TGIF -- June 28, 2024

Locator: 48059B. 

Market: full opening remarks here.

LEGO: new sets revealed.

• Optimus Primus Bumblebee, $89.99, new, coming
• Lunar Rover, $219.99; pre-order;
• Mercedes-AMG, Speed Champions set, $44.99, backorder;
• amazing how many sets are on backorder (due mostly to shipping delays)

Debate: 

• clearly the pundits and headline writers didn't see the same debate that the rest of us saw. If one steps back and takes a broader view ... one sees a completely different landscape ...

PCE: from CNBC -- 

• an important economic measure for the Federal Reserve showed Friday that inflation during May slowed to its lowest annual rate in more than three years. 
• the core personal consumption expenditures price index increased just a seasonally adjusted 0.1% for the month and was up 2.6% from a year ago, the latter number down 0.2 percentage point from the April level,
• both numbers were in line with the Dow Jones estimates. 
• May marked the lowest annual rate since March 2021, which was the first time in this economic cycle that inflation topped the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
• reminder: March, 2021 -- the one year anniversary of the Trump-mandated Covid-19 lockdown. That's what Biden inherited.
  

Cramer:

• soft landing
• all that's left is the rent number
• these were not numbers for a "Fed rate raise"

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $82.10.

Sunday, June 30, 2024: 75 for the month; 139 for the quarter, 338 for the year
None.

Saturday, June 29, 2024: 75 for the month; 139 for the quarter, 338 for the year
None.

Friday, June 28, 2024: 75 for the month; 139 for the quarter, 338 for the year
None.

RBN Energy: low Panama Canal water levels mean big headaches for LNG exporters.

The Panama Canal expansion completed in June 2016 was expected to allow much larger LNG tankers to move product from Sabine Pass LNG and other Gulf Coast export terminals through the canal to Asian and Latin American customers. But water levels at Gatun Lake, which provides the fresh water needed to operate the canal’s locks, have been well below normal in recent years, limiting opportunities to use the canal and complicating plans to ramp up LNG flows through it. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the challenges of moving LNG through the Panama Canal, how access to the waterway has been affected by drought and climate conditions over the past decade, and the impact on the LNG market.