A lot of people were expecting that Saddam Hussein would pull a trick before year-end because he was trying to put pressure on the U.N. to lift sanctions or try to alter the position of the sanction, so he threatened two weeks ago to stop exporting oil, ... The traders panicked in anticipation of a supply shortage, but Iraq never stopped producing oil. |
A rise in oil prices is not good news for the equity market or the economy. |
A rise in oil prices stifles economic growth, ... There is a close correlation between gasoline prices and retail sales. Paying more per week for gas means less disposable income, which impacts retail and the purchasing power of the consumer, as does a higher average home heating bill due to the cost of fuel oil. |
All these alternative energy sources are unlikely to make a dent in the big picture. It's going to be many, many years into the future before we see any meaningful results. I don't think any real analysts or investors are betting the ranch on hydrogen. |
All these companies have so much money, they don't know what to do with it. |
All these things are beginning to show up. When you have rising energy prices, something has to give. It's not going to go unmatched by costs. |
All they want to do is maintain the same speed. |
Alliances are temporary engagement periods and are short of a merger, but they get in the way of the business and are distracting from bigger and better things. |
Also, the president is making speeches trying to talk oil prices down and say the situation is better, but talk won't change the underlying fundamentals. Demand is still strong, supply is still tight. So even if perception changes for a bit, the situation is no different. |
And there is no near-term solution for any of these things. |
Any cooling in economic growth immediately will take oil demand down so one would expect the price will come down. |
As long as oil prices remain high, oil stocks will continue to outperform the market in general. |
At the end of the day, people who lose their jobs aren't going to go anywhere. |
Barring any serious supply disruption, there is plenty of oil and prices could drop if the weather stays warm. But we have tremendous speculation in the markets driving prices, so there is no way to guarantee they will continue to fall. |
Basically the stocks are following the sentiment on the crude side more than anything else. There are no big surprises. |