The Market And Energy Page, T+217 -- August 25, 2017

Updates

Later, 10:33 a.m. Central Tie: wow, that didn't take long. Fake news. Absolutely predictable. A "green site" says global warming allowed an LNG tanker to cross the northern sea route without an ice breaker. Not quite. See story below. Fake news. But the "fake news" is actually even worse: it's bad, bad news. The Russians have now figured out how to transport LNG through the pristine Arctic. LOL.

Original Post

Global warming? Nope, an ice-breaking LNG carrier: First tanker crosses northern sea route without ice breaker -- BBC News. Data points:

• commercial LNG tanker
• from Europe to Asia across the colder, norther route
• without protection of an ice-breaker for the first time
• specially-built ship (sort of takes the wind out of the global warming article, doesn't it?)
• six-and-a-half days -- a record (article doesn't say by how much it beat the old record)
• carried natural gas from Norway to South Korea 
• Christophe de Margerie: world's first and, at present, only ice-breaking LNG carrier

Hurricane Harvey: from Reuters  -- fuel prices rise; refineries shut as US braces for hurricane.

Oil is back! From Bloomberg -- China energy giant rewards investors as higher oil buoys profit.

China’s biggest oil producer passed on to investors the benefits of higher global prices with almost 12.7 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in dividends, the Beijing-based company said Thursday. While seen as a one-time payout, and small relative to international majors, the move raised expectations of more investor rewards this year from China’s state-owned giants.

Earnings by the biggest explorers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. improved as oil prices in the first half averaged about 30 percent higher than a year ago, near $53 a barrel. That’s helped them generate enough cash to meet investors’ expectations of taming debt while sustaining dividends.

Futures. The Dow 30 futures are very volatile this morning -- bouncing back and forth between 50 and 75 points to the upside on the opening. Will SRE hit $120?

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Toyota Lexus: sales slide in 1H17; sedan sales suffer; first fall in six years; one word: SUVs. Lexus fells 10% in the US (which comprises nearly half of Lexus' global sales) and 23% in Japan; sales did jump 30% in China. Competitors gaining: Daimer's recently-launched E-Class range and BMW's 5-series. Actually, it's not SUVs, apparently: it's a "model cycle issue." Mercedes and BMW launch new models; Lexus is "long in the tooth."