Locator: 49311HURRICANE.
Need we say more?
Hurricane Humberto in September 2025 briefly had the makings of a record-breaking tropical cyclone but largely fizzled out before reaching the continental US. It's not that there have been fewer hurricanes and tropical storms, it's that none have yet made landfall.
Hurricane activity in 2025 was forecast to be more active than usual.
Hurricane season, 2024 prediction for 2025:
Locator: 49309B.
XOM: crushes production estimates -- link here --
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) topped Wall Street expectations for the third quarter, posting $8.1 billion in adjusted earnings, or $1.88 per share—up from $7.1 billion in Q2—on record output from Guyana and the Permian Basin. Analysts had forecast $1.82 per share, according to LSEG data.
The quarter’s operational strength came despite weaker crude prices, which averaged $68.17 Brent, down 13% year-on-year. Oil and gas production rose to 4.8 million boe/d from 4.6 million in Q2, with record-setting output in both key regions helping offset price softness. Free cash flow, however, fell to $6.3 billion from $11.3 billion a year ago as Exxon spent more on acquiring Permian acreage.
Exxon boosted its quarterly dividend 4% to $1.03 per share and confirmed it remains on track to complete $20 billion in share buybacks this year, after returning $9.3 billion to shareholders last quarter. The company recorded $510 million in restructuring costs but said full-year capital spending will come in slightly below the $27–29 billion guidance range.
In a long note like this there may be typographical and content errors.
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Back to the Bakken
October 30 & October 31, 2025
WTI: $60.98.
Active rigs: 35.
October 30, 2025 --
Six new permits: #42437 - #42442, inclusive:
One producing well (a DUC) reported as completed:
One permit renewed:
October 31, 2025 --
One new permit: #42443 --
One permit renewed:
One permit canceled:
Change of operator: approximately 1,500 permits / wells:
Locator: 49308B.
Quick connects:
This is a huge "win-win" for President Trump. Spares him the backlash and continues to make his opposition look irrelevant.
I think I just mentioned this the other day -- how irrelevant the US Congress has become.
I think this is awesome.
President Trump should get on social media and on TV and on the radio and let folks know that he (President Trump) isn't going to wait any longer. "Too many folks are suffering. If the Democrats won't do it, I will. "No kings, but this president is unilaterally going to do this. I (President Trump) am going to release as much money I am allowed to make sure that no American goes to bed hungry. I'm signing an executive order effective immediately that SNAP benefits be paid."
Then, he needs to have a few GOP Congressmen sue for military pay to be released. LOL. I'm sure they can find a sympathetic judge ordering President Trump to pay the troops.
What a great country.
But, wow, Congress has become irrelevant.
Oh, and while they're at it, find some federal judge to get the air traffic controllers paid.
As a reminder:
Non-U.S. citizens can qualify for SNAP benefits, but eligibility depends heavily on immigration status.
For example, while some "qualified immigrants" like refugees, asylees, and legal permanent residents can become eligible, many must wait five years after their arrival, and undocumented immigrants, DACA recipients, and those on student or work visas are typically ineligible.
Children who are U.S. citizens or lawfully present can receive benefits even if their parents are not eligible [a huge incentive to have children in this country], and parents can apply on their behalf without providing their own immigration status.Link here:
Christine Tully, 78, worried that November would come but her food assistance from the federal government would not. Maybe she could will a good outcome, she thought, by writing down her grocery list for the month as usual. Chicken. Apple juice. Carrots. And if she could find them on sale, she wrote, “a pack of three steaks.”
Locator: 49305AIPROMPT.
Link here.
Jason Zweig is one of the most recognized names in investing. Think Warren Buffett on steroids or Warren Buffett without Charlie Munger.
Today, Jason Zweig asks the question I've often asked: "should I just buy stocks until I die?"
So, go to the link and read Jason Zweig's column today.
If the column is unavailable due to a paywall consider the:
AI prompt: should I just buy stocks until I die?
But that really would be impossible to answer without a bit more information, so this is the AI prompt I used:
As one who lives and breathes investing; sees investing as a hobby; could live comfortably without investing; and, plans to leave his entire portfolio to his five grandchildren, ages five years of age to 20 years of age, should I just buy stocks until I die? No bonds, no cash, no money market funds, just equities.
AI answered that question to my satisfaction and then provided .... a suggested Perpetual Equity Endowment with an incredible amount of useful investing jargon which will entertain me for the rest of the day.
And, with the give and take of ChatGPT, I can work with ChatGPT to come up with a tailored, more specific portfolio unique to my desires.
My hunch: it won't be long before the editors at TWSJ and/or one of the columnists as a daily column: today's AI prompt. Or The Daily Prompt. Sort of like the daily horoscope newspapers used to provide. LOL.
Tag: Saudi Arabia AI Humaine, Nvidia; AMD, AWS, Qualcomm, Cisco, Blackstone (AirTrunk).
One of the most fascinating stories to follow right now is the energy story and AI: how will the US respond to the energy requirements generated by AI?
Right now there are three viable options: coal, natural gas, and nuclear.
A reader sent me a note about revived interest in coal in Wyoming, link here.
That led me to look at the power plants in the US, on wiki. Coal. Natural gas. Nuclear.
Average size of a "conventional nuclear reactor:"
A conventional nuclear reactor is typically large, with a plant output of around 1,000 MWe (1 GW) and requiring a footprint of over 1 square mile. For comparison, advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are designed for outputs of 50 to 300 MWe and have a much smaller footprint, though "size" can also refer to the physical reactor core itself.
