For The Archives -- Berkshire Hathaway Earnings-- June Qtr -- August 8, 2026

Locator: 51358ARCHIVES.

Berkshire earnings are out. Link here.

S&P 500:

 

Alison's Top Stories -- August 7, 2026

Locator: 51357B.

Quick connects: 

• How North Dakota's lignite helped launch an innovation powerhouse at UND -- UND Today

• Tom Erickson, EERC's top executive, recalls growth of 38-year career -- Grand Forks Herald

• Two produced water spills impact ag land in western North Dakota -- Bismarck Tribune

• Developer says data center could generate $46M in property taxes -- Bismarck Tribune

• Natgas plant proposed to support Oliver County data center; ordinance debate continues -- Bismarck Tribune

• MDU announces that earnings are up over last year and plans to power data center -- KX News

• Wyoming DEQ investigates foul odor coming from ponds at coal-fired Jim Bridger Power Plant -- WyoFile

• New Fargo Mayor Josh Boschee announces resignation from North Dakota Senate -- North Dakota Monitor

• Dem-NPL leader Jamie Selzler to replace Fargo mayor in North Dakota Senate -- North Dakota Monitor

• North Dakota Legislature could discuss military museum funding at upcoming special session -- KX News

• North Dakota legislator Scott Meyer believes school lunches will be in special session -- NewsDakota

• Proposed plant could put North Dakota in center of domestic steel production renaissance -- KFYR-TV

• Record number of North Dakotans sought food assistance during the last fiscal year -- Minot Daily News

• Study indicates state lost economic opportunity by not further developing irrigation -- Bismarck Tribune

• Voices for Lake Oahe is an organization aimed at giving a voice to North Dakotan waters -- KFYR-TV

• Grenora, Westby welcome superintendents Spaletta and Laughlin, both from California -- The Journal

• Area school districts are announcing student registration days for coming new school year -- The Journal

• Beulah school district continues preliminary budget talks; activities fees slightly decreased -- The Beacon

• Williston Middle School teacher named 2026 North Dakota History Teacher of the Year -- Williston Herald

• State's "bell to bell' cellphone ban in K-12 schools described as 'a resounding success' -- Prairie Public

• Divide elementary school secretary to train toward becoming its next business manager -- The Journal

• North Dakota's Supt. of Public Instruction Levi Bachmeier wants teachers' salaries to increase -- KFGO

• Shrinking lake, shrinking access: Low water on Sakakawea tough on resorts, boaters -- North Dakota Monitor

• Williston City Commission sets 'intentionally overstated' preliminary 2027 budget of $222M -- Williston Herald

• Williston Basin Airshow is returning to Williston this summer for its fifth year on August 15 -- KFYR-TV

• 2026 Maah Daah Hey 100 draws cyclists nationwide to test endurance in ND Badlands -- Dickinson Press

• Tioga Community Library earns STAR Library award for third consecutive year -- Williston Herald

• Short Ranch in western North Dakota named to National Register of Historic Places -- Bismarck Tribune

• McKenzie County sits along one of North America's greatest paddling journeys -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Dry conditions raise drought and wildfire concerns across McKenzie County -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Williams County proposes 3% increase from 2026 for 2027 levy, $168M total budget -- Williston Herald

• Department of Commerce awards $600,000 to Minot for air force base projects -- Minot Daily News

• North Dakota Community Foundation awarded more than $11 million in grants in 2025 -- Minot Daily News

• Minot City Council approved a preliminary city budget with a hefty tax increase -- Minot Daily News

• Medora City Council delays adoption of comprehensive plan, seeks further review -- Dickinson Press

• Bowman Police Department warns residents about a scammer impersonating officer -- Dickinson Press

• Chevron chief on Iran war and energy markets: 'Situation remains somewhat fragile and uncertain' -- The Hill

• Trump demands US oil companies immediately lower gasoline prices, targets Chevron CEO -- Oil Price

• Tightening global oil inventories outweigh OPEC+ production increase, analyst says -- World Oil

