Notes And Comment -- Early Morning Edition -- April 15, 2021

Dow, S&P 500: at record highs (again).

WTI: $62.76

Quick look:

• pipelines:
• OKE: down 0.4%; down 19 cents; trading at $51.32;
• ENB: up 0.22%; up about 8 cents; trading at $37.17;
• EPD: down 0.04%; down about 1 cents; trading at $23.12;
• tech:
• AAPL whoo-hoo -- the breakout continues --up over 2%; up about $2.80; trading at $135;
• QCOM: up about 1.5%; up about $2; trading at $136.74;
• misc:
• BRK-B: down slightly; down about 0.4%; down about $1.09; trading at $266
• UNP: up alightly, up about 0.12%; up about 27 cents; trading at $222.87;
• oil:
• MNRL: up slightly; up about 3 cents; trading at $16.29;

Bank of America: profit more than doubles on reserve release boost, 1Q21. The bank released $2.7 billion from its reserves.

JP Morgan: profit soars to record after bank releases reserves for bad loans. Link here. Regulators allow JPM to free-up $5.2 billion.

Goldman: record results; earnings at $18.60 crushed the estimate of $10.22; the results represented growth of almost 500% from a year earlier. Revenue of $17.7 billion easily topped expectations of $12.6 billion. Link here. 

BRK-B: hitting record highs. Why? Holdings are concentrated in three sectors: financials, consumer staples, and information technology.

Federal off-shore oil: all that talk about killing the industry? Turns out to be all talk. Link here. Crude oil production in the US Federal Gulf of Mexico will increase over the next two years -- EIA. By end 2022 -- that's next year -- thirteen new projects could account for twelve percent of total GoM crude oil production. Original story here.

Mideast: rebels still firing darts and drones toward Saudi's oil infrastructure.