Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
lj: "Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 9.6 million barrels last week." Not too terrible if people are not driving less.. But, with milder temperatures this week, I don't think people are staying home.
People in this area are out and about. I am noticing more new hybrid vehicles on the road. I will opine that by 2030, 40-50 percent of new vehicle sales will be hybrid models.
NYBob: Right now, Bob, Trump is trying save himself, much less the world.
lj: The decline in floating crude is interesting. When WWIII breaks out in the Middle East, there is going to be a whole lotta oil stuck in the region, imo. Russia will laugh all the way to the bank.
lj: VLO
I owe U an apology. My options guy sold the $145, not the $135.
Missed out on XOM this go round.
al44: Paper ballots, limited mail in ballots. End of discussion. I think the next election will be manipulated. Look what they did to Kari Lake in Arizona. Ballots allegedly were printed on paper that was too large for the scanners.
lj: My options guy sold the VLO Feb. $135 call today. He is usually very successful with VLO. His track record last year was something like 29 out of 30 options plays in VLO.
lj: How shall I put this? Hmm?
NATO stinks on ice. If reelected, I'm hoping Trump pulls the U.S. out of NATO and runs them out of NY.
lj: Unbelievable. A talking head on CNBC today said that drop in ngas price seems very unusual.
lj: If I were a company that has shelled out big bucks for a Super Bowl ad, I would want the ad to run in the first half of the game. There may be far fewer viewers after the half-time show. At the end of the game, though, the Swiftys will all be watching to see her come out on the field to play smoochie face with her cave man.
lj: Saw 87 octane for $2.85 at a station that is having a price war with a station that opened across the road.
lj: The 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, won't fly. He didn't participate in an insurrection.
Biden admits Trump won the 2020 election!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13015939/joe-biden-donald-trump-speech-president-south-carolina.html LOL!!!
lj: OT
The average household mutt would eat cicadas until they burst. I wish they would eat the Mimosa tree next door! The cicadas, not the dogs.
lj: Early days. We need to watch the earnings reports and contract announcements this year. The whole thing could be a fraud. U never know.
lj: VLO
Something I read earlier today. Valero's refineries will be running at only 82 percent of full capacity, give or take a percent or so, in Q1. They were running at a rate of about 93 percent, give or take, in Q4 2023. They do the maintenance or whatever to switch over to the summer blend. If Marathon and Phillips do the same thing--produce at a dramatically lower rate, I'm thinking $3.50 a gallon average price for 87 octane. The crack spread is looking good for Q1. (Speaking of which, I saw this guy in Baltimore yesterday. . . . If I had a good camera, I would take pics and produce a wall calendar at the end of the year--Baltimore Butt Cracks. Seriously, I think it would sell.)
lj: OT
I didn't see the weather forecast until after I read your post.
The Ravens fans cannot catch a break on the weather this playoff season.
I see Mahonnes' daddy doesn't want to sit in the same box as Taylor and her boyfriend's brother.
Read today that ticket prices are as high as $2K. People who would pay that haven't seen the weather forecast!
lj: VLO
Speaking of dividends, they announced a rise in the dividend. That is the good news. The bad news is that their earnings were not good, imo: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/valero-vlo-beats-q4-earnings-161900789.html
I'm thinking it is time for this investor to consider selling the stock. The dividend yield is okay, not spectacular.
lj: Well, the refiners aren't pricing petrol as though they are going to need to move the product.
lj: Speaking of contracts, VTLE's are still making management look smart. I bought AMD, and it was a disaster stock this week, after they suspended the CFO. Not a good scene. However, the stock pays a decent dividend, so waiting for a recovery in price, even if takes a year or more, isn't too unpalatable. VTLE, on the other hand. . . . (You have to admit, I haven't aired that gripe in a while!)
lj: Now that I think about it, I have cut back on my grocery purchases this month. And, I returned something I bought from a TV shopping channel. As long as people cannot afford the minimum payment on their credit cards, the economy will muddle along.
lj: Lower oil prices hurt Iran and Russia. Yeah! They help world economies, and they make us money if we buy the right double reverse ETF at the right time. Easier said than done.
