Meandering On A Thursday Morning -- February 5, 2015; Some Expect First-Time Unemployment Claims To Jump By 25,000; If So, Reuters Will Say This Is "Good -- The Recovery Is On Track"

Didn't the market go up about 300 points the other day? Yesterday, the market managed to hold those gains. Now, today, futures show the market up 100 points and continuing to rise. The top story has to do with Greece, over at Yahoo!Finance. Sounds like traders are moving on; I guess someone finally did the math with regard to Greece.


Lots of economy data coming out today but I won't get to it for awhile. 

This is the one I am most interested in jobs. OptionMonster is reporting:

The Labor Department is expected to report that 290,000 Americans sought unemployment benefits for the first time last week, up from 265,000 in the previous period. The release is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET. [Update: the number looks like it may be 278,000. Link here. ]

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

Comment: I have no idea where this particular note will lead; there are several stories that readers have sent me but I haven't been able to get to them all. I was unable to sleep last night; something was bothering me but I don't know it was. It may have had something to do with some of the stories in the news yesterday; I don't know. So, I'll write a bit not knowing where this will go, and hopefully won't step on too many toes.

Warning: I assume there are typographical and factual errors below, as well as links that don't work. This was done quickly. It was not proofread. If you see anything really, really wrong, let me know.

Another warning: Do not rely on anything below if this is important to you. Go to the source.

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Is This What The Immigration Debate Is All About? Your Electricity?

From ComputerWorld: there must be more to the story, but if accurate, it's outrageous. Headline: Southern California Edison IT workers 'beyond furious' over H-1B replacements. Lede:

Information technology workers at Southern California Edison are being laid off and replaced by workers from India.

Some employees are training their H-1B visa holding replacements, and many have already lost their jobs.

The employees are upset and say they can't understand how H-1B guest workers can be used to replace them. The IT organization's "transition effort" is expected to result in about 400 layoffs, with "another 100 or so employees leaving voluntarily," SCE said in a statement. The "transition," which began in August, will be completed by the end of March, the company said.

SCE, Southern California's largest utility, has confirmed the layoffs and the hiring of Infosys, based in Bangalore, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai. They are two of the largest users of H-1B visas. The utility has a large IT department. In 2012, before any layoffs, it had about 1,800 employees, plus an additional 1,500 contract workers.

Something tells me this is what the real immigration "battle" is about -- the one they are having in Washington. I doubt if anyone in Washington is really worried about the day worker crossing the border at/near El Paso.

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Oil Workers Not Being Paid

CNBC emphasized another story line regarding the ousting of Petrobras' CEO, but the caption udner the photo at the link, I think, would have been a more interesting story line: 

Workers from a company under contract for the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras protest to demand the payment of three months of wages in arrears, in front of the Petrobras building in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 4, 2015.

Several months ago I mentioned how the slump in oil prices would drive production down in countries that cannot afford to cut production under any circumstances, like Venezuela, Angola, Nigeria, Russia. Once these countries cannot pay for services from the likes of BHI, SLB, HAL, RIG,  or Weatherford, those companies will either take "oil in trade" or quit working for those who cannot pay them. I doubt Venezuela can continue producing at max production without a lot of US know-how.

When I saw that caption that Petrobras employees had not been pain in three months -- that pretty much told me all I needed to know.

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Really?

I can't remember if I posted this. I know I wrote it down somewhere and sent it to someone and/or posted it.

Remember that story of a few days ago in which Apple raised $6.5 billion by selling bonds earlier this week? This country has so much cash, the obvious question "everyone" asked was "why?"  Why would Apple need to raise $6.5 billion. The talking heads and analysts provided the reason and I'm sure they are correct, but give me a break.

The real question was not "why?" but "why not?" Apple raised $1.25 billion by promising to pay bondholders a measly 1.55% yield. Really? 1.55% for five years. That's a steal. Apple could take that $1.25 billion and invest it in almost any US blue chip and get a 4% return, which I guess is more than doubling their money. And if Warren Buffett is correct, the US blue chip stock will appreciate in price.

The real question, I guess, is why Apple only sold $1.25 billion worth of bonds at 1.55% -- why not raise some real cash. AAPL's market cap: almost $700 billion.

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Really? Again?

We now know why no one tuned into President Obama's most recent SOTU address. It's all lies, or all hyperbole, or all ... well, whatever it is, it ain't real.

Back in 2011, in that SOTU address, President Obama ...

predicted that the U.S. would have “a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
The president backed up his prediction with $2.4 billion in federal grants to companies producing lithium-ion batteries for plug-in cars.

The story continues:

But reality hasn’t even come close.

Despite massive federal spending on electric vehicles, which is expected to total $7.9 billion through 2019, there are currently just 286,390 plug-in vehicles on the nation’s roads today, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

That’s 72 percent lower than the million electric vehicles the president predicted four years ago. And with gasoline prices now averaging $2.06 per gallon, the lowest they’ve been since April 2009, that percentage is not likely to change any time soon.

I would assume the "Electric Drive Transportation Association" would inflate its figures, so the data is probably even worse.

But can you believe that number, 286,390? That's incredible. It doesn't even register. It's a rounding error. I assume that is the number of vehicles registered at the time the article was written.

I remember in Air War College, back in 1997 (or thereabouts), we had a retired USAF general officer (probably retired as a three-star), tell us that by the end of the 20th century (only about three more years at the time), we would see the end of the gasoline engine. Everything would be electric. I doubt anyone in the audience believed him.

I never heard a thing from him after that talk in 1997.

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I'm A CO2 Denier

This one really deserves a post of its own, and I might re-post it later. I'm running out of time (I will be leaving in a few minutes to take the granddaughters to school) so just the link for now. It's worth reading.

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Strata-X

When I get back later this morning, I will post some thoughts on Strata-X if I don't forget.

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Lots Of Cash On Hand (LOCOH)

CNOOC to raise 2015 net production CAPEX by 26 - 35%. Link here. Regular readers know where CNOOC is drilling.

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Kemp's Essay On Oil's Rally

Link here.