Month: September 2017

In the first reported case of corporate blowback involving the ongoing Trump vs NFL feud, the WSJ reports that DirecTV is letting some angry customers cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds “if they cite players’ national anthem protests as the reason“, according to customer service representatives. While DirecTV’s regular Sunday Ticket policy doesn’t allow refunds once the season is under way, the representatives said they are making exceptions this season, which began in September, in response to the player’s growing protests, either kneeling or linking arms during the national anthem.

DirecTV service representatives contacted by The Wall Street Journal had different understandings of the policy. One said refunds to those concerned about the anthem protests were only offered to subscribers with certain offers or plans. One representative said full refunds were available for those who complained about anthem protests. Another said such people could only get prorated refunds for the remainder of the season.

While other representatives said the policy hadn’t changed and that no refunds were allowed for any reason, DirecTV subscribers contacted by the WSJ showed the satellite broadcaster was offering at least some refunds.

Marc Hoffman, a longtime subscriber to Sunday Ticket, which gives sports fans the ability to watch every Sunday game, said in an interview he was able to cancel his subscription and receive a refund on Monday. The package costs around $280 per season. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get a refund,” Mr. Hoffman said. “I know their guidelines, I just wanted to make a point.”

Chris Baker, who lives in Indiana, told the WSJ that he reluctantly canceled his Sunday Ticket subscription, but not precisely as a response to the protests. “I explained to them I was tired of politics in sports, and it’s not how I want to spend my Sunday, watching all that transpire,” he said he told a DirecTV representative. He said the representative “insinuated there was a high volume of calls calling in to cancel.”

The shift is the latest twist in a controversy that has divided the nation after President Donald Trump blasted players who took a knee during the anthem and said they should be fired. He has called on people to walk out of stadiums when players are kneeling.

To be sure, Trump added to the fire on Tuesday saying that “for people to disrespect that by kneeling during the playing of our national anthem, I think is disgraceful.”

While several teams have issued statements defending the rights of their players to express their opinion – and the NFL also has shown solidarity with them – the stakes are much higher, and go beyond just the political. As the WSJ reports, football draws the biggest TV audiences of American sports and is a vital income source for a host of major media companies. For DirecTV, Sunday Ticket is a major customer draw and one of the NFL’s premier franchises, earning it $1.5 billion a year in licensing revenue.

Aside from DirecTV, the NFL-owned channel RedZone, which provides live action and scoring from every game on Sundays, is also experiencing some cancellations due to the protests.

Chuck Plavk, a veteran who resides in Wisconsin, canceled his subscription to the channel from Charter Communications ’ Spectrum Cable. He said when he called, the customer service representative said, “everybody’s calling about that today.” Unlike Sunday Ticket, which is only available through DirecTV, RedZone is available through a number of cable providers and streaming outlets.

Needless to say, a spike in cancellations risk further damage to both viewership and revenues as the league tries to stem an ongoing decline in ratings. Viewership fell last year and, as Trump pointed out, continues to do so this year.

Network executives and league officials attributed last year’s declines in part to viewing competition from the presidential election, consumer distaste with the pace and quality of games.

And now, based on DirecTV’s announcement, one can add anthem protests to the list.

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In its latest exclusive ‘bombshell’ report, CNN has just announced that Special Counsel Mueller’s team is now working directly with the IRS to collect financial information on Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.  Of course, given that the FBI and Mueller raided Manafort’s home over two months ago and speculation of an imminent indictment has been circulating for days/weeks, it would seem like this wouldn’t be much of a surprise…but anything to keep the ‘Russian collusion’ headlines coming…

The IRS is now sharing information with special counsel Robert Mueller about key Trump campaign officials, after the two entities clashed this summer over both the scope of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and a raid on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s home, people briefed on the matter tell CNN.

 

After several months of being at odds, one source said, the IRS Criminal Investigation division is now sharing information about campaign associates, including Manafort and former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. The sharing happened after the two camps reached an agreement following consultation with officials at the Treasury Department.

 

A former high-level Justice Department official says the information shared would include anything tax return-related such as real estate and banking records. The former official added the IRS is very restricted in what information it can share under Title 26 US Code and would normally need a specific grand jury subpoena in order to share tax returns with another agency.

