The market has focused its laser gaze on negatives. Q: How much oil-related corporate debt is there? (A: about 15% of US recent issuance occasioned by the fracking capex boom,; a lot, but hardly a disaster) Q: How will Mr Putin react? (A: ask Mrs Putin; like Mr Putin, an unknowable unknown.) Q: Where are the bankruptcies? (A: it depends on how long resources languish at these levels, but there will be casualties; there always are) Q: Is oil's weakness a symptom of a wider economic malaise (A: maybe, but one detects the hand of swing-producer Saudi Arabia, rattled by US fracking, seeking to embarrass both the fracking and renewable energy communities; it only adds to general merriment in Riyadh if political scores-Russia, Iran, Venezuela come to mind- can be settled at the same time). 

David Fuller's view

If you would like to meet Iain Little, a fellow subscriber to this service for decades, you can do so and hear his views, particularly on the important subject of Investment Trusts (closed-end funds) at the next Markets Now meeting in London on 12^th January – see details below.