James West submits:
Our over-saturated information world has immunized us to the most pressing problems we face as a species. The price of oil, for instance, is no longer interesting, even though it sets records weekly, simply because it has been doing so for the [...]
They say the smart money is shorting oil. There is a lot of truth to that, but there is reasoning behind it. Much of the smart money people are talking about is long term investors, not many of the traders that are moving the commodity with [...]
By Jim Wiandt
There are some incredibly interesting and important issues around oil futures, as Matt Hougan points out. And with oil at around $130, conspiracy chatter has grown to a roar.
There are intriguing issues around contango and backwardation of oil futures and the crude [...]
By Matthew Hougan
All you commodity investors out there take note: crude oil is toying with contango again.
FP Trading Desk submits: Wellington West analyst Kim Page initiated coverage on three junior explorers with exposure to the Utica Shale natural gas play this week, giving Gastem Inc. (GTMIF.PK) Questerre Energy Corp. (QTEYF.PK) and Junex Inc. (JNEXF.PK) the thumbs up to reflect [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: Enbridge Inc.’s (ENB) decision to sell its 25% stake in Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos SA for C$1.36-billion in cash is expected to close in mid-June and the price tag is in line with analyst estimates.
The Canadian pipeline company said [...]
Walter Nasdeo is managing director and director of research at Ardour Capital, developer of the Ardour Capital Global Solar Energy ETF. He spoke recently with the editors of HardAssetsInvestor.com about the future for solar energy.
HardAssetsInvestor.com [HAI]: Let's start with the big question first: Is solar energy cost-competitive today [...]
By Brad Zigler
This week, insiders foresaw U.S. crude oil inventories declining 300,000 barrels from last week's ending level of 320.4 million barrels.
First, a definition. If you're Paris Hilton, go here for your explanation, otherwise ...
The peak oil theory does not necessarily say that the world is running out of oil. That's actually an unstated fact. After all, nobody is actually making more.
Piper Jaffray is out with a Solar call saying that according to German news agency DPA, and supported by their contacts close to the Social Democrat Party [SPD], the German Government reached final agreement on feed-in tariff reduction for Solar and Wind at 02.00 AM this [...]
Exxon Mobil’s (XOM) Chairman and CEO Rex W. Tillerson convinced shareholders to vote down a series of nonbinding proposals initiated by the descendents of Standard Oil’s founder. Exxon and Mobil were two of the seven children emanating from the antitrust breakup of Rockefeller’s Standard [...]
Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
While yesterday's 3% decline in the price of oil has many oil bears celebrating that the top is in, we would note that yesterday's decline was the 29th one day decline of 3% or more in the last two years. Looking [...]
The realities of peak oil and the disastrous US monetary policy of the last 8 years have completely changed the rules of investing. Pick up any financial publication - be it Money magazine, investment publications from Vanguard, or articles by the lead economists at firms like Schwab and [...]
The turmoil caused by the credit crisis of Q1 caused many investors to leave the game and sit on the sidelines. The volatility was too much to handle. The question now is, when to re-enter the market? The S&P 500 is down 5% for the year but recent statements by influential market [...]
As mentioned in recent WSJ and Bloomberg articles, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is conducting an investigation into potential crude oil price manipulation. What is interesting about the story is not only how the CFTC is initiating an investigation, but that they are making [...]
In Part One of “The Oil Bubble,” we looked at the current price appreciation in crude prices and tried to determine if it whether or not it was sustainable. We compared the recent run-up to other various commodities, all of which have corrected sharply, and [...]
My eyes have been on crude and I'm genuinely confounded on where it goes. I've been burned too many times trying to short crude lately, thinking for a while that this was a speculation driven ascent - but the last two EIA reports show support [...]
The peaceful co-existence between commodity-related investments and most sectors which comprise the broader US Stock indices, is drawing to a close. As inflation tightens its grip over the world economy, US treasuries and stocks (consumer-related, tech, and financials) will suffer while investments in tangible assets will see [...]
