a deal and spooks prices higher, that production may well arrive sooner).

By EconMatters

We delve into Equities, Bonds, Commodities and The US Dollar in this video with what could be a likely catalyst for the next risk on move higher in risk based assets. A lot more than higher Oil Prices is riding on the OPEC Deal for a continuation of this Risk On Rally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye0jM3VppY0

The day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, is when the holiday shopping season in the United States traditionally begins and is the day when retailers (at least in the past) finally turned a profit, going from “being in the red” to “in the black.” However, in recent years, this trend has seen turned upside down, with sales on Black Friday slipping, as retailers offer pre-Thanksgiving deals ever earlier than in recent years to capture heavily discounted market share (think OPEC) and draw shoppers as "Black Friday" no longer marks the spending peak at brick-and-mortar chains.

A crude draw and bigger than expected gasoline build overnight from API did nothing for oil prices as OPEC headlines dominate trading and DOE data confirmed API with a modest crude draw and bigger than expected Gasoline build. Oil prices are rising on Iraq headlines even as crude production rose very modestly.

API

• Crude -1.28mm (+1mm exp)
• Cushing -140k (-100k exp)
• Gasoline +2.68mm (+900k exp)
• Distillates -350k

DOE