Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Tired Of AI Yet? It Never Quits -- August 8, 2023

Locator: 45382TECH.

Before we get to tech, this "breaking" story over at The WSJ, link here:


Nvidia: just when you thought Nvidia would go into free-fall -- this from MarketInsider, from BofA, no less, and if you can't trust BofA, whom can you can trust?



Palantir: the gold standard -- at least according to Barron's -- 


Buffett: so, if Palantir is the one to beat, is the gold standard, does Warren Bufffett own any? Apparently not.

  • update, BRK, USA Today, August 3, 2023. "Are you diversified?" 
    • Among the 47 companies that Berkshire Hathaway holds, eight stocks represent roughly 80% of the company’s holdings. Here’s a rundown of Warren Buffett’s eight largest holdings as of the end of the first quarter of 2023.

A reader got to this before I did. I was going to comment on Buffett and tech. But the reader just asked if I had any idea why Buffett reversed course on TSM so quickly. My not-ready-for-prime-time reply:
No idea. It was very strange. 
At the time tensions between China and Taiwan were all over the news and that’s what I talked about on the blog. But it was obvious that China wasn’t going to invade any time soon. 
TSM and AAPL are joined at the hips —. TSM is practically a division of AAPL. Buffett has a close personal relationship with Tim Cook. My hunch: Tim Cook said something to Buffett about chips. Just a few months later, Tim Cook at the June WWDC announced huge advances at Apple Silicon …. but Apple Silicon only designs whereas TSM does the actual manufacturing … so I have no idea. 
Buffett seems very adverse to tech. I was going to write about that today. 
Buffett missed on all three: he bought SNOW which hasn’t done a thing and completely missed Nvidia (209% gain) and missed the gold standard, Palantir (Barron’s today). 
He likes big cap, dividend-paying stocks in companies selling cheaply, and tech fails on two out of three — seldom any dividends and extremely high P/Es. And except for Japanese banks and a couple of conglomerates, he likes American. 
And, who knows, he may be right yet.

Russia -- Foreign Exchange Reserves -- August 8, 2023

Locator: 45381RUSSIA.

Russia’s foreign exchange reserves: an increase, latest data, July, 2023. Link here.



China, India Oil Imports -- This Month's Data -- August 8, 2023

Locator: 45380OIL.

For now, just the links.


China, by Charles Kennedy.

One Well Coming Off Confidential List Today -- August 8, 2023

Locator: 45379B.

Reuters today: there seemed to be more interesting news than usual in Reuters daily morning newsletter but these two are particularly noteworthy:
  • burping cows: compared to China adding two new coal plants every week for the foreseeable future, burping cows seem to be the least of our problems (if one is worried about manmade CO2; I'm not) but .... we now have cows that burp less -- from Reuters:
    • when Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith's calves are born next spring, they will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane. 
    • Loewith, a third-generation farmer in Lynden, Ontario, in June started artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane genetic trait.
  • AI: "everyone" ("everyone" does not include me) says AI is hyped, is a bubble. Today, again from Reuters, so you know it has to be true: 
    • Disney has created a task force to study artificial intelligence and how it can be applied across the entertainment conglomerate, even as Hollywood writers and actors battle to limit the industry's exploitation of the technology.
    • I assume Bob Iger did this to get folks' attention off his real problems of the day.
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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $80.60. Down 1.6%; down $1.29.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023
: 15 for the month; 217 for the quarter, 472 for the year

39456, conf, CLR, Edward 6-23H1,

Tuesday, August 8, 2023: 14 for the month; 216 for the quarter, 471 for the year
38946, conf, Hess, BW-Rolfson-151-98-2116H-13,


The 590-Mb/d Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project, which is inching closer to its planned early 2024 completion, has been one of the most eagerly anticipated energy infrastructure projects in recent Canadian memory. Preliminary tolls for shipping crude on the expanded pipeline system, submitted to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) in June, are multiples higher than the tolls currently charged on the original 300-Mb/d Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP), possibly undermining oil producers’ economics for shipping and exporting crude on the combined 890-Mb/d system. However, the higher tolls are not the only concern. Serious logistical challenges remain in the form of restricted tanker sizes, a circuitous route for ships traveling from the open ocean to the Westridge export terminal near Burnaby, BC, and even a very tight passage under two bridges, all of which will add costs and time for each exported barrel. In today’s RBN blog, we provide more details on the complexities surrounding crude oil exports via the Trans Mountain pipeline system.

Not On My Bingo Card Today — Shock: BUD Selling -- August 8, 2023

Locator: 45378BEER.

Not on my bingo card today:

However, GDPNow is on today’s bingo cards (#56 under G) and an update will be posted later today. Prediction: 3.5.

Speaking of bingo.

I still like to think TMDW blog is the best ad-free, password-free, Bakken-focused blog on the internet. It also uses no AI to generate content. Of course, one can argue whether the blog uses any intelligence to generate any content.