The chart above (data available here from Net Oil Exports blog) shows Net Oil Exports of the top 20 oil exporters, representing 93% of total world exports, versus the world price of oil, from January 2001 to April 2008 (for oil [...]
Friday's oil price decline was impressive given the inventory report. However, this one-day oddity was made out to be some evidence of the bursting of the “oil bubble.” The stock market bulls and their spin of the oil bubble is quite a farce.
What do we mean [...]
It will be argued in this article that Sinopec should see significant reserves growth over the next 1 to 5 years, more than doubling current reserves, due to reserve additions in both domestic (Chinese) and international areas. Sinopec as covered in an earlier article has a substantial exploration and production [...]
Kurt Wulff (McDep Associates) submits: In what seems to be a pattern, stock price of buy-recommended Encana (ECA) has met and exceeded estimated net present value [NPV] of $75 a share. That must mean it is near time to raise oil price and natural gas price from [...]
It had to happen, didn't it? With the combination of the sharp rise in oil prices combined with the ratcheting up of anti-Chavez rhetoric seen in the past few weeks (for example the FARC laptop baloney that is now unravelling), it was only a matter of [...]
Tel Offshore Trust (TELOZ) is an American based Oil & Gas Trust with Gulf of Mexico wells producing oil and natural gas. Over two years ago, two hurricanes knocked the socks off of TELOZ, its dividend was stopped, and it took more than a year for repairs to be completed. [...]
Wave power, is the capture of the energy from waves on the surface of the ocean. It is one of the newer forms of renewable or 'green' energy under development, not as advanced as solar energy, fuel cells, wind power, ethanol, geothermal [...]
Next week, I plan to start lightening up on some of my energy holdings. There are both bullish and bearish arguments on future crude oil prices, but I think the bearish case may soon start to win out. Some of the recent price appreciation is merely a reflection of the [...]
TEPPCO Partners, L.P., (TPP) through its subsidiaries, operates common carrier pipelines of refined products and liquefied petroleum gases in the United States. The company operates in four segments: Downstream, Upstream, Midstream, and Marine Transportation.
Teppco is part of the dividend achievers index. It has been increasing its [...]
FMC Technologies (FTI) is the leading provider of sophisticated sub-sea systems for deep-water drilling. Shares have more than doubled over the past year amid strong earnings growth (30%/year over five years) and market-share gains (now more than 40%). Blowout Q1 earnings and heavy-handed stock repurchases have further enhanced Wall Street's [...]
Do you know when the first recorded use of a windmill was? It was first used in the 1st Century AD. Can you guess what it was used for? It was used to power an organ.
Last year, I wrote an article about the stocks of companies [...]
Thursday Bill asked me to take a look at the crude oil market. So here is a quick overview of what I think is going on.
Here is a long term chart of the price of crude oil along with its distance from the 200 day moving average:
After a brief spell of (unwarranted) upward bounce, last week saw the market erase most of its gains and swing back down to 12,600 levels. Though this is still significantly above the low touched on March 10, during the Fed-JPMorgan (JPM)-Bear Stearns (BSC) drama.
Oil continued it's nonchalant [...]
Drilling domestic oil reserves (read the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - ANWR) has been, and will continue to be, a hot political topic, with the pro/con sides wrapping themselves in the US flag and Greenpeace flag, respectively. I'd like to wrap myself in the Adam Smith flag and [...]
There has been a lot of talk lately about oil's need to pull back. With global infrastructure one of the areas we advise on, it remains my sincere impression that despite the investment world's awareness of the China/emerging markets/raw materials story, most folks still don't quite grasp its sheer immensity and its ongoing implications [...]
The spike in the price of crude in May is having the anticipated effect of arousing the Congress in this election year. Earlier this week, Congress passed a bill with veto-proof margins to suspend intakes into the Strategic Petroleum Reserves till crude oil prices go under $75/barrel and stay there for [...]
