Oil should sink like a lead ballon right now, At least 1 trip in 5 made by Americans is purely discretionary and with stores and factories closing there will be less demand in fuel from the port to store transportation and industrial sectors. So I think a further 8% drop in demand in the US is very possible if oil goes much above 50.
AND/But
So far we have seen some pretty crude and ham handed assaults on the peace that JUST HAPPEN to drive up the price of oil.
These moves are elective.
If higher oil is the objective, there is a much more sophisticated and sane way to do this.
What is there to keep SA, Venezuela, Iran and Russia to name a few from just entering the market and buying back any oil offered below their target price? It does not require a war.
In the US, we used to have what we called price supports that were used to dampen the wild swings in ag commodity prices that threatened to put our farmers into bankruptcy every couple of years. (Bush the 1st and Bush the 2ed did not really care, so not so much recently. This is real bitch for trading, but it does help in the not having all the farmers go bankrupt and setting our selves up to starve department.)
I think that the big drop somewhat caught the oil producers off guard, but if I were an oil minister in SA, Venezuela, Iran or Russia I would already have started the trading operation, or I would be swearing at the IT guy to get those damn T2 lines in and rounding up modelers and traders so I could start. It might cost them 2% to peg the price at 40 when it wants to be 30, but that is 2% cost against a 25% gain on the underlying, so I would do it.
There was a thumping thumb on the scales late last year when the hedges began to vomit up their oil positions when credit got tight and they had to pay out withdrawals. I am wondering if some time in the near future we may see a steadying hand on the scale or oil poured on choppy waters so to speak.
Am I right that central banks buy and sell in the Forex market to bolster or depress their currency all the time?
It would make oil a lot less fun and profitable to trade, so not good, but keep the price in a range that the oil producers could live with, and that would be good.
So I am on the lookout for this and am ambivalent about the prospect.