Notes From All Over, Part 3 -- October 11, 2019

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Timing: I get a kick out of this. I'll never be able to find the post when I first said this, and I think I said it more than once, but don't quote me on that. I opined that "the market" was focused on two things: the "Fed" and China. Trump controlled the timing of one, but not the other. Actually, I mentioned the market was focused on three things, but I can't remember now what the third thing was. It was not earnings; not geopolitical events; something else. Doesn't matter.

Moving on.

Dow: up 450 points. But still below it's all time high. At 26,952 right now (10:27 a.m. CT).

Recession is right around the corner.

Trump rally last night was huge.

Trump rally in Dallas next week.

WTI: surprise, surprise. Up 1.6%; up 84 cents; trading a bit over $54. Right in the sweet spot.

• good for the US economy to stay below $60
• Bakken operators thrive above $52
• Saudi can't survive on $60.24 Brent -- and that's where Brent is right now

In the news:

• AAPL: up another 2% right now. Up almost $5/share; now trading just below $235.
• SRE: down about a buck.
• EW: up almost $3. Trading right at $229.
• XLNX: up 4.5%. Trading at $97 right now but remains well off its highs.
• BKH: up 1.2% -- pretty good for a little old utility
• RDS-B: up about 1.4% today but well below its highs
• BRK-B: with all the AAPL it holds, it should be doing well -- up 1.4%; well off its highs
• D: up a little

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Waiting For Godot? No, Waiting For The IPO Valuation

Link at The Wall Street Journal.

It could come in well under $2 trillion. If so, it won't make the king very happy.

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Steve Jobs

I normally don't post these types of stories, too much fluff, but this one I found intersting.

Link at The Wall Street Journal: "The Lesson I learned from Steve Jobs."

Jobs' legacy continues to build.

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Apple Picking In New England

Link to The Wall Street Journal. One of the highlights while living in Belmont, MA, a suburb of Boston, was visiting the apple farms in New England. But apples were just the beginning. The article itself is fairly awful but the headline caught my attention and brought back some wonderful memories.

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A Book To Consider?

The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Our Conscious Brains, Joseph LeDoux, c. 2019

379 pages.

Short, stand-along 3 - 4 page essays.

Sort of like talking with the author while sipping good Scotch in January in Edinburgh, with our soulmates. Perhaps in a quiet, fairly empty pub.