The Closer, T+31 -- Futures Are Up Almost 50 Points -- After A 3-Day Weekend -- February 20, 2017

US shale oil production: US shale oil production could surge by 3.5 million bopd over next five years -- Bank of America.

• the story doesn't go into specifics, but to grow by 3.5 million bopd, one could opine
• 1.5 million bopd increase in the Permian
• 0.75 million bopd increase in the Bakken
• 0.50 million bopd increase in the Eagle Ford
• 0.50 million bopd increase in STACK/SCOOP
• 0.25 million bopd increase in the Niobrara
• when you break it down like that, one could see an increase in production greater then 3.5 million bopd five years from now

Iran "finds" 2 billion bbls shale oil in its western province, Reuters, data points:

• two billion bbls of original oil in place (OOIP)
• compare to 500 billion bbls OOIP in place in the Bakken
• light oil; Bakken oil is also light oil
• Iran's proven oil reserves: 160 billion bbls, about 10% of the world's total; ranks it fourth among petroleum-rich countries (among US states it would be third or fourth)
• with proven reserves of 160 billion bbls, another 2 billion bbls is a rounding error

Market after 3-day weekend: futures mean squat ... but right now, Dow futures are up 46 points. The market must be thrilled with:

• the Boeing 787 Dreamliner rollout
• the Florida rally
• the Swedish incident clarified
• the appointment of a new National Security advisor
• that Hillary is not president
• that term limits prevented Obama from running again

Other indices: NASDAQ futures up 14 points; S&P up almost 6 points.

Apple: this is what I'm waiting for -- the new iPad Pro lineup -- to be announced in March. I'm looking at the new 10.5 inch, edge-to-edge iPad Pro. Apple is firing on all cylinders right now.

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RIP

Brenda Buttner: Perhaps the saddest story of the day. Just another reminder to live life to the fullest. From Fox News:

• Brenda Buttner, 1961 - 2017; ten to twenty years younger than most of my readers
• succumbs to cancer
• Fox News "Bulls and Bears"
• CBNC "The Money Club"
• CNBC's Washington correspondent
• BA in social studies: Harvard University
• Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University; graduating with high honors in politics and economics
• KT McFarland and Brenda Buttner at this clip 

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Trail of Tears: Casino On The Rocks

Link here. Data points:

• Prairie Knights Casino on Standing Rock Reservation
• $6 million shortfall ... and growing
• tribal council has "supplemented" a portion of the income lost from the casino with $3.2 million in donations raised from its NoDAPL  (sic) -- "GoFundMe" -- account

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How Irrelevant Has Mainstream Media Become?

A reader sent me the link to this article in Newsweek earlier today. I thought it was pretty good; might have had some comments, but debated whether it was worth posting. I went back to the article a few minutes ago, still debating whether to post it. I decided to see what others thought about the article. Comments: zero.  Nada. Zilch. Goose Egg. Nil. [February 21, 2017, 7:51 a.m. Central Time -- still no comments. Truly amazing.]

This article was published over 12 hours ago in a national media outlet on a topic one would think would be quite thought-provoking. And here it is, 12 hours later, and not one comment.

I remember back in the late 60's and all through the 70's Newsweek  was among the top three news periodicals. Now it's not even available in hard copy, only digitally. [The cheesy, trashy ads, and the very, very slow re-fresh also suggests how really badly the digital Newsweek is doing.]

The silence is deafening.