Airplanes of German Carrier Lufthansa and United Airlines land and take off at Frankfurt Airport, Germany March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Kai PfaffenbachTRAVEL BUGS. Americans are ready to hit the road. That at least is the message from the stock market on Monday. Shares in car-rental firm Avis Budget zoomed ahead more than 20%. Hertz Global, which on Monday also removed boss Kathryn Marinello from the driver’s seat, was up almost as much.
TIME-TRAVELING OIL. Four weeks is a long time in the market for black gold. On Monday the price for West Texas Intermediate futures were changing hands for almost $32 a barrel for the forward-month contract, which expires on Tuesday. That’s despite the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission warning last week that prices could still go negative, just as they did for the previous forward-month contract in mid-April.
CHECKERED FLAGS IN VACCINE RACE. Moderna’s vaccine for Covid-19 hasn’t even completed one lap, but Wall Street assumes it’s heading for victory. The U.S. biotech company said on Monday that interim results from an early trial were promising. That tacked nearly $7 billion onto its now-$31 billion market capitalization. With late-stage clinical trials scheduled to begin in July, there could be a vaccine by fall.
Hitting the grocers could be harder than it sounds. True, both Tesco and J Sainsbury enjoyed record sales in March, as customers rushed to stock up on loo roll and pasta. But Tesco boss Dave Lewis recently warned the group will take a hit of up to 925 million pounds from virus-related costs, like hiring 45,000 extra staff. The government may struggle to tax online giant Amazon.com, which books most of its UK revenue through a Luxembourg subsidiary.
EMIRHAD? Dubai-based airline Emirates is making drastic turns to weather the coronavirus storm, cutting 30,000 jobs, or a third of its workforce, according to Bloomberg. It’s also accelerating the retirement of its 100-plus A380 superjumbos. If that doesn’t restore stability, Emirates could try a more radical manoeuvre – a merger with local rival Etihad.
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