Harpooned But Not Yet Dead? I Don't Know -- Update -- July 16, 2026

Locator: 51186DAPL.  

Tag: Greenpeace DAPL TC Energy Pipeline 

First, an opinion:

Now the AI update:

Harpooned but yet not dead?

YUM Brands -- Alleged Source Of Cyclosporiasis From Taylor Farms, Mexican Source -- July 16, 2026

Locator: 51185CYCLO.  

Updates:

July 17, 2026:

July 17, 2026: pre-market, Yum ticker well off its lows from last night and should open in line with the rest of the market. 

Over at x, headlines suggest Taco Bell is removing affected lettuce / affected supplier only from "some stores." Mostly the "midwest." Ohio was first headline over at x to suggest this. Is Ohio in the East or Midwest? IOhio is in eastern time zone. Michigan is eastern time zone; Wisconsin, western. llinois is in central time zone. Indiana, east. Tennessee, split. My favorite time zone? Central.

Original Post 

YUM Brands, falling significantly after hours and after this announcement: 

Shredded lettuce supplied to Taco Bell by Taylor Farms from a Mexican source has been identified as a source of cyclospora that causes watery diarrhea.

The FDA has linked shredded lettuce sold at Taco Bell to the multi-state cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to diarrhea.

Is this a fact, or simply alleged?

Official statement, in select states: 

 And yet, some headlines suggest produc was removed nationwide, note primary source is a blog: 

Can both be correct? Yes.

Taco Bell is wholly owned by YUM Brands. 

A $150-share company, now down about $3.00.  

SpaceX: aborts mission. Stock down. 

Four New Permits; Four DUCs Reported As Completed -- July 16, 2026

Locator: 51184B.

Apple: continues to move upward after-hours. AAPL was up an amazing $5.76 / share today and continues to move up after-hours. Another all-time high. It appears AAPL would have to trade at $346 to have a market cap of $5.0 trillion. 

MMFs: link here. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $78.95. Continues to drop despite a) increasing Allied attacks on Iran; and, b) Iran doubling down on their warnings.

ACTIVE RIGS: 26.

Four new permits, #43126 - #43128, and #42701 --

• Operators: Kraken; Devon Energy
• Fields: Blue Ridge (Williams County); Siverston (McKenzie County)
• Comments:
• Devon Energy has a permit for a Bluefin well, SWSW 13-149-98, 
• to be sited375 FSL and 423 FWL;
• Kraken has permits for three wells in NWNW 217-158-100, Campbell (1 well) and Holmes LW (2 wells), 
• to be sited 445 FNL and 650 / 716 FWL.

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 42197, 646, Apollo 18-7-6 7H, Williams County;
• 42198, 720, Apollo 18-7-6 8H, Williams County;
• 42199, 680, Turbodiesel 19-30-31 9H, Williams County;
• 42200, 694, Turbodiesel LE 19-30-31 10H, Williams County;

TSMC -- Huge News -- Again -- Thursday -- July 16, 2026

Locator: 51183TSMC.

Dell continues to fall while AAPL continues to rise. 

• moats (large cash; relevancy; ability to make big deals)
• China growth 
• business models 

Mideast: fifth consecutive day of allied attacks on Iran.  

US LNG exports:

• page 1: Putin cuts off natural gas to Europe (a long time ago)
• page 2: now, the Strait. 
• Quick, who's leading Iran. now? 
• The Supreme Leader of Iran is Mojtaba Khamenei or IGRC? 
• Certainly not "the moderates," and the term is used loosely.

TSM: big news overnight but lost in all the other chatter ... from a reader ... 

TSMC:

The new $100 billion is expected to fund up to four more plants, though the exact shape of the plan remains unsettled. 

The Department of Commerce says the total will reach 12 U.S. facilities, while an official told Bloomberg the eventual mix could be 10 fabrication plants and two packaging facilities, focused on 2 nanometer chips, TSMC's most advanced process commercially available today. 

That timing could hinge partly on how much U.S. capacity Apple itself ends up needing, since the company has been separately exploring Intel and Samsung as backup chipmakers to reduce its reliance on TSMC amid the ongoing global chip crunch. 

Apple is reported to have secured an exemption from a proposed 100% semiconductor tariff partly by pledging its own U.S. manufacturing investment and agreeing to buy chips from Intel.

TSM: for more on this story, see this link.

From the linked article:

The new $100 billion is expected to fund up to four more plants, though the exact shape of the plan remains unsettled. The Department of Commerce says the total will reach 12 U.S. facilities, while an official told Bloomberg the eventual mix could be 10 fabrication plants and two packaging facilities, focused on 2 nanometer chips, TSMC's most advanced process commercially available today.

