Notes From All Over -- Part 1 -- The Pre-Market Edition -- Quiet -- Nothing About The Bakken -- September 27, 2021

Covid is so over: everything suggests "we" came out of the Delta variant much more quickly than anticipated.

• energy demand;
• supply chain shortages continue;
• choke points at ports, especially the west coast ports, getting worse, not better
• US equity markets: re-opening trade all the buzz
  

Covid is so not over: I thought I had posted this, but maybe I haven't. I'm not worried about shortages but I do have to admit -- now that I have a bit of storage space that I never had before, I'm starting to stock up with non-perishable items: paper products, bottled water, etc. I've noticed the shelves in Target looking a bit empty in some areas; a reader said he's noticed that bottled water always seems to be low in Walmart; and, of course, everyone knows about the Costco policy on restricting sales of some items. 

Oil: Goldman Sachs -- we moving from a cyclical to a structural bull market in oil.

Crisis: Tea leaves suggest the JoBid administration is behind the eight ball on the impending global energy "crisis. As some folks call it. If it is a crisis, it was:

• predicted; and,
• preventable.

Wow, wow, wow. WTI; up almost 2%; up $1.42; blasts through $75. To infinity and beyond. And this is well beyond the driving season. Natural gas pulling crude oil forward.

Ten year Treasury: surges. Now over 1.510%. Banks are loving it.

Intel: bringing it on home. Intel starts construction of two Arizona computer chip factories. Part of a $20-billion project. This gets exciting quickly. Silicon Valley; Austin; Arizona -- the US really has depth when it comes to almost any sector. 

Re-posting: McDonald's, COP, Lockheed Martin, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase -- all reported dividend increases last week. Previously posted. Link at Barron's. 

Durable goods sales for August: just released. Much, much better than expected. Market was trending toward zero, red -- will be interesting if this provides "reassurance" for the market.

• Yup, there it is. Dow jumps. Implied open: 65 points in the green. Maybe 75 points.
  
• Nasdaq futures: down 117 points.
  
• S&P 500: down a bit.
  

Amazing maps: the most oddly named town in each US state. Guess the town in North Dakota. Link here. 

Landfills: it will be interesting to see if we see any stories where GM plans to bury all those Chevy Bolt batteries. My hunch? They will be recycled and will show up in Africa in some form or another. 

Transition: Warren Buffett's point man on energy passed away over the weekend at the age of 90.

About to go global: link to Irina Slav. The European energy crisis is about to go global.