U.S. crude oil stockpiles surprisingly fell last week, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub, the first time supply has dropped since the coronavirus pandemic choked off fuel demand in the United States. Crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 745,000 barrels in the week to May 8 to 531.5 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 4.1 million-barrel rise. That was the first decline after 15 weeks of builds. U.S. crude stockpiles have risen by more than 100 million barrels since mid-January, with builds accelerating in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and during a brief price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The drawdown this week was in part because imports fell to a record low at less than 2 million barrels per day, and U.S. production dropped. Stocks in Cushing USOICC=ECI fell by 3 million barrels in the last week, EIA said. The hub, coming into this week’s data, is more than 80% full, as producers find themselves with fewer places to store oil. Crude oil production dropped 300,000 bpd to 11.6 million bpd, its lowest since December 2018. Fuel demand rebounded in the most recent week, though over the past four weeks still remains 23% below the year-ago average. “The pretty desperate picture we’ve seen because of the drop in demand, maybe we are seeing signs it’s beginning to thaw,” said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy.  U.S. crude CLc1 futures were up 99 cents, or 3.25%, to $28.63 a barrel while Brent LCOc1 climbing 2.92%, or 91 cents, to $32.38 a barrel. Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI fell last week by 300,000 bpd in the last week, EIA said, to 1.9 million bpd – the lowest ever. Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 593,000 bpd in the last week, EIA said. Refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 2.6 percentage points in the week to 67.9% of total capacity, not far from an all-time low. U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 3.5 million barrels to 252.9 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with forecasts for a 2.2 million-barrel drop. Gasoline inventories have declined in recent weeks due to reduced refining activity.​ “While inventories of gasoline remain at or near the top of their five-year range, if this dynamic persists, I would expect the gasoline supply glut to diminish,” said David Thompson, executive vice-president at Powerhouse, an energy-specialized commodities broker in Washington.  Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.5 million barrels in the week to 155 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.9 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed. Nick Note: Be smart i gave you the holy grail. Gentleman start your engines. And 250 people  that use to fly burn a hell of a lot more fuel when their are 4 of them in a 3000 pound car driving. Refiners are not making enough fuel for the driving season at 60% utilization rate. Watch and see as the coronavirus season of the witch passes. People will be going crazy. And they will drive the shit out of their cars this summer and they will suck up fuel faster then a wineo sucks the last swallow out of a bottle of MD2020 (New York joke). And oil prices will soar. And if you had the balls, brains and a few bucks to buy the shit out of oil when it went under $10 a barrel like i told you it would your kicking ass today.

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury is boosting the amount of debt it plans to issue in the coming quarterly refunding auctions to a record $96 billion to provide government funding as the economy heads into a recession caused by the coronavirus.

The department said Wednesday it anticipates auctioning the first re-booted 20-year bond on May 20, with an expected initial offering size of $20 billion — larger than most analysts projected. It also unveiled plans to boost overall issuance with a focus on increases to longer-term debt.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s plans for unprecedented debt issuance come as the Trump administration braces for what it sees as a 40% contraction in economic growth in the second quarter. The federal deficit is set to surpass estimates of $4 trillion for this year as lawmakers discuss additional economic stimulus.

“It’s pretty amazing that they are doing this much in the long end,” said Tom di Galoma, managing director of government trading and strategy at Seaport Global. “Treasury is trying to take advantage of the very low long-term rates.”

Investors responded by selling Treasuries, pushing longer-maturity yields higher in particular. The 10-year rate, a benchmark for global borrowing, climbed to 0.74%. While that’s the highest since mid-April, it’s still less than half a percentage point above the record low set in the market turmoil of March. German government yields rose as well.

Growing Needs

The Treasury said its “borrowing needs have increased substantially as a result of the federal government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.” It said it has raised an “unprecedented” $1.46 trillion on net since the end of March.

While dealers predicted that the government would tilt its funding toward notes and bonds after a surge in bill issuance since March, the degree to which Treasury leaned on debt with maturities of seven years or greater was a surprise. The average maturity of the Treasury’s debt has held fairly steady in the past year, but officials say it’s started to drop.

“The recent increase in bill issuance has decreased the weighted average maturity, while the increase in coupon sizes should counteract that somewhat,” Brian Smith, the Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for federal finance, said in a phone briefing with the press.

The total combined sales of $96 billion for next week’s refunding — the 3-, 10-, and 30-year auctions — compares with $84 billion last quarter, a level that had held for the past five quarters.

