Oil Prices Plunge 30% After Saudi Arabia Stuns World With Massive Discounts
NPR is currently reporting that:

Oil prices were in freefall on Sunday after Saudi Arabia announced a stunning discount in oil prices — of $6 to $8 per barrel — to its customers in Asia, the United States and Europe. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures dove 30% in early trading Sunday night before recovering somewhat to a drop of 22%.
Saudi Arabia, the world's second-largest producer, this weekend also said it will actually boost oil production instead of cutting it to stem falling prices, in a stunning reversal in policy from just two days ago.
U.S. consumers are likely to see lower prices at the gas pump, but American oil producers — who lead the world in output — could be hurt by the oil price slide.
Economies from China to Italy have ground to a halt as quarantines shut down factories and demand for products and services craters.
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members sought to cut production to shore up oil prices. But the once-powerful cartel can no longer move markets alone. It needs the support of Russia, which is not an OPEC member but has recently been coordinating with the organization. Yet Russia has resisted calls for production cuts. On Friday, the talks ended in failure.
Now, Saudi Arabia is doing an about face. If it can't get the price back up, it's going to drive the price way down. It's offering to cut the oil price for the U.S. market by $7 per barrel, to Europe by $8 and Asia by $6. Paired with Saudi Arabia's ability to rapidly increase production — flooding the market with cheap crude — those unilateral price cuts will push the price of oil down for everyone.
And even with ample supply and low production costs, Saudi Arabia is not guaranteed to come out on top in a prolonged face-off with Russia – especially if fears of a pandemic keep planes grounded and cars in driveways no matter how cheap crude oil gets.

This abridged news report was selected and edited for brevity.

Just posted in the overnight-potentials thread....

Futures opening down 3-4-5% based on variety of factors, from COVID-19 to the failed OPEC talks. Crude futures are down 30%, the largest one day drop since the 1991 Gulf War.
Monday trading will probably be a global bloodbath.

Futures opening down 3-4-5% based on variety of factors, from COVID-19 to the failed OPEC talks. Crude futures are down 30%, the largest one day drop since the 1991 Gulf War.
Monday trading will probably be a global bloodbath.

I've held APPLX for a while. It's YTD number bogles the mind. Anyone suffering with me on this? Any insight on the precipitous drop? The fund has held 5% in Gold and Gold-related forever. If I was expecting to outperform market, it would be about right now. However things have really gone south. There is nothing on their website addressing the YTD numbers either.

Sunday, March 8, 2020
Barring the possibility of an intergalactic species/craft which visits planet Earth, and creates a healing golden orb surrounding the planet; which in turn results in a eradication of COVID.....well, if this does not happen; then I can not find otherwise but to expect disruption at many levels to continue.
I'll blip a few things as a thought arises, and then let this thread become whatever.....
--- The investment side: The Fed. and other central banks have already played round 1 on the monetary side, for any number of reasons; based upon their thinking to attempt to protect the investment markets and other.
Next, FISCAL policy. The President, et al; which includes most Republicans (my opinion) may be forced to become "socialists". The farmers bailout is already at this status, however; I see the following possibilities:
--- another reduced taxes plan
--- monetary back stop for some industries with large losses
--- income replacement for those out of work for "x" period of time
--- mail a U.S. Treasury check to every U.S. household.....$2,000, non-taxable at any government level
All the other, the what IF:
--- consider everything one uses in a given week in your area, what if; 25% of the stores, gas stations, etc. are closed
--- the services you seldom use in a community, but now have 25% of the staff or facilities closed/quarantined, being; first responders (paramedics, fire, police), walk-in clinics; services, electrician, plumber, etc....add to your list
---employment, the majority of large gatherings being void people. Sporting events, localities that rely on tourism...add to your list. The ramifications in these areas becomes the large numbers of folks who have their income attached to these businesses.
For the D.C. scene, well; you may be draw you own conclusions about effective leadership.
Trump, "I know so much about corona virus.....
Mike Pence stated that, "..... announced that 21 people on a cruise ship being held off San Francisco had tested positive for coronavirus. He also urged older Americans to “use caution” in planning any cruise ship vacation."
NO S^*T ??? Well, one may guess that there are "x" number of Americans who don't know that a cruise ship vacation is not the way to go, at this time.
Okay, I'm tired of writing and thinking about this; and you're probably tired of reading what I've written.
Take care of you and yours,
Catch

As usual, they hardly ever discuss one of the best options...Multi sector bond funds.
The following are paying over 4% SEMMX,JMSIX,IOFIX,VCFAX,
FI CEFs such as PCI pay over 8% with better performance than SPY and others + volatility=SD is better too.
MLP? no thanks.
See a (chart) of SPY,MLPA,PCI

If I want to buy a fund I just do it at Schwab (I have a small account at Fidelity too) and if it's not there I don't buy. I can buy VLAAX or VLAIX at $100K min + $49.95 (which I usually don't pay) and then I can add or switch to another fund.
For years PRWCX(closed) was my number one allocation choice but VLAIX looks better now and available.

