Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on main street.

Frank Curzio: How’s it going out there? It’s Thursday, April 7th. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged Podcast, where I break down headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. A lot of movement in the markets, especially within oil and the Fed. There was a mandatory release. I’m going to bring in Daniel Creech, a senior research analyst at Curzio Research. Is that the name of this place, Curzio Research? I forget sometimes.

Daniel Creech: That’s the name.

Frank Curzio: What’s going on?

Daniel Creech: That’s the sign we have on the door that I constantly say to take down. Not because I’m not proud to work here, but it’s… We’re the Goldman Sachs, not because we have anything to hide, but just so we should lay low for a bit.

Frank Curzio: Lay low. Low is better sometimes.

Daniel Creech: I like that.

Frank Curzio: Laying low is better than having those high expectations.

Daniel Creech: Although I can’t imagine what people… Because we share a parking lot with a couple of other different businesses, and I have no idea what their work schedule is. But it is not consistent. There’s some days you can’t get a parking spot, and some days we are literally the only ones here. It’s hilarious.

Frank Curzio: I don’t know what’s going on.

Daniel Creech: It’s ironic as hell.

Frank Curzio: There’s a business that sells weed or medical marijuana.

Daniel Creech: I think it sells licenses, I don’t think it sells…

Frank Curzio: Is it the license? All I know is that the people that walk in there…

Daniel Creech: Well, it doubles as a rehab center too.

Frank Curzio: Oh, does it?

Daniel Creech: You see a lot of people limping in there, and you think are they hurt and going in there? But it’s a rehab center…

Frank Curzio: Yeah, I mean it’s…

Daniel Creech: For injuries and things.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, it’s…

Daniel Creech: It’s all kinds of stuff.

Frank Curzio: It’s nice.

Daniel Creech: My overall point to that was, I can’t imagine what people think about us. Because sometimes we’re dressed well, sometimes we’re dressed like we work out. Sometimes we’re carrying golf clubs. There’s dogs, there’s animals. It’s hilarious. People probably look at this sign…

Frank Curzio: What the hell is that business?

Daniel Creech: They’re like, “What the hell is Curzio Research?”

Frank Curzio: Yeah, and what are they actually researching? It’s funny.

Daniel Creech: Send us an email, what do you think we do here?

Frank Curzio: Yeah, what do you think? But it’s funny, it’s…

Daniel Creech: Let alone the people we share this wall with. Can you imagine what these builders think of us?

Frank Curzio: Oh yeah, there’s a custom home builder next to us too.

Daniel Creech: Oh, yeah.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, high gas place. But yeah, we’ve been here for a while now. Probably three or four years, and it’s just… Yeah, we see business come and go. But it’s nice. It’s nice and it’s quiet. I work late days. Sometimes you’re late, but I’m here really late. I like it, because I come here, it’s lit up. Nobody’s here, nobody bothers me. Yeah, it’s just a nice, isolated spot. We don’t have a storefront, where people walk in off the street.

Daniel Creech: Right, we’re just not… Yeah.

Frank Curzio: Because we’re taping, which is really cool. But yeah, it is definitely interesting. Anyway, got into it a lot further than I thought we were.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, yeah. Time to gather our thoughts.

Frank Curzio: Let’s talk about what’s going on, on The Hill with the US House of Representatives. This energy and commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Well, they held a hearing to grill, basically grill the oil companies why gasoline prices remain elevated, even though price for crude oil, the free stock of fuels have dropped off of their high. 130, say 100. But they’re ripping the oil companies apart, because it’s their fault oil prices are so high. You’ve really been following this closely, I want to get your thoughts on this first.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, I have to admit something here. I absolutely love these hearings, because there’s a little bit of something in here for everybody. Now, I must set this up. The reason I love this is because I can handle this. Frank, you know my heart, you know me better than most. It’s not my desire to come across as cocky or arrogant. In fact, I try to not… I would almost no try to come across the other way on that. However, on this topic, I can have full confidence, because I am the perfect person to break this down.

Daniel Creech: Because, I’m the guy that can handle this with laughter and not take it too seriously. Because if you watch this only applying common sense, rationale, and try to go in here thinking that the people in power are trying to do what’s right for everybody else? You would go insane, and you won’t be able to handle it. You’ll go crazy. I would recommend for the normal folks out there, a two to three drink alcoholic beverage minimum before you start diving into this stuff. That’s my public safety disclosure.

