The Abbreviation For The New Financial Asset Class: NVDA -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51562NVDA.

Tag Nvidia.

The NYSE has the Dow; rhw equities have the S&P 500; fossil fuel? WTI. So, what does the newest asset class have? NVDA.

Compute: problem with this being a financial asset class. By definition, a financial asset class should be enduring. I doubt anyone considers "compute" being an asset class for ten years. In addition, it seems "compute" is only a "thing" as long as there is a significant shortage. More likely, "compute" would make more sense as the 12th official sector within the Global Industry Classification Standard. The problem with that, are there enough companies that could be pigeon-holed inside "compute"? More likely, "compute" could simply become a metric within financial statements.

For Thursday, August 27, 2026

Locator: 51561B. 

Tomorrow feels like it should be Friday. It won't be; it will only be Thursday. 

WTI: $81.87.

New wells reporting: 

• Thursday, August 27, 2026: 54 for the month, 95 for the quarter, 439 for the year,
• 42668, conf, Oasis, Troon Federal 5602 12-23 4B, 
• 41879, conf, XTO Energy, GBU Artemis 32X-13A-S, 
• Wednesday, August 26, 2026: 52 for the month, 93 for the quarter, 437 for the year,
• 41971, conf, Devon Energy, Thunderbolt 10-12 2H, 
• 40937, conf, Zavanna Energy, Hereford 13-36 2TFH, 
• 21562, conf, Devon Energy, Borsheim Trust 32-28 2H, 

RBN Energy: the $100 / bbl diesel crack, or how 2026 exposed the fragility of global refining. Link here. Archived.

For many, 2026 will be remembered as the year that diesel cracks topped the century mark ($100/bbl) for the first time. On August 17, the U.S. Gulf Coast diesel crack spread (vs. WTI Cushing) surpassed that sky-high level, and although it has since fallen into the $90s/bbl, it remains at levels never seen before, even exceeding those during the post-COVID boom year of 2022. In today’s RBN blog, we examine the various factors driving this run-up and what they say about the overall physical refined products market.

Let’s start with some background about where things stand today. The global crude markets are not short of crude in the traditional sense (despite various geopolitically caused constraints). Instead, the world is struggling to refine enough crude oil into middle distillates to satisfy demand. That distinction is critical. According to the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) for the week ended August 21, distillate inventories fell for a fourth consecutive week, dropping to just above 103 MMbbl (see our Crude Billboard for more details). Distillate stocks are on track for their lowest end-of-month level since April 2005, and are the lowest they have been in the month of August since 1951.

The events of 2026 have created a series of simultaneous disruptions to global refining capacity and refined-product flows. Middle Eastern refineries have been affected by damage inflicted during the Iran conflict and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, while Russian refining and exports have been repeatedly set back by Ukrainian drone attacks. This is all coming at a time when global refining capacity was already tight due to a number of permanent shutdowns (many during the COVID years) and limited new capacity coming online. As a result, even as U.S. refiners have been running exceptionally hard and exporting record volumes, the world supply of middle distillates (including diesel and jet fuel) is playing catch-up with demand, resulting in a market in which every additional diesel barrel has become extremely valuable.

A crack spread measures the difference between the value of refined products and the crude oil used to produce them. A $100/bbl diesel crack (right end of orange line and left axis in Figure 1 below), therefore, does not mean a refinery is earning $100/bbl in net profit. Refiners still have operating expenses, transportation costs, financing costs, hedging effects and the economics of the other products produced by the refinery. Instead, it means that the market value of diesel relative to crude has become extraordinarily high. That distinction gives us the first major clue about what is happening. If crude (blue line and left axis) is expensive because the world is short of barrels, crude prices should be doing most of the work. But when diesel prices (green dashed line and right axis) rise dramatically relative to crude, the problem is further downstream.

Canada's Tariffs -- The North Dakota Angle -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51560CANADA. 

Link here. 

I said the other day, the Trump tariffs on Canada had Doug Burgum's fingerprints all over them.

Today -- an interesting analysis from CBS -- see the link.

