You want to know how to crater an entire stock market? Then simply listen to what Bob Dudley had to say yesterday.
The CEO of BP (BP) said he was "very bearish for the first half of the year."
How bearish? "In the second half, every storage tank and swimming pool in the world is going to be full and fundamentals are going to kick in. The market will start balancing in the second half of the year."
That means, to me, that we will be hard pressed to stop the 1986 scenario, when oil fell from $26.53 in the first week of January to $10 by the end of March.
Unbelievable.
You add that to the amazing numbers from RBN about natural gas -- record surge in production this year and warm weather that easily could take natural gas to record lows -- then you have a situation when only the strongest survive.
That's part one.
Part two is when Rio Tinto (RIO) scraps its progressive dividend because of lower commodity prices and forecasts no let-up whatsoever in 2016. Sam Walsh, the CEO, says the distressed players will not only include junior and mid-tier firms, it will now be the majors. Yet, "at this stage there is nothing out there on the market that interests us."
In other words, both oil and other commodities are going down, but one of the two companies with the biggest balance sheets to buy -- the other being BHP Billiton (BHP) -- isn't interested in saving anyone.
The cavalry is not coming for either group, oil or copper, iron, and nickel.
That's why the futures are down.
That's why I expect they could stay down, even as the earnings overall in the last 24 hours have been better than expected.
Oil and mining are saying "so what." It's resonating right into the rest of the market, because the banks aren't ready for this.
Losses as far as the eye can see.
