Santa Claus Rally -- Day 5 -- December 30, 2020

Re-locations: from Forbes just a couple of weeks ago. Tech fleeing California; banks fleeing NYC. 

The flight out of New York has been in the works before the pandemic. Wall Street executives previously relocated thousands of jobs to states outside of New York, in an effort to cut costs. 

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, UBS, Citigroup, Alliance Bernstein and an array of other financial institutions have established and aggressively staffed hubs in Florida, North Carolina, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Nashville and other less expensive locations compared to New York.

We will get a better feeling for the extent of these re-locations when we start to see stories late next year coming out of NY state and NYC about declines in tax receipts, both corporate and individual. You can bet that many NYC workers when allowed to work from "home" are moving "home" -- that is, to states with less onerous taxes. And frankly, less expensive to live in general. 

Speaking of which, I still have financial attachments to banks in North Dakota, one in Grand Forks and one in Williston. The individual with whom I work at the Williston bank is now working from "home." I always assumed Williston was her home. Wrong. She continues to work for the bank in Williston, ND, but she is now back "home" in Idaho. I find that amazing, and I also find that incredibly progressive of the bank to allow her to do that. 

This seems a good time to post this video again. I just noticed: this was released in 1969 which I argue is the most impressive year for music ever.

A Wanderin' Star, Lee Marvin

Slawson Will Report One DUC Today -- December 30, 2020

Amazon: is tracked here. From a reader, this link, "Amazon is actually the American worker's champion. Link here. 

It's been a terrible year for the American worker, with a notable bright spot courtesy of one of the tech firms in the crosshairs of regulators and lawmakers.

If someone had said early in 2020, "A company is going to hire hundreds of thousands of non-college-educated workers during the pandemic at well above the minimum wage," you'd think there'd be huzzahs all around.

That's what the online retailer Amazon has done, but it still gets brickbats for how it pays and treats its workers. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the other day that Amazon jobs are a "scam."

If so, a swath of the US workforce is falling for the grift. Since July, the online retailer has hired 350,000 workers and now employs 1.2 million people globally.

This is a historic hiring binge. According to The New York Times, "the closest comparisons are the hiring that entire industries carried out in wartime, such as shipbuilding during the early years of World War II."

On top of this, the company provides work for roughly half a million truck drivers.

[Comment: and a surge in Class 8 truck manufacturing. Previously reported. In fact, one begins to wonder what the US economy would be like if it were not for Amazon.]

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. 

Schwab: the move is official January 1, 2021. Link here. By the way, long before this move, Schwab operations was located in El Paso, TX. This new headquarters in Denton County is pretty impressive, literally just a few miles down the road from where we live. Can't wait to take a tour. LOL.

Re-locations: from California to Texas, tracked here. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$48.42	12/30/2020	12/30/2019	12/30/2018	12/30/2017	12/30/2016
Active Rigs	13	55	66	49	39

One well coming off confidential list -- 

Wednesday, December 30, 2020:

• 36251, loc/NC, Slawson, Osprey Federal 2-26-29H, Big Bend, no production data,

RBN Energy: Asian supply shortage, spot cargoes lead to record US LNG exports. 

Talk about whiplash! 

Not that long ago, the global LNG market was reeling from the effects of the pandemic: stunted demand, severe oversupply, brimming storage, and record low prices, all of which led to a squeeze on offtaker margins and mass cancellations of U.S. cargoes. 

Within a matter of months, however, the market has done a 180. Global supply has tightened significantly as cargoes can’t get delivered fast enough, and international LNG prices are near two-year highs. 

U.S. LNG exports and domestic feedgas demand are at record highs in December, for the second straight month. That’s not to say U.S. LNG producers and the domestic gas market are out of the woods. 

Cancellations are rearing their heads again — not because the demand isn’t there, but because of logistical constraints and a severe vessel shortage, which are injecting more uncertainty into the market. Today, we provide an update on domestic LNG exports and the immediate factors driving them.

Notes From All Over -- Very Early Morning Edition --Top Story Of The Year: The Eradication Of "Seasonal Flu" In The US -- December 30, 2020

Updates

December 30, 2020: something that is not being widely reported and something for which President Trump is getting no credit -- the eradication of "seasonal flu" in the US.

Original Post

See this post for additional graphics and comments.

Now, this, today:

No way is Japan going to allow thousands of athletes and tens of thousands of fans to enter their country for the 2020ne Olympics unless global vaccination is incredibly successful. 

And Japan and Taiwan were recently doing so well. 

Coronavirus: statistics. By country. By state.

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Some Common Sense

Were animals responsible for spreading Covid-19? If link breaks, search: mink, Covid, Denmark.

Whatever.

US government says airlines can ban emotional support animals from flights. Multiple links. Forbes was reporting on this as early as January, 2020. It appears Alaska Airlines will be the first major airline to change its policy: no more comfort animals on flights: only authorized, validated service animals.

I don't know if I mentioned this on the blog; I mentioned it to a reader in an e-mail. On my recent return trip from Portland, OR, to Grapevine, TX, on Alaska Airlines, my row, six seats, middle seats unoccupied, four passengers and two huge dogs. Both very well behaved. I had no problem with them. But it was obvious these were not support animals. Their owners were simply bringing them along as non-paying "passengers."

Thank goodness for that empty middle seat. My hunch is that Alaska Airlines realizes that when flight operations get back to normal and that middle seat is occupied, there's no way large dogs can be accommodated. In my case, fifty percent of my row had passengers with large dogs.

Santa Claus Rally -- Day 5 -- December 30, 2020

Link here.  

Two days ago, the market had a huge day, a huge "Santa Claus rally." Yesterday, the market paused, but not by much. Again, we're seeing a "risk-on, risk-off" push/pull, much of it predicated on whether there will be a larger stimulus package before the end of the year (that would be tomorrow). 

Overnight, futures for the major indices were up slightly. The Dow pretty much hovered around 75 points on the upside during the night. Now, this morning about 5:00 a.m. CT, the Dow took a major jump, up 115 points in pre-market trading. 

At the same time:

• S&P 500: up 16 points;
• NASDAQ: up 50 points;

Most interesting for me, for multiple reasons: AAPL.

The buy point for many is $138/share AAPL. Two days ago it hit $138.79, only to drop back slightly yesterday. Right now, AAPL, in pre-market trading is up slightly. 

Later, mid-morning: market up nicely today but AAPL down, although it's recovering a bit. Still slightly negative after a negative day yesterday. Trading at $134. This suggests to me folks are taking profits in AAPL and buying in other sectors.

No New Permits; Six Permits Renewed -- December 29, 2020

Active rigs:

$48.00	12/29/2020	12/29/2019	12/29/2018	12/29/2017	12/29/2016
Active Rigs	13	56	66	48	39

No new permits.

Six permits renewed:

• Enerplus (4): an Ole permit in McKenzie County; three "ducks" -- a Widgeon, a Scaup, a Pintail permit, renewed, all in Dunn County;
• Whiting: a State Federal permit in McKenzie County;
• Southwestern Production Corp: TMW 34-22, #25480, in Billings County. Link here. Southwestern Production has about 30 permits/file numbers, all of them in Tracy Mountain oil field; most of them are IA, TA, PNC, or otherwise non-producing. The company has only one well currently listed as "active."

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Distribution Of The Few Active Rigs In North Dakota