A lot of oil has been taken off the market

An index of economic indicators and the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting both point to the notion that the central bank won't stop raising rates any time soon. The Conference Board's January index of leading indicators rose almost twice as much as had been expected. In the Jan. 31 meeting minutes, the Fed policy makers pointed to inflation as being higher than they would have liked, given earlier rate increases.

In Canada, the picture for interest rates is pretty much the same. Canadian retail trade is strong, leading one to believe that the Bank of Canada will follow through with interest rate increases. Crude oil prices are at the mercy of the unsettling events in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer. Rebel attacks on that country's production facilities halted almost a fifth of its output.

A lot of oil has been taken off the market as a consequence, and yet oil price increases have been seemingly benign.

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-Peter R. Bain