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Josef Schachter
As a 40 year veteran of the Canadian Investment Management Industry, Josef Schachter has experienced several exceptional and turbulent global economic and stock market cycles. With his primary focus on the Energy Sector, Josef is able to weave global political, economic and monetary issues with current energy data into a compelling story of what's going on in the sector, what is to come, and why.
Schachter's Eye On Energy - WTI Crude oil prices are steady at US$63.44/b (low today US$62.72/b) compared to US$63.66/b last week at this time. President Trump’s window for Russia to agree to peace talks with Ukraine have gyrated energy prices. President Putin has invited President Zelensky to Moscow but this is not as safe as where Zelensky wanted, Switzerland. Crude […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - WTI Crude oil prices are steady at US$63.66/b (low today US$62.95/b) compared to US$62.83/b last week at this time. President Trump’s two week window for Russia to agree to peace talks with Ukraine (trilateral talks with the US as mediator) are gyrating energy prices. If Trump uses the stick as many US Senators want, then […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - WTI Crude oil prices are steady at US$62.83/b (low today so far US$62.39/b) compared to US$62.14/b last week at this time. This on US Total Stocks decline of 4.0 Mb. Exports rose 795 Kb/d (weekly increase of 5.6 Mb) to 4.37 Mb/d and is up from 4.05 Mb/d last year. It appears that countries wanting […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Crude oil prices have declined >US$5/b from a week ago (today’s low US$64.66/b versus US$70.13/b last week) as weak demand and rising inventories (see EIA section) offset President Trump’s aggressive moves on secondary sanctions and increasing tariffs on Russian oil buyers. Today the US increased tariffs on India from 25% to 50% as a result […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: President Trump has announced a trade deal with the EU opening the country to US sales of vehicles, more agricultural goods, wine and mostly energy. Their tariff will be 15% and US goods entering the EU would see no tariff. Prior to the tariff war EU cars paid a 2.5% tariff to enter US […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: President Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan opening the country to US sales of cars, trucks, rice and other agricultural food stuff. In return for a 15% tariff on Japanese exports (down from 25%) Japanese companies etc., plan on investing US$550B in the US. Importing US rice will alienate protected rice farmers. […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: President Trump is sending out his unilateral tariff deals. He is giving time for counterparties to come forward (by early August) with better deals that might provide some relief from exorbitant tariffs that would kill or end trade. Any tariff deal over 25% changes trade relations and makes trade nearly impossible. Crude oil is […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: President Trump got to sign his ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” on Independence Day – July 4th with many positives in the bill. There are still areas of cuts for poor and lower middle income households that will give the Democrats lots of ammunition during the mid-term elections in November 2026. Republicans in swing districts will […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: President Trump wants to sign his ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” on Independence Day – July 4th but the alternative Senate and House bills need to be reconciled and then voted upon again before being sent to the President. Big differences on Medicaid access, the SALT deduction for high tax states (I.e. Blue Democratic States with […]
June 25th, 2025 | Israel – Iran War Over – Maybe Or Maybe Not?
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: Israel and Iran Keep Fragile Ceasefire After Devastating 12-Day War!: Crude oil has taken a quick round trip from US$59.74/b in late May to US$78.40/b late last week as Israeli and then US B2 bomber attacks knocked out the key nuclear weapons infrastructure facilities. Then when this operation was completed crude retreated to US$64/b […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Israel and Iran at War: Israel had intelligence that Iran had completed building multiple nuclear weapons (8 to 10) and that they were now mating the weapons with their middle and long range ballistic missiles. This alone was an existential threat to them but there was also intelligence that Iran was prepared to give some […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: China and the US meeting in London has come out with an outline of a trade deal. This will leave US Tariff’s on China at 30% and China’s Tariffs on the US at 10%. The win for the US was that China would supply critical minerals (rare earths and specialized magnets needed for all […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: Ukraine Special Forces made surprising and successful attacks with new methodologies to attack critical Russian military equipment. Ukraine knocked out 41 long range strategic nuclear capable attack planes at five air bases including one in Siberia. It appears that Ukraine had help from NATO military intelligence services as the Trump administration does not want […]
May 28th, 2025 | WTI Likely To Breach US$60/b In The Coming Days
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Rising interest rates around the world are again causing problems for financial institutions. In Japan the increase in rates to record highs has pushed insurance companies and banks to take massive mark to market losses and stock prices have been hit hard. In the US rates have stayed near yearly highs with the 10-year US […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - US stocks are weaker today as US yields rise and contain stock prices. The 10-Year US Treasury yield is now at 4.54% (high for 2025 4.57%). The 30-year US Treasury is at 5.02% (high for 2025 5.04%). If these rates are exceeded and foreign buyers of the large funding needed to cover the rising US […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Summary: US stocks and crude oil prices have lifted on the pause in the tariff war with the US and China lowering tariffs against each other to reasonable levels and starting negotiations for long term fixes. WTI has lifted from US$56/b to US$64/b as fear of global recession seceded. Tariffs have been lowered to 30% […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Trump Tariffs are getting the most attention for deals (White House optimism) with 15 countries before the end of the 90 day window and no deals have yet come to fruition. Japan and Korea were expected to be first but changes in the political leadership in each country is delaying any deals. This would be painful […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - The Canadian Federal election resulted in a minority Liberal government that will need legislative support from the Bloc. Its leader has said he would support the new government for a year if the Liberals spend $2B more in Quebec. Is this for housing, the high speed train between Montreal and Quebec City or more generous […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - US stocks are now rebounding from the nasty fall from 45,100 in The Dow Jones Industrials Index (in late January 2025) to 36,600 (in early April 2025) as tariff news is less alarming. As more US companies visit the White House and talk of the damage the announced tariff rates would hurt their businesses and […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - Products in stock are being bought aggressively by global consumers as they buy what they think will cost much more in the coming months once tariffs hit. Auto lots for new and used cars, electronic products and imported goods are seeing the strongest interest. Tariff negotiations between the US and over 75 countries are progressing […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - I will be on this week’s MoneyTalks show with host and friend Victor Adair (Michael is on holiday) The roller coaster markets and specifically the energy sector will be the topics. This should be an interesting conversation that you may want to listen to. Go to MoneyTalks.com. The tariff war is now on (China now […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - While the US federal government cuts its employee count sharply in recent weeks the private sector is adding jobs at a fast pace. Today the ADP report showed private sector jobs rose 155,000 in March above the 120,000 forecast. Professional and business services added 57,000 workers, Financial services 38,000 (tax season ramp up), manufacturing 21,000 […]
March 26th, 2025 | US 25% Tariff On Venezuelan Oil Lifts WTI To US$70/b.
Schachter's Eye On Energy - President Trump is on the warpath against Venezuela and Iran. Regarding Venezuela he introduced a 25% tariff on any country buying its oil and on that country’s goods sold in the US, if they buy crude from the country after April 2nd. For China with a current tariff of 20% this goes up to 45% if not […]
Schachter's Eye On Energy - A partial ceasefire in Ukraine where both Russia and Ukraine committed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days is the best that the US could get from the current negotiations to a long term de-escalation and towards a peace agreement. One additional move was a deal to exchange prisoners. Now 175 prisoners […]
March 13th, 2025 | WTI Prices Lift As US Consumption Rises 5.1% Last Week.
Schachter's Eye On Energy - President Trump freaked out stock markets with his on-off switch of new tariffs and threats against the US’s key trading partners. Canada is getting the brunt of these social media attacks. Trump threatens, then trade negotiators from both sides get to work on the details and persuade Trump to relent and there are reverses in […]