MMF -- A New Record Set This Week -- Thursday, August 13, 2026

Locator: 51404MMF.

Tag: MMF 

My favorite chart. Money market fund assets. 

My query late tonight: with regard to money market fund assets as reported weekly by the Investment Company Institute, I believe we hit a new reord this week, August 13, 2026, with an increase of $18.26 billion, raising the total MMF assets to $7.93 trillion. The previous record was $7.92 back in June, 2026. 

Gemini's reply: whoo-hoo! Yes, it is a record. Link here. For the previous record, link here. 

With regard to money market fund assets, what can the average mom-and-pop retail investor expect to earn on money market fund assets right now?

Right now, an SCHD investor is seeing returns of 3.1% to 3.3%. 

 

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A Little Black And Gold Sake

 

TGIF -- For Friday -- For August 14, 2026

Locator: 51403B.

Anticipation: 

ICYMI:

IPOs pending: 

• again, the amount of money that is being thrown around is incredible --
• compare
• GM: $75 billion
• Anthropic: $2 trillion (or 2000 billion / 75 billion = 27, let's call it = 30 GMs) 
• can you imagine waking up one day and learning that 75 manufacturing facilities the size of GM were going public -- on one day -- and the 75 "new GMs" were all headed by one founder and CEO -- oh my goodness
• each are valued about $900 billion; about $100 billion separates them
• each may value their company with an IPO for $2 trillion
• OpenAI: a little messy right now
• Anthropic: hitting on all eight cylinders 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $81.43.

New wells reporting in the Bakken:

• Sunday, August 16, 2026: 33 for the month, 74 for the quarter, 418 for the year,
• 42141, conf, Slawson, Shad Rap Federal 5-2 3H,
• 41356, conf, Whiting, Gullikson Federal 5203 42-31 2B,
• 41134, conf, Zavanna, Rennerfeldt 13-31 6H XE,
• 21005, conf, Devon, Borsheim Trust 33-28 1H, 
• Saturday, August 15, 2026: 29 for the month, 70 for the quarter, 414 for the year,
• 42140, conf, Slawson, Shad Rap Federal 2-2-3H, 
• Friday, August 14, 2026: 28 for the month, 69 for the quarter, 413 for the year,
• None.

RBN Energy: with new Permian takeaway capacity coming online, gas production could soar. Link here. Archived.

For the first time in years, the Permian Basin’s chronic natural gas takeaway constraint is beginning to ease — and in a big way. Major pipeline projects entering service this year and next will add roughly 5.3 Bcf/d of new egress capacity from the Waha area, led by the Gulf Coast Express (GCX) expansion, Hugh Brinson Pipeline and Blackcomb Pipeline. That buildout should materially improve Waha pricing and reduce the risk of severe in-basin discounts, but it also raises a new set of questions. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the major Permian gas pipeline projects scheduled to come online in 2026 and 2027, how much new capacity they will provide, and consider what the shift means for Waha prices, Gulf Coast balances and the U.S. natural gas market.

This is the first blog in a series examining the outlook for the major U.S. producing basins. The Permian, a major topic of discussion at our upcoming School of Energy: Fundamentals, is the country’s largest oil-producing basin and one of the biggest drivers of U.S. gas growth, which makes it the natural place to begin. Its crude-oil-focused wells produce large and growing volumes of associated gas, but getting that gas out of West Texas has become one of the market’s biggest challenges and a major constraint on oil production. In the series ahead, we will look at the Permian’s major producers and the basin’s next set of challenges, including what increased production will mean for the NGL market. For today’s blog, let’s start with the big gas pipeline projects that have come online or are set to begin operations this year or next.

In June, Kinder Morgan brought its Gulf Coast Express expansion (pink line in Figure 1 below) online. The project added 570 MMcf/d, or about 0.6 Bcf/d, of capacity from the Waha hub (blue circle to left) to the Agua Dulce hub (blue circle at bottom) in South Texas. It is fully subscribed and can move about 2.6 Bcf/d in total. The new capacity helped Waha prices recover sharply from their lows (more on this below) but didn’t solve the Permian’s takeaway problem on its own.

