Inventories edged up for gasoline, with jet fuel, distillates, and crude slipping, as the total of all products decreased nearly 7.8M barrels. The SPR decreased about 700KB.
I still hear a plan to release an additional 40M barrels in the November-December timeframe, via an exchange program to be released at some unspecified ?date? in the future.
Additionally, the EU is releasing crude products with a front load of distillates over a 4 month period.
The 4 week running average of gasoline consumption edged up this period.
China and Russia are still excluding distillates from export, so the EU release might not move the markets that much.
The potential for a hurricane along the U.S. Gulf Coast does not seem to be moving the markets... and might not.
A bit of an editorial...
Nearly 25 years ago, I gave serious consideration to the notion of early retirement. Of course, how would my savings and investments stack up against a wide variety of economic conditions.
One of my first observations was the impact of the 1973 oil embargo and the 1980 Iranian revolution, certainly had an impact. The impact was mostly felt in consumer confidence and spending habits as people cut back in anticipation of rough times.
At this point... not seeing significant cutbacks in consumer spending, although the "confidence" surveys indicate a lot of worry.
I would watch this very carefully, as a dip in confidence and spending could portend serious problems ahead.
In nearly all previous jolts to the economy, government spending came to the rescue. I would suggest that any future economic jolts might become very severe... due to all the previous excessive spending and the expectation of even more.
At what premium will investors require to purchase the U.S. debt? At what point will the FED need to raise interest rates to keep dollarized assets attractive to investors to government treasuries? I am already convinced that future rates are going to take place, to not only "tame" inflation, but prop up the dollar and thereby the global banking system, which is heavily indebted in dollars.
Any dip in the economy could quickly escalate into something far greater that the "Great Recession".
Be prepared!!
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