Originally Posted by
atpcliff
Hi.
UAL:
The 1st problem that UAL had, was that their Strategic Plan, approved by an idiot judge, to get out of their former CH11 bankruptcy was based on $50/barrell of oil. The people who made the plan, and the judge who approved it were not realistic at all. Since coming out of bankruptcy, all their CEO has been thinking about was merging, when he should've update their strategic plan for very expensive oil.
Oil/Gasoline Pricing:
I believe that the amount of speculation, and weak US dollar in the current price are both negligible. It's all about supply and demand.
Squawk Box just (May 20) had an analyst on who said that gasoline will inevitably be $12-$15/barrel before it goes down (because of conservation and the rise of renewable fuels). I hope it doesn't go above $8-$10/barrel.
Here is what T. Boone Pickens just had to say.
Background: Pickens made a TON of money in oil. He just bought $2B worth of wind turbines, and wants the US to move to natural gas as a transportation fuel in the short term, until we can be mostly renewable fuels for transportation.
In the past, many guys have said Pickens is just working the doom and gloom to drive oil prices up to make more $. But, as you can see, he has basically abandoned oil as a long-term investment.
cliff
YIP
While supply and demand are one facet of why oil prices are so high you are extremely naive to think the weak dollar and speculation are negligible. In fact it is very much the reason why. If you continue to base your ideas on what you hear on tv from the folks who know nothing about the markets, you'll continue to believe whats not going on. First thing those that make money in the markets do in the morning is put on CNBC and turn the volume down. Best thing for them to do would be to display the streaming ticker with a blank screen as a background.