The Market, Energy, Political Page, T+56 -- July 26, 2018

Talking down the market: yesterday CNBC tried to talk down the market after Trump's press conference (and another huge win); Yahoo!Finance did it's part.

So, how did that work out? At 11:30 a.m. CDT, the Dow, up 120 points, is on track to have the best close since February 26, 2018.

T+55 (yesterday): EU met with Trump; the trade war between the US and the EU is over. Next up: Mexico. Then, Canada. Finally China. I will likely carry the current "run" to T+100 or when the trade war between China and the US comes to an end, whichever comes first. 

McDonald's -- a reader noted that McDonald's beat both on the top line and the bottom line. My reply to the reader, not ready for prime time, and with minimum editing:

Wow, I missed an opportunity. I was at McDonald's two days ago -- I did not order anything because the line was too long. I blogged for over an hour during the noon hour at McDonald's -- never ordered anything -- way too busy -- the line never got short enough. I was going to blog about that experience but thought I had blogged too much about McDonald's so didn't want to blog again.

One has to remember: McDonald's is practically giving away their soft drinks -- in the hot weather I bet that drives a lot of customers --

McDonald's: anyone visiting the newly remodeled McDonald's and the layout of the kiosks and the soft drink fountains at some of them will see what I mean by McDonald's practically giving away their soft drinks for free. Senior coffee is already 50 cents and has been so for quite some time. 

So, what's the market doing?

• TSLA: essentially flat, down about 0.75%
• FB: down 18%
• UNP: flirting with all-time hights
• BRK-B: essentially flat, very barely green
• AAPL: essentially flat, very barely green -- hardly a rough day for tech
• EW: essentially flat, up about 0.70%
• XLNX: up 12% -- remember, Yahoo!Finance said it was going to be a rough day for "tech." You cannot get "any more tech" than XLNX -- pretty much alone in the programmable chip sector; 
• F: continues to fall, now down another 4.4%
• SRE: this is an important one following Governor Jerry Brown's proposal; up about 0.7% and trading in a nice range
• COP: actually down about a percent; wow [Update, 11:58 a.m. CDT -- I've been waiting all morning for COP to go "green" and it's almost there, having climbed from a loss of 40 cents (day-over-day) to just one cent down for the day. LOL.][Update, 12:01 p.m. CDT -- wow, COP just went green by seven cents. LOL.]
• S: up over a percent
• Andeavor (Tesoro): up almost 6%; up over $8 -- yup, it's been a rough day for traders

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. I am invested in some of the companies I mention on the blog but in the big scheme of things, very, very few of them. Some I used to hold, but no longer hold. I have no plans -- because I have no discretionary cash -- to buy any shares in anything in the foreseeable future (i.e., the next four days). I know I'm not going to be selling anything.

Shale is dead. This link will take you to a pdf; depending on your settings it may show up on your browser, or it may download on your desktop. After reading that, I wanted to add "ahead of the herd" to the sidebar at the right but a further look at that site: no.

No sympathy whatsoever: DAPL protester having trouble getting his truck back. LOL.

Only criminals use cash: Lanny Davis, says "only criminals/drug-dealers use cash." Comes up in recent conversation about Trump's alleged payoffs -- or attempts of payoffs -- to prostitutes.  Know who else uses cash? President Obama. As in the transfer of $400 million in cash to Iran the night before Obama leaves office. Wow.

Jobs: another nice jobs report. New jobless claims:

• consensus: 219K
• actual: only 217 K
• an increase of 9K after prior revision 

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