Yuch for equities.
Yuch for the banks’ loans to oil companies. Too many bad ones.
Yuch for the British pound and the Euro. Think about a vacation there this summer. Cheap.
Oil drops more. Saudi is trying to bankrupt U.S. oil producers. Its “brilliant” strategy will backfire. (Please.)
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister says there won’t be a production cut. According to the FT, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston that an oil production cut in Saudi Arabia was “not going to happen.” Al-Naimi suggested that there was less trust among nations than usual and that a country might say it’s cutting production but fail to do so. Crude oil is down 3.6% at $30.72 a barrel.
Gold is bouncing a little:
Not my preferred gamble.
The banks are under pressure.
From BusinessInsider this morning:
During JPMorgan’s investor day, Daniel Pinto, CEO of JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank, said investment-banking revenue could plunge 25% in the first quarter. That’s not the only area he thinks will take a hit. According to Pinto, markets revenue is down 20% year-over-year. Pinto did note that YoY numbers were tough to compare because there was an influx of flows last year after the Swiss National Bank removed the euro/franc floor.
Shorting banks is not my trade, though I’m tempted. I can’t get a clear read on where they’re going, except it doesn’t look for them. I don’t want to own any of them.
And BHP, the world’s biggest miner, is crashing:
BHP has a remarkably large exposure to oil. Click here.
I know what not to own. I’m not sure what to own. Short-term bond fund BSV is up. VZ is down.
My friend is making money day trading a handful of solid stocks that portend a sine wave.
LEDs revisited.
+ Some friends argue you may never recoup the higher cost of LEDs bulbs with savings in electricity. Depends on how long you run them. Those friends have stocked up on incandescents.
+ Lumens, not wattage or “wattage equivalent,” will tell you how much light you’ll get out of them. Much less often than an incandescent.
+ Also important: color of light given out. It’s measured in Kelvin. Daylight is 5,000. That’s cool, bright crisp white. Good to tell what your clothes may look outside. An incandescent bulb is 2,700 degrees Kelvin. You want warm lighting inside. Go with a bulb close to 2,700.
WAZE is my favorite navigation app. It’s better than anything that comes in a car. It’s better than Google maps, Apple maps, etc. It tells me where police are likely to be. It tells me about traffic and re-routes me if things get snarly. It works splendidly on my iPhone. And, best it’s free.
Here’s a long piece that Men’s Journal just published on “The App That Changed Driving.” Click here: WAZE
Things are so bad for Silicon Valley startups. That one startup, called Zenefits had to ban sex in its stairwells.
I don’t make this stuff up. Read Vanity Fair’s piece here.
Three favorite New Yorker cartoons this week.
Harry Newton, who has no answers this morning, except to eat less, exercise more and never do surgery until you’ve checked many surgeons and found the absolute best.
Harry, I am not 100% sure but I believe that Google bought Waze a year or two ago, but have not integrated it into their own product (yet)
Indeed.. it happened in 2013. IF you switch between the two services at any given moment on any given road you see that they share road information. Waze is cuter with its social stuff, but Google maps is showing you the same information in a less cute / less interactive format.
I’m on Long Island and there is a clear savings switching to LED bulbs, even from CFL bulbs. The saving from incandescent should be huge. My KW hour cost averaged 19 cents in 2015 and I switched all the CFL bulbs in my 3 bedroom house to LED, purchased from Costco February 2015 for a total cost of about $475. I saved 1,000 KW Hours over the last year worth $190. I’ll break even in 2.5 years, maybe a few months longer if the KW cost continues to drop since Long Island mainly uses natural gas electric turbines.
I’ll also save on the replacement cost of the bulbs since CFL burn out in a few years and LED should last over 20 years, none of my LED’s have failed in the first year. CFL take a minute to fully light up, LED are instant on and generate no heat. Tell your friends its time they ditched the 137 year old incandescent bulb technology.
Also consider using Nest thermostats. I upgraded my four zone heating system to Nest thermostats and even using a similar 7 day schedule from my prior 7 day programmable Honeywell thermostats the Nest appears to regulate the furnace more efficiently reducing the natural gas used in my furnace on peak winter heating months. The break even is long, 5 to7 years, but the technology is great and reducing your energy usage helps in a small way with the worlds climate change.
Good “Short Course” on LEDs here…
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/five-things-to-consider-before-buying-led-bulbs/
Remember to check about using ceiling fixtures with insulated ceilings