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.
Apple had one of its best quarters yet, and it hardly made news, with earnings soundly beating expectations. I don't invest in or trade AAPL shares, never have, never will. Simply missed that one twenty years ago.
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Today's Investment Buzz
Zacks is reporting:
One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is Chevron Corporation (CVX).
This is because this security in the Oil-International Integrated space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective.
This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board.
This is arguably taking place in the Oil-International Integrated space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 34 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there.
Meanwhile, Chevron is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firm’s prospects in both the short and long term. In fact, over the past 60 days, current quarter estimates have risen from $2.71 per share to $2.73 per share, while current year estimates have risen from $10.74 per share to $10.77 per share.
The company currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which is also a favorable signal.Chevron reports August 1, 2014.
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Sanctions? What Sanctions?
Britain is still authorizing the export of arms and military equipment to Russia despite the government's call for tough sanctions over Moscow's arming of separatist rebels in Ukraine, a group of lawmakers said in a report Wednesday.
I assume the Russian separatists need to replace the ground-to-air missiles they've been said to be firing.
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Could Lightning Strike Twice?
Motley Fool is reporting:
That being said, what's attractive about Sempra Energy isn't so much its elephant size but its gazelle-like speed with which its growing earnings. Its current plan should generate 9%-11% compound annual earnings growth through the end of the decade. That's about double what the average utility will do over that same timeframe. However, despite the speedy growth profile, Sempra Energy's risk profile is similar to its utility peers as it's focused on assets that generate stable, predictable earnings and cash flow. It only invests in projects that are supported by long-term, fixed-price contracts with credit-worthy counterparties.
The other reason Sempra Energy is attractive is because it's focusing a good portion of that growth on renewables. Currently the company has 1,082 megawatts of wind generation along with 300 megawatts of solar capacity in operation at its U.S. Gas & Power subsidiary, as the following map shows.Hopefully not: SRE pays an attractive yield which will only increase over time. BRK pays no dividend and never will.
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Big Story For The Day
I doubt many folks will read the RBN Energy blog today: Burning natural gas this summer -- bluntly put: Texas will consume its own stored supplies to meet in-State
needs first – depriving other States of a helping hand if need be. So
low storage levels in Texas will likely have more impact out of State
than in. Buried in that long post:
By October 2013, Texas’s stored gas had rebounded to 730 Bcf (only 2% less than its fall-of-2012 peak) but by March of this year in-state storage levels had plummeted to 418 Bcf, 26% lower than a year earlier and the lowest in the state since February 2004.
Texas, with the most natural gas storage in the United States (in the world?), reported 26% lower storage of natural gas than a year early and the lowest in the state since February 2004.
I don't think the word "coal" was mentioned it the RBN Energy post, but one can't explain away that dismal figure simply due to "the weather" (the polar vortex). Clearly there is something else going on. Yes, it's not that difficult to figure out: the war on coal is succeeding here in the US, and all that promised solar/wind energy simply cannot keep up. Again, seldom reported: utilities need to add one-half MW of fossil fuel capacity for every one MW of solar/wind energy brought on-line for those periods (like all night) when the sun is not shining, and the wind is blowing too fast or too slow.
The big story is not that natural gas stores are depleted; the big story is "why."
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Connecting The Dots
It's nice to see some reporters asking the right question. In this case, the question is this: why has President Obama been so quiet on the Malaysian Airlines shootdown? The Daily Beast is connecting the dots:
As the United States and NATO last month began to publicly acknowledge the sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft systems moving into rebel held areas of eastern Ukraine, the government in Kiev asked for gear that might be used to counter those weapons.
According to a former senior U.S. defense official who has worked closely with Ukraine’s military and a former head of state who has consulted with the government there, Kiev last month requested the radar jamming and detection equipment necessary to evade and counter the anti-aircraft systems Moscow was providing the country’s separatists.
Those anti-aircraft systems were almost certainly used to shoot down MH17, the Malaysian air passenger jet shot out of the sky last Thursday. U.S. officials have pointed the finger at Russia for providing that equipment, though no final assessment has been made of culpability for the incident.
Philip Karber, a former strategy adviser to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, has conducted detailed assessments of the country’s military since the crisis began this year.
Karber returned from the Ukrainian front earlier this month. He told The Daily Beast, “I was told in June by the Ukrainians that one of their top five priorities that they had conveyed to the United States and NATO that month was to get help in electronic warfare,” which gives a military the ability to detect, spoof and jam the radars of enemy anti-aircraft missile batteries.Apparently "no-drama" Obama feared escalation of the war. Or he was out golfing and never saw the memo.
The interesting story here is not that the actual content of the article, but that it has not been on CNN or Fox News ... yet.
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