Wednesday -- November 19, 2014; Natural Gas Futures Soar; UBS Warns Ultra-High-Net-Worth Face "Risks"

From Yahoo!In-Play: McDonald's notches new session high of 97.18, vacillating between its 200 sma and last week's peak at 96.90/97.18. This is the third time out of the last four sessions it has probed its 200 sma. Its four month high from Sep is slightly above at 97.30. Another beneficiary of low gasoline prices? 

From Yahoo!In-Play: 10:11 am Natural gas futures soar, hits new HoD, now up 4.7% at $4.44/MMBtu (Dec contract). I can hardly wait to see the natural gas fill rate this week, and next week. One to three more days for this storm to be followed by another storm.

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Trading at new highs on a down day for the Dow: KMP, TGT, TXT, WMT.

IPs for wells coming off the confidential list today have been posted. This post. Fidelity reports a very nice well.

Active rigs:

	11/19/2014	11/19/2013	11/19/2012	11/19/2011	11/19/2010
Active Rigs	185	184	185	204	159

RBN Energy: takeaway capacity and "Plan B" for the Marcellus. The opening paragraph is quite incredible:

The economics of natural gas production in the dry Marcellus, the wet Marcellus and the Utica are so favorable—and the shale gas resource so bountiful—that the only real limit on how much the Marcellus/Utica plays can produce is the capacity of the pipeline network in the Northeast and neighboring regions to take gas to market.

And there’s the rub, because the region’s gas transmission infrastructure was designed decades ago to deliver large volumes of gas to the Northeast, not away from it. That’s why the midstream sector has made “a new plan, Stan,” and is now in now in the midst of a major reworking of the pipeline system—not just within and near the Marcellus/Utica but just about everywhere east of the Mississippi. 

The $30 billion re-plumbing effort and its effects on the gas market as a whole are the subject of RBN’s latest Drill-Down Report, “50 Ways to Leave The Marcellus” which is available today to Backstage Pass members. In today’s blog, we provide an overview.

Remember that NY Times article some years ago about the "economics won't work when it comes to natural gas"?

Under the Obama watch: Rich hoard cash as their wealth hits record high. CNBC is reporting:

The amount of individuals that hold more than $30 million in assets has climbed to a new record in 2014, according to a global survey on Wednesday, which also warned that a lack of diversification meant that this wealth is not protected from shocks to the financial system.

12,040 of these new ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals were minted in the year ending June 2014, said the Wealth-X and UBS World Ultra Wealth Report released on Wednesday. This meant a 6 percent increase from last year which pushed the global population of these millionaires to a record 211,275.

With the annual gross domestic product of the U.S. closing in on the $17 trillion mark, according to the World Bank, this means that the ultra-rich now have almost twice the wealth of the world's largest economy (sic).

I assume some of these UHNW reside in the US. And, I assume the HNW numbers have increased by even a larger percentage here in the US.

But then this laughable punch line:

Nonetheless, Simon Smiles, chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management, warned of the risks the wealthy few face.

I'll gladly take the risks if I'm moved into that list of 211,275.

No, I did not read the rest of the article, so I do not know what could possibly be the risks these 211,275 face.

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Global Warming 2014 - 2015

The unnamed 2014 autumn polar vortex: the headlines started appearing November 11, 2014:

• Minnesota shatters snow record from 1898 -- predicted by warmists -- global warming will result in more snow 
• Arctic blasts pummels USA -- unexplained; stuff happens 
• Only six (6) states not expecting snow in coming week (and one of them may be Hawaii) 
• Winter still a month away 
• Twelve (12) years since Dallas has had two consecutive days so cold  
• Wyoming wind chill warning: 35 below  
• Central Ontario snowfall could reach 20 inches  
• Cold to freeze East  
• Shattering snowfall records in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan -- predicted by warmists -- global warming will result in more snow 
• All 50 states brace for freezing temperatures -- November 13, 2014 
• Cold freeze moves east -- November 13, 2014 
• Denver cold shatters two records, including low temp record set in 1882 -- November 13, 2014 
• Coldest November in decades -- November 14, 2014 
• Michigan tow receives one month's snow -- in one day --November 14, 2014 
• Storm dumps four (4) feet of snow on Wisconsin town -- November 14, 2014 
• Ice on Lake Superior -- almost a month early -- November 16, 2014 
• Harsh cold to set records in south, freeze northeast -- November 16, 2014
• Snow on the ground in DFW area; 27 degrees -- November 17, 2014 
• 50% of nation covered in snow -- November 17, 2014 (this was on ABC Nightly News, also)
• Most snow this early in a decade -- November 17, 2014
• Four (4) feet of snow expected in upstate New York -- November 17, 2014
• Record cold in Boise, Idaha, Monday morning, possibly again Tuesday -- November 17, 2014
• Deep freeze blankets USA -- November 18, 2014
• Coldest November morning since 1976 -- November 18, 2014
• 1,360 records shattered in one week -- November 18, 2014
• "Global warming" activists huddle together together in Capitol -- November 18, 2014
• I-90 closed in Buffalo, NY; snow -- November 18, 2014
• Buffalo, upper NY state gets slammed -- November 18, 2014
• 74 inches of snow predicted overnight in Buffalo, NY -- November 18, 2014 
• Cuoma deploys organized militia (National Guard) -- November 18, 2014 
• 7 feet of snow in upstate New York -- November 19, 2014
• Natural gas futures soar -- November 19, 2014 
•  Snow stranded in NY; 100+ trapped; man trapped in 12-ft drift -- November 19, 2014
• Supersnow, stranded in NY -- November 19, 2014
• 8 feet and counting -- November 19, 2014
• Biggest power grid hits monthly record -- November 19, 2014 
• Cuomo calls for "NFL Snowday" -- November 20, 2014
• Forecast: three more feet! -- November 20, 2014

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At Least It's Hard To Catch

Reuters is tweeting:

World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa remains intense, with 533 new confirmed cases reported in the week ending Nov. 16.

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Very, Very Hard To Catch

This is incredibly exciting. Over at the Huffington Post:

Scientists working at CERN's Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland have discovered two never-before-seen subatomic particles, the nuclear research facility announced today.

Dubbed Xi_b'- and Xi_b*-, the particles are "heavyweight" particles known as baryons.

Like the proton, the new particles are made up of three quarks but are more than six times as massive.

Two more particles to add to the Standard Model (or as the CERN physicists said, "beyond the Standard Model."

I will mention this to the older granddaughter on our walk home from school later this afternoon.