Its been a tough winter. No, the weather hasn’t been particularly bad; in fact in Houston, its been downright balmy most of the time compared to winters past. This winter has been particularly difficult is because the CTRM markets have gone a bit sideways, having been driven there by the collapse of the oil markets – thanks in no small part to the Saudis and OPEC (who misguidedly believe they can put the shale genie back in the bottle), and a weakening global economy, particularly in places like China and the other AsiaPac countries that had been the engines driving increased demand for commodities over the last decade. Adding a very strong dollar to mix (thanks to the US Fed indicating they intended to raise rates at some point this year) and you have not only an oil market taking a dive, but a wider commodity market that appears to be searching for new low prices every day. Given these conditions, its not surprising that we are consistently hearing from CTRM vendors that software deals that had been pending with companies that had any significant oil exposure are evaporating seemingly overnight as budgets are slashed almost as fast as Bakken … continue reading
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