1) The airlines around the world are expected to lose $77 billion dollars in the second half of 2020 as Covid-19 continues to crush air travel demand. There are desperate efforts to cut cost by cutting jobs, grounding aircraft and consolidating work, but all their efforts are not enough. The first half of 2020 has been brutal for airline business and the rest of the year isn’t looking much better despite modest increase in air travel. This translates into losing $13 billion dollars a month or $300,000 a minute. At the start, U.S. airlines were burning about $100 million per day, which they reduced to about $30 to $40 million at the end of the third quarter. The airlines hope to reach zero ‘cash burn’ by year’s end using workforce reductions and operational consolidation. Air travel in America is down roughly 70% from 2019.
2) As another hurricane is approaching through the Gulf of Mexico, oil workers are evacuating oil rigs in the gulf ahead of Hurricane Delta, in turn causing oil prices to rise in anticipation of lower available oil. Oil prices had been falling Wednesday, but started rising as the storm came into the Gulf and the off shore evacuations began. So far, 183 offshore oil facilities have been evacuated which has halted nearly 1.5 million barrels per day of oil output. In July, the Gulf of Mexico produced oil at 1.65 million barrels per day, which is 17% of U.S. crude oil output. The demand for oil at refineries is 13.2% lower than a year earlier, a result of the virus crisis.
3) Electric car maker Elon Musk is pushing his company to boost production to build half a million cars in one year. That means producing 170,000 cars in the fourth quarter, a 17% increase from the third quarter. A half a million cars would be a milestone for Musk’s company, a first in the history of Tesla. So far, Tesla has produced 330,000 cars while also posting profits for its fourth consecutive quarter. Additionally, Tesla is pushing production numbers up by adding more production capacity.
4) Stock market closings for – 8 OCT 20:
Dow 28,425.51 up 122.05
Nasdaq 11,420.98 up 56.38
S&P 500 3,446.83 up 27.38
10 Year Yield: down at 0.76%
Oil: up at $41.27