The AI prompt for today:
Much is being written about the energy options for providing the electricity that AI large data centers and supercomputers will need. Right now, there are three viable options: coal, natural gas and nuclear. After a pretty thorough review of where things stand now my hunch is that coal will play a relatively minor role in the near term with natural gas being the clear winner of the two. Long term nuclear may play a role, but it seems to me, nuclear won't be a significant option for at least another decade. For all intents and purposes, I think natural gas will be the dominant energy source for NEW energy production in the states. In China, it may be coal, but in the US, natural gas. Your thoughts with regard to NEW energy in the US and new energy in China.
On another note. Saudi Arabia. AI. Humain. What US company got the contract?
There are two sources (one in 2023, and one in 2024) that suggest China will indeed block chatbots if they are "not socialist enough."
We've talked about this before.
Locator: 49303CRAMER.
GDPNow: link here. October 27, 2025: 3.9.
Giddy: Cramer is absolutely giddy about Amazon's results.
Steve Liesman: on a Fed cut, Steve Liesman does not get it
The bigger problems:
Mag 7 --> Super-mag 3? Both can and will co-exist: Mag 7 + Super-Mag 3.
Netflix: announces a 10 - 1 stock split.
CVX: long interview with CVX CEO and Jim Cramer.
4GW: oh, I missed this. I didn't see this but apparently David Farber has the number for the new Michigan Stargate location: 4 GW.
This is so cool!
I'm skipping the Eisen Hour and going to do some reading.
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The Book Page
Link here for notes. At that blog, search Zeld but I'm updating this page -- the link -- right now.
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
Developer Related Companies has agreed to build a more than $7 billion data-center campus on farmland outside Detroit, one of the largest deals yet for this burgeoning real estate class that powers AI.
Related’s 250-acre campus in Saline Township, Mich., is the fourth new site announced as part of a $300-billion contract signed between Oracle
and OpenAI, which the ChatGPT maker says is part of its larger Stargate project designed to build trillions of dollars worth of new computing capacity.
The Related site, about 13 miles from Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan campus, is designed to deliver more than one gigawatt of computing capacity. That is roughly equivalent to the electricity needed to power more than 750,000 homes.
Investment estimate: $10 billion. Expected to break ground next year (2026). OpenAI is set to make $13 billion in sales this year -- but is putting itself on the hook for an average of $60 billion in yearly payments for its Oracle contract alone.
From the blog, October 22, 2025, link here:
Stargate is tracked here, first post, February 8, 2025. Since then, many Stargate posts.
Stargate
was to have five locations. Three were to be in the Permian (two in
Texas, one in New Mexico just across the state line); one in the Utica.
Lordstown, Ohio. But the fifth location was not announced.
Locator: 49300DISCLAIMER.
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
At 7:30 a.m. CT:
SK Hynix: Nvidia supplier. By the way, Trump is making his Asian swing. Jensen Huang after his keynote speech at a tech meeting in Washington, DC, flew immediately to "Korea" where Trump had also visited on his Asian swing. Now why would Jensen Huang fly to Korea just as Trump was also visiting?
Today, link here -- Samsung to build an "AI megafactory -- starting with 50,000 Nvidia GPUs.
Korean semiconductor giant Samsung said Thursday that it plans to buy and deploy a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia graphics processing units to improve its chip manufacturing for mobile devices and robots.
The 50,000 Nvidia GPUs will be used to create a facility Samsung is calling an “AI Megafactory.” Samsung didn’t provide details about when the facility would be built.
It’s the latest splashy partnership for Nvidia, whose chips remain essential for building and deploying advanced artificial intelligence.
Locator: 49299MPC.
Updates
November 3, 2025: link here. Distributions allow 9 years of 10% dividend growth at MPC! In this thread the writer uses the acronym BMO: before market open.
Original Post
A 9.9% hike?
Locator: 49297APPLE.
Highlights of the earnings call, MacRumors, link here.
Gross profit: 47% margin.
Services: 15% increase y/y.
Links:
Ticker: pending.
CNBC: interview at 7:00 a.m. -- top of the hour -- is must-watch.
If you like being tracked by the google folks:
Locator: 49296ENB.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a controversial proposal by Canadian oil and gas giant Enbridge (NYSE:ENB), to reroute an aging oil pipeline around a Wisconsin tribal reservation, saying the project "complied with all applicable federal laws and regulations."
Enbridge proposed the 41-mile reroute to remove the pipeline off land held by the Bad River Band after a court ordered in 2023 that the pipeline should be removed from the tribal land by June 2026. The judge also ordered Enbridge to pay the tribe over $5 million for trespassing. The ruling was based on the tribe's arguments that the 70-year-old pipeline poses a significant environmental risk due to erosion, and that the company lacks a valid right-of-way for those sections of the pipeline.
Enbridge’s proposal to reroute the pipeline around the reservation has, however, been met with opposition from the Bad River Band and environmental groups who argue it does not meet water quality standards and could still cause environmental damage. President Donald Trump ordered the corps to fast-track the project in April, and the approval moves the $500 million-plus project closer to construction.
The Enbridge Line 5 is a 645-mile oil pipeline that transports crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, passing through Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The pipeline has become a vital energy source for the Great Lakes region, but has faced significant legal, environmental, and political challenges, particularly regarding its 4-mile underwater segment across the Straits of Mackinac.
But still not over.
Reminds me of Jarndyce and Jarndyce (or Jarndyce v Jarndyce).
