The Russian bear is a decidedly different animal. Even as the oil price outlook has become clearly bearish, Russia knows little fear. It’s defying the oil price hibernation with bullish economic outlook, the best-performing equities market, and even the best-performing currency against the U.S. dollar. And there’s something the average investor might not know: A strong performance by Russia’s equities market almost always precedes a crude oil price rally. When you add to this the Russia and OPEC commitment to a new round of crude oil output cuts, the much-needed supply squeeze necessary to lift oil prices might not ... (full story)