Gas is gonna go through the roof.....

[SpasticGramps]

Yes. High Frequency Trading. I feel pretty confident saying that is what caused the May 6 flash crash and the subsequent one stock flash crashes that have happened since then that you never hear about on CNBC or Bloomberg. I believe I've heard one reported in an off the cuff comment.

You can rent a seat on the NYSE for thousand and thousand of dollars and set up your computer and run an algorithm that trades billions of times faster in front of human traders. You make money on volume not so much on how the market behaves. Nanosecond quote stuffing programs that run in front of human traders.

When the programs fuck up in unision shit crashes. Stop loss triggers are taking out and people get wiped out. The "regulators" have been coming in and setting back an arbitrary price to refund people their losses. Too bad so sad for everyone else. Volatility is fuel to the fire for HFT problems. With QEII coming to an end I may have to put up my Dow 13,000 hat and bust out the Dow 0 hat.

It's the Government Sach's, Bank Of Meryl Lench Countrywide (BofA), JP Moron Casino. Play at your own risk.

 

[SpasticGramps]

The Black Swan stirs.

Arab protesters descend on Israeli borders AP

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights – Mobilized by calls on Facebook, thousands of Arab protesters marched on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday in an unprecedented wave of demonstrations, sparking clashes that left at least 15 people dead in an annual Palestinian mourning ritual marking the anniversary of Israel's birth.
In a surprising turn of events, hundreds of Palestinians and supporters poured across the Syrian frontier and staged riots, drawing Israeli accusations that Damascus, and its ally Iran, orchestrated the unrest to shift attention from an uprising back home. It was a rare incursion from the usually tightly controlled Syrian side and could upset the delicate balance between the two longtime foes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads to Washington at the end of the week, said he ordered the military to act with "maximum restraint" but vowed a tough response to further provocations.
"Nobody should be mistaken. We are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty," he declared in a brief address broadcast live on Israeli TV stations.
The violence showed Israel the extent of Arab anger over the Palestinian issue, beyond the residents of the West Bank and Gaza, and came at a critical time for U.S. Mideast policy.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Here is a NYT article about the big boom going on in the Eagleford Shale in South Texas I was talking about. We just picked up two new Enron rigs down there. Yes Enron is still in business lol.

Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output

CATARINA, Tex. — Until last year, the 17-mile stretch of road between this forsaken South Texas village and the county seat of Carrizo Springs was a patchwork of derelict gasoline stations and rusting warehouses.

Now the region is in the hottest new oil play in the country, with giant oil terminals and sprawling RV parks replacing fields of mesquite. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months.

The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade — without the dangers of drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the delicate coastal areas off Alaska.

There is only one catch: the oil from the Eagle Ford and similar fields of tightly packed rock can be extracted only by using hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and hazardous chemicals to blast through the rocks to release the oil inside.

The technique, also called fracking, has been widely used in the last decade to unlock vast new fields of natural gas, but drillers only recently figured out how to release large quantities of oil, which flows less easily through rock than gas. As evidence mounts that fracking poses risks to water supplies, the federal government and regulators in various states are considering tighter regulations on it.

Believe we when I say it's booming big time down there. The Barnett shale is sort of winding down some and lots of rigs from East Texas are moving down there.

I must say the drilling is nice down there. If you stay far enough south the temperature stays pretty low so you aren't burning up your MWD tools and directional mud motors. Trouble free drilling for the most part. You have to frack the hell out it to get the oil though.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Government Sachs says to expect $135 oil this summer. I'm guessing they are pricing in QEIII already? Enjoy the slight reprieve this memorial day. It's the calm before the storm.

Comin' this summer... $5 gas New York Post

The forecast for the summer driving season: Hit the road early. Not to beat the traffic, but to beat the higher gas prices expected in mid-July.

Goldman Sachs' crystal ball is proclaiming that oil will soon soar to $135 a barrel, and likely have service stations jacking up fuel prices to $5 a gallon in New York just like the summer of 2008 that preceded the recession.

Indeed, analysts say Goldman and the other oil trading giant that also has the might to move prices, JPMorgan Chase, have already placed their energy bets for the summer. JPMorgan predicts oil hitting $130 a barrel in the coming weeks.

Despite all the turmoil in the Middle East associated with the Arab Spring rioting, oil has fallen to the $100 level, closing out May with a stunning 12 percent drop.

But before the storm, the calm. There appears to be a backlash by some oil-pit analysts.

"Whoever would buy into these rising prices is just paying homage (to Wall Street firms) and helping the speculative positions," said one oil trading source familiar with energy bets of Wall Street trading desks.

