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Oil Breaks $100

You may have seen that the price of oil finally broke $100 a barrel. The inventory data from yesterday showed a larger-than-expected drop in crude oil inventories. This was the seventh straight weekly drop and we're now at three-year low. That clearly rattled the market.

Also, the freeze that's hitting the East Coast is causing fears of a surge in demand for heating oil. Right now, I'm out West in Jackson Hole where it's -1 (but it's dry and there's no wind).

The real risk is what happens when the summer driving season begins and gasoline demand jumps. How high can oil go? In the worst case, I think light, sweet crude could hit $115 this summer. In North America, we run predominately on heavy, sour crude that typically trades $20 per barrel less than the light stuff.

Right now there' a lot of speculation going on, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. In the meantime, our oil service stocks continue to look great. In fact, in my January issue of Emerging Growth, which is being released to subscribers later today, one of my new recommendations is an oil services stock that shot up 17% in one day after its last earnings report.

Find out how you can subscribe to Emerging Growth right here.