East Coasters were lucky enough to get a full moon on Friday the 13th, which has not happened since October 13, 2000, and won’t happen again until August 13, 2049. That’s quite a ways off. A full moon in September is also called a harvest moon, meaning it’s the full moon nearest to September 23, the autumnal equinox. We know, we’re full of facts.
We’re also anxious to see what happens to oil prices, following the attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq processing facility, one of the most important pieces of oil infrastructure on the planet, impacting 5.7 million barrels a day of output, or roughly half their production. Stay tuned.
Now for this week’s jolt.
Why so crude? Crude oil prices fell last week but rose sharply on Monday, trading near $63 a barrel. Investors reacted bullishly to news out of Saudi Arabia that key oil production facilities in the country had been targeted in missile attacks. The attacks disrupted some 5.7 million barrels per day of supply and created further concerns that tensions would escalate in the Middle East. President Trump indicated that the U.S. was prepared to retaliate pending confirmation from Saudi Arabia that Iranian weapons were used in the strike. The Baker Hughes oil rig count fell again last week, going from 738 to 733 and indicating decreased domestic production.
Abundance! This year has been another challenging one for America’s natural gas producers. They’ve discovered so much low-cost gas that they’ve unleashed a torrent of new production in recent years, which has pushed down prices. While those lower prices have spurred new demand, output in the country continues to outpace consumption. – The Motley Fool
Static, Explained! A new model shows how rubbing two objects together creates static electricity, the answer to a mystery that has confounded scientists for more than 2,500 years. – Futurity
Did you know that if FAMGA vanished, “nearly all of your electronic devices would either stop working or would disappear, the internet would become nothing short of mass chaos, nearly all e-commerce activity would halt, and your undying thirst to watch cat videos would forever go unquenched.”