Thursday, February 6, 2025
There has been only one bright spot in what’s turning out to be an annus horribilis for U.S. stocks – the energy sector. The S&P 500 has fallen into a bear market, down more than 20% this year. The benchmark index is on pace for one its worst opening six months since 1970. Historically, there […]
Soaring fuel prices have boosted inflation to a year-over-year increase of 8.6%, the highest level since 1981! And there is more to come: the lack of refining capacity is expected to drive up U.S. gasoline prices by more than a dollar, to $6 a gallon by August as oil and oil related products continue to […]
A recent Financial Times article described the situation perfectly: “The world’s largest gas traders are scrambling to secure liquefied natural gas tankers ahead of winter after sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine triggered a reshaping of global energy flows.” It’s a great time to be an LNG shipper. The European Union has vowed […]
Through the first five months of 2022, the energy and utilities stock market sectors are the only ones in the black. And the energy returns dwarf the 3.8% posted by utilities. The other nine S&P-defined sectors are negative for the year, with five sectors down more than 10% and three down more than 20%. With […]
“Big Oil” is the term used to describe the world’s six largest, publicly-traded oil and natural gas producers—BP, Chevron, Italy’s Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies. Of the Big Oil companies, France’s TotalEnergies (TTE) is perhaps the most interesting of the world’s major oil companies. Here’s why… On the one hand, TotalEnergies has yet fully exit […]
As I told you in early March and again in April, the war in Ukraine has put a lot of focus on the global energy markets, especially the market for liquified natural gas (LNG). Traders from the usual leading buyers of LNG globally—the Asian countries of China, Japan and South Korea—have been forced to compete […]
For investors, energy companies have been the bright spot in a very dark 2022 stock market. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) is up 43% year-to-date, while the broad-coverage (including energy) SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has dropped by 18%. Energy companies divide into three sectors: upstream, midstream, and downstream. So far this year, […]
Energy. Every aspect of our lives requires some form of energy, from transportation, to the growing of food, to powering your Facebook feed. For example, the internet is forecast to soon consume one-fifth of all the world’s electricity. The recent double whammy of pandemic restrictions and sanctions on Russia has revealed how fragile the global […]
Some of the best investments come from digging a little deeper beyond the headlines. For example, we have all heard by now about Europe’s woes regarding natural gas and its dependency on Russian gas supplies. But do you know what company is the second-biggest provider of natural gas to Europe, behind only Russia’s Gazprom? It […]
Markets are getting crushed… but there’s always a bull market somewhere. Look at uranium prices, for example, which is strong for a few reasons: First, Congress is considering legislation that could ban Russian imports, which currently accounts for about 17% of the uranium used by U.S. power plants, says Real Clear Energy. Second, global leaders […]
