Oil Prices and the 'Crack Spread'

The ‘Crack Spread’ Is Going to Make Your Life Unpleasant
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/opinion/gas-prices-crude-oil-diesel.html
Focusing on the price of crude is misleading, a bit like following the price of wheat when it’s bread that you’re actually buying. The gauge to watch is what’s called the crack spread — the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude and the prices of the refined products made from it. If you want to drill down, it’s often referred to as the 3-2-1 spread, which calculates prices when three barrels of crude are refined into two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of diesel, a typical ratio. (Cracking is the process of breaking large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones, which is what a refinery does.) 

Florida's Housing Market

Florida’s housing market goes into meltdown
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/09/02/floridas-housing-market-goes-into-meltdown/ 

August Jobs Report

August Jobs Report
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf 

The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, more than double expectations
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/04/economy/us-jobs-report-august
 
August's blowout jobs report was good news for blue-collar workers, while white-collar professionals fell behind
https://www.businessinsider.com/job-growth-losses-august-industries-labor-market-2026-9

The biggest August jobs beat in nearly 30 years may be less impressive than it looks

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/the-biggest-august-jobs-beat-in-nearly-30-years-may-be-less-impressive-than-it-looks-chart-of-the-day-114716694.html/

 

American Workers Have Slammed the Brakes on Switching Jobs

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/american-workers-have-slammed-the-brakes-on-switching-jobs-767c45d1

The country is adding about 80,000 jobs a month, an improvement from last year, but workers are still wary of job hopping.

Related:

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/august-jobs-report-unemployment-c9da2f0c

https://www.businessinsider.com/job-market-long-term-unemployment-hiring-slowdown-looking-for-work-2026-9

Climate Change - Past the Tipping Point?

The world may have less time than it thinks on climate change
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/08/30/the-world-may-have-less-time-than-it-thinks-on-climate-change
If it is affecting circulation patterns that determine how and where anticyclones form, it could accelerate alarmingly, warns Tim Palmer. 

Norwegian SWF to Sell Treasuries

Norway’s Massive Oil Fund Proposes Selling Roughly $80 Billion in U.S. Treasurys
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/norways-oil-fund-proposes-cut-to-government-bond-holdings-d930893f
The manager of the $2.4 trillion sovereign-wealth fund recommended adding riskier debt in a bid to seek greater returns. 

Deciphering the State of the US Labor Market

Labor Market Mysteries
https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/market-insights/market-updates/notes-on-the-week-ahead/labor-market-mysteries/ 

AI Profitability - Show Me the Money

For all the talk of AI, few companies are quantifying gains
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/for-all-their-talk-about-ai-few-companies-are-quantifying-gains-122132208.html/ 

Corporate America Is Getting Hooked on Open-Source A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/technology/open-source-ai-anthropic-openai.html
Companies like AT&T are increasingly using cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over expensive ones from Anthropic and OpenAI. 

Will anybody use AI as much as coders do?
https://www.economist.com/business/2026/08/30/will-anybody-use-ai-as-much-as-coders-do
The answer will have big implications for the investment boom.