Sunday, November 29, 2020 -- Part 2

South Dakota attorney general / "hit a deer" maybe / story: update. After eleven weeks, the investigation continues. If we wait long enough, maybe this story will simply go away.

We know quite a bit about that, but we still don’t know the whole story. The investigation continues almost 11 weeks after Joe Boever died. Authorities have concluded that Joe Boever was walking on the shoulder and carrying a light when he was struck by Ravnsborg’s vehicle, and that Ravnsborg was distracted at the time of the crash. They haven’t reported the reason for the distraction.

Over on twitter right now, there's a lot of noise about the OPEC meeting this week. Lots of excitement that with the end of Covid-19 lockdowns, "re-balancing" of oil, and OPEC members willing to maintain quotas, the price of oil may actually get back to $50 sooner than later. 

Chinese flu: I'm most excited about the Johns Hopkins data that will be released later today. Their update was delayed by almost a full eight hours yesterday. Johns Hopkins link here; it is updated daily; usually in the early morning. As of 9:22 a.m. CT it has not yet been updated today. [Later: update here.]

Stock market: the market keeps rising but millennials aren't reaping the benefits. The WSJ.

Many millennials, having suffered through two nasty bear markets in the first years of their working lives, are missing out on some of the gains from the rally that brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average to 30,000. 

The stock market’s surge in the midst of the pandemic has given investors confidence and helped businesses raise capital. It has also come with big swings, including one of the worst selloffs in history followed by one of the fastest recoveries, with triple-digit point moves in the Dow commonplace. 

This has made many young investors wary of putting too much of their assets in stocks. 

About half of millennials—generally defined as people born from about 1981 until 1996, sometimes called Generation Y—are invested in the stock market, roughly the same ratio as members of Generation X were at the same age, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

The difference is that the value of their holdings is nearly a third lower than their counterparts at the same age, according to the St. Louis Fed.

Public transit agencies; in deep doo-doo. Waiting for Biden bailout. From The WSJ:

Public transit agencies across the U.S. are cutting service and reducing their workforces as they face a cash crunch that is worsening along with the coronavirus pandemic. Ridership is stuck at historically low levels and the current Covid-19 surge has further dimmed odds that large numbers of riders will return to buses, subways and commuter railroads soon, officials say. Federal funding that agencies received from the spring’s relief package is starting to run out, and local tax revenues that support many transit systems have shriveled. In San Francisco, the Muni transit system faces the biggest crisis of its 110-year history, said Jeffrey Tumlin, transportation director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Bus boardings are down 70%, and transit revenue has plunged 93%.

Tesla truck: update. From The WSJ.

The Semi, to be built at Tesla’s Austin, Texas, factory, and due to customers starting next year, will be a new challenge for the Silicon Valley electric-car maker. It will test how far Tesla has come with battery improvements it teased in September, how far it can push its manufacturing capabilities and whether the company can break into a new industry where Mr. Musk’s star power has less pull among buyers primarily concerned about price and practicality. 

The Semi features around five times more battery cells than Tesla’s passenger cars, which Mr. Musk has said constrained his progress on the trucks. Some observers say such delays are evidence of Mr. Musk’s tendency to overpromise and under deliver. 

Truck demand is up amid a surge in e-commerce orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

To satisfy their immediate needs, companies have been buying up diesel-powered trucks, with North American sales in October up 83% over last year. 

The purchases mean some fleet owners will put off truck renewals another five to 10 years, so Tesla may have to wait for a shot at winning that business. 

Truckers also are driving their cabs farther, logging on average about 20% more miles weekly in November than in April. 

Tesla has yet to prove the Semi can handle 500-mile hauling with rough weather or steep terrain. Diesel trucks typically can go about 1,600 miles before refueling and can top-up at stations at every major freeway exit. 

Battery charging stations are still sparse. 

Tesla says its trucks will sell for $150,000 to $200,000, a price that analysts say looks more realistic since the company in September unveiled advancements that would bring the cost of batteries down by 56% and boost energy capacity to increase driving range by 54%. 

Yet at $150,000, a Tesla Semi costs around 25% more than the average diesel truck. The difference could be at least partly offset by government credits. Tesla says the trucks will provide more than $200,000 in gas savings over a truck’s lifetime and fleets will recoup their investment in two years.