I just read an online article in Fortune entitled, “Oil Prices Have Rallied. So Why is No One Celebrating?” and for a moment, I thought to myself, “wait, is this really a rally?”  Grab the champagne!

As I write this blog, WTI Crude Oil is at $52.47 per barrel and Brent Crude is at $58.51 per barrel according to Bloomberg Energy.

The Fortune article says, “the rally remains unloved, and for a good reason.”  Ok, hold the champagne…

Hang on, hang on. Are we really experiencing an oil rally?  Part of me thinks we are experiencing some stability in pricing, finally, but are we calling prices in the fifty dollar range truly a rally? Sure, many companies are able to be profitable above the $50/barrel mark. But is it a price rally? Or is it only a perceived rally?

Could prices perk up more and make us all happier? I think so – but if we really are in a sort of faux rally, we should be cautiously optimistic. The Fortune article lists several reasons why we should not show love to the alleged price rally.

Similarly, Nasdaq published an article yesterday entitled, “WTI Crude Oil Near $52; Why Price Rally Could Fade.”

So the bottom line is, no matter whether you think we are in an oil price rally or if you are not sure, we need to stay tuned to see what happens before we decide. Sure, we have seen gains and some stability in oil prices, but it looks like we should continue to be a little cautiously optimistic about prices…unfortunately, it looks like they are telling us not to break out the bubbly quite yet!

[View source.]