“La sabiduría de la vida consiste en la eliminación de lo no esencial. En reducir los problemas de la filosofía a unos pocos solamente: el goce del hogar, de la vida, de la naturaleza, de la cultura”.
Lin Yutang
Cervantes
Hoy es el día más hermoso de nuestra vida, querido Sancho; los obstáculos más grandes, nuestras propias indecisiones; nuestro enemigo más fuerte, el miedo al poderoso y a nosotros mismos; la cosa más fácil, equivocarnos; la más destructiva, la mentira y el egoísmo; la peor derrota, el desaliento; los defectos más peligrosos, la soberbia y el rencor; las sensaciones más gratas, la buena conciencia, el esfuerzo para ser mejores sin ser perfectos, y sobretodo, la disposición para hacer el bien y combatir la injusticia dondequiera que esté.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES Don Quijote de la Mancha.
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10 de febrero de 2018
Shale Boom Fears Add to Meltdown for Oil's Worst Week Since 2016
By
Jessica Summers
Updated on
Measure of oil market volatility climbs to highest since Aug.
S&P 500 Energy Index poised for biggest weekly loss since 2015
The last time oil had such a bad week two years ago, the commodity was trading near a $26 bottom.
On
Friday alone futures in New York lost almost $2, settling below $60 a
barrel for the first time this year as the unraveling of global equity
markets added to concerns that a new shale boom is in the making.
American
crude output is soaring so fast that the U.S. is on the verge of
elbowing Saudi Arabia and Russia aside as the top supplier, gushing more
than 10 million barrels a day. Drillers this week added the most oil
rigs since January 2017.
“The supply backlash that we have been expecting in the U.S.
because of higher prices became very real in the market psyche,” Harry
Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA in
London, said by telephone.
Crude
had been on a steady rally since June as the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries and Russia curtailed output to prop up prices, while
American stockpiles shrank. But with some prime shale areas delivering
profits with oil at $50 or even less, the U.S. is producing the most
crude since the 1970s.
Traders who try to divine market momentum
from technical signals were closely watching New York crude’s 50-day
moving average during the session, with West Texas Intermediate closing
below the key level. A settlement below that mark for several days in a
row would be regarded as a bearish indicator.
WTI for March
delivery slid $1.95 to settle at $59.20 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since Dec. 22. For the week, futures
declined 9.6 percent, the most since January 2016.
Brent for April
settlement declined $2.02 to end the session at $62.79 on the
London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark settled
at a $3.80 premium to April WTI.
Can’t Hide
While the S&P 500 Index erased losses Friday, stocks are still poised for their worst week since 2016.
“One
of the things about this pull-back that we are seeing in equities,
which is really tough to manage, is that there does not appear to be any
good place to hide,” Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at
Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, said by telephone.
Oil
and gas companies are feeling the pain. The S&P 500 Energy Index is
on track for an 8.5 percent drop this week, the largest on a weekly
basis September 2015.
Exxon
Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest explorer by market value, has lost
about 16 percent over six sessions, erasing $61 billion of market value.
The
volatility in equity markets has carried over into the oil market as
well. The CBOE/Nymex Oil Volatility Index rose for a sixth day to the
highest level since August.
U.S. production surged to 10.25
million barrels a day last week, according to government data released
Wednesday and is forecast to top 11 million a day this November, a year earlier than previously expected.
The
broader market selloff could also weaken consumer sentiment and
eventually affect demand for oil, Mark Watkins, a Park City, Utah-based
regional investment manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which
oversees $142 billion in assets, said by telephone.
“They may get
a little bit more tight on their spending, and if that’s the case, it
will eventually make its way into demand for oil and start to slow the
rebalancing process.”
Other oil-market news:
Gasoline futures slipped 3.7 percent to $1.7002 a gallon, the lowest since December.
China will end a 25-year wait as yuan oil futures start trading on March 26. They will include seven deliverable grades of oil.
The Forties Pipeline System hasn’t returned
to full operating levels following a halt on Feb. 7, according to a
person familiar with matter, who asked not to be identified because the
matter is private.
— With assistance by Tsuyoshi Inajima, Sharon Cho, and Alex Longley
