For Investors Only

Later, 12:01 p.m. Incredible. These companies hit new highs: DAVE, HP, XLNX, UNP, EPD, SRE, and many others are trading new all-time highs. It's an impressive market. Oil has slipped just below $100/bbl.

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. I have never invested and never plan to invest in DAVE and others I may have mentioned in the blog. I follow some of these companies because they shed light on certain sectors of the market.

Later, 8:26 a.m. futures up slightly and now oil is trading above $100. It appears investors like what Putin is doing, keeping Obama in check.

 

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Futures are up again? Putin takes the Crimean. The Syrian government gets a new life. And futures are up. Okay. Oil down slightly.

I assume everyone saw this coming; this was foreshadowed in an earlier posting:

American Eagle Energy prices 11 mln shares of common stock at a price of $6.60 per share; reflective of 1-4 stock reverse stock split: Co announces it has priced an underwritten public offering of 11,000,000 shares of common stock at a price of $6.60 per share after giving effect to a 1-for-4 reverse stock split that occurred after the closing of the market yesterday afternoon and will be in effect as of the opening of the market and the commencement of trading on March 19, 2014.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. 

I thought we would see more M&A activity in the Bakken last year (2013). Now, I think it will be 2014. I will probably be wrong again.

At least for me, the investment picture in the Bakken is absolutely unpredictable. Two days ago the market had a huge day. Everything was green. Energy companies were up 1 to 2 percent. It was an incredible day. With one exception: CLR was down, lost about 50 cents/share. An analyst downgraded CLR earlier this month. There is increasing speculation that the Atlanta pad is not going to be all that great, whether it is or not, it has to have been a huge drag on cash flow for the company. I think they started drilling that pad 12 - 14 months ago and still 12 of 14 wells are yet to be reported. As much as $140 million in drilling costs and still meager return, I assume.

So, had this been an investment site, I would have suggested investors exchange their CLR shares for EOG shares two days ago. And then yesterday, CLR surges a couple of dollars and is trading near its 52-week high. And that's why this is not an investment site, and why I don't give investment advice. But I track market action because it helps me understand the Bakken. When CLR surges a couple of bucks in light of the Wall Street downgrade, it gets my attention.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I have really enjoyed Blu-Ray. For the past few nights I've been watching Dr No (Blu-Ray) and find it absolutely fascinating. I recall seeing it when it first came out -- I mean, when it first came to Williston. Dr No was released in 1962; I don't know if it showed in Williston that year or the next year or didn't get to Snyder until 1964. In 1962, I was eleven years old, but I distinctly remember the scene of the tarantula crawling up Sean Connery's arm. I had been told that Connery used a double in that scene, but "they" do not say that in the commentary; one is led to believe that it was really Sean Connery in the tarantula scene.

[Snyder Theater was on North Main, east side of the street; Grand Theater was on South Main -- one block away -- on the west side. Snyder always got the "better" movies, it seemed.]

I do not recall noticing Ursula Andress when I first saw the movie. Now, I find myself studying her bikini design quite closely; there are some interesting features. LOL.

The nice thing about Blu-Ray, in addition to the high definition, is the capacity of the disc which allows for a lot of extras. I really enjoy the commentary that is now a standard feature found on Blu-Ray. It is interesting that the most "controversial" aspect of Dr No was the cold-blooded murder committed by 007. The director was worried about getting it past the censor, and, in fact, the director and his staff had to convince them why it should not be censored. It was never mentioned in the commentary, but that's exactly what "00" was all about -- a license to kill. That means "in cold blood" as they say. Censors would not object to killing in self-defense. But "00" had a license to kill.