Today’s Economic Shakers

Oil trades lower as US shale rig count gains, Libya to resume shipping…

Oil looks like it will be staying below the $50 per barrel level for the time being as a combination of factors point to an increase in crude supply.

Domestic drillers saw a bump in last week’s rig count, according to industry data.

A report by the US-based oil services company Baker Hughes said that the US rig count, a weekly metric that monitors crude production, rose slightly to 631, bringing the total addition of rigs up to to 106 so far for 2017.

Adding to the woes of crude bears, the Energy Information Administration (EIA), an industry association that provides data for the oil industry, says that US output had increased to the highest levels in over a year, coming in at 9.1 million barrels per day.

Additional data from the EIA is projected to show a sharp gain in the stockpiles of US crude for the most recent week, posting an increase of 3 million barrels.

Adding to the likelihood of lower prices in oil in the short term is a recent report from out of Libya, a major producer of crude. After conflict within the country limited the shipping of oil from Libyan ports, a resumption of oil tanker activity is expected to begin next week, according to government reports.

Tempering the bearish news from out of the US and Libya was a report from the Saudi Arabian Energy Minister that there is the possibility of an extension of the current OPEC production cap beyond the scheduled agreement.

Such a move would send a signal that OPEC intends to continue its efforts to drive down the price of crude by limiting oil production within the cartel.

However, though the OPEC agreement had some success in driving up the price of oil above the $50 mark following its announcement late last year, the move has been unable to keep prices above that level for a sustained period, as prices fell below that level earlier this month.

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Snap gets a boost in early morning trading as analyst posts a buy rating...

After getting battered by a number of analysts who said it has an unprofitable business model, Snap, the parent company of the social media app Snapchat, finally got a favorable review.

SNAP saw a bump in its stock price in pre-market trading, gaining 1.4% before the bell.

The move in the stock’s price was an apparent response to a buy rating that Snap received, courtesy of an analyst at Moness, Crespi, Hardt, an investment research firm.

As opposed to a slew of analysts that have rated Snap a sell, the Moness analyst said that the company could be profitable by focusing on its camera app, which could help drive additional mobile advertising revenue towards the company.

Factset, a financial data and software company, reported that Snap had a sell rating from all 11 of the analysts included in its recent survey. The average target price for the social media company came in at just $17.78.

The most prevalent theme among the analysts was that Snap’s business model had yet to be proven, and therefore the initial valuation was higher than warranted.

Snap got off to a strong start on the day of its recent IPO, seeing its initial price of $17 quickly rise to $24.48 by the end of the stock’s first day of trading.

Since then, Snap has seen its shares tumble close by 19%, with traders riding the price action all the way up to $29 before the stock crashed down below $19 last Friday.

Monday’s close for Snap was $19.93 for a gain of 2%.