The Megyn Poll; Light-Truck Demand Surges -- December 1, 2016

New poll at sidebar at the right.

Later: I just noticed -- I am so anti-CNN that the network is not even on my radar scope. I completely forgot about CNN. Having said that, I can't imagine Megyn jumping to CNN but I could be wrong -- money is a powerful persuader.

Later: wow! Now I see The Drudge Report has put up a poll, asking the same question, Megyn? CNN or Fox News.

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The Devil Made Me Do It

From adweek:

CNN was the most-watched network, broadcast or cable, among adults 25-54 on election night, November 8, 2016. 

And this is why:

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Flashback

Some of the waste in the system ... like a pacemaker for a 99-year-old woman who still has a zest for life.

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Twitter

It is incredibly refreshing to have a president speak to America directly without:

• mainstream media filtering what he has to say
• having it word-smithed by his staff before tweeting it 

I look forward to watching MSNBC "Morning Joe" every morning just to see what the president-elect might have tweeted overnight and how the press is responding to it.

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November Auto Sales

Headline: GM, Ford, Toyota post strong November auto sales.

• GM: sales rose 10%; average sale - $36,000 (about $4,000 higher than the industry average)
• Toyota: narrowly outsold fold (by just 100 vehicles)
• Ford: sales rose 5%; retail sales up 10% but fleet sales down 9%
• Toyota: sales rose 4%
• "Usually, Ford is #2 in sales; Toyota, #3."
• Nissan: beat expectations; sales rose 7.5%
• Chrysler: yet to report; many forecasting as much as a 14% drop 

Light-truck demand surges -- Bloomberg:

Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., and most other major automakers beat analysts’ estimates for U.S. sales on demand for pickups and sport utility vehicles, boosted by holiday-season dealmaking. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, with a rare stumble in Jeep sales, posted a decline that was bigger than predicted.

Ford shares rose the most in four years after the company reported a 5.1 percent sales increase that included the highest November deliveries for F-Series trucks since 2001, far exceeding the average estimate. GM’s light-vehicle sales gained 10 percent, aided by incentives topping $10,000 on some Silverado pickups and Suburban SUVs. Sales also topped forecasts at Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

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US Gasoline Demand

Continues to decline; back to 2015 levels.

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The Amazon Page

Over at Forbes: worried about a monopoly. The secondary headlines suggest the article will talk about all of Amazon's interests. A quick scan of the article suggested only the on-line retail division of Amazon was discussed. But I could be wrong.

It's amazing what folks call monopolies these days. First of all, Amazon sells very few products of its own. One can probably count the number of Amazon-branded products on two hands. It does the same thing as: Wal-Mart, Target, JCPenney, Albertsons, Barnes and Nobel, Apple, and hundreds of other companies -- it's a retailer. It does retail very, very well. But I would have trouble calling it a monopoly. A monopoly suggests to me a company that has no competition. I can go a hundred different places if I want to buy something on-line.

Interestingly, if I want cable internet, I have one choice: Time Warner. Possibly ATT now reaches into our neighborhood. When we moved in, ATT did not reach our apartment complex. Satellite is available but I don't want satellite and there's no place for a dish to be placed except on someone else's roof or patio. Whatever.

Oh, which reminds me, back in the good ol' days, there was only one computer operating system: WINTEL. Fortunately Apple came along before the government started calling Microsoft a monopoly.

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The Market

This is simply amazing.

The Dow 30 is hitting new records today. I assume the shorts -- especially in the oil and gas sector -- are really getting squeezed. 

The last half of November, 2016, will forever be known as the Trump rally. The first week in December, 2016, will be forever known as the Saudi rally. I suppose sometime between now and then we will see the Santa Claus rally and it SantaTrumpsSaudi it's going to be quite a rally. Hang on.

Oil: $45 before the OPEC meeting, and trending down. Today, it's up over $52.

Dow 30,

• new highs: 210 -- including -- Aetna, Apache, BHI, CVX, CLR, Devon Energy, EOG, ERF, ONEOK, Oasis, SLB, Statoil, WPX

• new lows: 83

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The Political Page

It's truly amazing. The Democrats have just taken the worst shellacking possible over the past eight years, losing the House, losing the Senate, losing the presidency, losing governorships and legislative houses across the country, and now they are considering electing a former Nation of Islam / Farrakhan supporter as their DNC chairperson.

If the GOP even considered a former member of the KKK to be dog catcher it would be the end of the GOP as we know it.

Wow: to the Democrats have at it.