End-Of-Day Report -- Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Locator: 50803B.

WTI: $101.00

Active rigs: 26.

Three new permits, #42935 - #42937, inclusive:

• Operators: XTO (2); BR
• Fields: Bear Den (Dunn County); Haystack Butte (McKenzie County.
• Comments:
• BR has a permit for an HBU Sandstone well, SESE 15-148-98, 
• to be sited 795 FSL and 126 FEL; 
• XTO Energy has permits for two Ghostrider Federal wells, SWSE 6-148-96, 
• to be sited 835 FSL and 2504 / 2534 FEL. 

Six permits canceled:

• Zavanna (4): four Jersey permits, Williams County;
• Devon Energy (2):
• one Darlene Federal permit, McKenzie County; and,
• one Skaar permit, also McKenzie County;

One producing well (a DUC) reported completed:

• 40965, no ip, HBU Sakakawea Federal 13X-35F, McKenzie County;

******************************
Nullification

Current issue, Claremont Review of Books, Spring, 2026, page 33:

"John Quincy Adams and the Fourth of July," essay by Christopher Flannery. 

John Quincy Adams had served one term as president, having won the presidential election of 1824 by the smallest vote possible in the US House of Representatives. At a much young age, he had served his father, John Adams, as the elder's personal secretary. 

After losing the re-election campaign, his constituency "demanded" he return to represent them, and thus he began his storied second career in 1830 -- nine terms as a US representative for the state of Massachusetts. 

At some point during his presidency, "nullification" was in the air. Long story short, this debate / thinking ultimately led to the  US Civil War -- as far back as 1830 -- and even then it could be traced further back, to the 1790s when the doctrine of nullification was alleged to have been inserted in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. The doctrine simply stated that states had the right to ignore any federal law they felt was unconstitutional. 

John Adams argued against "nullification"; it was his own VP John C. Calhoun who argued for "nullification."  

Wiki.

The 1830s crisis was resolved but it set the stage for future secession debates. 

This article really crossed my desk at the right time: I'm currently reading the annotated Memoirs of US Grant. 

CSCO -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50802AAPL.

CSCO:

• shares pop 14% after hours;
• surging orders; and, 
• efficiency, due to AI, soars -- CISCO will cut 4,000 jobs.

CSCO: this is not a bubble. CSCO -- was one of two survivors from  the dot-com boom / bubble (2000), severely scarred but alive -- that which does not kill us, makes us stronger. After hours, CSCO pops 11% on earnings beat and strong guidance. 

Apple In China -- Cisco Surges — May 13, 2026

Locator: 50801AAPL.

Locator: 50801CSCO.

CSCO: this is not a bubble. CSCO -- was one of two survivors from the dot-com boom / bubble (2000), severely scarred but alive -- that which does not kill us, makes us stronger. After hours, CSCO pops 11% on earnings beat and strong guidance. 

NVDA: $5.5 trillion. 

AAPL: $4.36 trillion. 

MU: not yet in the trillion-dollar club. 

S&P 500: another record. 

BRKB: up 0.3%.

AAPL: hitting headlines and all-time highs.

What do China and the US have in common? They are the only two countries in the universe that have a GDP greater than NVDA's market cap. Link here.

Most impressive: Tim Cook was able to step down on his own at this time, step down in style and hand this off to a young man with a skill set different than his (Tim's). And I don't think anyone saw it coming. 

***********************************
The Book Page

Poolside; 2:56 p.m.CT -- 90°F with a high of 93°F forecast.  

Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company, Patrick McGee, c. 2025.

 

 

Apple Surges Today -- No Specific News Yet Regarding Tim Cook, Apple, And China Today -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50800AAPL.

 

 

Foreign Exchange Reserves -- Russia, Saudi Arabia, China -- Posted May 13, 2026

Locator: 50799STORAGE.

Foreign exchange reserves: Russia, Saudi Arabia, China.

Russia, link here: posted May 13, 2026: 

Saudi, link here: posted May 13, 2026:

China, link here, posted May 13, 2026: 

The Importance Of The Moat -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50798THEMOAT. 

Related, for the next generation and the generation after that:

• personal investing: how to invest in a "trillion-dollar-market-cap economy; and,
• financial independence.

****************************
The Importance Of The "Moat" 

Query:

Investing. Personal. Going through my notes, I look at the various periods of my investing life. 

One of the big investing lessons I learned about was "moats." Perhaps I learned this from Warren Buffett. I don't know. 