CNN also notes that the IRS elected not to participate in Mueller’s July Raid due to concerns that “the search would interfere with the separate IRS investigation of Manafort.”

CNN has learned that the IRS did not participate in the July raid by FBI agents in part because of IRS objections that the search would interfere with the separate IRS investigation of Manafort, according to people briefed on the investigations.

 

The special counsel’s office decided to proceed with the search on Manafort’s home with only FBI agents carrying it out, the sources said.

 

The absence of IRS criminal investigations agents for the raid is unusual for a probe that centers on tax and financial matters. As CNN has previously reported, during the raid the FBI collected tax and other financial documents from Manafort’s home, according to search warrant documents in the Manafort raid. The search warrant documents said the scope of the investigation includes possible crimes beginning January 1, 2006, a source told CNN.

Of course, the real question is whether Mueller has requested Trump’s tax returns from the IRS and what hurdles would be required to receive such information should he become convinced it were necessary. 

The new information about the depth of IRS involvement renews questions surrounding the controversial issue of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, which he refused to release during the campaign despite decades of precedent by presidential candidates.

 

It is not clear whether the special counsel has asked for or obtained Trump’s tax returns. Sources say if Mueller’s office does have Trump’s returns, then Rosenstein, who oversees the probe, likely would have needed to sign off, given the sensitivity surrounding the matter.

After that, the only other outstanding question is where to set the over-under on Manafort’s perp walk and whether or not it will result in what Mueller truly covets: dirt on Trump.

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After months of being pounded for her use of a private email server, and rightfully so given all of her mishandling of classified information and efforts to destroy government property with bleachbit and hammers in an apparent effort to evade FOIA laws, Hillary was apparently a little perturbed to learn the Jared Kushner and other White House officials in the Trump administration have also decided to use their private email accounts to conduct official business.  Per ABC:

“It’s just the height of hypocrisy,” Clinton said in an interview with SiriusXM’s Zerlina Maxwell after being asked to respond to the news on Monday.

 

As for the repeated attacks by Trump during the 2016 election over Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, “They didn’t mean any of it,” she said. “If they were sincere about it, I think you’d have Republican members of Congress calling for an investigation. I haven’t heard that yet.”

 

Clinton called her use of private emails “a dumb mistake but a dumber scandal,” and said she regrets that the country “had to go through it.”

 

Of course, Hillary does have a point here but to draw a comparison between her email scandal and Kushner seems a bit of stretch based on what we know so far.  As we pointed out a few days ago, even Politico acknowledged that Kushner only sent about 100 emails from his private account about innocuous topics and never mishandled classified information…something that Hillary’s team did with some regularity.

Politico reports that, in an ironic twist, Kushner continued to use a private email account that had been set up during the transition to communicate with fellow administration officials during Trump’s first nine months in office, even as Trump continued to bash his former rival’s mishandling of classified information on a private server during her time at the State Department.

 

While Politico places the implication of wrongdoing front and center in its story, it waits until lower down to provide a key piece of context from the White House communications department: “Kushner sent less than 100 emails from this account, and those that were sent consisted mostly of quips about news items and minor commentary.”

 

Liberals like to talk about the concept of false equivalence, especially in the context of how the media covered the Clinton email scandal vs. coverage of Trump’s more controversial pronouncements and business arrangements. That’s what this Kushner story appears to be. Judging by the description, it’s clear that Kushner didn’t rely on his private account to conduct public business, and only used it to send a handful of messages. More to the point, while he may have violated public-information guidelines, he did not improperly handle classified information.

Be that as it may, according to Sarah Sanders, all White House staff have since been instructed to use their government email accounts to conduct official business.

“All White House personnel have been instructed to use official email to conduct all government related work,” she said. “They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official email accounts.”

But don’t worry too much Hillary, we’re sure most of Jared’s emails were just about yoga and Kushner family weekend trips…

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Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

All twelve women who work at the “Show Malilo Night Club” brothel in Arauca, Colombia are from Venezuela. As Venezuela’s socialist economic crisis continues, many Venezuelan women have turned to the sex trade in neighboring Colombia to eat and provide for their families.

