DIGGING OUT As the country reopens, frozen industries show signs of thawing If we had to summarize the economic story of the quarantine era in a single symbol, it’d be hard to resist “scary red arrow pointing straight down.” But some of the industries that have been hit hardest by the pandemic are slowly coming back to life. It’ll probably be a long time before any of them return to normal (whatever that means). And the picture is still bleak. But if you squint, you can see green shoots reemerging on the vast horrorscape of our deserted economy. Here’s what the trends look like Consumer confidence is stabilizing.The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose unexpectedly in May, following what the board called 2 months of “rapid decline.” It beat economists’ expectations, too -- and stocks rallied Tuesday on the heels of the better-than-expected news. We’re starting to go back to restaurants.Consumer spending at drinking and dining establishments fell to $32.4B in April -- less than half of what it had been 2 months earlier, and the lowest level since October 1984 when adjusted for inflation. But restaurant traffic is recovering. One example, from Alabama: On May 7,OpenTable data showed restaurant traffic down 100% compared with last year. On Monday, it was down ~51%. ️ Hotels and airlines are seeing more travelers.The Wall Street Journal reported that air and hotel bookings are up. Last Thursday and Friday, 318k+ and 348k+ passengers passed through US security checkpoints -- the first time since March 23 that air passengers topped 300k, according to TSA figures. The rings of the lumber industry tell a story, too.New home sales actually edged upward in April -- by ~1% compared with March. That may not sound like a reason to pop the champagne, but they were expected to fall by 22%. The Journal said home-building trends (and strong sales at home-improvement chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s) have the dead-tree market blooming once again. from Hustle
The places I like to do business with are open and seem to be at full staff. In contrast, I notice other places still closed that I rarely use. Must be something involving phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 opening process. Last week took a walk by some government offices like the U.S. embassy...they usually have only one guard outside in front...this time they had 3 guards out front... Two more people employed wrbtrader
How long are they going to keep pushing this news of a reopening up of the economy? I could see if the economy was at standstill for years and I know for 97% of the population they need their movies and margaritas but damn we get it the economy is opening up.
The glass is either half empty or half full. It is half full for a bull and half empty for a bear. To me, with all the QE $ sloshing around and businesses opening quickly (more quickly than people believed because there is basically no structural impediments other than the virus and once you ignore the virus it is business as usual), things will get back to normal faster than you think. That was why I followed @dozu888, went all in back in March.
I wonder if cruise business can stay afloat. Why would people want to go for high density living cum holiday? virus germ bacteria can spread very fast in high density living area.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/travelers-are-ready-to-cruise-again-and-theyre-booking-up-2021 I rest my case.