The S&P 500 index has more than doubled since its pandemic lows of March last year, while Bitcoin is up over 1000%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Charlie Munger told a conference Friday that markets are wildly overvalued in places and that the current environment is “even crazier” than the dotcom boom of the late 1990s that subsequently led to a bust. “I consider this era an even crazier era than the dotcom era,” Munger, 97, said at the Sohn conference in Sydney, The Australian Financial Review reported. Munger also said that he wished cryptocurrencies didn’t exist, and praised China for taking action to ban their use, according to the AFR. “I wish they’d never been invented,” he said. “And again I admire the Chinese, I think they made the correct decision, which was to simply ban them. In my country, English-speaking civilization has made the wrong decision, I just can’t stand participating in these insane booms, one way or another.” The S&P 500 index has more than doubled since its pandemic lows of March last year, while Bitcoin is up over 1000%. Investors have poured almost $900 billion into equity funds in 2021 — exceeding the combined total from the past 19 years — according to data from Bank of America Corp. and EPFR Global. The valuation of the U.S. stock market is now higher than before the bust induced by the health crisis, and investors have become jittery. Spiking inflation is forcing central banks to tighten monetary policy, threatening to reduce the liquidity tailwind that lifted a wide range of assets. The veteran investor also weighed in on China’s global relations, urging Australia to play a role in bridging differences between the Asian nation and the U.S. “I think Australia with its deep involvement in China can be in a constructive position, Australia can encourage the U.S. and China to be more reasonable,” he said. Munger, who was speaking after Berkshire’s cash pile hit new heights at $149.2 billion of funds in the third quarter, also said he was bullish on renewable energy. “I love the fact that we’re rapidly reducing the burning of coal and the burning of gasoline and diesel,” he said. “I think that’s a smart thing for the world to be doing and it would be smart even if there were no global warming.” NN: At 97 years old Charlie is still the most brilliant market analysis of our time. Unfortunately the Front man Warren Buffet is not so brilliant. But a great showman. He often steers their investments in the wrong direction. Bershire makes lots of mistakes and is earning little more then interest on their money. The takeaway from this story is the fact its confirmation of what i have been telling you. The greatest stock market bubble ever has been created and it will soon burst. It will be our greatest trade ever. You should know everything we have been doing is setting up for this grand event.
The Greeneewennis have another win. they have stopped one of the largest oil and gas fields in Europe
Shell announced on Thursday that it would no longer proceed with its investment in the Cambo oil field. Shell had a 30% stake in the Cambo oilfield, in the UK’s North Sea, with Siccar Point Energy holding the remaining 70% stake. Siccar expressed its disappointment in Shell’s exit, and said it would need to review its options for Cambo. For Shell, the reason to exit the project was the potential for delay as well as a lack of strength of economics.
Cambo was estimated to be capable of producing 175 million barrels of oil in its first phase. Cambo has drawn the attention of environmental groups protesting its development.
“After comprehensive screening of the proposed Cambo development, we have concluded the economic case for investment in this project is not strong enough at this time, as well as having the potential for delays,” a Shell spokesman said on Thrusday. Nevertheless, Shell said that continued investment in the UK oil and gas sector “remains critical to the country’s energy security”, stressing that it still believes in the UK North Sea. Anti-Cambo development campaigners have hailed Shell’s move as the “beginning of the end for all new oil and gas projects,” one such campaigner from Friends of the Earth Scotland said. Oil and Gas regulator OGUK warned that the UK would still rely on new oil and gas projects. “This is a commercial decision between partners but doesn’t change the facts that the UK will continue to need new oil and gas projects if we are to protect security of supply, avoid increasing reliance on imports and support jobs,” Jenny Stanning, external relations director at OGUK said. NN: This is another shoot your self in the dick moment Europe including England are desperate for energy. And the most prolific field is the Cambo field. It is vast and has not been fully explored. It is in the North Sea very close to the coast. Stopping this project is nothing short of criminal. And obviousley very very stupid. Instead they will buy gas from their mortal eney the Russians from a pipeline that runs thousands of miles
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Thursday laid out his strategy to fight the coronavirus as the highly contagious Omicron spread across the globe with winter coming and hours after the first known U.S. case of community transmission of the variant was reported. With authorities around the world scrambling to contain Omicron, Biden warned in no uncertain terms that infections will rise this winter. “We’re going to fight this variant with science and speed, not chaos and confusion,” he said, speaking at the National Institutes of Health medical research facility in Maryland. New York has found five cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, its governor said, becoming the fourth U.S. state to detect the variant and bringing the total number of infections in the country to eight. New York Governor Kathy Hochul told a news conference that one of the cases involved a 67-year-old Long Island woman with mild symptoms who had recently returned from South Africa. The woman had some vaccination history but it was not yet known how many doses she had received. Further information was not yet available on the other four people, all New York City residents, Hochul said. The other U.S. states that have found Omicron cases are California, Colorado and Minnesota, one in each state. In all three cases, the patients were fully vaccinated and developed mild symptoms. In California and Colorado, the patients had recently returned from trips to southern Africa and had not gotten booster doses. The case in Minnesota is the first known community transmission within the United States. The patient in Minnesota had recently travelled to New York City for an anime convention, prompting the city to launch contact tracing to try to contain the spread. “We are aware of a case of the Omicron variant identified in Minnesota that is associated with travel to a conference in New York City, and we should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said ahead of Hochul’s announcement.
