Tuesday 30 December 2014

Crude benefits of falling oil prices

The ending of QE in the US and the fall in the price of oil from over $115 a barrel to under $60 a barrel were the defining economic events of 2014, but their consequences will not be felt until next year.  The ending of QE in the autumn brought to an end the huge expansion of the US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, since 2008 the Fed has pumped some $2.3tn of “new money” into the world economy which has had a wondrous effect on asset prices in all sorts of weird and wonderful places.  London property prices have boomed, stocks in emerging markets reached new heights and bond prices sky rocketed as yields collapsed – also commodity prices boomed and oil was not left out of the party.  Between 2009 and 2011 oil prices rose from $40 to $125 a barrel, driven by ever increasing demand from emerging markets and $1.9tn of US and UK QE.  Following the boom in commodity prices between 2011 and 2013 prices stabilised at a high level before falling off a cliff in 2014.
The Crude Story

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