Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Trump Economy -- It Simply Won't Quit -- A Snarky Post -- Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- July 26, 2017

Updates

Later, 8:41 p.m. Central Time: more on the Petronas story, sent in by a reader -- http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=151161&utm_source=DailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2017-07-27&utm_content=&utm_campaign=feature_1.

Later, 7:00 p.m. Central Time: more ...
Later, 4:59 p.m. Central Time: see first comment regarding Canadian natural gas --
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Original Post

Facebook: all those cupcakes, fruitcakes, and snowflakes are using Facebook more than ever before -- to vent, to organize, to raise money -- how do I know -- Reuters just told me: Facebook profit, revenue smash estimates as mobile ad sales soar.

I do believe it was about a year ago that folks were wringing their collective hands, that until Facebook figured out mobile ads, it wasn't going anywhere. LOL.

Facebook's shares have climbed nearly 44 percent this year with the help of all those cupcakes, fruitcakes, and snowflakes. LOL. Facebook just keeps growing and growing; the number of users were up 17% year-over-year.

Net income rose to $1.32/share, up from 78 cents a  year earlier. Total revenue rose almost 45%.

Wow.

And so it goes.

Flaring. What will Canada's prime minister do with all his natural gas? Flare it? LOL. It appears he has two choices: a) flare it; or, b) ship it on US pipelines to America's natural gas processing plants; to the east coast for export; to the Gulf Coast for export. What's happening? BBC just announced that Petronas will cancel it's humongous Canadian Pacific Northwest LNG project -- citing yada, yada, yada.

The big point to be made here is this: this is exactly what would have happened under an Obama third term / Hillary presidency. Sure, exports might be legal, but environmentalists would have found every which way to delay projects with a willing president supporting their efforts (especially if it involved political donations and funding of "the Foundation"). Think Solyndra and 36 other solar failures.

Earlier today I had a reader suggest that, to paraphrase, all this Trump economy stuff is simply due to monetary policy and has nothing to do with the personality in the White House. And so it goes.

Back to the Petronas story. Shipping Canadian LNG through the US might lower the value of our own LNG, but I doubt it. Posted recently: there may not be enough US natural gas to feed all the exports and petrochemical plants being built.

The Trump rally: I do believe the Dow 30 hit an all-time record, closing well above 21,700.  On November 4, 2016, the Dow closed at 17,888. On November 10, 2016, the Dow closed at 18,807 and hasn't looked back. Some would say it's all due to monetary policy. See Facebook story above.  

CNBC suggests the Trump rally is all about monetary policy: "Dow closes at record high after Fed leaves rates unchanged" but does suggest earnings may have played a role, "Boeing jumps." The funny thing is that no one expected the Fed to do anything different(ly). It's hard for me to accept that the Dow 30 surged (again) today simply because Yellen is a) confused; b) a dove; c) wants to keep her job.

By the way, speaking of Janet Yellen, I learned today that the Fed chairperson, once nominated and confirmed, cannot be "fired." That would make her about the only government employee that can't be fired. She's more bullet-proof than James Comey. I guess the president can't be fired; he can be impeached and found guilty but that's not exactly being fired.

Jobs: Amazon's fulfillment centers look like the 21st century version of rural Wal-Marts -- overing "jobs to sleepy towns."

WTI: closed up another 2% (rounding to nearest whole number). Still below $50.

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