Virtually all of the solar companies which have reported recently have reported better than expected earnings. Canadian Solar (CSIQ) trounced their earnings estimates. CSIQ is in a virtually identical segment of the business to Solarfun (SOLF). According to theStreet.com analyses on TD Ameritrade, SOLF has slightly better margins [...]
All of the solar cell manufacturers are supply constrained. The entire world produced a total of 3.8 Giga Watts [GW] of solar cells in 2007. The manufacturing capacity for solar cells is small compared to the capacity required by government initiatives to increase renewable power production.
Europe [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: Questerre Energy Corp. (QTEYF.PK) shares jumped again Friday morning rising almost 10% after the company announced that Talisman Inc. (TLM) has elected to drill the remaining three option wells under the farm-in agreement with Questerre in the Utica shale [...]
Investors looking to strike it rich with a play in oil have many avenues to explore, including the exploration sector itself, where they’ll find the likes of Gulf Island Fabrication Inc. (Nasdaq:GIFI).
Man, did I ever miss the party. Congratulations to all of you who have been bullish the United States Oil Fund LP ETF (USO). This has been one heck of a run. After going over and over the current situation, I have a belief as to [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: Aurora Energy Resources Inc. (AUEGF.PK) has highly promising uranium deposits in Labrador. However, the big challenge right now is getting approval for a mine from the Labrador Inuit, who recently voted in favor of a three-year moratorium on uranium [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: The price of a barrel of oil will average $115 in 2008, $120 in 2009 and $116.50 in 2010, according to UBS, which dramatically hiked its forecasts for West Texas Intermediate ([WTI] crude to a level now 25% above [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: Last Sunday, EnCana Corp. (ECA) announced its plan to split into two separate oil and natural gas firms, and on Monday, Petro-Canada (PCZ) said it agreed to issue $1.5-billion of senior notes.
For Philip Adams, an analyst a [...]
I've suspected for a while that we were in a speculative bubble with respect to oil prices. Paul Krugman offers a good insight into the question. (When he's not preoccupied with left-wing rants, he's a pretty good economist.) He says (full article here):
... there are only two things you can do with [...]
Mesa Power is in the news with its recent wind farm purchase:
Mesa Power LLP, a company created by T. Boone Pickens, has placed an order with General Electric (GE) to purchase 667, 1.5 megawatt wind turbines for the worlds largest wind farm, capable of generating 1,000 megawatts, nameplate, of electricity, [...]
Coal producers are riding high for an industry that a growing throng of Americans wish would just go away.
Year to date, shares of Arch Coal Inc. are up 41%. The biggie of the industry, Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU), has waxed 24% -- and 94% from [...]
EnCana (ECA) is basically a Canadian natural gas producer with large holdings of oil sands in Alberta, Canada. They also have a large US operation and an integrated oil business with Conoco Phillips (COP).
On Sunday, May 11, 2008, ECA announced their plans to split the company into two parts - [...]
By Jennifer Yousfi
T. Boone Pickens made his fortune in oil. But now the Dallas oilman and famed former corporate raider is betting $2 billion that he can have the same success with a new source of energy - wind.
Since the 1973 when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC] unleashed their oil embargo during the Yom Kippur War and engineered the first violent oil price rise, there have been three major oil price spikes. After the first two spikes prices eventually dropped to levels below [...]
Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
CNBC viewers had the "privilege" to get Donald Trump's thoughts on the economy, oil and OPEC yesterday morning. Click here to view the video. One of Trump's proposals was to "tax the oil companies into oblivion" since they're making so much money [...]
Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
We received a positive response to our post on the stocks that make up the Clean Energy ETF (PBW) last week. Below we highlight the stocks that make up the S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES).
As [...]
