Monday
They say it's the "squeaky wheel that gets the oil" but I think it's the "oily squeeze that helps the Grease" (Greece, geddit?). Equity markets are racing toward their April highs, though Ms Cassandra, my bi-polar but curvy Greek technical analyst, says the real test comes some 3% above current levels, after which it's "sell the farm" once again. We'll see. Few analysts remark on the benefits of USD 30 off the oil price (a saving of nearly a trillion dollars a year to the Americans for a start). Can this be why they teamed up with the Saudis to ambush the oil speculators? Lower oil brings vast savings to consumers that require no US politicians or Greek trade unions to agree on anything, even the meaning of the word "austerity". Greece is not known for oil production, except of the "olive" sort (though its Aegean Sea prospection with Turkey might surprise us all), and it consumes way more oil per capita than it should (about 400k barrels a day). USD 80 oil would be better news still, but our Energy and Alternative Energy theme producers (Devon, Conoco, Gazprom, Shell) will prosper at USD 80, particularly as gas -in a different cycle to oil- is for many their brave new world.

David Fuller's view The daily entries in this diary are varied, often highly informative and a generally good read.