Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Micron, Corning, Copper -- Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Locator: 49851TECH.

I think a lot of folks are over-thinking this. And those doing the most over-thinking? CNBC.  

From the blog, Jensen Huang's interview on CNBC yesterday, link here:

 

Link here

One day, new 52-week high: 

Six months:

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The Sixth Industrial Revolution

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The Sixth Industrial Revolution

Link here

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Glowing

Link here

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Apple - Intel

Link here

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The Movie Page 

Betsy Drake: wiki

The Second Woman, wiki.

No New Permits; Five Permits Renewed -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49850B.

Measles outbreak in South Carolina, surpasses the Texas outbreak a year ago:

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $62.56.

Active rigs: 28.

No new permits

Five permits renewed:

  • XTO: four Wolff Federal permits and one Prairie Federal permit, all in McKenzie County. The Wolff Federal permits were issued for North Fork oil field, ad the Prairie Federal permit was for a well in Haystack Butte. 

BRK-B -- Not Making A Lot Of Mom-And-Pop Retail Investors Very Happy -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49849BRK.

See blog's disclaimer. This is not an investment site.  

Ticker

Headwinds:

  • the GOAT has retired;
    • BRK has lost its MOJO
    • no one has any FOMO any more with regard to BRK 
    • BRK looks like a mediocre (at best) mutual fund
  • a very, very long play; the sixth industrial revolution is not going to wait for BRK 
    • young investors aren't waiting around for very, very long plays 
  • pays no dividend
  • huge cash position
  • BRK-B, three core "business" divisions:
    • equity portfolio
    • wholly owned "subsidiaries"
    • cash
  • equity portfolio:
    • legacy holdings; 
    • nothing remarkable; average (at best) what one might see in any US mutual fund 
    • minimal tech;
  • wholly owned "subsidiaries"
    • average (at best) what one might see in any US mutual fund
  • cash: at best 4% and rates trending lower 

Electricity Rates By State -- EIA -- Have Just Posted -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49848ELECTRICITY.

Link here

Tag: electricity states.

October, 2025, data was posted here back on December 29, 2025.

New data is for November, 2025.

In a long note like this, there will be content and typographical errors.  

Average price of electricity by state, November, 2025, data.

There are five "sectors": residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, and all sources. I generally ignore the fourth column (transportation). 

For the larger energy-using states, the most important sector is the last column, "all sectors." 

For tech-heavy states, most important is the third column, industrial.

For individual Americans, I suppose, the most important column is the first column, residential.

So, let's break it down, least expensive in each sector:

  • residential:
    • North Dakota: 11.93
    • Idaho: 12.25
    • Nebraska: 12.52. 
    • Louisiana: 12.74 
    • Montana: 12.82 
    • by the way, these are the only states below 13 cents / kWh.
  • commercial
    • North Dakota: 7.40
    • Texas; 8.19
    • Nebraka: 8.56
    • Oklahoma: 8.65 
    • by the way, these are the only states below 9 cents / kWh.
  • industrial (all states below 7 cents / kWh):  
    • New Mexico -- winner, winner, chicken dinner -- 5.37 (down from $5.52 last year)
    • Louisiana: 5.88 (up from 5.05 last year)
    • Oklahoma: 6.13 (about the same from last year, 5.50)
    • Iowa: 6.36 (up from 6.24 last year)
    • Idaho: falls off the list
    • Arkansas: 6.53 (down from 6.78 last year)
    • Tennessee: 6.43 (up from 6.14 last year)
    • Georgia: 6.83 (up from 6.31 last year)
    • Texas: 6.63 (way up from 6.08 last year)
    • Nevada: 6.81 (way down from 7.55 last year)
    • Montana: 6.88 (up from 6.78 last year)
    • South Carolina: 6.71 (down from 6.75 last year)
    • Kentucky: 6.86 (up from 6.53 last year) 
    • Washington state: 6.84 (up from 6.51 last year) 
  • Interestingly, North Dakota is not on that list -- 7.55 (up from 7.18 last year).
  • Now, taking all those sectors together, the "average":
    • North Dakota: 8.24
    • Iowa: 8.82
    • New Mexico: 8.87
    • these are the only states below 9 cents / kWh.