“We’ve got lots of teachers, some doctors, many professional women and one petroleum engineer,” brothel owner Gabriel Sánchez said of the women who sell their bodies for $25 an hour.  “All of them showed up with their degrees in hand.” 

Sanchez who is 60 years-old, started the brothel in Arauca, Colombia after he lost his job in a car repair shop in Venezuela thanks to the government’s socialist policies.

Sánchez and others in the sex industry say Venezuelans dominate the trade now because they’re willing to work for less pay.

“I would say 99 percent of the prostitutes in this town are Venezuelan,” he said. 

Amid food shortages, hyperinflation, rampant poverty driven by socialism, and U.S. sanctions, waves of economic refugees have fled the country. Those with the means to do so have gone to places like Miami, Santiago, and Panama. But those who are less fortunate, have had to sink low to simply eat.

A recent study suggested as many as 350,000 Venezuelans had entered Colombia in the last six years. With jobs scarce in the country though, many young (and some not so young) women are turning to the world’s oldest profession to make ends meet. According to the Miami Herald, prostituting for money to buy basic necessities has become commonplace for Venezuelan women.

“If you had told me four years ago that I would be here, doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you,” said Dayana, who asked that her last name not be used.

 

“But we’ve gone from crisis to crisis to crisis, and now look where we are.”

Dayana is a 30-year-old mother of four who found herself struggling to feed her family in Caracas.  Seven months ago, she came to Colombia looking for work. Without an employment permit, she found herself working as a prostitute in the capital, Bogotá.  Dayana said she used to be the manager of a food-processing plant on the outskirts of Caracas, but that job disappeared after the government seized the factory and “looted it,” she said.

With inflation running in excess of 700 percent and the bolivar currency in free fall, finding food and medicine in Venezuela has become a frustrating, time-consuming task. Dayana said she often would spend four to six hours waiting in line hoping to buy a bag of flour. Other times she was forced to buy food on the black market at exorbitant rates. Hunger in Venezuela is rampant. –The Miami Herald

Many in Venezuela didn’t prepare for the certain economic failure and food shortages that inevitably result from socialism. As The Prepper’s Blueprint says “If we have learned one thing studying the history of disasters, it is this: those who are prepared have a better chance at survival than those who are not. A crisis rarely stops with a triggering event. The aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life.” And Venezuela is in the midst of such a crisis.  This is made evident by the seeking of prostitution jobs by previously successful and professional women.

Dayana claims she can make between $50-$100 per night by selling herself for 20 minutes at a time.

 “Prostitution obviously isn’t a good job,” she said.

 

“But I’m thankful for it because it’s allowing me to buy food and support my family.”

There seems to be no end in sight for Venezuela’s economic pain either.  And President Nicolás Maduro has been digging in and avoiding the economic reforms that economists say are necessary.

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And just like that, Twitter became a mini blog, as its 140-character limit died today after a long battle with Facebook.

As Adage reports, Twitter is expanding its character limit on text posts to 280 characters from 140, starting with a subset of users. The company is describing the move as a test, but the writing is on the wall for this succinct art form. The company’s 140-character limit “is survived by brands, publishers and personalities, who will miss its insistence on wit and getting to the point.”

The move will likely also result in countless power users departing as the last thing they want is another Facebook-lite.

“Although we feel confident about our data and the positive impact this change will have, we want to try it out with a small group of people before we make a decision to launch to everyone,” the company said in a blog post Tuesday.

“What matters most is that this works for our community—we will be collecting data and gathering feedback along the way. We’re hoping fewer Tweets run into the character limit, which should make it easier for everyone to Tweet.”

Not everyone will be included in the dramatic overhaul: Twitter is not extending the new limit of 280 character to Japan, China or Korea, because those languages do more with fewer characters, the company said in its blog post. English, French, Portuguese and Spanish were included in the change.

Even though Twitter has been hinting at the change for more than a year, it is rolling out the longer limit slowly for fear of alienating its most hardcore users. It is unclear just how the slow rollout will prevent said hardcore users from realizing what comes next.

“140 characters isn’t any easy construct, but that’s exactly why I love it,” says Jill Sherman, head of social strategy at DigitasLBi. “People and brands are forced to stop and think about what they really want to say. And it makes the feed pithy and easily scannable. I’ll definitely miss it.”

