Things Have Changed -- December 2, 2021

Oil: pretty funny. OPEC+ agrees to maintain 400,000 bopd increase even though the cartel anticipates a glut in early 2022. Brandon formally thanks OPEC+ for increasing production -- though this had been "agreed-to" months ago. It's all about the headline for the gullible. LOL. WTI apparently turns negative. I haven't checked. New "meme" acronym, HFTG: headline for the gullible.

Oil: in 2021, the big issue in 2022 -- "spare capacity." Just saying.

TSMC: ready to start producing 3-nm chips. Intel still struggling with 10-nm chips, last I heard.

Global warming: "We" grew up in such a great time. And to think "we" may be the last generation to enjoy earth as we once knew it, with global warming occurring just at this very moment in time. Pretty amazing how special "we" all were.

Things Have Changed, Bob Dylan

**************************
Not Unexpected

Merck: announced an increase in its dividend earlier this week. MRK will increase its quarterly dividend to 69 cents, paying 3.71%, with a date of record, 12/15/21 and a pay date of 17/22. Previous rate was 65 cents, thus an increase of 6.15%.

My hunch: we're going to see dividend increases in a number of sectors to close out this year and to start the new year.