“Well, I rolled and I tumbled, cried the whole night long
Well, I woke up this mornin’, didn’t know right from wrong”. Muddy Waters, “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”

OVERVIEW AND CONCLUSION

Of course the petroleum universe “as a whole” has, as do its various individual crude oil streams and assorted refined products, “its own” past, present, and potential future supply/demand/inventory situation. However, the petroleum circus, including so-called specific oil-related variables affecting it, is not a domain entirely separate from other economic and political phenomena. For example, marketplace history reveals that price levels and trends for the petroleum complex intertwine in diverse ways with benchmark global stock, interest rate, and currency arenas, and with other commodity fields such as base and precious metals. These relationships, including convergence/divergence (and lead/lag) ones between the oil marketplace in general and these other financial playgrounds, can and do change, sometimes significantly.

Marketplace history need not repeat itself, either entirely or even partly. Visionaries differ in their perspectives on and conclusions regarding petroleum and other marketplaces, frequently substantially.

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OPEC is an important actor within the oil theater, as are its current producer allies such as Russia. The United States, given its ravenous demand for petroleum plus its booming crude oil output in recent years, also is an important petroleum player. But these entertainers are not independent of other stages and performers.

In the timing and direction of its major price moves, the global petroleum complex does not necessarily or always travel alongside the S+P 500 and other benchmark stock indices. A survey of the critical price turning points since early 2016 for the oil and equity realms nevertheless displays the close connection between petroleum and stock trends.

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For related marketplace analysis, see essays such as: “Wall Street Talking, Yield Hunting, and Running for Cover” (5/14/19); “Economic Growth Fears: Stock and Interest Rate Adventures” (4/2/19); “American Economic Growth: Cycles, Yield Spreads, and Stocks” (3/4/19); “Facing a Wall: Emerging US Dollar Weakness” (1/15/19); “American Housing: a Marketplace Weathervane” (12/4/18); “Twists, Turns, and Turmoil: US and Other Government Note Trends” (11/12/18); “Japan: Financial Archery, Shooting Arrows” (10/5/18); “Stock Marketplace Maneuvers: Convergence and Divergence” (9/4/18); “China at a Crossroads: Economic and Political Danger Signs” (8/5/18); “Shakin’ All Over: Marketplace Convergence and Divergence” (6/18/18); “History on Stage: Marketplace Scenes” (8/9/17).

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Petroleum- Rollling and Tumbling (6-10-19)