Although gas prices have come down in recent weeks, they still don’t reflect the drop in oil prices. My oil stocks have taken a beating (as has pretty much all of the stock market). Sometimes, all you can do is smile and take it. A little humor sometimes help to keep things in perspective.
This article originally appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last month. It does such a great job of explaining the principle behind DriveFreeForLife and the free gas calculator, that I’ve included the salient excerpt here.
If $4-or-more-a-gallon gas is what we face this summer, then it’s time to find a way to handle it. Here’s one way to ease the pain: Invest in something that benefits from high gasoline prices.
What are the best plays on expensive oil?”
I don’t think that’s a real hard question,” said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, which is a unit of Wells Fargo. “Oil stocks will do well or you can play commodities and basic materials because commodities are going up and the dollar’s becoming weak.”
True. Oil is the commodity that’s sky high. And all the mega oil companies are up strongly. If you’ve owned any of the major integrated oil companies for a while, it’s probably not all that distressing to watch gasoline prices go up.
That group, according to the S&P 500 energy index, has just about tripled in value in the last five years.
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The world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil, reported today that second quarter income increased 14% to $11.68 billion — the highest ever for any American company. Meanwhile in London, Royal Dutch Shell announced a 33% increase in their second quarter profit, rising to $11.56 billion.
These record profits come as gas production fell around the world. Gas prices remain above $4/gallon throughout most of the United States. Rising oil prices are being fueled by increased demand from China, India and other parts of the world.
The bottom line? It’s good to be an owner. Aren’t you?
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Jim Cramer explains why the weekly oil inventory numbers have very little to do with the price of oil.
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| Transocean Ltd | 70.62 | ||
| Diamond Offshore | 74.81 | ||
| Valero Energy Cp | 20.65 | ||
| Marathon Oil Corp | 30.84 | ||
| Oil Service Holdr | 93.27 | ||
| Sunoco Inc | 28.31 | ||
| Conocophillips | 42.50 | ||
| Chevron Corp | 66.87 | ||
| Exxon Mobil Cp | 68.01 |