Summary
Transcript
And so one of the ways they’re squeezing us between Russia, China and Saudi Arabia and actually a handful of other countries, they want to raise the price of oil. I know it sounds crazy. We know that Saudi Arabia, we know Russia make a lot of money from oil and they want, and they need higher oil prices. But they also know in the same time, if they get prices higher, not only are they going to make more money selling it, they’re going to be able to squeeze the US.
And it sounds crazy because right now oil prices just dropped, man. They plummeted, what, 30%? And they hit around, what, 70, $71. Now it’s starting to creep up. And let’s talk about this, because we have a crisis in the Red Sea. So out of CNBC right now, it says oil jumps over 2% amid red sea vessel attacks. Rate cut hopes says oil climbed more than two. Wait, real quick, why would they say rate cut hopes? This is why as rates go up, the consumer gets squeezed and they go on less vacations.
That’s a very simple way of putting it. But that is where a lot of oil traders started selling off. And that’s what caused part of that downturn. Right? Not only that, there’s seasonally adjusted basis and all this other stuff, but traders are pricing in a recession. Traders are pricing in a crash. And during a crash or a deep recession, when that kind of stuff happens, people travel less.
So that’s why they were pricing that in. Okay, so when they pray or they hope for rate cuts, they think there’s going to be some stimulus inside of that, right? There’s going to be lower rates, it’s going to reinvigorate the consumer and they’re going to start spending like drunken sailors again. All right, so it says oil climbed more than 2% on Tuesday to its highest level this month as further attacks on ships in the Red Sea prompted fears of shipping disruptions and on hopes of interest rate cuts that could boost economic growth and fuel demand.
Brent crude futures settled $2 or 2. 5% higher to $81 a barrel after rising as much as 3. 4% during the session. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose by $2. 01, or 2. 7 cents, to $75. The rally, in thin trade with some markets closed for holidays, added to last week’s gains of about 3% after houthi attacks on ships worried investors and as violence in Gaza showed no sign of easing.
There is plenty of geopolitical tensions today in terms of the Middle east, and it has given some angst here to the security of the transit of oils and other goods, said John Kidduff, partner at again Capital LLC. Yemen’s Iran backed houthis militia claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Tuesday on a container ship in the Red Sea and for an attempt to attack Israel with drones, as israeli minister and israeli minister on Tuesday hinted that the country had retaliated in Iraq, Yemen and Iran for attacks carried out against it.
As the war with Hamas led militants in the Gaza Strip widens to other areas of the region and the palestinian death toll climbs. Despite concern about the Middle east and the rerouting of ships, actual supply has not yet been affected. Why? Because it takes so much time. Ships that were just moving all around the world and these attacks started. The ships that weren’t involved in the attacks or the ones that weren’t being rerouted are still sailing.
They just now got into their docks. They’re offloading. All right. These are one of those great indicators that you could see what’s about to happen in the future. Masarek on Sunday announced the restart of shipping routes through the Red Sea, while France’s CMA CC, or CGM, is increasing the number of vessels traveling through the Suez Canal, easing concerns to some extent. Yeah, it’s really interesting they bring that up.
So you’ve got ships rerouting from Red sea using Suez Canal. That in and of itself is an easy artery to block when it comes to the supply chain. We’ve seen it where that one ship, that container ship with a tanker, I don’t remember what it was. It was a tanker, I believe, just sort of drifted off and stopped and turned sideways and it crossed almost the entire canal.
No ships could get past it. And the way that it was augered into the sand, they had to dig it out. And how long did that take? Well, can you imagine? And I’m just throwing this out there. You’ve got red sea having problems. If there’s an attack in the Suez Canal that is going to cause oil markets to go absolutely insane. Shipping companies had stopped sending vessels through the Red Sea and imposed surcharges for the reroute, routing ships.
The Red Sea connects with the Suez Canal, a major shipping route used for about 12% of global trade. We have issues in the Red Sea causing ships to go down around the Horn of Africa, adding to the price and risk, said Tim Snyder, economics economist at Meditor Economics. He said this could turn out to be a not very good start to 2024. And that’s really the question here.
What do you guys think? Of course, with these shipping lanes being so close to each other and connected, one happening in the Red Sea, if we have another attack in the Suez Canal closing off that entire artery, it could spell disaster for a lot of people when it comes to how much they pay in fuel and energy. But also it could actually turn into a really awesome opportunity for people investing in the markets.
So I don’t honestly know which way it’s going to go. All I know is 2024 is going to be an absolutely insane year because we’re coming into an election year. With that being said, I thank you so much for watching. Type one, if you agree that you think that there’s going to be another attack, possibly in the strain permuse. Type two, if you don’t think so, I’m just curious what you guys think.
It’s just interesting as we see what’s coming or we’re trying to figure out what’s coming, who’s right and who’s wrong. But at this point, man, honestly, who knows who’s going to be right at this point? All right, with that being said, the economic ninja is out. Bye. .