OPEC agreement solidifies expectations of a harder 2017 for airlines, but it is a mixed bag

Oil prices rose over 8% across the board yesterday as OPEC agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day from 33.6 million – the first agreement in some seven years. The expectation now is that non-OPEC producers will also move to cut production by around 500-600 thousand barrels a day. This is great news for US producers that have cut their cost of production by close to half over the past five years and further investment in oil production in the US may now be back on the cards. Such a move should stem any huge increases in