Business

One problem with the jobs "recovery" that many people still can't quite figure out, is if jobs are growing, why are wages relatively flat.

As we have explained on numerous occasions, the jobs that have been created can largely been divvied up between leisure and hospitality (our waiter and bartender chart should be familiar to all regular readers of this site), and part-time help, with any wage growth being found at two extremes instead of broadly based throughout the spectrum, as Matt King recently pointed out.

Today's steep selloff was launched by the latest jawboning by Lockhart and Williams who, now that the S&P 500 is back comfortably above 2000, once again hinted that a June rate hike is back on the table. Incidentally, the dynamic of the Fed responding to the market, and the market responding to the Fed, has been the only one worth paying attention to in recent months.

Confused? Don't be. Here is an explanation from none other than Bank of America.

Submitted by Arthur Berman via OilPrice.com,

Data suggests that oil producers need prices in the $70-80 range to survive. That is unlikely in the next year or so. Without more timely price relief, the future looks grim for an industry on life support.

EIA Revises Consumption Upward

Major EIA revisions to world oil consumption* data provide a new perspective on oil-market balance.

Once again the narrative spewing forth from today's Fed speakers is that "the market is too pessimistic" presumably meaning the bond market because stocks are near record highs; and crucially, that despite collapsing industrial production, plunging GDP expectations, near-record inventories, and weakness in employment data that the US economy is "doing well" and that "June is a live meeting" for a rate hike... the equity market is not amused...

While we are not sure if the market has finally had time to actually read Goldman's oil note from Sunday night (posted here at the same time) and understand that far from bullish Goldman actually warned that the market rebalancing is taking far longer and as a result is lowering its 2017 price targets, there was one additional curious highlight in the report: Goldman's breakdown of critical prices bands for oil which actually is a useful guide for how the broader market (if devoid of momentum-chasing algo traders) would respond with oil trading in any given price i