Equities and the Economy:

• U.S. stocks end mixed.
• Labor market tight.

It was a lackluster day yesterday with U.S stocks ending mixed. The Dow slipped 13 points to 21,397, the S&P 500 ended off a single digit at 2,435 while the Nasdaq bucked the trend closing up 3 points at 6,237. All chatter. Moving on, the Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report noting first time jobless claims rose last week to 241,000. The more important 4 week average rose by 1,500 to 244,750 and continuing claims rose 8,000. The most important data point is that continuing claims are down 9% on an annualized basis. The labor market is “tight.”

The other report was from the Conference Board with its “leading economic indicator” up 0.3%. Per the Board’s economist, the data “suggests the economy is likely to remain on, or perhaps moderately above, its long-term trend of about 2% growth for the remainder of the year.” As Martha Steward would say, “This is a good thing.”

This morning the chatter continues with the Dow down 23 while the S&P and Nasdaq are flat.

Oil

• Prices post marginal gains.
• Cindy shuts-in 17.2% of Gulf production.

Oil prices eked out gains yesterday with WTI settling up 21¢ at $42.74 and Brent adding 40¢ closing at $45.22. Not much of a bounce considering prices are down 30% from their recent peak.

Tropical Storm Cindy made its presence felt shutting in 17.2% of Gulf of Mexico oil production on Wednesday per the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Production is slowly returning with 16.5% of production shut-in yesterday. Cindy’s impact will be seen in next week’s DOE crude and products report on Wednesday. Speaking of the DOE, it reported this week that U.S. oil production is currently at 9.35 million bpd, up 8% from this time last year.

Not helping the bull’s, Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the largest fuel pipeline system, said yesterday that demand to transport gasoline to the Northeast was currently at a 6 year low because so much fuel is currently stored in the region.

This morning prices are pretty flat to yesterday’s close up 7¢.

Courtesy of MDA Information Systems LLC

Natural Gas

• Prices close flat.
• EIA storage report neutral.

The EIA released its closely followed weekly natural gas storage report yesterday noting 61 Bcf was injected in the ground last week. While this was marginally bearish being expectations were for a 57 Bcf injection, when compared to the 5 year average of 82 Bcf it was bullish. Traders took the report as neutral and prices moved little. The July Nymex contract closed up a totally meaningless 0.1¢ yesterday at $2.894. Storage levels are still 324 Bcf, 10.5%, below last year at this time.

NextEra Energy Inc., the company that owns Florida Power & Light and is trying to purchase the Texas electric delivery company Oncor (which serves north and west Texas) said yesterday it plans to grow its renewable generation to 40,000 MW’s by 2020. That’s a 100% increase from its current capacity. NextEra is the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy and is the largest generator of electricity from wind in Texas.

This morning natty is up 1.7 ¢.

Elsewhere

If you trade crypto-currencies you better watch your position every second! Literally. Ethereum, the second largest crypto-currency by volume next to Bitcoin, posted a stunning rise from $40 in mid-April to a recent peak of $350, that’s an 850% rise in about 2 months. On Wednesday in the span of less than 5 minutes, 5 minutes!, it lost 95% of its value! That my friends is the “flash crash” to end all flash crashes.

Here’s a quip to take you into the weekend. “It’s better to be over the hill than under it.”