Oil Price Manipulation

Source: money.cnn.com --- 27 days ago
The government charged an Oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating Oil prices, the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets. ...

Source: www.mcclatchydc.com --- 27 days ago
Facing congressional criticism that speculators are driving up Oil prices, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday announced that it has charged the Dutch company Optiver Holding BV and its American subsidiary with manipulating the trading of contracts for future delivery of Oil and gasoline. ...

Source: www.topix.com --- 23 days ago
The government charged an Oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating Oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets. ...

Source: www.oilweek.com --- 27 days ago
DENVER _ Federal regulators accused a Dutch trading firm, its chief executive and two other top employees Thursday of manipulating energy futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange.The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged Optiver Holding BV attempted to manipulate light sweet crude Oil, New York Harbor heating Oil and New York Harbor gasoline futures contracts during March 2007.The defendants tried to manipulate prices 19 times and succeeded in causing artificial prices on five occasions, earning about $1 million in profit, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York.Regulators asked a judge to impose monetary penalties, restitution and other restrictions. A telephone message seeking comment was left at the company`s Chicago office.In addition to Amsterdam-based Optiver, the complaint named Optiver US LLC of Chicago; Optiver VOF, also of Amsterdam; chief executive Bastiaan van Kempen of Chicago; Christopher Dowson of Chicago, a head trader; and Randal Meijer of Chicago, who heads trading and is a supervisor of Optiver and Optiver VOF.Regulators said the defendants` trading strategies succeeded just five times: March 2, 2007 for New York Harbor gasoline; March 16, 2007 for light sweet crude Oil; March 16, 2007 for New York Harbor gasoline; March 19, 2007 for light sweet crude Oil; and March 20, 2007 for heating Oil.The complaint was filed just days after the U.S. Congress began acting ...

Source: www.journalstar.com --- 27 days ago
Facing congressional criticism that speculators are driving up Oil prices, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thu... ...

Source: www.fwicki.com --- 27 days ago
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. commodity futures regulator on Thursday charged a Dutch trading fund and its Chicago unit with manipulating Oil markets in March 2007, an action resulting from the commission's nationwide probe into illegal ... ...

Source: www.fwicki.com --- 27 days ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. commodity futures regulator Thursday charged a Dutch trading fund and its Chicago unit with manipulating Oil markets in March 2007, an action resulting from the commission's nationwide probe into illegal energy trading ... ...

Source: www.myspinzone.net --- 23 days ago
The government charged an Oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating Oil prices, the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets. And now the dominoes fall. Here's da scoop:The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries, and three employees, with Manipulation and attempted Manipulation of crude Oil, heating Oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange."Optiver traders amassed large trading positions, then conducted trades in such a way to bully and hammer the markets," CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken said at a press conference. "These charges go to the heart of the CFTC's core mission of detecting and rooting out illegal Manipulation of the markets."HANG THEM HIGH! ...

Source: www.wired.com --- 30 days ago
News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Buying the Pharma Team Dear Yahoo: Sorry About the Icahn Thing 'Not Bad' Is the New 'Great!' Subscribe to Portfolio magazine The cover of a recent BusinessWeek about the runup in Oil and gasoline prices framed the question of what's causing it nicely: "Speculation or Manipulation?" But the story was maddeningly evenhanded. By dodging its own question, the magazine raised another. When it comes to the cost of gasoline, who should we believe? Here are some nominees and their viewpoints: 1. The Oil companies: It's supply and demand at its most basic, just like your professor outlined in your freshman economics course. 2. The petro-toadies in Congress: All we have to do is open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the waters off Florida and California. 3. The Department of Energy: OPEC has to pump more, and we've got to allow more refineries by rolling back environmental restrictions. 4. King Abdullah: OPEC pumps plenty of crude but "despicable" Oil-futures speculators in the West are driving up the prices due to their "selfishness." 5. Senator John McCain: Exxon Mobil has done such a good job of demonstrating the magic of the marketplace that it deserves another $1.2 billion in tax breaks. 6. Senator Barack Obama: Impose a windfall-profits tax to remind American Oil executives that Price gouging can backfire politically. 7. About 90 percent of the print and TV reporters in America: See ...

Source: www.usatoday.com --- 111 days ago
The Federal Trade Commission is looking at ways to enforce a new law against Price Manipulation and deception in Oil-trading. ...

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com --- 6 days ago
After all the speculation about whether speculators were behind this summer's Oil Price spike, there seems to be widespread agreement (see here , here , here , here , here , and here ) that the more recent backslide in Oil prices is due to one cause: a fall in worldwide demand. Demand. That's almost as old-fashioned as proper tire inflation. In fact, it's connected. But weakening economies, from the US to China, will be needing less Oil. Price goes down. Seems like Econ 101. So why are the Democrats in Congress, and the Obama campaign, still fluttering with anxiety to join the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign introduced and orchestrated by Newt Gingrich ? Even when it's provable that Manipulation of demand has a far more immediate and measurable effect on Oil prices (and ultimately gasoline prices) than any contemplated drilling here, or anywhere near here, wherever here is? Could it be the well-established Democratic wince reflex in the face of determined, if demagogic, Republican sloganeering? And will this post end without any other punctuation besides a question mark? More on Oil ...