lj: Trump saw a a $7T rise in the debt (a) because his Administration had to rebuilding the run-down military; and (2) the Government had to spend a ton of money to prevent COVID from collapsing the U.S. economy. Your girl wants to raise the SS retirement age to 70. Even if she wins in S.C., which I doubt that she will, she will be toast after "Super Tuesday".
littlejohn: If ngas goes to $2 mcf, it won't make my blood BOIL because it should have a beneficial effect on my home heating bill down the road. The lower the better.
lj: Netflix reported a good number because they cracked down on passcode sharing.
lj: I hope they stay the court on interest rates. The lower it goes, the better Biden's odds in November.
al44: If it looks as though more than 10 percent of the black vote would go to Trump, they will spring her on everyone at the convention. What to do about Biden? Spread the false rumor to Hillary that he hated the Barbie movie!
al44: Another great one from BB!
al44: The Dems are rolling out the abortion issue. Biden plans to make it a big topic at the State of the Union in March. He has invited a Texas woman who was carrying a baby with a horrific chromosome defect. She got an abortion in another State. This kind of thing is going to lose the election for Republicans if they don't come up with a plan. Banning all abortions is not going to fly with the general electorate. I believe the vast majority of people in the U.S. do NOT want all abortions banned.
Deleted messasge.
lj: BOIL
Didn't check the market this afternoon. BOIL popped over $2. If it drops in the $23's again, I am going to load up the truck (a small-bed pickup!, not an 18-wheeler!)
lj: Hope things work out with ERX. If they are fracking as usual in Tejas, not good for ngas and BOIL, I guess.
I notice that XOM didn't hit $95. Got stuck between $96 and $97. Might get another opportunity.
Gmenfan: I give it a perfect 10!
lj: OT
Trump v. Haley
MAGA versus country-club Republicans
It is a war for control of the party.
Today's news: The head of the Arizona Republican Party allegedly offered Kari Lake a bribe if she would pull out of the Arizona U.S. Senate race. He has resigned, claiming he was set up. Set up or not, if he offered her a bribe, he is the poster boy for what MAGA is fighting, and is up against.
If whoever the Dems run in November wins, and they take Congress, too, there will be no oil industry. Finis.
If pro-illegal immigration one-world order Nikki were President, same result.
lj: The fix was in. Independents registered as Republicans to defeat Trump. Well, it didn't work, did it.
lj: You greatly underestimate the MAGA movement. Nikki Haley is toast.
lj: The weather has turned mild, so, for now, ngas demand will decrease. Driving should be about the same as it was last year at this time. Heard on TV that airline bookings are excellent. That is bullish for oil. Peak cruise season. People don't peddle their bikes to the point of embarkation. They fly. Lots of people will be driving to M&T Stadium in downtown Baltimore on Sunday to see Taylor Swift, errr, I mean Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.
lj: Birdbrain won the vote at midnight in Hickory Dickory Dock, or Grinder's Hollow, or whatever it is call in far north N.H. I heard on TV that there were only 6 votes. The place is in the back of beyond. Means nothing.
If Trump loses, it will be meaningless. An estimated 5K people have switched their party affiliation, and I think many of them will vote for icky Nikki. Liberals have flocked to southeast N.H. from Massachusetts.
IMO, the big showdown will be South Carolina. Newly engaged Tim Scott has endorsed Trump.
There are a lot of MAGA people in S.C. It should be interesting.
What I find extremely interesting is Biden not being on the ballot. Are the same rotten apples who sabotaged Bernie doing the same to Old White Joe? The idea that Biden would run again is sick.
al44: Good message, al44. All true.
al44: At least Johnson said they are going back to their home countries. However, he is a weak sister. He should have told the Biden criminals point blank that the Government will be shut down and there will zero appropriated for the Dept. of Homeland Security until the border is closed.
Mike Gaetz would have kicked Biden's rearend.
Speaker Johnson is talking to people who are doing this deliberately. If he cannot go evil on them, he should resign his speakership and let someone who can get the job done be Speaker.
If would NEVER happen, but would I ever love having MJG as Speaker.