Canada is the top customer for exports from 27 U.S. states, Canadian government data shows. While North Dakota is the state most reliant on trade with Canada, excluding fuel products, a large share of its exports consists of soybeans, wheat and other agricultural products, which are exempt from Canada's new tariffs. 

Michigan, Indiana and other states with large manufacturing sectors that ship goods to Canada are likely to feel a bigger impact than agricultural states like North Dakota because the new tariffs will apply to U.S.-made appliances, steel, aluminum and tools, experts said.

Fascinating article: Canada more interested in Trump's political future (none) vs the future of Canadian citizens. Okay. 

After his current term, Trump's political future is ..... going, going, gone. Perhaps Prime Minister Carney didn't get the memo. 

Six New Permits; One Permit Canceled; Four DUCs Reported As Completed -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51559B. 

WTI: $81.78.

Active rigs in ND: 37. 

Six new permits, #43254 - #43260, inclusive --

• Operators: Enerplus (4); Formentera Operations (2)
• Fields: Church (Williams Company); Frazier (Divide County);
• Comments: 
• Enerplus has permits for four Giant Panta wells, SWSE 9-157-100; 
• to be sited 585 FSL and 2289 / 2388 FEL;
• Formentera has permits for two Toro Canyon wells, SESW 16-161-97, 
• to be sited 546 FSL and 1580 / 1640 FWL.

One permit canceled:

• 42744, Slawson, Pegasus 2-16-21, Mountrail County.

Four producing wells (DUCs) were reported as completed:

• 42052, 306, Petro-Hunt, Tinjum 159-91-31C-19-1H, Burke County;
• 42110, 1,527, Prima Exploration, Gummy Bear 1H, Williams County;
• 42428, 214, Oasis, Prestwick Federal 5602 12-23 2B, Williams County;
• 42666, 417, Oasis, Troon 5602 12-23 2B, Williams County.

Nvidia, CUDA, And Nvidia's True Moat -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51558NVDA. 

Query:

The new meme is that all the hyperscalers are all making their own chips to compete with Nvidia. 

My understanding, these hyperscalers need CPUs, GPUs, HBM, so when they say they are making their own chips are they working on the whole complex. I think the meme that hyperscalers are making their own chips is not the whole story. 

Reply: 

Follow-up query:

In addition, Nvidia has really embedded their system with CUDA and they continue to embed CUDA. 

Reply: 

Follow-up:

Oh, that's interesting. Update me on PyTorch and Triton. Thank you.

Reply:

ICE, NVDA, Anthropic And Salesforce -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51557NVDA. 

Texas, Minnesota, ICE: 

Nvidia results are out.

• after announcement: NVDA down 1%; not unusual for these events;
• in the big scheme of things -- nothing has changed.  
• beat on top and bottom lines 
• revenue: huge beat
• EPS: huge beat
• data center revenue: $89 billion vs $86 billion 
• 3Q revenue outlook: $108 billion vs $104 billion
• think about that: $100 billion revenue every quarter
• however, GM reported $50 billion revenue last quarter 
• Vera Rubin in full production 
• Gene Munster: is okay with the numbers.
• 3Q26: gross margin of 74% vs 74.7%. 
• market cap: $5 trillion
• analysts expect this company to have a $7 trillion market cap (usually projections of this type are one-year)
• now, during the earnings call, NVDA is now up significantly. Finally, folks are getting smart -- NVDA up almost $10/share; up almost $5. 

Anthropic making big announcement on CNBC: Claudeforce --

********************

After the deal, Salesforce stock (CRM) surged. Up 13% after hours. OKTA, unrelated, was also up. I have positions in neither CRM or OKTA. None. Nade. Except in mutual funds or ETFs.

*********************************
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.

Updated Production -- Devon Energy Marvin Well -- Camp Oil Field -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51556MARVIN. 

The well:

• 20716, 2,983, Devon Energy, Marvin 27-34 1H, Camp, t11/11; cum 537K 4/26; the jump in production occurred 10/25; see below.

We'll come back to this well later. This one interested me because it was put on the confidential list earlier this year even though it was first drilled in 2011. This well is a singleton in the immediate area of a five-well Marvin pad drilled more recently (October 2, 2025): #41641, 41359, 41360, 41361, 41362. 

