Busy, Busy, Busy -- Minor Notes From All Over -- Part 2, June 20, 2019

Some days turn out to be so busy it will be impossible to keep up.

Politics:

• most important thing about Trump's Florida rally: US Congress will continue talk of impeachment at its own risk
• Obama was right: the circular firing squad nicks Joe Biden; Bernie is pretty much fatally wounded (politically); Pocahontas comes out of early rounds unscathed

Solar power irrelevant:

• an "avian incident" wipes out 84% of massive California solar farm on June 5, 2019, and we don't hear about it until June 20, 2019 -- or at least most of us, including Bloomberg did not hear o fit until two weeks later -- and how was the news released? In a regulatory filing. I'll have to go back through the archives to see if any media outlet reported this fire on June 5.

Best energy story from twitter yesterday:

• Italy/Eni rejects Nigerian oil shipment. "Fingerprinting" the oil shows it originated in Iran. Every day we learn just how sophisticated the oil industry is. Everyone knows that "fingerprinting" works -- but we seldom see examples of it being used in the oil industry.

Strait of Hormuz: something tells me Iran got a triple whammy of bad news -- attacking ships in the strait is no longer a "thing."

WTI: oil price "surging"? What's up?

June 30, 2019: drop-dead date for US retailers to get their orders in for Christmas, 2019. 

Dow: pre-market, up 240 points. And this is a day after the Fed does not cut rates. The 30-second sound bite -- the market is up because the Fed's language said it could cut rates if the economy weakens. The real story: the Fed, by not cutting rates, is telling the movers and shakers that the economy is doing just fine.

If the economy is doing just fine, why is the media suggesting otherwise? LOL.

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Long term investors: sweet spot?

Three centibillionaires:

• Bernard Arnault, Europe's richest person: chairman of LVMH; luxury goods
• Jeff Bezos
• Bill Gates

France (link here) and why "we" have nothing to fear:

France’s multibillionaires have added the most wealth among European members of Bloomberg’s ranking in 2019, with Arnault, Kering SA’s Francois Pinault and cosmetics heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers tacking on more than $40 billion between them. Meanwhile, the brothers behind the Chanel brand, Gerard and Alain Wertheimer, saw their fortunes soar $9.8 billion this week after the Parisian fragrance and fashion house reported its 2018 results.

Chevron: to reward shareholders after "losing" Anadarko; announces 25% share buyback.

OXY: near a decade low; CEO and general counsel are buying up shares. Barron's. 

• P/E under 10
• currently trading at $50
• one-year target: $70
• one-year target: is that a 40% gain? Check: $50 x 1.5 = $70
• pays 6%
• dividend at risk but Vicki Hollub's history suggests she will fight to save that dividend
• activist investors will keep pressure on CEO
• most recent quarterly dividend, 6/8/2019