Crude

Recently, former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told Charlie Rose on PBS that the reason the US had never actually gone after the lifeblood of the ISIS regime, its oil supply chain, infrastructure and products, was because "we didn’t want to do environmental damage, and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure." Luckily as the clip below shows, the Russian military has no such qualms.

"In the media they wrote that we were training in an FSA military camp, but in fact, all 60 of us were members of Daesh. We were Syrian nationals, many of whom in the beginning moved to Turkey to earn some money, and then joined Daesh."

"Oil and gas sector bankruptcies have reached quarterly levels last seen in the Great Recession. At least nine U.S. oil and gas companies, accounting for more than $2 billion in debt, have filed for bankruptcy so far in the fourth quarter."

"Erdogan's adventurism has been quite successful so far, but it amounts to an extraordinary departure for Turkish foreign policy, and maybe even risks the destruction of the country. How on earth could this happen? The background is an inferiority complex, and megalomania."

Goldman, Decembert 20, 2015: "We think the BoJ is closer to easing further to attempt to achieve a successful reflation than it is to giving up altogether, and so we continue to expect $/JPY higher. We recommend being long $/JPY as part of our 2016 top trade recommendation (along with short EUR/$) and forecast $/JPY at 130 in 12 months"... Three days later, the USDJPY is 100 pips lower.

Unleash 'The Andy Hall Algo'... it seems the quarter-, year-end mark-ups may just be required to maintain 'some' hedge funds and hold off liquidation for another quarter...

After a furious three day "dash for trash", no volume, no breadth, commodity-driven rally, even Santa is now exhausted and overnight US equity index futures were little changed with European and Asian shares mixed. The dollar has declines as gold, silver gain, with WTI initially continuing its recent meteoric rise (up over 8% in the past three days, nearly hitting $38), only to reverse and give up all overnight gains moments ago. Copper falls after Chinese stocks see a second day of weakness, down 0.7% while an unexpected tumble in the USDJPY to 7 weeks lows has dragged the Nikkei (-0.5%) and its futures down.

The news out of Canada - and especially out of Alberta, the heart of the country's oil patch - has just gone from disturbing to downright terrifying. 

After a surprise surge last week, the US oil rig count resumed its decline this week (dropping 3 to 538). Gas rigs dropped 6 in the last week (as the Nattie glut continues). Crude oil prices fell very modestly on the rig count data (having run stops to FOMC day gaps).

We exposed the ugly truth below the surface of Santa's rally yesterday, but today it just got even more fantastical...

API's reported huge 3.6mm drawdown in total crude inventories (against expectations of a 2.33mm build) was just the catalyst to send crude prices soaring overnight and DOE just confirmed it with a massive 5.88mm draw - the largest in over 6 months. However, initial exuberance was tempered as Cushing saw a 2.045mm build - its 7th week in a row. And finally, crude production rose for the second week in a row.

From $35.35 lows (in Feb contract) on Monday, WTI crude has extended its overnight post-API inventory gains, pressing up to $37, running the stops to last week's FOMC meeting moves. Let's just hope DOE does not disappoint (and don't forget to look at Cuhsing storage getting full).