Frank Curzio: Why is that?

Daniel Creech: Because, they’re idiots.

Frank Curzio: Okay, why?

Daniel Creech: If you don’t have…

Frank Curzio: Give us an example.

Daniel Creech: All right. First of all, the title of it is, this hearing. Before the subcommittee and oversight investigation committee on energy and commerce, US House of Representatives is titled, “Gouged at the Gas Station, Big Oil and Americans’ Pain at the Pump.”

Frank Curzio: That’s great.

Daniel Creech: All right. Now, I will kick things off. Because the people that were up there from Devon Energy, Shell. I don’t know if you have the list. Exxon Mobil… I know I’m missing a couple. There was a gentleman not in the oil and gas business, more like he was a retired… I’ll pull it up here in a minute, I don’t want to give him… Because he had some great points. He wasn’t as part as the oil and gas, he was just trying to explain the data in detail on why we should be doing more US production versus relying on global partners, whether they be allies or not.

Daniel Creech: But the people that were brought up here, and we’ve talked about these companies. We’ve been huge on Devon, being huge on Exxon, which is in Dollar Stock Club. We’ve talked about pioneer national resources, and that’s who I’m going to start with here today. Because the opening statements, these guys knew what they were going into, and there was one woman from Shell or something. But anyway, these guys know they’re going into an arena where they’re not welcome, and this was totally split on party lines. If you were watching this, basically every Democrat that got a microphone in their five minutes… That’s the other thing, these geniuses up on Capitol Hill, and these are both sides, Frank. They think that, hey, we’re going to recognize you for five minutes, and then you can get to grandstand and do all that.

Daniel Creech: It was basically split on if you were a Democrat, you were bad mouthing them and blaming them for gouging, making near record profits if not record profits, pulling at the emotional heartstrings of people. Then if you were a Republican, you were stating the administration’s policies, and when president Joe Biden was a candidate, and the specific quotes he said about ruining oil and gas and things like that. They were pointing to hey, higher gas prices were, before the invasion of Russia, invading Ukraine, and its policies, not just the initial spike of that.

Daniel Creech: The CEOs and representatives knew they were going into it, Frank, and I want to tell you this. This is why in the theme Jeopardy, like I did on Tuesday, we’re going to give the answer as to why people need to give a flying Florida about this. That’s my new thing, while you’re going flying Florida. Keeps me out of the beeping thing.

Frank Curzio: I like you getting emotional.

Daniel Creech: I’m telling you, I love this. Pioneer Natural Resources, this is a good quote, Frank, on the answer as to why you should pay attention, and just the takeaway here is to own and have exposure to oil and gas and hard assets. Excessive drilling, low returns, and volatile commodity prices combined with pressures to divest fossil fuel holdings caused many investors to reduce or eliminate their equity holdings in energy companies over the past decade. The energy industry fell from representing, Frank, 12% of the combined market value of the S&P 500 companies in 2011 to less than 4% today.

Daniel Creech: The reason that I have that circled on my notes in this printout, and the reason you should pay attention out there is that that proves that the energy sector is basically left for dead from an asset allocating sector. It has gone to a such small percentage of the overall S&P 500, it is not a far stretch in my opinion to think that will go higher, not continue lower from the 4% waiting or making up of the S&P 500. That means prices can go and continue to go much higher from here, so investors need to take hold and invest in those companies and that sector to benefit. Would you like me to pause? Would you like to join me on this Frank?

Frank Curzio: I’m going to let you keep going. I think it is entertaining as hell, because I got some things to say too. I just think it’s hilarious. Go ahead, keep going. I’ll go to my points in a second, go ahead.

Daniel Creech: Next topic here. The overall takeaway was the CEOs knew, and they’re politicians as well. They were smart in saying hey. But the overall takeaway for individual investors is listen. You need to be exposed and invested in these areas, and you need to understand the macro… When you go to vote, and I don’t care how you vote, that shocks a lot of people. I really don’t care. I wish you knew what you were voting for. As long as you can explain why, I can agree to disagree. But at least know the reason behind things. The big takeaway here is, oil and gas are going to continue to be elevated because of policies. The major theme that disgusts me, Frank, is that one side of the aisle looks at this and says, “Hey.”

