Monday Macro View – Are Frac Spreads outpacing rigs?
Frac spread count hit 205 this week. Rigs, spreads, and jobs all climbed together but is that really a fleet rebuild, or just noise? DUC inventory has been shrinking for years, so does that thin cushion make this cycle different? And with a steelmaker betting $475M on 2029 demand, what does that say about where completions are headed? Find out more in this week's Monday Macro View.
Market Sentiment Tracker – Falling jobless rate makes Fed’s job harder?
Payrolls landed at just 57K this week. Unemployment fell to 4.2%, participation slipped to 61.5%, and Atlanta Fed's GDPNow got sliced to 1.2%, so is the labor market cooling, or quietly shrinking? Meanwhile Europe's composite PMI cleared 50.0 while Italy's deficit swelled to 7.8% of GDP, can the ECB hold rates without triggering a sovereign repricing? And with China's factories softening for a fourth straight month, what's really driving global demand into Q3? This week's Market Sentiment Tracker digs into it.
AI Series: Could Idle Frac Fleets Become AI's Next Power Source?
Years of shale-era expansion left the pressure-pumping industry sitting on a massive pool of underused horsepower until AI data centers, starved for power utilities can't deliver fast enough, gave that idle capacity a new purpose. How much of that surplus can realistically convert into power generation? And which oilfield service companies are best positioned to make that leap? We built the industry's first AI Power Builders database to find out the answers. Read more in this week's article.
Is Shale's Growth Now a County-Level Story?
Shale's next chapter isn't about which basin grows it's about which counties do. Primary Vision's county-level data shows completion activity concentrating into a shrinking core of top-tier acreage, even as national activity holds steady. Is this a temporary shift toward capital discipline, or a permanent redrawing of where shale competes? And which operators and service companies are best positioned inside that shrinking core? We map it out in the Geography of U.S. Shale.
When Private Credit Can't Pay You Back
Private credit is a $3 trillion market built on a quiet assumption: that illiquid loans are priced honestly and investors can get their money back on demand. Both assumptions are cracking. Redemption requests hit $15.6 billion last quarter funds paid out just 38%. Default rates some estimate near 6%. What happens if withdrawals keep climbing while new money dries up? This week's Market Sentiment piece pulls the thread. Read more in this article.
Free Read: Is there a supply glut or shortage?
Hormuz tanker traffic is still running at roughly a third of pre-war levels, even three weeks into the ceasefire. Then Iran hit a Qatari LNG tanker, Washington snapped sanctions back on, and Brent jumped 3% overnight. Is oil actually tight right now, or is the market just front-running a 2027 supply flood that keeps getting pushed back? This week's free read digs into the numbers on both sides. Read more in our Free Read.
If You’re Still Relying on Lagging Data, You’re Already Behind. EFRACS shows where activity is moving before production reacts.
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