Friday

Wells coming off the confidential list today have been posted. Folks might want to think about what the IPs from the BR wells in Corral Creek are telling us. Remember, Corral Creek is unitized, and the BR horizontals are no longer than long horizontals elsewhere in the Bakken. I noticed the same thing, quite some time ago, with many wells that have been drilled on 2560-acre spacing elsewhere.

Active rigs: 180

RBN Energy: PIGs in the oil patch.

The impending trainwreck: yesterday I mentioned that the undercapitalized, new-to-the-game health care insurers underwriting the individual mandate would go the way of Solyndra in two to five years. (Remember: the big insurers opted not to underwrite the individual mandate portion of ObamaCare.) Today it is being reported that some of these small insurers may opt to leave the individual mandate program. But you have to read to the end of the article; this little bit of trivia is buried in these stories. By the way, this story (ObamaCare delay would send health premiums soaring) is the top story over at Yahoo!Finance right now.

Also, some smaller insurers may opt to leave the market, which would also cause rates to rise, Feyman said.

The line at the local Starbucks is reaching to the front door (actually the side door in this particular Starbucks, but it is the door everyone uses to enter). I normally wouldn't mention this, but Starbucks announced that it was doubling its dividend.  Starbucks is one of eight companies announcing increased dividends/distributions. Interestingly, Brunswick, the recreation company is also announcing an increased dividend.

Chevron misses by $0.14, misses on revs (EPS QoQ decline in line with pre-announcement) : Reports earnings of $2.57 per share, $0.14 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $2.71; revenues rose 0.8% year/year to $58.5 bln vs the $65.04 bln consensus. (Co pre-announced that Q3 earnings will be lower than Q2 -- Q2 was $2.77).

First Solar is up over 7% after cruising past earnings estimates by $1.44 on above-consensus revenue.

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. 

Ultra Petroleum is having a great day, up over 2%. Ultra Petroleum Corp., an independent oil and gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of oil and natural gas properties in the United States. It primarily focuses on developing a tight gas sand trend located in the Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming; and assessing, exploring, and developing its position in the Marcellus Shale and other horizons located in the north-central Pennsylvania area of the Appalachian Basin. Earnings beat expectations.

Chrysler sales rise 11 percent in 3Q13.  Ford sales rise 14%. But this is the real story, as Don points out. The quarter ended yesterday. Chrysler and Ford released their results today. ObamaCare rolled out October 1, 2013. The government has not posted their numbers yet. CBS reports that six folks enrolled in ObamaCare on day 1. I think Apple sold several million iPhones on day 1. If one can count the number of ObamaCare enrollees on two hands, this is more than a trainwreck. The insureres have to be getting very, very nervous. Remember: this is what the insurers are facing:

• no lifetime cap on medical expenses; insurers are on the hook for millions for each cancer patient, each AIDs patient; most expensive: unlimited psychiatric care
• no discrimination between those at risk, those not at risk; everyone pays the same
• if only those at risk sign up, the insurers go broke
• undercapitalized insurers are underwriting the individual mandate; the big insurers opted out of the individual mandate program

Here's the CBS story on ObamaCare enrollments:

For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.

But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason: CBS News has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start.

Early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice-a-day "war room" meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1. They were turned over in response to a document request from the House Oversight Committee.

The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say "six enrollments have occurred so far."

They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to "approximately 100." By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect "248 enrollments" nationwide.

As difficult as it was to get insurance, one has to assume these 248 have serious medical problems, and it is not beyond the pale to suggest that if most of these 248 are insured by the same company in the same state, they could cause that insurer to go under. I truly doubt 248 healthy 27-year-old males put up with the website to enroll. 

Six crock pot / slow cooker mistakes.