oil

Central banks of several nations who are experiencing sharp currency declines are taking action to stabilize the situation. But not the Russians. The nation's central bank likes the weak ruble because the currency decline boosts the…

During the month of December large money managers have been once again beefing up their long bets on crude oil. What's driving this push into crude? This drawdown in crude was the result of US refineries firing on all cylinders,…

The spread between crude oil traded in the international markets and the US benchmark, the so-called Brent-WTI spread has blown out once again. It's now approaching levels not seen since February.

We've had a number of questions on energy sources in the United States - particularly with respect to the generation of electricity. Here are a few interesting facts about recent trends that hopefully help clarify some of the confusion…

WTI crude oil has undergone a substantial correction in the last few days. What's going on?

For India, oil prices currently stand at recent record highs (except possibly the oil India buys from Iran at a discount). Given that domestic petroleum is generally subsidized by the government, this spike is sure to put significant…

This is clearly going to create headwinds for consumer sentiment and ultimately spending patterns, particularly when combined with other issues consumers are facing this year.

As the winter storm pounded the north eastern United States on Friday, gasoline futures hit another high. The March delivery contract broke $3.06, indicating that retail prices for fuel will be going up.

Last Tuesday I said then that the debt ceiling fight would come first but that default on US public debt would be a step too far - and so Republicans would capitulate, forcing them to put their efforts into the sequester cuts. The biggest…

The top two stories in today's links are on shale oil and the fiscal cliff. I will concentrate on the shale oil issue and say a few parting words about the fiscal cliff. We have three articles on shale oil here and I think the lead article…