No New Permits; Active Rig Count Remains At Sixteen -- The Mid-Afternoon Editiion

Natural gas fill rate, link here, back above the five-year average. Except to have something to do, one almost wonders why we track this:

NOG: 1Q21 earnings - to be released May 7, 2021, before the market opens.

That Amazon union vote again: a Bloomberg op-ed. 

Talking with folks who have been members of a union, every time the union went on strike, it took up to two years to get back to where they were prior to the strike. The big winners in a union: the union management. 

Traders look for any reason to take a profit: the president makes a speech about something that won't happen for months, if not years, if ever (increasing taxes on capital gains), and if it does, will effect big earners only -- and the Dow drops 200 points. All I see is another buying opportunity.

Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford

ATT:

• Ma Bell is back! Huge 1Q21 earnings report; all eyes on HBO subscribers.
  
• link here, WSJ;
• posted gains in wireless and media divisions
• "piled on" more cellphone users, fiber-optic internet customers and HBO viewers
• 44.2 million domestic HBO and HBO Max subscribers, up from 41.5 million previous quarter (4Q20);
• added 595,000 postpaid phoen subscribers -- a highly valued category of customers
• also posted a net gain of 207,000 prepaid phone subscribers
  
• 5G spending boosted overall debt (as expected)
• but look at this:
• Verizon reported a net loss of 178,000 postpaid phone connections;
• T-Mobile is expected to report its first-quarter results next month;
  
• shares jumped 5% to $31.66
• net income: $1.04/share up from 63 cents a year earlier;
• total revenue rose 2.7% to $43.9 billion;
• 5G bandwidth purchases:
• Verizon: $45.5 billion
• ATT: $23.4 billion
  
• link here, MarketWatch;
• EPS, adjusted, 86 cents/share on revenue of $43.9 billion
• consensus: 78 cents in adjusted EPS and $42.7 billion in revenue
  

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$61.64	4/22/2021	04/22/2020	04/22/2019	04/22/2018	04/22/2017
Active Rigs	16	29	62	59	49

No new permits.

One certainly gets the feeling that operators have "shut down" awaiting the outcome of the DAPL.