July 11, 2014
BACK DOWN — The market jitters over Iraq seem to be over now. The price of an OPEC barrel climbed rapidly starting just after the band now called Islamic State seized the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. But the price is now settling back and is less than a dollar above where it was before Mosul fell. The jitters last month did, however, result in a jump in the monthly average (see below). Now we have to watch to see if the July monthly average will fall back to the “norm.”