Crude oil offers little upside because world commercial inventories are at their highest since 2021. Refined products are the real concern, not crude. @TheRayMyers argues prices depend on whether the Strait of Hormuz reopens. x.com
Alex A.C.
Value/GARP Investor, Semiconductor & Financial Analysis, Electronics MEng
Crude oil prices look likely to stay around current levels for years, leaving producers little earnings growth. Rather than levered producers, big integrated companies spanning the whole value chain with strong positions and dividends suit a buy-and-forget approach. In such a cyclical industry, the alternative is to sell when prices skyrocket and buy when it feels like the world is ending. x.com x.com
Crude oil is headed for heavy oversupply within two years, so the market will look through any short-term supply squeeze. Near-term tightness can still move prices meaningfully, but the market believes there is no real long-term supply problem, which may be why oil equities are not trading at the premium bulls expect. Respect what the market is saying rather than insisting crude should be $250 a barrel. x.com x.com
Extreme bullishness about an oil shortage is a warning because oil has tended to return to around $50 within 12-18 months after such talk. Calls for a 'great oil repricing' appeared today, though they may not be widespread enough yet to mark the same setup. x.com x.com
Crude oil's 4 million-barrel-a-day global inventory draw despite weaker exports and refinery demand signals physical tightness. Chinese exports and refinery demand in Russia and China are each down a few million barrels a day, yet Brent is at a more than four-year high. Bessent says Persian Gulf exports exceed prewar levels, but cash and dated Brent trade well above front-month futures. Rising backwardation and inventory draws leave smaller buffers if escalation continues. x.com x.com
The oil trade is over because crude can no longer make higher highs, even with Middle East crude exports back near their peaks. Oil is trading around its average price of the last eight months and set a lower high in September, so it is only a matter of time before the market gives up. Crude looks about to fall through the floor, with rates following and high-beta stocks then going vertical as every dip gets bought. x.com x.com x.com
Crude oil looks set for a pullback because energy is more overbought than 95% of sessions in two years while market stress is deteriorating. Defense and drone sectors that rallied on the same geopolitical thesis are already breaking down. IEA members are releasing a record 400 million barrels of emergency reserves, and $1M of put spreads target a roughly 10% drop by mid-April. Oil also trades outside its Monte Carlo probability cone, though 8 of 9 models still say bullish. x.com x.com x.com … Show more
Oil now matters more for markets because the Fed is considering oil in its reaction function, no longer looking through supply shocks. Once the Fed reacts to oil, yields react to oil. x.com
Oil refiners have become the bottleneck, with refining, not crude, now setting fuel prices. Per @JeffSnider_EDU, crude inventories are only 6% below normal, but gasoline stocks just fell 5 million barrels in a week and diesel is 12% below average despite soft freight and US gasoline demand down 2.2%. Refineries running at 95.8% still can't keep up, pushing the crack spread to record highs. x.com
US crude and Chevron face a potential domestic glut: supertanker export costs are said to have risen from $8 million to $80 million, pushing Asian and European buyers toward Saudi and South American oil. Limited US refining capacity could leave the surplus unused and bankrupt smaller producers, though the author still says earlier exports caused a shortage. x.com x.com x.com
Crude oil and the XLE energy-sector ETF would be buys on a pullback because uncertainty over a real military strike could hang over the US market from the midterms through year-end. Only an actual strike or a true peace deal would settle that uncertainty. x.com
Crude oil now has more room to fall on a deal headline than to rise on the status quo, as Trump's rejection of Iran's seven-day Hormuz plan looks like a negotiating position, with negotiators due back this week and the Saudi foreign minister in Washington. The closed Strait put Brent back at $108 with Nov–Dec backwardation near $8. Speculators added shorts three weeks running, squeeze fuel above $100 if talks fail; a deal would leave about 101,828 contracts of net length as supply. x.com x.com