First off, wholly unrelated to this post, I’ve got to express amusement about the latest Trump flip-flop, which is the NAFTA switch. Yesterday, we were going to leave NAFTA. I wake up this morning and see that he’s changed his mind. Not that I care – seriously, it matters hardly an iota to me – but I think this guy’s got Gartman beat on flip-flopping by a Manhattan mile.

Now, as far as crude oil, I thought it might hammer out a bottom and try to claw its way back up to the low 50s, but the poor S.O.B. is such sorry shape that it couldn’t even manage to do that for more than a couple of sessions (see circle). I’m still short XOP and three energy stocks, but I’m sort of wondering if I should consider going long ERY again. Here’s the front month:

If oil just keeps dropping, we could be setting ourselves up for a very interesting topping pattern that would blast prices lower. It isn’t the cleanest pattern around, but it isn’t bad, and a failure of March’s lows would do the trick.