Stock market blues? One could have bought a share of Southwest Airlines (LUV) for less than $10 back in 2012; today, LUV is trading near $50.
First time unemployment claims:
down 6,000. Forecast: 265,000 (previous 253,000). Actual: 247,000. Forecast was for a 12,000 increase; in fact, dropped 6,000. Huge miss by analysts? Four-week rolling average: 260,500.
This is a four-decade low.
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Gartman anxiety:
Uber overtakes rental cars among business travelers. My son-in-law regularly routinely uses Uber, and he travels a lot. Gartman: Big Oil's biggest fear -- Uber.
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GM's profits doubles.
Link over at the WSJ. Wasn't there
a report recently that GM won't be paying federal income taxes for decades (an old link, but I thought there was a more recent story also):
The tax benefit stems from so-called tax-loss carry-forwards and other
provisions, which allow companies to use losses in prior years and costs
related to pensions and other expenses to shield profits from U.S.
taxes for up to 20 years. In GM's case, the losses stem from years prior
to when GM entered bankruptcy.
The gift that keeps on giving.
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Amazon to add 1,000 jobs at Dallas fulfillment center.
Dallas Morning News is reporting:
Amazon.com said it’s planning a sixth Texas fulfillment center and its fourth in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.The newest facility will be in Fort Worth at 15201 Heritage Parkway.
Amazon already has one fulfillment center that opened in 2013 nearby in
Haslet.
The 1 million-square-foot center will process and ship smaller
merchandise orders such as books, electronics and toys. It’s being
developed by Trammell Crow Co. and Prudential.
Amazon said the new building will employ 1,000 people. The company
already has more than 8,000 full-time hourly employees in Texas.
The Seattle-based online retailer’s other Texas fulfillment centers
are in Coppell, southern Dallas and Schertz, which is near San Antonio. A
fifth location is under construction in San Marcos.
Coppell is on the north side of the DFW airport. The new site is along 35W, near the I-35W- SH114 interchange, and just south of the Texas Motor Speedway.
Bottom line: three (3) in the DFW metroplex area; three (3) in the San Antonio area. None in Houston; none in west Texas.
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KMI shelves $3 billion natural gas pipeline through Massachsetts, New Hampshire; didn't get the necessary commitments.
AP is reporting:
The decision also raises more
questions for Massachusetts' energy future, coming on the heels of the
announcement to shutter the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in May 2019.
Jim
Roche, president of the Business and Industry Association of New
Hampshire, said Kinder Morgan's decision could put pressure on
regulators to approve other infrastructure projects to help ease
electricity prices in New Hampshire and New England.
Those energy prices are among the highest in the U.S.
Not to worry.
Consolidated Edison and Crestwood Equity Partners have entered into an agreement to form Stagecoach Gas Services for the northeast:
ConEd to purchase a
50 percent stake in a new entity that will hold Crestwood Equity
Partners LP's natural gas pipeline and storage business
for $975 million.
The joint
venture will own natural gas pipelines and storage facilities that
provide a critical link between natural gas fields and Northeast U.S.
markets.
The new entity,
Stagecoach Gas Services LLC, will have an implied market value of about
$2 billion, the companies said in a statement.
Not to worry.
GE will increase capacity in Connecticut:
General Electric Co. is poised to announce a deal to upgrade a U.S.
power plant with its newest gas turbine and equipment from the recently
acquired Alstom energy business.
Under the latest agreement, GE will supply one HA, a steam turbine and
associated equipment to expand the Bridgeport Harbor Generating Station
in Connecticut.
The upgraded plant, which will be able to supply enough
energy to power almost 500,000 homes, is scheduled to begin commercial
operations in 2019, GE said.
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OPEC might discuss a production freeze at the June meeting.
Active rigs:
| 4/21/2016 | 04/21/2015 | 04/21/2014 | 04/21/2013 | 04/21/2012 |
|---|
| Active Rigs | 28 | 91 | 184 | 185 | 210 |
RBN Energy:
update on the Panama Canal.
GDP Now:
no change; 1Q16 GDP forecast -- 0.3%.
The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2016 is 0.3 percent
on April 19, unchanged from April 13. After last Thursday's Consumer
Price Index release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
forecast for first-quarter real consumer spending growth ticked up from
1.8 percent to 1.9 percent.
After this morning's report on new
residential construction from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department
of Housing and Urban Development, the forecast for real residential
investment growth declined from 9.0 percent to 8.5 percent.
Sun Edison one big mess.
The deal-making frenzy that hastened SunEdison Inc.
’s collapse could continue to cause problems for the solar-power company during any bankruptcy.
Potential
legal damages stemming from deals SunEdison failed to close while its
finances were deteriorating could total hundreds of millions of dollars,
according to court filings and people familiar with the deals.
Litigation over the failed deals could add to the company’s already
lengthy list of creditors and possibly extend to its publicly traded
subsidiaries.
SunEdison, once a darling of the clean-power
industry, has lost 99% of its market value since last summer and is
working with advisers on a chapter 11 filing. The company owes creditors nearly $10 billion, according
to regulatory filings.
SunEdison’s swift rise and fall, chronicled in a Wall Street Journal article last week,
was fueled by its appetite for takeovers and the availability of cheap
money from Wall Street to finance them. When that financing dried up
during a volatile period in the markets and a slide in oil prices,
SunEdison backed out of several transactions.
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When The Minivan Comes Without a Booster Seat