Across Maturities

The Treasury also laid out increases to all of its nominal maturities over the quarter, leaning more heavily on longer-dated securites. It also plans to boost sales of floating-rate notes, but will leave inflation-linked debt — known as TIPS — unchanged.

“TIPS issuance sizes were increased throughout 2019, and we are still monitoring the results of those increases,” Smith said. “So in essence, the increase already happened and we didn’t feel a further increase was appropriate at this time.”

The size of the deficit is seen quadrupling as lawmakers seek to prevent a deeper downturn because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Mnuchin has led unprecedented fiscal spending — from deferred tax receipts to cash for families — to combat a virus-induced economic shutdown that has put more than 30 million Americans out of work.

Congress is gearing up to work on another spending measure that could be as large as $1 trillion.

The backdrop of the swelling deficit and the uncertainty of its path has led Treasury to increase the amount of cash it keeps on hand as a buffer. Its cash balance was about $1.10 trillion as of May 1 after reaching a record $1.18 trillion on April 30.

“Over the next quarter, Treasury’s cash balance will likely remain elevated as Treasury seeks to maintain prudent liquidity in light of the size and relative uncertainty of Covid-19 related outflows,” the department said.

is it worth dying for?

It seems Americans didn’t need much encouragement to start leaving their homes again and heading back out into public areas. Cellphone data analyzed by The New York Times reportedly shows that, on average, 25 million more Americans left their homes each day last week compared to the preceding six weeks. The average share of people staying home stood at just over 36 percent, which is said by researchers to be a drop of over 7 percentage points from the average during the peak period for sheltering in place. The surge came as more than half of U.S. states started to reopen their economies or began making plans to do so—even though public-health experts have repeatedly warned that the reopenings will likely cause fresh spikes of infections and deaths. The Times reports the share of people staying home last week dropped in nearly every part of the nation, in some places by nearly 11 percentage points. Nick Note: They are setting the captives free… To Shop. Gentleman start your engines and my favorite. Take me out to the ball park, buy me a mask and hand wipes i don’t care if the coronaviruse comes back because its 1, 2, strikes your off the ventalotor and in a body bag.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert issued a blunt warning Tuesday that cities and states could “turn back the clock” and see more COVID-19 deaths and economic damage alike if they lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders too fast — a sharp contrast as President Donald Trump pushes to right a free-falling economy.

“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate committee and the nation as more than two dozen states have begun to lift their lockdowns as a first step toward economic recovery.

The advice from Fauci and other key government officials — delivered by dramatic, sometimes awkward teleconference — was at odds with a president who urges on protests of state-ordered restraints and insists that “day after day, we’re making tremendous strides.” Trump, whose reelection depends to a substantial degree on the economy, talks up his administration’s record with the virus daily. Underscoring the seriousness of the pandemic that has reached Congress and the White House, Fauci and other experts testified from their homes. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander chaired the hearing from the study in his cabin in Tennessee, although several committee members attended in person in an eerily empty Capitol Hill chamber, masked and sitting 6 feet apart. The tension in balancing people’s safety from the virus, which is still surprising doctors with the sneaky ways it can kill, against the severe economic fallout is playing out in many other countries, too. Italy partially lifted lockdown restrictions last week only to see a big jump in confirmed COVID-19 infections in its hardest-hit region. And Lebanon relaxed a national lockdown late last month but said Tuesday the restrictions are being reinstated for the rest of the week after a spike in reported infections.

More infections and deaths are inevitable as people again start gathering, but how prepared communities are to stamp out those sparks will determine how bad the rebound is, Fauci told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“There is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on mitigation you will see some cases appear,” Fauci said.. Move too quickly and “the consequences could be really serious,” he added. It not only would cause “some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery.” With more than 30 million people unemployed in the U.S., Trump has been pressuring states to reopen. Fauci expressed optimism that eventually vaccines will arrive, along with treatments in addition to the one drug that so far has shown a modest effect in fighting COVID–19. But it would be “a bridge too far” to expect them in time for fall when schools hope to reopen, he said. Trump administration “testing czar” Adm. Brett Giroir said the U.S. could be performing at least 40 million to 50 million tests per month by September. That would work out to between 1.3 million to 1.7 million tests per day. Harvard researchers have said the U.S. must be doing 900,000 by this Friday in order to safely reopen. And a test only tells if someone is infected that day — they could catch the virus the next day. Pushed by Alexander on how the nation’s 100,000 schools and 5,000 colleges could reopen in August, Giroir expressed confidence there would be enough tests for schools to devise safe strategies, perhaps by testing a certain number of students every few days. Three of Tuesday’s experts, Fauci, Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, are in “modified quarantine” after two White House staffers recently became infected but they’re allowed to attend critical administration meetings, masked and keeping their distance. Nick Note: The depression that will be with the MASES (who were already broke to begin with) for years to come  is caused by the simple fact they shut down the entire US economy. If they had tested and identified clusters of the infection for isolation and lock down 90% of the economy would be open. Of course they would have to grounded those aluminium test tubes full of viruses called the 747 disease incubater at most this would be a blim on the radar screen.  If they had done it my way at any given time less then 10% of the population would be in quarantine. This is a example the stupid assholes that our your rulers… I wish you luck! they will soon start cluster quarantines. Unfortunately to do so since they are not able to test the masses they will track you by your cell phone, facial recognition, thermal scanning for fever and artificial intelligenceto track all your movements (with or without your cell phone)  all tied to CATV cameras which are everywhere, drones and high intensity satellites that can read the serial number on the back of your sell phone.