To be sure, the constraint became a defining brand for Twitter, forcing its users to condense their thoughts into only the most essential words. Twitter users developed a text message-like shorthand that became its own language—”you are” became “u r”—and, more significantly, big ideas were often reduced to hashtags. And it made equals of everyone, in a way: From the greatest wordsmiths to the leader of the free world to the casual user, everybody shared the struggle of editing their thoughts down to their sharpest point.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet,” Aliza Rosen, Twitter product manager, and Ikuhiro Ihara, senior software engineer, said in the blog post. “We’ve all been there, and it’s a pain.”

 

Research shows the character limit is a “major source of frustration,” according to the post, with 9 percent of tweets in English running up against it. In markets where the limit is less of a problem, more people tweet, the company says.

 

“We understand since many of you have been Tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters. we felt it, too,” the post reads. “But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint.”

However, as Adage notes, in the end, the 140-character limit symbolized a problem for Twitter: “It made it harder to get people to tweet, especially if they weren’t used to it. For many, it could be the difference between becoming a new user and giving up immediately. After all, what can you possibly say in just 140 characters?”

The new limit gives more space to breathe, let thoughts expand, and possibly lower the difficulty level for anyone new to the service.

In short, it makes Twitter… Facebook. 

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Two months after S&P downgraded the state capital of Connecticut, Hartford, to junk, when it cuts its bond rating from BB+ to BB- citing growing liquidity pressures and weaker market access, the city which has been rumored is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection and which has seen an exodus of corporations and businesses in recent months, just got more bad news when S&P downgraded it by a whopping 4 notches deeper into junk territory, from BB- to CC, stating that “a default, a distressed exchange, or redemption appears to be a virtual certainty.”

“The downgrade to ‘CC’ reflects our opinion that a default, a distressed exchange, or redemption appears to be a virtual certainty,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Victor Medeiros.

The rating agency also warned that it could take additional action to lower the rating to ‘Default’ if the city executes a bond restructuring or distressed exchange, or files for bankruptcy.

In our view, the potential for a bond restructuring or distressed exchange offering has solidified with the news that both bond insurers are open to supporting such a measure in an effort to head off a bankruptcy filing. Under our criteria, we would consider any distressed offer where the investor receives less value than the promise of the original securities to be tantamount to a default.

In short: while Chicago has so far dodged the bullet, the capital of America’s richest state (on a per capita basis), will – according to S&P – be also the first to default in the coming months.

Full S&P note below:

Hartford, CT GO Debt Rating Lowered Four Notches To ‘CC’ On Likely Default

 

S&P Global Ratings has lowered its rating four notches to ‘CC’ from ‘B-‘ on Hartford, Conn.’s general obligation (GO) bonds and Hartford Stadium Authority’s lease revenue bonds. The ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on May 15, 2017. At this rating level and due to the characteristics of the city’s appropriation-supported debt, we believe its appropriation and GO debt share similar risk and have therefore made no notching distinction. We could differentiate the GO and appropriation ratings again in the future based on our view of their relative vulnerability to nonpayment.

 

“The downgrade to ‘CC’ reflects our opinion that a default, a distressed exchange, or redemption appears to be a virtual certainty,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Victor Medeiros.

S&P Global Ratings could take additional action to lower the rating to ‘D’ if the city executes a bond restructuring or distressed exchange, or files for bankruptcy. In our view, the potential for a bond restructuring or distressed exchange offering has solidified with the news that both bond insurers are open to supporting such a measure in an effort to head off a bankruptcy filing. Under our criteria, we would consider any distressed offer where the investor receives less value than the promise of the original securities to be tantamount to a default. The mayor’s public statement citing the need to restructure even if the state budget provides necessary short-term funds further supports our view that a restructuring is a virtual certainty. In our view, the city is vulnerable to payment interruptions due to its near-term liquidity crisis. The downgrade also considers the ongoing state impasse in adopting a budget and providing the necessary liquidity support for the city in a timely manner to avoid a payment disruption. The downgrade reflects the likelihood that there will not be any agreement on a bipartisan budget before Oct. 1, when planned municipal cuts are scheduled to take effect.  

