All posts by James Cannon

About James Cannon

James Cannon is an experienced hedge fund analyst. He has served on the advisory boards for various different Fortune 500 companies as well as serving as an adjunct professor of finance. James Cannon has written for a variety of Financial Magazines both on and off line. Contact James at james[at]businessdistrict.com

Jet Blue Announces Luxury Option for Transatlantic Service

Transportation Industry, ,

The global travel industry may be reeling a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, but at least one industry stalwart appears to believe the industry will recover from the crisis, and sooner rather than later.

Monday, Jet Blue Airlines (NASDAQ: JBLU) announced it would offer Mint class service, a high-end cabin with semi-private seating, lie-flat beds and bedside tables and a 17-inch screen, on its upcoming service between the United States and London. The airline is planning to launch non-stop flights between London and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and from London to Boston’s Logan Airport before the end of 2021.

No decisions have been announced regarding an arrival/departure airport in London.

Jet Blue upended the domestic travel sector in 2014 by introducing Mint on non-stop flights between New York and San Francisco. The company later announced plans to include the luxury seating option on its Transatlantic routes but many industry analysists expected that uncertainty about the near-to-medium term outlook for the travel sector would cause the airline to shelve those plans, at least temporarily.

In October, McKinsey & Company, predicted that the blow to the global tourism sector could be far worse than previously thought, perhaps up to $8.1 trillion lower than initial predictions following the emergence and spread of the coronavirus last year.

Echoing the concerns, Yahoo!Finance said that international tourism dropped by 65% in the first half of 2020 and added that it could be 2024 before global travel returns to 2019 levels.

Despite the poor outlook, however, Jet Blue Chief Operating Officer Joanna Geraghty told Bloomberg that the airline believes the travel industry will recover quickly once the pandemic is officially declared “over.”

“Demand changes quite quickly overnight when case counts come down and travel restrictions are lifted,” she said.

Top Retirement Destinations for 2021

Retirement,

It’s 2021 – the new year is still fresh, it looks like the new corona vaccines will get our economies back on track and businesses and families around the world are looking forward to crafting a post-pandemic “new normal.”

For many Baby Boomers, however, 2021 will also be a time to begin thinking about retirement. Last year, more than 28 million people born between 1946 and 1964 reported they had left the job market, a 3.2 million spike over the same period in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center.

To mark the new year, International Living, an online lifestyle magazine, has published its Annual Global Retirement Index, complete with the magazine’s top ten picks as retirement destinations. Of course, several of the locations are predictable – France, for example.

But the list also includes some surprises: South-east Asian destinations like Vietnam and Malaysia, or the United States’ southern neighbor Mexico might appear counterintuitive to many people. On second thought, however, they definitely look like excellent options.

It’s a compelling read, and at the very least – terrific fodder for daydreaming!

Millenial Values Changing Investment Patterns

Markets, Millenials, Real Estate, , ,

Growing up in Sydney, Australia, Shenal Harakh learned that real estate was the key to a prosperous financial future. For an immigrant family from India, it wasn’t a bad model: Real estate values Down Under have exploded in recent decades, with the median price for a single-family home jumping from A$111,524 in 1995 to A$871,749 at the end of 2020.

For the 28-year-old Harakh, however, real estate investing left her itching for “action.” Three years ago, the then-anthropology student at Australian National University decided to diversify into the stock market. The move was a prodigious one: In 2020 she turned a 174 percent return in addition to 27 percent and 14 percent returns (respectively) on the Bell Direct and Stake platforms, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Harakh’s investment strategy appears to be a guidebook on Investing for Millenials. Her LinkedIn page says her investments focus on “cultivat(ing) meaningful connections and content where you can see your universe of interests as well as those of others, but still have the ability to separate what’s private, public, or visible to specific contacts and know there’s more to your network than meets the eye.

“As we spend more time online and creating virtual connections, it’s important for us to be able to express the complexity and interconnected nature of our lives,” she writes.

At the same time, she is cautious to warn that market activists must be careful, and that it isn’t for everyone. “Trading is addictive,” she told the AFN. “And the last thing you want to do is lose everything because of this addiction.”

Stocks Respond Well to Passage of Second Stimulus Bill

Politics, , , , ,

Despite Trump’s declared dislike for the latest stimulus package passed by the US Congress, he signed anyway, to the rejoicing of legislators, citizens, and the stock market.

The newest bill authorizes $900 billion in aid to deal with the devastating effects to individuals, families, and the economy of the coronavirus pandemic. Included in the deal is a $600 check for every adult, expanded unemployment benefits, and more money for the Paycheck Protection Program which helps small businesses to retain their employees and stay afloat.

President Trump originally threatened to not sign the bill, saying that the payment should be $2,000 and not $600. He relented and the process of getting the desperately needed money out to the population hard hit by the pandemic is underway.

The stock market reacted positively: The S&P rose by 0.87%; the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.68% to 30,403.97; and the NASDAQ composite also increased 0.74% to 12,899.42.

In other, related news, the latest COVID-19 vaccine, from AstraZeneca, is about to get emergency use authorization in the UK, with the hope that the vaccine will begin deployment the first week in January 2021.

The company said that, like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are already circulating in many countries, the AstraZeneca vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95%.

CEOs Optimistic About Future of US Economy

Economy,

According to a survey by Business Roundtable CEOs are cautiously optimistic about the economy over the next months. On the question of when CEOs believe their businesses will get back to normal, this is what they said:

  • 26% said their business either did not suffer during the pandemic, or that they have already recovered, or that by the end of 2020 they expect everything to go back to pre-pandemic levels.
  • 41% said they expect their business to recover during 2021.
  • 33% expect recovery in 2022 or later

Optimism about the future is often reflected in the hiring levels of companies. Those levels are back to the average levels of 11.5 points. Another indicator is capital investment, which is above average at about 25.2 points. Sales expectations are above average at 29.9 points, and CEOs expect GDP growth to reach about 1.9%.

The CEOs also said that a relief package from Washington would help there businesses and the economy in general.