Apple's growth outpaced overall PC market growth of 2.5 percent thanks to the M5 MacBook Pro that was released late last year. Apple also refreshed the MacBook Air
and the higher-end MacBook Pro models, but those were just recently
updated and wouldn't have impacted the Q1 2026 numbers much.
Apple was the number four PC vendor in the world with 6.2 million
Macs shipped, up from 5.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Lenovo, HP,
and Dell were the top three PC vendors with 16.5, 12.1, and 10.3 million
PCs shipped, respectively. Most vendors saw an increase in shipments
during the quarter according to IDC, with the exception of HP.
Overnight, Mr Vern Whitten sent me his most recent portfolio in which he combined wildlife photography with some short vignettes.
I thanked him for the portfolio with this note:
Thank you for your most recent portfolio -- sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
The
stories -- short vignettes -- accompanying the wildlife photos were
quite enjoyable. I recall similar "emotions / feelings" when I used to
walk late at night during the coldest winter evenings while growing up
in Williston. There's something about relative solitude and the natural
wonders in North Dakota. Many, many memories.
You can see his recent work -- link here -- and the photography by Mike VanValkenburg -- see his website here.
Vern Whiten would love to hear from you.
His website: https://www.vernwhittenphotography.com/.
USPS: to seek rate increase for the "Forever Stamp" in July, 2026 -- will jump to 82 cents. It seems unbelievable but it appears it will soon cost a dollar to send a letter.
Airline baggage fees: getting more and more expensive. American Airlines may soon have the most expensive such fees.
******************************* Back to the Bakken
WTI: $98.47.
Active rigs: 24.
Five new permits, #42823 - #42827, inclusive:
Operators: Silver Hill Energy (3); Phoenix Operating (2)
WTI: $98.98 -- up $1.11 and up about 1.1% -- doesn't seem like much considering Saudi crude oil export has been "slashed."
Over at x, I'm not seeing much from President Trump.
But there's a lot of reporting from the Middle East that the Arab countries are coming under huge missile barrages and drone attacks from Iran, including direct attacks on Saudi's only "lifeline" right now -- their east-west pipeline.
By the way, I think for the first time ever, at least a few more Americans now realize the "Mideast" is not homogeneous. The first binary distinction is "Arab" vs "Persian." And since 1979, the anxiety between the two has only gotten progressively worse.
Some considerations:
he's giving diplomacy some time; or,
he's simply biding his time until events make for an easy decision; or,
he's serious when he said consumers need to find their own oil sources; or,
he's serious when he says that his objectives have been met,
he's simply waiting to get the best deal from Iran / his negotiators before saying "mission accomplished."
All scenarios suggest a continued trading range of $90 to $100 WTI.
Without question, he's running out of "extensions." Another extension and we're going to start hearing "rope a dope" analogies.
Mideast oil is predominantly shipped to China, the rest of Asia, and India.
Saudi Arabia has become one of several suppliers of refined products for California.
***************************** Speaking of California
Ticker: SRE -- a new 52-week high -- and with a nice dividend ...
Pronounced "cows." Reminder, TeraFab will do this all under one roof. If it comes to fruition, TeraFab will be competing directly with all three stages of blade production: fabricating, packaging, and memory.
Read the last line in the "box" below and then re-read Beth's note.
Now, the next obvious question:
Besides TSMC, who invented the technology, who else is using CoWoS / packaging. Obviously Apple is (through TSMC) but who else? Intel? Global Foundries? Samsung?
Reply:
CoWoS: search "CoWoS" on the blog, but in addition it is tracked over at "Tech." Or go direct here.
Compared to what my dad had as an investor when making investing decisions, wow, we have it so much easier.
Quick!
Rubin (GPU) Vera (CPU) will use HBM4 for its memory. From what company (Samsung, SK, or Micron) is Nvidia sourcing its HBM4?
Answer:
Next: Who is Micron's biggest customer? Nvidia, AMD, or Dell?
I think the following query was one of the most important queries I've asked regarding chatbots and GPUs, CPUs, and TPUs. I was not necessarily surprised by the answer per se; I was surprised by the "intensity" of the answer.
Query: Do those companies that make CPUs, GPUs, and TPUs, do these companies pay attention to market share of the chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc)? In other words, is is important to optimize chips for a specific chatbot or does it even matter?
To clarify, they are reading at first to second grade level. They are not reading the Bible (as far as I know). Their parents read the Bible to them and select the verses they will memorize.
From their mother today:
Last night the boys got in the car and told me their memory verse today came from 1st Communion, though Levi said it was 2nd Communion.
Then this morning Judah told [their father] that the verse was in 2nd Comedians. Though, it might have been 1st Comedians.
We worked it out to it was probably 1st or 2nd Corinthians. But I have to say, I wouldn’t like to read the books of the Comedians.
Later:
When I asked if Paul [the apostle] wrote the books, Judah said no, it was written by the 12 Comedians, one from each tribe.
******************************** Our Youngest Granddaughter's Baptism Age Twelve
The most important lesson about investing? Just do it.
That's it. The most important lesson about investing. Just do it.
I have not looked at Amgen in years. For unknown reasons, I was curious what it was doing today. And then with all the excitement about Intel today, it led to other questions.
This is for the extended family members.
The dot-com bubble was a rapid stock market surge and crash centered on internet-based companies, occurring roughly between 1995 and 2000, wiht the crash continuing until 2002.
In 1998 my dad had the option to begin a position in Intel, which was getting a lot of press at the time, and Amgen. I have no idea how my dad would have even known about Amgen.
But he chose Amgen over Intel and the rest is history.
My dad's position appreciated almost 74,000% over that time period and currently pays a nice dividend.
