Brent Crude

Apple’s iPhone 7 gets mixed reviews, stock sinks, markets drag

WASHINGTON, September 8, 2016 – Weirdness and indirection continued to grip Wall Street Thursday as all three major averages—the DJI, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ—are currently down. The NASDAQ, in fact, is doing the worst, off 38.67 points as of 2 p.m. EDT, a negative 0.8 percent, likely due in part to heavily weighted ...

Oil, the Fed and Donald Trump hit Tuesday Wall Street trade

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2016 – We’re back to yo-yo market days this week, as Tuesday’s trading action seems to be following a familiar pattern—namely, negating any gains the averages may have made lately. As of 2 p.m. EDT, all three major averages, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are down an average of ...

Fort McMurray wildfire, Saudi actions boost Monday oil futures

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2016 – After a dismal start to May, stocks are looking up a bit some two hours before Monday’s opening bell on Wall Street. As of 7:30 a.m., Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures are up modestly with the Dow Jones Industrials futures up 51, the S&P up 6.50 and the NAZZ ...

Saudis, Russians agree to oil freeze. No, REALLY… Brent soars

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2016 – Wow! What a wonderful Tuesday for the bulls! The big news coming across the tape: The Saudis and the Russians appear really, really likely to ink a deal as early as this weekend to freeze both countries’ massive combined oil output at current levels. And get this: They’ll do it ...

Oil soars, but Friday stocks succumb to the blahs. Rally over?

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2016 – Both Thursday and today, the Maven has been lacking the inspiration to write really insightful stuff, although he hopes you enjoyed his extended Wednesday Pfizer-Allergan “fail” rant. Read also: Pfizer, Allergan inversion deal inverted by Treasury hacks Today the “oil production freeze” rumor mill was once again pumping more vigorously ...

Wall Street marks time awaiting Fed, Tuesday primary contests

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2016 – It’s nearly 3 p.m. EDT as we write this, and stocks almost across the board are marking time either flat or slightly up on the day thus far. With Tuesday’s winner-take-all primaries in Florida and Ohio, the Street has its eyes on the still protean 2016 presidential race and what ...

Oil smackdown obliterates Tuesday morning Wall Street rally

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2016 – It’s getting harder and harder to write this column daily. The reason is simple. Until and unless the hemorrhaging price of Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is reversed, it seems that the entire universe of stocks, whether in the oil patch or not, is doomed to go ...

Oil continues rally. Saudis, OPEC, ready to cut production?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2015 – Wall Street futures looked awful late Sunday night and early Monday morning, due to even more Chinese government flailing over the weekend. That included news that the Chinese government would simply drop its market support purchases this weekend, while also “punishing” some 200 alleged financial miscreants. This knocked the props ...

Oil, ‘Groundhog Day,’ rockets, feathers plague stock traders

WASHINGTON, December 4, 2014 – Once again, the Maven has little new to report today. December trading thus far has resembled Bill Murray’s endless temporal do-loop in his immortal 1993 comic film, “Groundhog Day.” Or maybe the action has been like the dumpy looking guy trying to order dinner on that cable TV pizza commercial, ...