India Issues Stay Home Order to Its 1.3 Billion Residents
March 25, 2020
Many traders and analysts, as well as, others are talking a lot about the bottom in the stock market as well as many other markets. Yes, everyone wants to buy a low which will all know is very hard to do. I think that these markets will continue with high volatility as headlines hit and good news is bought, and bad news is sold until we get to a point when people feel reassured about the virus being under control or in decline. All these markets are likely to chop around in wide ranges without really going anywhere. In a CNBC article Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategies at Goldman Sachs said there are four “components” to the market stabilizing form here. He is talking about the equities market but when all is said and done that will be what propels the rest of these markets. Here are his four items: 1, A sign that the policy intervention is sufficient to prevent severe second-and third round economic shocks. 2, A sign that the infection rate is reaching a peak. 3, A sign that the economic downturn may be slowing. 4, Cheap valuations.
The API inventory report was released yesterday, and it called crude oil stocks down 1.2 million barrels and the crude stocks at Cushing, Ok were up 1.1 million barrels. Gasoline stocks were down 2.6 million barrels and distillate stocks were down 1.9 million barrels.
The average estimates from the Reuters survey for today’s DOE inventory update are for crude stocks to be up 2.8 million barrels. Gasoline stocks are estimated to be down 657,000 barrels and distillates are called down right in line with the API number at down 1.9 million barrels.
Late in the night roughly after midnight the Senate passed a $2 trillion aid package to fund the COVID-19 prevention efforts and the recovery.
The International Monetary Fund said it has been approached by a dozen countries in the Middle East and Central Asia who have asked for financial support in dealing with the coronavirus impact on their economies.
The head of the Renewable Fuels Association trade group, Geoff Cooper, said US ethanol producers are on track to shut down 2 billion gallons of annualized output by the end of the week due to a decline in demand.
Bearish for prices is the outlook for demand in India, the world’s 3rd largest consumer, as all 1.3 billion residents have been ordered to stay home for the next 3 weeks.