Take off
Commuting by air
Good morning, sky navigators. This is your Stock Market Rundown for June 21st, 2024. Thanks for flying along with me today. Let’s take off:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: ELECTRIFYING THE SKIES
Back in the 60s, everybody was sure flying cars would be the transportation of the future. But here we are in 2024, and our commutes are still firmly earthbound.
Just think of the last time you were snarled up in bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic… and how awesome it would have been to sail overtop of the gridlock. Well, Archer Aviation, based in San Jose, California, is trying to make that flying-car fantasy a reality.
Archer is developing an electric aircraft for urban air taxi service. Its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) can hover like a helicopter, and travels at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour.
Investors like Boeing and United Airlines are betting big on this technology. They’ve ponied up enough capital to fund Archer’s construction of a manufacturing facility in Georgia that will be able to build up to 650 eVTOL aircraft per year.
And just this month, Archer crossed off a major to-do list item on their path to the skies: getting the thumbs-up from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch commercial operations.
When it does launch, it could be revolutionary: Wall Street analysts estimate urban air mobility could be a trillion-dollar market by 2040. Traffic jams just might move from the highways, to the skies.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
YouTube is being sued for “living room dominance”, with activist groups accusing it of monopolistic control of home entertainment. Guess some people are upset that kids would rather watch Mr. Beast than Matlock.
The US Department of Defense is helping Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos get wealthier: it picked their space companies to compete for rocket launch projects.
Honda plans to start selling a “micro sized” electric van, but only in its home market of Japan. Imagine this thing got in an accident with an American SUV? It’d be crushed like a tin can in a trash compactor.
Global equity funds have had big outflows in recent weeks on jitters over interest rate policy, but speculators are still pumping money into tech stocks. Investors can always be trusted to chase the latest trend like a golden retriever chasing a Miata.
That’s it for this week, folks. Have yourselves a delightful weekend, and I’ll see you bright and early Monday morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
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