Logically, oil prices fell early given the massive build in EIA Petroleum Inventories to 10.4 million bbls vs prior 3.5 million bbls. And, by-the-way, there’s no place to put all this oil now. But, oil prices surged thereafter as another short squeeze occurred based on weird logic as noted below: 

Anthony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging stated “It seems more likely that $26 is in the rear view mirror at the moment,” Headrick said.

“Fundamentals remain bearish but prospects of OPEC freeze and downward cycle in U.S. output will likely limit a retest of the recent lows.”

The slide ended weirdly even after OPEC members led by Saudi Arabia, which traditionally cuts output to support prices, started pumping oil at record highs to protect its market share.

So, I guess bulls expect a production freeze at current levels but the Saudi’s have a different idea. And, again, a freeze if and when it occurs doesn’t diminish production, it’s just a misreading of reality for another short squeeze. Remember, if OPEC and others freeze production, then cheating, as always will begin almost immediately. Iran and Iraq for example will continue to ignore what others do. (“A Fool’s Errand” via Urban Dictionary; “A task which is widely known to be unwise, yet is carried out against a person’s better judgement.”). Noises to the contrary continue to emanate from habitual liars, Venezuela.  

The only other thing I can think of for a rally is there’s something negative only known by a few participants to drive prices higher. The last such news happened in 1990 just before Iraq invade Kuwait driving prices sharply higher.

Will there be 8 more years of this ruinous courtesy of the Fed and incompetent government policies?

Data today included the always inconsistent ADP Employment Report up to 214K vs 193K. The Fed’s Beige Book didn’t offer anything new but were clearly focused on the stock market even as they say publicly the opposite.