It is a surprising report in just about all respects. But I think it is something that we have to expect in times like these that the data doesn’t always fit into a neat little...

The market does have its ongoing concerns about Iran, the new bombing campaign in Iraq and other potential threats to supply (Nigeria, Venezuela) in mind as background issues.

A Bush status quo results in somewhat higher oil prices both in the short and the longer term in my view,

From the current snapshot, (electricity) conditions look a lot more similar to last year than they appear different.

We’ve rung the bell at $600 and now we’re perhaps ready to consolidate before we consider higher price levels.

The laws of economics still apply and higher prices call forth more supply while dampening demand. The long view of the market’s history, filled with booms and busts, is on our side.

I’m surprised by the drop in crude stocks and the further decline in crude oil imports,

The downside looks wide open at this point. We’ve got lots of inventory, and worldwide supply is going to continue to grow into the year.

In the short run, it means more oil drained from the market into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The numbers are sufficient, but there are major constraints. There is a huge mal-distribution of workers in the country and most health workers are found in urban areas.

It is pretty clear they were attempting to move this oil into a crude oil market where there was already a surplus.

The gasoline build is substantial and it confirms the price weakness we’ve been seeing over the last several days.

I was looking for a rebound in imports as some of the activity along the Gulf Coast came back to normal.

The market will ultimately decide how critical the developments in Iran and Nigeria are, but we see the upside potential as limited, given stock levels.

The bulls are trying to put up a fight here, trying to make a case that the build in stocks and the drop in price over the past month haven’t really hurt all that bad.

The situation is not going to get better in the short term. Perhaps it will get worse.

The markets are bracing for Thursday’s DOE reports, with traders cringing since the recent (supply) trends have been bearish.

We’re really just trying to achieve a little bit of a balance between follow-through selling after Tuesday’s big drop and a little bit of bargain hunting on the other side of the ring, trying to...

To put that offer on the table for the next three months, it’s clear to me that they’re willing to steer the price lower, … They really don’t want every U.S. consumer to park their...

Basically we hit some support levels … and if it can’t go down, it’s got to go up.

Consumers would benefit from more refinery capacity and more competition in the refinery business.

The market has used considerable energy just to reach this level. We see risk of exhaustion now that it’s here.

Warm temperatures now forecast to persist on into early February undercut physical demand for heating fuels.

The weather outlook remains a potential fundamental support for these markets, but it has been so well advertised and has failed to boost prices to such an extent as to suggest that it is still...

There may be more cycles of hyperventilation yet to come as Hurricane Rita blows through the Gulf of Mexico, but the DOE data for last week was a calming influence.

There is so far an insatiable appetite for holding more inventory. We’re still not recognizing it as a glut.

Current chilly temperatures in the Northeast U.S. also helped boost prices, although these are not expected to last.

Really, it’s just a rush to cash in profits on what was really a spectacular move higher.

The OPEC demand revision is more of a reminder than anything else. Between the high level of crude stocks and the downward revisions to demand, the price should have trouble climbing like it has done...

The natural-gas market is on a completely different page now, with profit taking on short positions pushing prices higher, despite what are still impressively bearish prospects. This week will be warmer than last week, limiting...

This could be almost worse than Katrina because there are 4 million barrels of refining in Texas areas, much more than there was in New Orleans. (Texas) is the other major refining heart.

Crude oil may have been able to trigger short covering off the surprise 1.3 million-barrel draw from last week, but inventories are still at their second-highest weekly total since April 1999.

The market is certainly tightened by this event.

There’s a lot of people who want to do the right thing. My kids are out in the orchard, too. I don’t want to poison them.

In a ballroom, all you can do is dance and eat. We wanted to provide more than just dancing. They ate and danced, and when they got tired, they went out and looked at exhibits....

There is nothing close to a physical shortage going on here. Instead, what the market is holding here is a significant, and in fact growing, implied risk premium.

This is really a happy accident as far as OPEC is concerned.

The overall impression I had is that this [report] is really a snapshot that reflects conditions last Tuesday rather than as of Friday. This data does not fully reflect the arrival of Hurricane Rita.

It’s staging what I would call a catch-up move. After resisting the upward pull of silver all week long, the market couldn’t hold back any more and is making up for lost time here.

This is really just some short-term consolidation. We are inside of yesterday’s range.

Stocks have a tendency toward a counter-seasonal rise in early January … but the mild readings this time around make a further 2 to 3 million barrel build more likely than the 1.1 million barrel...

The fact that their pricing mechanism is market-related minimizes the risk that a physical shortage would arise.

This would be completely benign.

We wanted to connect with people as strongly as some of our great advertising campaigns of the past did — such as with Beattie with Maureen Lipman or Bob Hoskins in ‘It’s good to talk’...

Profit-taking was the most widely employed term for what (happened Friday), but we see the potential for this simple turn to develop into a much more substantial decline, as the fundamentals behind the push higher...

Africa has 2.3 workers per 1,000 people. The Americas have 24.8 per 1,000 people. If you are a doctor in Africa, you have 10 fold (more) diseases to deal with compared to your colleagues in...

There is a very strong consensus that gold will continue its trend higher this year and that, in itself, is a warning sign.

If we were to see another major storm, we could have damage on damage.

The markets are all doing their best spin jobs off the latest round of DOE data, but there were really no significant surprises. The overall economic importance of the data is still bearish.

Everything pretty much came within the range of expectations so there were no dramatic surprises here.