The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 3, T+7 -- May 15 2018

Korean summit off? Kim Jong-Un cancels summit. Unhappy with ungoing US-SOKO military exercises. The critics were correct: even if a summit is held, even if a piece of paper is signed, it won't be "worth the paper it's written on" when signed by a guy like Kim Jong-Un. Trump needs to cancel this summit sooner than later.

API, weekly US crude oil inventories: a build of 4.854 million bbls. Huge. After the data release, WTI: flat. down 2 cents. From oilprice.com --

The American Petroleum Institute reported a surprise build of 4.854 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories for the week ending May 11, compared to analyst expectations that this week would see a smaller draw in crude oil inventories of 763,000 barrels.

Something suggests to me that "shale" has not yet seen its best days, although I'm not sure how "best days" is defined. But considering the smartest guys in the world expected US crude oil inventories to drop about a million bbls but instead rose by almost 5 million bbls seems quite remarkable.

Gasoline? Same link: a bigger draw than expected. The API reported a draw in gasoline inventories for week ending May 11 in the amount of 3.369 million barrels—a bigger draw than the 1.421-million-barrel draw that analysts had expected. So, a gasoline withdrawal of let's say 4 million bbls vs 1 million bbls anticipated.

Market close:

• API: US crude oil inventories -- see above.
• TSLA: down $8 during the day; continues to fall slightly -- very slightly -- in after-market trading
• COP: closed slightly lower, but at $70.59, hit a 52-week high
• RDS-B: closed slightly lower, but at $75.59, hit a 52-week high
• CVX: slightly lower today, but still offering a great dividend
• UNP: essentially flat
• BTC-USD: down 1.7%
• ETH-USD: down 1.96%

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Job Watch

Original CNBC link is here. Job openings hit a fresh record in March, further defying opinion that the labor market is tightening and near full.

• Job openings in March rose 472,000 from February and hit a fresh record, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).
• Openings jumped in professional and business services, construction and transportation, warehousing and utilities.

Re-tweeted by the president here, May 15, 2018--

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As One Reader Said, "Oops"

I heard part of the story yesterday but did not know "who" lost the weapons. From the Omaha World-Herald: 

The Air Force is offering $5,000 for leads on the whereabouts of a box of explosive grenade rounds that airmen accidentally dropped on a road in North Dakota while traveling between two intercontinental ballistic missile silos — the facilities scattered across the Great Plains that stand ready to launch nuclear warheads at a moment's notice.

Airmen from the 91st Missile Wing Security Forces team, Minot AFB, ND, were traveling on gravel roads May 1 on an American Indian reservation in North Dakota when the back hatch of their vehicle opened and a container filled with the explosive ammunition fell out.

On May 11, the Air Force sent more than 100 airmen to walk the entire 6-mile route where the grenades were probably lost. But the box of explosives wasn't found.

He said the box had been lost near Parshall, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

The sheriff said his office wasn't notified until three days after the airmen lost the explosives.