That's priceless. Maybe later today we'll get another headline "Gulf Oil Exporters offer thanks to non-OPEC producers for having supported OPEC for soooo many years." What?! Look, if the NOP's get blamed for the glut then they get the credit for 7 years of high prices too.
Persian Gulf Stocks Rally Again
Gains From Last Week Extended
By Nikhil Lohade
Dec. 21, 2014 9:21 a.m. ET
DUBAI—Persian Gulf stocks rallied again Sunday, extending gains from late last week, as investors continued to find value after sharp recent losses on sliding oil prices.
Gulf equities have tumbled in recent months amid concerns that weaker oil could hurt the petrodollar-dependent regional economies. But oil prices jumped to their largest percentage gains in more than two years Friday amid hopes of finding a floor for the commodity that has lost nearly half its value since June.
Investors are also more optimistic about the Gulf states running expansionary budgets, despite a decline in oil revenues, after Saudi Arabia’s finance minister was quoted Wednesday by the local press agency as saying the kingdom will continue to spend on development projects and social benefits next year. The Saudi budget for the next fiscal is expected to be released within days.
Dubai shares led the regionwide market gains Sunday. The benchmark DFM index jumped nearly 10% to 3765.35, after rising 13% in the previous session. It was down 35% since mid-November at Wednesday’s close. Neighbor Abu Dhabi’s market gained 3.5% to 4516.65 and Doha’s benchmark index rose 7.6% to 12,029.59. The Qatari market was closed Thursday for a national holiday.
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, the Middle East’s biggest market, finished 2.5% higher at 8525.39 Sunday, and has now added more than 16% in the past three sessions.
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3:30 pm ET
Dec 21, 2014
After U.S. Stock Rally, Some See Danger in New Year
By E.S. Browning
Last week’s stock rebound was so sharp you could carve your holiday turkey with it.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 890 points in seven trading days, then regained 736 points in the next three. At Friday’s close it was at 17804.80, less than 1% from its Dec. 5 record.
The snapback reflected investor confidence that the U.S. economic recovery is for real, that inflation will stay low and that Federal Reserve rate increases next year won’t end the bull market.
But the sudden rally may be hard to sustain. It was driven partly by the fact that many mutual funds have risen less than the big indexes. Some money managers are desperate to boost performance, so they won’t look bad compared with the S&P 500. Some are pumping available cash into stocks they think will rise faster than the market.
“If you are among the 85% of money managers behind the S&P 500, this is a chance to catch up,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, which oversees $68 billion in Chicago.
Because some of that investing is short-term, the danger is that managers could shift some money elsewhere early next year.
Something like that happened this year, when the Dow fell 7.3% in January and early February, before rebounding to a record high in April.
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