Layoffs Easing

The Los Angeles Times is reporting:

Layoffs appear to be easing as the number of people who filed for unemployment claims last week dropped by 10,000 to 316,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. 

The number of initial unemployment claims has decreased in six of the last seven weeks, data show. The four-week moving average, a more reliable measure that irons out weekly volatility, fell by 7,500 to 331,750, the Labor Department said. 

A year ago, the four-week moving average was 401,000.

California recorded the largest drop in initial jobless claims. Not adjusted for seasonality, the data show that claims in the Golden State fell by 4,644, largely due to fewer layoffs in the service industry, state officials reported.

On-Line ObamaCare Enrollment For Small Businesses Delayed For One Year; Obama Dumps Verizon

Milestones?

√ employer-mandate delayed one full year
√ small-business on-line enrollment delayed one year
    individual mandate delayed one year 

Politico is reporting:

Marking the latest HealthCare.gov setback, the Obama administration today will announce a yearlong delay of online enrollment for small businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal-run exchanges, according to an HHS notice obtained by POLITICO.

Small businesses have been able to apply through paper applications since October 1, 2013, and HHS will announce alternative sign-up methods, like enrolling through an agent or broker or directly through an insurer.

That should help individuals access the website when it is "fixed" and able to handle 80% of users.

Of course, those users should be reminded that the FBI warns of US government breaches by "Anonymous" hackers:

Activist hackers linked to the collective known as Anonymous have secretly accessed U.S. government computers in multiple agencies and stolen sensitive information in a campaign that began almost a year ago, the FBI warned this week.

The hackers exploited a flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's software to launch a rash of electronic break-ins that began last December, then left "back doors" to return to many of the machines as recently as last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a memo seen by Reuters. 

The memo, distributed on Thursday, described the attacks as "a widespread problem that should be addressed." It said the breach affected the U.S. Army, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and perhaps many more agencies.

The healthcare.gov website appears to be particularly vulnerable and Consumer Reports recommends that folks avoid this website. 

************************************

It's a bit confusing on the whys and wherefores, but Obama is dumping Verizon and embracing Hewlett-Packard. [An aside: earlier this morning:  Wow, H-P's sales drop again. Hewlett-Packard posts weaker fourth-quarter sales, the ninth onsecutive top-line decline, but the computer maker swung to a profit and beat expectation.] CNBC is reporting:

The Department of Health and Human Services has tapped Hewlett-Packard to replace Verizon Communications' Terremark subsidiary as the Web-hosting provider for HealthCare.gov, the federal health insurance marketplace that has had a troubled rollout since launching in October.

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services division confirmed the move Wednesday but noted that the change in providers had been contracted well before the website launched. [Sure.]

And then this:

"As we think about the overall performance and functionality of the site, redundancy is a critical part of our planning and we are working to ensure it in all aspects of the system," the spokesman said in an email to CNBC. [And now they're thinking of this?]

Montana Update

Don sent me the Montana completions which probably came from The Fairfield Sun Times:

In Daniels County, Apache Corporation,  Lindley 19-9H-B, a Three Forks formation well; TD 11,975 feet. No initial production (IP) numbers were reported.

In Roosevelt County, Oasis Petroleum North America LLC, Long Coulee Federal 2958 42-22H, TD 20,244 feet; Bakken formation, reported an IP of 871 bopd. Not bad for a Montana well.

In Wibaux County, Petro-Hunt, LLC, Nagode 12-61 20D-3-1, Red River formation test well, the Nagode 12-61 20D-3-1, TD 11,350 feet. No IP provided.

North Dakota River Ice Disk Becomes A DrudgeReport Link

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

When George Loegering saw a large spinning circle of ice in the Sheyenne River while out hunting with relatives, the retired engineer couldn't believe his eyes.

"At first I thought, no way! It was surreal," Loegering, 73, said Tuesday of the large i

ce disk he witnessed Saturday. "You looked at it and you thought, how did it do that?"
Then his engineering background kicked in. He calculated the disk's diameter to be about 55 feet, took photos and videos of it and then turned to the Internet for more information about what he, his brother-in-law and nephew had seen.

"It's not an unknown phenomenon, but it is relatively rare," said Loegering, who lives in rural Casselton, about 20 miles west of Fargo.

Allen Schlag, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Bismarck, and Greg Gust, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Forks, said a combination of cold, dense air last weekend and an eddy in the river likely caused the disk.

Photos at the link. 

Sheyenne River, North Dakota, 2013

Another Government Metric Looks Suspect: US Oil Demand

This is a most interesting story. Another government metric that is suspect. Who wudda thought?

It seems America is falling back in love with oil -- or at least that is what weekly numbers from the Energy Department show.

But oil demand is a slippery concept. The DOE's latest data show the US burned an average 20 million bbls a day in the four weeks ended November 115. That is up 7.4% year-over-year, a figure more redolent of China than America. It is the fastest pace of growth in oil demand since May, 2010, when the numbers were flattered by 2009's economic malaise. Gasoline demand, meanwhile, was up 3.9%, and growth in October was apparently running at levels higher still, and not seen since late 2006.

Thing is, those growth rates look wrong. And the gap appears to be growing.

The complete story is that the link. Very interesting. It has to do with increasing US exports of refined products to Europe.

U.S. refiners able to process cheap, landlocked domestic crude and export products such as gasoline have an incentive to ship as many barrels overseas as possible. While most U.S. product exports go elsewhere in the Americas, about a fifth head to Europe, according to Sanford C. Bernstein.

Of all sectors of the global oil industry, Europe's refiners are most exposed to the increase in U.S. exports, especially if the real level is understated in the data. Not only do Europe's refiners face weak demand at home and increasing competition from across the Atlantic. They also must deal with new export-oriented refineries opening in Asia and, later this decade, new Brazilian refineries to process that country's rising oil output.

*************************************

Connecting the dots. We all know that the president is picking and choosing to implement/delay the various pieces of ObamaCare of his choosing. It turns out that Iran will do the same thing with the "new" international agreement. From DrudgeReport: Iran will ignore/reject the "invalid" details of the "nuke" agreement. Ya gotta love it.