Locator: 51238BRKB.
And people are concerned about the pullback in tech today. Oh, give me a break.
One-year:
Five-year:
Max:
Thursday, July 23, 2026
BRK-B VS SCCO -- One Year, Five Years, And "Max" -- July 23, 2026
Miscellaneous -- July 23, 2026
Locator: 51237HONDA.
Honda: Honda has been my favorite "make" for years and it's the Civic that has become my favorite. However, having said that:
Apple -- Ford: BIG DEAL -- IYKYK --
AMD - Anthropic, link here:
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Build It And They Will Come
I've driven Highway 1 in California several times -- some of the best road trips ever, including Pebble Beach, Hearst Castle, and Big Sur. Absolutely awesome. That's the only reason I posted this. UC-Santa Cruz. Santa Barbara (yes, I know -- Highway 101).
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Mideast
A Roman circus.
Five New Permits, Six Permits Renewed -- July 23, 2026
Locator: 51236B.
Disclaimer: there may be several content errors in this note due to all that was happening today.
4IR: No one mentions that we are still in the opening stages of the Fourth Industrial Revolution but that's where we are. After Intel's (INTC) earnings, it's hard to wait for earnings from AMD, TSM, MU, others. Gene Munster says we're in the third inning. That would be the first/second quarter in football.
I can't keep up with everything, so I may just post some bullets for now.
Cramer: still as interesting as ever.
GOOG investors are misreading this chart (same thing with Tesla but I think GOOG is a better choice for me):
INTC: Gene Munster is absolutely not impressed / unimpressed with Intel. He didn't say it but he certainly implied it, "Intel is all hat, and no cattle." Gene Munster would suggest folks look at / compare the P/E of NVDA and INTC and the market cap of these companies.
AMD, INTC, and NVDA: are all wrapped up in this chart -- to some extent, I see two of these companies as one-pony operations; the third is more than a one-pony operation. And pay attention to that ratio:
Railroads: holy mackerel.
One of my favorite sectors: railroads.
CSX, UNP, and Norfolk Southern (NSC) all hit new 52-week highs today on a very, very tough day in the market. BR was one of a handful of the first companies I invested in back in the 1980s and have continued to do so through today. Another "railroad company," BRKB, finally had a good day on the market. I guess with the tech sell-off, folks had to put their money in defensive stocks.
Defensive stocks: speaking of defensive stocks, my favorite financial data point to follow is money market funds under management. Down for the second week in a row, link here.
Blackstone and BlackRock: the history of these two companies is absolutely fascinating.
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is by far the world's largest asset manager, with $15.3 trillion in assets under management as of 2026.
Headquartered in New York City, BlackRock has 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries. BlackRock has a massive presence in Texas. The firm manages roughly $400 billion in assets across the state, including over $115 billion in the Texas oil and gas sector alone. It has a major corporate office in Dallas.
Apple and Ford have partnered (announced today, a big, big deal). GM will have nothing to do with Apple or Android, preferring to deveolp an in-house mapping and entertainment system. Consumers have found a work around.
Grocers: Albertson's -- the grocer -- reported today -- not good results.
I enjoy following this sector but have not invested in it. We have Whole Foods (Amazon), Market Street, Target, Kroger's, HEB (a Texas icon much like Buc-ees), Albertsons /Tom Thumb, Target, and Walmart all within a two-or-three mile radius, four of which I can bike to in minutes.
Market Street is owned and operated by The United Family, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Albertsons Companies.
As much as I looked forward to the new HEB that just opened just down the street from where we live, Walmart is still clearly my favorite for everything. My wife's favorite is Market Street, somewhat more expensive but the best shopping experience, bar none. One analyst on "Fast Money" today said that Walmart had the worst looking chart among the S&P 500.
Tech deals: it certainly appears that AMD and Micron are mentioned everywhere when deals are being made with hyperscalers.
Oracle is surging after hours. Trump's best friend got a ten-year, $7 billion with the Pentagon. Hmmm. I sold all my Oracle (sold at a loss) but allowed me to use that cash to invest in three other companies. Whoo-hoo! By the way, the Oracle news seems exciting but it's $7 billion over ten years. The hyperscalers are doing deals that make the Oracle-Pentagon deal a rounding error.
The Re-Scheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner. I pay a lot of attention to seating at these political dinners and the list those who are attending. One source provided a list which puts Doug Burgum and Christ Wright very near the top of the list. They were both higher than Hegseth, Bessent, Lutnick, and RFK, Jr. This was a very, very interesting "ranking." Of course, more interesting were the few in the Trump administration that were invited. I have no idea why the NASA administrator was invited. Oh, he's a billionaire entrepreneur. But still, there's a lot of those folks
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $92.19.
Active rigs: 25.
Five new permits, #43145 - #43149, inclusive:
- Operators: Rockport Energy Solutions (4); Petroshale)
- Fields: Ranch Coulee (McKenzie County); Croff (McKenzie)
- Comments:
- Rockport Energy has permits for four Sloane wells, SESW 25-146-98,
- to be sited 336 FSL and 1655 / 1751 FWL;
- Petroshale has a permit for a Anderson North well, SWNW 14-149-96,
- to be site 2259 FNL and 280 FWL.
