Humans don't really care for uncertainty; it makes us uneasy and restless. The same is true for markets, any market. Whether the market is housing, stocks, bonds, and yes, oil.
Two years ago food prices were the cause of civil unrest in Egypt; however, on Friday the 28th protests over the authoritarian government in Egypt erupted in violence. The President, Hosni Mubarak, dismissed the entire cabinet, except for himself, and named a new Vice President, Omar Suleiman, who is a close confidant of Mr. Mubarak's. Imagine that...
So much for the news. So, what does this mean? It means uncertainty! Uncertainty politically, not only in Egypt, but the rest of the Middle East, as other Arab countries are lead by example from Egypt. "If they can do it, so can we!"
America uses 20 million barrels of oil each day and a lot of it comes from the Middle East. Because of the uncertainty caused by the unrest, it has roiled markets. The S&P 500 Index had it largest one-day loss in six months of 1.78%. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped over 165 points, or 1.39%. So, you want to know about oil? For March delivery, oil (commodities, such as oil, are priced for the future), went up $3.70, to just shy of $90 a barrel, which is almost 4 1/2%. That equates to about 14 cents a gallon. There is a lot of talk of oil hitting over $100 a barrel if chaos in the region escalates, which is very likely.
It's far easier to handle things when we are prepared for them, such as gasoline going up 50 cents a gallon. What will you do to make sure you have enough money to fill your tank?