The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 1, T+48 -- April 17, 2018

Again, way too much to blog. So quickly, some short notes and will expand on them later.

Ethane: that appears to be the big story in the oil and gas sector right now.

Price of oil: "everyone" got excited about price of oil leading up to the Syrian missile attack, round 2. Incredible restraint on all sides and price of oil actually failed to move all that much.

Trump's lawyer: Hannity snared? Rush slips by. Wow, I'm glad Hillary is not president. Can you imagine all the stories about her financial dealings, going all the way back to cattle futures?

Economy: the economy along I-10 and I-20, west from Dallas/Ft Worth to San Diego/Los Angeles is absolutely "on fire." Figuratively and literally. Literally all long I-10 from Midland to Odessa to Pecos -- flaring.

Pad drilling: speaking of which -- the flares along I-10 in the Permian -- "they" seem to be developing the Permian shale differently than they did the Bakken. I preferred the Bakken. But then again, I'm biased.

Stock market: on fire. Led by Netflix. More on that later. My first post on Netflix was March 21, 2013. Netflix shares were trading for about $25 in early 2013; the stock split 7:1 in July, 2015; and is now trading for about $310. Pre-market trading, NFLX is up $22 or about 7%.

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

Kennedy clan skiing: snow records topple all across the northern tier; and more to come. And to think the Kennedy clan said we would never see snow again.  My hunch: this is going to be an incredibly hot summer. And the mainstream press -- which has not been reporting much winter weather this year -- will more than make up for that by reporting how hot it is this summer.

Scott Adams: he may just be the most fascinating commentator on social medial right now, but he is getting a few things wrong (not surprising). I don't mind when he gets things wrong; he does see things differently; a bit of fresh air. Having said that, I was greatly disappointed in his reply to someone who asked whether he was a holocaust denier.

Syrian missile attack, round 2: mainstream media is already re-writing history. Watch for more such reporting over the next few days (weeks?). On my virtual 14-inch yellow legal pad, I've mad the proverbial side-by-side lists: all the good things about the missile barrage vs all the bad things about the missile barrage. There are bout 54 things on the former list; I can't think of anything to put on the latter list (negative things coming out of the missile attack.

Phillips 66: did Buffett make yet another investment mistake? PSX is up $13+/share since Phillips 66 bought 35 million shares from Warren. I think he had to sell some shares for regulatory reasons. Can't remember. If so, not an investment mistake -- unless he might have made a bid to simply buy the rest of the company. LOL.

Shell: going green -- no good deed goes unpunished.