 

The state of Connecticut is facing its own fiscal challenges, entering the fiscal year without an enacted budget. With no budget resolution in place, the governor recently revised an executive order designed to keep the government operating in balance for the fiscal year. To eliminate the state’s 2018 projected deficit, the governor reduced total aid to municipalities by a significant amount; Hartford would stand to lose about $49 million in payments in lieu of taxes and municipal revenue sharing grant payments it otherwise would receive in October. The city’s is scheduled to repay short-term tax anticipation notes (TANs) on Oct. 31, and has the next debt service payment scheduled for Nov. 15.

 

Although we do not see a bankruptcy filing by the city as likely, should a debt exchange proceed, given the state budgetary impasse, and the uncertainty surrounding any exchange offer, the risk of a bankruptcy filing remains as city officials have publicly indicated they are actively considering bankruptcy. The fact that the city hired a bankruptcy attorney in July 2017 lends credence to the idea that bankruptcy is potentially on the table. On Sept. 25, the city met with bondholders to discuss future repayment options. Such a meeting, regardless of the outcome, indicates a public desire to adjust debts and to have met with creditors; both of which are elements of eligibility to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Although state law still requires approval from the governor, and consent from the treasurer and general assembly, this action heightens the likelihood that Hartford will formally begin that process.

 

Hartford’s budgetary performance has been weak for several years, and the management environment remains constrained due to a structurally imbalanced budget with no credible corrective plan. The city’s fiscal 2017 general fund balance is projected to close with a negative balance of $9.9 million on a generally accepted accounting principles basis, or about 1.8% of general fund expenditures. Hartford’s adopted fiscal 2018 (fiscal year-end June 30) budget totals $612 million, an increase of roughly 10.8% from the previous year. Despite a 3% increase in general fund revenues, the budget gap remains sizable at $49.6 million, or about 8% of budgeted expenditures. Beyond the current fiscal year, Hartford faces significant fiscal challenges with rising fixed costs and limited revenue-raising ability. Based on its projected budget, the gap expected for fiscal 2019 is in excess of $49 million (more than 8% of estimated expenditures) and increases to more than $69 million by 2021.  

 

Along with the operational challenges mentioned, the city’s weak budgetary performance has severely eroded liquidity. The decline in cash resulted in Hartford having to issue TANs in fiscal 2017 to cover operating expenditures through October in anticipation of property taxes and state revenues (a period which crosses fiscal years).

 

S&P Global Ratings expects to resolve its CreditWatch action on the long-term rating within 90 days. We believe there is a one-in-two likelihood of another downgrade if the city were to file for bankruptcy or pursue a restructuring that offers bondholders less than the original promise of the bonds. Although unlikely, if timely budget adoption translates into stabilized liquidity, no exchange occurs, and a credible plan toward long-term structural support is identified, we could remove the ratings from CreditWatch. Over time, upward rating movement will depend on the city’s ability to achieve and sustain structural balance.

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Content originally published at Dystopia, USA.

Public statues have become society’s great sorter of souls.

We can divine our nation’s modern character merely by how these testaments to the trials of mankind are commissioned, built, and perceived by each of us.

It is first revelatory of the sculptor’s beliefs. Done right, he will have imbued his creation by drawing from only the most important or inspirational images in his mind. This passion for his subject sustains him during the endless hours agonizing over every detail. It is not an intellectual endeavor, but rather one of thymos.

The beholder’s reaction to it is likewise both visceral and revealing:

To the admirer, the statue serves as an affirmation of his heritage or the embodiment of the deepest personal virtues that are dearest to his heart.

To the blase masses – those drones and ciphers who will brush past it as if it were no more than an oversized, bronze paperweight – it signifies nothing because they themselves are nothing.

But to a segment of the propagandized haters of history on the left, the rich complexity of our past is an affront; the Church of Modern Leftism has declared the statues dedicated to the heroes of Western Man excommunicate and anathema, almost as if they were wrought by Satan himself.

Here one must give leftists their due for they have the courage of their insane convictions. They seek to destroy whatever undermines their foolish worldview.

I’m not entirely unsympathetic to such fervency.

Say, for instance, a dedicated Christian were come face to face with a public statue of Moloch where once a beautiful manger scene resided. Would he not become so incensed to the point where he might gather some friends and tear it down?

