Sunday Night Oil Trading -- "All" Crudes Showing "Red." OPEC Basket Plunges $2.34, Trading Just Above $67 -- January 12, 2020

Despite that "Breaking Story" earlier today in which it was reported that "Iran" launched eight missile/mortar attacks into an Iraqi base resulting in four Iraqis injured, the oil markets did not go ballistic -- like Iran's missiles the other night.

• In fact, WTI dropped another 15 cents and is now trading just slightly below $59. 
• Brent: drops 12 cents and is trading at $64.86
• Western Canadian Select in free fall (lack of takeaway capacity/pipelines): $36.66
• also, "heavy oil" falling out of favor, and plenty of heavy oil alternates
• OPEC basket: drops -- look at this -- drops $2.34 and is now trading at $67.26

Fear of missing out, still in play, at 5:40 p.m. CT, Sunday night:

• Dow: up 33 points
• S&P 500: up 3 points
• NASDAQ: up 12 points 

Next? FOHO? LOL. Fear of holding/hanging on.

Back to flaring: now that you have all had the chance to read this story and the linked article at The WSJ, let's look at it again. The question is this: why was that story in The WSJ?

If you can't answer that, google it or follow the money. In this case, googling won't help, but following the money will (help).

Clues: where was this article posted? It was part of the "Heard On The Street" column, a daily column in The WSJ. That used to be my favorite column in The WSJ when I first started out investing. The writer would always mention a publicly traded company (or companies) that would benefit from the column that day.

Okay. So there you have it.

The story on US flaring has been told hundreds of times, and is entirely irrelevant in the big scheme of things (US energy policy). But, an article on US flaring is guaranteed lots of eyeballs.

And here are the companies mentioned in that article this weekend:

• Questor Technology: ticker symbol, QUTIF, on the OTCMKTS (over-the-counter)
• Crusoe Energy Systems: their website features a flare in the Williston Basin (LOL); a google search suggests it is not yet public but likely to go public in 2020; 

Those are exactly the kinds of stories / companies "Heard On The Street" likes to write about.

Perhaps the disclaimer would be advisable:

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, career, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

But it was bugging me all afternoon why this was such a long story, and such a prominently placed article. LOL.