Clearing The Desk After Hours -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50668ARCHIVES.

Ticker: Samsung -- when Buffett was buying all those Japanese companies, why wasn't he buying Samsung? Obviously he and Munger not reading the "right" books. 

Samsung: link here -- 48-fold jump in profit. 

Jay Powell: legacy lost. Link here. As irrelevant as ever.

Amazon: discussing a re-boot of The Apprentice with Donald Trump as the host. 

PSX: demand destruction? We haven't seen (much) demand destruction; maybe 1%. That's not demand destruction; that business activity.

 NASDAQ 100 QQQ: at all-time highs after hours. 

$25 billion spent in Iran? How to make up some of that cash? Reduce troop presence in Germany. Could probably pull out most of the US Army; leave air bases. Trump considering. 

The dots are starting to connect. Trump just got off the phone with Putin discussing ceasefire. Quid pro quo.

Storage: again. Amazon says storage cost is exploding. Wanna see how bad it is. Go down to Walmart or visit Amazon on line and see how much it costs for 1 terabyte of memory. This is not rocket science. As an investor you have three choice: Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix.

Daily Activity Report Had Not Posted By 8:00 P.M. CT -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50667B.

Never stop reading: 

• AI reading program -- current and past six months (pulled forward from summer reading program, with additions):

• Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, c. 1983.
• The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson, c. 2015.  
• The Story of Semiconductors, John Orton, c. 2004. Incredible resource.  Link here.
• The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created The Modern World, Simon Winchester, c. 2018. 
• Chip War: The Fight For the World's Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller, c. 2022.
• Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, Anil Ananthaswamy, c. July 16, 2024, purchased March 18, 2026. Bought at Powell's Book at the Portland, OR, airport.
• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and The World, Malcolm Harris, c. 2023.

Right now I'm reading Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris. One might be able to read chapters in any order one wants. I'm not sure it's the first book I would read on the subject of semiconductors, but once you get a good feeling of what semiconductors are; how they were "discovered" and developed; the history; then maybe it would be okay to start. This had to have been a labor of love for Harris. 

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US Weekly Oil Stats

This is going to get more interesting as we go forward. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $106.90. Up $7.00 today. 

Active rigs: 23.

Four new permits,  #42881 - #42884

• 42881, loc, Devon Energy, Albert North 27-28-29 1H, Foreman Butte, 
• 42882, loc, Devon Energy, Albert North 34-33-32 3H, Foreman Butte, 
• 42883, loc, Devon Energy, Albert South 27-28-29 4H, Foreman Butte, 
• 42884, loc, Devon Energy, Albert South 34-33-32 4H, Foreman Butte, 

Politics -- NY Times -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50666MARKET.

Why does one get the feeling "no one" is listening? 

Later

Beth: 

Shay:

Early Notes 

AI: going forward, it's --

• CPUs: AMD, INTC, NVDA
• accelerators
• GPUs: NVDA
• TPUs / NPUs / others: AVGO, QCOM, 
• Storage: MU, Samsung, SK Hynix

Ford: 

• EPS: beats
• after hours up 5%; up 64 cents

Big tech after hours: looks like all the attention is on AMZN.

• META is having the worse day, MSFT the best
• META is still burning cash on AR/VR 

• Alphabet:
• looks like it will finish about 1.5% up in extend hours
• increases dividend by 5% 

• Amazon:
• +/- one percent in the after hours; looks like it will finish 4% down extended hours
• EPS: $2.78 vs $1.64 
• operating income guidance in line 

• META:
• looks like it will finish 6% down in extended hours

• Microsoft:
• up 3% after results are out.
• up $7.54 

BRKB: down half a percent today;

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Politics 

The New York Times is aghast with today's US Supreme Court ruling.

But it wasn't even close: 6 - 3.  

A similar case out of Alabama is still pending. 

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The Movie Page

On days like this, I wonder what became of you. Wow.  

I graduated from high school, 1969.

Link here. 

WTI Surges Seven Percent Overnight / Midday -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50665WTI.

An aside: most dissents in his tenure today (need to fact check) but no way was Jay Powell going to give Trump a rate cut. We'll get rate cuts "in spades" as my dad used to say, before the end of the year. If not, a recession.  

The blockade / price of oil: at some point Trump might get the European attention he wants / would have appreciated six weeks ago.

We would never have gotten to this point had it been an allied effort from the beginning.  Iran may never have backed away from nuclear, but they would have thought twice about blockading the strait. 

It didn't / doesn't help the "support" the Iranians feel they are getting from Americans on social media. The Iranian mantra: "if we can only hold out for a few more weeks." 

