Historic Milestone: First Time In History -- China #1 In Crude Oil Imports; For First Time, US Drops To #2 -- August 4, 2017

Link here.

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The Energy And Market Page
With A Little Politics

Jobs added under President Trump: 1.07 million.

Breaking news: after today's great jobs report, CNBC said Treasury yields jumped ... the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes climbed to 2.266%. So, what was it yesterday? 2.23%. That's quite a jump. On a million dollars, that's $360.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

"Stronger dollar" today.

WTI: up 0.88%. Just below $50.

NYSE:

• new highs, 136, including -- Aetna (exiting all ObamaCare exchanges in 2018); BRK-B; CIGNA (exits Maryland's ObamaCare exchange); Humana (to fully exit ObamaCare in 2018); Raytheon; Northrop Gumman; Weight Watchers. 
• new lows, 50, including Avon, Blue Apron - I thought earlier this week CNBC was "excited" about Blue Apron, but I could be wrong.

Dow 30: on track to hit another record; would be the 8th consecutive record close (?). S&P 500, Nasdaq in the green. As we move closer to the close, it looks like the numbers are going up ... going into the weekend.  Yup, closed up over 60 points. 8th consecutive record close -- long streak of records since February, 2017. Fox says 8th straight day for record close; CNBC has a crawler says the 9th straight day. On-line CNBC says 8th straight day. Let's see if CNBC changes its crawler. Ah, there it is -- just changed the crawler. Nope, now back to 9th straight day of gains. What is it, eight or nine days?

Let's see:

• July 19, 21,640
• July 20, 21,611
• July 21, 21,580
• July 24, 21,513
• July 25, 21,613 - 1
• July 26, 21,711 - 2
• July 27, 21,796 - 3
• July 28, 21,830 - 4
• July 31, 21,891 -5
• Aug 1, 21,963 - 6
• Aug 2, 22,016 -7
• Aug 3, 22,026 -8
• Aug 4, 22,092 -9

I see how "they" got nine straight days. It's nine straight days of day-over-day closing highs but the first day (July 25) did not hit a new high. So, both are correct: 8th consecutive record close; 9th consecutive days of gains; very subtle differences. Reuters.

Theme of the day: will there be enough American workers for all the jobs being created? Helloooo.... the labor participation rate is 63%. Now they're worrying about wage inflation.

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Obamacare

Updates

August 7, 2017: Anthem to "bow out of" ObamaCare exchange in Nevada, Georgia, next year (2018). Cited uncertainty for future of ObamaCare as one reason. Losing money might be another reason.

August 1, 2017 (posted August 5, 2017): Link here. Rachel Maddow will not be covering this story.

Monthly premiums for California health insurance plans sold under former President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul will rise by an average of 12.5 percent next year, officials said Tuesday.

A major insurance carrier will also stop offering the plans in most of the state, forcing about 10 percent of people insured through Covered California to buy a new plan. Anthem Blue Cross will continue offering plans only in Santa Clara County and parts of Northern California and the Central Valley.

Covered California’s announcement on 2018 pricing comes at a time of extreme uncertainty about the future of the U.S. health care system. A Republican plan to unwind key pieces of the Affordable Care Act failed in the U.S. Senate last week, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged lawmakers to keep working on it. Trump has threatened to end payments that insurance companies receive to keep down out-of-pocket costs for lower-income consumers.

Premiums for consumers on “silver tier” plans, the most popular, could spike even more if those subsidies are taken away, officials said.

The DEMS and three RINOs in the US Senate appear to have no problem with this.

Original Post

The other theme of the day: insurers exiting ObamaCare are hitting new all-time highs. This is NOT the time for Congress to get back into the ObamaCare issue. Let ObamaCare run its course.

I'll come back to this later -- the numbers are clearest yet, listen to the numbers for yourself; enlightening:

Cigna CEO: Obamacare marketplace remains ‘challenging’ for 2017 and 2018 from CNBC:



We'll get the Molina CEO interview later: right now it's live. Molina acting-CEO says rate increases need to be 55%. Wow, rate increases of 55%. Remember, Molina was the darling of ObamaCare advocates. Illinois braces for ObamaCare insurance premiums to jump 43% next year.

Aetna's Bertolini spoke yesterday: "ObamaCare cannot be repealed, period."

BRK earnings: first headline -- mediocre.

Trolling: Newsweek cover? Trolling. No better than a blog. Talk about poor timing -- suggesting Trump administration not doing anything -- when market hits a new record high for the 34th time this year (?).