Much remains unknown about Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa last month and has been reported in at least two dozen countries, just as parts of Europe were already grappling with a wave of infections of the Delta variant.
Under Biden’s plan, the United States will require inbound international passengers to be tested for COVID-19 within one day of departure, regardless of vaccination status. Mask requirements on airplanes, trains and public transportation vehicles will be extended to March 18. The U.S. government will require private health insurers to reimburse their 150 million customers for 100% of the cost of over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests, administration officials said, and make 50 million more tests available free through rural clinics and health centers for the uninsured. Less than 60% of the U.S. population, or 196 million people, have been fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates among wealthy nations. Fears about the Omicron variant have pounded financial markets and created doubts about the speed of the global economic recovery as the pandemic rages on. Shares fell on Thursday, and crude oil futures extended losses. The variant could slow global economic growth by exacerbating supply chain problems and depressing demand, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Reuters Next conference on Thursday.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, but it could cause significant problems. We’re still evaluating that,” she said.
Eager to avoid derailing a fragile recovery of Europe’s biggest economy, Germany had kept businesses open to the almost 69% of the population that is fully vaccinated as well as those with proof of having recovered from the virus. But on Thursday, the country announced it would bar the unvaccinated from all but essential businesses such as grocery stores and pharmacies, while legislation to make vaccination mandatory will be drafted for early next year. “We have understood that the situation is very serious,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference. A nationwide vaccination mandate could take effect from February 2022 after it is debated in the Bundestag and after guidance from Germany’s Ethics Council, she said. The European Union’s public health agency said the variant could be responsible for more than half of all COVID infections in Europe within a few months. A group of South African health bodies said on Thursday their latest findings indicated the variant posed a threefold higher risk of reinfection than the currently dominant Delta variant and the Beta strain. The country also said it was seeing an increase in COVID-19 reinfections in patients contracting Omicron – with people who have already had the illness getting infected again – in a way that it did not see with other variants. Global travel curbs accelerated on Thursday in response to the threat from Omicron. In the Netherlands, health authorities called for pre-flight COVID-19 tests for all travel from outside the European Union, after it turned out that most of the passengers who tested positive after arriving on two flights from South Africa on Nov. 26 had been vaccinated. Russia has imposed a two-week quarantine for travellers from some African countries including South Africa, the Interfax news agency said, quoting a senior official. Hong Kong extended a travel ban to more countries and Norway, among others, re-introduced travel restrictions. Amid all the new restrictions, Europe’s largest budget airline, Ryanair, said it expected a challenging time at Christmas, although it was still optimistic about summer demand. NN: You know we have discussed this since August. So it is no surprise. The masses are dazed and confused at best ambivalent. It is the height of insanity to wait and see how infections and deadly the Omicron mutation is. Does this make any sense? Shut down the airlines and go into partial restrictions for just a couple weeks. We both know that is not going to happen. I call this the great experiment…… I urge you to get your booster shot if you have not already done so. Shields up. We are going into shut down mode here and we will modify our protections when we see how humanity who are nothing more then lab rats of the leaders fair. It is crazy shit not to institute a partial shutdown of airlines and crowd events……
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) -The United States reported its first case of community transmission of Omicron on Thursday and President Joe Biden prepared to lay out his strategy to fight the coronavirus over the winter as the highly contagious variant spread across the globe. As the world scrambled to contain the spread of Omicron, health authorities in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota said the infected resident was a fully vaccinated adult male who had recently travelled to New York City.The person told state health investigators he attended the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center from Nov. 19 to 21 and developed mild symptoms on Nov. 22.
