June 11, 2014: For Investor Only; Williston To Get New High School -- Best News Of The Day; Dickinson Getting A New McDonald's

Best news of the day in the Bakken: 

Williston is getting a new high school.

Voters showed massive support for the $34 million bond referendum at the polls Tuesday night, casting 2,738 votes for the school and 879 against.

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Oil prices are slightly lower on Wednesday following activity in Iraq that included Islamist militants taking control of a northern Sunni city.

Chicago Energies Inc. options trader Peter Amandio tells TheStreet's Joe Deaux that this development has taken control of the global crude trade. The EIA reported that crude oil inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels, which was more than the 1.7 million barrel draw that analysts expected. Gasoline inventories gained more than anticipated, which Amandio says has everything to do with the arbitrage trade between Brent crude and WTI crude.

$105.30 is the new ceiling. Bottom line: the unexpected draw and turmoil in Iraq should have pushed price of oil higher, but the "ceiling" is $105.30 and "speculators" nervous about going that high. Today's oil price action had nothing to do with numbers; it all had to do with psychology -- "fear" in this case, overcame "greed."

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This is the headline over at Drudge: ""Washington watches as Iraq speeds toward disaster." So true. I have not heard a peep from John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, Michelle, or President Obama regarding Iraq. WTI oil and Brent oil futures remain flat today: we are in a period of backwardization (according to RBN Energy) putting pressure on upward movement which is probably countering the events in Iraq. However, if over the next three or four days Iraq continues to spiral out of control and the price of oil does not move significantly upward, that will speak volumes. If nothing else, it will tell me how important the Bakken experiment really is (negates events in the Mideast) and/or it tells me that "speculators" had already baked into the price of oil the events going on in Iraq. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

Wow, this is turning out to be a very interesting day. The Dow is down a 100 points -- no reason except for profit taking -- and oil is holding its own. News is coming quickly out of Iraq -- pushing Syria off the front page again. It appears that Iraq is about to implode in civil war, Sunnis against Shi'ite, and I can't keep them straight. We'll sort that out later. But the al Qaeda off-shoot that took the major Kurdistan city of Mosul have now taken Tikrit, even closer to Baghdad.

I think Americans are going to be studying Iraqi geography once again as we get to experience another one of Obama's legacies: losing Iraq. North of Baghdad lies Kurdistan, probably the most stable area in the region ... until now. There are three cities north of Baghdad to watch: Mosul (taken by anti-Baghdad, pro-Muslim, al-Qaeda); Tikrit, on the road from Mosul to Baghdad (also taken by the same group) and the capital of Kurdistan, Irbil (or Arbil) forming the apex of the triangle of these three cities to the northeast. If the al-Qaeda "insurgents" have their own "Lawrence of Arabia," it will be interesting to see what comes next: Baghdad or Irbil.

I don't think the Dow is down a 100 points due to this Mideast news; if so, oil would be climbing, and it's now. It's mostly flat for the day, mostly down slightly right now.

But even with the Dow down a 100 points, and oil flat, there are some surprises among the companies trading at 52-week highs, especially among the Bakken plays: BCEI, COP, DVN, EOG, HES, MRO, and WLL.  AAPL also traded near its 52-week high but has dropped back in later trading. EOG surges 2%, nearing $111. Whiting surges almost 4%. OAS surges almost 1.5% but still off it's all-time high. Hess up over 1%.

The Wall Street Journal

The top story, of course, is the action in Iraq. Mosul is Iraq's second largest city. It appears that foreign policy, or lack thereof, is spiraling out of control for this administration. I believe President Obama will be visiting North Dakota while the Mideast goes up in flames. Actually, perhaps it won't be that bad compared to shock and awe. Just a civil war in a country most of us no longer care about.

It appears the WSJ has not sorted out the reason by the Republican's #2 man in the House was defeated. That will come out over the next few days. Very, very interesting.


This is the headline story in the Los Angeles Times also: a California court rules that the state's strong teacher-tenure laws are unconstitutional. I doubt the ruling will hold on appeal. (A reader caught my error; I agree with the reader.)

Maybe mercury isn't so bad: the FDA is recommending pregnant women and children eat more fish.

This caught me off-guard: the 57 US states are grappling with an imminent problem -- the federal Highway Trust Fund could soon run out of money. To address the possible shortfall, states are preparing to put off projects or trying to boost hteir own sources of funding. That probably won't happen in Kansas where income tax cuts are starting to hurt.

US officials were warned that at least two of the five "Bergdahl-swappees" would return to top Taliban posts -- President Obama SecDef Hagel said, "Swap." It will be interesting to see if there is enough room under the bus for yet another Cabinet chief.

Trainwreck: small employers in 18 of the 58 US states will offer only one health plan to workers when ObamaCare's small-business exchanges open this fall -- according to bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

Suicide-in-Vermont: in a first, Vermont sets wage floor above $10.10/hour. 

Ukraine offers safe passage to civilians caught up in civil war. I would not have posted this, but it's a reminder how things are spiraling out of control while President Obama shores up his native American support by visiting North Dakota later this week.

This is interesting, and fair, and a nice, clever twist re: frequent-flyer miles. I always thought the way airlines did frequent-flyer miles was crazy. Apparently, American Airlines thought the same thing: frequent miles will now be based on price of ticket, not number of miles flown.

Paula Deen will launch new cooking network. I assume there will be a Sterling Soup segment.

 Now it's P. F. Chang with a data breach.

The Los Angeles Times

"Stunned unions cry foul after tenure rules struck down." 

Texas governor Rick Perry is trying to woo Tesla to come to Texas.

I'm starting to lose count, but I believe there have been three new earthquakes reported in southern Claifornia in the last 48 hours. I think these are related to fracking in North Dakota.

Oooh....sports... LA Kings ... a 4-0 sweep? ... San Antonio Spurs.... a full 7-game series?

The Dickinson Press

Huge, new McDonald's going up in Dickinson.

Traffic accident between mile marker 145 and 146 on US Highwest 85 west of Watford City has shut down the highway.