Pages

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Dallas: New Financial Hub -- August 10, 2024

Locator: 48380TEXAS.



Link here

Ross Perot Jr. gestured out the window as his helicopter circled a 4.5-acre pit alongside the skyline of downtown Dallas. Texas and U.S. flags hung from a crane within it.

The site is where Perot’s real-estate investment company, Hillwood, is partnering to build a $500 million Goldman Sachs tower for more than 5,000 bankers and investors. That will make it the financial firm’s second-largest office, behind New York. As the helicopter swung northwest, windows glinted from two unfinished Wells Fargo office towers, scheduled to open next year. A bit farther away: a fourth office building under construction for Charles Schwab, which moved its headquarters from California to the Dallas area five years ago, and the footprint of a Deloitte campus doubling in size.

The sprawling landscape illustrates an expansion that has brought to North Texas a presence in financial services that now sits second only to New York City in the U.S.

And growth of so-called Y’all Street is accelerating.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Texas investment-banking and securities employment has increased 111% over the past 20 years and 27% since the pandemic, compared with 16% and 5%, respectively, in New York.

The number of people employed in finance overall has risen 13% in Texas since 2019, compared with 2% in New York and 3% nationally.

Dallas now ranks second to New York City among metro areas in the number of workers employed in finance-related industries. Other cities, particularly in the Sunbelt, have seen growth as those services increasingly seek to be closer to customers nationwide.

*******************************
Movie Night

Notorious. Alfred Hitchcock.

It begins in Miami. Perhaps the one place in America I have not been. Not to be taken out of context. Ends in Rio de Janeiro. I have been to Rio. 

From wiki

Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."

In 2006, Notorious was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

**************************
The Book Page

From One Cell: A Journey Into Life's Origins And The Future Of Medicine, Ben Stanger, 2023.

Audience: should be summer reading for high school students -- juniors / seniors -- with plans to attend college to major in the life sciences. 

***************************
The Boys

Chips -- AI -- And All That Jazz -- Updates -- August 10, 2024

Locator: 48378CHIPS.

Nothing really new here, but necessary to update some past posts, emphasize others, post story of the day.

Personal investing: I have never been happier with my portfolio, as I hand it off to my grandchildren. The hand-off is measured, deliberate, and avoids controlling from the grave. Once done, I'm done. Three components:

  • energy
  • tech
  • dividends

So insane: link here.

Peacock: it was amazing the number of streaming options I had each day on my streaming devices, using Amazon's FireStick. Clicking on NBC's Paris coverage seemed to have an almost infinite number of choices. There's no way Peacock could have done that without almost infinite number of CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs. But mostly GPUs. Link here


Four major networks
:

  • NBC: everything seems to be going right -- sports, business, news.
  • CBS: currently in fourth place? Huge shakeup in "Evening News with ...."
  • ABC: at least they still have "The View."
  • FOX: a joke.

AI

  • two camps
    • AI is all hype
    • AI is real
  • I'm in the second camp

AI servers, link here. 

Story of the day: AWS, Graviton, supercomputer. AWS Graviton wiki. Stand-alone post, perhaps. August 7, 2024. ARM, Fortnite, Beth, Graviton.

TSMC, the chip company that is struggling, link here

Pat on the back: I spotted "Graviton" months ago -- see Chips.

Update: add NPUs to discussion.

Reminder: Beth Kindig.

Cisco: laying off thousands. Second round of layoffs. Follows Splunk.

Tech, link here:


Nvidia's performance each full year since going public.

Hyperscaler Demand For Natural Gas Unprecedented -- August 10, 2024

Locator: 48377HYPERSCALER.

Link here.

Link to Rigzone.

Pipeline giants Energy Transfer LP and Williams Cos. are talking to data center operators about building pipelines directly to their facilities to fuel on-site power plants as the centers prepare for a boom in artificial intelligence.
Utilities are bracing for the largest increase in power demand in a generation due to data centers for AI, computer-chip factories and a growing number of electric vehicles. Some of that additional power will come from wind and solar. But a significant portion will be from gas-fired plants. And companies that run data centers want to make sure that that gas will be available — and quickly obtainable — when they need it.
Energy Transfer is in discussions with data centers of different sizes, many of which want to generate power on site, Co-Chief Executive Officer Marshall McCrea said in a call with analysts Wednesday afternoon.

Week 32: August 5, 2024 -- August 11, 2024

Locator: 48376TOPSTORIES.

Top story

  • huge hostage swap
  • Presidential politics: it's Kamala Harris' race to lose; polls show she is far ahead nationally
  • Kamala Harris picks MN governor Walz as VP choice
  • Israel: has taken out several high-profile Hezbollah, Hamas leaders
    • Iran still has not retaliated; "can't afford a wider war"

Top international non-energy story:

  • Olympics: record streaming views at NBC

Top international energy story:

Top national non-energy story:

  • US equity markets recover after plummeting week earlier
    • jobs report better than expected

Top national energy story:

Focus on fracking: current link here. Generally updated late Sunday night.

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

Top North Dakota energy story:

Geoff Simon's quick connectslink here.

The market in a nutshell:

College Football -- Texas -- NCAA Football -- Oklahoma Sooners Vs Texas Longhorns - August 10, 2024

Locator: 48375FOOTBALL.

Link here.

October 12, 2024. Cotton Bowl, Dallas, TX.

As date get closer, non-premium seats on the 50-yard line, lower-level seating / "down on the field," will trend toward $9,000 / seat based on historical figures.

Today:

I'm not sure if folks saw the current high price:

$59,999.40.

Or just about $60,000. 

Recession in Texas. Doesn't appear so.