Source: seekingalpha.com --- 51 days ago
Matthew Bradbard submits: There is talk of government intervention, banning of institutional investors from commodities, and recently on the CFTC website they released “emergency authority” which has been only used four times in history and not since 1980. The Commission has exercised its emergency powers in response to extreme events, such as Manipulation or a specific disturbance that caused a sudden shock to the markets. The CFTC has never exercised emergency powers based on Price trends that have developed over months or years. As opposed to speculators causing the dramatic increases in commodities prices, is it not possible that demand from emerging markets and the lack of investment by suppliers has created a structural change in commodity markets fueling higher prices? For the government to get involved at this point they would essentially be manipulating prices, or doing the same thing that they blame speculators are doing, Isn’t that ironic? They should not interfere and let supply and demand determine Price. If this media attention does anything, we hope it informs investors on how serious of an issue we have at hand and the fact that prices of commodities may be rising for years to come. Energies Late in the week, crude Oil broke out of the sideways consolidation we have been in for the last 15 days. On the week, August gained $4.36 and intra-day Friday we traded just below $143/ barrel. With continued weakness in the do ...

Source: seekingalpha.com --- 50 days ago
Matthew Bradbard submits: There is talk of government intervention, banning of institutional investors from commodities, and recently on the CFTC website they released “emergency authority” which has been only used four times in history and not since 1980. The Commission has exercised its emergency powers in response to extreme events, such as Manipulation or a specific disturbance that caused a sudden shock to the markets. The CFTC has never exercised emergency powers based on Price trends that have developed over months or years. As opposed to speculators causing the dramatic increases in commodities prices, is it not possible that demand from emerging markets and the lack of investment by suppliers has created a structural change in commodity markets fueling higher prices? For the government to get involved at this point they would essentially be manipulating prices, or doing the same thing that they blame speculators are doing, Isn’t that ironic? They should not interfere and let supply and demand determine Price. If this media attention does anything, we hope it informs investors on how serious of an issue we have at hand and the fact that prices of commodities may be rising for years to come. Energies Late in the week, crude Oil broke out of the sideways consolidation we have been in for the last 15 days. On the week, August gained $4.36 and intra-day Friday we traded just below $143/ barrel. With continued weakness in the dollar ...

Source: blogs.jsonline.com --- 40 days ago
 Major airlines have weighed in, begging customers to get Congress to smack around those awful, terrible speculators who are making fuel so expensive. Midwest Airlines and Northwest Airlines are among those signing the joint letter from a bunch of CEOs. Well, airlines have their core competencies, such as stranding people on taxiways and making them vow never to travel again. When it comes to economics, you're perhaps better off with economists. One of them, Harvard's Greg Mankiw , provides a handy spin through some more sensible comment on whether airlines are right to blame speculators. Short answer: No. Though, as James Surowiecki points out in New Yorker, they're an great target for politicians and have been for ages. He writes: "Congress is not, though, just attacking illegal market Manipulation; it's also taking aim at perfectly legal speculation, namely the buying and selling of futures contracts, which are effectively bets that Oil prices will go up (or down). Futures contracts can be used by Oil sellers (like OPEC ) or Oil buyers (like the airlines) to hedge their risks by agreeing to sell or buy Oil in the future at a set Price. Speculators, by contrast, mostly use futures contracts to gamble on Oil prices, and have no interest in buying or selling real barrels of Oil. These gambles can be tremendously lucrative, but they don't directly determine the real (or 'spot') Price of Oil. That's set by the people who are buying and ...

Source: matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com --- 41 days ago
AirTran got ahold of my email address somehow or other over the years and sends me occasional doses of spam. Normally, it's to promote some deal or something. But now they're giving me rants against the evils of Oil speculators: Speculators buy up large amounts of Oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of Oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the Price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs. Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and Manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated Oil market and permit the economy to prosper. I've found the arguments of Paul Krugman and other skeptics of the "blame the speculators" story pretty convincing. But if I were an airline, I would badly want it to be true. ...

Source: bstocksdev.weblogsinc.com --- 2 days ago
Filed under: International markets , Economic data , Commodities , Agriculture The reduction in global economic growth and growth expectations is leading to one benefit: a sharp decline in commodity prices, creating hope inflation may be peaking in many parts of the world, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (subscription required). Rice and palm Oil, two commodities critical for the developing world, are both down about 40% since May, while the world's most vital commodity, crude Oil, is down abut 23%, The Journal reported. An end to surging commodity prices? Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Monday that while the commodity Price-lower trend is still young, continued commodity Price declines would be a welcomed sight, provided they don't drop too much. "The pullback is welcome because many commodities had reached prohibitive levels, hindering commerce and really hurting the modest budgets of the poor/working poor in developing countries," Langan said. "However, too much of a Price slide in commodities would be a sign of a pronounced global economic slowdown, which is something we don't want." Further, Langan said that while regulators in various nations probe 'speculator' activity and alleged Price Manipulation in commodity markets, he argues that many of the Price rises are consistent with historical Price booms in other asset classes / sectors. "In many cases what you've seen is simply institutional investors chasing ret ...

Source: www.gmanews.tv --- 29 days ago
MANILA, Philippines - Calls from various sectors, including Malacañang, for a government audit of Oil firms' books for alleged Price Manipulation may not be as easy as it sounds, the Commission on Audit (COA) said Wednesday. ...