Today’s Economic Shakers

Crude prices continue to run bullish as macro events have traders buying...

After getting beaten down badly in March, crude oil is making a recovery in April, extending its rally to day five as of this morning.

A number of geopolitical events have helped propel oil upwards over the last week, and the news that Libya, one of the world’s top oil producers, saw yet another breakdown in its supply pipeline due to internal strife, contributed to the hike in prices earlier today.

Crude prices saw gains of over 1% in Monday morning trading, with May contracts for the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rising to $52.86 per barrel, which comes on the heels of 4 previous days of profits.

Meanwhile, the global benchmark, Brent crude, rose to $55.87 per barrel, extending its streak of gains into the 5th day as of early morning trading.

In addition to Libya’s production woes, Russia has indicated that it might participate in another round of production cuts in conjunction with OPEC, though nothing formal has been finalized.

Currently, Russia has a 6-month deal in place with the oil cartel, an effort made between OPEC and its allies to help boost oil prices following a steep decline that has continued over the last several years.

Additionally, the latest oil production news out of the U.S. has somewhat tempered the bump in crude prices, as the domestic rig count saw a bump to levels not seen in nearly 3 years.

According to the latest data released from industry service company Baker Hughes, the rig count rose by 10, hitting 672 for the previous week.

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Wells Fargo claws back $75 million more from 2 top execs involved in recent scandal…

Wells Fargo’s former CEO received more bad news from the company, as an internal report indicated that the banking giant would be taking back $28 million in response to his role in the fraudulent-accounts scandal that occurred over a 4-year period dating back to 2011.

The former executive, John Stumpf, was at the head of the company during the period when the bank fraudulently opened an estimated 2 million retail banking accounts without its customers' knowledge in an effort to boost fees and meet sales quotas.

Stumpf had already been forced to return about $41 million in previous compensation, and the bank’s board of directors also decided to eliminate bonuses for executives for 2016 as a result of the scandal.

Additionally, Wells Fargo said it would be clawing back more than $47 million from another key executive, Carrie Tolstedt, who was head of the bank’s retail banking division where the fraud occurred.

Both executives claimed they had no direct knowledge of the actions of its employees, instead blaming lower management for the fraud.

While neither executive has been accused of any crime by law enforcement to date, the pair were forced to resign as the investigation widened, revealing the scope of the problem.

Following the news, Wells Fargo was up 0.50% during Monday’s pre-market trading.