Market action:
- The Dow is down about 50 points; oil is off slightly more a dollar
- KOG hits a new 52-week high, $10.10
- Oasis is down a bit after hitting new highs last week
- I assume the majors are all down; I only looked at CVX
- CHK is up again, but not yet at a new 52-week high
- it looks like most of the energy companies I follow are down slightly (along with the market in general)
- Berkshire is up, but not quite a new 52-week high
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Gasoline prices nearing "danger zone" --
It happened in 2008, then again in 2011. Finally in April 2012, average gasoline prices once again topped $3.85 a gallon. While still well shy of the record high $4.11 set in July of 2008, Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial says, every time pump prices top what he calls the "danger zone," stocks have taken a hit.
"For the last five years, whenever we got into (the danger zone), stocks pulled back back five to ten percent," Kleintop says in the attached video, in reference to the 2008, 2011 and 2012 price peaks.
Fortunately, after a sharp run-up in July, the past two weeks have seen a modest dip in gas prices, at a time when crude oil has held steady above $100 a barrel.
From Kleintop's point of view, it's only a matter of time before pump prices follow the run-up in oil. If he's right and high fuel costs do indeed begin to take a larger bite out of family budgets, then the danger zone curse could happen again.
By the way, think of the fuel savings the US Air Force will see as the service transitions from F-15s to drones. This is not trivial; I am surprised we haven't heard more about that cost savings. And, then, of course, the US Navy going to algae to power their ships --.
Wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend and Monday have been posted.
Active rigs: 181
Nice article in SeekingAlpha this morning on MDU.
WSJ Links
Meatpackers await signs that beef is back. I am really, really impressed with Omaha Steaks. I routinely mail order Omaha Steaks and have never been disappointed; and, I visited an Omaha Steaks store in Huntington Beach when we were out visiting family earlier this summer. The deals in the store are even better than through mail order (no shipping costs, for one thing; though my orders often ship free through promotions).
No sign of progress in CBS dispute.
Awesome: Missy Franklin won her record sixth gold medal of the world championships Sunday, swimming the leadoff leg for the U.S. in the 400-meter medley relay. Franklin, 18 joined Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Ian Thorpe and Kristin Otto as the only swimmers to capture as many as six golds at worlds or an Olympics.
The lead story, page 1, section 1 has to do with Apple and big patent battles. I did not read; no interest in the subject.
US and Canada vie for big-natural-gas projects.
PORT EDWARD, British Columbia—Some of the world's largest energy companies are racing to transform backwaters like this hamlet of 544 people into boomtowns.
The energy giants are proposing half a trillion dollars in projects to export vast new finds of North American natural gas. Western Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast are competing to see which region receives the lion's share of the investment.
Port Edward has been shrinking since the canneries and pulp mills began shutting decades ago. But it has a deep-water port that could someday handle the huge ships that carry liquefied natural gas. And Malaysia's state-owned energy giant, Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas, says it is prepared to spend $20 billion on a terminal, pipeline and other infrastructure here.
A drilling revolution in the U.S. and Canada has unlocked a glut of natural-gas reserves across the continent. That has sent prices tumbling—a boon for consumers and industrial users. But it has also sent energy companies scrambling for a way to profit by sending the cheap gas to Asia, where demand and prices are high.
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