Later, 12:16 p.m. CT: Yemeni Houthis have just announced new ballistic missiles on Saudi vessels; and Iran has said "talks" with Oman have concluded. It sounds like nothing was announced with regard to opening the strait.We'll see if Trump deserves his "TACO" moniker.
Original Post
War announcement posted at x at ~ 8:09 a.m. CT, today.
In anticipation of "Bibi's" visit:
However, other notes over at x suggest Iran is finding ways of staying the course, but dragging negotiations on. WTI is now trading at $79.
Amazing how two ...
Well, let me put it this, if Iran is not de-weaponized, de-clawed, de-fanged, there will never be any guaratee that Iran won't come back five years from now, and a) re-take the strait; and, b) strike Israel pre-emptively.
July 28, 2026: link here.This project now up to $14 billion.
Meta Platforms and the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock
, on Tuesday announced a venture to develop and operate a data center
campus in El Paso, Texas, a project that would cost about $14 billion in
development.
The race to build out AI infrastructure has prompted tech giants to turn
to debt sales worth tens of billions of dollars or seek external
capital from fund managers such as BlackRock due to an unprecedented
scale of investment.
Meta said BlackRock-managed funds will take an 80% ownership stake in
the venture, with Meta retaining the remaining 20%. A portion of
BlackRock’s investment will be financed through $12.5 billion in debt.
Meta will also receive a $1 billion distribution to align ownership.
Meta will contribute land and in-progress construction assets worth
about $2.3 billion, while BlackRock will make a cash contribution of
about $4.9 billion, the company said.
The Facebook-parent earlier said it was building an over $10 billion
data center project in El Paso, near the Texas-New Mexico border, among
28 data centers it has in either operation or under construction in the
U.S.
Original Post
I just posted a link to a WSJ article about Meta -- BlackRock -- El Paso and a $12-billion LDC.
I didn't like the post because I didn't think I explained what I was
thinking well enough. I was trying to articulate the amount of money
being spent on all this tech. I just can't get my head around it.
Just after posting that article, I got this article from a reader -- thank you -- and the link
-- again, the amount of money is incomprehensible. I'll leave it there.
Look at how this project in Phoenix has grown in just a few years. I
think this has been posted previously from a different source. But it's
nice to see it again.
10:04 a.m. CT, Tuesday, July 28, 2026: VISA is cutting 7% of its workforce. What's going on? It's not the economy. AI can now do much of what many VISA employees have been doing.
10:00 a.m CT, Tuesday, July 28, 2026: Shay says AAPL surpassed the $5-trillion market cap. He posted that at the open this morning. It has since dropped back and actually gone negative.Investors getting spooked. I only see buying opportunities. NASDAQ down 10%; now in correction territory.
9:52 a.m. CT, Tuesday, July 28, 2026: AAPL did hit a new all-time high-- Apple is getting creating (has just announced a subscription service) -- and Apple looks like it is benefiting fromdeclining investor interest over at the chip companies.
8:01 a.m. CT, Tuesday, July 28, 2026:
Futures:
last night: up $2.04
now: up as much as $2.52.
Original Post
Re-posting from early last evening:
July 27, 2026, 9:42 p.m. CT: just hours after Jim Cramer said there
were signs of things (like "chips") breaking down (plunging in price).
And, now less than five hours later, one can feel a sense of panic ....
in South Korea.
SK Hynix is selling off -- down 10%. Some in the US are watching closely. Like those reading x.
I don't think there's anything to it; we'll see. But let's say it's
real. Chips are falling in price. Who's going to pounce? Apple. Wow!
"You can howl at the wind, but AI is here to stay."
AAPL, futures, 0500 hours, Tuesday, July 28, 2026 -- this could be another big day for AAPL -- cheaper chips? Or earnings anticipation?
********************************* 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.
Locator: 51278B. Pageviews: 69,443,469, 0430, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
Earthquake: overnight a 7.1 earthquake hit Japan.The earthquake struck near TSM
Kumamoto fabrication facility in Japan. TSM, with a P/E under 30, continues to fall.
