Busy, Busy Day! Feast or Famine.

Updates

Later, 10:19 am: CNBC news is reporting:

The S&P 500 surpassed its all-time high of 1,576.09 set in October 2007 shortly after the market opened Wednesday, boosted by upbeat economic news from China and after the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes. 

Later, 10:15 am: It is now forty-five minutes into the trading day. I have not yet opened the print version of the WSJ. I have not yet visited the market (not turned to Yahoo!Finance). I am so far behind. Before going to the market, I always check out Drudge Report first because it will give me an idea how the market is providing. It will also give me a worldview in ten seconds. There is no question that Drudge has an agenda, but he does not write any of his own articles. Ninety percent of the articles come from mainstream press, including the NY Times and the Washington Post. Maybe a stand-alone post on the Drudge Report would be interesting. Anyway, I see at Drudge that the S&P breaks record again. Now to find out why.

Original Post

I apologize. I am simply not going to get to all the good stories today, and there are a bunch. Just the stories at today's WSJ would keep me busy all day. For some reason, the NDIC is delayed reporting the wells coming off the confidential list. Unless I've got the wrong group of wells. Unlikely.

For the record, The Dickinson Press is reporting that the number of jobs in North Dakota has increased by a third since 2000. The Bakken boom in North Dakota began in 2007.

Jobs in North Dakota have grown by almost a third since 2000, increasing by 100,000 during that period and by 33,000 in 2012 alone, the Department of Commerce announced last week.

It would be interesting to see what the job growth was between 2000 and 2007, before the boom. Considering that a lot of academicians, back in 2000, thought North Dakota should be turned back into a "buffalo commons" this is quite remarkable. 

I'm not going to link the weather stories now but the storm that hit overnight was quite a doozie. It is calving season and cattle and calves sought shelter. When the Chick-fil-A restaurants started overfilling, one could find cattle trying to find shelter at McDonald's restaurants.

A reader sent me a note regarding a housing investment opportunity in eastern Montana yesterday, while I was traveling. I was able to post the comment. Shortly I will be posting it as a stand-alone. As usual, I have no connection with the offering. I just post it as I get it.