Another Great Day Ahead Of Us -- July 14, 2021

Lithium shortage? Oh, give me a break. Compass Minerals finds the mother lode ... this reminds me .. why did Willie Sutton rob banks .... because that's where the money was ... think about this ... you know all about shale, you know all about brine, you know all about lithium in brine ... knowing that, why would you not look at the biggest brine source in the US for lithium? And we move on. Link here. 

Apple: headline story over at CNBC this morning, once one gets past all the other fluff being reported. LOL. The amount of time Squawk has spent on Apple the past two days is quite incredible. 

Warren: what's wrong with BRK? Apple makes up forty-two percent of BRK's equity portfolio. Apple is surging, and up huge today. BRK? Down, again, today. Very concerning. For someone.

US oil consumption surging with industry firing at full blast. Bloomberg. Link here.  

Powell: will maintain!!

Delta? So, yesterday. Now Delta+ or Lambda. And US vaccination rollout  has hit a wall. Posted yesterday. 

Constant theme for past several weeks: supply crunch. Link here. 

GasBuddy: US air traffic jumped almost 30% in May 2021 vs May 2020; comparisons with 2020 are ridiculous; GasBuddy loses a bit of street cred. But here it is: year-to-date is down almost 7% vs 2019. Okay, GasBuddy gets it street cred back. Link here. 

Billionaires: are you really a billionaire if you didn't fly your own private jet to Sun Valley, ID, last week? Or are you just a poser. The real question: how many private jets does a billionaire need? I think Warren owns NetJets.

Apple:

• Apple will boost iPhone 13 production 20%; from 75 million to 90 million; link here.
• JetBlue pilots will each be given an M1 iPad Pro; link here. And, here.
  
• California State University: a new iPad Air, Apple Pencil, and keyboard to 35,000 incoming students; link here;
• will manufacture its own EV batteries in the US; link here.
• expecting high demand; asking additional suppliers for additional mini-LED displays; link here.
• 5G stocks to buy; I was looking for a specific name; did not see it; bought it anyway; link here. New iPhones will set stage for T-Mobile 5G wireless marketing push; link here.
  

Investing:

• with oil above $70, three stocks: link at Motley Fool.
• four midstream stocks that have a killer advantage: link at Motley Fool.

Oil: America's new benchmark. Link here. Previously reported but now a bit of the back story and Harold Hamm is center stage. Thank you to a reader. Great story! See more at  this link.

Another incredible day ahead of us.

Pre-market:

• all three major indices should open at all-time highs?
• oil companies not moving; if anything, moving to the downside
  

**************************************
Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$75.01	7/14/2021	07/14/2020	07/14/2019	07/14/2018	07/14/2017
Active Rigs	23	11	56	67	58

No wells coming off the confidential list.

RBN Energy: E&Ps' credit metrics improve as US emerges from the pandemic. 

Credit is the lifeblood for most individuals and corporations, especially capital-intensive entities like oil and gas producers. The credit score that so strongly impacts our ability to finance a house or car, get approved for an apartment, or qualify for our dream job, is not simply based on how much we own, but several other factors, including metrics that compare our debt load with our net worth and the assets being financed, and consider the percentage of our income needed to service that debt. For E&Ps, similar metrics involving the value of their oil and gas reserves and the relationship between their income and interest payments determine the size of their revolving credit facilities, their ability to access debt capital markets, and the cost of capital they pay. Today, we analyze COVID’s impact on the credit metrics of oil and gas producers and discuss the pace and scope of the ongoing recovery.