Jan 20 @ 10:53am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Economy, Global Energy, Natural Gas, UK natural gas
Good day, good day! Crude has toppled below the monkey bar of $100 late on this week as – would you believe - Euro debt concerns arise once more. In addition, crude has been clobbered by a disheartening domestic demand situation. Total product demand is down 7.2% on this time last year, while gasoline demand has just plummeted to its lowest level since 2001. And while on the subject of plummeting to new lows, the good ship natty has keeled over and made a decade low as supply remains staunch and the storage surplus swells (…while weather is set to swelter). Ay, there’s the rub, and here’s the grub. » read more
Jan 19 @ 10:58am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Global Energy, Risk Strategy
Given the popularity of last week’s post linking natural gas to Star Wars, I figured I would try to be a one-trick pony squeeze as much mileage out of this one as I could. Since some readers were flabbergasted at the omission of certain characters, here are some new analogies, with the emphasis on the crude complex. » read more
Jan 13 @ 10:55am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Economy, Global Energy, Natural Gas
Happy Friday 13th! And it is indeed turning out to be an unlucky day for markets, as credit downgrades to European countries have scuppered the goodwill that had been carefully constructed in the last week.
Crude had already been pressured back into double-digitdom by the likely delay to an oil embargo on Iran by the EU, while natural gas has plundered lower and lower on moderate weather outlooks, and both rampant storage surpluses and supply. But enough from me, let’s hit the treats. » read more
Jan 12 @ 10:55am by Matt Smith in Natural Gas, risk management
Recently I’ve been sounding like a broken record as I keep referencing how natural gas prices are re-enacting a certain scene from Star Wars.
It’s the one where the Millennium Falcon is being inextricably pulled towards the Death Star by a tractor beam…except in naturalgasworld™, natty is the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star is below the $3 mark. With me so far? Good, good. The analogies, however, do not end there. There is a number of themes which flow through natural gas like the force…and here are but a few. » read more
Jan 6 @ 10:58am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Global Energy, Natural Gas
Happy 2012 and all that gubbins. Time to get our heads out of the clouds (lenticular ones at that, see left) and our feet back on the ground after a welcome respite. This first trading week of the year has sure been eventful, although somewhat with familiar themes flowing through it. Crude prices have been involved in a game of tug-of-war, with geopolitical concerns on one end of the rope, and European debt woes on the other. As for natural gas, there is again the familiar themes of non-extreme weather and strong supply / storage data to aid it in pootling lower. Any hoo, let’s chew: » read more
