Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Cramer's First Hour, Part 2 -- December 18, 2024

Locator: 44482CRAMER.

Cramer's first hour: a mix of facts, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC.

Those stranded astronauts? They've been stranded another month -- now it's been pushed back from February to March. That will be eight months. That's the earliest. This is simply bizarre. One year of their life they will never get back. No medical emergency so far; this cannot last forever. But, of course, that raises the issue: does NASA even have a plan B for stranded astronauts.

Housing starts, permits: yada, yada, yada.  

US current account -- Trump is right again-- even before he's sworn in: one of the biggest current account deficits ever. A negative $310.95 billion vs a negative $286.6 estimate. This explains Trump's focus on tariffs. This is fascinating. This is the biggest story today that won't be reported

The only thing I'm following today: will AAPL turn green before the end of the day?

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History
Missouri Compromise: 1820 (better name: the Missouri-Maine Act)
Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854
Dred Soctt: 1857

Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2024, p. 59: "The Great Miscalculation," book review by Christopher Flannery. The book:

  • A Hell of a Storm: The Battle for Kansas, the End of the Compromise, and the Coming of the Civil War, by David S. Brown, Scribner, 352 pages, $32.

I find it astonishing that journalists today seem to be aghast at what the US Supreme Court has done recently with regard to states' rights. It's almost as if journalists no longer read history. Exhibit A:

That 36°30' line? It only applied to the Louisiana Purchase, and thus it only affected "the line" dividing Missouri (to the north) from Arkansas (to the south). Kentucky and a northern slice of Tennessee were also north of the 36°30' line. Virginia, of course, also north of the line, was a slave state at the time these bills were being discussed and passed.

From National Geographic:

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Disclaimer
Brief 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 something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  • 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. 
  • And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
  • Longer version here

Cramer's First Hour, Part 1 -- December 18, 2024

Locator: 44481CRAMER.

Cramer's first hour: a mix of facts, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC.

Marvel, Broadcam: JPM's top picks.

Meta, Reddit: MS's top picks.

Robinhood: Keybank names it as its top pick.

Pre-market: it appears the Dow could reverse its 9-day losing streak.

Tea-leaves: nuclear is not in America's future. Certainly not in my investing lifetime.  

Tea-leaves: the US state that could have a huge next four years? Virginia. LDCs.Virginia, a blue state that votes for GOP.

Tea-leaves: the four T's -- Trump, tariffs, taxes, and the wall. Note: "the wall" is a metonym for the entire immigration issue and homeland security. Virginia's governor Glenn Youngkin, extended segment on CNBC this a.m. Setting himself up to run for president in 2024?

Christmas: I think folks are forgetting that Christmas Eve, next Tuesday, is now less than one week away. USPS mailing deadlines have passed. Amazon? Doing just fine. Still same day delivery if one lives near a fulfillment center.

Pet food: have you ever noticed all the new dog food entrants? Not so true for cat food? Why? Dogs, omnivores. Cats, strict carnivores. One choice: tuna in tins. 

In our apartment complex, boxes of Chewy arrive daily. Unlike Amazon, in apartment complexes, Chewy does not deliver to one's front door. Chewy apparently delivers by UPS at common mail center or manager's office. Amazon requires its drivers to deliver to door.

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief 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 something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  • 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. 
  • And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
  • Longer version here

Hump Day -- December 18, 2024

Locator: 44480B.

Morning Joe: doing everything he can to survive. For the first time ever (unlikely but not in a very, very long time) Joe Scarborough appears on CNBC for an incredibly long segment with Andrew Ross Sorkin. Don't forget the Ross. Joe Kernan noted that CNBC and MSNBC are both in trouble with Comcast's decision to spin off the cable networks.

Pelosi: hip replacement in Germany; at the US (Army) military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. PBS. Forbes.

Beirut, 1960s, link here. BleeckerStreet, then.

Measels, Congo. NYT today.

Stagflation: Joe Kernan, CNBC, today. Wow, what does he want? He's starting to sound like a rancher. Or a banker.

The day the music died: Canada pushes out target for net-zero to 2050. Had been 2035. Link here. No paywall here.

Another Biden legacy: Biden's agencies fail to meet fleet EV targets. Link here. Without the paywall.

Biden: hasn't had a positive favorability rating since 2021. Link here.

Long thinking: the WSJ. Nvidia.

Taiwan: power failure. TSMC.

LNG: Trump has it right. How did Biden miss this?  Not how, but "why"?

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $70.56.

Thursday, December 19, 2024: 27 for the month; 130 for the quarter, 657 for the year

  • 35511, conf, Enerplus, FB Clinton 148-94-29B-32-9B,
Wednesday, December 18, 2024: 26 for the month; 129 for the quarter, 656 for the year
  • None.

RBN Energy: Chevron's 105-year-old Texas refinery gets a new lease on life

More than 15 years into the Shale Era, the U.S. refining sector’s response to burgeoning production of light, sweet crude oil continues. Earlier this month, Chevron completed the long-planned, $400 million renovation and expansion of the century-old refinery in Pasadena, TX, which the company acquired from Petrobras in 2019. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the refinery’s extensive history, why Chevron bought the facility five years ago, and how the just-finished project will enable the integrated oil and gas giant to make fuller use of its Permian oil bounty.