Do We Have A Trifecta Today? -- August 26, 2015

The trifecta:

• a few months ago, it was said China's economy overtook the US economy to become the #1 economy in the world; with the meltdown in China, is the US #1 again?
• economists forecast US durable orders to decrease in July; in fact durable orders surged 2%
• housing prices in north Texas are skyrocketing; #3 in the nation, behind Denver, San Francisco; I heard this on the radio; I think I heard Denver was #1 or #2 but I may have that wrong

I wonder if the AppleWatch is considered a "durable" product? LOL.

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Encana To Sell Haynesville Natural Gas Assets For Slightly Less Than $1 Billion

Press release:

Encana Corp. announced Tuesday that it will sell its Haynesville natural gas assets, located in northern Louisiana, to GEP Haynesville, LLC (GeoSouthern), a joint venture formed by GeoSouthern Haynesville, LP and funds managed by GSO Capital Partners LP.

Total cash consideration to Encana under the transaction is $850 million. In addition, through the transfer of current and future obligations, Encana will reduce its gathering and midstream commitments, which will be substantially complete through 2020, by approximately $480 million on an undiscounted basis. Further, Encana will transport and market GeoSouthern's Haynesville production on a fee for service basis for the next five years.

Consistent with its strategy, Encana remains focused on growing high margin production. Over 80 percent of 2015 capital will be invested in the company's four most strategic assets in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Duvernay and Montney.

During the first half of 2015, Encana's Haynesville assets produced an average 217 mmcf/d, contributed approximately 9 percent to companywide production and less than 2.5 percent to Encana's first half operating cash flow, excluding hedges.

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The Apple Page

Not Too Shabby

So, how did Apple's "total shareholder return do these past two years? Macrumors is reporting:

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue received 560,000 and 350,000 restricted stock units respectively this week, worth a combined $93.8 million based on AAPL's closing price of $103.12 on Monday.  

Cook was awarded with 280,000 performance-based restricted stock units in full based on Apple's performance relative to the other companies in the S&P 500 over a two-year period ending August 24. Apple needed to achieve a total shareholder return (TSR) of at least 41.36% to place in the top third of companies in the index, and Apple's TSR for the two-year period was 76.76%.