The United Arab Emirates will cut even more oil production in June, UAE Minister of Energy and Industry Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei announced this week. The production cuts, according to Al Mazrouei, will increase by another 100,000 bpd next month, after already reducing its oi production “in line with the OPEC+ agreement” in May. This comes after the OPEC member increased its production to more than 4 million bpd in April, when Saudi Arabia was also busy adding crude oil into the global supply glut at a time when the world was shutting down in response to the coronavirus, crippling the demand for crude. Today’s news comes as Saudi Arabia, too, said it would cut beyond its promised cuts next month. Saudi Arabia has pledged as part of the OPEC agreement to cut its production to 8.5 million bpd, but said this week that it would cut to 7.492 million bpd in June, after the Saudi energy ministry ordered Aramco to cut bigger. Kuwait also announced that it would cut its oil production even more than the OPEC+ agreement called for, by an additional 80,000 bpd in June. But the move to cut additional barrels by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE was seen not as a positive move, but as an out-of-options move as Middle East producers find themselves without buyers. Today’s announcement of additional cuts could, therefore, spark fear instead of confidence as the market views it as a reflection of the true state of the market. Nick Note: Hear me well one the masses start their engines the oil tanks will drain quickly and prices will go zoom ZOOM ZOOM>

Saudi Arabia is tripling its value-added tax (VAT) and suspending cost-of-living allowances as part of a new round of painful austerity measures to save the Kingdom’s finances after oil prices collapsed in the pandemic. Saudi Arabia, which had already cut government expenditures shortly after the price of oil crashed in March, is now tripling VAT to 15 percent from 5 percent beginning in July 2020, the Saudi Ministry of Finance said on Monday, as carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. In order to reduce government expenditures while the oil price crash cripples the main budgetary income—oil revenues—the Kingdom is also discontinuing the cost-of-living allowances for state workers as of July. As a whole, Saudi Arabia is saving US$26.6 billion (100 billion Saudi riyals) from the measures announced on Monday, which also include canceling, extending, or postponing some operational and capital expenditures for some government agencies, as well reducing provisions for a number of programs and major projects this year.   “These measures that have been undertaken today, as tough as they are, are necessary and beneficial to maintain comprehensive financial and economic stability on the medium and long-term for the interest of the country and its citizens,” Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Economy and Planning, Mohammad Aljadaan, said in a statement carried by the Saudi agency. “The Minister explained that due to the precautionary measures undertaken worldwide to combat the pandemic, the first economic shock was the unprecedented decline in oil demand, which led to lower oil prices and a sharp decline in oil revenue that represents a main source of public revenue for the state budget,” the Saudi Press Agency said.  Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s top producer and the world’s top oil exporter, is preparing to borrow dozens of billions of US dollars this year to plug the widening budget gap due to the oil price crash. Last week, the Saudi Finance Minister had already warned that the government was preparing to implement “painful” measures for propping up the oil-dependent economy.  Nick Note: the only way the royal family stays in power is by paying the Inamn big bucks. their security costs are through the roof. And they must fund radical Islam. After all they did finance 9/11. Do not get me started on Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Lebanon. No money they get their throats slit and the harem,,, well let me put it to you this way… it would be very ugly and death would be a welcomed relief. As usual they did not calculate correctly. The shutdown caused by the coronavirus  caught them by suprise…… Talk about a fuckup. They are at risk……..

