Notes From All Over -- April 28, 2021

Hopefully, folks are paying attention. This may just be the most incredible bull market anyone alive has ever seen. Does anyone remember the recession? There was (and still is, in many cases and many places, a depression on Main Street, but the investor class is doing very, very well).

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

 Top story: GOOG but first, first things first.

First things first: Lana del Rey announces a new album; to be released July 4, 2021; her eighth album?

Now back to GOOG: smashes sales records. The "big story": Google owns YouTube. Some factoids and data points:

• YouTube has no -- repeat, YouTube has no -- competitor (if you doubt me, tell me its "straight up" competitor
• in 2019, YouTube generated over $15 billion in revenues from advertising alone
• YouTube is now owned by Alphabet (GOOG); Alphabet's deep pockets can take YouTube "to infinity and beyond"
• YouTube is becoming a VOD streaming service that will compete / is competing with Hulu, Roku, etc.
• when deciding which streaming service to go, May and I had four choices: Hulu, Netflix, Roku, and YouTube
• I was leaning toward YouTube; May wanted Hulu
• we have Hulu -- for a whole lot less than what Spectrum was costing us
  
• YouTube is now the fastest growing segment of Alphabet
• this makes it easy to see how Congress cold break up these big tech companies; see next entry

Congressional hearings: tech companies -

• nothing on anti-trust; nothing to suggest any Congressional interest in breaking up the big tech companies;
• follow the money
• Congress seemed to be somewhat interested in "privacy"
• otherwise, seems to be a non-event

AAPL: futures slightly negative overnight; finally, AAPL futures turn green, but just barely;

S&P 500: hits new high; 

Dow: being dragged down by Boeing, MSFT, and Amgen

Fast and furious, clearing out the overnight in-box:

• Confidence: consumers haven't felt this good since February, 2020;
• Amazon; two reasons why it's exciting;
  
• Amgen: 1Q21 results really disappointed investors;
• AAPL: still looking for $76 billion quarterly revenue; will know at end of today; earnings might surprise;
• Spotify: plunging; down almost 11%; not said but the 600-pound gorilla in Spotify's living room: Apple
• GOOG: smashes sales records as digital ad market booms; The WSJ;
• Deutsche Bank: up 9%;
  

Miscellaneous:

• New York opens vaccine appointments to walk-ins as demand wanes;
• the blog was the first to report this "vaccine hesitancy" -- spotted while following the CDC daily numbers
• just when vaccinations should be soaring (open to everyone over the age of 16, and huge supply of vaccine), numbers are actually dropping some days;

Energy:

• Saudi Crown Prince MBS: oil demand will continue to grow until 2040; will surpass global supply; link here.
• natural gas: EU admits they can't get to net-zero without natural gas;
• trucking boom: why oil's demand comeback is here to stay; Bloomberg;
• refilling warehouses means more truck driving and diesel use
• freight seen at "peak-season-like-levels" through 2021
• load growth rate anticipated to be 70% over the next six month, up 50% from 4Q20;
• over-the-road truckload demand is at unprecedented levels; expected to continue into 2022;
• the rails expect to haul a whole lot more diesel (CSX, UNP)
• US diesel inventory currently at 140 million bbls; down from nearly 180 million bbls last summer
• Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) warns of nearly one-billion-dollar loss on hedges; PXD trading higher this morning;
• cautious hedging cost US drillers billions;

Streaming:

• winners and losers of Roku going to war with YouTube TV; The Motley Fool;
• video-on-demand: explained;