@_vintagefreak - hi sir, lots *messed ups* past 4-5 weeks

fido not so much, depending on your definition of skimp

I had debated about mentioning that Fidelity's MMFs pay more, but since their top rate for sub $1M min MMFs is just 8 basis points above Schwab's, I didn't feel it was worth going into the numbers. Still, here we go ...
Fidelity's retail-ish MMFs
Schwab's position MMFs (ignore the Ultra class shares with their $1M min)
In contrast, Vanguard Prime MMF is paying 23 basis points above Schwab's, just 3 basis points below Ally Bank's online account that yields 1.60%. VMMXX's min is just $3K.
Vanguard MMFs
For better yields on cash one needs to look to bank accounts. But it may not be so easy to move IRA cash back and forth between a bank and a brokerage. OTOH, I've been able to move IRA cash between Merrill Edge and Fidelity within a couple of days, so maybe if you've got significant cash in an IRA it's worth looking into how easy IRA bank transfers are.
A number of the "major" online banks are currently yielding 1.70% (Synchrony, Marcus, Amex, ...), and others are higher. Brokerage rates 15% - 20% below this do seem somewhat skimpy to me.
Online bank rates https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/rates/

Hi @johnN, Thanks for your question. And, @Crash here is another update. Your comments are always appreciated.
John, for me, I bought when the Index was down 8% (pullback range) and again at minus 13% (correction range). My next buy will be made should the Index fall into a downdraft which would be a decline of 15% to 20%. Since, I am retired and in the distribution phase of investing along with being mostly fully allocated on the equity side of my portfolio, within my asset allocation ranges, does not leave a lot of room for me to become a big buyer of equities. However, this stock market decline has created an open to buy on the equity side of my portfolio. With this, when an open to buy takes place on the equity side of my portfolio I have been buying equity income type funds in baby steps as noted above in my opening comment. In this way, I will get paid dividends while I await equity valuations to rebound.
Currently, I'm favoring equity income over fixed income and staying within my asset allocation guardrails of 20% cash, 40% income and 40% equity. In general, my rebalance threshold is + (or -) 2% from my neutral positions while allowing cash to float. This past Friday's portfolio review had me at 20% cash, 41% income and 39% equity. With this, I've now got a small open to buy on the equity side of my portfolio. In addition, should I choose, I can overweight equities by up to 5%; but ... for now ... I'm a long way from doing that.
I'm also thinking no bell is going to ring to tell investors it's now time to buy equities as each of us have different circumstances, risk tolerances and objectives that should be factored in with our buying decisions. I'm posting what I am doing as I can not say what might be right for another investor. Again, for me, when I have an open to buy within my asset allocation and my barometer has a high reading North of 160 then ... that's, for me, an equity buying opportunity.
Old_Skeet

Hi sir thankyou
What levels sp500 or Dows [?22500] you think bottom maybe there and perhaps add more equities . Its still early spring flu coronavirus still going to peak for at least 4-8 wks, maybe slow recovery after and I don't know if we get late spring bounce or flatline until pre election then maybe a good bounce after election if new favorable potus/team is throned)
Thank you

I read these updtes with interest, each time. I'm still buy-and-hold, but not forever. So... just in case, I sure do want to know what Skeet's take is, up-to-the-minute, almost!
I was headed to Value Line with wifey's old 403b. I could sit and wait forever for them to catch up with their own mail, or to at least correspond with me, if they have questions, because of the way we filled-out their forms. Those transfer forms were arranged by a brainless Venusian with his head stuck where the sun don't shine. I'm thinking of going with an old standby: MAPOX. OR TRP Balanced fund. Good dividend payers, there. Big and giant -cap names. Lots of tech. I'd still love to find another option or two to choose from. I've pretty much decided it will be a balanced fund in the 50-70 percent equities category. I'll go and take a look at the US News list that Ted used to direct us to.... Again.

