Crude oil climbs for fourth day for fresh 2016 high

Oil prices rose for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, with traders waiting to see if OPEC will make good on its promises to cut output in the new year.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February CLG7, +0.37%  rose 31 cents, or 0.6%, to $54.21 a barrel. If it closes at that level, it’ll be the highest settlement price for a front-runner contract since June 2015.

February Brent crude LCOG7, +0.59%  on London’s ICE Futures exchange climbed 34 cents, or 0.6%, to $56.42 a barrel.

Most market participants are waiting to see if major oil producers inside and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will deliver on pledges to curtail production beginning next month. The deal, if carried out as planned, should reduce global supply by about 2%.

Venezuela, an OPEC member whose economy has suffered greatly due to low oil prices, on Tuesday committed to cutting 95,000 barrels a day in line with the pact.

While market participants are at present optimistic that participating nations will abide by the pact, there is still a degree of skepticism about how closely and for how long producers will comply with individual quotas.

here is why you should never buy and hold gold

Buying and holding a commodity like gold may be the most ignorant strategy ever…

That’s a heresy to some gold “experts” who think they can predict its price direction.

But here’s the cold hard truth: The market doesn’t care about what you, I, or any “expert” thinks should happen.

To make money from gold, you’re either on the right side or the wrong side of the price trend.

Today, I’m going to show you how to be “right” when investing in gold…

Here's why stocks have been on a tear since Trump's election

Stocks are on a tear, and the US dollar is rising — all since Donald Trump was elected the 45th US president.

A month after the election, we've taken a closer look at how markets have moved since then as well as some idea of why those moves have happened.

We put together a collection of charts illustrating some of the biggest moves in the weeks since Election Day.

For the charts showing corporate stocks, a red line on the chart indicates closing time on Election Day.

For yields, currencies, and gold, which see extensive overnight trading, the line shows midnight of November 9, around which time it became clear that Trump would win the election.