Posted on 08/08/2005 7:38:48 PM PDT by Jomini
With little news to restrain oil markets, crude prices began the week by hitting a record $64 a barrel yesterday, pushed higher by concerns over Middle East supplies and refinery shutdowns in the United States.
The latest incident was a fire on Saturday that shut a refinery in Philadelphia that produced 200,000 barrels a day. There was no word from its operator, Sunoco, on when the refinery would restart.
"OPEC? They are irrelevant,"
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The endless supply of dollars flooding the world markets simply means that while last week 42 of the pieces of paper wampum could be exchanged for a barrel of oil, this week will require a few more.
The entire economic structure of the West being slowly melted before our very eyes.
J
Evidently the market is not impressed with the Energy Bill winding its way to the President's desk. Coincidence?
Oh i dont think its that ominous.
Plenty of hedge funds are making record profits.
New Cars are being build that are more fuel efficent driving another buying surge. People are selling their SUV's for compact cr.p we got in 70. Just another cycle, first oil co's get money, then car manuf. adjust by building compact death traps.
Plus its a nice back drop for pushing for new exploration for the oil co's...
It's all good volatility brings profits...
"The entire economic structure of the West being slowly melted before our very eyes."
US Dollar and Bush mega deficits, and the debt already incurred without nary a hope of being resolved.
Other factors too, including hedge funds deciding oil a good investment, a self-serving prophecy.
Energy bill a joke. Four years ago Bush gave some hope with the "hydrogen economy." Energy bill? A lot of oil company tax breaks without limits that the breaks need to be targeted to investments for the future.
Republican borrow and spend policy chickens coming home to the roost.
Oh they're impressed, all the way to the bank. This must be a first in American History, bail out an industry that had record profits.
"It's all good volatility brings profits... "
Profits for some....... at my expense. I don't see my hedge fund growing accordingly, savings account earning more interest, but that $50.00 dollar bill to fill my truck compared to $30.00 less than a year ago is less money I have to spend on consumer goods, eating out, grocerys, movies.
I see none of those profits for others coming back to me anytime soon. In fact..... I predict..... once the money is gone, it will not return to my wallet. Some CEO will get it in his fat bonus.
Anyone but me wonder about this one. Refineries turn crude into gas(and other things). Refinery shuts down, crude goes up. Shouldn't it be gas goes up (less being produced) and crude goes down (less being refined)?
Waiting for the final, ugly relaxation. There is only so much froth all the speculators can push. At some point, most market players will catch on and will run for the door. Good. Especially the frothers who come here to FR - they deserve it the worst of all!
That's because the price has nothing to do with supply and demand right now - it's 100% emotion. The frothers have been in command. But they are gonna fall HARD!
The solution is to profit on this by buying Puts on some oil contracts that expire next year sometime. (Or later.) That is what I am going to do. You might as well profit from this "bubble".
Frrrrrrrothhhhh! And as anyone who tries to ride the froth too long will attest, the punishment will indeed come ...
LOL! That is exactly the right thing to do!
Oil prices continue at record highs on Saudi security fears, supply worries (Forbes)
Oil Rises Above $64 on Refinery Outages, Saudi, Iran Concerns (Bloomberg)
"Refineries turn crude into gas(and other things). Refinery shuts down, crude goes up. Shouldn't it be gas goes up (less being produced) and crude goes down (less being refined)?"
You're right, it's just a game they're playing in order to justify getting into the government sponsored incentive program. One problem is that there are no independent speculators. All of them are connected to brokers who in turn are connected to the oil giants getting the government sponsored corporate welfare. Right now most gas contains about 1% water but refiners could put another 1% in and call it conservation then receive the incentive. It's no win for anyone except for the oil/gas giants that already made record profits.
Rubbish
""Evidently the market is not impressed with the Energy Bill winding its way to the President's desk. Coincidence?""
Why would they be? It wont impact energy prices for 5 years minimum
budget deficits have nothing to do with high oil prices or vice versa.
From 1981-85, the US ran increasingly large budget deficits as measured by GDP. Oil prcies fell from $39 to $10 per barrel.
From 1998-2000, the budget moved into surplus to the tune of $250 billion annually, yet oil prices nearly quadrupled.
i think you need to learn a bit of economic history becasue you sound like a hyperbolic nutcase
""That is why we never hear about term limits and line item veto anymore. It is just spend, spend, spend and buy votes, over and over again.""
well the Supreme Court ruled the Line Item Veto unconstitutional back in 1995 or 1996....guess you were sleeping
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