Locator: 48773B.
Tariffs: US Supreme court refuses to take up "toy-company-urgent" request.
SCOTUS will let the various suits play out in lower courts. So, in last two days, two big SCOTUS wins for Trump: vs Newsom in Califonia and now at least a temporary win for his tariffs, which, by the day, become less important.
One gets the feeling that Trump, like Obama (and "Biden") know that SCOTUS has limited interest / limited time to take on new cases. Presidents need to pick their fights carefully.
Another Trump-TikTok-Timetable: Trump has delayed a decision on TikTok three times, each delay another 90 days; now we have the two-week "take-out Tehran" delay. But, two weeks from now -- July 4th -- typically a big day for fireworks.
Back to CNBC: it's still all about rate cuts.
Wow, it gets tedious. Last rate cut was a tiny 25 basis points back in December, 2024. Since then, nothing. They're arguing over another 25 basis points. This is not an economic / fiscal policy / monetary policy issue. It's a political issue, 1000%. No way will Jay Powell bow to President Trump. No way does 25 basis points mean anything (except for political nerds).
Powell will try to run out the clock; he may or may not be successful, but at most we're talking 50 basis points. Ho-hum. At one time Jay Powell said the tariff issue was a "theoretical issue" and, he said, the Fed only deals with data, not "what-ifs."
Most recently Jay Powell said we've been on pause for six months; we can pause another two months. Paraphrased. Maybe Powell didn't say that; maybe an analyst said that. Whatever.
So, far, the tariff story has been less than noteworthy; across the board, maybe it has resulted in a global 10% tariff.
Next year is an election year, albeit meaningless midterms. One hundred basis points in cuts in 2024, under Biden; no rate cuts since Trump has become president. Tell me again, the Fed is not political. LOL.
Tesla-Austin rollout: muted response today? Texas lawmakers have asked Tesla to delay rollout.
Air India 171: curious, isn't is? Link here.
Biggest air crash in decades (?) and no one seems concerned about cause of the crash; two engines fail simultaneously; ho-hum. Planes keep flying; no safety checks; no groundings; no nothing; at least not publicized.
YouTube experts now have nothing new to say.
US college grads: lots of talk about college grads having trouble finding jobs this year. How bad is it?
Right now, US college grads with unemployment rate of 7%; before Covid-19, it was 5%. Okay.
SoftBank: floats $1-trillion Arizona AI hub; to partner with TSMC; huge blow to Intel (INTC); link here.
- the proposed scheme follows a series of big investment announcements SoftBank has made this year.
- in March, it announced it would acquire U.S. semiconductor design company Ampere for $6.5 billion; and,
- in April, it said it would underwrite up to $40 billion of new investment in OpenAI, of which up to $10 billion would be syndicated to other investors.
- this week SoftBank raised $4.8 billion from a sale of shares in T-Mobil
- a commitment of $1 trillion would be double that of the $500 billion “Stargate” project, which seeks to build out data centre capacity across the U.S., with funding from SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.
- it's easy to forget that "Stargate" is based in Abilene, TX.
- flashback:
Audi: floats $4-billion auto manufacturing plant in some southern US state to"placate" Trump.
CVX: enters lithium race with purchase of major Arkansas-Texas acquisition. Joins XOM; pretty much same general location. Link here.
Silver: for the archives -- silver prices surge. Link here. Ho-hum.
What do these two stories have in common?
- the two stories:
- global warming?
- Iran's nuclear bomb?
- what they have in common:
- both have been imminent for the past fifty years.
- in fact, Iran has been two weeks away from a nuclear warhead for the past ten years.
Speaking of which: what drove the transgender story?
- the transgender issue is a "less than a 1% story" that has become an all-or-none story
- I've always wondered what put the transgender story on the radar scope; we now know
- it goes back to Obergefell, 2015
- another follow-the-money story.
- Americans fell for it, hook-line-and-sinker
- ChatGPT, Google Gemini still being played
- quick: other than surgery on minors what other LGBQT+ stories are out (no pun intended) there right now; oh, yeah, that's right -- men in women's sports.
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $75.03. Drops back a bit at Iran-Israel return to same pattern of tit-for-tat, and Trump takes time to decide.
New wells:
Sunday, June 22, 2025: 49 for the month, 202 for the quarter, 416 for the year,
40508, conf, Hess, EN-McKenna-157-93-3328H-5,
Saturday, June 21, 2025: 48 for the month, 201 for the quarter, 415 for the year,
41286, conf, CLR, Peterson 8-29H,
None.
