Locator: 49918B.
YUM Brands: raises dividend from 71 cents to 75 cents, a 6% increase.
The Great Reset: wherever you are "today" in the market -- "today" being defined as the month of February -- this is where the next leg up begins. Which puts me in a great mood.
Iran: the calm before the storm. The Great Stall. Iran negotiated for a new venue for continued "talks." They will do this again and again ... until Hegseth says "enough is enough."
"Too late Jay": the millionaires at the Fed -- their attitude -- let MAGAns eat cake. First time unemployment claims exceed forecasts. This follows a lackluster ADP report earlier.
GOOG: 2026 CAPEX -- $175 - $185 billion. Unprecedented. The moat. This graphic needs to be updated. This is not an investing site. See blog's disclaimer.
AAPL: I'm hoping this market will last two more weeks. AAPL upcoming dividend --
- record date: February 9, 2026 -- is that Monday next week?
- pay date, 26 cents per share -- February 12, 2026 -- is that Thursday next week?
AAPL: reassuring --
- after a big day yesterday, pre-market AAPL was down slightly; but,
- up very, very slightly at the open; but, of course, the day is just begining;
- traders desperately looking for a safe haven.
Safe haven? Nope. BRK-B -- is down this morning at the open. Mid-afternoon -- flat, but slightly green.
India:
- H-1B visas:
- I assume "everyone" knows this story:
- H-1B visas have been "stopped"
- tech companies will now begin building facilities in India where their engineers will work
- H-1B visas are non-immigrant, specialty occupation visas (e.g., tech,
engineering, research) allowing U.S. employers to hire foreign workers
with at least a bachelor’s degree. The program is highly competitive,
requiring a lottery for 65,000 general slots plus 20,000 for U.S.
advanced degree holders. As of September 2025, new, stricter regulations
including a $100,000 fee may apply.
- Trump cuts tariffs on India's imports by half, from 50% to 25%.
AMD: AMD's new "450" chips have more memory than any Nvidia chip.
New link being added to the "links" page:
- The Merchants News: link here.
- I don't know anything about it and not sure what one gets with out subscribing for paid account; but what I've read so far is an interesting take on geopolitics.
- substack here.
*****************************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $63.64.
New wells reporting:
- Friday, February 6, 2026: 13 for the month, 66 for the quarter, 66 for the year,
- 41334, conf, Hess, BW-Stoveland-149-100-1003H-5,
- 41235, conf, Hunt, Clearwater 157-90-14-11H-2,
- Thursday, February 5, 2026: 11 for the month, 64 for the quarter, 64 for the year.
RBN Energy: midstreamers stay financially stable despite reacceleration of gas-focused CAPEX. Link here. Archived.
Since 2010, the U.S. midstream sector has moved through a clear
boom-bust-discipline cycle: a massive infrastructure buildout in the
2010s, followed by a sharp pullback after 2020, and then a new era of
more selective, high-return projects that prioritize asset optimization
over large-scale projects. Post-pandemic investor pressure for stronger
returns resulted in a strategic shift to financial discipline and
significant deleveraging. However, new demand drivers — AI-propelled
power load growth and a wave of LNG export expansion — are pushing
midstream capex higher again. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll analyze the
financial strength of major U.S. midstream companies and examine how
they are balancing growth, risk and fiscal responsibility.
As
the backbone of the U.S. oil and gas supply chain, midstream operators
are forced to respond to volatile changes in hydrocarbon production and
demand. In 2010-14, rapid growth in shale production triggered explosive
growth in capital spending to the $40 billion-$50 billion per year
range to fund long-haul crude pipelines, gathering and processing
systems, and NGL fractionation and export infrastructure. There was a
pullback after the plunge in crude prices in late 2014, but as shown in
Figure 1 below, capex accelerated again in 2017 as Permian production
outgrew takeaway capacity. Sectorwide spending reached another
high-water mark in 2018-19 with the completion of major crude oil
pipeline projects such as Cactus II, EPIC and Gray Oak; Gulf Coast NGL pipelines and fractionators; and the first wave of LNG export terminals.