WASHINGTON – The White House on Saturday scrambled to deal with the fallout from two aides testing positive for the coronavirus, as officials who were potentially exposed responded differently, with some senior members of the pandemic task force self-quarantining while others planned to continue to go to work. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, both task force members, said they are self-quarantining or teleworking for two weeks after exposure to a coronavirus case at the White House. On Saturday night, a spokeswoman for Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases official, acknowledged that working from home sometimes will be among the precautions he is taking. But several administration officials said White House staffers were encouraged to come into the office by their supervisors, and that aides who travel with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence would not stay out for 14 days, the recommended time frame to quarantine once exposed to the virus. The conflicting ways in which officials and aides are responding after two staff members were diagnosed with the coronavirus this past week – Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller and a military valet to the president – continued to raise questions about how the White House is responding to the challenge of maintaining a safe work environment for Trump, Pence and their staff. “The president’s physician and White House operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the president, first family and the entire White House complex safe and healthy at all times,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. “In addition to social distancing, daily temperature checks and symptom histories, hand sanitizer, and regular deep cleaning of all work spaces, every staff member in proximity to the president and vice president is being tested daily for covid-19 as well as any guests.” But the nervousness and concern among White House staffers became more palpable on Saturday, according to people familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the tensions. Now that Redfield and Hahn are staying away, some officials said they don’t know if they should keep going to work at the White House. Staffers who had potentially been in contact with Miller were still getting calls on Saturday from officials trying to gauge their exposure to the virus, according to one person who received a call. All White House staffers received a memo from the White House management office on Friday, which encouraged employees to “practice maximum telework” and to “work remotely if at all possible.” The White House will receive “heightened levels of daily cleaning,” according to the memo. It also told employees they must quarantine for 14 days if they leave the Washington region and must report all of their travel. The memo did not suggest that employees wear masks, as the CDC has suggested for all Americans in public spaces. Masks generally protect other people from the person wearing the face covering, rather than preventing the individual from contracting the virus. “We are exercising daily caution by testing [Executive Office of the President] staff who have high proximity to the president and Vice President for covid-19,” the memo says. “For any presumptive positive covid-19 results, the White House medical Unit conducts immediate contact tracing and notifies any affected individuals.” The FDA said late Friday that Hahn began to self-quarantine for two weeks after being exposed to an individual who tested positive. A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the individual in question was Miller, who was present at task force meetings attended by Hahn and other health officials. Redfield “will be teleworking for the next two weeks,” according to a CDC spokesman, who said Redfield “has been determined to have had a low-risk exposure” on Wednesday to “a person at the White House who has covid-19.” The spokesman, Benjamin Haynes, did not identify the infected person. Haynes said Redfield was last tested on April 27 and had a negative result. “He is feeling fine and has no symptoms,” said Haynes, who added that, if Redfield needs to go to the White House during his teleworking time, he will have his temperature taken, be screened for symptoms and keep at a distance from others. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and another task force member, “has tested negative for covid-19 as recently as yesterday,” an institute spokeswoman said Saturday. “He will continue to be tested regularly and is actively monitoring his temperature and other health indicators.” At first on Saturday afternoon, the spokeswoman said Fauci, one of the administration’s most recognizable figures in the pandemic response, “is considered to be at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure. Nevertheless, he is taking appropriate precautions to mitigate risk to any of his personal contacts while still allowing him to carry out his responsibilities in this public health crisis.” Then, hours later, the spokeswoman said Saturday night that the precautions include “a mix of teleworking and wearing a mask during in-person meetings.” It remains unclear whether some White House officials and other members of the coronavirus task force have been in closer proximity to the infected aides than others and therefore would be at greater risk of contracting the virus.

But concerns were evident at the White House, where there is worry that if Miller and the unidentified personal valet to Trump are infected, then multiple officials may be at risk. Miller was regularly in the Oval Office and around Trump when the daily coronavirus task force news briefings were ongoing, but has not been since the briefings ended a couple of weeks ago. She was in the task force meeting in the Situation Room on Thursday, sitting in the back row facing Pence on the far right side, closer to the door, according to a person familiar with the situation. A number of aides from Pence’s office were sent home on Friday after the contact tracing was complete. Miller is married to top White House aide Stephen Miller, who is expected to quarantine at home for the time being. The concerns are spreading to the Trump campaign, where a senior official said there was no plan to hold a large-scale campaign event with the president until at least August. Nick Note: This could be a big shit! Excuse me the guys who are at the lead of stopping this infection got it? What the hell is going on here. If they cannot protect themselves how are they going to protect you.