Impeachment: tell me again what happens when the US House impeaches one of the most respected attorney generals ever. Compare him to Eric Holder, Edwin Meese, Janet Reno, John Ashcroft, John Mitchell, and particularly Edward Bates.
China - US trade talks. Increased tariffs were to go into effect tomorrow morning, Friday, May 10, 2019. The Chinese market has slumped significantly. Premier Xi probably getting an earful.
I haven't watched the market this past week, except for minor exceptions. I'll check in next week if/when the trade talk is "resolved." I checked my brokerage account to see if dividends had improved my overall cash position -- huge buying opportunity this week. See disclaimer below.
Sixteen reasons ("Wall Street" looks for the Fed to cut rates this year):
Sixteen reason. Link here.
Top story last week, the US economy:
- the most under-rated boom, expansion, economy ever; and,
- jobs, unemployment, wages, endless rally; and,
- best numbers ever for US Hispanics, best in decades for women; and,
- US productivity advances at fastest rate since 2010; and,
- private payrolls surge, blowing past estimates, biggest gain since July; and,
- stocks are off their best four-month start in decades; and,
- consumer spending biggest gain since 2009; and,
- supply side of economy showing strength;
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Other News
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MPC in $9 billion deal to merge midstream units. Link here.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) has agreed to merge its two midstream businesses, MPLX LP and Andeavor Logistics LP (ANDX), in a deal worth $9 billion, the company announced Wednesday.Mis-match: we were the first to talk about this years ago. Now we have another great article on the same subject (archived) -- the mismatch between light oil and global refineries.
The definitive merger of Marathon’s two master limited partnerships involves MPLX acquiring ANDX in a unit-for-unit transaction at a blended exchange ratio of 1.07x. It would give ANDX public unitholders 1.135x MPLX common units for each ADNX common unit held and MPC would receive 1.0328x MPLX common units for each ANDX common unit held.
This announcement comes after Ohio-based oil refiner MPC agreed it would acquire rival oil refiner Andeavor for $23.3 billion in April 2018.
I don't have an opinion on whether the writer's anxieties will prove to be correct but his argument is sound. In fact, it may be the only reason that WTI has not plummeted to $40/bbl. Again, however, here is another writer that fails to even mention in passing the huge impact on current events when President Obama killed the Keystone XL. I'm an eternal optimist and feel comfortable that free market capitalism will work this all out. Speaking of which, the average price of gasoline has decreased in Los Angeles this past week. Down an average of 2 cents/gallon.
