Oil price rise continued
throughout the week despite worrying economic activities due to increased virus
infections - across the world.
It's the third wave that is yet
to reach its peak and policy makers are collectively scratching their heads to
find solutions to mitigate the inevitable impact.
The only solution at present is
the news about the effectiveness of a few vaccines. Their efficacy, however,
remains to be seen.
Adding insult to injury, the
virus is evolving and we can only hope that it will not a few steps ahead of
vaccine manufactures, as it often happens with winter flue vaccines.
Perhaps, the hope of the
potential of the vaccines and the Coronavirus-fatigue keep investors put their
faith in buying stocks; they instinctively know, perhaps, the dark days in
April, 2020, when oil price hit below zero, may not repeat in a cyclic way.
Since geopolitical developments
are fairly stable in the Middle East, there are no signs of supply disruptions
in the region in the foreseeable future, which is encouraging. There are no
signs of demand-collapsing either despite the risk of exponential increase in
infections, because they mimic a wave - a crest followed by relatively long
trough