Despite the peak oil skeptics, we once again today find oil hitting another record over $127/barrel. Natural gas has likewise been very strong and is trading around $11.40. Donald Trump said on CNBC Friday that the solution to high oil prices is to send a better negotiator to [...]
Gary Dorsch (Global Money Trends) submits: The “Group of Seven” central bankers, who control the money spigots in two-thirds of the world’s economy, huddled with their colleagues from China and Russia behind closed doors in Basel, Switzerland this week, haunted by the “Crude Oil Vigilantes” who threaten [...]
Eric Savitz (Barron's) submits: Citigroup’s Timothy Arcuri this morning launched coverage of the solar sector, starting First Solar (FSLR) with a Buy rating, SunPower (SPWR) with a Hold and Evergreen Solar (ESLR) with a Sell.
His broader position is that there’s a shakeout coming in the industry. He sees [...]
Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) is an interesting tale - this has been for many many years a "hope" stock i.e. more promise than execution - I remember the hoopla surrounding it at the turn of the century ... the last time people were all hyped up about alternative energies (at the [...]
I don't own these 2 names directly but do own peers, and these are bellweathers for their sectors so I thought I'd post them. One thing to note - despite great numbers, the stocks are not reacting. Hence, we could be prone for a pullback shortly in these names. When [...]
Uranium equities have continued their downturn after a period where it appeared we may have been flat-lining. Unfortunately for those still holding, many of these stocks dipped further in recent trading days resulting in a new all-time low for theinvestar's Canadian Uranium Average [TICUA]. We noticed during [...]
Since the uranium bubble has popped, there is very little spoken of with respect to the nuclear trade. As many of the companies are good long term plays, many lack luster with respect to the near term as much of the United State's Government inventory of [...]
Watching the oil and gas names this earnings season, we have seen an amazing number beating earnings estimates. Many of these names have hedges in place causing losses, and I am guessing this trend will continue. The oil and gas exploration names are not limited to [...]
I am a long term owner of Teppco (TPP). This stock, currently paying a well-supported 8.19% dividend (recently raised for the third time in the last four quarters) is trading well below its 200-day average at $34.66 per share.
Down from a high of $46.20 last May and [...]
By Brad Zigler
Democrats in the U.S. Senate are looking beyond a summer gasoline tax holiday to focus on broader oil market fundamentals. Yesterday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act, which calls for a revocation of tax breaks to big oil companies, a windfall [...]
Frontier Oil (FTO) recently reported a 38% drop in net income for first quarter '08 as a result of weaker refining margins and lower output (126k bpd). The company posted earnings of $0.44 per share, compared with $0.68 a year prior. Read their conference call transcript for [...]
On April 4 (2008) I published my first energy policy here on Seeking Alpha. Oil was around $100/barrel. Roughly one month later, oil is up another 20% and now over $120/barrel; the US dollar is dropping like a rock; the S& P500 has done nothing in years, and inflation, [...]
Recently
there has been a lot of discussion as to whether the run-up in commodity prices
is a bubble or not, or whether there is a fundamental factor at work, primarily
a sustainable supply-demand imbalance.
A recent WSJ survey of 53 noted economists found that 51% of those surveyed said [...]
The carbon trading market is growing rapidly, but not fast enough to meet the commitments of the Kyoto protocol, especially among developing countries, according to a World Bank report, “The State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2008.”
The global carbon market doubled or tripled in value for all [...]
General Motors Corp (GM). and Mascoma Corp. today announced "a strategic relationship to develop cellulosic ethanol focused on Mascoma's single-step biochemical conversion of non-grain biomass into low-carbon alternative fuels to help address increasing energy demand."
Mascoma's single-step cellulose-to-ethanol method, called Consolidated Bioprocessing, or CBP, lowers costs by limiting additives and enzymes used in other [...]
Phil Davis submits: The dollar is challenging its lows again.
