Crude Reality

by Faysal Badran July 1, 2006

written by Faysal Badran July 1, 2006

As tensions between Iran and the US have subsided somewhat, it may be time to revisit the crude oil market that monopolized so many headlines in recent weeks. While we rejected outright the claim that $100-a-barrel oil was around the corner, the geopolitical risk pushed oil briefly up to the mid-70s per barrel. Things have cooled down and in our view may cool down further. Even at the height of the Iran news, oil was showing technical signs of fatigue in its advance. This was confirmed by a retrenchment, not only in the price of oil, but of other commodities closely linked to oil such as copper and silver, which have dropped by nearly 25%. This exhaustion of the oil and commodity trend demonstrates first, that oil speculators had gotten ahead of themselves, and second, that the global economy is slowing down. Passing the oil debate peak At the peak

Faysal Badran

Faysal Badran is the head of NCB Capital, a Saudi-based wealth and asset management firm. He oversees the company’s regional and international equities, global fixed income, money market, and alternative investments. Before joining NCB Capital, Badran spent five years at its parent company, National Commercial Bank (NCB), working in the office of the chief financial officer and in the international sector division. He also contributed as a writer for Executive magazine in Lebanon. Badran holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University in the U.S.

Crude Reality

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