Comments

  • in a state with incredibly "stable" / predictable weather, renewable energy "works": Iowa
    • renewable energy does not work in Texas based on the way the state regulates the industry 
  • I tend to ignore New Mexico
  • Texas has relatively inexpensive electricity rates, but the industrial rate in Texas increased by 9% y/y

The state not listed above that interests me most: California:

  • residential: 31.91 cents US, 17.78 
    • throw out the outliers and the US average would be lower than 17.78; 
    • California: almost twice the US average
  • commercial: 24.45; again, California is almost twice the US average (13.19)
  • industrial: California's rate is a whopping 19 cents vs US average of 8  -- again, about double the national average
  • all sectors: California, 25.89 cents vs 13.42 cents; again, almost exactly twice the national average; but get this, California at 26 cents is almost in the same ballpark as Hawaii at 36 cents. throw out New England (a real energy mess) and throw out the outliers, Hawaii and Alaska, and California compared to the rest of the nation is insane. 

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Locator: 49847B.

Record:

  • S&P 500: intra-day record about 10:40 a.m. today; around 6,988 
  • NASDAQ: intra-day record about 10:40 a.m. today; around 24,020 

BRK-B: opens down again today. 

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) has a massive, core focus on the insurance industry, though it primarily owns property and casualty (P&C) insurers like GEICO and General Re. 

  • While not heavily invested in health insurers, BRK recently added a stake in UnitedHealth Group ($1.6 billion). It also holds DaVita in the healthcare sector.   

GM: beats estimates. Increases dividend by 20%.

Pre-market:

  • MU: up $18.
  • GLW: up $8.
  • SCCO: flat. 
  • AMD: flat
  • AMZN: up $1.47

Medicare: the big question -- did Nancy Pelosi short Humana?

  • rate reimbursement is going to remain flat next year
  • taking the wind out of the health care industry
  • Humana: -16% 
  • CVS: -11% 

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Back to the Bakken
 

WTI: $61.69.

New wells reporting

  • Wednesday, January 28, 2026: 46 for the month, 46 for the quarter, 46 for the year,
    • 42035, conf, Slawson, Rebel Federal 6-32-17TFH
    • 40868, conf, Hess, GO-Dustin Brose-156-98-2932H-2, 
  • Tuesday, January 27, 2026: 44 for the month, 44 for the quarter, 44 for the year,
    • None.

RBN Energy: Midland to Echo 2's return to ease Permian crude tightness to Houston. Link hereArchived.

The long-anticipated return of Enterprise Products Partners’ Midland to ECHO 2 Pipeline (M2E-2) to crude oil service is underway, bringing 220 Mb/d of capacity back online for the first time since the end of 2023. The move coincides with Enterprise’s new NGL line, the Bahia Pipeline, which entered service in December. With these changes, Enterprise has become the second-largest owner of outbound Permian crude oil capacity. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at how the line’s return to crude service impacts flows to the Gulf Coast, particularly as the region’s largest crude pipeline, Wink to Webster, has an upcoming 10-day maintenance in March.

A key element of Enterprise’s Permian strategy has been its ability to switch the products some pipelines carry as circumstances and economics change. For the past couple of years, Enterprise has had two major pipelines moving crude from the Permian to Houston — Midland to ECHO 1 (M2E-1, purple line in Figure 1 below) and Midland to ECHO 3 (M2E-3), which represents the company’s 29% undivided interest in the Wink to Webster Pipeline (W2W, orange line). Together, these give Enterprise 1.07 MMb/d of crude takeaway capacity to Houston. A third pipeline, M2E-2 (blue line), has been moving NGLs since December 2023 under the name Seminole (more on that below) but is being returned to crude oil service this month.

 

A Bakken Well Drilled In 2008 Just Went Over One Million Bbls Cumulative Oil -- Huge Jump In Production Last Month -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49846B.

The well: a short lateral (640 acres; one mile); still flowing, not on a pump, drilled back in 2008, 17 years ago.

  • 17113, 3,030, XTO/Denbury/Encore Operating, Charlson Federal 14X-35H, Charlson, t10/08; cum 882K 3/21; F; subtle jump in production; cum 890K 6/21; still F; cum 891K 9/21; still F; cum 921K 10/22; F; 933K 6/23; cum 951K 1/24; see this post; cum 956K 3/24; still F; cum 975K 11/24; F; cum 998K 7/25; cum 1.014825 million bbls.