Daniel Creech: Frank, I can’t wait until this massive transcript comes out, because I want to search for the word patriotic. You’ve never heard more from one side of the argument say it’s patriotic only to pay more to protect others in the high price of the pump. There is a huge headwind on investors in general on capitalism, because over and over again, these oil executives were drilled about share buybacks and dividends they pay to investors. The Powers That Be were telling them how to run their business, they have no idea how anything works. One representative called out a CEO and said, “Hey, if we do away with the federal gas tax, which is roughly 18¢, will you pass that on to your customers?” The gentleman pointed out, “Well, we collect that on behalf of the federal government, and we give it to the federal government. If you give a tax holiday, we would quit collecting that tax in general.”

Daniel Creech: She then pressed, “Well, you would pass that on to your customers?” He then had to explain, “Hey, let me try to be more clear. If you don’t tax it, we won’t even collect it.” Therefore, they would say… The people making the rules, or at least grandstanding here with billboards and different funny signs. A couple of the liberals had good signs, Frank, about the record profits that Exxon and Chevron and everybody had, and a couple of Republicans had the stickers of Joe Biden pointing to me doing that, the gas price is going high. There’s a little bit of something for everybody. The takeaway here is, you have capitalism is under attack. That ought to worry every investor, but it’ll result in higher asset prices. Benefit from it, don’t get punished by it.

Frank Curzio: For me personally, I love this. I love this stuff, it is entertaining as hell. They should call this the politicians pretend to care about their constituents hearing, that’s what they should be. Because they don’t give a shit about us, we all know that. We all really know that. They’re just going on and… I’ll go over that in a second, of the causes of high oil prices, which are pretty obvious. But you’re looking at the amount of money that we pay in taxes on this. It’s close to 30% when it comes to all the taxes. A lot of that is a low carbon tax, and for programs and a greenhouse gas program, which is 15, 20¢ a… Underground tank storage. All right, fine, I get it. That’s only 2¢, but the federal excise tax is 18¢ per gallon, yet the low carbon gas programs, that fee is 22¢ per gallon. Okay, that’s going… Taxpayers are paying all that stuff.

Frank Curzio: For these guys will be yelling at the oil companies like it’s their fault is a joke to me. Look, they’re for… But they won’t yell at Pfizer or anything. They don’t get a Pfizer that’s pushing booster… By the way, for all the vaccines you’ve ever taken before COVID, how many booster shots did you need for those vaccines? Could someone answer that for me? Any doctors out there? You see a Pfizer commercial, booster, it’s all about profits, profits, profits. You pulled a rug out from these oil companies, said, “You got to pay for carbon, you got to do all these.” Okay. Then you said, “Okay, you can’t drill. We’re not going to let you drill as much.”

Frank Curzio: The federal permit thing, it’s funny. Because when you’re looking at federal permits, it’s the back and forth. I don’t care what political party you’re on, I say that a lot. But when you’re looking at the thousands? They’re sitting on thousands of these federal permits, thousands of them. When you’re looking at 2,200 leases that are in court right now, that’s what Western Energy Alliance is defending, 2,200 of those leases. They’re defending the companies, which is dozens if not over 100 oil companies that own those leases on the federal land, which cannot be developed while these cases are ongoing.

Frank Curzio: The reason why they’re ongoing is because when you’re on federal land, it’s different guys. When you’re on federal land, those permits are subject to environmental studies right off the bat. We all know how crazy that could become. A guy with a grudge, hate this, hate whatever side, and I’m going to put it up in court and make a big stink about and protest. It’s a crazy process. Also, there’s subject to lawsuits by just about anyone. Neighbors, municipalities, state, country, government. It’s extremely difficult to drill on these. While you have one party saying, “Well, we have 9,000 permits, what are you talking about?” You can’t drill.

Frank Curzio: Again, depending on your politics, you may agree or disagree with what I just said, even though all those things are facts. I get it, because people are religious about politics. Ask yourself this. Because if you have any common sense, any, ask yourself this. Oil companies are sitting on thousands of these federal permits. Oil prices have surged over $100 a barrel, which is whatever four, five year highs, where the company’s profit margins are absolutely massive here. Why the fuck are they not drilling on these permits on federal land? Why? Why wouldn’t they be drilling on these if they were open? As an oil company, unless you hate profits, unless you hate money, they’re doing everything they can to drill on these, but that won’t happen.