That timing could hinge partly on how much U.S. capacity Apple itself ends up needing, since the company has been separately exploring Intel and Samsung as backup chipmakers to reduce its reliance on TSMC amid the ongoing global chip crunch. Apple is reported to have secured an exemption from a proposed 100% semiconductor tariff partly by pledging its own U.S. manufacturing investment and agreeing to buy chips from Intel.

PGA (golf): Open this week/weekend. Certainly not the days of Tiger Woods.

• Scheffler: tied, 13th. But certainly not out of it yet. But if he has a second day like today, he wil be out of it.
• DeChambeau: tied, 4th.
• Rory McIlroy: tied...... 104th. Are. you kidding me?

Mostly just observations and stories that interested me.

The market: acting very strange today. 

Some great buying opportunities, but market seemed to pivot around 1:30 p.m. ET -- influencers, traders just came back from 3-martini lunch. Wow, something in my portfolio really changed near the close -- to the upside -- very, very strange -- has to be AAPL or energy -- what's WTI doing now? Nope, WTI is still negative for the day. MPC? Great day. Ah, here it is. CVX. Again, for the family, not general readership. 

WTI: is down about 1%; now trading at $79. Why does this interest me?

• this comes on a day that Iran:
• says they aren't backing down; and,
• they have announced they're ready to get the Houthis involved to shut down other oil routes;
• as noted prior: the Mideast, currently, appears irrelevant to US investors
• what will move price of WTI?
• China; and,
• SPR.

Taxes: huge earners moving to no-income-tax states (TX, FL, TN)

• even if Governor Newsom gets his way for a national / federal "high-net-wealth-tax" (which won't happen for at least five years:
• states like California, New York, won't stop their programs;
• money going to the feds doesn't necessarily help individual states much;
• DOW/DOD; HHS; and debt will simply suck up all that extra income. 
• being reported in some mainstream media, not others.
• my link is being blocked by the host. Nothing new; that source has always been blocked.
• top Google link: Kiplinger, April 6, 2026; link here.
• so I asked Gemini for NYT links -- result:

TSM: another $100 billion for its chip-making plant in Arizona. Link here. 

TSM: profits soar. Link here. Shares dip.

Investing: for the family, not for general readership -- I pivoted from tech to health about a year ago.

• I still buy tech when opportunities are too good to ignore; but,
• I generally stick with ETFs with regard to health, and,
• I am tip-toeing into banks. 

IHE vs IYH: it seems IHE is preferable.

Again, for family only, not general readership: I have held LNG / utilities "forever" but am interested in increasing holdings for the grandchildren. 

Query: if investing in US LNG exports, suggestions? SRE, LNG, VG, ETFs?

Reply:

ETFs do pay dividends if their holdings pay dividends, and Schwab does indeed include ETF dividends in their quarterly investment income but it's pretty much based on historical payouts. 

 

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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.  

Thursday -- July 16, 2026

Locator: 51182B.

Apple: 

Apple:

This explains "Lulu's" recent rants about Trump and the Mideast:

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $80.08.

New wells reporting:

• Friday, July 17, 2026: 28 for the month, 28 for the quarter, 381 for the year, 
• 42446, conf, Petro-Hunt, Hoiby 158-94-4C-3-4H, 
• 22057, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 29-32 1H, 
• 22056, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 29-32 2H, 
• Thursday, July 16, 2026: 25 for the month, 25 for the quarter, 378 for the year, 
• 41697, conf, Hess, SC-Bingeman-154-98-0904H-9,

RBN Energy: will increased natural gas demand and new pipelines spur higher northeast output? Link here. Archived.

Demand for natural gas in the Northeast regional market and pipeline capacity out of Appalachia are expected to grow in the coming years as more coal plants retire and more data centers come online, but will production necessarily follow suit? Even if market conditions improve, it’s not a done deal. Operators in the region remain largely focused on capital discipline rather than chasing incremental volumes. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at which producers are best positioned to grow if conditions warrant.

Today’s blog is part of our broader Northeast natural gas series and marks a shift from pipelines and other infrastructure to producers and where growth might — or might not — show up. We’ve already taken an in‑depth look at new pipeline capacity and the potential impact of new data centers on the Northeast gas market, but we can’t promise a “Field of Dreams” outcome. Just because pipeline capacity is being added doesn’t mean significant new production will automatically follow. On paper, added pipeline capacity and rising demand could support more output, but there’s still plenty of market skepticism about whether producers will deviate from the current strategy to focus on growth. Appalachia has had several years of flat production growth averaging around 33 to 36 Bcf/d since 2020 for a number of reasons, with almost all their drilled wells in either northeastern Pennsylvania or the southwestern Pennsylvania/northern West Virginia/eastern Ohio area (see Figure 1 below). Capital discipline has been the dominant theme, as most producers have prioritized investor demands for free cash flow over growth for its own sake.