Fascinated With AAPL And Apple -- August 22, 2020

AAPL by the numbers:

• no one talks about valuation
• this past week, AAPL's P/E moved from 35 to 37, or thereabouts
• shares could jump another 27%;
• 1.27 x 37 = 47
• 500 x 1.27 = 635
• $2.0 trillion x 1.27 = $2.54 trillion
• Warren Buffett's stake in AAPL approaching a quarter of Berkshire Hathaway's entire market value;

Apple:

• incredible: Disney's "Mulan" will be available as $30 in-app purchase;
• family of four: averages $7.50
• but tells me that Americans have lots of money to spend
• doubles down: WordPress iOS blocked until it agreed to add in-app purchases;
• Porsche: Apple Music to be fully integrated in the Porsche Taycan;
• Israeli acquisition: AR and camera specialist (previously reported);
• iPhone 12: to save on cost with simpler battery board design;
• amazing how much these components cost: $85 for sub-6GHz 5G technology;
• $135 for millimeter wave technology
• those two components alone total: $220!

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.

Re-posting:

*****************************************
Apple, Inc.

iPhone 12: this is simply incredible. If this is accurate, it will blow folks out of the water, as they say.

Annual 2019 United Van Lines National Movers Study -- Idaho, Top Destination; Oregon, #2

Link here.

United Van Lines website.

The blog: United Van Line blog on US movers.

Top 10 states people moved to: South Dakota hit the list at #7.

Top 10 states people moved from:

• North Dakota hit the list at #9
• California makes the list for the first time ever
• Illinois, #2
• New York, #3
• New Jersey tops the list for the 2nd consecutive year

North Dakota $38 Million Lawsuit Against US Army Corps Of Engineers Allowed To Proceed -- DAPL Protests -- 2018 -- August 21, 2020

From DRGNews:

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor denied the U.S Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss North Dakota’s lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeking recovery of damages relating to protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017 and 2018, allowing four out of five of the State’s claims to move forward. 

Stenehjem sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act, looking to recover $38 million in damages to State property and law enforcement costs because of the Corps’ actions that enabled the massive protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

Stenehjem said the state presented the claims to the Corps in 2018 but that he “was very disappointed that no representative of our federal government ever contacted me to discuss our claims. As North Dakota’s chief law enforcement officer, my office had no choice but to bring this action because it is so consequential for the State of North Dakota and its citizens.” 

Judge Traynor decided that North Dakota’s case should proceed because the Corps “circumvented mandatory permit process requirements” when it invited and enabled the protests that went beyond peaceful protests and included violent criminal activities that endangered the public (including protesters) and the environment. Having negligently created the problem, the Corps then left it to North Dakota to spend tens of millions of dollars protecting public safety and cleaning up the dangerous mess left behind.

Much more at the link. 

Week 34: August 16, 2020 -- August 22, 2020

Top story of the week:

• Judge clears path for state to recoup DAPL protest costs. Bismarck Tribune, paywall. Google for other links. No paywall here (another great example of ineffective paywall keeping eyeballs from seeing ads over at the Bismarck Tribune).

The other top story of the week:

• AAPL, here; here; here; here;

Most important, under-reported economic story of the week:

• US home sales surge; strongest monthly gain since 1968;
  

Irony: 

• "Mostly peaceful" demonstration destroys Minneapolis post office -- the entire post office, and DNC worried about mailboxes;

Top international non-energy story:

• Kuwait lacks liquidity to cover state salaries in October, 2020;

Top international energy story:

• Even The Economist reading the blog: Saudi Arabia in deep doo-doo;

Top national non-energy story:

• Joe Biden informed by DNC he picked Kamala Harris to be his running mate;
• US homebuilder sentiment jumps to record high;

Top national energy story:

• Natural gas storage in the US hits all-time record; and, here;
• Rolling California power outages; the year "blackouts" became "power outages" and the "norm"
• Warren Buffett dumps entire position in OXY;

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:

• judge clears path for state to recoup DAPL protest costs. Bismarck Tribune, paywall. Google for other links; link here (free);
  
• relief funds produce more jobs than expected; Lynn Helms;
• ND scientists exploring rare earth opportunity; DOE-funded research;
• labor force remains near all-time high;
• Keystone XL begins obtaining water crossing permits;
• Minnesota governor continues fight against Enbridge's Line 3;
• Dakota Gasification now selling and shipping beverage-grade CO2;
• North Dakota coal county bans solar power; McLean County;

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

Top North Dakota energy story:

• Whiting reorganization plan okay'd by court;
• Bakken looking good; the dashboards;
• Little Missouri National Grassland -- progress being made;

Operators:

• BR wants to put 30 wells in one drilling unit;
• KODA Resources with three new permits;
• EOG well on eastern fringe of the Bakken;
• CLR with three new permits in sweet spot;

Operations:

• Why aren't they drilling the Grinnell?
• Drilled wells, completions, DUCs;
• MRO: five monster wells;
• New record low for well completions in selected shale basins;
• Another huge MRO DUC;

Advantaged oil:

• BR's West Kellogg well;

Natural gas:

• Bakken natural gas surges;

Pipelines:

• More info on that second ND pipeline ordered to shut down;

Bakken economy:

• Legacy Fund deposits more than double month-over-month;

Commentary

• Rig counts don't matter;
• History of the Bakken: ready for Bakken 4.5?

The Bakken Never Ceases To Amaze Me -- August 21, 2020

See the wells at this post. We'll come back to this later, but look at the completion strategies: stages and amount of proppant. Note that some wells are said to still be flowing, not yet on a pump.

********************************
YouTube Never Ceases To Amaze Me

This song -- a typical 3-minute song is remixed to last one hour, four minutes and one second:

Wicked Game, Chris Issak, cover
This one-hour-looped song has 3.5 million views. I didn't realize it was a looped song -- I was listening to it in the background -- until 20 minutes into the loop. LOL.