The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+68 -- August 7, 2018

Apparently, US stock market indices -- some, not all, hit new records yesterday. 

It looks like another great day for the investor class.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.

BRK: lots and lots of stories about BRK. Cash horde:

• 1Q18: $102 billion
• 2Q18: $11 billion
• reminder: OXY pipelines for sale

BRK/AAPL:

I was told that BRK bought 15 million more shares of AAPL in 2Q18 and I posted that yesterday, I believe. Now I see this (which I previously missed):

At the same time, his war chest is far higher than he wants, even as Berkshire plows money into holdings such as Apple Inc. Berkshire bought $6.1 billion of equities in the second quarter, while selling or redeeming $4.77 billion, according to regulatory filings. The company’s stake in Apple rose to $47.2 billion at the end of June, up from $40.7 billion at March 31, the filings show.

Shares:

• at the end of 1Q18, his Apple was worth $40.7 billion. 
• on March 29, 2018, AAPL closed at $171.61. Works out to 237,165,666 shares.
• on June 29, 2018, AAPL closed at $187.97. Works out to 251,103,900 shares.
• delta: 13,938,234 shares. Yup, just about 15 million shares as reported.

Trucking: now that BRK owns BNSF, one can probably use UNP as a proxy. UNP has a market cap of $111 billion, pays 2%, and is trading near its 52-week high. I bring that up because of this interesting little data point. I assume investors have been watching all the trucking stories lately: shortage of drivers; regulators cracking down on truckers (driving hours, etc.); cost of diesel. Winners: rail.

Off Twitter: I used to enjoy following PennEnergy over at Twitter but then fewer and fewer PennEnergy tweets. I checked again today. PennEnergy's last tweet is dated May 16, 2018. Corporate must have said "enough is enough" for some reason. If interested in PennEnergy free articles, here's their link.

I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Bob Dylan   ************************************** Geologic Time  

From Darwin's Fossils: The Collection That Shaped The Theory Of Evolution, Adrian Lister, c. 2018.

In 1841, as Darwin was preparing his voluminous geological observations for publication, John Phillips formerly (sic) named the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras, roughly corresponding to the old 'Pimary/Transition', 'Secondary' and 'Tertiary' periods.

Darwin employed the term 'Palaeozoic' in his Geological Observations on South America, published in 1846, although he retained 'Secondary' and 'Tertiary' for the two later periods, and we employ the latter term (in formal use until 2004) when describing Darwin's observations.

The Paleozoic now dated to 541 - 252 million years ago, and among its characteristic fossils are trilobites, brachiopods, and early fishes.

The Mesozoic ('Seconday') spans 252 - 66 million years ago and is best known for dinosaurs and ammonites.

The Cenozoic spans from 66 million years ago to the present day, and is often known as the 'Age of Mammals.'

The Cenozoic incorporates the old Tertiary division up to around 2.6 million years ago and the Quaternary (the time of the most recent ice ages) thereafter.

The latter term, Quaternary, was added in 1829 but was not employed by Darwin and did not enter common usage until much later.

• Paleozoic Era (Primary/Transition) -- the periods or epochs (6):
• Cambrian (think, "Cambrian explosion")
• Ordovician
• Silurian
• Devonian
• Carboniferous
• Permian
• Mesozoic (Secondary) -- the periods or epochs (3):
• Triassic
• Jurassic
• Cretaceous
• Cenozoic (Tertiary / Quaternary) -- the periods or epochs (7):
• Tertiary
• Paleocene
• Eocene
• Oligocene
• Miocene
• Pliocene
• Quaternary
• Pleistocene
• Holocene