So it is for the radical leftist. But it is the targets of their political rage, not the act of destruction itself, that is the most revealing. For they take umbrage with traditional Western civilization itself.

And so the offending statues must go. Amongst the bronzed quarry in this deranged historical foxhunt:

• The removal of Christian crosses in public has long been a cause celebre of the hard left because many are revolted by our faith. Public displays of religiosity have become so verboten by the commissars of culture that Christians, in acts of either total cowardice or full-on Stockholm Syndrome, have taken to removing (unbidden, mind you) the most profound of devotional icons.

• After Charlottesville, President Trump practically double dog dared the radicals to out themselves by asking if Washington and Jefferson would be next on the agenda. The bait was consumed very quickly. The irony that the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution which grants them the right to their lunatic dissent is indeed lost on them.

But nowhere is this exemplified better than in the recent battles over Confederate monuments, Robert E. Lee most especially.

Those who want ol’ Bobby removed are completely unwilling – or unable – to understand that a man is best judged by the context of time, place, and totality of character.

Just ask a Southerner. Most will tell you the reason they revere General Lee and the Stars and Bars has nothing at all to do with the political issues that caused the Civil War. Pride in ancestry, love for the homeland, and their esteem for a man who led their forefathers in an underdog’s war are reasons much closer to the mark.

Lee’s nobility in fighting for a lost cause was the more lovely because he thought secession foolish. Yet he wearyingly assumed the yoke of leadership because of his bond to his fellow Virginians, thus becoming the exemplar of the saying, “My country, right or wrong.” One can reasonably disagree intellectually with such blind devotion to blood and soil over principle, but anyone unable to admire his self-sacrifice is only half a human being. By ignoring context and retroactively assigning false motives to a man like Lee, his denouncers show an extreme willingness to desecrate truth. They become, in a way, history’s graveside ghouls.

[Those in Dixie particularly don’t want to hear criticism of such a towering historical figure by the paid, carpetbagging dupes, who, unable to discern their own philosophical ends, unwittingly work towards the enslavement of mankind via the primacy of the state. Whether it is outright slavery or indentured servitude to the corporate cronies in league with government, maltreatment is maltreatment. What does it really matter whether the whip is held by Simon Legree or George Soros? Down south, such delusion gets you called an idjit.]

Unchecked by thinking adults, the left-wing won’t stop with monuments. “Offensive” movies and books will be next.

If conscripted soldiers doing their job is the new threshold for historical transgressions against the sensibilities of radical leftists, then how long until every copy of “Das Boot” is destroyed because it dared to dramatize mostly apolitical German men bravely risking a horrifying death for their fellow countrymen?

Since the left cannot reconcile that people are a product of the age in which they live, when will they halt school plays of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice for its less than flattering portrayal of Shylock?

Or if the threshold is not being multicultural enough, how long until they ban the works of the homogeneous peoples of Japan or Israel?

To the heavily-propagandized, personal traits are always subordinate to the cold political viewpoints instilled in them through repetitive lies told by powerful men with self-serving agendas. The riled mob (whether extreme left or right) is most dangerous when the scapegoat du jour gets dehumanized. The masses prefer their villains long dead or constructed of plaster because they can’t talk back. One can choose to fill this silent void with inadequacy and simplemindedness. Or one can choose to do so by remembering the artist’s subject as once having lived as a three-dimensional person making his way through life the best he could. The same as any of us.

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WTI is hovering around $52 as all eyes are watching API’s data to gain inisght into how fast refiners are coming back on line. The previous week saw the trend of crude builds and product draws continue but last week crude actually drew down (against expectations of a build), gasoline built (against expectations of a draw and Cushing stocks rose most in 6 months.

 

API

• Crude -761k (+3.1mm exp)
• Cushing +1.064mm – biggest build in 6 months
• Gasoline +1.47mm (-750k exp) – biggest build in 7 weeks
• Distillates -4.527mm

As US refinery outages continue to fall so it appears we are starting to normalize post-Harvey with Crude drawing and gasoline building…notably, biggest Cushing build in 6 months

 

WTI was hovering just below $52 ahead of API and kneejerked above $52 on the print, RBOB faded lower…

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