Copper's bull run should continue for at least the next three years, fueled by global supply challenges and hot demand for the metal to power energy transition and artificial intelligence technologies, industry analysts say.
The outlook is an optimistic harbinger for Freeport-McMoRan and other producers as decarbonization and technological shifts fuel copper's latest demand wave after China's rise powered a similar one two decades ago.
Ticker and comparisons, one of my best holdings ever. LOL.
Reminder:
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 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.
Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.
Reminder:
I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I
am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
I'll do some reading. Catch up on blogging on recreational reading and Apple, but no more blogging on investing, the Bakken, etc, until later this evening.
Good luck to all.
Later: April's Director's Cut has been released. Link here. February, 2024, production.
crude oil: 1,246,691 bpd, up 13%
crude price oil, price:
WTI: $85.02
North Dakota light sweet: $76.50
natural gas: 3,361,587 MCF/day, up 12%;
95% capture
DUCs
February: 300
January, 284
producing, a new all-time high
February, 18,734
January, 18,703
************************ The Rest Of My Day
************************ WKRP in Cincinnati
This opening with Herb and Bailey was exactly channeled by two other sitcom stars coming along immediately thereafter. See if you can connect the dots.
My notes --in progress -- from Stauffer's books are at this link.
I'm reading Stauffer's biography of Lord Byron for the first time alongside re-reading Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
May 27, 1816: Percy Shelley meets Lord Byron for the first time and literature is changed forever.When I read Stouffer's description of that meeting, it reminded me of this:
Both events were truly momentous. Wow, never quit reading.
Chapter 5, in Stouffer's book, along with so much else is a travelogue from London to Waterloo to Koblenz to Lake Geneva. I traveled that same route many times, in segments, over the years.
My most memorable trip was hitchhiking from Williston, ND, to NYC; flying to Luxembourg, and then hiking Europe for the two-and-a-half-months after graduation from college. My mom loaned me $1,000 which paid for air transportation to Europe, a Eurail pass and my living expenses for the summer. I came back home with $400 in cash if I recall correctly.
I don't know if that's entirely correct, but I do know the $1,000 is absolutely correct, and I do know that I came home with a fair amount of money but not sure if it was $400. I caught rides with friends from NYC back to Williston on my return trip.
But I digress.
The entire chapter is great but perhaps something relatively important that connects Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Vampyre, Frankenstein, and Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights, andEnglish lore of the 18th and 19th centuries (and perhaps the 20th and 21st centuries) was the definition of the "undead" -- vampires and zombies. I'm not convinced there's a precise definition of either but rather one gets a gestalt of the phenomenon of the "undead" by reading from several sources.
Zombies are scary but paper tigers. The real "terrors" are vampires.
Anyway, enough of this. For the archives. I can't wait until Sophia is old enough to really start studying western literature.
I also have to review trigonometry but that's another story.
Most interesting tech story yesterday: Apple's announcement. I don't recall ever seeing something like this before. But for it to have any real impact, at least one more surprise needed. And two would be nice. [Later: on another down day for the market, AAPL jumps another $3. Folks may want to take a look at the 5-day chart.] Also, here.
Israel: it looks like they got those F-35A’s just in time. Netanyahu needs to send Biden a thank-you note. Link here.
Someone somewhere is trying to figure out a business plan to capture this opportunity.
Not working (and maybe even in worse shape):
UberEats, Dash
BlueApron
Possibly working (but not convinced):
Target, Walmart: one-hour delivery
won't move the needle for investors but could further cut into visits at fast-food restaurants
Need to look at trends:
folks returning to office; Covid lockdown over; such an event will never, ever return
breakfast hours: only real growth
in the 1950s, kids "drove" parents to McDonald's; ever smaller families, McDonald's has lost that edge
southern surge? those folks need to eat
is there something McDonald's can offer immigrants, low-income landscapers?
with ubiquitous use of cell phones / cheap cellular data, wi-fi at fast-food restaurants no longer a plus
when traveling, I no long have to stop at Starbucks / McDonald's for free wi-fi; I can stop at Love's which doesn't offer wi-fi; I can link through my phone
for some reason, I am no longer throttled ever, it seems, no matter how much I use cellular data and I still have the same plan
But let's get a grip: even the worst one, McDonald's at 100% increase in prices -- this was over a decade! Get a grip. Rule of thumb in basic investing: double your money in eight to twelve years.
2024: north Texas, I can easily find quality, name-brand beer for $8.99 a six-pack;
the usual price I see is $10.99 but most weekends, beer goes on sale and in volume -- a 24-can case can easily get a six-pack for $8.99; one of our best buys lately has been Yuengling; most expensive I'll buy: Bitburger, $12.99.
******************************** Back to the Bakken
WTI: $86.11.
Sunday, April 14, 2024: 25 for the month; 25 for the quarter, 224 for the year None.
Saturday, April 13, 2024: 25 for the month; 25 for the quarter, 224 for the year 40137, conf, CLR, Veigel 4-9H, 39464, conf, Hess, EN-Erickson-157-93-1003H-2, 38009, conf, BR, CCU Plymouth21-29 MBH,
Friday, April 12, 2024: 22 for the month; 22 for the quarter, 221 for the year 40136, conf, CRL, Veigel 3-9H1,
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a request by
governors from eight Corn Belt states to remove a summertime waiver for
Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) included in the Clean Air Act (CAA) for E10
gasoline, a 90/10 blend of petroleum-derived gasoline blendstock and
ethanol. The motive for the governors’ request was a desire to increase
sales of E15 gasoline and, by extension, boost ethanol/corn demand by
putting it on the same summertime footing as E10. In granting the
approval, the EPA conceded that the distribution system wasn’t ready for
the change. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the decision and the impact
it will have on refiners, retailers and drivers, and how it is likely
to work against the Biden administration’s plans to keep a lid on
gasoline prices.
Corn growers and ethanol producers have long sought to increase
ethanol’s usage as a gasoline blendstock, but in most cases government
policy support has been necessary to accomplish this as
petroleum-sourced gasoline is simply more economical when considering
costs (especially logistics) and blend properties. Originally, the main
rationale for increasing ethanol usage was domestic energy security and
the desire to replace methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) with a more
environmentally friendly octane booster. While direct subsidies for
ethanol blending had been in place since the 1970s, the first Renewable
Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act
of 2007 both provided mandates for using ethanol in gasoline. These and
subsequent revisions to the RFS led to corn ethanol usage reaching a
concentration of about 10% of the total gasoline pool.
