In the short term even $50 oil does not hurt most of the suppliers as they have contracts locked in for a year or more ahead. The big banks on the other side of the bet stand to lose billions.
I have to be pretty attentive to keep these numbers updated…
Today oil at less than 61 bucks and gas futures at 1.64 My oh my!
The experts say gas prices should stay under $2.00 a gal through next year. With the combination of more money in the consumers pocket and cheaper fuel. I would think by this spring we would see better classic car sales. Especially at the driver/weekend show car level. By better I mean not necessary higher prices, but more sales.
Don’t worry the state and federal taxes on our “cheap” gasoline are about to go up. Can’t let the middle class get a fair shake.
What scares me about the low gas price is Russia. They are the ones to watch. Their economy rebound was so much based on their oil and no doubt a loose cannon.
Couldn’t the same be said of us (U.S.) though? As was mentioned previously several times, the low gas prices are great for us “average people” - incentive to spend. Not to mention the well-paying jobs in the oil industry, and that stimulation of the economy.
Cheap oil can also mean that fielding ships / planes / tanks is that much cheaper as well :-/
*Hey, thought just occurred to me: what is the status of the US oil reserves? Seems to me that now would be a good time to top it off.
I guess you could say if you’re a gasoline dealer/seller, your future could be locked in at very reasonable levels…check this out
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/refined-products/rbob-gasoline.html
Hello Mike, I really do not believe that we war on anybody because of fuel price. At least not yet and hopefully never. At least that was my take on fielding ships, planes, tanks. But now the ruble is crashing two days later and the Russians scare me.
Sorry I will not start up another political thread on Cougars. Great place to get away from world issues.
It is just where my mind has been as of late.
Classic commodities market downturn happening here…
For the last two days, both mornings we’ve had the market bounce up really strong out of the gate, only to have it go back flat (yesterday) or down yet again (today), amidst headlines that say “market up on analysts thinking we’ve overdone it”
I’ve seen this over an over again…in the midst of a Bear market, there are all kind of people just begging for a reason for it to go the other way. It happens temporarily, then back to business as usual 
Dead cat bounce. Even a dead cat will bounce once.
What do some of my cars have to do with it!
Here is what my trusted expert says about energy prices…
During an appearance on CNBC’s morning Squawk Box program, T. Boone Pickens again predicted that the price of Brent crude oil - the world price - would be back up to $90 to $100 in 12 to 18 months.
Pickens pointed out that OPEC is no longer a cartel, but “it’s a trade association.” Saudi Arabia has the hard currency resources to ride out $60 oil but “countries like Venezuela and Nigeria are broke.”
Pickens said, “the cheapest oil in the world is right here in the United States” and that the amount of oil being drilled from both traditional wells and shale deposits has helped the American economy and “amounts to a trillion dollar tax cut.”
75 oil rigs had been “dropped” in the past three weeks and he wouldn’t be surprised if 40 percent of rigs were taken out of service in the U.S. until prices recover.
“And prices will recover,” Pickens said, explaining that excess inventory would be consumed and “demand will go back up” and oil and natural gas producers would bring their rigs back on line.
He also talked about the Pickens Plan, promising that “heavy trucks and railroads” would lead the way to transition away from largely imported diesel to domestic natural gas. “Natural gas is still cheaper than diesel,” he said, “but America needs an energy plan”.
When the Pickens plan first unfolded it was all about wind power. Then he got out of wind power and it was all about natural gas… He completely missed the shale oil boom, and is on record saying that “drill baby drill” was not an answer. It really sucks when Palin turns out to be the smartest one in the room.
Pickens in 2008:
“America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil."
Me thinks Pickens was talking his position…meaning, if he scared enough people out of oil and into Natural gas, his basket of eggs would be a lot more valuable… It’s a great resource, but it’s working out that way thus far, T Bone 