Current Oil Price

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 13 Jul 2011, 16:09

Brent back over $119 on falling US stocks.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 26 Jul 2011, 19:09

And our ticker for WTI over $100 again.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 27 Jul 2011, 22:38

July 25 (Bloomberg)
The biggest bet in the oil market has become a 20 percent increase to $120 by the end of the year as global growth drives demand for raw materials.
The number of contracts held by traders in options to buy West Texas Intermediate crude at $120 a barrel in December totaled 45,502 lots on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of July 21, 4,226 lots more than the next-highest wager, which is for $125. Open interest in the two contracts jumped 29 percent in the past four weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

more

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 01 Aug 2011, 09:24

Brent up $3 on news of the US finance deal. Now testing $120 again.

It's simple really. The US prints more dollars. The price of oil (in dollars) goes up. Infinite supply of money chasing finite supply of oil.

moimitou · Post by **moimitou** » 02 Aug 2011, 17:39

Oil price is going down. Is that an indication that there is not enough wealth being generated to buy the oil or is it just a consequence of the debt deal ?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 02 Aug 2011, 18:29

moimitou wrote:Oil price is going down. Is that an indication that there is not enough wealth being generated to buy the oil or is it just a consequence of the debt deal ?

The former, IMO. The debt deal has made people worry that the US will dip back into negative growth, depressing world demand for commodities.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 02 Aug 2011, 19:15

UndercoverElephant wrote:The debt deal has made people worry that the US will dip back into negative growth, depressing world demand for commodities.

So that's what Obama meant today about growth! And I thought he was joking.

Welcome, moimitou.

moimitou · Post by **moimitou** » 03 Aug 2011, 15:37

Yes it does seem to go that way, it looks like we are near another recession.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14383704

By the way, what do you use as your main news source?

Thanks emordnilap, glad to be here.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 03 Aug 2011, 15:50

moimitou wrote: By the way, what do you use as your main news source?

The BBC as mainstream source. Google News for everything else.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 03 Aug 2011, 15:50

Gloom and doom in the markets are worse than bad economic news at the moment and that gloom can be enough to cause a run. It will take a lot of very good news to bring them back up again, profit taking excepted of course.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 03 Aug 2011, 16:19

moimitou wrote:By the way, what do you use as your main news source?

Various, including PS.

How's this from the Financial Times, no less:

Parallel currency helps underpin rock solid Swiss economy

Sir, It may well be true that Greece cannot regain its competitiveness while the euro continues to be its sole internal currency, but this does not necessarily imply the “dismantling” of the euro, whatever that may mean. The potential for parallel currencies was debated prior to the introduction of the euro, without any good reasons being found for rejecting the proposal that a national currency could usefully co-exist together with an international currency. It was presumably thought to be too innovative.

However, there have been and still are many examples of parallel or multi-level currencies serving a useful purpose within national boundaries. The best known is probably the Swiss WIR, founded after the 1929 crash and still functioning successfully today, helping to underpin the rock solid Swiss economy. There are good reasons for believing that the reintroduction of the drachma as the national currency of Greece could take place alongside the continued acceptance of the euro as payment for both foreign and internal transactions.

The most effective way to reintroduce the drachma would be for the government to revert to the traditional method of issuing currency. Instead of creating the new money through issuing debt to the private banking sector, as is the general custom at present, the central bank would create new drachmas in the government’s account to allow it to meet payments authorised under the national budget.

The new currency would thus enter the economy as government expenditure payments, not as debt. This would mean the end of fractional reserve banking for drachma transactions. Banks would revert to their traditional role as money brokers rather than currency creators. Bankers would naturally protest at losing the principal source of their excessive wealth, but there are plenty of examples of profitable banks that confine themselves to money broking activities.

The most important effect of the new currency would be to enable the national economy to thrive, with increasing employment. This would help build up the resources needed to enable Greece to pay its way in international transactions, which it is unable to do under present circumstances.

James Skinner,
London W4, UK

A terribly sensible letter indeed.
For drachma, read punt. For Greece, read Ireland.

Totally_Baffled · Post by **Totally_Baffled** » 04 Aug 2011, 17:59

Blimey $88!

moimitou · Post by **moimitou** » 04 Aug 2011, 18:54

Blimey $88!

Wow! that's amazingly fast!

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 Aug 2011, 18:55

Totally_Baffled wrote:Blimey $88!

Everything has gone crazy this afternoon. Stocks, oil, gold, silver, some of them going off hard in one direction, others violently bouncing about in an apparently random fashion.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 05 Aug 2011, 07:35

$86

Down ~15% in a fortnight.