When investing, it seems when deciding in what to invest when it comes to equities, there are three "things" that take precedent over all else. 

Core competencies: one must be able to articulate a company's core competencies. One must understand "what business the business" is in. 

Moats: secondly, one must be able to articulate a company's moat. 

1Lasting; thirdly, one must ask whether the company is championing an endeavor that will be around for 30 years. 

When looking at investment opportunities, #1 and #3 probably don't change much over time, but moats probably do. 

The first of the three: core competencies. Core competencies alone don't guarantee a successful company for the long term. No matter how good at what they did, horse-drawn wagon makers were not a good investment (at least for the long term). 

But moats are interesting. Right now, in the fourth industrial revolution, I would argue that one of the greatest moats is the "money moat." 

That's perhaps why the dot-com bubble (2000) collapsed: the hundreds of companies one could invest in -- few had much money. Companies were being valued on "eyeballs / clicks" and not on earnings, cash flow, access to quick cash to make deals.  

I would argue that when one is looking for which companies to invest in, the amount of cash on hand, or free cash flow, or something related to cash is incredibly important and the "money moat" is incredibly important to consider. Thoughts? 

Reply: 

 

Hantavirus -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50797HANTA. 

This is the kind of research our Secretary of HHS prefers to kill.

Cramer's First Hour -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50796CRAMER. 

NVDA: $5.5 trillion market cap. 

Sara Eisen on Cramer's first hour, best quote: "President Biden didn't even go to China, and there we have Team America -- Trump, Elon Musk and Jensen Huang -- coming off Air Force One after landing in Beijing. Markets love that." Eisen was as good as she ever was this morning.

Starlink: Elon Musk confirms Air Force One uses Starlink. 

NVDA: hits a 52-week high. That China trip? I'm lovin' it. 

China trip: only two CEOs on Air Force one -- I think it was Tim Cook and Citi CEO but Jensen Huang jumped on the plane at a refueling stop-over in Alaska. 

So, not sure if Air Force One landed with two or with three CEOs, but the presidential plane departed DC with only two CEOs. I'm sure Tim Cook was one; I thought the Citi CEO was the other one, but I really don't know. Chatbots will confirm if interested. A dozen other CEOs did show up in China but only by invite and one their own jets. Another example of how chatbots provide "bespoke journalism" -- other reporting delayed, hard to find, questionable accuracy ... but here's chatbot:

WTI: continues to move up. Coal? Coal is dead. Long live coal.  

April PPI (producer price index): significant increase; greater than expected. About 1% vs 0.4% estimated. Markets respond accordingly / as one might expect. Ignore the Covid-induced inflation and this is the highest inflation in 20 years. Whoo-hoo --- seniors will benefit with higher COLA for social security.

WTI: $102.20. 

Futures: futures suggest "much of" the tech losses from yesterday will be erased today. The Dow is down 230 points pre-market after PPI released; prior to PPI announcement the Dow looked pretty good, but after the PPI announcement, the Dow turned down even more. By 10:00 a.m. this morning, the PPI will have been forgotten -- other news will take its place. 

NASDAQ QQQ is actually up a couple of points.  

Micron: futures, up another 37 points. Amazing.  

Mortgage rates: move to highest level in five weeks, but homebuyers "shrug it off." We've had this discussion before. Within a range, mortgage rates have little effect on decision to buy or not buy. And, like everything else, to sell a house, a seller / realtor may have creative deals to offset any increase in mortgage rates. 

Semiconductors: PHXL. Top 30 components. Ticker SOX. 

Hantavirus update: it may be in draft form; if so it will be posted later. Link here. This is the kind of research our Secretary HHS prefers to "kill."

************************
Destinations
Pottery Manufacturing In North Carolina

This is so incredibly cool!

AI prompt: pottery manufacturing development near Spruce Spine, North Carolina. 

AI reply: while Spruce Pine, NC, is a major center for quartz mining and semiconductor-related industries, it is not a hub for traditional pottery manufacturing; that distinction belongs to Seagrove, NC, which is centuries old and known as the "Handmade Pottery Capital of the United States." 

Spruce Pine's industrial development focuses on high-purity minerals rather than clay-based arts and crafts.

Spruce Pine's Industrial Focus:

• Mining: Spruce Pine is at the heart of a significant mining district that supplies high-purity quartz used in manufacturing integrated circuits.
• Companies: The mines are primarily owned by global material solutions companies like Sibelco and The Quartz Corp.

