Business

With the seasonally drawdown-prone December completed, we begin seasonally build-prone January with expectations for a 2mm barrel build. However, according to API, both total and Cushing inventory levels tumbled (-3.9mm and 300k respectively). Great news - so why is crude tumbling? Simple - massive builds in end-products again with Gasoline up a massive 7mm barrels and Distillates up 3.6mm barrels. Having ramped off sub-$30 levels aftwr NYMEX closed, and lifted by the Iran-US news, WTI is sliding back rapidly.

The largest 2-week Gasoline invenrtiory build ever...

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are advising investors to brace themselves for a “cataclysmic year”, warning that stock markets are likely to crash and oil prices will dip to $16 USD per barrel.  The banks credit team have warned clients that the markets appear to be flashing similar “stress alerts” that preceded the Lehman crisis in 2008, advising clients to “sell everything”. “Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small,” the bank told clients.

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Switzerland is famous for being punctual.

The trains. The buses. The meticulously crafted, hand polished luxury watches.

The Swiss are so culturally punctual that they even tend to pay their taxes well in advance of the filing deadline.

So it was quite a shock to hear this morning that the Swiss canton of Zug is asking its citizens to delay paying their taxes for as long as possible.

Why? Negative interest rates.

By EconMatters https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global

Berkley City Council in California has voted unanimously to hold Monsanto legally liable for polluting the land and water with highly toxic PCBs. The council’s 6-0 vote means that Berkeley will join Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Spokane and Washington, in filing suits against the agricultural biotech giant. The news follows Monsanto’s announcement of cutting a total of 3,600 jobs due to declining sales. NBC reports: The suit will seek to recover the cost of cleaning up PCBs, synthetic organic chemicals whose full name is polychlorinated biphenyl.