Statoil Reports A High-IP DUC In The Bakken -- November 9, 2016

Active rigs:

	11/9/2016	11/09/2015	11/09/2014	11/09/2013	11/09/2012
Active Rigs	38	65	193	182	192

No wells coming off the confidential list Thursday.

Six new permits:

• Operators: BR (4), Petro Harvester (2)
• Fields: Cross (McKenzie), Woburn (Burke), Stony Run (Burke)
• Comments:

One producing well completed:

• 29680, 4,135, Statoil, Richard 8-5 5H, Banks, t10/16; cum --; API 33-053-06370; this pad is permitted for 30 tanks; according to FracFocus, this well was fracked 5/29/16 - 6/21/16 with 9.5 million gallons of water; 87% water by mass; and 13% sand by mass;

One permit renewed:

• WPX: an Elm permit in Dunn County 

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

The Apple Page

Apple launched a new 12-inch MacBook last April, 2015. That was about 20 months ago.

In its first five days after launch, the new MacBook Pro took in 78% of all the revenue generated by that 12-inch MacBook launched early last year. I cannot get my arms around that one. In five days?

From Macrumors:

Apple's latest MacBook Pro has already outsold all competing laptops this year.

The new MacBook Pro accumulated more revenue from online orders during its first five days of availability than the Microsoft Surface Book, ASUS Chromebook Flip, Dell Inspiron 2-in-1, and Lenovo Yoga 900, based on e-receipt data from 12,979 online shoppers in the United States.

The new MacBook Pro generated over seven times the revenue that the 12-inch MacBook did over its first five days of availability.

If accurate, that means it took the new MacBook Pro just five days to accumulate 78% of all the revenue generated by the 12-inch MacBook since its April 2015 launch.

Staggering. In five (5) days the new MacBook Pro accumulated 78% of all the revenue generated by the 12-inch MacBook since its April 2015 launch. Simply staggering. 

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

The Auto Page

GM will lay off 2,000 autoworkers in Michigan, Ohio, at The Washington Post.  

Shifting demand from cars to trucks and SUVs is forcing General Motors to lay off more than 2,000 workers indefinitely at two assembly plants in Ohio and Michigan starting in January.

GM said it will suspend the third shifts at factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing, Michigan, because of the market change, which is growing and shows no sign of abating.

About 1,250 workers will be furloughed at the Lordstown plant, which makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact car, starting January 23, 2016. Another 840 will be idled at the Lansing Grand River factory, which makes the Chevrolet Camaro and Cadillac ATS and CTS luxury cars, when their shifts end January 16, 2016. 

Bad, bad news coming on the heels of a Trump victory. But worse: the word "indefinitely" in that first paragraph. 

Somebody's Cryin', Chris Isaak  

It Was All About The Uncertainty: It Had Nothing To Do With President-Elect Trump Per Se -- November 9, 2016

 Updates

Later, 2:13 p.m. Central Time: the craziness continues. Over at Yahoo!Finance, this headline: "US stocks claw back losses after Trump shock." Unless you were trading in the futures market at 3 o'clock in the morning, you suffered no losses. The market opened up, and is now almost 300 points int he green. Anyone suffering losses today after yesterday is a poster child for bad market timing.

Later, 2:06 p.m. Central Time: the market is now up almost 300 points. This has nothing to do with Trump policies. The reason the market is up almost 300 points because:

• the fear factor is gone; no threat of a constitutional crisis; the transition looks like it will go well;
• the market had been down the last couple of week (folks may remember the headline, "longest losing streak since ..."; and, 
• once the market goes past 100 points in either direction, the 'bots take over, following algorithms.

The 'bots are being "told" that there is a "rush" to buy (for whatever reason; to the 'bots it does not matter; no reason is needed); don't get left behind; and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest that prices could fall before the market closes today.

Original Post

Pet peeve: The New York Times provided a great summary of post-election speeches and tweets by and to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump but they still let their biases show. From that otherwise great summary:

The election returns on Tuesday sent stock futures into a dive and drew expressions of consternation from abroad.  

Accurate but not complete.  An act of omission. 

Yes, the article was written before the market opened and before congratulatory tweets had poured in from around the world, but this is the age of electronic immediacy. It would take almost no effort to update the article. Drudge is well-known to refresh rarely, but he can re-fresh immediately and spot-on when it's that important. There's a reason Drudge is successful and The New York Times reported a 98% drop in profits in 3Q16 earnings results.

That "dive in stock market futures"? That's all some people will read; they won't check the market for themselves.

The opening was green. There was a short period of red (about 20 minutes in red) and then back up about 40 points for most of the morning.

Now, in mid-day trading, this is quite amazing:

If the print is too small to read, the Dow 30 is up almost 200 points.

If this holds, it will be interesting to see what MSNBC and CNBC have to say about this tomorrow in their analysis. It will be interesting to see what Jim Cramer has to say about this later today.