 

[Chronic Don]

oil should not be on the stock market. it should be open market where its only bought by users, not as a trading item.
its not stock in a co its a commodity, and essential product, not what should be bought/sold for profit but only for producing product.
then each refinery would buy thru auction what they need daily/weekly/monthly from a supplier. sell their produced items and make profit from that.
but to be bought and resold and resold for profit each step na shouldnt be allowed to happen

 

[SpasticGramps]

Government Sachs says to expect $135 oil this summer. I'm guessing they are pricing in QEIII already?

Or maybe it's because Government Sach's has boots on the ground in the escalating Middle East War.

Al-Jazeera footage captures 'western troops on the ground' in Libya Guardian

Five of Gaddafi's generals are among latest defectors to rebels as South African president seeks to broker ceasefire

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Let's make Blankfein a human shield beneath 24-hour carpet bombing.

 

[Mrs.Babba]

Gas prices have actually gone down a few cents around here, Im surprised, its usually the other way around when summer starts.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Ours too. Hope it lasts.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but NYMEX crude is getting close to breaking a bullish technical indicator. It's pushing back up to $103 today. If Goldman says to expect $135 you can bet your mother that it's coming. They are the market movers.

The reason why gas prices are going down when they are usually going up right now is because the entire commodity complex sold off about a month ago and the price drop is just now hitting the consumer. Many argue part of the sell off was market manipulation to keep the illusion of price stability alive for a little bit longer. It's that whole kicking the can down the road thing.

It's rebounding though and as long as their is easy money in the system it's going to keep going up.

 

[SpasticGramps]

The break even price has started to rise as the Saudis try and pay of their people to quell social unrest. This is unfortunately the start of a vicious cycle. They will have to spend more and more to keep the populace happy which will drive prices even higher and so on and so on.

Arab oil faces higher ‘break-even’ price

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — A sharp rise in domestic government spending by Saudi Arabia and other key Arab oil exporters threatens to upset the mutually beneficial relationship they’ve kept for decades with energy consumers worldwide.

A wave of popular protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa has toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and led to civil war in Libya. It has also forced the region’s rulers to launch programs worth tens of billions of dollars in attempts to redress public grievances.

The spending spree is likely to be felt far beyond their borders. To cover the cost, energy producers have to squeeze more money from their oil fields. That means raising their “break-even” price — the amount of money they must make from each barrel of oil — to avoid fiscal deficits.

Failure to fund these new commitments could lead to domestic spending cuts, which could stoke social and political unrest, or jeopardize their fiscal soundness by requiring they take on more national debt or draw down sovereign wealth funds accumulated over the years.

Producers’ rising break-even points also have profound implications for consumers, and the interests of both groups depend on finding an oil price they can live with.

“A major implication of this higher break-even price of oil is that it is unlikely that we will see oil prices below $70 to $80 [a barrel] in coming years. The period of low oil prices that we had, particularly in the 1990s, is gone,” said Garbis Iradian, a deputy director in the Africa and Middle East Department at the Institute of International Finance, in a telephone interview from Washington.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Florida Drivers Shelling Out Nearly $6 A Gallon At Some Gas Stations

TAMPA (CBS Tampa) — Talk about pain at the pump! Some Florida drivers are spending nearly $6 a gallon to fill up their gas tanks.

According to GasBuddy.com, motorists are shelling out $5.89 for a gallon of regular gas at a Shell station in Lake Buena Vista, topping out at $5.99 a gallon for premium. It doesn’t get better at a Suncoast Energy station in Orlando, where drivers are paying $5.79 for a gallon of regular.

I think Cali's average is ~$4/gal. Highest ever for this time of year.

War and monetary debasement will likely push this higher come summer time. Get ready to open up the wallets.

 

[HempKat]

Yeah the latest I heard is that as a national average prices are expected to be around $4.25 by April. In my area where it usually lags behind the national average the price is already at $3.50 and rising daily. Just a month ago it wasclose to $3.00 per gallon so $4.25 by April does seem very likely. Especially when one considers the key players in the unrest that is driving prices up (Iran and Israel) are not likely to suddenly go in a direction they've never gone in by solving their differences peacefully.

 

[dagnabit]

it's more about summer blend than middle east unrest at this point

 

[igrowone]

another twist of the energy vise on people's cojones
hmm, been watching the spread on the difference between the cost to run a vehicle on nat gas versus gas/diesel
1/3 the price last i checked, gotta think nat gas cars in the USA can't too be far off