Anticipation: I'm eagerly awaiting for news regarding the viability of the US SPR.
Iran and LPG: closing the loop. Some days ago, CENTCOM said they took out an LPG tanker said to be violating the blockade. A comment from an anonymous individual said this was false because Iran does not export LPG: FACT CHECK: False: Iran exports significant amounts of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG),
shipping millions of metric tons primarily to buyers in Asia despite
international sanctions.
Note: the RBN Energy article is about a company called Expand Energy. For those of us unfamiliar with Expand Energy, from wiki:
Expand Energy Corporation (known as Chesapeake Energy until 2024) is the
largest independent natural gas producer in the U.S., based on net
daily production. Headquartered in Spring, Texas, the company
operates in the Appalachian Basin of the Marcellus Formation in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, as well as the Haynesville Shale in
Northwestern Louisiana.
Chesapeake Energy sold its Bakken assets years ago, went through Chapter
11 bankruptcy in 2020, and later merged with Southwestern Energy in
2024 to form Expand Energy, the largest independent natural gas producer
in the U.S. Chesapeake's holdings were generally in southwest North Dakota at the time they were drilling the Bakken.
In 2025, the company produced 7,183 MMcfe of natural gas per day.
In
2025, 42% of production was from the Haynesville Shale (Louisiana), 36% of
production was from Northeast Appalachia, and 22% of production was from
Southwest Appalachia.
July 27, Expand Energy's press release -- Expand Energy's merger agreement with Twin Eagle Holdings.
North
America’s largest natural gas producer will become leading gas
marketer, reaching customers across key demand markets in the United
States and Canada
Transaction will accelerate Expand’s
marketing and commercial ambitions, combining industry-leading natural
gas supply with sophisticated and experienced asset-backed gas marketing
capabilities
Immediately accretive transaction, initially
expected to contribute more than $200 million of projected annual
EBITDA; $150 million per year of synergies by year-end 2028
SPRING, Texas and HOUSTON, July 27, 2026 -- Expand Energy Corporation
(EXE), the largest natural gas producer in North America, announced
today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire
Twin Eagle Holdings, N.A., LLC a leading private asset-backed natural
gas marketing and optimization business, for $1.25 billion from Five
Point Infrastructure.
The transaction is expected to close in the
third quarter of 2026, pending customary closing conditions and
required regulatory approvals. The Company expects to fund the
transaction through a combination of cash on hand and borrowings under
its revolving credit facility.
The transaction unites Expand’s industry-leading supply and financial
strength with Twin Eagle’s premier physical marketing platform, creating
a fully integrated natural gas company positioned to capture value across the entire chain in key U.S. and Canadian markets.
Twin Eagle’s earnings are primarily supported by recurring physical
supply and delivery relationships, asset-backed portfolio optimization,
and experienced commercial, logistics and operating capabilities,
consistently delivering earnings growth across a wide range of market
conditions.
Financials: a p/e of 6.75 and a dividend of 2.45%. Compare with:
OKE: p/e of 16; dividend, 4.8%;
WMB: p/e of 31 dividend, 3%.
********************************** Back to the Bakken
WTI: $81.14 last night, now down a bit this morning, to $80.27.
New wells reporting:
Saturday, August 1, 2026: 1 for the month, 42 for the quarter, 395 for the year,
Friday, July 31, 2026: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 394 for the year,
None.
Thursday, July 30, 2026: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 394 for the year,
None.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 394 for the year,
None.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 394 for the year,
41382, conf, Oasis, Cyclone 5502 11-17 3B,
41381, conf, Oasis, Cyclone 5502 11-17 2B,
RBN Energy: expand energy, already a giant, broadens its scope and reach with Twin Eagle deal. Link here. Wiki. Archived.
