Tumultuous Action In Oil Names

The inventory build in oil was about three times greater than what the market was expecting. Oil prices slid fast throughout the day and the sector by and large reversed the recent move. But going into the final hour of trading, there does seem to be some minor strength ticking up. BAS notably was flat just about an hour ago and could tread water some more.

My guess: oil returns sub $50 for a spell and weak players get slapped around some more until someone finally closes shop. The inventory builds are big but the overall market imbalance is much less so, in the grand scheme of things. US inventory is building rapidly but only partially due to overproduction. Recent currency moves have contributed to the problem by trapping US crude with uncompetitive manufacturing and refinery businesses behind an export barrier, which is why oil companies are banging the drum so loudly on crude export rules. My guess is that at least half the build is probably from dollar strength pricing US competition out of foreign goods markets.

There is no reason to think the Fed will just sit by while the US economy slides into a recession. They’ll have to defend the dollar at some point (or what do you call intentionally making it weaker anyway?). But in the meantime, things could get rough. Oil majors are only halfheartedly looking to fix the problem; they’d really like to gobble up all the small competition for pennies on the dollar first to keep their proven reserves stacked. So yeah this could get worse before it gets better.

Still, I’m thinking now is a perfectly good time to start building positions in known survivors. The majors themselves are cheap, given how huge they are and that they aren’t going anywhere. Everything that made oil majors a crappy investment when they had a premium attached makes them the perfect choice now that they’re going for no premium. If you pick the right foreign oil major, you can even get paid in non-dollars and – God help us when the Fed finally delivers a weaker dollar – make a second strong killing on the exchange back into the US.