Making a wager: For all the noise about oil’s collapse, the market is saying not that much has really changed: Higher prices will be back soon enough because the current slowdown in demand growth will prove fleeting. As Bloomberg reports, while Brent crude for next month delivery has fallen 25% since June to $86.03 a barrel on Tuesday, the price for 2020 contracts has only fallen to $91.53. Today’s prices can’t “be considered the new normal, or at least not yet,” says Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at Standard Chartered Plc in London.Read the full story.
South of the border: Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, is counting on a future in deepwater production in the Gulf of Mexico. But as The New York Times reports, after eight years of exploratory drilling, it is still years away from producing the first barrel of oil in deep waters. Before it can, Pemex must shed its past as a lumbering state monopoly and remake itself as a streamlined company ready to compete or ally with the world’s biggest firms. Read the full story.
What’s to come: The global economy has stumbled, and financial markets have endured some stomach-churning moments. But that doesn’t mean the Federal Reserve plans any major policy shifts. Ending a two-day discussion today, the Fed is expected to announce the end of its monthly bond buying program. The Associated Press reports it’s also expected to signal that it remains in no hurry to raise its key short-term interest rate. Read the full story.
