Japan was still reeling from its largest recorded earthquake when an explosion struck the Fukushima nuclear plant on Saturday, followed by a second blast on Monday. Despite government assurances, there are fears of another Chernobyl. The incident has sparked a heated political debate in Germany and looks likely to end the dream of cheap and safe nuclear power.
The world economy faces a myriad of different challenges right now, but there are three major ones which to a greater or lesser degree are common to virtually all advanced economies – excessive leverage (or debt), the demographic timebomb of ageing populations, and energy security.
An oil shock is a real possibility and Britain needs to decrease its dependence on the fuel as soon as possible, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne claimed earlier this month.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:1904:]]By Bill Powers
With the unrest continuing in the Middle East and northern Africa, we are rapidly heading towards a crossroads in the history of energy supplies. More specifically, the shutting in of approximately half of Libya’s oil production in the last week of February will mark the first of several meaningful supply disruptions that will push oil prices well north of current levels. The intractable problems of unemployment, rampant food inflation and religious hostilities that have caused the recent overthrow of Tunisia and Egypt and the imminent overthrow of Libya may soon manifest themselves into political unrest and potential regimes changes in both Kuwait and the kingpin of world oil exports, Saudi Arabia. There is simply no way out of the current strife for these two regimes.
By Arnold Bock
Back in 2005 I commented in an article that "my investment portfolio is almost exclusively invested in a basket of commodities (gold, silver, potash, uranium and crude oil) of which the bulk is precious metals. A third of my investments are in gold and silver bullion and a range of individual commodity-related stocks, from the very large producers to the very early stage small junior exploration companies, or their long-term warrants where they exist. Two thirds are in precious metals ETFs."
By George Mack of The Energy Report
Long-term demand growth for uranium is a global story, with China expected to far exceed any other single nation in new nuclear plant construction over the next decade. Versant Partners Analyst Rob Chang looks for equity ideas that investors can play to leverage these growing requirements for uranium fuel. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Rob highlights some interesting companies.
By George Mack of The Energy Report
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at a significant discount to Brent crude, the latter of which is used to price two-thirds of globally traded crude oil. WTI, on the other hand, is the commodity underlying Nymex futures contracts and has, more often than not, traded slightly above Brent. Although the current Brent/WTI divergence is widening, disruptions in equilibrium don't tend to last. "True energy demand," says Raymond James Director of Energy Research Marshall Adkins, "will ultimately bring WTI in line with global oil prices." Marshall reveals how equity investors can profit from oil service providers in this exclusive interview with The Energy Report.
By Robert Denner
Well it came one day later than I was expecting, but it seems to be upon us now. I said last Thursday that we’d end the week up 75 or so (turned out to be 65) and that this week we would enter a period of possibly severe weakness in the markets.
It seems to be gathering steam this afternoon. I will hit the highlights as they are getting alarming, but still far from panic time.
By George Mack of The Energy Report
In 2010, some of the best-performing companies in the E&P space transitioned to a heavier focus on oil, which has been strong, and away from natural gas where prices are weak. That trend is likely to continue this year, according to Rodman & Renshaw Senior Analysts Jeff Hayden and Chad Mabry who remain bullish, even though they're not betting on sustained prices above $100/Bbl. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Jeff and Chad bring some growth and value ideas into sharp focus.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:1770:]]By Joseph Dancy
One of our major themes in our forecast for the coming year was stocks should perform well. Stocks in the small cap sector should perform especially well, we think they will substantially outperform the major market indexes.
Factors that should contribute to this outperformance include (1) an accommodative monetary and fiscal policy, (2) investors returning to the equity market (see note below on the ‘torrent’ of funds returning to the equities market), (3) reasonable valuations of stocks in the sector, (4) a positive and improving business outlook, (5) price momentum/persistence/relative strength in the equity markets, and (6) merger, acquisition and deal making activity.