This morning the BOE lowered rates by just .25 to 5% while the ECB left rates unchanged at 4% while Iceland RAISED their rates another half point to 15.5%. The ECB has a mandate to keep inflation in check. In [...]
I cannot keep up with all the transactions Mechel (MTL) is doing - all I know is this company is becoming a powerhouse. I was hoping to keep this one under the radar but I just noticed Cramer had to get behind this stock on Monday's show.
Drat, [...]
Even if you’re in a higher income bracket than I am (which you probably are), you’re probably feeling the effects of high gasoline prices and are pretty tired of taking it up the tailpipe. High gas prices are not only putting a dent in our wallets when [...]
Applied Materials (AMAT) is up 8% this year (vs. Nasdaq -14%) as investors eagerly anticipate an announced $3B in orders from its SunFab solar-panel line, which promises to produce bigger, cheaper solar panels than those of industry leaders Sharp (SHCAY.PK), SunPower (SPWR), Suntech Power (STP) and First Solar [...]
Since the publication of my natural gas book (1987), many changes have taken place in this market. Globally, the growth in the demand for gas may still exceed that of all energy media, except renewables, and until recently gas was often highly recommended as an input [...]
Tim Plaehn submits: I was reading one of Jeff Matthews' comments the other day where he was discussing comments by the CEO of Rex Stores Corp (RSC). Jeff’s comments usually pique my interest, so I took a look at Rex Stores. At first glance, you want [...]
The past few months have been very hard on the uranium mining industry's equity investors. Many uranium companies' shares are trading near 52-week lows after a handful of problems have crept up for many in the industry. Now that the market seems to have priced in the [...]
The dominant question on the minds of many market participants at this time is whether or not the price of crude oil can sustain its current lofty level. Is the age of cheap oil really gone forever, or is it that the current high price [...]
There are currently three major thin film players (defined as the three companies with over $1 billion in thin-film assets): First Solar (FSLR), Sharp (SHCAY.PK) and Applied Materials (AMAT). There are numerous other thin-film startups that are in such early phases of development that it's difficult to analyze [...]
"Since the gas lines of the '70s, Democrats and Republicans have talked about energy independence, but nothing's changed — except now Exxon's making $40 billion a year, and we're paying $3.50 for gas. I'm (candidate's name). I don't take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won't let [...]
With oil prices sitting at more than 109 dollars a barrel, near the all-time high, you have to think that the title of this article makes me absolutely crazy. In fact, you're right. Billions of dollars are flowing from the West and Asia to the Organization of [...]
Cowen is out positive on Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL) this morning, raising their Street high 2008 estimates to to reflect the new GCL supply deal, which boosts secured silicon to 95% of targeted production. We believe Street consensus is too low on operating margin, and too high [...]
Publicly traded Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) are great income vehicles which avoid both federal and state corporate income taxes by passing through expenses and income to the investor. Depending on the MLP, quarterly distributions may be either partially, or entirely, tax-deferred. There are some limitations to holding them [...]
In my previous article, The Tellurium Supernova, I discussed the rapidly expanding new applications of the extremely rare metal tellurium, and that looming global shortage of telluriumcould threaten the very survival of the red hot solar company, strong>First Solar Inc. (FSLR), which produces solar PV panels based on the [...]
Hakan Telenius co-wrote this article.
The Solar Silicon conference in Munich dealt with the supply and demand of solar silicon – a key issue for the near-term development of this industry. It also provided an update on the field of "Upgraded Metallurgical" silicon. The conference was a follow-up from a similar one [...]
FP Trading Desk submits: As Canada’s provincial and federal governments move to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, the oilpatch is left trying to calculate the financial pain that may be inflicted in order to comply with new regulations. The trouble is, the plans [...]
Part of being a true "patriot" is criticizing your government's policies when they are wrong. As a result, one must be willing to endure the inevitable backlash from flag waving folks who believe the President, Congress, and the military should never be chastised or critiqued. This comes with [...]
