On the picket line: Steelworker strikes that began Sunday at seven U.S. oil refineries and two chemical plants have a slim chance of pumping up gasoline or crude prices dramatically in the near future, analysts tell FuelFix.com. Talks between the United Steelworkers union and big oil companies led by Royal Dutch Shell broke down Saturday after the two groups couldn’t reach an agreement on the overtime that workers have to take when others are called away to train new recruits, as well as other contractual issues. But the refineries, analysts say, can keep running using automated processes with a skeleton crew of managers and employees from other parts of the companies, a factor that will likely keep U.S. gasoline supplies intact for the most part. Read the full story.
Spent out: U.S. consumer spending recorded its biggest decline since late 2009 in December, with households appearing to save the extra cash from cheaper gasoline, which could support future consumption. The Commerce Department reports this morning that consumer spending dropped 0.3% after a downwardly revised 0.5% increase in November. It was the largest drop since September 2009. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, falling 0.2% in December after a previously reported 0.6% increase. Read the full story.
The generation gap: A new Gallup poll shows older generations of Americans are much more likely to describe their political views as conservative than as liberal. This includes the large baby boom generation, of whom 44% identified as conservative and 21% as liberal last year. That 23-percentage-point conservative advantage is less than the 31-point edge for the older traditionalist generation, but greater than those for Generation Xers and millennials. In fact, the Gallup poll shows millennials are about as likely to say they are liberal as to say they are conservative. The results are based on aggregated data from 14 separate Gallup polls conducted in 2014, including interviews with more than 16,000 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older. Read the full story.