Initial Production -- XTO HBU Marmon Federal Well -- Hofflund Oil Field -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51555MARMON. 

The well:

• 41582, A/F, XTO, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13A, t6/26; cum 46,152 over 22 days extrapolates to 63K over 30 days; 

Other wells on the pad:

• 40847, 23 days of production as of 6/26; 34,145 bbls;
• 41582 (see above), 22 days of production as of 6/26; 46,152 bbls;
• 41581, 21 days of production as of 6/26; 38,648 bbls;
• 41580, 21 days of production as of 6/26; 37,977 bbls;
• 41579, 19 days of production as of 6/26; 34,866 bbls;
• 41578, 19 days of production as of 6/26; 29,071 bbls;
• 41577, only five days of production as of 6/26: 6,265 bbls;

No neighboring wells of interest.

The Devon Energy Costanza Wells -- Siverston Oil Field -- Production Update -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51554COSTANZA. 

Wow, look at this well:

• 40969, n/d, Devon, Energy, Costanza 24-13 6H, Siverston oil field, t7/25; cum 292K 6/26; the depth is a full two sections; two-mile horizontals.

Wells on the pad:

• 40961, most production in early month, 31 days, 66,276 bopm
• 40962, most production in early month, 31 days, 54,276 bopm
• 40963, most production in early month, 31 days, 49,236 bopm
• 40964, most production in early month, 31 days, 41,280 bopm
• 40968, most production in early month, 31 days, 80,980 bopm
• 40723, most production in early month, 31 days, 70,994 bopm
• 40969, first full month, 31 days, 89,310 bopm;
• 40970, first full month, 31 days, 56,447 bopm;
• 40971, first full month, 31 days, 64,327 bopm;

Neighboring wells:

• 21706, AB, after new wells went into production; t4/12; cum 381K 9/24; 
• 38239, definitely a jump in production, halo effect, but no lasting effect; t9/22; cum 352K 6/26;
• 25111, too far away; no impact.

Huge Wells With Huge Fracking Halo -- XTO -- HBU Baptiste Wells In Hofflund -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51553BAPTISTE.

In a great mood today: I understand the concept of a "financial asset class" and how the current AI environment will measure AI companies with regard to this "financial asset class." See this post.

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

The wells: 

• 40921, conf, XTO, HBU Baptiste 34X-11A, note the TD -- almost 27,000 feet (three-section lateral; three-mile horizontal):

The pad:

• 41549, first full month, 31 days, 68,718 bbls.
• 41550, first full month, 31 days, 68,437 bbls.
• 40921, first month, 28 days, 65,024 bbls extrapolates to 70K over 30 days.
• 41551, first full month, 30 days, 53,703 bbls.
• 41552, first full month, 29 days, 54,706 bbls.
• 41553, first full month, 30 days, 58,833 bbls.
• 41554, first six days of 4,522 bbls extrapolates to 23K over 30 days.

Neighboring affected wells:

• 18510, 1,462, huge jump in production, XTO, HBU Ward 11X-23, Hofflund oil field, t4/10; cum 718K 6/26; jump went from 1,000 bbls / month to 16,000 bbls / month. 

• 17298, 1,151, huge jump in production, XTO, HBU Crowder 41X-21, Hofflund oil field, t1/09; cum 390K 6/26; jump went from 1,000 bbls / month to 16,000 bbls / month.

Production Update For KODA Resources #42395, An Ale Well -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51552ALE.

A reader noted that production from this well is now being published. The update production numbers below. A big thank you to the reader for alerting me to this update.

Link here. 

This is a KODA Resources four-section lateral running to the north. The well is currently on confidential list. It will come off the confidential list September 29, 2026, about a month from now. Production to date is excellent for a two-section well, but one must remember this is a four-section standup well. 

Vanguard Buys Altruist For $4 Billion -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51551VANGUARD.

Vanguard now competes with Schwab directly.

The pie is huge: see "great wealth transfer" below. 

My hunch: brick-and-mortar play becomes even more important.