Amgen initiated its regular quarterly quarterly dividend payout in 2011.
Following a strategic shift announced in mid-2011, the company began
returning capital to shareholders and has increased its dividend
annually, positioning it as a consistent dividend payer within the
biotechnology sector.
My father would have been 104 years old this year.
Do we all agree that Iran was doing something with uranium?
Everything I've read suggests that the answer was "yes," Iran was doing something with uranium.
For those who write for public publication on this subject -- Iran and uranium -- no one has come up with the reason why? The fog is beginning to clear. Iran's 30-year strategic plan.
So, the question is, "when was it first reported that Iran was doing something with uranium?"
Reply:
Thirty years ago: 1996. So, that fits the timeline very nicely.
The fact that no one has publicly connected the dots (that I know of)
speaks volumes. This is posted for the bragging rights. Looking forward
to seeing the first op-ed on same. My hunch: Saudi Arabia was aware of
this. Their failure to take action after the "revolution" is
mind-boggling.
What was Trump doing in 1996?
For him, the best was yet to come.
The two most underrated men in the 2020s: Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
************************** The Book Page
Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, Anil Ananthaswamy, c. 2024 / 2025.
I own no shares in INTC (except perhaps in mutual funds, etc); and, probably never will.
see the blog's disclaimer.
Having said that, Intel under new management is incredibly fascinating.
**************************** Updates
I posted the original note at 8:21 a.m. -- and as soon as I went to check my e-mail, a reader sent me this link: Google expands partnership with Intel for AI chips. Link here.
Ticker: at the open -- it looks like INTC will open slightly down, in line with the market sentiment. And then seconds later, up slightly, a new 52-week high for INTC.
***************************** Original Post
This was posted over on Blockonomi earlier this morning -- April 9, 2026.
This chart is from yesterday and it will soon disappear -- as soon as today's market opens. It appears that at 8:08 a.m., disregarding earlier forecasts, INTC will hold onto its gains yesterday and actually open slightly higher.
Here's the earlier story with regard to the Intel - TeraFab partnership. Link here.
Intel: clearly the most exciting tech story right now -- the Elon Musk-Intel partnership announcement. Link here. Intel is tracked here. We'll come back to this story in a stand-alone post later. This is really, really huge and it's only becoming clearer how huge it is as the story sinks in.
XOM vs CVX: somewhere out there today there's an investing article asking which is better, CVX or XOM as a dividend stock. Bottom line: it doesn't matter: one might as well have one or the other in their portfolio -- or both.
Amgen: nothing really going on here. I just saw it in the news. Brought back great memories of my dad and his investing skills. How and why he bought CSCO, AMGN, AAPL when he did still amazes me. We'll have a stand-alone on AMGN later if I remember.
************************************ Back to the Bakken
WTI: well that dip didn't last long. Today, in pre-market trading, WTI is up a whopping $5.01, up 5.31%. Whoo-hoo. It will be fascinating to see how Trump responds to the faux-opening. Right now, a country on the edge of rushing toward the Stone Age has bragging rights to controlling the strait. That's how ineffective the GCC has become. WTI: at the moment, just under $100, again.
New wells reporting:
Friday, April 10, 2026: 26 for the month, 26 for the quarter, 183 for the year,
42181, conf, BR, Abercrombie 2-12UTFH,
40821, conf, Hunt Oil, Oakland 154-89-29-32H 1
40820, conf, Hunt Oil, Oakland 154-89-19-18H 3,
40635, conf, Hunt Oil, Oakland 154-89-32-5H-1,
Thursday, April 9, 2026: 22 for the month, 22 for the quarter, 179 for the year,
RBN Energy: analyst update on Corpus Christi LNG export flow. Short report available with free account at this link.
RBN Energy: wow, wow, wow -- the best song in a long time -- "Eyes of the Ranger." Whoo-hoo. Link here. How the Iran War reshapes global gas and LNG this year and beyond. This will be good one -- compared RBN Energy analysis with my own thoughts. Published by Lisa Shidler and Lindsay Schneider. The archived link. Again, the link to the early release.
U.S.
LNG has been on the fast track as new export capacity along the Texas
and Louisiana Gulf Coast draws in increasing volumes of U.S. natural
gas. But the impact of that unprecedented buildout has only intensified
over the past several weeks as U.S. and Israeli forces launched surprise
airstrikes in Iran, triggering retaliation that disrupted traffic
through the Strait of Hormuz and knocked out key parts of Qatar’s LNG
infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss how the conflict with
Iran could impact the U.S. gas and LNG market in the short, medium and
long term.
Today’s blog is a recap of our March 26 webcast, Invasion U.S.A. – U.S. LNG Update and Impacts of the War in Iran, available to our Backstage Pass, Arrow Model and LNG Voyager subscribers. The title of the webcast riffs on the 1985 action film Invasion U.S.A.,
which starred Chuck Norris as a one‑man wrecking crew fighting off a
surprise assault on American soil. Predictably, the movie is a bit
campy, but it fits the larger-than-life aura that Norris came to embody.
Whereas we dove into the specifics around the war and LNG in the
webcast, here we’ll outline the top issues.
To begin
to understand the importance of the conflict in Iran on LNG markets,
first note that the world’s largest gas field lies in the Persian Gulf
between Qatar and Iran. Iran claims the northern part (green-shaded area
to upper-right of dashed yellow line in Figure 1 below), which they
call South Pars, while Qatar controls the southern part (green-shaded
area to lower-left of dashed yellow line), called the North Dome. (The
naming is kind of upside-down, if you ask us.)
Figure 1. The South Pars and North Dome Natural Gas Field. Source: RBN