It’s
unusual, to say the least, for an energy-industry acquisition valued at
“only” $1.25 billion to be transformational. But that’s surely the case
with Expand Energy’s newly announced purchase of Twin Eagle Holdings,
which will make Expand — the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. —
the nation’s #1 gas marketing and optimization firm as well. The deal,
expected to close in Q3 2026, also will dramatically increase the
marketing reach of Expand, whose approximately 7.5 Bcfe/d of production
is focused on two major shale plays: the Marcellus/Utica and the
Haynesville. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the transaction and its
far-reaching implications.
Before we look at the deal
and the significance of Expand Energy’s growing role in gas marketing,
we’ll provide thumbnail sketches of both Expand and Twin Eagle.
As we said in Finally,
the then-newly named Expand Energy emerged from the October 2024
combination of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, two upstream
companies that — after a series of strategic missteps in the 2010s —
righted themselves in the early 2020s and became very logical merger
partners, each with major holdings in Appalachia and the Haynesville. In
2026, Expand expects to produce an average of about 3.2 Bcfe/d in the
Haynesville, 2.675 Bcfe/d in the “dry” Marcellus in northeastern
Pennsylvania and 1.625 Bcfe/d in the “wet” Marcellus/Utica in
southwestern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio.
Novi
Labs, RBN’s corporate parent, said in a recent note that the
Chesapeake/Southwestern combination “effectively consolidated the core
of the (Haynesville) play,” providing Expand with about 36 million
lateral feet of remaining inventory, equivalent to about 32 years of
production at the 2025 drilling cadence. Expand has about 27 million
lateral feet remaining in the dry Marcellus — ~19 years of inventory at
the 2025 pace — and in the wet Marcellus/Utica it has ~ 24 years of
inventory. Just as important, the NPV25 median breakeven for Expand’s
overall asset base is an enviable $2.77/Mcf: a rock-bottom $2.56/Mcf in
the Haynesville and a highly competitive $3.06/Mcf and $3.10/Mcf in the
dry Marcellus and wet Marcellus/Utica, respectively. (NPV25 refers to
net present value with a 25% discount; in other words, the price at
which the investment would earn a 25% internal rate of return, or IRR.)
When
the Chesapeake/Southwestern merger was consummated, the folks at Expand
Energy said the deal would give them a platform to increase their gas
marketing activities and reach more markets. According to data compiled
by our friends at Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI), Expand was the
11th-largest gas seller in 2025, with FERC Form 552 sales of 5 trillion
btu/day (Tbtu/d; dark-blue bar segment to center-right in Figure 1
below). (Form 552 sales refer to wholesale sales of physical natural gas
executed at commercial trading hubs or pipeline points where gas is
bought, sold and traded before it reaches a final end user.) Expand also
posted 4 Tbtu/d of mostly retail “non-Form 552” sales to commercial
& industrial (C&I) and other customers (extension of bar segment
outlined by dashed dark-blue line). Most of Expand’s marketed volumes
were associated with its equity production.
Figure 1. 2025 Top U.S. Natural Gas Sellers. Sources: Expand Energy and NGI
Twin
Eagle, a gas marketing and optimization firm backed by private-equity
investor Five Point Infrastructure, is among a handful of important
“intermediary marketers” — the pure-play merchants of the U.S. gas
market that have no gas production of their own. Instead, their business
is built primarily on portfolio optimization: aggregating supply,
serving demand, and capturing the value created by managing the
midstream assets (gas pipelines and gas storage facilities) between
them. In 2025, Twin Eagle’s Form 552 sales averaged 4.7 Tbtu/d
(dark-blue bar segment to far right in Figure 1) and its non-Form 552
sales averaged 0.3 Tbtu/d. Other large intermediary marketers include
Tenaska — currently the largest U.S. gas marketer, with 2025 wholesale
sales of 9.3 Tbtu/d (left-most gray bar) — Koch (6.3 Tbtu/d), Citadel
(5.3 Tbtu/d) and Vitol (5.2 Tbtu/d).