“We are aware of a case of the Omicron variant identified in Minnesota that is associated with travel to a conference in New York City, and we should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We are working closely with the State and the CDC, as well as the Javits Center’s event organizers, and our Test and Trace Corps will be contacting conference attendees,” he said in a statement.The Omicron variant could slow global economic growth by exacerbating supply chain problems and depressing demand, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Reuters Next conference on Thursday. “There’s a lot of uncertainty, but it could cause significant problems. We’re still evaluating that,” she said. Germany announced it would bar the unvaccinated from all but essential businesses such as grocery stores and pharmacies, while legislation to make vaccination mandatory will be drafted for early next year.”We have understood that the situation is very serious,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference. A nationwide vaccination mandate could take effect from February 2022 after it is debated in the Bundestag and after guidance from Germany’s Ethics Council, she said. Eager to avoid derailing a fragile recovery of Europe’s biggest economy, Germany kept businesses open to the almost 69% of the population that is fully vaccinated as well as those with proof of having recovered from the virus. In the United States, Biden was due to speak at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at 1:40 p.m. ET (1840 GMT) to announce steps including extending requirements https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-us-extend-transit-mask-mandate-through-mid-march-sources-2021-12-01 for travellers to wear masks through mid-March. By early next week the United States will require inbound international travellers to be tested for COVID-19 within a day of departure, regardless of vaccination status. And private health insurance companies will be required to reimburse customers for at-home COVID-19 tests, as part of a winter strategy that Biden is due to announce at 1840 GMT. “The president is going to unveil a very robust plan, pull out all the stops to prepare for the winter and to prepare for the new variant,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told broadcaster MSNBC. Much remains unknown about Omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa last month and has been spotted in at least two dozen countries, just as parts of Europe were already grappling with a wave of infections of the Delta variant. The European Union’s public health agency said the variant could be responsible for more than half of all COVID infections in Europe within a few months, lending weight to preliminary information about its high transmissibility. “It’s going to take about two more weeks to have more definitive information about the Omicron variant,” U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine said in an interview for the Reuters Next conference. Travel restrictions could slow the spread and give authorities the time to assess what further steps could be needed, she said. South Africa said it was seeing an increase in COVID-19 reinfections in patients contracting Omicron – with people who have already had the illness getting infected again – in a way that it did not see with other variants. In the Netherlands, health authorities called for pre-flight COVID-19 tests for all travel from outside the European Union, after it turned out that most of the passengers who tested positive after arriving on two flights from South Africa on Nov. 26 had been vaccinated. The first known U.S. case https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-reports-first-case-omicron-variant-2021-12-01, announced on Wednesday, was a fully vaccinated person in California who had travelled to South Africa. Two French cases, in the greater Paris region and in eastern France, were passengers arriving respectively from Nigeria and South Africa. Russia has imposed a two-week quarantine for travellers from some African countries including South Africa, the Interfax news agency said, quoting a senior official. Hong Kong extended a travel ban to more countries and Norway, among others, re-introduced travel restrictions. Amid all the new restrictions, Europe’s largest budget airline, Ryanair, said it expected a challenging time at Christmas, although it was still optimistic about summer demand. In France, the country’s top scientific adviser, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, said the “true enemy” for now was still the more familiar Delta variant of the virus, spreading in a fifth wave. NN: It is obvious at the very least get your third shot… Get the kiddies vaccinated. And get ready to hunker down. Test test test, mask up, isolate surely do not fly or go to crowd fests. Vitamin up and get your supply of ivermectin. As a foot note Ivermectin does attack the specific spike proteins to work. It is a different process and spike mutations will not affect its ability to protect you, ivermectin acts by inhibiting the host importin alpha/beta-1 nuclear transport proteins, which are part of a key intracellular transport process that viruses hijack to enhance infection by suppressing the host’s antiviral response. In addition, ivermectin docking may interfere with the attachment of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein to the human cell membrane.
