Tidbits
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said President Trump is in constant contact with both Mexico and Canadian officials regarding a possible agreement that would pull the 25% tariffs applied on Tuesday. He said Mexico's team was cooperating; Canada's team not so much.
On Tuesday, the stock markets and crude oil market crashed, in large part, due to a GDP forecasting model used by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The dollar is now 104.25 on the index, down 1.5 points for the day. Last week, the Atlanta Fed predicted the U.S. GDP this quarter would expand 2.3%. This week, the same model (supposedly) predicts the U.S. GDP this quarter will contract 2.8%. That is what happens when the President of the U.S. says he would like to do away with the Federal Reserve, a private corporation which prints unlimited currency, loans it to the U.S. government and charges interest paid by taxpayers.
U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels to 433.8 million barrels in the week ending February 28, according to the EIA, surpassing analysts' expectations of a 341,000-barrel rise. Refinery utilization rates dropped to 86%, with East Coast rates hitting a low of 55%. Gasoline and distillate stocks decreased. U.S. product exports rose 30% to over 7 million bpd.