Analysis

Filter
  • April 2, 2008

The first quarter was a tough quarter for most sectors of the market, including energy stocks. Nonetheless, there were some notable bright spots including agriculture plays leveraged to the explosion in global demand for biofuels. Read More

  • March 19, 2008

The winning theme for the past two years was bullish on oil, bearish on natural gas. This year, however, that’s reversing. Read More

  • March 5, 2008

In today’s issue, I’ll take a closer look at the outlook for deepwater oil and gas production and spending, with a particular focus on Brazil. The country is set to become one of the most important markets for deepwater in the coming years. Read More

  • February 20, 2008

Exploration and production (E&P) firms have been among the most successful recommendations in The Energy Strategist over the past year; my five pure-play E&Ps are up an average of nearly 50 percent since their initial recommendation. Read More

  • February 6, 2008

The broader market averages saw one of their best weeks in years last week only to give back most of those gains in the first two trading days this week. I believe we have more downside and volatility to come near term. Read More

  • January 23, 2008

The global selloff in stocks since the end of 2007 has been among the most severe in stock market history. Few sectors have been immune to the volatility, and the energy patch is certainly no exception; the panic is palpable. Read More

  • January 2, 2008

With the books now closed on 2007, it’s an opportune time to reflect and review some of our key calls and investing themes. In this issue, I’ll review some of the year’s most memorable recommendations and calls, both those that turned out profitably and those that didn’t work out quite as well as expected. Read More

  • December 19, 2007

Russia is a key component both of energy export and energy consumption--enough to focus an entire issue on this country alone. I'm enlisted the help of my colleagues Yiannis Mostrous and Roger Conrad to provide a more well-rounded profile on the country, including its political background and commodities market. Read More

  • December 5, 2007

Crude oil prices have fallen nearly $10 in the past two weeks, but this temporary downdraft will be nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. In prior issues, I’ve examined some of the sectors most leveraged to the long up-cycle in spending on exploration and development, including oil services and equipment stocks. In this week’s issue, I’ll take a look at another sector: engineering and construction (E&C). Read More

  • November 21, 2007

The big, integrated oil companies are the most recognizable faces of the energy industry. Every time gasoline prices rise above $3 in the US, it’s the CEOs of these firms who get dragged before Congress to explain what’s going on. Many seem to assume that it’s the Super Oils that control the global energy markets, but in truth, they control only a tiny part of the world’s reserves of oil and natural gas. What the integrateds do offer is relative safety and stability. Read More

  • November 7, 2007

Although the price of crude continues to rise, other sectors in the energy patch haven't necessarily fared as well. But the outlook is positive for coal miners as we gear up for more normal winter temperatures this year, and international drilling is still going strong. Read More

  • October 24, 2007

Natural gas prices in the US remain well off their 2005 post-hurricane highs. And gas drilling activity in North America has remained subdued because of weak prices, rising drilling costs and bloated inventories of gas in storage. But this short-term reality obscures the long-term growth to come from the gas market. Read More

  • October 3, 2007

The third quarter brought plenty of volatility for the US and most global stock markets. In particular, a general credit scare gripped the market in late July. The epicenter of that scare was mortgage-related debt focused on subprime borrowers; however, the general panic spread, making it difficult for even higher-quality corporate borrowers in totally unrelated industry groups to garner access to capital... Read More

  • September 19, 2007

For much of the past week and a half, I’ve been on the KCI Communications, Inc. cruise down the Danube River in Central Europe. As part of this trip, I had the opportunity to meet US Embassy representatives, economists and fund managers primarily in two cities: Vienna, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary. Read More