Thursday's Daily Activity Report Has Been Posted -- August 5, 2016

Active rigs:

	8/5/2016	08/05/2015	08/05/2014	08/05/2013	08/05/2012
Active Rigs	33	74	193	183	206

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From Thursday's daily activity report:

Three new permits:

• Operators: Crescent Point Energy (2), CLR
• Fields: Ellisville (Williams), Jim Creek (Dunn)
• Comments:

Two permit renewals:

• Resource Energy Can-Am, a Marshall permit in Divide County
• BR, a Glacier permit in McKenzie

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RBN Energy: update on pipeline build-outs in the Northeast; watching sausage being made.

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Other News And Comments

Huge jobs report: expectations, around 190,000. Actual 255,000. Unemployment rate does not change; folks rushing out looking for jobs. Local talk radio says new immigrants taking available jobs offsets any gain that would have dropped the unemployment rate. Regardless, at 4.9%, the US is at full employment. Okay.

The market reaction: up 110 144 151 points in early trading.

US trade deficit: rises $44.6 billion; biggest in 10 months; I didn't read the story but one assumes this is mostly due to strength of the dollar, following Brexit, and perhaps, to some extent, a better US economy. I was wrong. Here's what the AP said:

The U.S. trade deficit increased to the highest point in 10 months, driven up by a big rise in imports of oil and Chinese-made computers, cell phones and clothing.

The deficit rose to $44.5 billion in June, 8.7 percent higher than a revised May deficit of $41 billion, the Commerce Department reported Friday. It was the biggest gap between what America sells abroad and what the country imports since a $44.6 billion deficit last August.

Exports, which have struggled this year because of the strong dollar and global weakness, edged up 0.3 percent to $183.2 billion. Imports rose a faster 1.9 percent to $227.7 billion, led by a 19.4 percent jump in petroleum imports.

Ford sets sales record in China. From SeekingAlpha:

• Ford  announces it sold 88,189 vehicles in China during July through its joint ventures, up 15% Y/Y. The sales mark was a record for the month
• The Changan Ford JV sales rose 20% to 69,074 vehicles. Sales for the Jiangling Motor Corporation were up 6% to 17,748 vehicles
• Ford YTD China sales are up 6% to 652,836 vehicles.

How's my favorite stock doing on a huge "UP" day in the market? TSLA is trading flat; was negative slightly; now in the green slightly. 

At the other end of the spectrum? MDU is slightly negative. 

SRE is struggling: down almost 2%. 

An abbreviated Olympic schedule has been posted at the side bar at the right. 

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Market At Midday

For a market that exploded on the upside (+150 points on the Dow) after the July jobs report, finding some issues that are doing really well has been difficult. There were only 137 issues hitting new 52-week highs by mid-day, including none that I'm even vaguely interested in. In fact, many issues that I enjoy following, whether invested or now, were trading flat, with a slight negative showing. There were only 2 issues hitting 52-week lows.