Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,
Oil production can be confusing because there are various “pieces” that may or may not be included. In this analysis, I look at oil production of the United States broadly (including crude oil, natural gas plant liquids, and biofuels), because this is the way oil consumption is defined. I also provide some thoughts regarding the direction of future world oil prices.
The Doha-disappointment appears to have sparked some risk-aversion as yesterday saw Russia's biggest exchange-traded fund - Market Vectors Russia ETF - suffer its largest outflows since May 2015.
However, in a perfect example of ill-timed moves, Russian stocks have soared over 6% from the knee-jerk lows pushing back up towards cycle highs.
Submitted by John Browne via Euro Pacific Capital,
As the WSJ wryly put it this morning, "Officials at the European Central Bank surely celebrated Tuesday's survey showing the last barrage of asset purchases and negative rates had a positive effect on bank lending to households and businesses."
Alas, as the WSJ also adds, "policy makers may want to hold off uncorking the champagne just yet. In fact, most banks answering the survey said the ECB's policies had no impact at all."
Judging by the exuberant equity market, it is not 'low' gas prices, but high gas prices that are "unequivocally good" for America - after all the market is ultimate arbiter of how the average joe feels, right? However, if you drive a car - or gas-hungry truck - you may have noticed something in the last month or so - gas prices at the pump are up almost 25% from the mid-Feb lows, the biggest surge since July 2009.