The Energy And Market Page, Part 2, T+312 -- November 29, 2017

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UNP: recently hiked its dividend 10%. Earlier this morning, shares hit a new 52-week high, but in afternoon trading really took off. Whoo-hoo. UNP shares jumped almost 4% (up $3.38) and are now trading above $121.

AAPL: on the other hand, not doing so well; two bad days in a row during which the market has surged. Down another 2.5% this afternoon, trading about $169. Hackers reported, and Apple confirmed, a security flaw but Apple has already released a patch to fix the vulnerability. It seems it would be a stretch that this issue is affecting Apple to this degree but I suppose it's possible. If so, the issue should be short-lived.

PLM: a cobalt shortage? From The WSJ, Supply will react too. Companies that operate copper and nickel mines, where cobalt is co-produced, are targeting expansion, and there are some pure-play cobalt mines being planned that could start producing shortly after the projected shortage hits. Comments? 130 -- a huge number of comments; a lot of folks interested in this topic. Gist of comments: it's all about Tesla, and that's why there were so many comments.

Tagged, lost decade. From The WSJ, US economy reaches its potential output for the first time in a decade. Let's see. Who was president this past decade? Oh, that's right.  U.S. GDP growth revised up to 3.3% rate for third quarter, with more business investment in equipment and software, and heftier government spending. Those commenting have it exactly right -- at 3.3% the US has not reached its potential. Reaching full potential -- at least 5 - 7% growth. Seriously.

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The Literary Page

In one paragraph, Jean Moorcroft Wilson explained the origins of WWI in her biography of Siegfried Sassoon. A few quick wiki checks to fill in the gaps and I now have my world view of the origins of WWI -- something I couldn't figure out despite years of reading about WWI off and on. Pretty impressive that an authority on war poets could explain this much history in one paragraph. My world view may be wrong, but I at least have the scaffolding now to begin any serious re-reading of WWI history.