Themes -- 2026 -- Mid-Day Update -- October 2, 2026

Locator: 51858ARCHIVES.

2026: year of energy.

2027: year of chatbots -- Anthropic, OpenAI

2028: year of the grid. 

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BRK-B

Never mentioned on CNBC except with Becky Quick

Today, one talking head is bullish on BRK. Considers it a defensive stock. I no longer really know what it means to say something is a "defensive stock," not the Wall Street definition but what the term means to me.  

Yesterday: A Moose Spotted Near Hagan Elementary School, Williston, North Dakota -- October 2, 2026

Locator: 51857WILLISTON.

Tag: moose Williston. 

Note: NASDAQ hits a 52-week high. 

Skydance -- Homungous -- Hugely -- Merger Complete -- October 2, 2026

Locator: 51856SKYDANCE.

Link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/oc4W3eKsxEPvH6xyK.  

Link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/vSEsVeA2cqo98ZvIQ. 

At the end of the day, 

• the average "TV set" has now gone from NBC, CBS, and ABC to Comcast, Skydance, and Disney. 
• but à la carte: Netflix, Apple, Amazon, YouTube. 
• professional sports is being sliced and diced. 

Analysis: this Skydance - Paramount - Warner Bros combo could not have happened without the Trump regulatory environment. 

Ticker Symbol: PSKY (moving to SKYD on the NYSE starting October 6, 2026).

In "name recognition," Skydance is clearly the winner by a mile. This is truly amazing. 

 

WiFi In Commercial Airflights -- Reposting -- October 2, 2026

Locator: 50945AFLIGHT.

Previously posted: in the news today after Elon Musk gets verbal about Delta today (October 2, 2026).

Locator: 50945FLIGHT.

Of the four major airlines, the airline and your a/c wifi is determined by where you live / with whom you fly.  

Market share of each of the big four: about 18% for each.  

In general, the only airline I need to fly is American Airlines (AA). 

Wi-Fi: StarLink (Elon Musk) vs Leo (Jeff Bezos).

Elon Musk SpaceX vs Amazon Leo.

In round numbers, with complettion of sixth terminal at DFW, in progress:

• ATL: 200 gates: 175 gates for DAL; 4 gates for AA.
• DFW: 200 gates; 200 gates for AA; 5 gates for DAL.

WiFi:

• AA, United, Southwest: Starlink.
• Delta: Amazon Leo.

 

Is Amazon Leo free on Delta for flyers? 

On American Airlines, Starlink wi-fi is free if one signs into American Airlines as a AA Advantage member. 

 

So, it appears, this will be another way to get folks to become members of "airline loyalty clubs."  

 

There could be much to write about, but I think sentient beings can sort this out. 

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US Airlines

Query: 

Of the four major US airlines, could one argue that Southwest is quite regional (the south and the southwest); United is very US-focused; Delta, along with US is focused on Europe; and American, along with US, is focused on Latin American (Central America and South America)? 

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Human "Rationality" Vs AI

Link here. It may take a bit of work but one can read the entire article without a password or a subscription but there will be a lot of ads. Whether it's worth the time to read the article is in the eye of the beholder.

But there are few nice points for cocktail chatter.

And some jargon along with a bit of history, otherwise to be forgotten.

Ralph Leighton at a restaurant in Glendale, California. Leighton was agonizing over ordering his usual favorite, or risking something new.

Feynman turned the choice into a math problem, and solved it on a piece of notebook paper. His equation showed exactly when Leighton — or any indecisive diner, for that matter — should stop taking risks and stick with what one knows is good.

"People are not doing the optimal thing. They're doing something radically simpler," Christian said. "And still the simple strategy is being tailored in a way that feels very situationally appropriate."

The slope of people's declining threshold was identical across every condition — a week-long trip or a month-long one, restaurants distributed evenly in quality or skewed toward extremes. What did shift was where people set their starting bar, adjusting it appropriately based on the landscape they'd seen.

In other words, people used a universal rule for how fast to lower their standards, but calibrated how high to set them in the first place.

The results fit into an emerging framework in cognitive science called "resource rationality." The idea that humans aren't perfectly rational, but make good use of the limited time and brainpower they have.

"People don't do the perfect thing, but they make nearly perfect use of their constrained resources," Christian said. "I think this is a little bit more of a redemptive story about the human mind than we are used to from the 20th century."

That's a shift from the long tradition in behavioral economics emphasizing human irrationality and cognitive bias.

Christian says the findings also have implications for AI. Most AI systems assume people behave as perfectly rational agents. This study suggests that AI designed around how humans actually think — imperfectly — might work better.

Cramer's First Hour -- After Jobs Report: Equities Surge -- Some Even Saying "Santa Claus Rally" In Sight -- Oil Prices Coming Down -- Friday, October 2, 2026

Locator: 51855INVESTING.

New all-time high for NVDA: last all-time high, May, 2026. New high due to announcement of huge buyback.  

Cramer: seems outright giddy about possible "rally"; buy into the coming rally? 

• See disclaimer. 
• One analyst has called this the beginning of the "Santa Claus rally."

INTC (Intel): spikes 4%. This tells me everything one needs to know about the market today.

• INTC has quietly climbed to 124.
• this is truly amazing: Intel's (INTC) forward consensus earnings per share (EPS) is approximately $1.97 per share over the next 12 months, trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of roughly 63.29x based on a share price of $124.37 

Tesla deliveries, for September: huge. Tesla shares jumping; target raised. 

What Tesla did, China's BYD did in a month; 

• Cramer says the BYD looks like a $60,000 car
• appeared to have mumbled that the EU is committing suicide by allowing the BYB into EU
• will end the automobile manufacturing market in Europe
• Trump watching closely.

BYD:

• founded in Shenzhen in 1994, BYD Auto surpassed Tesla to become the top-selling electric vehicle company globally
• BYD stands for "Build Your Dreams," a backronym originally derived from its Chinese phonetic name, Biyadi
• vertical integration: the company builds its own batteries (such as the Blade Battery) and supply chains, allowing it to offer affordable vehicles starting around $11,000 to $22,000 locally while expanding rapidly across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. 

In the tech arena: most exciting ticker -- AVGO. News yesterday is already forgotten. Link here. 

Jobs report: "Goldilocks" report viewed by most

• unemployment ticks higher, from 4.1% to 4.2%
• consensus: the Fed won't raise rates in October, 2026
• equities surge. 

Oil prices coming down: but unlikely to bring prices at pump down --

• prices coming down on rumors that EU will release reserves; this is "false" good news
• world doesn't need more diesel fuel releases; world needs more refineries (don't take that out of context)
• apparently majority of product released is diesel -- details to follow
• by the way, that release of diesel was due to .... wait for it ... Trump's jawboning -- yesterday, Trump said he could very easily ban diesel exports if the EU doesn't start releasing its own diesel --- again, Trump does it with words, and mainstream media won't give him credit 
• it looks like the "overall" price move is about 5% down -- depending on what you look at... 

Oil prices coming down: this will bring oil prices down --

• Saudi Arabia exporting 80 - 90% of pre-war levels;
• Iran has clearly lost the narrative;
• on top of this, US sending more military power into the Gulf; 30% (?) increase; 
• third carrier group; 10,000 more US military personnel.

Nvidia chips:

• Amazon aims to offload $8 billion worth of Nvidia chips -- story breaking now
• speaks volumes 

See disclaimer. 

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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. Nothing on this site should be seen as recommendations for the general public. On the other hand, I have no problem if members of my extended family "see" recommendations I might be making - but only members of my extended family, limited to my children and my grandchildren.

Longer version here.