Wall Street Greek: Why Oil Prices Turned

In recent discussion, I have been outlining some serious concerns I have about oil, and I maintain them. However, I would be amiss to fail to note when a bit of good news and a potentially important catalyst arises. Last week’s abrupt reversal in oil prices was by no means without a meaningful catalyst. There was in fact an important catalyst behind it that I have talked about in the past. Throughout the winter we saw builds in crude oil inventory extending through the historical average seasonal inventory peak point. Finally, last week, we received news of a large and unanticipated draw from crude oil stocks. It stopped a nascent trend of oil price decline, and lifted both oil and equities higher to close the week. If the week’s data becomes a sustained trend, it could serve to at least stabilize energy prices. However, my concerns about the demand side of the equation due to new weakness I anticipate for Europe causes me to temper enthusiasm. See the full story at Why Oil Prices Turned - Why Temper Enthusiasm.

Energy Relative Shares	April 11, 2016 1:15 PM EDT
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.5%
United States Oil (NYSE: USO)	+2.2%
iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil (NYSE: OIL)	+1.3%
United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG)	-3.6%
Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE)	+0.4%
SPDR S&P Oil & Gas E&P (NYSE: XOP)	+0.3%
Market Vectors Oil Services (NYSE: OIH)	+0.8%
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM)	+0.7%
Chevron (NYSE: CVX)	-0.3%
B.P. (NYSE: BP)	+1.2%
TOTAL S.A. (NYSE: TOT)	+1.2%
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP)	+1.2%
Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX)	-0.0%
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY)	+1.2%
Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)	+0.7%
Weatherford Int’l (NYSE: WFT)	+0.9%
Halliburton (NYSE: HAL)	+0.9%

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only. Article interests energy investors including Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), BP (NYSE: BP), PetroChina (NYSE: PTR), Petrobras (NYSE: PZE), Royal Dutch Shell (OTC: RYDAF.PK), Total (NYSE: TOT), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Repsol (OTC: REPYY.PK), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Eni SpA (NYSE: E), Sasol (NYSE: SSL), Encana (NYSE: ECA), Suncor (NYSE: SU), Imperial Oil (AMEX: IMO), Statoil (NYSE: STO), Cenovus (NYSE: CVE), Transocean (NYSE: RIG), Penn West Petroleum (NYSE: PWE), Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR), Noble (NYSE: NE), Concho (NYSE: CXO), Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO), Ensco (NYSE: ESV), Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL), Nabors (NYSE: NBR), Pride International (NYSE: PDE), Helmerich & Payne (NYSE: HP), QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP), Enerplus (NYSE: ERF), Rowan (NYSE: RDC), Cobalt (NYSE: CIE), Patterson UTI (Nasdaq: PTEN), SandRidge (NYSE: SD), Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV), Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI), Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT), Cameron (NYSE: CAM), FMC Tech (NYSE: FTI), Oil States International (NYSE: OIS), Superior Energy (NYSE: SPN), Carbo Ceramics (NYSE: CRR), Helix Energy (NYSE: HLX), Pioneer (NYSE: PXD), CNOOC (NYSE: CEO), China Petroleum and Chemical (NYSE: SNP), Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC), Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ), Apache (NYSE: APA), Anadarko (NYSE: APC), Devon (NYSE: DVN), EOG (NYSE: EOG), Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK).