The Year's Surprises in Gasoline, Oil and Resources Stock Prices
The Year's Surprises in Gasoline,
Oil and Resources Stock Prices
U.S. Global Investors
By Frank Holmes
December 28, 2012
On Wednesday, I talked about three of the top 10 commentaries that were popular over 2012. Here are a few more to highlights.
7. There’s No Place Like America
The news media was inundated with footage of strikes in Europe by unionized government workers and the unemployment rate among the youth skyrocketed in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. I shared an excellent quote from Ian McAvity which is worth repeating: “When times get tough, economic nationalism and protectionism tends to rise because it is always easier to blame someone else for self-inflicted problems.”
In the post, I compared the woes in the European Union to the U.S. and shared an infographic that U.S. Global created showing “How much goods costs around the world.” This infographic was one of the most shared visuals of the year on Facebook, especially because it was so surprising how much a gallon of gas costs in Europe and Brazil compared to the U.S.
6. Significant Impact of Oil Production in the U.S.
This very recent commentary wasn’t showcasing a brand new trend, but was popular in that it highlighted the important contribution the U.S. was making to the commodity space because of shale growth. Our headquarters sits right smack in the middle of one major area of shale activity and earlier this year I wrote two stories that highlight the benefits that Texas has received because of it. See Texas Ranked Best for Business (Again) and Bright Economic Lights of Texas.
5. Weighing the Evidence of Oil and Gold Stocks
Over the past year, resources companies had been significantly underperforming their underlying commodities. I identified the disparity as an opportunity in April, as my experience tells me that stocks generally revert to their means. I only had to wait a few months before news came out that state-owned companies in Asia sought to take advantage of this discrepancy. China’s oil giant CNOOC announced its purchase of Nexen and Malaysian company Petronas announced its takeout of Progress.
(c) U.S. Global Investors