• Trump administration seeks to modernize Arctic exploratory offshore drilling regulations -- World Oil

• U.S. oil exports in July fell to 3.66 million barrels per day, the lowest level in eight months -- Reuters

• US crude oil inventories build by 2.69M barrels as Washington talks up potential peace deal -- Oil Price

• BP more than doubled its profit for second quarter on the back of higher oil and gas prices -- Oil Price

• China builds renewable infrastructure at unmatched scale; remains heavily dependent on coal -- ESG News

• US Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims fuel prices should come down in coming weeks -- Reuters

• Not just New York: Texas freezes new data center projects to shield grid from overload -- USA Today

• Draft agreement that could reopen Strait of Hormuz reportedly awaits Khamenei approval -- Oil Price

• Coal's share of electricity-production in Wyoming at all time low, 47%, despite peak demand -- WyoFile

• API: Long-term investment made US a global energy stabilizer amid market disruptions -- World Oil

• The US fleet of wind and solar farms is set to create a huge amount of landfill waste -- Energy News Beat

• Biden Bucks a bonanza for state offices, Colorado Dept. spent 40 times more -- RealClearInvestigations

• U.S. Supreme Court to open its next term with major climate change lawfare case -- Washington Examiner

• Big tech's net zero fantasy collides with AI reality, green energy not nearly enough -- Manhattan Contrarian

Eight New Permits -- Friday, August 7, 2026

Locator: 51356B.

SCCO: "a last trade" on "Fast Money," tonight on CNBC. SCCO is still well below it's all-time high.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $78.18; trending higher.

Active rigs: 28. 

Eight new permits, #43189 - #43196, inclusive --

• Operators: Phoenix Operating (5); KODA Resources (3);
• Fields: Skabo, Alkabo, and Daneville;
• Comments: 
• KODA Resources has permits for three Bock wells, SWSE 14-161-102, 
• to be sited 640 /  710 FSL and 2135 FEL;
• Phoenix Operating has permits for five Monkey Barrels wells, NENW 14-162-102, 
• to be sited 350 FNL and 1915 / 2035 FWL.

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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.

Longer version here.  

Kraken's Recently Completed Sarah Wells In Richland County, Montana -- August 7, 2026

Locator: 51355KRAKEN.

This is really, really, really cool.

See this note for the background. 

That note takes a look at the recently completed Kraken Sarah wells in Richland County, about six miles from the North Dakota state line straight west of Watford City.

The wells of interest:

• five wells on one pad: four Sarah wells and one Dolores well;
• a singleton Sarah well in the same section

A reader noted something strange.

The reader is receiving royalties from four Sarah wells, but not from the Dolores well on the same pad, and not even the singleton Sarah pad in the same section.

So, what's going on?

I was perplexed at first because I did not have access to the deeds nor the production and file data from Kraken regarding all these wells.

This appears to be the reason.

When you look at the graphics below, look at the names of the wells and where the horizontals are located.

To cut to the chase, the explanation is this: the reader's royalty/mineral rights must be in section 17.

So, I went back to the reader and asked the question. It was confirmed: the reader has mineral/royalty rights only in section 17. Isn't that amazing?  No minerals rights in sections 4/5/8/9/16.

Dolores cuts through section 17 but such a small length, but even more, it suggests the well's spacing unit was made of sections 4/9/16 -- section 17 was not mentioned. 

So, that question was answered, but even more amazing -- based on the legal name of the Delores 4-9-16 12H, it is amazing how little the horizontal was in that spacing unit. Just a bit into section 16. Amazing how horizontal wells made so many millionaires! 

The graphics:

 

Ford's New Electric Pickup Will Cost $28,350 -- August 7, 2026

Locator: 51354FORDEV.

Ford EV: this will generate a lot of headlines but it cannot possible generate a lot of profit. Selling an EV for less than $30K. 

Hunch: the total "drive-off-the-lot" cost will be closer to $40K than $30K. 

Bookmark this for January, 2028. 

