Number One Consumer Brand In Britain: Rolex! Toilet Paper Company, #4; Apple, #6 -- December 4, 2020

Note: there will be more content and typographical errors than usual. 

Unemployment rate: no worse than it was under President Obama. 6.7%.

Gasoline demand: flat. 

EIA's weekly petroleum report: link here.

• weekly draw: US crude oil inventories down 0.7 million bbls
• weekly inventory: US crude oil at 488.0 million bbls; 7% above already-fat-five-year average
• distillate inventory: increased by 3.2 million bbls; 8% above an already really, really-fat-five-year-average;
• jet fuel supplied: down 36.2% compared with same four-week period last year;
• crude oil imports: 5.4 million bopd; up by 171,000 bopd from the previous week; imports are about 10% less than same four-week period last year;
  

US oil imports:

• if this is accurate, this is simply incredible; stand-alone post later -- Bloomberg is reporting that Saudi crude oil shipped to US dropped below 100,000 bopd that would be the lowest in 244 years except for a few outlying years when Saudi Arabia sent zero bbls to the US
• oilprice has the same story here; linking the Bloomberg story;

US ports:

• Port of Los Angeles: busiest it's been in 2000 years.
• ships wait to unload at Port of Los Angeles as imports boom -- Reuters;
• US import boom is delaying cargo at nation's busiest port -- Reuters;
• shipping container freight rates soar amid export boom -- Hellenic Shipping;
• container shipping is booming again; probably won't last -- Yahoo!Finance;
• it seems there is a trend here;

Watches:

• wow, I remember blogging about this years ago; February 21, 2016;
  
• Apple Watch set a record last quarter; shipped around 11 million watches in one quarter;
• for the Swiss watch industry, it's been "an unparalleled shock": link here;
• the Swiss watch industry loses a decade: link here;
• in the UK, number one consumer brand: Rolex; link here;
• Lego drops from #1 to #5, from previous year!
• Apple dropped from #2 to #6 (described in the article as a smartwatch titan (this was a story on watches)
• Visa: #2
• Samsung: #3
• Andrex (a toilet paper company!!!): #4

The news comes as latest figures show how Rolex UK sales soared to over £415m ahead of the covid-19 pandemic.

As WatchPro reported last month, thanks to accounting laws in the United Kingdom, Rolex Watch Company Ltd, the wholly-owned distributor for Rolex (and the founding company of Rolex when it emerged in London in 1915), has to publish its financial results every year.

Giving context to the results, the total value of all watches sold at all price points in 2019 — at retail prices — was £1.49 billion, down a whisker from £1.51 billion in 2018.

In short, the overall UK watch market was flat last year – a trend Rolex did not fellow. [This tells me one thing: there's a lot of disposable income in the British Isles. I wonder if Scotch sales also soared.]

Agriculture:

• Canadian railways crush October grain records amid export boom -- Freight Waves;
• exports boost US and Canadian grain volumes -- Freight Waves;
• this will accelerate; memo to self: check GBX:
• soybeans firm on strong export demand, record US crush -- link here;

Saving money during a pandemic:

• annual Barnes and Noble "loyalty" card: won't renew;
• annual membership to fine arts museums (closed): won't renew:
• sushi, $75-lunch, weekly; haven't done that in months;
• Starbucks: $20/week -- minimum -- no more;
• haircut: $20 every two weeks -- haven't visited the barber since February, 2020, or thereabouts;
  
• air travel: great story to tell later; but huge savings;
• monthly gasoline expenses: I am now filling up the little Honda once a month; used to be twice a month;
• second car has been idle since March (won't be used until next March at the earliest) -- that must be around $80/month in gasoline savings right there; and no maintenance for a year until annual safety inspection required;
• and the list goes on and on and on; but I, too must move on;