Daily Oil Fundamentals

Another Week of Reality Check

26 Jan 2026

Another Week of Reality Check

It is looking increasingly likely that one day, though not in the immediate future, the Old Continent will be grateful to the omnipotent leader of the New World. No doubt, military reliance on the US over the past 80 years has proven unhealthy, has led to inertia, and President Trump, to a certain extent, justifiably, has run roughshod over former allies. His latest salvo was manifested in the relentless pursuit of ‘owning’ Greenland. This coercive move, however, was deemed to be over the line and made alarm bells ring louder in Europe than at any time since WWII.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

Japanese Dodgeball

23 Jan 2026

Japanese Dodgeball

The hand wringing seen by the Bank of Japan has led to the bank’s favourite exercise in deploying deferment. Governor Kazuo Ueda will have to step rather gently when addressing the future because of the recent selloffs in domestic bonds and the Yen. Keeping rates unchanged today might buy time while Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi goes about her snap election to confirm the appetite for plans to increase stimulus, but it will not alleviate a market-wide concern that troubles are being bottled up for the future.

Daily Oil Fundamentals

If it’s madness, is there a method to it?

22 Jan 2026

If it’s madness, is there a method to it?

Those with ample time on their hands were treated to almost three hours of Donald Trump over the past two days: one hour and forty minutes on Tuesday, marking his first year in office, and around one hour at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland yesterday. Both were astonishing to watch and listen to. They were full of unsubstantiated claims (“ending eight wars”), obsessions (the Nobel Peace Prize), assumptions disguised as objective realities (“only the United States can protect Greenland”), as well as insults, untrue assertions (“Somalia is not a country”), and disturbing confusion (he referred to Greenland as Iceland four times).