Business

After meandering steadily higher for the past week, and completely ignoring the negative newsflow out of the Doha meeting, today oil took an unexpected leg lower to 4-day lows, leaving many stumped: what caused this drop?

The answer, according to Citi, is the realization Saudi Arabia is actually making good on its threat to boost production (recall that just one day ahead of Doha, Saudi deputy crown prince bin Salman said he could add a million barrels immediately) something we noted a month ago in "Why Saudi Arabia Has No Intention To End The Oil Glut."

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

My grandfather was something of a Renaissance Man.

He was a farmer, schoolteacher, fisherman, collector, real estate investor… and one of those guys who always seemed to know how to do everything.

He could take apart an engine, build a house with his bare hands, tame wild horses, treat life-threatening wounds, play the guitar… and he was extremely well respected in his community.

Bloomberg's Richard Breslow, former FX trader and fund manager who now comments on markets, has been on a roll lately. One week ago, he officially lost it, going on an epic rant how central banks have devastated "markets" with their constant intervention (proven yet again with today's report that the BOJ now is a Top 10 owner of 90% of Japanese stocks): "You don’t need to be a Taleb or Mandelbrot to calculate that we have been having once in a hundred year events on a regular basis for the last thirty years" he raged.

Submitted by Tho Bishop via The Mises Institute,

On Wednesday, Jack Lew announced that the US Treasury was following Ben Bernanke’s advice and keeping Alexander Hamilton on the $10, instead deciding to bring Harriett Tubman to the $20. While Lew’s news left America distracted in debate over whose portrait should grace the Federal Reserve’s most popular bank note, Zerohedge was highlighting how China was taking important steps to distance themselves from the dollar.

Submitted by Rakesh Upadhyay via OilPrice.com,

Saudi Arabia single-handedly scuttled the Doha meeting, knowing all along that Iran would not participate, with a valid reason. The Russians and others agreed to proceed without Iran, planning to include them at a later date. So if everything was known beforehand, why did the Saudi’s pour cold water on the aspirations of the remaining members, risking its alienation from Russia and the OPEC community?