Frank Curzio: But the politicians will blame whoever they want to blame. You don’t want to blame revoking the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. A pretty big deal, right? It would’ve imported crude from Canada, which lowers our prices here. Or just so happens, I’m a believer. If you’re a President, whatever happens. With Bush, September 11th, if you’re in office, it’s your fault. Don’t blame. Oh, well there’s a party before me and a party before him, and there’s a… Because everybody plays the blame game, no one in politics wants admit that, “Oh, this is me, my fault. Let me prove it,” which I think will do wonders actually, to actually just go on TV and say, “Hey, something is mind fault, and this is what we need to do to make it better.” Because that’s normal, that’s what we all go through. We all have ups or downs. That will never happen.

Frank Curzio: But when you’re looking at Russia, which was the key to this with energy prices surging, and we’re leveraged to the world markets guys, not just to US. We’re leveraged to the world markets, this happened under Biden’s watch. You could yell all you want and have these hearings or whatever. Again, there’s an easy solution. Let the oil companies drill like crazy. We have the technology, open up these federal permits. They’re in court, it’s very difficult to drill on these, even from the context that I hear from. Make it as easy as possible, become a major exporter, and we take a lot of those profits and we throw into alternative energy.

Frank Curzio: It’s a simple solution, but it’ll never fucking happen. We all know that, because the politicians are involved. They’re going to pretend that they’re there to represent the constituents and say, “Oh, well our prices are high, it’s the oil companies’ fault,” and point, because all the idiots don’t want to do the research and actually look at what’s going on. That’s why I think this is hilarious. When I see these politicians, you really understand what they don’t know. They know everything about the law, because they love that. That’s it, they make the laws and most of them are lawyers. But when it comes to things like this, and just the economy. the stock market. When it comes to finance, and the fact that they’re so uneducated when it comes to this, most of these politicians. It’s funny, it’s very entertaining to watch this. Again, I’m bashing everyone on both sides, but that’s how I feel.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, it’s the reality. Is just that it affects everybody, this is why you pay attention to things like this. To your point on the drilling leases, President and CEO Rick Moncrief, or cref, I’m not sure, of Devon Energy explained that permits like an ADP, or application for a permit to drill. Under normal circumstances, you basically try to get from ADP to drilling in five to six weeks. Fast forward, that’s taking around six months now. From five to six weeks to six months is a big deal. The other thing here to take away is that I… The only good thing about volatility and chaos, Frank, is that it speeds up the line of communication. As parties, in this case, the party in power coming up to an election, they’re going to have to get much more blunt and quit beating around the bush because they’re running out of time to get their message across.

Daniel Creech: You can get the sense of here, and I hope people watch this and can give us some feedback, daniel@curzioresearch.com. Because there’s a group of people out there, and I totally disagree, but I’m okay with them explaining this. There’s a group of people out there that think, “Hey, the world is coming to an end if we don’t get off oil and gas. To everybody that’s being hurt because of higher prices, that’s just part of doing business. That’s the cost of doing business, and the bigger issue, the bigger goal is better than you.” That’s where the patriotic left, ironically, came to the hearing today. They were talking about, “You oil companies ought to be patriotic and quit taking so much profits. Forget about the dividends, and shareholders, and big shareholders, and the retirements, and the pension plans and all that to have it.” You have to be very shallow when you’re discussing this. You only want to grab onto one thing, and keep on and take the ball and run with it.

Daniel Creech: We can have fun with this. Like I said, you got to take this with laughter. Because if you don’t learn to laugh about this, you will absolutely go insane and it’ll drive you nuts. I’m going to create a watch list of just these couple of companies on there, we’re going to track their performance from here, Frank, it should be a fun whirlwind show. But please, use any pullbacks to have exposure into this sector going forward.

Frank Curzio: One last thing here too, because they’re trying to say which… Oil prices have come down, they have come down off their highs. 130, a little bit below 100 now. Why aren’t prices coming down at the pump? They haven’t really come down at the pump, at least by me. I can’t speak for every single state, but I’m pretty sure across the board, we haven’t really seen them come down. They’re grilling BP, Chevron, Shell. These guys are like, “Look, no one person dictates the price, it’s a market.” The market is, “These are the people who own the retail stations.” Whatever, it’s Circle K, if it’s 7-11. These are the people that dictate that. Those are the people, if you’re really concerned about why that’s not happening now, why they’re not going lower or why not pushing lower? Those are the people you need to grill, because those are the people who really could set the prices every place, and that’s what you see all the gas stations.

