Notes From All Over -- Mid-Morning Edition -- June 29, 2021

The last Tuesday of 2Q21. Only 179 shopping days until Christmas.

Market: I would assume money managers were getting ready to close their books on 2Q21 last week. The market is relatively flat today, but the three major indices are all green, and apparently the S&P 500 hit another record high.

US consumer confidence:

• rises to more than one-year high in June; link here.
• highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic started more than a year ago;
• a reading of 127.3 in June, 2021, the highest level since February 2020, from 120.0 in May

Jobless:

• there appears to be a direct relationship between benefits and joblessness; who knew? Link here.

Coal: is dead! Long live coal.

• Glencore's billionaire bos Ivan Glasenberg made one final deal in his last week at the company
• bought out two rivals in a giant Colombian coal mine
• coal is now priced at highest level in thirteen years;
• link here;
• coal at these high levels? Glasenberg says the same thing will happen with oil and natural gas; link here;
  

Pipeline completions:

• EIA graphic; link here.
• sixth best year since 2010;
  

Gasoline, US supply in days: one has to go back a year to see the supply drop to less than 29 days. Link here. 

July 4th gasoline:

• expensive; average will be about $3.10 / gallon and probably increase throughout the summer;
  
• question: will there be enough?
• link here;
• the issue is not "supply" from the refiners; refiners producing record amounts of gasoline; the problem? not enough drivers to transport the gasoline to service stations; link here; 
  

Covid-19:

• what's the ethical argument against vaccinating teenagers? Link here.
• Covid cases now rising by 23,000 in a day -- the biggest rise in five months;
• the vaccines appear to work against the Delta variant

Airlines:

• United Airlines with huge aircraft buy; will hire / re-hire 25,000 union workers over next few years. Link here: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/united-airlines-hire-25000-boeing-largest-order-ever.

EVs:

• after kickstart from GM, Honda says it will now build its own EVs. Link here: https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/general-motors-honda-electric-vehicles.
  

Apple:

• Apple has dramatically increased the amount of iCloud user data it stores on Google Cloud; link here;
• Apple now has over eight million terabytes of data stored on Google's servers; no denominator provided;

Jodge Boasberg:

• dismisses antitrust lawsuits against Facebook; link to The WSJ;
• the dismissals, which came in a pair of rulings, came before any pretrial proceedings had progressed;
• the judge dismissed the case brought by 46 states in its entirety on the grounds that the attorneys general waited too long to bring their claims;
• shares surge
• US now has five companies with market cap greater than $1 trillion;
• The rulings dealt a direct, early blow to bipartisan government efforts to pursue Big Tech giants on allegations they have unlawfully monopolized the marketplace. They also served as a reminder that antitrust cases—particularly against dynamic tech-sector firms that offer free, nontraditional products—can be difficult to win before federal courts that have narrowed the reach of antitrust laws over several decades.
• “This really stings for the agencies,” said George Washington University law professor William Kovacic, a former FTC chairman. “The FTC and the states I’m sure used the best talent they had to bring these cases, and they have been knocked out at the earliest stage.” 

SRE:

• Sempra raises full-year guidance; link here;
• shares plunge;
• price target raised to $154 from $137

BAC:

• boosts quarterly dividend by 17%;

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. 

Global warming:

• hottest temperatures recorded in Canada; link here;
• sixteen locations provided:
• only two occurred this millennium, both in 2014
• nine occurred before the end of WWII
• one occurred in 1886