SK HYNIX And The Jobs Report -- Unemployment Drops To 4.1% -- Labor Force Participation trending toward 85% For Youngsters -- August 7, 2026

Locator: 51353TECH.

Updates

CNBC: has lost its credibility (again). Stressing a "bad" jobs report. In fact, it was an incredible jobs report for investors. 

The U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 4.1% in July, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite the slight drop from June's 4.2%, the economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs (unwinding all the FIFA World Soccer Cup jobs). And labor force participation: prime-age labor force participation for workers aged 25 to 54 stands at 83.3% as of June 2026.  Twenty-five to fifty-four years old? 

I'm having trouble seeing how this is a dismal jobs report.  

This is how the market reacted to the "jobs report":

 It may not close in the green, but AAPL did turn green later in the day.  

Original Post 

Two stories here, sorry.  

Hunch:

• 10% chance: chip shortage will resolve itself by end of 2027;
• 90% chance: chip shortage will not get particularly worse but will last many years; providers will get use to it and manage.
• Musk's Starlink is likely to become the "go-to" telecom; AWS/AMZN saw this early and may be only hyperscaler than can prevent this. 

 

Jobs Report -- Only A Scrooge Would Raise Rates -- The Jobs Numbers Were Horrendous -- Futures Spike -- August 7, 2026

Locator: 51352JOBS.

For Investors 

Absolutely Goldilocks.

I don't think "things" could look better for investors. 

• the market has reset -- AI, tech -- sort of how I see it (others may see it differently)
• investors are getting used to big numbers with AI;
• investors are getting used to huge CAPEX numbers for AI companies
• hyperscalers: GOOG, MSFT, AMZN, META, SPACEX 
• cloud providers: CoreWeave and Oracle are direct competitors
• GPUs / CPUs / TPUS: Nvidia / AMD, INTC / AVGO
• modems / other: QCOM
• memory, US / Korean: MU, Sandisk / SK HYNIX
• fabs: TSMC, MU, Samsung, Texas Industries, GlobalFoundries
• consumer electronic: AAPL 
• chatbots: Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude,  
• WTI is re-setting
• the Mideast:
• 75% chance: Trump/Israel responds when Iran attacks US/Israeli ships
• US blockade of Iran continues 
• WTI spikes (again -- but nothing the US consumer can't handle)
• US consumer assumes gasoline is expensive no matter what the real facts are
• that's good
• 20% chance: Trump accepts Iran's terms; both sides declare victory
• Iran remains a caged bear while Trump is in office 
• 5% chance: something else
• jobs report: in big scheme of things, nothing new, simply unwinding the temporary job growth due to FIFA Soccer World Cup
• wage growth: not even an issue; significantly less than expected for month of July

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Jobs Report
Unemployment Remains At 4.1% 

Too many numbers; I won't go through them; I won't report them.

Steve Liesman is apocalyptic. Liesman was calling for three rate hikes by the end of the year. All of a sudden, things have changed.

Wage increase? Up one-tenth of one percent vs an expectation of three-tenths of one percent.

NASDAQ went up from +175 to  +245 in the last 30 seconds.

And, wow, wow, wow. Cramer's first hour is coming up in ten minutes unless he's taking today off.  [Shoot! Jim Cramer and David Farber have the day off.]

Having said all that, I think Steve Liesman is correct -- this is simply the unwinding of the FIFA Soccer World Cup. 

But the big story: oil.

Irony, it seems, that we are back to oil as being the big story.

Covid-19 resulted in a long lockdown but the impact was even longer. 

I'm starting to get the feeling that the Iran war over the strait will have a similarly long effect on energy, both natural gas and oi. 

Oh, by the way, all this anti-LDC talk is idential to the anti-frack talk of some decades ago. It's easy to see from where this anti-LDC talk is coming.

There Is No Question In My Mind That The Rest Of America Has No Idea What's Going On In Texas -- Friday, August 7, 2027

Locator: 51351TEXAS.

Link here. 

