Energy & Commodities

Oil Price Turmoil Persists, But Analyst Says Storage Worries Are Short-Term

Posted by Tanzeel Akhtar

on Tuesday, 21 April 2020 9:04

The crash in oil demand brought prices below zero for the first time in history Monday as storage for the commodity runs out, but this issue is a short-term one, according to one analyst.

WTI crude was trading 86.7% higher at the time of publication Tuesday but was still negative by $5.

“The drop in oil price reflects some ‘short term’ worries about storage,” Nadège Dufossé, deputy global head of multi-asset at Candriam, said in a note.

Dufossé said that while oil production cuts have been agreed to, they will not be sufficient come May and June given the freefall in demand and strong uptick in inventories.

“For the oil price to rebound we would need higher production cuts from May 1, as well as better perspectives on demand increase that should follow the easing of lock down in various countries.” CLICK for complete article

Who knew? Fearless Millennials are cashing in on stocks as frightened Boomers cash out

Posted by Victor Ferreira

on Monday, 20 April 2020 11:13

Turns out millennials have been sitting on an abundance of savings and they are using that to aggressively buy the coronavirus dip.

Barry Schwartz spent most of March trying to talk his clients off of two distinct ledges.

A typical hour might have seen the chief investment officer at Baskin Wealth Management try to convince an emotional retiree to not panic and cash out, before having to pivot and  temper the bet-it-all instincts of a millennial client with $50,000 burning a hole in their pocket.

While the former was not unexpected for the wealth management veteran, the latter was something new. And it wasn’t just one or two millennials under his care wanting to buy the dip after stocks plunged 30 per cent — it was all of them. The millennial generation may have a lousy reputation as investors, but they’ve played this stock market swoon better than their baby boomer rivals, Schwartz admits….CLICK for complete article

Bill Maher Weighs in on Hype vs Perspective

on Monday, 20 April 2020 9:25

5G – Getting a Good Reception?

Posted by Martin Straith, Trend Disruptors by The Trend Letter

on Monday, 20 April 2020 9:14

As each generation of cell phone networks is developed there is a leap-frog phenomenon with the technologies that enable them. Faster, more efficient networks depend on faster, more efficient components from end to end. There are many components in a cellular network, but one of the basic components is the antenna, and there is no lack of progress in developing advanced antennas to send and receive our cell phone signals faster and more reliably.

As far back as 1993 the MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna has been in use with many wireless networks. The idea is to use more…click for full article

How Will Covid-19 Lockdowns Hit the Housing Market? It Gets a Little Clearer

Posted by Wolf Richter

on Friday, 17 April 2020 10:55

The “combined COVID-19 and oil shock” are going to do a number on the U.S. housing market, Fannie Mae warned in its monthly report on Wednesday. Actual data for homes sold after the lockdowns began will not be available for a while, and everyone is grappling with preliminary indications of just how ugly this is going to get.

The Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) plunged 11.7 points in March to 80.8, the largest single-month drop in the data, Fannie Mae said, “reflecting quickly diminishing homebuyer sentiment.”

A survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors in the first week of April, cited by Fannie Mae, showed that 90% of the responding Realtors reported declining buyer interest, with half of them reporting declines of over 50%….CLICK for complete article