NASDAQ Hits Another All-Time Record; S&P 500 Over 2,800 Again, T+43 -- July 13, 2018

Back on the net much sooner than expected. Morning commute was awesome. More on that later. Perhaps.

I mentioned this to one of my granddaughters a few days ago: Starbucks' plan to ban plastic straws will actually result in more, not less, plastic being used. Starbucks will design their plastic caps to incorporate a "plastic" alternative. Restaurants will follow suit. Very similar situation with regard to EVs. The life-cycle of an EV is more damaging to the environment than conventional internal combustion engines. But banning plastic straws and advocating EVs makes folks feel good.

*************************

The Commute

Wow, what a surprise. This week the oldest granddaughter is enrolled in a summer camp about thirty-five minutes east of where we live. We drive through the DFW morning commute. Normally, the swing north of the airport is a parking lot or moves very slowly, but today, easily 55 mph through that choke point, and then 75 mph through the recently-widened "121" near Lewisville on the way to Plano (think Toyota). Only one item of note. A Honda Fit and I tried to move into the same lane at the same time; the other driver never saw us, but slowed down a bit, let that Fit fit in ahead of me; nicely done, and, again, off to the races.

Dropped off Arianna and have found a beautiful, large -- really large -- Starbucks on Preston, near Old Shepherd Road. First time here. I knew it was in the area, but did not know exact location. Turned into mall, and then noted three or four cars driving through the mall parking lot -- nothing is open this time of day -- why would three or four cars be driving through a mall parking lot? Yup, you guessed it. I followed them, guessing they were heading for a Starbucks. They were.

*******************************

Back to Business

Market: NASDAQ hits another all-time high. The S&P 500 back up over 2,800 again.

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

COP (BR):donates $25,000 to disaster relief efforts following Watford City tornado.

NDIC: There are no wells coming off the confidential list today. The Director's Cut is scheduled for release at 3:00 p.m. CDT today.

GoM lease: August -- 78 million acres up for lease -- footprint exceeds that of the Bakken -- this one lease (of course it will be broken into many tracts/blocks and much will likely not be leased -- a reader did the math -- suggesting that the footprint of the GoM lease, at 78 million acres, works out to 300 x 400 miles.

The region-wide lease sale, which is set for Aug. 15, includes all unleased areas in the Gulf’s federal waters, including offshore Louisiana as well as Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which regulates offshore drilling and reviews each winning bid.

Natural gas: What's not to like. RBN Energy has been talking about this for quite some time. Under new leadership, Mexico will need more natural gas from the US in the out years than less. Incredibly good news for the US; perhaps not for Mexico:

****************************************

Surprise, Surprise! North Korea Cheats; UN Looks The Other Way

From oilprice.com:

The United States has asked the UN Security Council to impose an immediate stop to all shipments of refined oil products to North Korea, after finding that Kim Jong-un’s regime has vastly exceeded the UN-restricted quota for oil product imports.

Under the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions regarding oil sales to North Korea from December 2017, North Korea is allowed to import a maximum aggregate amount of 500,000 barrels of all refined oil products for 12 months beginning on January 1, 2018. The sanctions also introduced a limit of 4 million barrels per a twelve-month period as of 22 December 2017 for the supply, sale or transfer of crude oil to North Korea.

According to the U.S. report to the UN, North Korea received at least 759,793 barrels of oil products between January 1 and May 30, well above the 500,000-barrel annual quota.