Holy Mackerel! Stop The Presses! Huge! My Favorite Chart -- New Record Set -- April 17, 2026

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Tag: MMFs MMF record Whoo-hoo!

I never, never see reports like this -- I'm sure I have -- I just don't remember -- let's see what Crane Data has to say: 

AI prompt:

Every week ICI releases the Money Market Funds report. Today, April 17, 2026, the figure declined by $175 billion. Is that a record?

Reply:

Wow, wow, wow -- look at the reason -- "the massive decline is attributed to significant outflows following the April 15 tax day deadline. This speaks volumes and I have much to say about that but it will have to wait. 

To put that $175 billion in perspective -- that's all cash, not gold -- the following countries have this amount of cash on hand in their foreign exchange reserves (not total amount held by central banks), feel free to fact check -- it all depends how you measure and when you measure:

• France: $30 billion, mostly US cash
• Britain: $32 billion
• Germany: $38 billion
• Saudi Arabia: $475 billion, mostly US cash
• Switzerland: $924 billion (no typo)
• most of that cash, of course, comes from the making of cuckoo clocks 

Oh, here's the ICI: 

Link here.

Look at that decline! Wow, I wonder where the money is going.

Oh, that's right. The S&P 500 hit an all-time record this past week. 

And folks tell me the MMF doesn't mean a thing. Okay.

The decline reported today is notable -- it does not set a record on the flip side -- compared to records for inflows. The largest inflows in history occurred around March, 2020, with other large spikes in 2025 / 2026 reaching around $100 - $200 billion on rare occasions. 

I consider both of those inflows irrelevant anomalies due to Covid and the Iran War, respectively.

Interestingly, those jumps / inflows have never receded. MMFs are still at record highs. 

Archives -- Friday, April 17, 2027

Locator: 50555ARCHIVES.

Pre-market: Dow surging pre-market. 

• AMD: up $20 yesterday; down a bit this morning.
• AVGO: up a bit more today, but now trading above $400 / share.
• LNG: was up $6 yesterday; a bit flat this morning. 
• MU: might it surge today; up 1.3% in pre-market trading up $5.38; trading at $463. Whoo-hoo.
• CVX: up $3.24 yesterday; flat this a.m. still paying almost 4%.

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Netflix 

Netflix: look at these profit margins! 42% Link here. AppEconomy. Operating margins: 32%. Revenue up 14% y/y. Warner $2.8 billion break-up fee recognized. Shares drop 9%. 

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Other -- Pending

Friday -- April 17, 2026

Locator: 50554B.

Safari: I still can't believe how fast Safari is! It's like having a brand new computer. My laptop is going on six years old and has never seemed so fast. Amazing.

Britain, France: to host a European conference, without the US, to plan for a post-war Persian Gulf -- specifically to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. LOL. 

The best part of this, the Persians are going to see even most western ships. LOL. The Brits don't have "any ships"; will stay defensive. The Brits say they can remove mines. I would suggest putting the Brits between the IRGC "fast boats" and the US Navy, to give the Iranians a fighting chance. To make the skirmish between the US Navy and the IRGC "fast boats" a fair fight.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $91.35. Wow, talk about volatility. Down almost 4% overnight.

New wells reporting:

• Sunday, April 19, 2026: 53 for the month, 53 for the quarter, 210 for the year,
• 41787, conf, XTO, GBU Apollo Federal 14X-12C-N,
• 41732, conf, Hess, EN-Binger-157-94-1201H-5, 
• 41441, conf, Hess, GO-Seaton-156-98-0607H-4, 
• Saturday, April 18, 2026: 50 for the month, 50 for the quarter, 207 for the year,
• 41442, conf, Hess, GO-Seato-156-98-0607H-5, 
• Friday, April 17, 2026: 49 for the month, 49 for the quarter, 206 for the year,
• 40953, conf, Hunt Oil, Shell 153-89-6-31H 1,

RBN Energy: can Permian gas processing capacity keep pace with production gains? Link here. Archived. 

A combination of new natural gas takeaway capacity out of the Permian, rising feedgas demand from LNG export terminals and stronger gas prices at the Waha Hub will support a steady increase in associated gas production in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico through the rest of the 2020s. But while several gas processing plants are being planned in the Delaware and Midland basins, a critically important question looms: Will there be enough capacity to process the coming tsunami of incremental gas? In today’s RBN blog, we continue our examination of the fast-changing Permian gas market with a look at production growth vs. processing capacity.

In Part 1 of this blog series, we said that while the Permian is now producing more than 22 Bcf/d of residue natural gas — one-fifth of total U.S. production — producers have had to deal with a persistent shortfall in gas takeaway capacity and negative (sometimes very negative) prompt-month and cash prices at Waha. We added, however, that there’s good reason to believe the situation will soon be improving. A massive tranche of new takeaway capacity will be coming online over the next few months, ending the shortfall for many years to come, and gas demand from LNG exporters and power generators will ramp up fast.

RBN’s monthly Arrow Model report, which tracks and forecasts shifting gas pipeline flows in Texas and Louisiana, expects that Waha basis — the difference between gas prices at Henry Hub and Waha — will shift from an average discount of $3.52/MMBtu this year to $1.28/MMBtu in 2027 and $0.70/MMBtu in 2028. Even if the Henry Hub price averages around $3.50/MMBtu over the next few years, as the forward curve indicates, Permian producers (even those without locked-in takeaway capacity) will get an uplift for their gas sales. 

With worries about gas takeaway and weak Waha prices fading away, producers are more likely to expand their drilling-and-completion activity in “gassier” parts of the Permian, many of which offer some of the most oil-saturated rock in the entire shale play. That impending shift creates an infrastructure challenge of its own, namely the need to develop new capacity to process the increasing volumes of associated gas from Permian wells.