Stories We'll Be Tallking About Tomorrow -- And Through The First Half 2024 -- January 10, 2024

Locator: 46514COMMENTARY.

Maybe it's the unusually warm weather in January that has put me in such a good mood, or perhaps it's the fact that EPD has raised its quarterly dividend. I don't know, but wow, these big stories are breaking (or continuing). 

Let's run through some of them:

• the Mideast is becoming more chaotic, with the Houthis (and Iran) and Hezbollah on thin ice;
• Great Britain is losing its patience
• US Navy is waiting, planning, eager to launch
  
• Hezbollah seems unsure what to do next
• the de-industrialization of Germany
  
• the southern surge: 
• states as far away from Texas as Maine are starting to feel the pain of the southern surge
• Democrat power brokers are starting to get anxious:
• power brokers to include Obama, both Clintons (the Epstein files turned out to be one big nothing-burger), Newsom,
• speaking of Newsom, big money and big taxpayers continue to flee California
  
• US LNG exports
• the numbers now, and those projected through 2030, are staggering
• the "greens" will try to slow things down
  
• Ozempic could have major impact on all the existing weight-loss scams (not yet being reported)
  
• but scams with regard to Ozempic are already being reported
  
• Social Security:
• upper middle class recipients surprised by how much lower their monthly payments are this year due to higher income two years ago
  
• Warren Buffett will celebrate his 94th birthday on April 30, 2024
• still chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
• "bailing out" OXY and buying OXY shares on the open market are two different things
• Buffett started buying OXY shares on the open market in early 2022, according to reports; 
• see OXY ticker below
  
• dividends: 
• a fair number of publicly traded energy companies are ready to announce an increase in their next quarterly dividend based on their history of dividend announcements
• EPD was the first (though its dividend tends to change every quarter)
• big ones to watch: CVX; COP
  
•  Amazon: ad-supported juggernaut
• Nvidia: just won't quit
• Apple: how bad could it get?
• Kroger-Albertson's-Tom Thumb 

GDPNow's latest estimate for 4Q23, released today: 2.2, unchanged from previous estimate.

OXY ticker: