Energy Market Updates

Quick note on the news this week - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died yesterday, temporarily rattling the markets. 

2015 is off to a wild start, with Crude dancing around and then dropping below $50/bbl. Wednesday (the 7th) Crude closed out at $48.65, yet another 5 year record. Gasoline and distillates have closed down every day this week, so it looks like the 2014 slide has no intention of stopping.

Oil prices kept sliding this week on positive signs, despite a draw in US Crude supplies. 

After the mulityear lows hit last week, oil started to rally today.

A doubly "Black Friday" this year as OPECs decision resulted in a commodities free fall. The second part is that it was hoped that the relief consumers have been getting at the pump since the summer would have helped boost retail sales for the season. As the numbers are coming in though, it's not looking good.

The market is tanking across the board (and dragging the S&P with it) on the results of the OPEC meeting for November on Wednesday. The meeting officially cemented the long suspected decision by the cartel to keep oil production and output at current levels, despite the crashing prices and global glut of Crude oil. 

Saudi Arabia determined production would remain at current levels - as the largest producer in the group, they essentially set the policy. Several smaller members reportedly wanted to curb supply to raise prices, largely because a huge part of their country's economy runs off of the money generated from oil sales.