Well, the solar flux is up to 71 and Nov’s sunspots are already more than Oct’s. It looks as if Solar Cycle 24 is finally here. Unfortunately the time and intensity fluctuations between Cycle 23 and 24 nearly match those of the 2 cycles at the start of the Dalton Minimum.
Reuters
Oil rises above $57, OPEC lends support
Thursday November 13, 9:39 am ET
By Barbara Lewis
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $57 a barrel on Thursday, recovering from a 22-month low as it drew limited support from news OPEC might take more emergency action to compensate for a deep drop in energy demand.
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Faced with the prospect stocks will swell as consumers stop buying, pushing prices even lower, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it was considering an emergency meeting on November 28 in Cairo.
Only last month, it agreed to cut output by 1.5 million bpd at emergency talks in Vienna.
“The only thing supporting the market is the possibility of OPEC cuts at the end of the month, but the production cuts would probably only be in step with falls in demand,” said Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial.
“The economic picture is terrible and the IEA only confirmed that.”
BREAK-NECK FALL
Oil has lost more than 60 percent of its value since hitting an all-time high above $147 a barrel in July.
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The sell-off has accelerated as the global economic crisis has driven traders to take their money out of riskier assets such as oil, which has been strongly correlated to falls on wider financial markets.
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Later on Thursday, the focus for the oil market will shift to the latest U.S. inventory data for release at 11 a.m. EST, a day later than usual because of a public holiday in the United States on Monday.