Jumping The Gun On Bringing Rigs Back On-Line? McDonalds; The Market; And Genes -- July 26, 2016

I will leave you with this before going biking. I should be back on the net by noon.

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=27232.

Have operators "jumped the gun"?

Sounds like a great question for a poll.

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The Market

At midday, the NYSE with 157 new 52-week highs, including:

• Exelon
• Murphy USA
• Sprint

Only one issue hitting a new 52-week low.

It appears the "buzz" on Wall Street has to do with fast food restaurants in the US. With McDonald's missing estimates, at least one analyst apparently is warning that US restaurants are headed into recession. One quote from Bloomberg: other chains such as Red Robin fumble as pessimism grows.

Analysts such as Stifel Financial Corp.’s Paul Westra have raised concerns that the restaurant sector is hitting a downturn, a harbinger for a broader economic slump in the U.S. next year. Fast-food rivals such as Wendy’s Co. also are piling on discounts and promotions, putting pressure on McDonald’s to keep prices low. That’s undercut the benefit of adding all-day breakfast in the U.S. last year.

Regarding McDonald's:

Same-store sales grew 3.1 percent globally. Analysts projected a 3.6 percent increase on average.

The article did not say much about this but I think a big story line is this:

McDonald’s also is coping with about $230 million in refranchising and moving expenses. The company is selling off about 4,000 of its company-owned restaurants to independent owners, part of a push to limit its risks and expenses. The goal is to have 95 percent of restaurants in the hands of independent owners.

ObamaCare, minimum wages, sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits.

Speaking of McDonald's, Business Insider has an interesting note: franchisees are complaining that customers are now "trading down to cheaper menu items":

"Average transaction values for lunch and dinner have fallen as a consequence, something that has put a dampener on overall sales growth, even if it has been helpful to volumes," according to one analyst. 

"In most markets the pricing differential between breakfast items and lunch and dinner items is fairly pronounced, and this may be something McDonald's needs to assess over the next six months to see if there is any way to remedy the down-trading trend without losing customers."

Franchisees have warned that customers are trading down to cheaper breakfast menu items during lunch and dinner now that breakfast is available all day.

"The solution to all of this [is] in more automation — something that McDonald's has started but is still a long way off perfecting," Saunders wrote. "If McDonald's is to deliver its changes profitably, it needs to forge ahead with this model so that it can simultaneously keep a cap on labor costs at its restaurants while delivering superior products, service, and growth."

I don't go to McDonald's much any more, but I have visited two different McDonald's on two different occasions in the past two weeks. I generally don't go at peak times, but I'm not visiting at the least busy times either.

In one case, it seemed the number of employees was about the right number, perhaps slightly a bit light but very efficient. This particular McDonald's was operated by middle-age Hispanics and it was predominantly Hispanic on both sides of the counter. At the second location, in a very white, upscale neighborhood, the McDonald's seemed to be way overstaffed. It was about 7:00 p.m. and perhaps the staff was augmented during the peak evening business and now things had slowed down.

Having said that, this McDonald's was made-up of an entirely different type of employee: as far as I could tell, all inner city/urban youth, non-Hispanic white and African-American. They were highly inefficient and more interested in socializing than in working. I was the only one at the counter, and it was an awkward 60 - 120 seconds before one of the younger kids thought maybe I was there to order something. Without question, this operation was overstaffed by at least one, and possibly two people.

The white teen-ager taking my order seemed to have difficulty making change. But that's another story.

But you can't beat the price. I needed to pick up a quick post-swimming snack for our granddaughter: for 84 cents I got two raisin oatmeal cookies which she said were delicious.
 

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The Gene: An Intimate History

Siddhartha Mukherjee

c. 2016

Author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography Of Cancer

The author divides the story into six parts, each covering a particular theme in chronological order. For example, Part Two is "the sum of the parts, there are only the parts" which covers the period from 1930 to 1970.

I am most interested in his recounting the events in the 1950's and then the current research into epigenetics, which he covers in Part Five, "through the looking glass," 2001 - 2015.

[Oh, wow, I haven't seen this before. Among the glossy photographs, three of the eight pages are terribly awful -- whole portions of the glossy photographs are missing. It appears the librarian did not notice; should have asked for a better copy.]

The photos are stock photos from other sources; they do not add much to the book.

I do have to say the author writes very well. What little I have read, I really enjoy. I would recommend it to our older granddaughter to read.