Notes From All Over, Part 2 -- The Mid-Morning Edition -- May 7, 2021

Reminder: Mother's Day, this Sunday.

Sorry. Not Sorry. -- Warren Buffett. The NASDAQ needs to get with the program. Let's see ... how long has NASDAQ had to fix this problem? A decade? Two decades?

UK fuel sales: back to highest since pandemic began.

• weekly consumption hit post-pandemic high last week
• high vaccination rate makes UK bellweather (sic) for oil demand
  

Bellwether or bellweather: unless the Brits and/or Bloomberg spell it differently, I always thought it was bellwether -- having to do with the lead sheep wearing a bell leading the unquestioning flock. Link here.

• perhaps Mary Poppins, with her umbrella, was a bell-weather icon;

Gasoline prices: set to surge this summer. Link to Irina Slav. Elsewhere it's been reported there could be spot shortages. Region to watch: a) along California beaches; and, b) the neighborhoods around Disneyland.

Texas freeze: gas and power sellers clean up! Link to Reuters. Texas consumers got played. ET was one of the biggest winners. Others:

• leading energy trader Vitol,
• gas suppliers:
• KMI
• EPD
• ET (already noted)
• ET reaped $2.4 billion windfall from Texas freeze; they simply played by the rules set by the regulators. Meanwhile to the north, folks want the DAPL shut down. Karma.
  
• oil companies:
• oil giant BP,
• banks:
• Goldman Sachs
• BofA
• Macquarie Group

Reminder: earlier story suggest Texas will post record amount of electricity demand this summer.

Farmers, Biden and taxes: not good news -- this is just part of the bad news. Other bad news includes talk about the death tax, and capital gains step-up, and capital gains tax increases.

• farm-district democrats raise caution flag on capital-gains tax plan -- WSJ;
• Biden plan would limit longstanding tax break used by farmers -- WSJ;