Welcome back, astronauts!

Congratulations on a successful mission and safe return, and thanks for all the new photos.  :)

Let's go space truckin'

Artemis II is spaceborne!  Yee-haw!  :D

Good luck to all aboard, and Godspeed.

Live update link:

https://www.space.com/news/live/artemis-2-nasa-moon-mission-launch-updates-april-1-2026

 

We moved through the Canaveral moonstop
Dancin' and gone away

 

Almost a correction

Recent declines in the stock market have got it edging down very close to official "correction" territory.  A market correction is a ten percent decline in the S&P 500 but less than a twenty percent decline (which would qualify as a bear market).

Oscillators are already stretched to the oversold side, so we're due for a positive bounce on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, oil-related and war-related news will continue to be the driving factors here, not technical indicators, so looking at the chart doesn't do any good unless we can go the whole trading session on Tuesday without any news whatsoever.

I've already been stopped out of one position, and I'm close on a few others.

I don't know what will happen this week, but I know supply disruptions in the oil and fertilizer markets are serious issues that could become catastrophic issues if they continue for much longer. 

Another pleasant suprise from Mozilla

When Mozilla introduced container tabs, I decided to give the new feature a try, and it wasn't long before I decided I really liked it.

Now Mozilla has given us split view tabs, and I've played around a little with it, and I've decided I like this addition, too.

Mozilla is also gradually rolling out a free VPN.  I haven't gotten this one yet, so I haven't had a chance to play around with it.  But when/if I get it, I'll definitely give it a look-see. 

For the whole update, read Mozilla's article about Firefox 149:

https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/149.0/releasenotes/

Thanks, Mozilla!  :D 

Oil prices diverge, megacaps break support

Disclaimer:  Nothing in this blog post or in any other blog post should be construed as personal investment advice.  It's for my own entertainment only.  If you want investment advice, hire a financial advisor.

 

Normally, West Texas Crude and Brent trade within a few bucks per barrel of each other.  In times of supply disruption, though, that difference can widen.  We're seeing that right now.

Early Thursday morning, the spread was about 18 bucks.  It has since narrowed a bit, but it's still wider than usual.  It's currently between 13 and 14 bucks. 

Here's a chart that shows the ratio of the two petroleum products:

 

As you can see, this Iran stuff sent the ratio careening.

So what does this mean in practical terms?  Good question.  A case can be made for both higher oil prices and lower oil prices.  I'm undecided.  The past two times the ratio spiked like this, it was the result of military action--last summer's campaign against Iran and the Russian campaign in early 2022--and the price of oil headed steadily down after the brief spike.  Then again, the oil trade wasn't as imperiled in those conflicts the way it is in this one.  So again, I don't know.

Now let's look at the stock market.

The S&P 500 has broken support.  It closed below its 200-day moving average.  The 50-DMA is still above the 200, so we haven't had a bearish crossover yet, but the breaking of the 200-DMA support line isn't a good omen for the megacaps.  I say "megacaps" because the equal-weight version of the index is performing better and is still above the 200-DMA.

Here's the megacap-concentrated S&P:

 

As you can see, the slow stochastic is in oversold territory, and the RSI is close to being in oversold territory.  Even if we're on the cusp of a new bear market, I wouldn't be surprised to see some consolidation at around this level before heading further down.  And, of course, the index could rebound and head back up as it did the previous times it was oversold.

Here's the equal-weight version:

 

In this index, there's still a bit of room before reaching the 200-DMA.  The oscillators show pretty much the same thing they do in the other one.

Some sectors, such as energy, are currently showing the opposite: they've gone to the moon recently, and they're in overbought, not oversold, territory as indicated by the oscillators.

In summary, I'm not sure where we're going from here, and I suspect a lot of traders are keeping a close eye on geopolitical events for guidance.  As long as there's uncertainty in the Persian Gulf and the global oil market, stocks will probably see some whiplash.

Firefly sequel series?

Well, it's semi-official: Firefly is on the verge of coming back.  All it needs is a network to host the episodes, from what I understand.  (Disclaimer: I'm not in the industry, so I'm not an expert about the process involved in getting a show on the air.)

https://ew.com/firefly-cast-to-reunite-for-animated-series-revival-11926552

At this year's Awesome Con, the actor disclosed that an animated Firefly series is in advanced development at 20th Television Animation, and it will bring the original cast back together. 

It will apparently take place between season one and the movie, so Wash will presumably be in it (which I fully support, even if the new show took place after the movie and they had to retcon him back in).

An animated series is a good idea, I think.  Probably the best way to go given the age of the actors and the desire to bring Wash back.  I agree with the animation decision.

I just hope it doesn't suck.  We all hope it doesn't suck.  Unfortunately, the IP is owned by Disney, and that's not encouraging given their performance in recent years, so we'll have to get lucky on this one.

But whatever happens... you can't take the sky from me!

 

ADDENDUM:  I just had a thought.  You know what would be cool?

Rotoscoping.

That way, the fans who prefer a live action series would essentially get it, but we'd also have the benefits of animation.  Best of both worlds.

I know this will never happen.  No one does rotoscoping anymore.  But a man can dream. 

"t" button no longer works

I'd posted before about how the "t" button on my laptop's keyboard was either not working or it was double-striking.  Well, now the double strikes have ceased.  I just don't get "t" anymore at all.  I have to copy and paste the letter into my writing (like I'm doing now).

I'm going to search the internet and see if it's practical for me to open up my laptop and clean beneath the keys.  I'm hesitant to do such a thing, because you never know if you're going to ruin the device permanently, but this non-functioning-key thing is highly frustrating, and I can only take so much. 

In the meantime, it's supposed to get cold again on Monday.  Temps are going to drop into the twenties, and that should be sufficient to kill off much of the new spring growth.  Ah, well... it was nice knowing you, spring, while you lasted.  :(