GDP NOW Drops To 2.1 — March 19, 2024

Locator: 46812ECON.

Economy keeps surging. Link here.

Housing on a tear? Link here.

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EIA Weekly Petroleum Report 

Link here.

• US crude oil in storage: a decrease of 2.0 million bbls drops inventories to 445.0 million bbls, about 3%  below the five-year average
• imports: 2.0% more than same period last year
• refiners: a lower-than-normal 87.8%
• distillate inventories are in great shape; only 5% below the five-year average
• jet fuel product supplied down 02% compared to same period last year

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Tech

Tik Tok: link here.

AAPL: link here. All that negative talk for Apple and China? Not so fast. It looks China ops were ahead of the curve.

INTC:

• is down 21% over past five years
• CEO has spent last three years lobbying White House for financial incentives
• yesterday: it was announced that INTC is in line for $8.5 billion in grants for sites in four states
• Ohio, Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona 
• CEO says that's not enough if US wants to re-gain bragging rights to global chip production
  
• ticker today: up 15 cents; up 0.36% today
• perhaps this is why -- $8.5 billion won't go far on a $100-billion spending spree, link here.
• and, it's not going to happen overnight
• five-year turnaround program
• goal: to have 2-nm chips
• TSM / Apple already at the 2-nm threshol
• market caps:
• Nvidia: $2 trillion
• INTC: $175 billion
  

Samsung

• soars more than 5%; link here.
• Nvidia says it is considering Samsung chips for its GPUs

Dueling headlines:

• Reuters:

• TWSJ:

SCCO: up almost a percent today; copper near record high.

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The Market

The market: not a "Fed-driven market." -- Senior analyst, CNBC. 

Link here for GDP Now. At 2.1 on March 19, 2024.

Supply chain inflation. Exactly what I said yesterday in the feature commentary — even the “80%.” What a great blog.

Economy keeps growing; complicates the Fed’s decision. And that’s a problem? Oh, give me a break.

Moving! Suncor — TMX — China. It’s happening.

Dividend watch: JPM to raise dividend second time in past year after notching record profit. CEO complains about economy and banking risks. Needs to be fact-checked. 

Chipotle (CMG) up 5%: announces a 50-1 split.

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Dueling Headlines

Reuters:

TWSJ:

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $81.89. After today's weekly EIA report

Thursday, March 21, 2024: 122 for the month; 181 for the quarter, 181 for the year

• None.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024: 122 for the month; 181 for the quarter, 181 for the year

• 40053, conf, Oasis, K2 Holdings 5401 11-31 2B,
• 39899, conf, KODA Resources, Bock 3422-1BH,
• 39898, conf, KODA Resources, Bock 3422-2BH,
• 38098, conf, BR, Stafford 12-34TFH,

RBN Energy: making the case for deepwater crude export projects.

With many years gone by and many millions of dollars spent, the deepwater crude oil export projects under development along the U.S. Gulf Coast are finally getting close to receiving their regulatory green light. These projects have sparked commercial and wider market interest because of the many benefits they may provide — including the ability to fully load the biggest tankers, the Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) capable of taking on 2 MMbbl, which could contribute to lower per-barrel shipping costs. In today’s RBN blog, we kick off an offshore oil terminal series, starting with the case for constructing at least one of the export projects.