Every day the strait remains closed, the more irrelevant Qatar (LNG) and Saudi Arabia (oil) become.

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The Music Page

I still can't believe The New York Times included Lana Del Rey among the top 30 living songwriters. Wouldn't it have been a hoot had they included Joan Baez?

Wow, what incredible voices. From 2019.  

 Link here.

Flashback -- Rhein-Main Air Base, Germay -- Czech Air Force -- USAF, 1994 -- Posted April 29, 2026

Locator: 50664USAF.

Our unit out of Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, hosted a sister unit from the Czech Republic Air Force back in 1994 (need to confirm). 

Patches and labels from the visit.

So, what it all means.

The liqueur, the "Beton" cocktail from Karlovy Vary: most famous spa town in Czech. 

 The beer:

The patch: Czech Republic Air Force.

The First Mixed Transport Regiment.

• smisena: mixed
• dropavni: transport
• letecki: air -- certainly makes me think of "Ledecky" -- one wonders -- 
• pluk: regiment

Link here. 

This is what I think of when I think of Karlovy Vary: link here.

It was an incredible thirty years!

• In those thirty years in "Europe":
• as far east as Moscow
• as far west as Lajes, Azores, 1,000 miles off Portugal, in the Atlantic
• as far south as Senegal / The Gambia, Africa
• as far southeast as Iraq, Israel, Tarsus (Turkey) 
• throughout the Mediterranean
• as far north as Edinburgh, Scotland, and Bodo, Norway
• so many times to Paris our kids finally said no mas
• Outside of Europe:
• Hokkaido, Japan; Okinawa
• Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, the Galapagos 
• Stateside
• it's possible the only state I have not seen is Vermont (honestly can't remember) 
• Australia: 
• the USAF asked me to go, but I had no desire by that time, so never saw Australia
• it was personal, very, very personal  

Flashback -- USAF, Africa, March, 1994

Locator: 50663USAF.

Going through some old albums (and we have scores of albums and journals and diaries), it appears that the best years of our lives as a family were 1992 - 1994, Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, and Incirlik Air Base, Germany. And that's considering our previous nine years in England (outside London) and Bitburg Air Base, Germany, the premier USAF fighter base at the time. Not just Europe, but the entire globe. It was amazing. 

But, back to this photo.  

The photo is dated March, 1994. 

I have no idea where this is. Well, that's not quite true. It was obviously taken at a base base location, not "classified," but it might as well have been. 

The photo is not labeled, but putting "two and two together," as they say, this was taken in Banjul, The Gambia. For me, this was my "heart of darkness." LOL. We (a crew of several PJ (pararescue jumpers), loadmaster, engineer, right-seater, left seater, and a flight surgeon) were there probably a week. A week for sure but possibly longer. It depended on whether the space launched on time.

We were flying out of Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, in 1994, in support of Space Shuttle launch missions. There were four abort sites for the Space Shuttle: RAF Mildenhall, England; Rota Naval Station, Spain; an airstrip near Casablanca, Morocco; and, Banjul, The Gambia. 

Using AI, previously unavailable:

 The C-130:

Personal Electricity Bill -- Texas -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50662ELECTRICITY.

Our previous electricity bill was $137.33. This was from March, 2026.

Our only utility bill is electricity, for a small one-bedroom-one-bath-one-den/office apartment in north Texas. We have no natural gas. This is our total energy bill for the apartment.

With all fees, taxes, etc., we're paying 19.5 cents / kWh (2026). One year ago we were paying 17.0 cents / kWh (2025).

 

PSA -- Clarifying The New Rules Regarding Powerpacks On Airlines -- Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Locator: 50661BOOM.

One can carry unlimited number of power cables on airplanes, but only two power packs because they contain lithium batteries. 

 

And With This, I'll Be Off The Net For Awhile -- Let This Sink In -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50660RICE.

Link here. 

Holy Mackerel! Is This Correct? PSX -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50659PSX.

Dividend:

• February, last year: $1.15
• February, this year: $1.27 -- a 10% increase

Link here.

 

Even Elizabeth Warren Will Like This -- Indexing Capital Gains Tax To Inflation -- April 29, 2028

Locator: 50658TAXES.

Another example of bespoke journalism.  

Top Thirty Living American Songwriters -- The New York Times -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50657MUSIC.

Tag: song writers songwriters. 

Link here.  

As long as these made the list -- top 30 -- I can't complain:

• Willie Nelson
• Dolly Parton 
• Lana Del Rey -- wow -- I am surprised the Times recognized her
• Carole King

Years ago I was on a cross-country drive from somewhere in the Dakotas -- can't remember if I reached Williston that trip or not, I must have, because by the time I got to Rapid City, I couldn't stand it any more. 