OPEC and its allies agreed on Thursday to stick to their existing policy of monthly oil output increases despite fears that a US release from crude reserves and the new Omicron coronavirus variant would lead to a fresh oil price rout. Benchmark Brent crude fell more than $1 after the deal was reported, before recovering some ground to trade around$70 a barrel. It is now well below October’s three-year highs above $86 but still more than 30 percent up on the start of 2021. The United States has repeatedly pushed OPEC+ to accelerate output hikes as US gasoline prices soared and President Joe Biden’s approval ratings slid. Faced with rebuffs, Washington said last week it and other consumers would release reserves. Fearing another supply glut, sources said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and allies, known as OPEC+, considered a range of options in talks on Thursday, including pausing their January hike of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) or increasing output by less than the monthly plan.
But any such move would have put OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf, on a collision course with Washington. Instead, the group rolled over its existing deal to increase output in January by 400,000 bpd.
“Politics triumphs over economics. Consumer countries mounted enough pressure,” said veteran OPEC observer Gary Ross. “But weaker prices now will only mean stronger later.” Ahead of the talks, US Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk indicated there might be flexibility in the US release of reserves, telling Reuters on Wednesday that Biden’s administration could adjust the timing if oil prices dropped substantially. OPEC+ remains concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic could once again drive down demand. Surging infections have prompted renewed restrictions in Europe and the Omicron variant has already led to new clamp downs on some international travel.
“We have to closely monitor the market to see the real effect of Omicron,” one OPEC+ delegate said after the talks.
OPEC+ ministers are next scheduled to meet on Jan. 4, but the group indicated in a statement that they could meet again before then if the market situation demanded. Before this week’s talks Saudi Arabia and Russia, the biggest producers in OPEC+, had both said there was no need for a knee-jerk reaction. Commenting after the OPEC+ decision, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the oil market was balanced and global oil demand was slowly rising. OPEC+ has been gradually unwinding record cuts agreed last year when demand cratered due to the pandemic, slashing output by about 10 million bpd, or 10 percent of global supply. Those cuts have since been scaled back to about 3.8 million bpd. But OPEC+ has regularly failed to meet its output targets, producing about 700,000 bpd less than planned in both September and October, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. The next meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee is scheduled for Jan. 3, while the next meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is Jan. 4, a source said. NN: The oil story has not been told. Evert hing is hanging in the balance. we will know nothing until after the holidays,,,,
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Thursday warned Russia against invading Ukraine, as Moscow told Kiev that any attempt to retake the Crimean peninsula amounted to a “direct threat” to Russia.
Western powers have been sounding the alarm in recent weeks about Russia massing troops along the border with Ukraine, further stoking tensions in an area where a long-running conflict has already left 13,000 dead.
