Stocks mixed, oil bear market may be short-lived

Stocks were mixed on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent but earlier in the day, the Nikkei 225 plunged 1.9 percent.

US stocks were boosted by a 3.3 percent jump in US crude oil.

Indeed, the bear market in oil may turn out to be short-lived.

Bloomberg reported that investors this week paid the smallest premium in almost two months to protect against a drop in prices through the end of the year.

Andy Hall told investors in his hedge fund, Astenbeck Capital Management, that “extreme positioning coupled with improving fundamentals should ultimately – and at potentially any time – result in a strong reversal”.