This past Wednesday and on the other side of the International Dateline, the people of Guam celebrated the 66th anniversary of their liberation from Imperial Japanese troops who had controlled Guam since December 20, 1941. Some time this week, probably on the weekend, Guam clubs around the US (or the mainland as people from Guam refer to the contiguous 48) will also be celebrating Liberation Day, Guam's most celebrated non-religious holiday. Meanwhile, Guam is now planning on 41,000 additional people moving to Guam including the 3rd Marine Division currently based in Okinawa. And the government of Japan will be paying $740M to move the troops there. Times they truly are achanging.
What hasn't changed is the price channel that crude has been in for the past two months, $71.51 - $79.15, final settlement prices at the end of the trading day. The scare about the stress tests that the European banks were undergoing went away but is still in the minds of analysts. The banana storm (on Guam a storm under 100 MPH in wind velocity would only knock down banana trees) in the Gulf of Mexico has been downgraded to a tropical depression but this did not seem to affect prices and neither did the dollar's rise over the euro.
All the talk has been bearish this week but the week to week prices tell us another story. For the week, crude +$2.94, $78.97, gasoline +7.3¢, $2.1216, distillate +3.79¢, $2.0496.
No comments:
Post a Comment