Black Gold

Black Gold

Stocks closed out the end of Q1 with some solid gains as geopolitical fears and inflation concerns gave way to investor enthusiasm. For the quarter, the S&P 500 gained 7%. The Nasdaq Composite was up an impressive 17%. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average played laggard with a gain of just under 0. 5%. This week is filled with various employment reports, with the grandaddy of them all, the Employment Situation, due out Friday. Between that and some volatility in oil, it could be an interesting week. With the S&P 500 and Nasdaq far outpacing the Dow, many investors have been wondering if and when the Dow might close the performance gap. That answer may be coming soon with a surprise cut in oil output from a group of oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia. The announcement was not from OPEC or the larger OPEC+, making it a somewhat unusual decision. However, the cuts, which will be a little more than a million barrels of oil per day, comes on top of a two million per day cut announced by OPEC+ back in October. In total, that's about a 3% cut in production in seven months. News of the cutbacks