OPEC

Oil prices have climbed back from their earlier highs after surging on news of deeper cuts agreed to by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC, at its meeting in Vienna, agreed to deeper cuts than already have been in place. That agreement came Dec. 6 after a lengthy meeting that...

This morning it's all about Non-Farm Payrolls, U.S./China trade negotiations, and OPEC’s decision to increase production cuts. Let’s begin with the data scheduled for release this morning at 8:30AM ET, when the Commerce Department will release its monthly breakdown on the U.S. labor...

Things are looking up. That little hitch in the markets last Friday and early this week appears to be behind us, setting the stage for more solid gains ahead of the opening bell today. The positive tone followed overnight advances in Europe and Asia, mostly on ideas that trade talks might be headed...

Good day, Oil prices continue to stay low because some OPEC and/or OPEC+ members are refusing to cut their oil production quotas. This has miffed Saudi Arabia, which is on the brink of finalizing the initial public offering (IPO) of Aramco, its state-owned oil company. OPEC officials have said...

Today kicks off the first of two days of OPEC and OPEC+ meetings in Vienna, Austria. The coalition of 13 oil-rich countries that control nearly 40% of the world’s oil supply is expected to make further cuts to production. At the first meeting of the year in June, members of OPEC decided to...

As OPEC prepares to meet this week, here's a Harper's Index of some key numbers that will help you through the news coming out of Vienna. The group faces projections of a supply/demand imbalance in 2020. Some of these numbers will make that clear; other numbers provide a historical context of what...

Saudi Arabia wants fellow OPEC members to extend an agreement to lower oil production when the group meets on Dec. 5 and 6. What Saudi Arabia Wants OPEC and other oil rich countries agreed to lower their combined oil output by 1.2 million barrels a day through the end of March 2020. But the Saudi...

The impact of IMO 2020 on oil markets is going to be less than projected, at least according to a newly published forecast by OPEC. The cartel, in its voluminous World Oil Outlook report, said it has seen several shifts in oil markets that have led it to believe the transition to lower-sulfur...

After sputtering all year, energy stocks finally got a boost last month. It wasn’t necessarily how company executives would have envisioned, however, because it took a devastating military strike against Saudi oil facilities to help the struggling sector post some decent gains on Wall Street...

Working with members of OPEC and the potential for offsetting oil shortages using emergency crude reserves should be enough to keep oil prices from spiraling out of control in the U.S., according to the country's chief business lobbyist. Speaking at a press conference on Sept. 16, U.S. Chamber of...

Saudi Arabia suffered a drone attack over the weekend that has global implications for the oil and equity markets, as tensions in the region could escalate to the point of a military response.  Trump: 'Locked And Loaded' U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Tweet the administration...

Drone strikes on marquee Saudi Arabian oil assets could lead to a spike in crude prices today, particularly contracts priced in Brent terms, the global benchmark. On Saturday, a Yemeni militia group, the Houthi rebels, took credit for the attack, saying they flew 10 drones over assets controlled by...

After closing down 2.87% on Wednesday, crude oil futures are continuing lower this morning after an OPEC+ meeting resulted in no more supply cuts. Thursday’s meeting focused instead on compliance and bringing participating countries’ output down to quota. Despite yesterday’s...

After a weekend of huddles behind the line of scrimmage, the new week starts with some potentially market-moving economic huddles on the calendar.  Most importantly, we get meetings of the European Central Bank (ECB) and OPEC. The ECB is widely expected to enact some sort of new economic...

With the latest OPEC meeting in the books – now dubbed OPEC+, more on that later – the usual hand-wringing about OPEC's lack of power, incompetence and irrelevance poured through the writeups from the Vienna gathering. Liam Denning of Bloomberg summed up that view in an analysis from the meeting...