Six permits renewed, #42112 - #32117, inclusive --
- Hess, six SC-Foster permits, Crazy Man Creek, Williams County.
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Disclaimer
Briefly:
I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken. I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution. I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom. Now, I've added Amazon. And QCOM.
Correspondents' Association Dinner -- Tomorrow, July 24, 2026
Locator: 51234TRUMP.
Correspondents' Association Dinner:
The rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association dinner will take place on Friday, July 24, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Here's the lineup:
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
- FBI Director Kash Patel
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon
- Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
- Energy Secretary Chris Wright
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin
- War Secretary Pete Hegseth
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman
- U.S. Trade Representative
- Ambassador Jamieson Greer
- Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll
- Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz
Anticipation -- AMD -- July 23, 202
Locator: 51233INVESTING.
Updates
WTI: about 7:30 a.m. CT, trading at $90.95.
Originall Post
CNBC is reporting at that WTI has solidly crossed $90 / barrel, up almost 4% overnight. Highest level since June 11, 2026.
The "moon race" between China and the US has now become the "AI race."
Whoo-hoo! Spectrum service has been restored. Spectrum suffered a 9-hour outage. If this were FIFA Soccer, we would be give +540 minutes stoppage time.
Both TSLA and GOOG each had a rough earnings call -- huge CAPEX announced for CY2027. Both had negative cash flow this past quarter.
Futures.
As it stands now, based on futures, four hours before the open, AMD is going to surge.
As is MU.
GLW will do well.
We will see some profit taking over at SCCO.
CSX will have a nice day.
UNP will have a nice day.
SRE is in a trading range oscillating around $93.
TTE -- Total Energy -- July 23, 2026
Locator: 51232INVESTING.
WTI: futures -- 4:00 a.m. CT -- trading at $89.42.
As things stand now, TTE is set to "pop" at the open. Just 4 1/2 hours from now. Still way off its highs.
So will CVX to some degree. Same with COP.
PSX could have an incredible day.
MPC? Even better.
TTE earnings reported today, July 23, 2026, profits surge 68%:
On another note: the Strait of Homuz is completely closed.
India's Solar Push Is A Drain On The Economy -- July 23, 2026
Locator: 51231INDIA.
Tag: India Solar Energy
Anecdote:
We live in a suburb of Dallas-Ft Worth, Texas. Our granddaughter has a very nice friend. Her mom is Indian, having immigrated to the US when she was 18 years old. She came alone and had no one in the US to help her when she arrived. She got a college degree in Michigan and found a job in tech. She works from home ever since Covid. She may or may not receive child support and alimony from her husband.
About two years ago, she moved from an apartment to a McMansion in the same area as the apartment she moved out of. The McMansion has a swimming pool. A year later she bought a new car (ICE and previously owned). Right now she is spending a couple of weeks with her daughter at her lakeside home in Michigan.
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Indian Solar Energy
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Spectrum Cable Update
Spectrum cable is "out" (down, not working) in our area and has been "out" several hours.
The company has alerted us that they will update us every three hours! I'm working off my cellular data which is much slower than my computer. So, bear with me.
ERCOT capacity is well above demand, so it's not that. Unless, it's a regional thing.
Update: Spectrum has now gone nine hours with no solution. Spectrum is still down. Updates are given every three hours. The next update is scheduled for 4:00 a.m. CT. Was it a cooling problem that caused this or did some foreign country hack into Spectrum?
Update, 3:50 a.m. CT: Spectrum has now gone twelve hours with no solution. Spectrum is still down. Updates are given every three hours. The next update is scheduled for 6:00 a.m. CT. Maybe things are getting better. The updates had been provided every three hours. The next update is only two hours from now.
One wonders if Spectrum will reimburse us 1/30 of the lost connection? LOL.
Social Security Solvancy Update-- July 23, 2026
Locator: 51229SOCIALSECURITY.
Before we get started on Social Security, an update at 3:09 CT.
Spectrum cable is "out" (down, not working) in our area and has been "out" several hours. The company has alerted us that they will update us every three hours!
I'm working off my cellular data which is much slower than my computer. So, bear with me. ERCOT capacity is well above demand, so it's not that. Unless, it's a regional thing.
Update: Spectrum has now gone nine hours with no solution. Spectrum is still down. Updates are given every three hours. The next update is scheduled for 4:00 a.m. CT.
Was it a cooling problem that caused this or did some foreign country hack into Spectrum?
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Social Security Solvency Update
Query: I read somewhere that increasing social security contributions from 6.2% to 6.7% (on each: employer and employee) would also solve the social security solvency issue just as raising the retirement age by one year if done by 2032.
Reply:
Query: In Germany, what percent of their income pays for their "social security"?
Reply:
Query: In what year did Germany last raise "social security" contributions and does Germany face the same problem as the US with regard to social security solvency issues?
Reply:
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