Locator: 47156LEGAL.
***********************************
Statesman
Locator: 47155STREAMING.
Track "Streaming Wars" here.
This is a pretty big deal: this is a trifecta -- two of the best add-ons -- Apple TV+ and Netflix -- this puts a lot of pressure on Disney, Hulu, ESPN.
Other than Paramount, what's CBS left with?
Is CBS the "odd man" out?
I honestly don't know. I can't keep up. You're on your own.
Sports: link here -- hit the net earlier this afternoon -- about 40 minutes ago --
I'm thinking Apple TV+ was the big winner here.
Reminder:
I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I
am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
See disclaimer. This is not an investment site.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
All my posts are done quickly:
there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of
my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find
typographical / content errors, I will correct them. Reminder:
I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I
am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
Locator: 47154B.
Four new permits, #40748 - #40751, inclusive (May 14, 2024):
Five new permits, #40743 - #40747, inclusive (May 13, 2024):
The map:
Locator: 47153ETSC.
Updates
Later, 8:41 p.m. CDT: link here --
Original Post
Due to family commitments I didn't see much of CNBC today but what little I saw, truly disappointing. I've never seen such dour, depressed, decidedly pessimistic analysts.
The economy is running on all cylinders; GDPNow is showing a 2Q24 estimate above 4%; we're in the middle of one of the longest bull runs ever; the world is at relative peace; US has set records for the number of months with unemployment less than 4%; and,inflation is running well less than 3% except for a few sectors; the world is awash in oil with no fear of embargoes.
The dual mandate is entirely fabricated, manmade, irrelevant. Just think where we'd be as investors if the dual mandate for the Fed was:
One almost gets the feeling that a lot of CNBC talking heads have missed the most recent "leg up" in this bull market and are trying to convince their audience they know what they are doing (most of them don’t.). At least once today, one CNBC anchor brought up "stagflation" again. At some point, they may be right -- even a broken clock has the correct time twice a day -- but folks have been talking about "stagflation" for the last four years -- despite the fact the US has perhaps had a "genuine" bout of stagflation once in its history.
To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t even any formal definition of “stagflation.” It’s strictly in the eyes of the beholder. “Slow growth, high unemployment, and high inflation.” And a splash of schadenfreude. With a pinch of pessimism. And a lot of “I told you so.”
The best part of the day is "The Halftime Report" -- the "judge" is awesome; and most of the "committee" is superb, one exception, and the “committee” has the best CNBC contributor: Josh.
Today's remarks by JPow were again "right on" and he was very, very optimistic about the US economy. The worse thing he said: "we need to be patient with regard to interest rates." That hasn't changed in six months. Meanwhile, look at the 52-week highs: all sectors participating, not just the “Fab Four.”
The most fascinating thing and some folks are starting to ask the question: is the "medicine" (higher for longer) causing more problems than the "illness" itself.
52-week highs: today, TWSJ. Look at this list!!!
*********************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $78.02 and trending down again.
Active rigs: 37.
Five new permits, #40748 - #40752, inclusive:
Three permits renewed:
Locator: 47152TECH.
Tech is tracked here.
Chips, semiconductor: link here.
QCOM: new 52-week high.
Breaking on CNBC now:
Josh says this will be a $150-stock.
**************************
Disclaimer: Briefly
Reminder:
I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I
am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
See disclaimer. This is not an investment site.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
***********************
What Else In The Tech Sector?
SCCO: why the world has gone cuckoo for copper. Link to TWSJ. Headline: May 15, 2024 --
And "short squeeze":TSM:
AMD:
Locator: 47150AAPL.
Chips, semiconductor: link here.
The M4:
Here's how the 9-core M4 chip stacks up in multi-core Geekbench 6 results:
- M4 chip (10-core CPU): ~14,600
- M4 chip (9-core CPU): ~13,000
- M3 chip (8-core CPU): ~11,600
- M2 chip (8-core CPU): ~9,600
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models are equipped with a 9-core M4 chip when configured with 256GB or 512GB of storage, while models with 1TB or 2TB of storage are equipped with a 10‑core M4 chip. Both variants have a 10-core GPU.
For reasons unclear, the Geekbench 6 listing shows the iPad Pro with the 9-core M4 chip as running iPadOS 17.6, whereas all results for the 10-core model have shown iPadOS 17.4 so far. The first beta of iPadOS 17.6 will likely be made available for testing later this month, following the upcoming release of iPadOS 17.5.
Locator: 47149B.
EVS are tracked here.
Story of the day, link here:
The California-based startup is winding down its operations, having burned through nearly all its cash and defaulting on a debt agreement that leaves it on the hook to repay around $180 million. Fisker faces an ever tighter timeline to negotiate a rescue package, with a key agreement protecting it from creditors due to expire on May 17. The company told employees that June 28 would be their last day at work if a deal isn’t found. On Monday, it announced it had raised a few more million dollars, in a convertible debt deal that matures on June 24.
Fisker’s collapse would add to the pileup of troubled and failed automotive startups that rode the wave of investor zeal for EVs during the pandemic. These young companies raised billions of dollars with bold promises to upend the more than century-old car business. Investors also were game to bet on finding the next Tesla, the EV maker with an eye-popping share price.
Fisker’s downfall underlines the stakes for cash-burning automotive upstarts, which are trying to break into a capital-intensive, low-margin industry dominated by a handful of deep-pocketed players. These young car companies have innovative ideas but struggled with the fundamentals of making and selling vehicles at a profit.
Comment: I believe there's a "newer" story Fisker has arranged some new financing. Not sure. Will look for the story.
Ah, here it is.
**********************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $77.86. Recession scare?
Thursday, May 16, 2024: 21 for the month; 85 for the quarter, 284 for the year
39877, conf, Liberty Resources, Overdorf W 158-06-1-12-1MBH,
Wednesday, May 15, 2024: 20 for the month; 84 for the quarter, 283 for the year
None.
RBN Energy: why Permian production growth is slowing. Archived.
For the past decade, producers in the Permian Basin have been the driving force in domestic production growth, but lately there has been a hard-to-miss slowdown in incremental production rates for crude, gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). While Permian producers are primarily motivated by crude oil economics, those volumes also come with a lot of associated natural gas and NGLs. These commodities are therefore fundamentally interlinked. So if there’s a hangup with one, the effects will be felt across the upstream and then cascade downstream.
There is a lot of money riding on these markets and the impacts of an extended slowdown in the Permian could be monumental, not just in the energy industry but also in the broader U.S. and global economies. In today’s RBN blog, we will examine what’s to blame for plateauing production in the U.S.’s most prolific basin and gauge what its big-picture implications might be.