Recent production profile: 

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN11-202522624166263159994184951221
BAKKEN10-202531170531692156892118020447403
BAKKEN9-202572378214017131290121636
BAKKEN8-2025310232056540
BAKKEN7-20253118851913993070279640
BAKKEN6-2025301882209413832772790260
BAKKEN5-2025312041190710733262810282
BAKKEN4-202530179020007228132330256
BAKKEN3-202531207221007431812562286
BAKKEN2-202528191118439523111747264
BAKKEN1-202531215222799729451927685
BAKKEN12-202431213922457829252240353
BAKKEN11-2024302194177811733462721303
BAKKEN10-2024312205222151330162228455
BAKKEN9-2024302014221015627551909624
BAKKEN8-2024312268220115331512604313
BAKKEN7-2024312159198313229542104619
BAKKEN6-202430211722129126041999381
BAKKEN5-2024312379241116429262078621
BAKKEN4-2024302419238511729762370381
BAKKEN3-2024312433240112329932470227
BAKKEN2-20242924902696178366633550
BAKKEN1-20243126862294138347431410

Well of interest:

  • 38667, drl/A, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-3A-33 5H, Charlson, total depth, 18,549 feet; complete production profile:


Spud date
: 8/24/2024.

Stimulations and tests:

  • duration: 24 hours
  • choke: 24 / 64 inches
  • oil: 1,671 bbls (24 hours)
  • gas: 1,886 MCF (24 hours)
  • water: 820 bbls
  • flowing tubing pressure: 1600 PSI
  • gas-oil ratio: 1128.67
  • date stimulated: 8/29/2025
  • middle Bakken
  •  top: 11,361 MD
  • bottom: 18,436 MD
  • sand frack
  • lbs proppant: 7,203,029 
  • max treatment PSI: 9297 PSI 

From the file report

The well bore:

The primary zone started 26’ beneath the top of the Middle Bakken Formation. 

This pay zone was picked for its production potential and quality of reservoir rock. This was evidenced with gas readings from 4u up to 1,004u, an average of 210u from 11,360’ MD to 18,549’ MD. 

This well ended with a top of our lateral drilling at 10,110’ TVD and the base of our drilling a 10,045’ TVD. 

We did have to make two full trips while drilling; once for the curve assembly at the KOP of 10,600’ MD, and again for the lateral assembly at 11,356’ MD. Five bits used.

If the report stated the percent the well bore was in the seam, I missed it.  

North Dakota Bakken -- Oil Production -- November, 2026 -- Up Month/Month -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49845B. 

Link here

250 Years -- US History -- Posted January 27, 2026

Locator: 49844TICONDEROGA. 

History: link here

December 6, 1775 to March 5, 1776. From Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York on Lake Chamberlain, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to liberate Boston. Wow. Noble train of delivery. Colonel Henry Knox. 


Compare that to your five days of winter weather, January 23 - January 27, 2026. Link here.

Texas: Winter Storm Of The Century -- Again, The Hype Was Way Over Done -- Another Non-Story -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49843FERN. 

North Texas, from DFW north to Oklahoma, the state of Texas was shut down and the national news kept talking about Dallas and the winter storm of the century -- Winter Storm Fern.

Oh, give me a break. 

Yes, the northern half of the state did shut down completely for four days, and possibly five days, but it was only due to the freakish event of rain just before the sub-freezing cold front. So, we had a glaze of ice -- they all it "black ice" in Germany -- covered by a 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch covering of ice-snow -- something I had never see before. Not in North Dakota, not in Germany.

But this was nothing like the storm of the century back in 2021. Now, that was bad. I can't recall the exact numbers but back in 2021, we went 280 hours straight with sub-freezing weather. This time, this year, 2026, 70 hours straight with sub-freezing weather. The numbers are probably wrong but that gives you an idea of the two storms.  

At the end of the day, a lot of canceled flights and a four-day weekend for students. 

Tomorrow should be the fourth of four days, but it's possible we could see the authorities extending it one more day -- a five-day weekend for Sophia. 

But today was quite pleasant -- those areas that got sunshine -- the ice turned to slush which will freeze again overnight. But tomorrow, the temperature will get to 40+°F and everything will melt. And it will be over. 

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A Musical Interlude

Link here.  


How did we go from Cher to Taylor Swift. And, yes, it's still Taylor Swift. Vs Cher.

PSA: IRS Deadlines -- Quarterly Estimates -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49842IRS. 

A public service announcement:

Intel -- Micron To Invest ANOTHER $24 Billion Into Singapore -- January 27, 2026

Locator: 49841INTC. 

Link here

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Micron

Link here

Focus On Dividends -- Black Hills - January 27, 2026

Locator: 49840BKH. 

From 67.6 cents to 70.3 cents = 4% increase.  

Last Friday:

History

Ticker: BKH was trading for $16 in 1996 -- at the time my BKH shares were first acquired; always held, never bought any more. So, 70.3 cents x four = $2.812 or 17.575%.

I'm trying to figure out what to buy that would immediately guarantee me 20% year in and year out. 

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BRK-B: 2% Gain This Past Year

Ticker


 One year: