A Crazy, Crazy World -- July 28, 2026

Locator: 51281INVESTING.
Pageviews: 69,5235,759; 2000, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

 AAPL:

Compare AAPL and NVDA at one-year and five-years. Absolutely crazy.

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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.  

 

Five New Permits, Two Permits Renewed --- Iran Launching Missiles At American Base In Jordon -- What's This About Iran Talking Peace -- Trump Taken Advantage Of Again -- On The Day Of Lindsey's Funeral -- July 26, 2026

Locator: 51280B.
Pageviews: 69,525,889; 1900, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

Updates

Later, 5:53 p.m. PT: with all due respect, sir, how many times have we heard this ...

Original Post 

This page has been severely truncated! Way too much happening after dark. I will have to get back to it as I have time. At the same time, I've looked at the SK Hynix story. Jim Cramer was exactly right but that doesn't help serious investors. Cramer et al were acting like panicky traders. And, of course that followed "the Google report" which, of course, was completely misread by investors. SK Hynix: 

On another note: it is very, very possible that Iran has crossed a major line -- striking American military bases in Jordan during a period of-agreed peace, and on a very solemn day when perhaps Trump's most important political ally, Senator Lindsey Graham was laid to rest. And also on a day that Bibi was in town talking to TACO. Maybe I'm over-reacting but right now but the US oil markets don't seem to have misunderstood what this just met.

Market: wow, what a day! Dow pops 600 points; NASDAQ very volatile. BRK-B had a huge day. I will explain this later. It's the same thing I do, but instead of BRK-B, I park my money in SCHD, SCHG, or SCHB. Lately, I've had another, IHE. 

 

Just a couple of many, many examples today.

Tell Jim Cramer: my favorite external disk drives are Seagate disk drives. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $79.07. Has the bleeding stopped? [Yes, late this even oil prices surged.]

Active rigs: 34.

Five new permits, #43160 - #43164, inclusive --

• Operators: EOG (4); White Rock Oil & Gas
• Fields: Alger (Mountrail County); Wildcat (McKenzie County)
• Comments:
• White Rock has a permit for a wildcat, NWNE 17-146-99, 
• to be sited 305FNL and 2121 FEL;
• EOG has permits for two Cottonwood wells and two Alger wells, lot 3, section 6-156-92, 
• to be sited 399 / 466 FNL and 1702 / 1836 FWL.

Two permits renewed:

• Devon Energy; two Clifford Bakke permits in Alger oil field. 

Solid Absorbents To Remove Sulfur Will First Be Used In The Bakken -- July 12, 2026.

Locator: 51279SULFUR.
Pageviews: 69,488,823 -- 12:13 p.m., Tuesday, July 28, 2026.  

Query: removing sulfur from sour shale oil. Where will solid absorbents be used first -- the Bakken or the Permian? 

Reply: 

War's Back On -- Iran Must Have Had Time To Re-Arm, Prepare, Re-Position -- Has Just Announced Strait Is Closed Again To The US And Its Allies -- July 28, 2026

Locator: 51278HORMUZ. 
Pageviews: 69,470,171 -- 10:08 a.m., Tuesday, July 28, 2026.  

Updates

Later, 12:16 p.m. CT: Yemeni Houthis have just announced new ballistic missiles on Saudi vessels; and Iran has said "talks" with Oman have concluded. It sounds like nothing was announced with regard to opening the strait. We'll see if Trump deserves his "TACO" moniker. 

Original Post 

War announcement posted at x at ~ 8:09 a.m. CT, today. 

In anticipation of "Bibi's" visit: 

However, other notes over at x suggest Iran is finding ways of staying the course, but dragging negotiations on. WTI is now trading at $79. 

Amazing how two ...

Well, let me put it this, if Iran is not  de-weaponized, de-clawed, de-fanged, there will never be any guaratee that Iran won't come back five years from now, and a) re-take the strait; and, b) strike Israel pre-emptively. 

META's El Paso Site Has Increased In Development Costs? July 28, 2026

Locator: 51209TSMC. 
Pageviews: 69,469,308 -- 9:56 a.m., Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

Updates

July 28, 2026: link here. This project now up to $14 billion.

Meta Platforms and the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock , on Tuesday announced a venture to develop and operate a data center campus in El Paso, Texas, a project that would cost about $14 billion in development.

The race to build out AI infrastructure has prompted tech giants to turn to debt sales worth tens of billions of dollars or seek external capital from fund managers such as BlackRock due to an unprecedented scale of investment.

Meta said BlackRock-managed funds will take an 80% ownership stake in the venture, with Meta retaining the remaining 20%. A portion of BlackRock’s investment will be financed through $12.5 billion in debt. Meta will also receive a $1 billion distribution to align ownership.

Meta will contribute land and in-progress construction assets worth about $2.3 billion, while BlackRock will make a cash contribution of about $4.9 billion, the company said.

The Facebook-parent earlier said it was building an over $10 billion data center project in El Paso, near the Texas-New Mexico border, among 28 data centers it has in either operation or under construction in the U.S.

Original Post 

I just posted a link to a WSJ article about Meta -- BlackRock -- El Paso and a $12-billion LDC. I didn't like the post because I didn't think I explained what I was thinking well enough. I was trying to articulate the amount of money being spent on all this tech. I just can't get my head around it. 

Just after posting that article, I got this article from a reader -- thank you -- and the link -- again, the amount of money is incomprehensible. I'll leave it there. Look at how this project in Phoenix has grown in just a few years.  I think this has been posted previously from a different source. But it's nice to see it again.

 

Again, in case you missed the link from above, here's the link so you can see the rest of the article: https://www.orionprop.com/topfive/phoenix-mayor-says-tsmcs-265-billion-investment-is-historic-on-multiple-levels/.