Frank Curzio: Exxon, Shell got out of that business a while ago. That’s what you really have to focus on, so retailers. Because I’m seeing it even here, where we have lots of gas stations. There’s a 20¢ difference, 25¢ difference in some of these areas, which is maybe two, three miles from my house compared to here. How’s that possible? The same truck is coming to deliver. They should all be the same within your area, within a couple miles, and they’re not. That’s a big difference between 20 and 25¢. But maybe just you’re grilling the wrong people here. I know it’s great to grill these guys. I get it, I understand it, politics or grandstanding, I get it. But it is funny, it is a waste of time, because when you look yourself in the mirror, the reason why oil prices are really high, it has to do with a lot of the politicians and less with these oil companies right now.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, absolutely. But hey, it’s been through boom and bust, they lost a lot of money overall, aggregately during the periods they’ve… Listen, and I’m not just defending these oil companies blindly. I’m not saying that they haven’t made mistakes, they haven’t done stupid things. That’s not the takeaway here, so don’t go there with me. I’m simply saying there’s a lot of wiggle room here, and I love the yes, no questions from both sides of the aisle. Like I said, these are good theater. It’s just unfortunate that it has such a drastic impact on our lives.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, and you’re looking at oil companies across the board. Pioneer being in this conversation is great to show you how big Pioneer’s come, which is one of the largest Shell companies. Wow, they’re amazing. You’re looking at Devon Energy, which has been a favorite for us. You recommend Exxon on this site plenty of times. There’s specialty places as well, and smaller players.

Daniel Creech: How funny is it if you’re Enron? Sorry to interrupt. If you’re Exxon, excuse me, not Enron.

Frank Curzio: Enron.

Daniel Creech: Yeah.

Frank Curzio: Close.

Daniel Creech: If you’re Exxon, you get these new board members. The greenies, because Blackrock’s throwing their weight around. You start putting out every comment you can make about environmental, social and governments to please everybody, and what happens? You still get dragged in front of the House Committee, and you’re still yelled at.

Frank Curzio: There’s nothing you can do.

Daniel Creech: Proving you can’t win, so quit bending to the thumb of these people, you can’t win. Just do what’s right for the overall average American please, that’s my plea to these oil executives. Big Tobacco got thrown around in yesterday’s hearing, that was hilarious. It’s just all about pitting those against one versus the other. It’s shareholders versus the little guy. Why isn’t the takeaway here to everybody buy stocks?

Frank Curzio: It should be, that’s what I’m saying. Even with banks.

Daniel Creech: Why shouldn’t everybody participate in the capitalist system?

Frank Curzio: People get pissed off at banks, they do great in their inflationary environment. Buy the stock, take the money out of… Not all your money out of savings. If you buy the stock, you’re getting an interest rate and you’re letting inflation… Now you’re playing the inflation trend, instead of it working against you by just keeping your money at these banks, which are charging you fees at leaving the cash. Another thing you brought up, and I think we’re going to have to because this is going longer than expected. I want to really get into the Fed balance sheet. I’ll do that tomorrow, Frankly Speaking, for you guys. All the guys that are subscribers and paid subscribers, we have Frankly Speaking, that goes directly to emails and iTunes. But I’ll break that down, because that’s moving the markets right now at the Fed Minutes.

Frank Curzio: But you brought up the cigarette companies, and that’s personal to me. My dad died of lung cancer, he tried to quit for so many years, he just couldn’t quit, and that was part of it. But guys, it’s all about money. That’s it, it’s that simple. We know that cigarettes cause cancer, we know that if you smoke, lots of bad things could happen to you. We know all the facts, we know all the figures. Why are we still selling cigarettes? Because they make a shitload of money off the taxes, that’s why they won’t remove it completely. They are able to fine these companies tremendously, and they just generate that revenue. If it really was like, “Hey, you know what? We’re going to put our foot down,” and they crush the industry as it is. But hey, no smoking, because it kills you, it causes cancer. We know it or whatever. Again, I hate the fact that the government dictates anything that you should do, because I believe in free society.

