Following the 17-month bear market that ended in March 2009, one of the longest-running bull markets in U.S. history began. The current bull market is the second longest streak on record without a 20% drop in the S&P 500. But the performance across the S&P 500 sectors has been uneven. When oil prices collapsed in the second half of 2014, the energy markets entered a bear market even as the broader markets continued to prosper. Although the energy sector rebounded in 2016, the fundamental reasons that led to the energy bear market hadn’t changed substantially. The global oil market remained oversupplied. So, the gains in 2016 were mostly given back in the first half of 2017. But the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) most recent Oil Market Report gives some reasons to believe that the bear market in the energy sector may finally be coming to an end. The report […]