The Market And Energy Page, T+292 -- November 9, 2017

Another one of Aesop's fables -- updated for the 21st century:

Some blame the stock market plunge today (0.5% on the Dow) on the realization the Trump tax plan is dead (the GOP plan is on "life support"). But once traders get over the shock and realize the Trump tax plan was probably a "sour" plan anyway, the market will get back on track. I can hardly wait until traders realize Trump is going to be a one-term president. (Hint: huge buying opportunity.)

What me, worry?

Already, futures are back in the green.

For Those Who Believe It's Important, The Latest Atmospheric CO2 Readings -- November 9, 2016

For some reason "CO2 NOW" has not yet posted October, 2017, data. However, Scripps has:

One year ago, October, 2016, the reading was 401.57. That's a 0.7% increase year-over-year, 2017-over-2016.

Two years ago, October, 2015, the reading was 398.29. That's a 0.8% increase year-over-year, 2016-over-2015.

I assume most of the CO2 emissions are coming from China. Germany, which had shown decreasing CO2 emissions, has now flattened out, due to shutting down nuclear plants and turning back to brown coal.

Supertanker, After Two Years, Finally Unloads Crude Oil Cargo -- November 9, 2017

This is a cool story for anyone interested in oil and the Mideast. It's in the Financial Times and will probably disappear at some point. It is archived. Data points:

• Mideast often uses sea-going tankers to store crude oil when prices are low
• Seaways Laura Lynn: a supertanker as long as the Empire State building is high
• has sat laden with oil off the coast of Oman for more than two year
• storage for cargo of more than 3 million bbls of oil
• the Laura Lynn is 50% larger than the second largest (and far more commnon) size of supertanker
• the Laura Lynn is one of only two ultra-large crude carriers (ULCC) still in ocean-going sercie
• converted into fixed-position storage and offloading service vessels for offshore oilfields
• Vitol, private trading house run by British-based executive Ian Taylor, chartered the ship when the oil glut intensified in early 2015
• the vessel was parked near the Strait of Hormuz for more than two year
• this week, Vitol finally blinked: satellite tracking noted that the shiop rose out of hte water, suggesting that it had suddenly unloaded the majority of its oil
• the 3 million bbls of oil would have been moved to smaller tankers to "hungry" refineries, which after a three-year feast during the oil glut are finally having to pay up to get the bbls they need

I have rarely blogged about Vitol before, including this post which provided some nice background to today's story.

For a story on another ULCC, see this post.

A Graphic Is Worth A Thousand Words, T+292 -- November 9, 2017

Second most misunderstood president in modern history.

From Yahoo!Finance (top story over at Yahoo!Finance when this screenshot was taken):

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Rich States, Poor States

I've posted this graphic before and I will probably post it again. I hope the same source provides an update in 2018. I think it will be tough for North Dakota to move up in the rankings, but Texas should easily move up.  It's hard to believe but with the new state taxes, California and New Jersey could each more down, and New York might up. With some significant bankruptcies on the horizon, Connecticut could move lower. See these links:

• ALEC-Laffer, 2017
• rich states, poor states (interactive)

 

Gasoline Demand -- November 9, 2017

Gasoline demand (link here):

• significantly higher than same period last year; and,
• interestingly, trending slightly higher
• if 2016, was a record year for gasoline demand in the US, it looks like the latter part of 2017 could push 2017 into a strong second; due to huge difference in first half of the year, unlike that 2017 will set the record but it could be close

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Natural Gas Pipeline Update

There is simply too much activity in the natural gas sector for me to keep up with. For those following that story, here's an update on ETP's Rover and Mariner East II. I probably wouldn't have taken time to link the story but the Rover pipeline is a big, big deal. Think DAPL for natural gas, I suppose.

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The Apple Page

Jim Cramer has talked about the "$100-phenomenon." He says he looks for good companies whose shares are selling for $90 +/-, knowing that "$90-shares become $100-shares." It's simply a human quirk. As shares in publicly held companies approach $100, for some reason, investors get interested in buying the shares, and push the price to $100.

Likewise, as Apple approaches the trillion-dollar market cap the company will get more and more attention in the news, especially on CNBC. It's free advertising. The chatter will encourage investors to buy AAPL for a variety of reasons, not least of which to be able to brag to their friends that they own shares in the "only" trillion-dollar company.

Watch for Jim Cramer to start talking about this on December 15th. Just saying.

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For All Those Folks At CNBC Who Doubted Apple's iPhone X

That's just a couple of highlights. It's spooky-scary how much Apple is bringing out, and how fast they are evolving. See more at macrumors and scroll down just for the headlines. Tim Cook is on a roll.