Crude oil price trend  - January WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil futures are trading below the psychological mark of $35 per barrel. Prices have been moving within the narrow range of $34–$37 per barrel for the last five trading sessions. Crude oil prices are following a long-term falling trend. The consensus of rising crude oil inventory at Cushing, Oklahoma, is weighing on crude oil prices. Support and resistance - Short covering and bargain buying could support crude oil prices. The next resistance level for oil prices could be $40 per barrel. In contrast, record production from Russia and Saudi Arabia could drag crude oil prices to record lows. Crude oil prices could see support at $34 per barrel. Prices tested this mark in December 2008. January 2016 crude oil futures contracts expire on December 20, 2015. Bearish traders could cover their shorts ahead of the expiration.Oil price estimates - Reuter’s surveys suggest Brent crude oil prices could average $57.95 per barrel in 2016. Likewise, US crude oil prices are expected to average $53.73 per barrel. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), Eni, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC), and Hess Corporation (HES) reported huge losses in 3Q15. The trend might continue in 4Q15 due to record-low prices in December. Russia’s Ministry of Energy estimates that crude oil prices could average around $55 per barrel in 2016. The EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) forecasts that Brent crude oil prices could average $56 per barrel and that WTI crude oil prices could average $51 per barrel in 2016.

ETFs like the iShares US Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO) and the PowerShares DWA Energy Momentum Portfolio (PXI) are affected by volatility in the crude oil market.

Bumper growth will put Britain on course to become the world's fourth largest economic powerhouse ahead of an ageing Japan and Germany in the 2030s, according to the Cebr's latest world economic league table. The total cash value of the UK economy will grow to around $4.7 trillion by 2031, but is expected to be quickly overtaken by Brazil in fourth spot by the 2040s.  UK economic growth is set to hit 2.9pc this year, the second fastest in the advanced world after the United States. It means the economy is now 6.1pc larger than its pre-financial crisis peak. The Treasury said the Cebr's analysis was evidence the Government's long-term economic plan was working.  "With the deficit reduced by almost two thirds as a share of GDP since its peak in 2009-10, an average of 1,000 extra people in work each day, the government’s plan for more prosperous future is delivering for working people", said a spokeswoman. The only thing one can say with certainty is that economic forecasts are less accurate than weather forecasts, and we all know how accurate they are. If one takes France as an example and directly compares it with the UK one will find than France has a better road system, a better rail system, a better education system and a better health system. (It does not have a better political system). You will argue that they are all bankrupt or about to go bankrupt. I will respond 'so what'. I know it's Christmas and they have to fill the pages but this is not only nonsense but dangerous nonsense and I don't like tempting the Gods; nevertheless I hope it's true; but don't count on it.

The arrival of sub-$40-a-barrel oil has caused more than a few members of the OPEC cartel to splutter about the need to cut production to force prices higher. So far, Saudi Arabia isn’t listening.The strategy is to keep pumping, apparently in the hope of forcing the US shale industry – whose impact Opec underestimated as late as 2011 – to curb production. Non-Saudi members may therefore be alarmed that even the organisation’s own economists don’t exactly envisage US shale producers being forced to their knees....Indeed, the projections show North American tight oil volumes increasing from 4.4m barrels a day at present to 5.2m barrels in 2020. From a Saudi perspective, that forecast could be taken as yet another reason to keep pumping to protect Opec’s share of the market.  One of these years, lower levels of investment, which always follow lower prices, could produce a spike in prices and the report, rightly, warns of the danger. It suggests $10tn (£6.7tn) of investment will be needed between now and 2040 and that the “right signals” – meaning higher prices – will be required.  But a spike in 2016? That is hard to imagine while Opec’s members squabble before the Saudis get their way...The oil price has bugger all to do with stopping fracking. How could that be the reason when low prices hurt both US fracking investments and Saudi wealth... Saudi Arabia being almost entirely dependent on oil to finance government expnediture. Look further at Iran and Russia. The US used low oil prices to help to bring about the economic collapse of the USSR and are merely trying to do the same thing again. The Saudis are just doing what they are told.

