Oh, Mexico. It sounds so simple where the jobs go. The sun's so hot and the wages so low. Guess I'll have to go now. Mexico sounds so simple I just got to go. The sun's so hot I forgot to go home. Guess I'll have to go now.

Mexico is the hot place to go. Inspired by policies from the Biden administration, Ford is looking to relocate American Jobs over the border. At the same time, a major railroad merger moves oil from Canada directly to Mexico instead of by pipeline. In the meantime, Biden's policies continue to help drive gasoline prices higher as average Americans feel the pain of Biden's policy of remaining silent as OPEC plus dictates the price of oil. The Biden administration is complicit in silence as it desires higher oil prices as it helps their climate goal and uses migrants as political pawns creating humanitarian issues down by the border. Oh, Mexico.

Image Source: Pixabay

Ford told employees in Ohio that the company plans to move the construction of a new vehicle to Mexico, according to a letter made public this week. Reuters reported that "The United Auto Workers union criticized Ford Motor Co’s plan to build a new vehicle in Mexico rather than at an Ohio plant, suggesting it might violate the automaker’s contractual commitments.” Commitments that were made under the Trump administration. Of course, the Biden administration is probably happy that Ford is creating jobs building those cars over the border because they are not electric. 

Trains are the place to be as Biden policies will move more oil by rail. The Wall Street Journal reports that "Canadian Pacific CP -1.37% Railway Ltd. agreed to acquire Kansas City Southern KSU 0.38% in a transaction valued at about $25 billion that would create the first freight-rail network linking Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. The Journal says that the combination, which faces a lengthy regulatory review, is a long-term wager on an interconnected North American economy. The three countries are reopening at different speeds after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and upended global trade. Rail volumes, which plunged last year, have rebounded though backlogs at California ports have delayed imports from Asia and stalled some U.S. factories. It marks the third major U.S. railroad that the Canadian company has targeted in its quest to create a transcontinental network. Canadian Pacific abandoned the two prior efforts—in 2014 and 2016—amid resistance from the takeover targets themselves as well as opposition from rivals, shippers and U.S. regulators.”

Reuters says in a letter made public on Tuesday that UAW Vice President Gerald Kariem said Ford intends to build a next-generation vehicle in Mexico. “We 100% reject the company’s decision to put corporate greed and more potential profits over American jobs and the future of our members. We expect the company to honor its contractual commitments to this membership and when it fails to do so we will take action,” Kariem wrote in the Friday letter. “We are intensely exploring our options at this time,” he added.  So, we can add more job losses to the union tally under the Biden administration along with lost Keystone pipeline jobs and drilling moratorium jobs. Hey union workers! Are you still happy with your Union-backed Biden?

Yet can shale rise as the Biden administration puts pressure on the industry? John Kemp at Reuters points out that, "The U.S. OIL RIG count increased by +9 to 318 last week. The number of active rigs has increased by +146 (+85%) since the cyclical low in mid-August. The resumption in drilling is broadly in line with the upturns after the last two slumps ending in May 2016 and May 2009.

The FT reports, “Lowly rated US energy companies that struggled for survival last year are finding renewed optimism among investors after a surge in oil prices, helping them raise a record amount of debt to fend off bankruptcy. Energy and power companies tracked by Refinitiv have raised more than $20bn in the high-yield bond market so far this year, an all-time record for data going back to 1996.

A four-month-long rally in crude prices stalled last week, but Brent, the international benchmark, remains above $60.00 a barrel, up over 60 percent since the start of November. This rally, fueled by vaccine rollouts and record Opec oil production cuts, has prompted a change in sentiment among debt investors who had shunned many energy companies last year. “At these levels, a lot of companies can hedge future production and survive,” said John Dixon, a high-yield bond trader at Dinosaur Financial Group. “It’s the oil-linked names in a high yield that have been among the best performers recently.”