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Oil Plunges Below Zero for First Time in Unprecedented Wipeout

Comments of the Day

21 April 2020

Video commentary for April 20th 2020

Eoin Treacy's view

A..

Comments of the Day

21 April 2020

Video commentary for April 20th 2020

Eoin Treacy's view

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Some of the topics discussed include: WTI crude oil trades at huge contango ahead of May expiry, natural gas, uranium, nickel, wheat steady, stock market susceptible to consolidation, bonds steady, China deploys additional stimulus.

Oil Plunges Below Zero for First Time in Unprecedented Wipeout

This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

The price on the futures contract for West Texas crude that is due to expire Tuesday fell into negative territory — minus $37.63 a barrel. Thats right, sellers were actually paying buyers to take the stuff off their hands. The reason: with the pandemic bringing the economy to a standstill, there is so much unused oil sloshing around that American energy companies have run out of room to store it. And if theres no place to put the oil, no one wants a crude contract that is about to come due.

Underscoring just how acute the concern over the lack of storage is, the price on the futures contract due a month later settled at $20.43 per barrel. That gap between the two contracts is by far the biggest ever.

“The May crude oil contract is going out not with a whimper, but a primal scream,” said Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning oil historian and vice chairman of IHS Markit Ltd.

Eoin Treacy's view

The May contract expires tomorrow and as of today was still trading 108,593 contracts that will need to roll or be delivered. Thats going to result in massive trading losses for anyone looking to roll and the incredible decline today suggests a surge for the exits among traders.

Email of the day on mean reversion risk in precious metals:

Good afternoon Eoin, I am enjoying the daily video and the written commentaries. Regarding your medium and long-term view that the price of gold is and will be reflecting the increasing and competitive debasement of currencies, but that presently gold is in an overbought phase, please explain what you would consider the maximum drawdown in gold to undo the overbought situation.

Would that imply that gold should e.g., give up about $170 (10%) and reach approximately $1530 which I believe is the 200 SMA? Same question for silver. In what time frame do you expect the undoing of the overbought situation for gold (and silver) to happen? Days, weeks, months? How quickly would the bull market resume?

It seems that the script of the last financial crisis is happening at 4-5 times the speed of 2008/2009…) What likelihood do you see that governments and central banks in the end will intervene (on an international scale) to either confiscate or prohibit the private holding of gold and silver and/or otherwise make sure that the nuisance of gold and silver as uncontrolled non-fiat money disappears? Roosevelt and others like Hitler, Soviet Union already proved that this can be successfully implemented …Second addition to my first message/questions: To what extent did the rally in stocks trigger yesterday's and today's downdraft in the PM sector? Thank you!

Eoin Treacy's view

Thank you for this series of questions which may be of interest to subscribers. The mantra that delivers the best returns is “dont pay up for commodities” and that applies even in a bull market. Gold and the precious metals generally are prone to volatility and often posted failed upside breaks. Chasing the market higher will only work on the relatively rare occasions when the trend accelerates; whereas more often than not precious metals trends adopt a sawtooth profile.

Email of the day on the spread between Comex futures and London spot gold prices:

Hi Eoin, could you please comment on the pricing discrepancies between Comex and spot? It is playing havoc with the Gold ETFs which are not reflecting the underlying as well as they should be.

Eoin Treacy's view

Thank you for this question which may be of interest to other subscribers. Speculation about what exactly is causing this arbitrage is running hot in the media. The lack of liquidity among market makers, the shortage of refined gold, the break in shipping schedules for the metal and fears about counterparty risk among London bullion banks are all contributing to the historically wide spread.

Email of the day on the lead time to develop a vaccine

Eoin, you are an optimist. I hope you willRead More – Source
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