Ramblings On A Saturday Morning -- April 24, 2021

Top stories for week 16 have been posted.

These are the things that I will be looking at today:

• Portland; absolutely fascinating on so many levels. There seems to be two "Portlands." The "Portland" that is still drawing a gazillion new residents who can afford to buy homes or pay rent; and, the Antifa-controlled "Portland-Downtown Area."
• So, we got "PDX" and "PDA."
• Apple, Inc: the M1 chip, the whole enchilada. Apple will report earnings later this week. I don't think the call will be boring. Expectations: Apple will increase its dividend (barely) and announce further stock buyback. Tim Cook is listening to Warren Buffett. But the whole Apple story is so incredibly fascinating on so many levels. Yeah, I'll be spending a lot of time on Apple today.
• The Covid-19 vaccine: I finally took the time to read about the difference between the mRNA-based vaccines and the viral-vector-based vaccines. I "grew" up with latter; old technology; mRNA vaccines, the new technology.
• JNJ vaccine: "Father Knows Best"
• Moderna vaccine: "Modern Family"
  
• The US equity markets. After yesterday, how could I not take a look? That was simply amazing.
  
• Journalism: finding the news -- it's become impossible. 
  

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Portland

Portland: the dream of the 90s died in Portland. 

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Journalism

In the 50's and 60's if I followed the news it was Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC. The three networks' evening news reported the same stories and the nation, as a whole, was on the same sheet of music.

In the 70's I was too busy to follow the news. Actually, women fascinated me during those ten years and the news did not.

In the 80's and 90's I was overseas and the only news I read came from the Stars and Stripes. Everyone I worked with read the same news; we were all on the same page of music, again.

But, sometime around "9/11" the news became disjointed, fragmented; everyone -- producers and consumers -- it seemed -- were now on different pages of music. Producers and consumers were not even looking at the same song, much less the same page. 

Sometime around the BC/AD break, producers and consumers of news were still on different pages of music but they had moved to producing and reading that news in echo chambers.

For example:

• Global warming: exhibit A.
• EVs: exhibit B.
• The end of fossil fuel: exhibit C.
• Portland: I really have no idea what's going on in Portland. Only one news outlet that I follow seems to be reporting on "it." Our adult daughter who lives in Portland, and my youngest sister, who recently left Portland, do not seem to know any more than what they read. And what they "know" depends on what they read.
  
• The southern surge: no one is reporting on the "crisis" at the border. Not even The Los Angeles Times. So, it can't be as bad as it is rumored. Kamala's policy: if you ignore it, it will go away. Wow, she did well for herself. Says a lot about how to get on top.
  
• Covid-19: if I have no idea what's going on in Portland, I certainly have no idea what's going on with Covid. Like the "mostly peaceful" riots in Portland, the JNJ vaccine is "mostly safe."
  
  
  

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Covid-19 Vaccines

Viral-vector-based vaccines: old technology. The technology I grew up with; the basis for most (all?) vaccines that I have ever received.

mRNA-based vaccines: the new technology. This actually might be huge. 

Moderna won't protect its pandemic during the pandemic.  

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The Market

SeekingAlpha: looking forward to next week.

Earnings, a few of the many that interest me:

• TSLA
• AAPL
• QCOM
• CMCSA
• XOM
• CVX

Earnings previews:

• TSLA: 75 cents and revenue of $10.5 billion; conf call after market closes, April 26;
• AAPL: 98 cents and revenue of $77 billion;
• MSFT:

Projected dividend increases:

• AAPL: to 21.75 cents from 20.5 cents; seems small, but it's a 6% increase;

Highest yielding names in the screen included:

• MRK
• SRE

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Apple Chip Technology

Start here. More later. This is perhaps the most-under-reported technology story in recent memory. 

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Oil: New Acronyms (First Time Mentioned On The Blog)

Link here. 

• "in the anchorage of Baniyas, away from the SBMs"
• "first glimpse of Syria's deepwater oil terminal in Tartous ... at either SBM/MBM input/output points"
• Fandom?
• ah, here it is: MBM, SBM; video here;
  
• "Baniyas, Syria"

Background:

• Baniyas: wiki;
• alternate spellings: Tartous, ancient Tortosa; Latakia, ancient Laodicea;
• north of the city of Baniyas
• one of the largest oil refineries in Syria; and, a power station;
• the oil refinery is connected with Iraq: the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline (now defunct)
• on a nearby hill stands the Crusader castle of Margat (Qalaat el-Marqab), a huge Knights Hospitaller fortress built with black basalt stone