Â
Today we are watching…
1. Brent Crude (#brent)
South Korea has become the first country to reach one hundred percent oil storage capacity; it literally cannot take any more. Looking out to the Singapore Strait, there are tankers as far as the eye can see. American oil producers are resorting to strategic storage like pipelines, just filling them straight up, and experts say we’re about two weeks from total capacity. One-month futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate will plummet to zero for June, and probably July and August as well. It isn’t clear exactly how much oversupply we’re facing as the data is always six weeks old and an estimation at best, but it could easily be between fifteen and twenty million barrels per day. Who will take advantage?
2. Disney (#disney)
The masses are either down with coronavirus or cabin fever, so The Walt Disney Company is hastening its push toward home viewing. The latest Star Wars movie, “The Rise of Skywalker,” will hit the Disney+ streaming service on May 4th (May the fourth be with you?), and the subscriptions should provide investors with some underlying earnings power as cinemas remain shuttered around the world. It’s a good job this pandemic didn’t happen last year when Disney was releasing a colossal content slate. The focus now is on the theme parks!