Commodities And The Stock Market

Another cause for the decline in oil prices is caused by an increase in consumers purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles, such as hybrid or electric vehicles. In many countries today, especially in North America, there has been an increased demand for fuel efficient vehicles. This is evident in TV commercials which are advertising more and more vehicles that get 40 to 50 miles per gallon, and by the ever increasing commercials for electric vehicles. Consumers are tired of paying outrageous prices for oil and are demanding more for their money. As this demand continues to grow, the demand for oil will decrease.

The country that refines the oil and exports the oil is one of the largest impacts. Another large impact on gas prices is the season of the year when it is refined. Gas prices also go up in the summer due the seasonal

Oil is the product that each and every one of us use. It can be used for fuel, heating and even cooking. The most often known for unstable price is crude oil or gasoline. According to the The Economist, The main reason for price shifts of oil is oversupply. The oil production in Saudi rose 10.3 million barrels per day. This increase is the effect of a new method that I being applied to oil extraction. This method is called fracking, fracking is where they drill into tight-rock formations then gradually turning horizontal for several thousand feet more. This results to accommodations to multiple oil wells. This new approved method of oil harvesting has raised the productivity gains and reduced the cost of harvesting oil.

The consumption of the oil cause changes in the supply and demand. The United States produces 11 million barrels of oil every day. We are one of the biggest countries to have a big influence on the production and prices of the oil. The basic supply and demand theory explains that the if a product is produced more, the cheaper it should sell. If a country were to double the output of oil day, prices would fall and the Production is high, but the distribution of oil isn’t keeping up with the market. The United States builds an average of one oil refinery per 10 years. This is a net loss due to the fact construction has slowed down since 1970s. Since 1970s, the United States has 8 less oil refineries today. The reason why we are not oversupplied with cheap oil is because of the other countries’ higher net margin and the only operate at 62% of their capacity. Excess capacity is only there to meet future demand. With demand moving accordingly, oil prices will continue to be set mostly by the market — despite external players’ best efforts. (McFarlane)

Oil price increases are generally thought to increase inflation and reduce economic growth. In terms of inflation, oil prices directly affect the prices of goods made with petroleum products. As mentioned above, oil prices indirectly affect costs such as transportation, manufacturing, and heating. The increase in these costs can in turn affect the prices of a variety of goods and services, as producers may pass production costs on to consumers. The extent to which oil price increases lead to consumption price increases depends on how important oil is for the production of a given type of good or service.

The supply and demand are the main driving forces within this market, it can cause a change instantaneously overnight, and these cost issues are immediate to the consumer. There could be a fire in one of the local refineries causing product shut down, this can create a panic at the pump as well. There are many reasons why this product is so volatile, it cost too much money to refine and thereby is restricted in the method of refining. Supply means that there is a large supply available for product usage, pricing goes down, too much product, if the Demand is exact opposite occurs and there is short supply and the pricing is extremely quick to be changed at the pump. The markets can be also affected; they can be changed no matter how far the original production occurs, economics are disturbed, countries global markets respond to higher cost factors to operate business development causing inflation to jump to higher records slowing down global progress.

The consensus from the 1970s and 1980s was that there was an inverse relationship between oil prices and real economic activities. This belief later changed when the oil price crash of the mid-1980s failed to boost economic growth. Researchers then believed that increasing oil prices negatively affect the economy whereas falling oil prices have very little impact and by the 1990s this impact was assumed to be minimal (DePratto, de Resende and Maier 2009). More recently, researchers have found that increases in the oil prices adversely affect the economy whereas the impact of a decline in oil prices on GDP growth is only negligible (Jimenez-Rodriguez and Sanchez

Their ability to map the contours of a market, and then maximize profit given that structure, is just as important as understanding demand, production, and costs (JWI518 W5 L2). Oil and gas prices fluctuate on a minute by minute basis, taking a look at the historical price range is the first place you should look. Many factors determine the price of oil, but it really all comes down to supply and demand. Demand typically does not fluctuate too much (except in the case of recession), but supply shocks can occur for a number of reasons. When OPEC meets to determine oil supply for the coming months, the price of oil can fluctuate wildly. Day-to-day fluctuations should not influence investment decisions in a particular energy company, but long-term trends should be followed more closely (OPEC, 2014).

Economically, the oil industry will only pull us down as a country. Professionals believe that even though oil prices are falling, the production will start slowing and the prices will skyrocket again. The typical consumer would see that the price of oil barrels has fallen from one hundred to eighty dollars in the past year, but the consumer will not see the impact it will have outside of gas prices. Back in 2005, sixty percent of U.S. oil was imported, and the effects of a drop in prices would have been observed in the countries that we imported from. Today, however, only thirty percent of our oil is imported. With such a high amount of domestic oil, the low prices impacts the American

“Every 10% drop in prices of oil adds 0.1% to the US economy, and the sooner the Iraqis start pumping, the faster the plunge in per-barrel prices. A quick war that ends with a new oil minister in place by the end of the year would bump up Iraq's production to 4 million barrels per day by 2006 from a current 2 million, collapsing prices into the low teens“ (Lynn J Cook 1).

Historically speaking, many investors end up adding gold to their portfolio when all the drama, anxiety and hype has driven gold to blimpish levels from which it can drop precipitously and languish for years. For example, the last time when gold reached a fever pitch was back in the fall of 2011, when the debt problems of Greece, Italy and Spain concern about Eurozone debt overall dominated the headlines. In fact, gold appeared full of promise back then, zooming from just under $1,400 an ounce at the beginning of 2011 to nearly $1,900 by early September for a gain of more than 36% in less than nine months. But as the worries of a Euro debt meltdown faded, so did the price of gold, eventually retreating to less than $1,100 an ounce by the end of last

Economic – External - Lower cost per barrel of oil allows for lower prices paid at the pump per gallon of gas. When oil prices drop so does the gas per gallon at the pump. When the prices of both oil and gas drop the need for oil drops as well. Therefore the need for oil workers drops which leads to layoffs (Yahoo 2015).

Investors' Attitudes: Investors tend to turn to gold when there is economic uncertainty. Gold is typically considered to be a safe haven and a hedge against inflation, currency devaluation, political instability or deflation; most investors believe that gold will always have value, but other investments may turn out to be worthless. When returns on investments such as real estate and bonds fall, more people turn to investing in gold, increasing its

BHP Billiton is the world’s top producers of major commodities. China, as BHP Billiton’s largest export market, demand strongly influences the BHP Billiton’s operation (Western Australian Iron Ore Industry Profile 2015). According to the annual report of BHP Billiton (2015), China brought about 36.6% revenue in the amount of total export revenue for BHP Billiton, among the largest product is Iron Ore, which was 66% in 2015. Meanwhile, the forecast of iron ore will continue to increase production. However, Chinese steel consumption may growth slow next few years (shows in figure 1) because the real estate industry decline (Mark 2015). Therefore, oversupply and weaker demand may create the fluctuations in commodity prices which related to commodity risk.

Watching television, we all see the commercials persuading people to buy and sell gold. They argue that gold is a valuable resource that will always be so. Whether this is true has been a controversial issue over many years. People debate over whether it is more beneficial to buy gold or invest money in something else. Popular financial magazines have weighed in on the debate. Whether people should invest gold or save their money is an issue people are willing to research. There are many reasons why people may want gold maybe to give to a loved one or too safe for later use and others decided whether or not gold is a good investment. People who invest in gold, not those who just invest in a small portion of their wealth, but those who truly