The volatility confirms what every trader knows about the market. The market is all about greed and fear. And the worst fear is uncertainty.

When the results started coming in overnight, it was unclear how this was going to play out. It certainly did not look like it was going to play out as scripted.  Uncertainty was at its height.

James Carville noted the 700-point plunge and (infamously) said it would continue (implying, it seemed, that it would get worse).

There was talk of a constitutional crisis going into this election. Don Trump was on record saying he might not accept the results of the election. We all know the ferocity with which the Clinton dynasty can bring down on state secretaries of state if the vote is too close to call. Lawyers for both sides were pre-positioned in battleground states. The "market" in short, at midnight, was looking into Dormammu's throat of uncertainty. No wonder the market was in freefall.

Now that the results are accepted by all; now that President Obama has invited President-elect Trump into the White House tomorrow; now that Hillary and other national leaders have given statesmenly and stateswomenly speeches congratulating the President-elect; now that foreign leaders -- including Mexico's president and the Philippines president -- have called in their congratulatory phone calls, telegrams, and tweets; the "market" is comfortable again.

The "market" can get back to fear and greed. Wherever the market settles today it won't be because of Donald Trump's campaign speeches.

By the way, speaking of foreign leaders, for the record, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the first foreign leader to reach Trump to congratulate him. El-Sisi needs all the help he can get.

This really is a cool photograph isn't it? It beats a photograph of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea, doesn't it?

Wall Street Journal Error Brought To Editor's Attention By Reader -- Correction (Sort Of) In Today's Paper -- November 9, 2016

This is pretty cool.

In The Wall Street Journal today, this correction showed up on page A2. The error that the newspaper referenced was noted by a reader and that reader brought it to the attention of The WSJ:

On Thursday, clergy members participated in a prayer circle and protesters faced off against police over the Dakota Access Pipeline on land in North Dakota owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

A photo caption with a U.S. News photo on Friday incorrectly said the clergy members and protesters were on the reservation’s land.

And again, same error, and corrected (sort of):

Separately, police used tear gas Sunday on people protesting the pipeline who were occupying Turtle Island, which also is land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers near the reservation. A photo caption with a U.S. News photo on Monday incorrectly said the police and protesters were on the reservation’s land.

The reader wrote The WSJ:

You persist in misrepresenting the Dakota Access pipeline route. It does not cross the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. It is immediately adjacent to the Northern Border pipeline, a pipeline that has existed since the early 1980's. You will see the existing Northern Border pipeline as a diagonal yellow line in the lower center of this map.

The reader noted that the correction is still not quite right, but it's close enough for the mainstream media, I guess. It's my understanding the caption actually said that the pipeline ran through the reservation; in fact, the pipeline does NOT run through the reservation.

I was unable to find an electronic copy of that caption, but when/if I do, I will post it.

Hopefully I have that correct. If not, and if I'm made aware of the error, I will correct the correction to the original correction to the original error. Got it? Good.

By the way, the reader included a link to a pretty interesting letter from the US Army Corps of Engineers to the local sheriff to have trespassers removed from federal land. For protesters, the letter includes a really cool map that can be downloaded, framed, and placed on your wall to share with your grandchildren for years to come.

Off The Net For Awhile -- Biking -- November 9, 2016

Jeff Bezos Does It Again -- November 9, 2016

Link here.

This is not traditional house-keeping. They're not going to be vacuuming or washing or scrubbing or doing anything that really is associated with traditional house-cleaning. This is "house-keeping" or "tidying up," as they say.

But I may be wrong: the job description does include "help provide high-quality cleanings and meet any special requests." The key phrase is "help provide." The job description does not say comprehensive house-cleaning.

The Amazon employees will stop by your house on a daily basis and will help you "tidy up" -- LOL! Bring in your groceries and paper products. They will note what you need -- more toilet paper, more tuna, perhaps a new microwave oven, and they will ask the homeowner if they should go ahead and order anything.

Over time, the relationship between the Amazon employee and the customer will develop to the point that the Amazon employee won't even have to ask. He/she will simply order what's needed. Even a new microwave oven every so often.

This is incredibly clever.

Now, how would Jeff Bezos think of doing this?

Some years ago Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post.

One day Jeff asked his distribution manager, "Hey, Bob, how do we get The Washington Post  to our subscribers? Not the electronic edition but the print edition. How do customers get the paper?"

"Well, Jeff, someone delivers it to their door."

"You mean, one of our employees has a daily route taking him/her to thirty or forty of our customers? Every day?

"Yes, day in and day out, one of our employees -- well, actually a subcontractor -- we generally don't do it ourselves. But yes, in a sense our employees visit our customers every day -- and they do it first thing every morning -- to make sure they get the daily newspaper."

Jeff: "Do you think that person could deliver, let's say toilet paper, at the same time?"

Bob: "I don't see why not."

Jeff: "Bob, could you call Heather in her? I have an idea for a new Amazon Prime service."