I've been with Schwab for about 15 years now, and am pleased with fund selection, interaction with the local team and overall research available on the website. It might boil down to what you're looking for. Do you want to make your own decisions? Aside from what I described, they also have a private client offering for more customized service, as do others. Their robo-offerings are also well thought of.

Sorry, but FLTMX is far from the top. This fund performance is ranked at 57 for one year and 51-68 for 5-10 years :-)

What everyone else says. I use ML and Fidelity, and the former is handy if you have checking/savings and mortgages at BoA, but there seems no longer any compelling reason to use them otherwise, to the contrary. And everyone likes Schwab so much that if I had it to do over I might even forsake Fidelity, where I have had accounts for over 50 years.

I use VWIUX in this space because of the lower ER (0.09 vs 0.35). However, in past years when I sold lots at a loss, the proceeds immediately went into FLTMX. After 31 days, I would go back to VWIUX.
Mona

All I can offer is that I have had excellent customer service and care, full bench of tools and a fairly large stable of investment options/funds at Fidelity for over 35 years and see no reason to change. My experience has been across a taxable brokerage account, a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. They have been totally helpful and responsive all along the way.
FWIW - I did have accounts with Schwab but moved them to Scottrade to cut down on brokerage fees in the way back. I have to say that Schwab was excellent as well but their fee structure across the items I was using were always higher than Fidelity including mutual fund transactions. Moving away was just a matter of cost not service(s).
Honestly I don't think that you can go wrong with either. If availability to a walk-in branch is important you might start there. Good luck.

Retirement nearing. I have between the wife and I 5 retirement accounts at 5 different places. I want to consolidate all the accounts for simplicity. Thinking Schwab. For those that have done this or thinking about it please share your thoughts concerning your choice(s) and why?

I assume the mortgage bonds in IOFIX are less sensitive to the emotions in BB or B rated energy or airline bond markets making IOFIX less variable recently. Liquidity is a real risk in IOFIX although the mangers recognize that and have lines of credit etc prepared they say.
The mangers are much more aware of the problem of the credit markets than we are but how quickly can you turn a 10 or 15 billion dollar fund like JMSIX around? Hopefully they anticipated a lot of this.
Core plus funds and even BND out preformed probably due to their heavy doses of Treasuries.
ZEOIX has dropped almost 1% in the last week or two similar to December 2018. I spoke to them back then and they said that even though the NAV was down due to falling prices of their junk bonds, it would quickly recover because they were confident in their security analysis and none of the bonds would default in the short time left till they matured. Sure enough the NAV quickly came back up
It is probably different if some of these other funds hold longer duration securities.

*** Price check, aisle 3 !!! ***
Already seems so long ago (Feb. 17), when I first noted that the 30 year T yield moved below 2%.
Here we are in Never-Never Land in the world of bonds.
I'll add this yield chart that I use. The chart is for 1 year and is YIELD, not pricing. Hover the cursor on the chart lines for rate and date info.
A few views from bondland:
Week / YTD
--- MINT = -.02%/+.5% (Pimco Enhanced short maturity)
--- SHY = +.7%/+2.2% (1-3 yr bills)
--- IEI = +1.6%/+5.4% (3-7 yr notes)
--- IEF = +2.8%/+9.5% (7-10 yr notes)
--- TLT = +7.5%/+23.5% (20+ Yr UST Bond
--- EDV = +10%/+31.4% (Vanguard extended duration gov't)
--- ZROZ = +10.6%/+35% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds)
***Other:
--- LQD = +1.85%/+5.5% (corp. bonds)
--- TIP =+2.1%/+5.2% (UST., inflation bonds, mixed duration)
--- LTPZ = +7.1%/+17.9% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds)
This chart is EDV vs SPY going back to December, 2007. TLT, EDV, ZROZ and LTPZ are hot potatoes in the bond arena. The chart, however; indicates the major inverse relationship to the U.S. equity market. When things are sour in equity land, these shine; but one must pay attention.
Overall, in the past several weeks, investment grade bonds (U.S. gov't), notes and bills have helped a great deal to maintain a balance. Where a bond fund you may hold has it's holdings will be reflected with some of the above returns. A possible exception now and going forward may be in the corp. bond area; as many companies have large bond debt, some of which is borderline "good junk" , particularly if company earnings falter in this environment.
Is there bond life after the 0% rate yield? Yes, from what I've followed with the German, 10 year Bund. Take a peek, here.
Well, I've probably forgotten something that I really intended to mention. But, that is the purpose of the edit button.
If you discover a mistake, please let me know. Chore time for this fellow, for a bit.
Take care of you and yours,
Catch