Moscow, which is accused of backing the separatists fighting Kiev, has denied preparing an attack and accuses NATO of raising the temperature.“We have deep concerns about Russia’s plans for renewed aggression against Ukraine,” Blinken told Lavrov in talks on Thursday near Stockholm, warning of “serious consequences” if Russia “decides to pursue confrontation”. Striking a conciliatory note, Blinken said the US was ready to “facilitate” the “full implementation” of the Minsk peace accords. The Minsk deal was reached after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and aimed at resolving the conflict with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine but never enforced. “The best way to avert a crisis is through diplomacy,” Blinken said. The US, Russia and Ukraine were all in Stockholm on Thursday for a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), one of the few international dialogue forums to which both the US and Russia belong. Speaking in the plenary session, Blinken called on Moscow to “de-escalate, reverse the recent troop build-up (and) return forces to normal peaceful positions.” Lavrov meanwhile warned that the “nightmare scenario of a military confrontation was returning” in Europe, accusing NATO of inching its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders. He reiterated his opposition to any NATO expansion eastward — including Ukraine — but said Russia was open to dialogue. “We are interested in joint efforts toward a resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” he said. Despite the cordial tone, the OSCE meeting took place amid spiking tensions. At a NATO meeting in the Latvian capital Riga on Wednesday, Blinken accused Russia of trying to “destabilise Ukraine from within as well as large scale military operations”. He said it was not known whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to invade, but added: “We do know that he’s putting in place the capacity to do so on short order, should he so decide.” Blinken warned there would be “far-reaching and long-lasting consequences” for Moscow if it pushed ahead with any aggression, including “a range of high-impact economic measures that we’ve refrained from using in the past”. Blinken also held talks on Thursday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who said his country would “demonstrate restraint”. But he called on Kiev’s partners to “prepare a deterrence package” that would make Russia think twice before resorting to military force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said on Wednesday that Crimea was Ukrainian territory and Kiev’s goal was to “liberate” it. “We see this as a direct threat to Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. Outside the diplomatic forum, tensions continued on the ground on Thursday. A Ukrainian soldier was killed in clashes with pro-Russian separatists, Kiev said, while Moscow announced it had arrested three Ukrainian spies, including one it said had been planning a terrorist attack. The OSCE meeting was planned long in advance but comes at a crucial moment as tensions mount on numerous issues in Europe. In addition to Ukraine, other issues on the meeting’s agenda include the migrant crisis on the Belarus-EU border and the resurgence of clashes between OSCE members Armenia and Azerbaijan. The EU reached an agreement Wednesday on new sanctions against Belarus, and the US would follow suit soon, the US State Department said. The OSCE ministers’ plenary session is not expected to lead to the adoption of any major agreements, as unanimity is required. A planned resolution on Ukraine was scrapped because of a lack of consensus. NN: This is another wildcard event. If Russia does go into Ukraine it will be off to the races especially in oil. I have seen Russia amass troops in the past, Most often its little more then sabre rattling. 13,000 troops are not a big enough force for a all out invasion when you consider it will quickly suck NATO in the fray. BUT if Putin scenes NATO will stand aside AGAIN it will be rock and roll time. This is its bringing down the price on brides from the Ukraine according to people i know that watch that sort of thing.
United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the “risk of persistently high inflation has clearly risen.” Speaking before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, he noted that inflation is “clearly” connected to coronavirus pandemic-caused factors and that the vast majority of estimates say that it will go down in the second half of 2022. Previous projections predicted that demand would be strong, but underestimated the problems on the supply side, he revealed, adding that soaring demand can be attributed to both, the fiscal policy as well as a “quickly rebounding economy.” Powell also stated that wages moved up “significantly,” but not “at a troubling rate that would tend to spark higher inflation.” According to him, the US economic recovery has been the “strongest” among the world’s largest economies. NN: Slowly they turn……… Reality is the Fed has had a great big inflation problem for a very log time. After being in denial for the better part of a year they are now STARTING to face reality. The bigger they are the dumber they are. Big organizations by their very nature stifle the brilliant. Its how the big wigs at the top survive. They did not get their by their brilliance but by their treachery. Mankind pays a price for inept leadership. If you have any doubts look at the covid fiasco. Now wonder the public does not trust the CDC and the FDA. I have made a business and spent a life time in search of truth. Now being in the truth business will never make you rich. So i early on learned i could make a hell of a lot of money trading truth. AKA the fundamentals. My point of all this is the stock market is still in a fools paradise. The biggest bubble by any matrix you care to use. Truth is the Fed has lit off an inflation bubble market fire storm. And the system will force them to raise rates… Net result one of the biggest stock market crashes in history is coming…..
Major stock markets in the United States closed lower on Wednesday, as the country’s health agencies confirmed that the new Omicron coronavirus variant has been identified in California. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that the “risk of persistently high inflation has clearly risen,” while noting that the central bank will consider speeding up tapering at its next meeting. Additionally, the Fed reported in its Beige Book that the country’s economic growth has been affected by supply issues and labor shortages. The Dow Jones ended the session by 1.34% or 462 points in the red, with Salesforce.com dropping 11.74%. The Nasdaq 100 was down by 1.60% at the closing bell. The S&P 500 finished 1.18% lower. Moderna led the losses on both indexes, falling 11.87%. The euro stood flat against the dollar trading for $1.13155 at 4:02 pm ET. NN: Making trading decisions on new Omicron coronavirus variant is a fools game. A smarter play is to wait for more info to come in.
