GDP; Majors Report Earnings Today -- October 27, 2017

Most incredible headline of the day. There were a lot of incredible headlines today but this one may simply be the most incredible. Remember: Amazon is a mature company. Its earnings growth should be leveling off. And then this headline: Amazon revenue rises 34%. Say what? That's absolutely amazing. Here's the link to the WSJ story. And the headline just below that one over at the Drudge Report: UPS ramps up spending to keep up with online shoppers. UPS drives through our apartment complex daily, stopping at no less than five units -- on slow days. I order something from Amazon and it arrives 1.5 days later. I actually have to request Amazon to delay shipping so I don't have Uber drivers looking for my address on dark and stormy nights. Pretty soon it appears folks will be able to order opioids through Amazon using bitcoin.

Wow, wow, wow. Making American great, huh? How about this. Forecast, 2.7% by some; 2.5% others. GDP for 3Q17 came in at 3.0%. Despite the hurricanes, the US economy unexpectedly  -- there's that word used again by the mainstream media -- maintained a brisk pace of growth. 

Never saw this coming: CVS Health looking to buy Aetna. Story everywhere; no link.

CVX: misses

• earnings: $1.03 vs 68 cents a year earlier but excluding one-time earnings, earned 85 cents vs 98 cents forecast (I call that a mixed report; not so much a miss)
• production jumped 8 percent to 2.7 million boepd (not sure why headline said "Chevron profit misses estimates on output decline)
• average sales price per bbl $42 this quarter vs $37 a year ago
• cash flow: $14.3 billion compared with $9.0 billion one year ago

XOM: beats

• earnings: 93 cents vs 87 cents; storm cut earnings by another 4 cents
• revenue beat: $66.165 billion vs $63.389 billion

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Explanation escapes me. Why is wind energy the one entity not taxed in North Dakota? This is not about "liking" or "not liking" wind energy. It's about fairness. From The Dickinson Press:

Death and taxes may be certainties in life, but the wind seems to be above them both—yet the question of taxing the wind remains contentious for North Dakota legislators.

"The state does not collect a tax on wind generation of electricity. It does on coal, we have a tax on oil ... that's the question. Wind has come under fire. Some don't like wind," Sen. Rich Wardner, R-District 37 said at a town hall meeting this week in Dickinson.

Wardner, who serves on the Energy Development and Transmission committee, said that the realities of the energy market and the lack of real revenue-generation tend to make him lean against implementing any tax on wind-generated energy in the state. [Explain to me again how wind energy survives without generating revenue? Oh, that's right. For investors in wind, it's not about revenue.)

Active rigs:

$52.57→	10/27/2017	10/27/2016	10/27/2015	10/27/2014	10/27/2013
Active Rigs	53	35	68	195	182

RBN Energy: in with a new crude oil pipeline and maybe out with another.

Over the past few years, rising production in the Canadian oil sands and U.S. shale plays such as the Bakken, Permian and Eagle Ford has given refiners new options for sourcing their crude, causing changes in oil pipeline utilization and prompting the development of new pipelines — or the reversal of existing pipes.

A prime example of all this is playing out in Memphis, TN, where a Valero Energy refinery will be shifting from mostly U.S. Gulf Coast-sourced light crude to light crude that will flow in on the new Diamond Pipeline from the Cushing, OK, crude storage hub.

Valero’s change in crude sourcing will be yet another blow to the 1.2-MMb/d Capline Pipeline, which for decades has moved crude north from the Gulf Coast to Patoka, IL, and other points along the way, including western Tennessee. Today, we look at the thinking and economics behind Valero’s plan and at the latest news on Capline.

Not exactly what we expected, the fox guarding the hen house: from Bloomberg --

Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange is gunning for the exclusive right to list shares of oil giant Aramco and will compete with other bourses seeking a piece of what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering, the head of the Saudi exchange said.

The kingdom plans next year to sell a stake in Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as the world’s biggest oil exporter is known formally, and exchanges in London and New York are among those vying for a role.

Note exactly what we expected, the fox inside the hen house: from Bloomberg:

Iraq’s North Oil Co. is working with the Kurdish Kar Group to resume pumping at two disputed oil fields that halted output after government troops recaptured them from Kurdish forces, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

Bai Hassan and Avana oil fields are still not exporting since forces of the central government in Baghdad overtook areas in Kirkuk province from Kurdish troops last week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. The fields had been pumping an estimated 275,000 barrels a day before the Iraqi offensive.