Buckle your seatbelts
Turbulence in the air
Good morning, passengers seated in the exit row. This is your Stock Market Rundown for July 28th, 2023. Thanks for reading. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: SOMETHING SPECIAL IN THE AIR✈️
Ticket sales at US airlines have been soaring like a 747 this year, because Americans are “spending on experiences”. After years of being cooped-up, they’re ready to finally attend Burning Man, view the spectacular Grand Canyon, or make some irreversible life mistakes in Vegas.
As for airline stocks, their results have been mixed this earnings season. Some are sipping champagne in business class. Others are stuck in the middle seat between two heavyset Teamsters.
United Airlines says its passengers are crowding the aisles; it lifted its outlook for the full year. Among US carriers, UA benefits from having the biggest proportion of international travel in its revenue mix. That annoying friend on Instagram posting photos of herself eating croissants at a boulangerie in Paris? She probably flew there there on United.
Southwest, by contrast, traded lower on a weaker-than-expected report. Corporate flight demand hasn’t recovered to pre-panny levels—business travel is lagging leisure. Look, Southwest: we all got pretty used to sitting on Zoom in our Lululemon yoga pants, sipping a Monster energy drink while firing emojis into the chat.
You seriously expect us to go back to fighting for overhead compartment space and choking down cardboard sandwiches on a red-eye to Dallas/Fort Worth just to glad-hand a prospect? Hard pass.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
This again, seriously? Crypto and decentralized finance are headed for “a major resurgence”, according to people who are still HODLing shitcoins named after cartoon characters. I’m sure Beanie Babies are poised for a comeback too, fellas.
Ahhh: clean air, cold beer, and low taxes. If you make bank and enjoy wide open spaces, join the crowds moving to Montana or Idaho.
Next round’s on you, American consumer: bank data shows Americans have more money in their bank accounts than they did in 2019.
Cool: The CEO of Lyft works as a Lyft driver to do customer research. Less cool: he fired 1,000 people during his second week as CEO.
Used Tesla values are down due to eccentric billionaire CEO Elon Musk flooding the market with cars. Lots more Ubers drivers rolling in Teslas these days… sweet ride, once you get over the embarrassing fumbling with the weird-ass door handles.
That’s it for today, and for this week. Let’s circle back first thing Monday. Yours in capitalism, The Axe