For the first two months of 2016, it seemed as if a modest, if stable, rebound was finally taking place among one of the hardest hit transportation sectors of 2015, rails. Alas, like virtually everything else, this too has proven to be nothing more than a dead cat coming back to life and getting run over by a train.
Last week, National Bank's Peter Routledge did some “back of the envelope" calculations and determined that Chinese buyers might well have accounted for one-third of all real estate purchased in Vancouver during 2015. Here’s how he came to that rather startling conclusion:
The "short energy" trade worked great for a while and then, as we first warned in late January, just as everyone jumped onboard leading to record WTI (and oil and gas equity) shorts, it very suddenly stopped working in early February when oil proceeded to soar by 50% in the month ahead, leading to the biggest short squeeze on record and crushing all those who had recently gotten on the short bandwagon (as well as most other shorts).
Following last week's major surge in crude inventories, API reported a 2.6mm build (against expectations of a 3.1mm build) - 7th week in a row - which briefly jumped crude prices higher. A 319k draw at Cushing combined with draws in Gasoline (6th week in a row) and Distillates left oil pushing back to late-day highs.
API Details:
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Wall Street is counting its winnings from seven years of easy money.
The results represent a clear victory for Wall Street over Main Street, according to the team of Michael Hartnett, BofA’s chief investment strategist.