Notes From All Over -- The Dockets Edition -- September 24, 2021

WTI: might WTI hit $74 today? At 1:52 p.m. CT only seven cents away from $74.

Hearing dockets: one of the highlights each month with regard to the Bakken is the posting of the monthly hearing dockets. Two things jumped out at me in the October, 2021, dockets:

• Slawson broke up some large drilling units into much smaller drilling units; this should be good news for small mom-and-pop mineral owners;
• EOG, on the other hand, continues with large drilling units;
• but did you notice this? the tea leaves for the past year suggested EOG was about to exit the Bakken; now, in the October, 2021, hearing dockets, we see EOG eyeing additional permits; they could be sprucing up their mineral acreage prior to putting their Bakken assets on the auction block, but that is not something I would expect to see; that seems to be a stretch; 
• in addition, there have been at least two operators (Oasis, and, more recently, COP). who have reiterated interest in the Bakken. 

Covid hypocrisy:

• A-listers test positive
• either breakthrough (highly unlikely) or never vaccinated [Later: they say they were vaccinated; details not provided; fully vaccinated?]
• bigger question: why were they allowed on set before they had results back; why was set not completely closed down after two of the four tested positive?
  
• obviously asymptomatic; others coughing throughout rest of show;
  
• what are the odds? just how widespread is asymptomatic Covid; it must be "everywhere"; how many folks are not being test everyday .. like 329 million?  (in the US)
  
• these are the elite who attend Obama-like events where proof of vaccination is required
• co-hosts of the view scheduled to interview VP Kamala Harris unexpectedly test positive and exit stage left mid-show before interviewing Harris -- google the story, September 24, 2021

Fox News:

• loses credibility with the "Sleepy Joe" meme (as does Powerline lose its credibility with perpetuating (?) that meme):
• the average viewer is not seeing that
• good, bad, indifferent, Biden had a remarkable press conference this a.m.
• sense of humor; bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; spoke clearly and coherently; spoke like a statesman; took questions; walked off in dignified style;
  
• those with an agenda (at either end of the spectrum) will spin the story, but the "sleepy Joe" meme is not working

Sports:

• by the way, I completely missed this
• Ryder Cup in play?
• wow: I saw the ads; I thought the Ryder cup was weeks away based on the commercials
• I find match play (or whatever it's called) incredibly boring and hard to understand. Shirley, they could find much better formats. And, please, quit calling me Shirley 
  

The numbers:

• Dow: minor movements above, below yesterday's closing
• WTI: up 40 cents, up 0.55%; trading at $73.70
• DXY: WTI up, so DXY must have been down; in fact, DXY is down slightly, to 93.36
• TNT: a pretty noticeable jump from the 1.30% range; now yielding, 1.454%;
• of note:
  
• DVN: up 0.67%; up about twenty cents; trading at $33; one year ago, trading at $8
• NIKE: Jim Cramer not buying the "SOLELY" due to supply chain problems; down 7% this morning; down $11/share; trading at $149
• AAPL: not surprising -- profit taking; down 0.4%; this $145-stock is trading at $146;
• leader board included: PDX, MRK
• SRE: this $124-stock is trading at $129
• ARKK: this $120-stock is trading at $117; down almost 2%; down over $2; obviously related to China banning cryptocurrency trading/transactions
• OKE: flat; down two cents; trading at $57.44; apparently it hit an intra-day high at $57.74 already, earlier this morning

Question:

• with the most job openings ever in the history of the United States ...
• with eleven million job openings ...
• how can we have a "headline" unemployment rate of 5.1%?
• something suggests definitions and/or requirements for unemployment status need to be changed 
• it looks like somewhere between 4% and $8% unemployment is "full employment" in a country like the US with such a huge safety net; Euopre / UK with an even larger safety net (health care), one could argue 6% to 12% unemployment would indicated full employment.
  

Investing:

• finally
• I am way overweighted in energy -- it's been that way for decades -- not dollar amount but "share amount" if that makes sense
• I am way underweighted in technology -- I am working as hard as I can to change that
• but finally, a loss in my technology portfolio no longer drags down the entire portfolio; that overweight in energy really helps; LOL

What's a WAAC? Weighted average cost of capital. Link here. 

• If the ROIC is greater than the WACC, then value is being created as the firm invests in profitable projects. Conversely, if the ROIC is lower than the WACC, then value is being destroyed as the firm earns a return on its projects that is lower than the cost of funding the projects. Link here.
• Karen Finerman brought this up on CNBC yesterday.