Wednesday Morning Links, Views, And News

It looks like another great day for investors.

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.

Lead story, WSJ: Walgreen will shift all 160,000 employees to on-share health exchanges. In a Reuters interview Halcon says it has no intentions of acquiring more debt or selling more shares. Futures are up; oil is up slightly. RBN Energy has another great analysis of takeaway capacity for natural gas in the northeast. Based on stories coming out of the Washington, D. C., Navy Yard shooting, even paranoid schizophrenics can get "Secret" clearances from the US government; another case in which one federal law enforcement agency (the FBI, in this case) alerts another federal law enforcement agency (the US Navy, in this case) about a paranoid schizophrenic; nothing is done; and 13 people are killed. 


So, let's get started.

It will be interesting to see if this ends up being the "big story" of the week.

Active rigs: 180

RBN Energy: takeaway capacity in the northeast; reversal of the REX

CarpeDiem: update on Permian Basin, the new economic hot spot in the US -- Midland and Odessa. 

WSJ Links

Walter Mossberg devotes his column to Apple's new TouchID on the new iPhone 5S. Meanwhile, in another article the iPhone 5C is heralded as "a solid premium phone that's good for first-timers or users looking for a thrifty upgrade." The target for the 5C in the United States: tweens.

Good news for us sitting in Starbucks: coffee prices are at their lowest in four years as supplies swell.  My hunch: Starbucks won't be lowering their prices any time soon. That's fine with me. Their price is fair.

This is interesting: ATT may be lining its war chest.

The telecom giant is looking to sell its wireless towers, according to a report Tuesday by Bloomberg News. Such a move has been largely expected since March, when AT&T indicated its willingness to sell the towers to assure investors it had the cash to pay its dividend and buy back stock.

Now, AT&T might have another use for extra cash. 

This should be very, very interesting, seeing what ATT does with all that cash.

Microsoft is going to hand out more cash (increase its dividend) and buy back more shares. Bill Gates, back on top of the Forbes 400, will like that move -- especially the increase in dividend.

Industry experts say the cost of lithium-ion batteries used in electric and hybrid cars are likely to be about half of today's prices in seven years. I think we've heard that story before.

Huge story in the front section: companies are increasingly choosing to generate their own power, rather than buying it from a utility, spurred by falling prices for solar panels and natural gas, and fears of outages.

Again, ObamaCare will be a boon for investors as corporations shift costs. And for consumers, this: medical prices are rising at their slowest pace in a half century, a relief to government and businesses but signaling that consumers are being left with a larger share of the bill.

Los Angeles Times

Yup, the top story: paranoid schizophrenic keeps "Secret" clearance; has guns on gun-free installation. Someone said that even active duty military weren't allowed to carry weapons in this gun-free zone (except for security: when seconds matter, the police are only minutes away).

This was in both the WSJ and the LATimes: Penthouse parent company files for bankruptcy.

The gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" widened significantly under this administration. The nation's poverty rate held at a near-generation-high of 15% last year.

New York Times

 
Top story, front page, with photo: Alpha Manzueta has two jobs but has lived in a homeless shelter for three years, and she is part of a growing class of New Yorkers who work but can’t find affordable housing.

Secret US court calls collection of phone data legal.

Frustrated democrats increasingly defying Obama.

Front page looks like an editorial page.

 Boston Globe

Wiscasset, Maine, now in "economic depression," with closure of the Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. The town is "full of regret."

According to two separate reports, more than 20,000 employees are working in renewable energy in the state and Boston is the most energy-efficient US city.