Frank Curzio: But the reason why they don’t go totally to that side is the amount of money that they’re making, and they’re making a fortune off of cigarettes. It’s the same thing with oil. They’re making a fortune off of this, they’ll go up there and argue and yell, just like the example you gave with the guy arguing, “Hey, if we get rid of the tax, and stuff like that.” To me, it’s just funny, and the more you look into it, the more pissed off you get.

Frank Curzio: I think that’s the point of all this shit, because you can’t be in the middle. In today’s society, in a woke society? It’s basically a terrorist organization, being woke. It really is. They force you into shit. It almost makes you that… Hey, I support the gay community and transgender community, but I don’t support a guy who’s swimming in an event that’s crushing women, that is cheating. But if you say that you don’t support that? All of a sudden, you’re lumped into… Like, oh my god. The don’t say gay bill has nothing to do with not saying gay, it has to do with teachers. It has to do with our teachers not teaching third graders and second graders about our genitals. That’s what that bill is. Where’d you get don’t say gay from? It’s all political, it’s hilarious.

Daniel Creech: I thought that bill was trying to encourage people not to have children, period.

Frank Curzio: Holy shit, that’s what the bill is. Wait a minute, the parents are there. You got parents. I don’t want a… A teacher’s a stranger, you don’t know who a teacher is. You get someone, “Oh, I know my teacher.” No. Some people do, most people don’t know their teachers. I don’t know anything what my teacher does outside teaching my kids. I don’t what her hobbies are, I don’t know if she’s crazy. I don’t know what clubs she’s going to, or he’s going, I have no idea. Do I want them teaching my eighth grader? Not my eighth grader, my eight-year-old, seven-year-old kid about their genitals and about gender. Are you crazy? The funny thing is, that’s what Disney is going all in on. They are the biggest family organization that makes the most… That’s what they’re fighting with this, don’t say gay bill. That’s what it’s about.

Frank Curzio: For me as a parent, I’m looking at this going, “Holy shit, no way. Don’t go near them. That young, with those… You want your teachers, you’re forcing your teachers to do that?” For me, when I look at the politics, it’s designed to make you so pissed off that you have to choose sides, and sometimes we all fall into that trap. But instead of choosing sides, right Dan? What you and I always say is, choose the way you’re going to make money on it for you and your family. Pfizer’s it. Listen, they gave Pfizer the green light. Booster shots for everyone, let’s go. But what was the percentage? What the hell was the percentage for the kids? The kids don’t even need this, we know. Again, the percentage down tremendously, and they’re like, “Oh, make sure you give your kids the vaccine and a booster.” What are you talking about?

Frank Curzio: It’s all about money. We’ve seen it with COVID, now we’re seeing so many things come to light. But when we really look at the politicians, at what side they’re going to take, how do you make money off it? Because it’s really not that difficult, and a lot of people don’t look at it that way, and it’s easy to make money that way. Just like we said with the banks, just like we’re saying with oil companies, oil prices are probably going to continue to go higher and higher, even though they’re about it. How do you make money off of this, off of what the Fed’s doing? Whether you agree, whatever side you’re on? Because at the end of the day, if you push politics aside, which is so hard to do in today’s environment, because it’s always in your fucking face every second with social media and everything that you do, you can make a lot of money in this market. The most important thing is you and your family. That’s the most important thing.

Frank Curzio: That was the most important thing in my life, taking my daughter to the Kansas game last week. That was the most important thing in my life. Everything got put on hold. I’m like, “This is an experience I want her to go. It’s going to be fantastic.” That’s how everyone should live their… Not all the time, don’t be irresponsible, don’t leave… But that’s what we do this for. If you put all that shit aside, you can really make a lot of money. Dan, you and I have been providing lots of free ideas on this, and even in our paid newsletters. There are lots of ways to play this, instead of just going up to the rooftops and shouting it.

Daniel Creech: Yeah, by the people that were dragged in front of the hearings today. Yeah.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, why? Why is this whole event taking place?

Daniel Creech: Absolutely.

Frank Curzio: Why is it taking up time at CNBC? Why? Nothing’s going to happen?

Daniel Creech: The other thing on that is, remember Ocean Engineering, the offshore robotics, underwater, deep drilling thing? That’s an interesting sector. I haven’t seen that too much. I know a couple of…

Frank Curzio: I’m surprised they haven’t gone up more. The rigs, Trans-Ocean.