Spain should be taken over by an newly independent Scotland and Russia should take over Germany. Australia should take control of the United States of America, with Norway taking control of Australia. Brazil should govern China, with England taking over Brazil. And England should be governed by Poland. There should be a one-world currency called 'Kossuth', named after the old Hungarian Soviet-era beer that took its name from Hungary's patriotic leader of the 19th century...All the mainstream parties in Spain are hopelessly corrupt. If Iglesias brings podemos into a coalition govt with the PSOE, his future will be counted in months, not years. BTW too much provincial left right bickering here. The real problem is Austrian School economics to which both the left and right adhere, especially in the France of president Flamby!!

Controversial plans for an EU Border and Coast Guard force have been set out as part of an EU drive to curb the record influx of migrants.  The European Commission is proposing a force with a stronger mandate than the EU's current Frontex border teams.  But some governments see the powers as violating national sovereignty.   The commission is also proposing to resettle Syrian refugees directly from camps in Turkey to try to stop people taking the dangerous voyage by sea.

The new proposals follow the reintroduction of border controls by some countries within the EU's internal borderless Schengen area - including Germany, Austria and Hungary - to control the flow of migrants.  They also follow revelations that two of the Paris attackers entered the EU on the migrant route through Greece.  "If we want to preserve Schengen we have to improve our common external border management. The current security risks make action urgent," said European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

Foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (14 December) gave a lukewarm reception to EU Commission plans for a new EU border and coast guard force.    The bloc’s executive is to propose, on Tuesday, that the border force be deployed on EU external borders if frontline member states fail to protect the EU boundary.    EU leaders will, at a summit on Thursday, agree to “rapidly” examine the plan, according to the latest draft conclusions, seen by EUobserver. The most controversial part of the proposal is that the force can be deployed even if the target member state doesn’t want it. The commission says deployment can only be blocked if they gather enough support - two thirds of EUCouncil votes - to form a “reversed qualified majority.” Luxembourg foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, echoed EU Council chief, Donald Tusk, in saying that uncontrolled migration has the potential to undermine EU free movement in the so called Schengen zone.  “Tusk is right, if we don’t protect our external borders, Schengen will fail,” Asselborn said on Monday.  “The question is how to deal with the sensitivity of member states, such as Italy or Greece. Does it [deployment] happen upon request or can it be triggered if Frontex [the EU border control agency] sees danger on the external border?”, he added. “Every country, which is on the external border and does not want to build a fence, needs to accept a European mechanism,” he said, alluding to Greece, which has waved through more than 700,000 asylum seekers en route to Germany and which put up resistance to EU intervention.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been charged with "negligence" by a French court over her role in a €403m (£293m) sum handed over to a French businessman. Ms Lagarde, the fund’s managing director, has been ordered to stand before the court over her involvement in the Bernard Tapie scandal. The saga extends back over more than two decades, and is rooted to decisions made during her tenure as France's finance minister. Her part in the settlement paid to the tycoon has been played out through the courts for years. Mr Tapie claimed he was shortchanged by Credit Lyonnais bank after its sale of the Adidas sportswear empire in 1993, of which he was head. Despite a French court recommending that Ms Lagarde be acquitted in September, France’s Court of Justice of the Republic has decided that she should face charges. The court exists to deal with the crimes of French ministers while in office. The IMF chief’s lawyer, Yves Repiquet said on Thursday that the court’s decision was “incomprehensible”. Speaking on French television, he said that he would “recommend Ms Lagarde appeal this decision”. In a statement, Ms Lagarde said that she shared “the prosecutors’ view that there is no basis for any charge” against her. She reaffirmed “that she acted in the best interest of the French state, and in full compliance with the law”.  Gerry Rice, the IMF’s communications director, said: “The executive board continues to express its confidence in the managing director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties.” France’s current finance minister, Michel Sapin, said that the court’s decision should not interfere with the IMF’s operations, which see it provide financial assistance to economies in dire straits. “She's innocent until proven guilty, so I don't see how this should prevent her from carrying out her current duties,” he said. Mr Tapie is a controversial figure in French public life. The former president of the Marseille football club has spent a spell in prison for match fixing, and has been convicted for tax fraud.