While the economy was growing at a moderate pace in November, businesses were raising prices at a rapid clip across a broad swath of the economy , according to the Fed’s latest Beige Book survey released Wednesday. “Prices rose at a moderate to robust pace, with price hikes widespread across sectors of the economy,” the survey found. Input costs increases were “wide-ranging” due to strong demand for raw materials, logistical challenges and labor market tightness, the report said. Tight labor markets meant wages were also rising at a “robust” pace across most of the Fed’s 12 districts, according to the report. One silver lining was that some inputs were becoming more widely available, easing some of the pressure. “Strong demand generally allowed firms to raise prices with little pushback, though contractual obligations held back some firms from increasing prices,” the report concluded. Growth in October and November was held down by supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, the Fed said. Low inventories also held down sales, especially cars. Construction activity was hamstrung by scarce materials and labor. Manufacturing was a bright spot — described in the report as “solid.” Agriculture was another strong sector. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has sounded a hawkish note in two days of testimony on Capitol Hill, perhaps after reading a draft of this Beige Book report. Powell opened the door to ending the Fed’s asset purchases a few months sooner than planned. “The Fed is making a clear policy pivot to a focus on inflation,” said Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisors. In the San Francisco district, contacts reported passing on increased wage and other input costs to consumers. In one case, a contact in business consulting mentioned rate increases beyond 30% for services that required consultants to travel and work from clients’ premises. The Dallas district said there was optimism in the oilfields but lead times as long as 10 months for some equipment. In the Kansas City district, farm real estate values increased sharply from a year ago. In Minneapolis, there was a general sense of optimism among minority- and women-owned businesses. NN: It is obvious the Fed’s own reports show inflation is embedded… AND they got a great big problem on their hands….
(Reuters) -West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures slipped on Wednesday, reversing course from early gains after a U.S. official said the country was still considering tools to lower energy prices, and as government data pointed to weaker gasoline demand. Also pressuring oil prices, a new coronavirus variant triggered fresh travel restrictions that could dampen oil demand. Also, an OPEC+ document showed the group lifting its forecast for an oil surplus in the new year. WTI U.S. crude futures were down 51 cents, or 0.76%, at $65.77 a barrel at 1:49 p.m. ET (1849 GMT). During the session, they were up as much as 4%. Global benchmark Brent crude was down 24 cents, or 0.36%, at $68.99 a barrel. U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said the Biden administration could adjust the timing of its planned release of strategic crude oil stockpiles if global energy prices drop substantially. He added that the White House was still studying proposals from Democratic lawmakers to ban crude oil exports to keep U.S. prices down. U.S. gasoline stocks rose 4 million barrels last week to 215.4 million barrels, government data showed, far surpassing analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for 29,000-barrel rise. Distillate stockpiles increased 2.2 million barrels to 123.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 462,000-barrel build. [EIA/S] Crude inventories fell 910,000 barrels in the week, data showed, compared with forecasts for a 1.2 million-barrel drop. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries concluded its meeting without a decision on whether to release more oil into the market. The OPEC+ alliance, which includes Russia and other producers, will likely take a policy decision on Thursday. Reports and analysts suggested that expectations were growing that the group will take a pause due to the threat from a new virus variant. “There is much to suggest that OPEC+ will not initially step up its oil production any further in an effort to maintain current prices at around $70/bbl,” PVM analyst Stephen Brennock said. OPEC+ sees the oil surplus growing to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, 3.4 million bpd in February and 3.8 million bpd in March next year, an internal report seen by Reuters showed. Several OPEC+ ministers, though, have said there is no need to change course. But even if OPEC+ agrees to go ahead with its planned supply increase in January, producers may struggle to add that much. Both Brent and WTI front-month contracts in November posted their steepest monthly falls in percentage terms since March 2020, down 16% and 21% respectively. Analysts at Goldman Sachs called the decline in oil prices “excessive,” saying “the market has far overshot the likely impact of the latest variant on oil demand with the structural repricing higher due to the dramatic change in the oil supply reaction function still ahead of us.” NN: their is a lot we do not know here. SO the best course of action is WAIT for more information,,,