• "Great Wealth Transfer," an estimated $124 trillion is projected to change hands globally by 2048; 
• the vast amount of this transfer will pass through women
• these new wealthy will likely spend an average of $50,000 / year to pay for wealth management
• current rule of thumb: annual fees of 1% of assets under management 
• will we go from percent to fixed fee? 
• Schwab and Vanguard will need to bring that average down significantly; AI will make it possible

Neither Vanguard nor Altruist have brick-and-mortar sites for retail customers. 

Numbers:

• Altruist: bought for $4 billion
• Schwab's market cap: almost $200 billion 

Schwab does (have local brick-and-mortar sites for retail customers).

Mid-Morning -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51550COMPUTE.

Tim Curry: age 80, dies. 

Compute: a new asset class. What an exciting time to be alive!

• timeline
• Jensen Huang introduced the asset without knowing it.
• Larry Ellison appeared to have stumbled into it.
• Becky Quick asked the question -- August 2026.
• Everyone now talking about it today.
• "Compute" is a new financial asset class.  
• other financial asset classes:
• equities
• bonds
• real estate
• gold
• oil
• crypto (bitcoin, others
• compute 

Think of it this way:

• the price of oil (WTI, Brent) great affects 100's (maybe 1,000s) of other companies (and the general economy
• the quarterly earnings of NVDA will affect 100's of other companies, and the general economy
• some say Jensen Huang / Nvidia is the Federal chief of AI 

However: 

The problem with this being a financial asset class. By definition, a financial asset class should be enduring. I doubt anyone considers "compute" being an asset class for ten years. In addition, it seems "compute" is only a "thing" as long as there is a significant shortage. More likely, "compute" would make more sense as the 12th official sector within the Global Industry Classification Standard. The problem with that, are there enough companies that could be pigeon-holed inside "compute"? More likely, "compute" could simply become a metric within financial statements.

**********************************
Apple: 

• more and more it looks like Apple is the gatekeeper:
• the app for "everything" 
• 2.5 billion  
• big announcement coming September 9, 2026
• up nicely today but well off it's recent highs

AAPL, ticker: 

My Favorite Chart Updated -- Updated August 14, 2026 -- Posted August 26, 2026

Locator: 51552MMF.

Tag: MMF MMFs mutual funds under asset management 

Link here. 

Essentially flat month/month but appears to have eked out a small gain. 

Running about $7.93 trillion.  

Electric Costs Per KWH By State -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51551ELECTRICITY.

Electric power monthly, by state, has just been posted. Link here. June, 2026, data.

North Dakota, all sectors -- 8.65 a year ago; this year, 9.01 cents / kwh. Absolutely the lowest of all states!

New England: all that angst? Year/year looks pretty good for Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Ohio, LDCs:

Louisiana: industrial, less than 7 cents / kwh. Texas is slightly less expensive than Louisiana. 

Qatar's LNG Exports Slashed By 96% -- Reuters -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51550MIDEAST_LNG.

Sent to me by a reader earlier this morning. Thank you very much. 

Cramer's First Hour -- META Settles With California, Other State AGs -- Definition And Discussion Of Compute -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51549CRAMER.

Tim Curry: age 80, dies. 

BREAKING NEWS: META settles federal social media addiction trial with California AG, other state AGs. Holy mackeral. That was fast! Less than a week. Did the trial even start? META surges almost 5% pre-market. META ups $22 in pre-market.

• Details not yet known;
•  suggests META did not want to go to trial and risk losing everything;
• AGs knew they had a relatively tough case to prove. 
• META to pay $17.1 billion; shared among 47 states. Over ten years. 
• for perspective, California's 2026 - 2027 spending calculated at $350 billion and absolutely NO deficit! 
• in addition, an extra $1 billion to Texas. Wow! 
• original payout? Some though $200 billion.  

2Q26 GDP, second reading: 1.5% vs 1.5% forecast. 

Other numbers (economy): really, really good. Another "goldilocks" economy.

