The Market And Energy Page, With Some Politics Thrown In, T+25 -- February 15, 2018

Guns: more Minnesotans own guns; violent crime remains low. 

Minnesota set a record last year for the number of gun background checks the FBI conducted in the state. More people are carrying guns than ever before, but the crime rate remains relatively low. 

Non-energy: if FBI director Christopher Wray doesn't have the "right" answers for President Trump regarding the Florida shooter, someone needs to resign.

Apple: I've taken a month off from non-energy business news so I am missing a lot. I will still -- maybe 45 seconds/day -- look for some specific non-energy business item on the net but that's about it. A couple days ago I said that Apple's HomePod was going to be huge (posted earlier). Apparently Warren Buffett agrees -- he took advantage of the sell-off and bought huge amount of shares of AAPL, while selling a boatload of IBM. There may be some hyperbole in there and some inaccuracies but I won't be checking. If this is important to you, go to the source. Meanwhile, back to APPL. After the news, APPL jumped about $6/share after several earlier days of gains. Apple has a lot going for it right now and more and more, the iPhone is becoming less of a story for those paying attention. [February 17, 2018: AAPL is now Warren Buffett's largest equity holding, surpassing Wells Fargo. Wow.]

Treasuries: now that I am not watching television business news, I do check the yield on 10-year Treasuries on the internet. As a long term investor in the market, I have "positive" feelings about the yield "curve" as they say. I wish Louis Rukeyser was still with us. I haven't seen/heard Cramer in ten days or so; don't miss him. The last time I saw him he was ranting and raving about the market plummeting; he needed to help long-term investors instead of ranting and raving. So, I haven't seen him in the past ten days or so and don't miss him.

Boeing: not this year, not next year, but the following year (2020), Boeing plans to be producing one "plane" every ten (10) hours. Meanwhile, not this year, not next year, but the following year (2020), Elon Musk will be ramping up to 1,000 cars/week after having missed almost every other forecast for the past three years. He will probably be talking about boring a tunnel "under the sea" between Newark, NJ, and Land's End, England. There may be some hyperbole in there and some inaccuracies but I won't be checking. If this is important to you, go to the source. I haven't checked shares of Boeing airlines, but my hunch is they are doing quite well, thank you very much.

Biking: I was out biking today -- a bit longer than usual because the weather was so nice. Observations:

• McDonald's is busier than ever; most of it drive-through; some Uber deliveries
• lots and lots of commercial/retail construction in the Grapevine, TX, area
• many, many new service stations and/or renovation of same; service stations at both of the McDonald's in the local area undergoing major renovations; one may be complete - I haven't been there in quite some time
• trucks -- the 18-wheelers -- their drivers continue to impress me. I have no problems with trucks while biking -- I give them huge leeway and signal my intentions very clearly -- always letting the drive know I will give him/her the right-of-way by a wide margin even if it means sitting through another light or two
• cars seem more dangerous than 18-wheelers

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Boring Under The Sea

Back to the Future, 1985