US Crude Oil In Storage Barely Increased Week-Over-Week -- Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Another great day. Except lots of rain now, and very cold tonight here in north Texas which means Olivia will have indoor soccer. 

EIA weekly petroleum report: link here:

• US crude oil in storage increased by less than one million bbls; actual number: 800,000 bbls
• total US crude oil in storage: 444.1 million bbls; about 4% below the five-year average for this time of year;
• refiners operating at 86.9% of capacity: very, very low;
• jet fuel supplied decreased by 5.5% compared with same four-week period last year
• Jim: you had one job to do -- "As a result of technical difficulties, we are unable to display the daily prices. We are working to resolve the issue."

Re-balancing:

Week	Week Ending	Change	Million Bbls Storage
Week 0	November 21, 2018	4.9	446.9
Week 1	November 28, 2018	3.6	450.5
Week 2	December 6, 2018	-7.3	443.2
Week 3	December 12, 2018	-1.2	442.0
Week 4	December 19, 2018	-0.5	441.5
Week 5	December 28, 2018	0.0	441.4
Week 6	January 4, 2019	0.0	441.4
Week 7	January 9, 2019	-1.7	439.7
Week 8	January 16, 2019	-2.7	437.1
Week 9	January 24, 2019	8.0	445.0
Week 58	January 3, 2020	-11.5	429.9
Week 59	January 8, 2020	1.2	431.1
Week 60	January 15, 2020	-2.5	428.5
Week 61	January 23, 2020	-0.4	428.1
Week 62	January 29, 2020	3.5	431.7
Week 63	February 5, 2020	3.4	435.0
Week 64	February 12, 2020	7.5	442.5
Week 65	February 20, 2020	0.4	442.9
Week 66	February 26, 2020	0.5	443.3
Week 67	March 4, 2020	0.8	444.1

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Non-Bakken News And Comment

Courts

Senator Schumer crossed the line by threatening two US Supreme Court judges -- Chief Justice Roberts. My thoughts: Senator Schumer is getting a head's up on how the justices might vote. Or Senator Schumer knows what the ruling will be if the justices interpret the law correctly. LOL.

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Politics

8:15 p.m. Central Time, 24 hours after the California primary ends -- pretty much impossible to find accurate California count of delegates for Bernie, Biden. "Everyone" reporting a different number. It appears the total US delegate spread between Biden (ahead) and Bernie (behind) is about 52 delegates. 

Cost of narcissism: a reader brought this to my attention -- from the internets --

Normal new hospital development costs, barring equipment, is about $400 per square foot. Some enormous hospitals cost around $1.5 million for every bed to build. In the event that you are wanting to assemble a hospital of over 1.3 million square feet and 500 beds, it will cost you approximately $800 million. Feb 8, 2019.

Steyer and Bloomberg spent upwards of $1 billion for campaigns that lasted less than a few months; and, resulted in a handful of delegates.

Tennessee: more voters turned out to vote for Trump than for Biden and Bernie combined.

Brokered convention: Democrats working overtime to kill that meme.

Brokered convention: that may be the least of the Democrats' worries. Bernie will either run as an independent or his supporters will stay home in November.

Minnesota: analysts completely missed that story. Those on the ground in the Twin Cities know exactly what happened. Thank you, Pocahontas! LOL. 

Bloomberg: prediction -- announces that he will drop out today. It's not that he doesn't have the money to keep going, he's become a laughingstock of politics. [Wow, that was prescient: I posted that before I saw the headline -- just saw the headline -- he's suspending his campaign. Suspending.]

The question is being asked: why is Pocahontas still in the race? In this case, follow the money. She will get out of the race once her political bank account is in the green and/or she has enough left over from the presidential run to fund her US Senate re-election in 2024. 

Tell me again who won Super Tuesday. Note the whiteboard below, "before California/Super Tuesday" vs "after California/Super Tuesday":

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Dividends

The market: companies keep raising dividends. Those with a 30-year horizon: we don't get buying opportunities like this often. And, yes, this morning I added more shares in a position I am building; a non-energy company.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, career, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

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Coronavirus

Question for the day: why does the CDC and/or the media not report seasonal flu statistics on a daily basis like they do for coronavirus? 

Countries:

• Iran: out of control; another 586 new cases today (March 4, 2020)
• China had only 131 new cases; compare with Italy, Iran, South Korea
• Italy: out of control -- a whopping 587 more cases; 
• closing all classrooms; including all colleges -- announced March 4, 2020
• South Korea: 435 more cases;
• Russia: under control; three cases; no deaths; 

New deaths:

• one each in Australia, Iraq -- first deaths reported
• the new death in Australia: a 95-year-old woman
• new cases in Australia traced back to Iran (are you kidding me?)
• otherwise, all new deaths in China, Italy, Iran

Fatality rate:

• South Korea: 35 / 5,621 = 0.6%; probably represents the "most credible" number for the western world
• South Korea probably as good as any western country for tracking / reporting cases / death
• the overall denominator is big enough to make rate statistically reliable (unlike only 132 cases in the US, South Korea has 5,621 cases overall)
• South Korea has an "open" society much like the rest of the western world
• South Korea has a modern public health program
• South Korea has a modern hospital system 

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Ready For Dr Seuss