Now more than ever, the global economy runs through Texas. The boom is happening down at the state’s southern tip, where SpaceX SPCX launches rockets from a beach just miles from the Mexico border. It’s in full swing in the east, where ports in Houston and elsewhere are shipping a record amount of oil and natural gas to the world. There’s a gold rush in the north, too, as Dallas transforms a banking backwater into a bona fide financial hub, and in the west, where tech companies are building their biggest artificial-intelligence data centers yet.

Beckoned by a growing population, abundant natural resources, nonexistent income taxes, and light regulation, companies from Oracle to Tesla TSLA to Caterpillar have relocated their headquarters to the state. Texas passed California this year as the home of the most Fortune 500 companies, with 57. For three years running, Texas has added more jobs than any other state. It has the eighth-largest economy in the world and is hot on the heels of France for seventh place.Texas is also well positioned to lead the U.S. in the next phase of economic growth, driven by AI. It’s closer than any other part of the country to solving the technology’s biggest bottleneck: energy.

Texas is building more natural-gas power plants than the next seven states combined, according to energy data provider Global Energy Monitor. It’s the leading state for renewable-energy generation, too, with wind and solar arrays going up much faster than even in climate-friendlier jurisdictions like the Northeast. Texas’ power grid operates as an island disconnected from its neighbors, which has left it stranded during some weather emergencies but also allowed for flexible regulations that have spurred aggressive private investment.

The state is experimenting with a kind of hypercapitalism, one whose impacts are likely to be felt around the country. Its innovations are attracting imitators, who see its success as a blueprint for how to spur economic growth. But the model has also drawn a backlash. Deregulation, critics say, has stacked the deck in favor of corporations, and led to a “race to the bottom” that will impact everyone from shareholders to employees. Texas’ growth is also hitting physical limits. In parts of the state, water supplies are running out. The data-center boom threatens to sap them even more.

One place to see Texas’ growth spurt is at the base of a half-built tower rising at the center of downtown Dallas. When the 30-story building is completed next year, it will house Bank of America’s regional headquarters and the recently opened Texas Stock Exchange, which plans to install a rolling stock ticker on the side of the building. “There’s no street called Y’all Street,” said Linda McMahon, the head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, a civic booster. “But this is kind of what it is.”

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The vast majority of U.S. companies are incorporated in Delaware, whose long history in adjudicating business disputes seemed to insulate it from competition. But a Delaware judge’s 2024 decision to deny Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package upset the Tesla CEO and helped spur a backlash. Musk moved Tesla’s legal incorporation to Texas, whose rules are considered friendlier to corporations than Delaware’s.  

n Texas, companies can block investors who own less than 3% of their shares from submitting shareholder proposals and filing certain kinds of lawsuits. Texas has also passed rules to curb the power of proxy advisors, which sometimes tell investors to vote against corporate policies. The state has also set up its own business courts that “deliver experienced judges and greater certainty for complex commercial disputes,” according to Gov. Greg Abbott.

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The state sees stock trading as the next step for it to become a certified financial capital, on par with or even above New York. The Texas exchange got up and running as a stock trading venue in July, though it’s still working on procuring its own listings. The exchange is on board with the Texas-ization of corporate America, says James Lee, CEO of the Texas Stock Exchange. Removing wasteful fees and onerous rules should draw more companies to public markets, he says. A stock listing is the next step to getting all the benefits of Texas’ pro-business environment. “The Texas Stock Exchange is a partner in this—lowercase p—but we have similar goals,” he says.

Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have ramped up their own presence in Texas, too—SpaceX was dual-listed on Nasdaq’s New York and Texas exchanges. Nasdaq launched its exchange in March. Nasdaq Texas President Rachel Racz tells Barron’s the decision to open the Texas venue was “more a response to our clients than a competitor.” From a practical perspective, however, Nasdaq Texas doesn’t change much for the firm’s clients, whose trades run on East Coast wires and technology. It “allows companies to establish a listings presence in Texas while maintaining all of the benefits of their Nasdaq listing,” she says. From a liquidity perspective, the Texas exchanges are still a blip, accounting together for less than 1% of U.S. equity market volume.

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And the article goes on and on and on.