Authored by Dan Dicker via OilPrice.com,
The OPEC meeting is over and the cartel has extended production cuts throughout 2018. The decision is obviously crucial to supporting oil prices, but perhaps an even bigger story is the relentless strategy from the young Saudi Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, being played out both inside OPEC and in his own country. And oil is the key to it all.
Judging by the market's euphoric reaction this morning, the Senate's passage of the tax bill on Saturday is nothing but good news for stocks (well, maybe not the Nasdaq). And indeed, banks - whose effective tax rate is around 30% - and other tax-sensitive companies are surging, with banks are outperforming and sending the KBW bank index up as much as 2.8% to a fresh decade-high (BofA up as much as 3.9% to the highest since Oct. 2008; JPM up as much as 3.4% to record high; Citigroup up as much as 2.7% to highest since Dec. 2008).
After years of fighting, the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, has reportedly fallen under control of Houthi rebel fighters, according to media citing the Interior Ministry. The Iran-backed group has allegedly retaken the city after killing former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose death was just confirmed by a party official.
#BREAKING Yemen ex-president Saleh confirmed dead: party official
— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 4, 2017
Over the weekend, President Trump launched into what appeared to be an all-out verbal war with the FBI when in a series of tweets, Trump slammed the bureau for its reported anti-Trump bias in both the Clinton email probe and its investigation of Russian collusion involving the Trump administration. Among his harsher tweets were the following:
President Trump set off a new wave of mainstream media outrage over the weekend when he publicly admitted that he was aware that Flynn had lied to the FBI and Vice President when he made the decision to fire him. Not surprisingly, the Left has used the admission to once again suggest that Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey for simply pursuing charges against someone who Trump himself already knew to be guilty.