Oil Prices Climb Over 2% Ahead Of OPEC+ Meeting

Oil prices rallied on Thursday amid expectations that OPEC+ will agree to extend production curbs at a meeting later in the day.

Brent crude for June delivery climbed a little over 2 percent to $64.02 per barrel, after having fallen 2.2 percent on Wednesday.

U.S. oil futures were up 2.3 percent at $60.51, after having dropped 2.3 percent in the previous session.

In the face of resurgent Covid-19 infections in some regions and renewed lockdowns, ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia and Kazakhstan, a group called OPEC+, are expected to keep production curbs in place when they meet later today.

Amid rising Covid-19 cases, French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered France into its third national lockdown.

Schools would close for three weeks to cope with a third wave of infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

OPEC+ will debate options from May and beyond, including a rollover of existing cuts and a gradual increase of production, media reports said, citing sources.

Investors were also reacting to the EIA inventory data and the announcement of U.S. President Joe Biden’s vast infrastructure plan that includes investments in roads, railways, broadband, clean energy and semiconductor manufacture.

States Where the Most People Are Vaccinated

Rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States got off to a slower start than expected. In response, the Biden Administration announced plans to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer. Though whether or not the timeline is achievable remains to be seen. Currently, 53,423,486 people have been fully vaccinated, or 16.3% of the population.

So far, vaccination coordination efforts have been largely left to states to manage themselves — and some have proven more efficient at it than others. Depending on the state, the share of the population that has been fully vaccinated ranges from as low as 11.6% all the way up to 23.2%.

Regardless of the share of the population each state has managed to vaccinate, data reveals inefficiencies in vaccination campaigns everywhere in the country as millions of doses are currently sitting idle under the purview of state governments, yet to be administered. As of March 30, only about 77.8% of the 187,202,800 doses of the vaccine that have been distributed to the 50 states and Washington D.C. have been administered. In one state, only 62.4% of delivered doses have gone into the arms of residents. Meanwhile, the state that has proven most efficient has used 89.8% of the vaccine doses it has received.

As the virus mutates and new variants begin to spread, vaccinating the population as rapidly as possible is critical. In the last seven days alone, there were 470,466 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. In total, there have been 9,160 known infections for every 100,000 people nationwide.

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Rockies Magazine: April/May 2021 edition

Read the official magazine of the Colorado Rockies — April/May 2021 edition.

This magazine was created by the Colorado Rockies organization. The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in the creation of this content.

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CarMax Inc. Reports Decline In Q4 Profit

CarMax Inc. (KMX) reported earnings for fourth quarter that fell from last year.

The company’s bottom line came in at $209.95 million, or $1.27 per share. This compares with $214.93 million, or $1.30 per share, in last year’s fourth quarter.

Analysts had expected the company to earn $1.26 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

The company’s revenue for the quarter rose 4.0% to $5.16 billion from $4.96 billion last year.

CarMax Inc. earnings at a glance:

-Earnings (Q4): $209.95 Mln. vs. $214.93 Mln. last year.
-EPS (Q4): $1.27 vs. $1.30 last year.
-Analysts Estimate: $1.26
-Revenue (Q4): $5.16 Bln vs. $4.96 Bln last year.