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Libya's central bank governor said the country needs to increase oil output by about 40% to fulfill its exposure demands and begin rebuilding an economy that has been damaged by a decade of war. The country is now pumping 1.3 million barrels per day and sits atop Africa's largest proven crude reserves. According to Al-Kabir, daily output needs to increase to 1.8 million barrels per day next year. Source: Bloomberg

The Fed's move towards tapering asset purchases has set oil for a substantial weekly loss for the week. West Texas Intermediate tumbled more than 6% this week, closing at its lowest point since May on Thursday. The pandemic remains a major threat to energy demand, especially with Asia, where China is a key importer that's planning to restrict mobility to combat an outbreak. Source: Bloomberg

Food services and drinking places, (restaurants, bars, cafeterias), continued their recovery in July, with sales climbing to an all-time high of $72.2 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from a pandemic low of $29.9 billion in April 2020 and from $52.2 billion in July 2020. Sales have grown the slowest in the past month, most likely due to a surge of Covid cases, and we should be awaiting a setback for August as well. Source: US Census Bureau, Statista

Oil fell below $65 a barrel, hitting its lowest level since May, as the Federal Reserve of the U.S. hinted it will begin cutting asset purchases in the coming months, weakening commodities and strengthening the currency. Source: Bloomberg 

It seems that we have a new value pick from Berkshire Hathaway. The company estimated that not only Kroger is cheaply priced relative to earnings estimates, but also that the company is ramping up online sales with a 16% increase in their first fiscal quarter ending May 22. Berkshire bought 11 million shares of Kroger in the second quarter, bringing up their purchases to 61.8 million shares or 8.3% of shares outstanding. Source: MarketWatch