With gas more than $6 in state, delivery of about 2m barrels is last planned shipment to pass through strait of Hormuz
The average price of a gallon of gas in California already stands at more than $6, but more uncertainty looms as the last oil tanker from the Middle East arrived in the Golden state this week.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that the New Corolla, which left the Middle East for California before the war broke out, is delivering about 2m barrels of crude oil from Iraq to Long Beach. It was the last planned shipment to pass through the strait of Hormuz.
The California Energy Commission vice-chair, Siva Gunda, told legislators on Tuesday that the state can meet fuel demand for the next six weeks with its current supply.
The biggest driver of the stock market right now is (relative to this problem) lower interest rates and high inflation. If you have money, parking it in a savings account earning 3% at best is losing money. Inflation is devaluing that money in the account with the inflation rate currently at 3.26%. Low short term interest rates on US Treasuries mean the 3.77% yield is just barely outpacing inflation.
So where do you go for a better return? The US stock market. trump is destroying our nation, but even the boring S&P500 index funds are, as of today’s market closing, returning 7.59% YTD (since Jan 1 2026)!
If you had put $1000 in a boring S&P500 index fund on Jan 1 of this year, it would now be worth $1075.90.
Compare that to something silly like crypto. Lets take Bitcoin for example:
If you had put $1000 in Bitcoin on Jan 1 of this year, it would now be worth $928 as Bitcon is down 7.2% YTD (since Jan 1 2026).
Even physical gold which has performed very well recently is only up 8.66% YTD, which is good, but gold is a hedge, not a great investment.
Where else beside the US stock market are you getting even close to these returns with this level (or lower) of risk?
Yep, good points. I was thinking more of the speculators pumping up AI along with the wild reactions every time Trump expels his latest bullshit. But the base of the market could well be just people following the reasonable advice that “time in the market beats timing the market”.