Daily Archives: November 8, 2008

Oil: $50 Or $100? Is Brazil The New Saudi Arabia?

Tx00338coilwellgusherodessatexasposThe price of oil will be pushed in two directions next week. That leaves aside the pressure that will come from a promised cut in supply by OPEC.

The head of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, said that at current crude prices it does not make sense to spend large amounts of capital on new and potentially difficult exploration. Put another way, the single biggest oil-producing nation is not bringing in enough money to extend the life of its fields.

According to Bloomberg, “It is clear that collapsing oil prices are not only detrimental to the economies of oil-producing states but also to future upstream investments to sustain future oil demand consumption,” Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy said in its weekly market report issued today.

To offset the problem in Saudi Arabia, new fields of tremendous size would have to be discovered elsewhere.

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Low Cost Computing Poses Major Risk At PC & Tech Companies (DELL, HPQ, IBM, INTC, AMD, MU, STX, AAPL)

Hp_logoDell_logoWith earnings from the top two PC giants roughly two weeks away, we have many about what lies ahead for the tech sector.  Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) reports earnings on November 20, and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) reports on November 24.  It is far too soon to preview these earnings, but it is becoming clear that they along with their competitors and suppliers are being hurt by the slowing economy.

We have seen plenty of evidence from the likes of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Micron (NYSE: MU), Seagate Tech (NYSE: STX), and even from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to know about the slow PC season.  This will be seen in the evidence below, but the rapid decline in orders from the end of September into October has been too difficult to not observe, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

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Circuit City (CC) Fires Hundreds Of Headquarters Staff

UnemplyIn addition to the nearly 7,000 people who lost jobs when Circuit City (CC) closed 155 stores last week, almost 800 people who work at the company headquarters in Henrico, near Richmond, are now out of work.

At the rate things are going at the electronics retailer, everyone at the firm will be unemployed by Christmas.

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