Oil & Gas Stocks Are Here To Stay

During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden noted that the U.S. will still need oil and gas for at least another decade. This comes as the President has pushed for a significant transition in our country to renewable energy.

President Biden has fought against the oil and gas companies since the beginning of his tenure. He has told Americans that we need to reduce our reliance on oil and gas and move towards renewable energy as soon as possible.

The President has pushed for legislation to make renewable energy more affordable. All this while telling oil and gas companies that they need to invest more to grow supply but not offer them the same concessions.

More so, the Biden administration has tried to reduce the number of oil and gas leases the federal government can sell. Thus making it more difficult to increase supply. Some government policies are also making the industry smaller since new and smaller companies are getting squeezed out due to regulations.

I think most people would agree that burning oil and gas is not ideal for the environment and more so that we need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and gas producers such as Russia (which we primarily have done since the start of the war with Ukraine) and those countries in the middle east that are not so friendly to the U.S.

However, it will be more than even the decade President Biden admitted to in the State of the Union address until we are indeed off the oil and gas addiction our country currently has.

For example, even the most aggressive state legislation coming out of California and New York doesn't ban the sale of internal combustion engines until 2035, more than a decade from now. While electric vehicle sales rapidly increase in the U.S., they are growing from a super low starting point.

The reality is that the government is making it more difficult for oil and gas companies to expand supply either with laws, not selling leases, or banning gasoline vehicles in the future, making long-term investments less appealing. This inadvertently pushes oil and gas prices higher and makes these companies more profitable.

And remember, this is all during a time when the President, a Democrat, is not 'pro' oil and gas. Take a moment to imagine how well the industry could be doing if the President and Congress were both 'pro' or even indifferent about the oil and gas industry.

So with that being said, let's look at a few exchange-traded funds that you can buy today to possibly play the boom the oil and gas industry may be setting up for over the next few decades. Continue reading "Oil & Gas Stocks Are Here To Stay"

Oil Just Posted Its Worst Monthly/Quarterly Loss Ever!

Over the last month, we have seen the price of Crude oil benchmarks in the U.S. and Brent futures get destroyed. Both benchmarks lost right around two-thirds of their value during the first quarter and roughly 55% of their value during March alone.

The massive price destruction occurred because of many reasons. The first and foremost is the Coronavirus pandemic and how the world is fighting the spread of the virus. Shutting borders to foreign nationals, implementing 'Stay at home Orders,' and recommending 'social distancing' is all leading to a massive reduction in the demand for oil on a worldwide scale. Cruise ships aren't leaving ports, airlines have slashed their number of flights, both public busses and school busses are not operating, and the average person isn't driving their vehicles. We have already begun to see reports from around the world how pollution levels are declining due to these modes of transportation, essentially stopping.

The second reason the price of oil crumbled was because of the "price war' that is currently ragging between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The two countries were the main reasons the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) couldn't agree on production cuts following the softening demand after the Coronavirus began spreading on a massive scale. Russia and OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, disagreed on how much each country would reduce production in order to help stabilize the price of oil around the world.

The price war has caused the Saudi's to increase production from 9.7 million barrels a day in February to a targeted more than 12 million barrels a day in April. Thus far, they have held up their threats. As of early April, the first wave of crude was already heading toward Europe, and the U.S. Saudi Arabia hired extra supertankers in March. Those ships are positioned near oil terminals preparing to be filled. Continue reading "Oil Just Posted Its Worst Monthly/Quarterly Loss Ever!"

Stocks Are Down, Talk Of A Recession Coming! It's Time To Panic! Or Is It?

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


A large number of investors, talking media heads, and Wall Street analysts are predicting that the US toward another recession. Even the mention of the 'R' word (recession) sends fear through not only investors blood, but nearly all American's.

Why? Because soon after hearing the word most people begin remembering 2007-08 financial crises which sent the US economy into a 19-month recession, which to make matters worse from a psychological standpoint has been coined 'The Great Recession'. Furthermore, since the 2007-09 recession is still fresh on everyone minds and was terrible in terms of job lose, declining economic activity, low 401-K balances and stock prices, when the 'R' word is used now, everyone immediately thinks of all those terrible things happening again. This causes fear and panic to quickly set in.

From a market standpoint, this can send equity and commodity prices lower, further increasing the likelihood of a recession. (Think self-fulfilling prophecy.)

But let's stop right there for a moment and look at what is really happening with the markets. Continue reading "Stocks Are Down, Talk Of A Recession Coming! It's Time To Panic! Or Is It?"