Two Words Janet Yellen Doesn't Like To See In Same Phrase, Much Less Same Sentence: GDP Anemic. In Any Order -- January 29, 2016

Updates

February 2, 2016: how bad are things going for Janet, and by extension, Hussein? The Fed, apparently, is discussing with US banks on the repercussions of following the Japanese lead (see below) and going to "negative rates." They're calling it a "stress test." The Fed is running out of arrows in its quiver.
 

Original Post

 

This pretty much confirms what "gasoline demand" predicted six months ago. From the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Economy Grew Anemic 0.7% in Fourth Quarter. A sign of flagging momentum amid global weakness and financial market turmoil. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected GDP to grow at a 0.8% pace in the October-to-December span.

And so it goes.

Janet Yellen's decision to "raise rates" last quarter was quite prescient. She's off to a great start.

By the way, did you all see that Japan has lowered its "fed rate"? Yup, the Japanese "fed rate" is now in negative territory: depositors pay banks to hold their money. Ms Yamaguchi will wonder why her 10,000 yen is worth only 9,999 yen a year from now.

Let's see, who's reporting today?

• Chevron misses by 82 cents; took a huge loss vs 46-cent-profit forecast. Not a good day for someone.
• Mastercard reports that its profit rose 11% and shares drop as much as Chevron shares fell; beat by 10 cents, earning 79 cents vs 69 cents forecast.
• Phillips 66 reports all kinds of things: "suffers from sharp drop in refining margins" (did Warren Buffett blow it again?); "profit plunges 43%; reports $1.20 per share vs $1.25 forecast. Wow, not a good day for Warren. We talked about refining margins just two days ago. See this link. When Warren was buying PSX, refining margins were $1.00/US gallon of gasoline; recently, as low as 25 cents. That huge glut of gasoline is the reason no doubt; if the supply of gasoline rises much more, the Japanese will start giving it away for free.

And then it should be interesting to see what Amazon did -- after posting biggest profit in its history, its shares plunge almost 15%. Amazon has recovered a bit; after-hours yesterday Amazon had dropped as much as 15%; this morning, Amazon is down less than 10%.

As I've said many, many times, this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, or travel decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Speaking of travel, by the way, there is an interesting article in this week's issue of The New Yorker, an essay on air travel, "Air Head," by Nathan Heller, a frequent flyer.

Like many frequent fliers, though, I claim to find advantage in basic routine. I know to book a window seat on red-eyes and an aisle in the daytime. I can explain why a 7 A.M. departure from New York is the best flight to California, what snack is safest in Delta's lounge, and which seat is usually the first out. (It's not in first class.) I can mimic the progression of cabin pings and flap extensions in a Boeing, or the hydraulic bark of an Airbus. These skills have narrow applications, but, then, so does CPR. Their goal is to aver the interminable lines and vanished hours that seem, at times, maybe a little worse than death.

No link; if interested, I'm sure one can google it.

Speaking of air travel makes me think of speed which reminds me of the Wall Street Journal yesterday with this headline:  Free Shipping Alone Isn’t Enough: Online Retailers Go for Speed Net-a-Porter runs a fleet of vans and offers same-day shipping in three cities; Everlane ups the ante with one-hour shipping. Long-time readers will remember my post on "the next big thing": Same-Day Delivery -- Original Post. Yes, that was back on November 21, 2013, and it was the stand-alone post on "the next big thing." Yeah, that's pretty cool.

I updated the Bakken wells that will be reported today. And here they are, reported also at another post:

• 29454, 586, Triangle USA, Little Muddy 9H, Williston, t8/15; cum 82K 11/15;
• 30513, SI/NC, MRO, Anton 34-33TFH, Reunion Bay, no production data,
• 31352, SI/NC, EOG, Wayzetta 97-3019H, Parshall, no production data,
• 31467, SI/NC, SM Energy, Herland 14-12HN, Burg,

Wow, that's a nice round number. Exactly 100 wells came off the confidential list through the last business day in January, 2016. Yes, there are two more days in January but we won't know the results of wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend until Monday.