I needed a Lana Del Rey CD for the long trip through SD, NE, KS, and Oklahoma (actually Oklahoma is wonderful -- after Nebraska and Kansas -- okay Kansas isn't so bad either -- in the big scheme of things, it's Nebraska that drags on forever) -- where was I? Oh, that's right, I needed a Lana Del Rey CD. I stopped at the Target on I-90, exit 60 / 61, and picked up Born To Die, 2012. 

Amazing, the CD has its own wiki entry. Link here.  

I completely forgot que "Summertime Sadness" was on that album. Wow. What an album.

Not on that album but perfect for today: link here. 

NACHO -- Not A Chance Hormuz Opens -- April 29, 2026

Locator: 50656NACHO.

Iran: President Trump's most recent tweet suggests a "one-two punch" coming. Watch the pizza deliveries this weekend. 

Iran: no one will admit it, but had this been a unified global effort when Israel and the US decided to end Iran's nuclear ambitions two months ago, this conflict would have ended long ago. Probably in the first month, maybe sooner.

Hezbollah: Israel continues to attrit the Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon. 

Total Energies: link here. The WSJ. Increases dividend 6%. Will resume share repurchases. Earnings windfall. I love that word. Windfall. As long as it's not followed by "profits tax." Big gain: not in the actual commodity but in trading. Simply working smarter, not harder. New profit doubled q/q: $5.81 billion and that beat the $5.21 estimate. Don't often see that in stodgy oil companies.

Facilities representing around 15% of TotalEnergies’ total oil and gas production are shut down due to the conflict in the Middle East. It has halted production in Qatar, Iraq and offshore the United Arab Emirates as energy infrastructure in the region has come under attack.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $103.30; up 3.37%; up $3.37. 

Later: WTI up almost $4.00. No one seems worried. Business page headlines hardly mention it. The Fed gets the most attention. Wow. 

Later; ahhhh .... there it is -- over $4.00 --  8:55 a.m. ET -- April 29, 2026 -- 

New wells reporting:

• Thursday, April 30, 2026: 100 for the month, 100 for the quarter, 257 for the year,  
• None.
• Wednesday, April 29, 2026: 100 for the month, 100 for the quarter, 257 for the year, 

• 42080, conf, XTO, GBU Hera 33X-7F, 
• 42079, conf, XTO, GBU Hera 33X-7A,
• 41734, conf, Hess, EN-Hilleren-157-94-1336H-2, 
• 41614, conf, BR, Sivertson 6I, 
• 41360, conf, Devon Energy, Marvin 27-34 3H, 

RBN Energy: with speed to market the #1 priority, data center developers put the pedal tot he metal. Link here. Archived.

Nearly every energy-related discussion these days, regardless of the particular topic, eventually turns to data centers and AI, where speed to market has emerged as the major focus. As one panelist noted during March’s CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, of a data center developer’s top priorities, the first three are now speed, speed and speed, with cost and other factors coming next. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how developers must solve the issues around permitting, siting, offtake agreements and — most importantly — power generation in the race to get their data centers online as soon as possible. We’ll also preview our newest Drill Down Report on the data center buildout.

The substantial growth in data center capacity has been driven largely by the increasing demand for AI and what are generally classified as AI-powered tasks, such as speech recognition, image recognition, predictive analytics, personalized diagnostics/treatments, logistics/mapping applications, fraud detection and generative AI (see Smarter Than You). The rapid rise in generative AI is particularly noteworthy, catalyzed by the sudden success of ChatGPT and a few other AI chatbots riding that wave, including Claude, Copilot and Perplexity. The revolutionary potential of AI is hard to overstate and, correspondingly, so too is the potential money to be made. That has kicked off an all-out, no-holds-barred race to win market share. With so much competition in the market and the speed at which the machinery is advancing, developers have come to believe that getting their data center capacity online as quickly as possible is essential.

The first set of challenges around a data center’s development is fairly straightforward, if not always easy to navigate. Being able to secure the needed amount of electricity to power a site is the dominant issue (much more on that below) but there are many other factors to consider, including obtaining the available land, the ability to connect to fiber-optic networks, assessing weather and climate risks, local transportation and workforce issues, and access to water for cooling. Our new report breaks down the leading seven hubs for data center development — Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — and compares their relative strengths and weaknesses in several categories (see Figure 1 below), including market maturity, the regulatory environment and power grid capacity. (The report also does the same for four states that are emerging as hubs — Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.)

Figure 1. Relative Strengths and Weaknesses of Key Data Center States. Source: RBN