Lou Gutheil

This past week the FTSE 100 aggregate companies regained £62 billion of the £112 billion in valuation that they lost during the prior week. The index finished the week at 6,545.27, a gain of 3.9% on the week. Oops! Pardon me. That introduction kind of took the polish off the headline, didn’t it? Oh well, I might […]

The share price of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LSE:GKP) is up 4.10% today, continuing its rise that began early Monday morning. GKP’s shares are currently selling at 65.58 on the London Exchange. Last Friday, 12 December, those shares closed at 51.00, opening Monday at the same price, meaning that GKP has increased by 28.6% over the […]

The mighty, international fast-food giant is definitely in trouble. McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) share price, although up 3.21% today to 91.58, is at its lowest since September 2012. Investors are following customers as they go in other directions. I remember way back when McDonald’s was considered to be a “sleeping giant” in the traditionally sense of the […]

I had come to have a modicum of admiration (that’s about as much as I can muster for a politician or a banker) over the past few years. But today, either someone slipped him a stupid pill or he is doing his imitation of Barack Obama (moving his lips and expecting people to believe the […]

The initial offering price of Lending Club (NYSE:LC) shares was $15.00, higher than the $12.00-$14.00 range anticipated. When shares started trading for the first time on 11 December, they popped 65% before finishing the day up 56% at $23.43. Lending Club shares closed Friday at $24.69 and increased to $24.84 in after-hours trading. The Emergence […]

I really did expect to write about something other than oil today, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. The mere mention of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) in my article yesterday led me to think a bit more about the issue, especially as XOM makes for a good example […]

There is a human tendency – we all have it – to forget the bigger picture when a singular matter is making headlines. Whilst I obviously believe the recent news regarding oil production and pricing is BIG (this is my fourth  consecutive  article on the subject), I feel compelled to remind us all that it’s not […]

I am finding it difficult to stray too far from the subject of oil, post the OPEC conference. It’s absurd to think that the reactions, responses and fallout are going to stop just because the headlines point us to the next big story. The immediate aftermath was highly predictable as investors thought the sky was […]

I warned on 26 November that the fallout from whatever decision OPEC made about maintain their oil production at its current levels would have a significant impact. At the time, I asked the question, “Economics or Evolution?” After further consideration, I think I forgot to begin that last word with an “R.” What’s Really Going […]

Whatever announcement comes out of the OPEC meeting on Thursday , 27 November, may possibly be the biggest news story of 2014. Whatever the decision, it will have economic and geopolitical ramifications for some time to come, although much of the impact may not come until the alliance meets again in the Spring of 2015. […]