Trading In Workday Temporarily Halted -- Private Equity Firm Silver Lake In Talks To Buy Workday -- August 13, 2026

Locator: 51402WORKDAY.  

Russell 2000: hits all-time high. Small-cap US companies. Beat the NASDAQ 100 in 2026. 

S&P 500: intra-day crosses 7,800 for the first time. Closed at 7,798.99. 

IPOs pending: 

• again, the amount of money that is being thrown around is incredible
• compare
• GM: $75 billion
• Anthropic: $2 trillion (or 2000 billion / 75 billion = 27, let's call it = 30 GMs) 
• can you imagine waking up one day and learning that 75 manufacturing facilities the size of GM were going public -- on one day -- and the 75 "new GMs" were all headed by one founder and CEO -- oh my goodness
• each are valued about $900 billion; about $100 billion separates them
• each may value their company with an IPO for $2 trillion
• OpenAI: a little messy right now
• Anthropic: hitting on all eight cylinders 

Why stocks keep rallying: profit margins are the cheapest on record. On record. That's a long time, and a lot of water under the bridge. Link here. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $81.21.

Active rigs in the Bakken: 31.

No new permits. No activity today.

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The Movie Page

Robert Mitchum's Top Five

#5: The Searchers: John Wayne
#4: Casablanca: the entire cast, dialogue
#3: The Godfather -- the first one, or all of them
#2: Citizen Kane -- 
#1: Treasure of Sierra Madre

Are We About To See An Energy -- Oil And Gas -- Breakout? August 13, 2026

Locator: 51401ENERGY. 

Never in a million years -- back in the late 1990's did I ever think I would say this. Ten, twenty years ago, I was trying to think how to get out of my oil-and-gas-heavy portfolio. I'm not adding to my position but I'm certainly not thinking about getting out of oil and natural gas until at least 2030

Energy breakout.

Stay tuned.

Refiners.

Natural gas.

Elon Musk pivots.

Link here. 

In the near-term, and probably for the long term, the war in the Middle East over the Hormuz Strait has ended further investment in refiners in those countries. Whether it comes back or not, is hard to say.

Where might we see new refineries:

• not sub-Saharan Africa; yes, Nigeria is getting a lot of attention, but that's a one-off;
• more likely: the Mediterranean region north and west of the Mideast
• Turkey -- this is a huge possibility; the tri-nation military pact speaks volumes; and,
• Morocco (tourism), Algeria (French), Tunisia (too small), Libya (unrest)

Economy: for investors, is it time to pivot?

• real GDP growing at 2%
• nominal GDP is growing at 7%
• the S&P is growing at 17%: health care, financials, energy but not seeing it in semiconductors (growth already priced in); neo-cloud hyperscalers -- part of the original magnificent 7. None of the original mag 7 tech were built on memory chips. Five of the seven were hyperscalers from the beginning; then came along the sixth; the seventh is not a hyperscaler..

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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.

Longer version here.

A Tech Update -- August 13, 2026

Locator: 51400TECH. 

Query: Erock and Anthropic in El Paso and Meta.  

Reply: 

The Anthropic location has not been announced. 

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Everything Is Bigger In Texas

Query: Apple opening Mac Mini factory in Houston. Cost, etc.

Reply:

Meanwhile, another query:

Is Erock publicly traded? What is the history of Erock? 

Reply:

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Apple Again

And finally, one last query: Apple, Houston, August 13, 2026, Lutnick, Tim Cook, CXMT, just went public; largest market value in China now.

 

But there was much more to this. In a conference in Houston, August 13, 2026, both Tim Cook and Commerce Secretary Lutnick were on the stage, to update Apple's work in Houston along with the $600 billion program that Apple is rolling out in the US: Michigan, Kentucky, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Texas.

*********************************
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.

Longer version here.