Crude

“I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this trend. When I trained as an economist, negative rates weren’t in the textbooks. But that’s the world we live in now, and it hasn’t stopped turning."

Who could have seen that coming?

Andy Hall's Astenbeck hedge-fund lost 9.7% in November, bringing 2015 losses to more than 26%. As a result of capital losses and mounting redemptions, Astenbeck’s assets under management fell to $2.4 billion, down from $3 billion at the start of the year and nearly $5 billion less than three years ago.

Following last night's unexpected inventory draw reported by API, DOE reported an even bigger draw of 3.568 million barrel (against expectations of a 1.3mm barrel build). The biggest draw in almost 4 months sent crude surging back to $39. Cushing continues to fill up, with a 423k build - the 5th week in a row. Production dropped the most in 2 months (with both Alaska and The Lower 48 dropping).

FCX announced today that its Board has suspended its annual common stock dividend of $0.20 per share. This action will provide cash savings of approximately $240 million per annum and further enhance FCX’s liquidity during this period of weak market conditions. FCX’s Board will review its financial policy on an ongoing basis and authorize cash returns to shareholders as market conditions improve.

• Gloomy mood prevails despite calmer commodities (Reuters)
• A Strong Dollar Hurts China More Than the U.S. (BBG)
• China Sets Yuan at Four-Year Low in ‘Stress Test’ (WSJ)
• Dow Chemical and DuPont Are in Advanced Talks to Merge (WSJ)
• Yahoo scraps plan to spin off Alibaba stake (Reuters)

Overnight market action has largely been a continuation of Tuesday's key themes with European stocks falling as a selloff in mining companies extended to a 7th day, even as metals prices rose and crude oil rallied modestly from a six-year low after yesterday's API crude inventory draw. U.S. equity futures have rebounded from modest declines, as emerging-market shares extended their losing streak to a 6th day while Asian stocks dropped to 2 month lows.

Oil tanker rates soared to the highest in seven years amid an acceleration in the number of bookings and signs that the ships are being delayed when unloading due to a lack of space in on-land storage tanks. This means that day rates for 2 million-barrel carrying ships sailing to Japan from Saudi Arabia, the industry’s benchmark route, surged to $111,359, the highest since July 2008,

One can choose to ignore all these charts. However, many of them suggest eery similarity to 2007/2008 in structure. And if this structure plays out the so called "Santa" rally may not be all that it's cracked up to be. The cumulative message of all these charts: Things are far from well.

After 10 weeks of inventory builds, API reports a 1.9mm barrel draw (hugely missing DOE expectations of a 1.3mm build). The initial reaction was a knee-jerk higher by 25c, but we note that Cushing saw a 614k barrel build (5th week in a row) and is perhaps the more crucial storage level to montori. As one trader noted, "OPEC wants to produce as much as they want," and as global land (and sea) storage fills, so "$35 is clearly a level of interest."

"Training at this camp began with the knowledge of the Iraqi Defence Ministry and police. Those who make different interpretations of the Turkish military presence in Mosul are involved in deliberate provocation."

"ISIS is an enemy of my country. ISIS is a disgrace. It puts my religion in a bad light. They don't represent Islam and I do not consider them to be Muslims.”

The day of reckoning has arrived for the oil price. After a year of "Oil Price Crash" in October the world managed record production of 97.09 Mbpd. Production momentum built in the period of high price, 2007 to 2014, is proving very difficult to switch off. It must be switched off and it seems to me the most likely scenario is sharply lower oil price in the near term.