For Investors Only -- August 19, 2014

Trading at new highs today: AAPL, ARII, BRK-B, EEQ, UNP, WPX.

And there it is, AAPL over $100, setting a new high, at $100.35 which is over $700/share prior to the split. It's market cap is $601 billion. XOM: market cap at $425 billion.

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.

Once the dust settles with regard to KMI, it might be something for some investors to ponder. Houston Biz Journal is reporting that KMI wants to be the biggest dividend payer in the energy sector:

By consolidating all of its companies into one, Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. is positioning itself to reduce its capital costs and become more aggressive in mergers and acquisitions, CEO, founder and billionaire Rich Kinder said Aug. 11. 

Kinder Morgan Inc. is consolidating “Kinder Morgan family of companies” in a $70 billion deal, including debt. Not including debt, the deal is valued at about $44 billion, and makes Kinder Morgan the largest energy infrastructure company.

KMI will buy Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Kinder Morgan Management LLC, and El Paso Pipeline Partners LP in the deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, this reality being reported by The Wall Street Journal:

It is time to get used to near-zero savings-account interest rates and 10-year bond yields that don't get much higher than 3%.

Yes, the Federal Reserve is preparing to raise rates as soon as next spring. But even that won't produce the interest-rate "normalization" that many assume to be on the way.

That overdue reversion to the mean of recent decades—pined for by retirees and other risk-averse savers, feared by holders of higher-yielding bonds—isn't coming.

Blame it on the persistent sources of fragility in the global economy: banks that remain reluctant to lend to Main Street, a looming debt crisis in China and the alarming prospect that deflation will come to Europe's shores and return to Japan's.

Banks that remain reluctant to lend to Main Street? Blame Dodd-Frank, or is it Frank-Dodd, and the cash requirements banks are required to hold, the risks banks can no longer take, and the fines/punishment banks are subject to if they are found in non-compliance.

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Wyoming Wind

This was sent to me some time ago, but I am just now getting caught up. Houston Biz Journal is reporting the world's largest wind farm may be built in Wyoming:

Developers of a massive wind-power installation backed by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz have obtained permission from Wyoming authorities to build and operate what may be the biggest wind farm in North America.

Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Council voted unanimously Aug. 6 to approve Power Company of Wyoming LLC’s application for a permit to construct and operate the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in south-central Wyoming’s Carbon County.

With up to 1,000 wind turbines and a rated capacity of 3,000 megawatts, the wind farm will be the largest in Wyoming and one of the biggest in the world, according to the private company, which proposed the $6 billion wind farm in 2008.

 So much for Wyoming's migratory bird population. The wolves and coyotes will be feasting.