July, 2026, inflation data: in line with expectations. First two analysts on CNBC seem to have accepted that 3% inflation is what it is and that will remain at this level. Too painful to try to move the rate to 2%. "Inflation might be okay at 3%; the problem is it's above the target of 2%." July consumer spending was up twice what was expected. With AI struggling, raising rates now -- watch out below. 

INTC: has slipped well below $90. Never expected that. NVDA's earnings later this afternoon will be closely watched. 

AAPL: opens up 87 cents today. A welcome surprise. 

DOW opens up after macroeconomic data released.  

BRKB: up a bit yesterday and up in futures today, again not by much. Well off 52-week high but, take out the brief highs and lows, and BRKB has been relatively flat the past year. 

New asset class? Some analysts still support. A financial asset class is being built by Jensen Huang. Folks may want to discuss with Gemini the concept of a  financial asset class. 

• the asset: specifically AI chips (GPUs) and AI compute capacity, not tokens;
• mechanism: Wall Street is creating structured financial instruments, lease backstops, and asset-backed debt tied directly to physical chips and data center compute power; 
• the analogy: prominent investors like Mark Cuban and Jeff Gundlac have noted that Wall Street is trying to treat silicon chips like a tradable commodity (akin to oil or gold), prompting major exchanges like the CME group to plan future contracts tracking GPU rental indices
• asset-backed debt: financial insitutions are issuing long-dated loans and bonds using physical AI chips as the underlying collateral
• One may want to use this prompt: one may recall that Larry Ellison bought a huge amount of compute (chiops) for which he was criticized but now it turns out that he can indeed rent them, even if they are seen by some as "old."
• In hindsight, one might argue that Larry Ellison was the first big investor to note this "new" financial asset class. 
• Larry Ellison was absolutely the first major tech titan to aggressively treat AI compute as an investable infrastructure asset class, essentiall yproving the concept years before Wall Street formalized it. 
• Again, not chips, but compute: capacity / chip x chip = compute. But that's a theoretical number, similar to "nameplate capacity" used by utilities. Compute is also affected by optimum wiring, optimum cooling, optimum power availability, etc. So, analysts must consider all these factors to determine "compute."  
• but there's more -- see the BOX below:

 Tag: Ellison

*********************************
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.

 

NVDA Earnings After Market Closes Today -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51548B.

WTI: $8034.

New wells reporting: 

• Thursday, August 27, 2026: 54 for the month, 95 for the quarter, 439 for the year,
• 42668, conf, Oasis, Troon Federal 5602 12-23 4B, 
• 41879, conf, XTO Energy, GBU Artemis 32X-13A-S, 
• Wednesday, August 26, 2026: 52 for the month, 93 for the quarter, 437 for the year,
• 41971, conf, Devon Energy, Thunderbolt 10-12 2H, 
• 40937, conf, Zavanna Energy, Hereford 13-36 2TFH, 
• 21562, conf, Devon Energy, Borsheim Trust 32-28 2H, 

RBN Energy: commodity price swings reshape E&P earnings in 2Q26. Link here. Archived.

The second quarter of 2026 was a tale of two commodity markets for U.S. exploration and production companies. A 29% quarter-over-quarter increase in WTI oil prices to $92.53/bbl provided a more powerful tailwind for Oil-Weighted E&Ps, who experienced a pre-tax operating profit turnaround with a war-driven late Q1 price surge. In stark contrast, plunging natural gas prices wounded Gas-Weighted producers after bountiful Q1 results. In today’s RBN blog, we review the Q2 2026 results of the 37 publicly traded E&Ps we cover and analyze the remarkably wide performance gap they reveal. 

The oil price climb (gray line and right axis in Figure 1 below) from the Iran conflict and a spike in natural gas prices driven by an unusually cold winter across the eastern U.S. combined to double the average pre-tax profits for our 37-company universe from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026 to $15.12/boe, the highest result since mid-2023. The continuing rise in oil prices spurred another 31% increase in pre-tax operating profits in Q2 2026 to $19.83/boe (far-right blue bar and left axis), the richest since 2022. Cash flow also reached a post-2022 peak, increasing 8% to $29.72/boe (far-right orange bar and left axis). Upstream revenues rose 6% to $44.67/boe.