North Carolina's Pottery Hub:

• Seagrove: The region historically known for pottery manufacturing is Seagrove, located in central North Carolina, which has a tradition dating back to the 18th century and is considered the "Handmade Pottery Capital of the United States."

Geography:

• Spruce Pine is three hours, almost directly, west of Seagrove, North Carolina
• Spruce Pine is more inland, northwest side of Charlotte, NC
• Seagrove is nearer the cost, on the northeast side of Charlotte, NC

For more: see this on the blog. 

Five Oilfield Services Stocks For A Post-Hormuz World -- May 13, 2026

Locator: 50795INVESTING. 

Two comments with regard to linked article below:

• except for Liberty Energy, did you really expect other names than the first four?
• the "stock tips" were not the most interesting thing about this story -- the most interesting thing about this story was the headline -- "a post-Hormuz world." 
• suggesting that this may be the new normal -- "a post-Hormuz world," Iran controlling and perhaps monetizing the strait.  

I've been saying the same thing for a couple of weeks: 

Every day longer the strait is closed, it makes the Mideast that much less relevant. 

Investing: five oilfield services stocks built for a post-Hormuz world. Link here. Michael Kern.

• SLB
• HAL
• BKR
• RIG
• Liberty Energy (LBRT)

Liberty Energy:

Every list like this needs a name that makes readers stop and say “wait, really?” Liberty is that name. It is small, it does one thing, and it has zero exposure to the Middle East and total exposure to the North American shale rebound that all four of the other companies on this list are counting on to varying degrees.

Q1 beat expectations quite convincingly. Revenue of $1.02 billion was up 4% year over year, EPS of $0.06 significantly exceeded a consensus that had modeled a loss of $0.13, and the stock jumped nearly 10% on the print.

The underlying margin picture is less tidy: EBITDA of $126 million was down 25% year over year, reflecting the pricing pressure that has been grinding through North American completions for the better part of three years.

CEO Ron Gusek’s answer to that pressure is technology. The company has built a software platform called StimCommander that automates rate and pressure control across its fleets in real time, and a cloud-based optimization system called Forge that aggregates performance data to continuously improve efficiency.

But.

If the Permian recovery stalls, or if prices fall faster than expected once the Hormuz situation eventually resolves, Liberty is where the pain shows up most visibly.

There is no international business to cushion the blow, no long-cycle backlog to fall back on. But that same concentration, which creates the downside risk, is exactly what makes the stock interesting if the early-innings thesis is right.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Locator: 50794B. 

Kratom: in the news. Link here. Etymology: Thai. 

Investing: five oilfield services stocks built for a post-Hormuz world. Link here. Michael Kern. 

**********************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $101.70.

New wells reporting:

• Wednesday, May 13, 2026: 27 for the month, 127 for the quarter, 284 for the year, 
• 42197, conf, Kraken, Apollo 18-7-6 7H, 
• 41451, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 5H, 
• Tuesday, May 12, 2026: 25 for the month, 125 for the quarter, 282 for the year, 
• 42262, conf, Petro-Hunt, John Williams 143-97-5B-8-3H, 
• 42199, conf, Kraken Operating, Turbodiesel 19-30-31-9H, 
• 41591, conf, Hess, EN-Trout-157-93-3130H-5,
• 41450, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 4H, 

RBN Energy: in a year of change, market fundamentals are key to understanding what comes next. Link here. Archived.

It’s been quite a year already — and we’re only four and a half months in! We began 2026 with energy markets looking very well supplied, with commodity prices generally expected to soften in the short term. But things quickly changed, first as a result of U.S. intervention in Venezuela, then much more dramatically with the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Prices have surged for crude oil, natural gas, NGLs, refined products and petrochemicals, along with the multitude of consumer products that utilize those feedstocks. Fortunes have been made (and lost) as a result. To survive such swings, you need a deep understanding of the fundamental forces impacting markets so that you can anticipate, identify and act on their secondary and tertiary effects. That’s the subject of today’s RBN blog and the focus of our upcoming School of Energy: Foundations, set for September 9-10 in Houston. Fair warning, today’s blog serves as an unabashed advertorial for the conference.

The swings in the global energy market have been significant so far in 2026, with the U.S. playing a pivotal role. There is no shortage of information and analysis out there, some of it seemingly contradictory. So, how do you know what data is important, which indicators to watch, and how to apply it all? Learning how to identify and analyze that information is what School of Energy is all about. To see how those pieces can come together, let’s look at some recent examples.