Daniel Creech: Right. I think there’s something to that, to at least keep an eye on now, and hopefully that’ll make its way into a recommendation. Because again, I don’t want to assume that’s just going to happen. But just following everything the way the path leads, I do think that the path of least resistance is for them to catch a bid and get some momentum behind them at some point in the future. As long as prices continue to stay elevated, which everything we’re seeing right now leads to that.

Frank Curzio: It’s so surprising too. Because if you look at 2019, and I have a chart up here, guys, of the Trans-Ocean rig, this is a company I followed for a very, very long time, one of the biggest deep water ocean drillers. You look at their stock price, it was $13 in 2018. Right before COVID, it was $7. It’s $4.30. How is that possible?

Daniel Creech: Yeah.

Frank Curzio: How is that possible?

Daniel Creech: Probably a ton more shares outstanding, and all that stuff too to stay afloat.

Frank Curzio: It’s not an apples and apples comparison, I just want to see what Exxon is. Look at how much Exxon. Exxon’s flat over that time. Their stock’s still down tremendously. We’re looking at a five-year chart, Exxon’s actually up 1%. This stock’s still on 65%, with oil prices are the highest they’ve been for five… I don’t get it, I don’t get it. I got to look at the balance sheet and debt, and it’s probably horrible and that’s why. But if you’re looking for oil, that’s a good place to start searching because that’s one of the areas within oil that haven’t really taken off. Some of them are off their lows, but they’ve taken off like a lot of these other names have.

Daniel Creech: Just trying to generate ideas for people out there to do their own. If you would, I hate doing this, daniel@curzioresearch.com, it would be an interesting poll. Do you blame oil companies for the high price of gas, or do you blame politics? Or, do you blame Putin? That’s easy.

Frank Curzio: Yeah.

Daniel Creech: Three choices, one, two three.

Frank Curzio: Okay, frank@curzioresearch.com, send to both of us. I’m curious to hear too, I want to hear your thoughts on it.

Daniel Creech: You. I would like to that and again, I don’t, if you blame oil companies, I’m not going to call you an idiot or stupid, I disagree. But please, send it. Yeah, who do you blame?

Frank Curzio: Oil companies. Listen, they’re for profit organizations that make profits in those areas. Maybe there’s a little bit they could do, but you can’t just… Oil prices are higher based on a lot of these policies that have come out, and then you have a war thrown on top of that regardless. If it was a Republican or a Democrat, whoever’s an office, that’s taken place which has a lot to do with this. Just to jump all over these guys and have a hearing, and take up this stuff when nothing really is going to get done. Hey, it is what it is. But I’m interested to see that poll, and yeah, report back to you on that. Daniel, listen, thanks so much for joining me on Thursday. I know Wednesday’s your day, but that’s awesome. I really, really appreciate it, buddy, and I know you have to come back pretty soon.

Daniel Creech: Absolutely, see you guys next week. Cheers.

Frank Curzio: All right guys, that’s it for me. Again, Frankly Speaking, I’m going to break down everything on the Fed, the Fed Minutes. It should be no surprise, just a quick preview that’s going to be for our subscribers. The wishful thinking of the Fed being dovish is hilarious, because they have no choice at all. At all, to be hawkish at this stage, and we’re seeing it from every single government. That’s why you’re seeing all the minutes that come out. Everything is going to be, “Hey, we have to reduce the balance sheet,” which I’ll break down. Was it nine trillion? Now they’re saying they’re going to shrink it by 95 billion a month or something like that. I’ll break down the figures for you guys.

Frank Curzio: Again, that’s going to be for Frankly Speaking. That’s not on iTunes, it just goes to our paid subscribers. No matter what newsletter you subscribe to, even our cheapest, which is four or $5 a month, I believe, for Dollar Stock Club. Or for the largest ones which are thousands of dollars, which you get premium services and stuff like that. You get access to that podcast, Frankly Speaking. For you, you will see me tomorrow. For everyone else, I will see you next week. Keep those questions coming, frank@curzioresearch.com. Have a great weekend. Take care.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curzio Research, one of the most respected financial media companies in the industry. The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its host and guests. You should not base your investment decisions solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility.