The Bad News Report

[urbanlover568]

Wow....

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims

Initial claims were 6,648,000 for the week ending 3/28 (+3,341,000).

Insured unemployment was 3,029,000 for the week ending 3/21 (+1,245,000).

[Hushpuppy321]

Just about everything going on right now is unprecedented in our lifetime and then some...

[QCxpat]

Today's CBJ - "For hotels and restaurants, a recession unlike any other" by Eric Spanberg  (Paywall / Subscriber article)

Excerpt:  "Examples abound of the steep challenges facing hotels, recreation and entertainment businesses and others in the service industry.  This week, the 400-room Great Wolf Lodge hotel and indoor water park in Concord notified the state it has closed and let go 254 employees, though the plan is to reopen and rehire at some point.  Before that, HMSHost, the concessionaire at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, disclosed 815 temporary layoffs because of the business slowdown created by the coronavirus pandemic.   And on Thursday — the same day national and state unemployment claims doubled after a staggering surge the previous week — the general manager at the 400-room Hilton Charlotte Center City confirmed the hotel has temporarily closed and has not yet set a date for re-opening.  Morgan Smith, Hilton Charlotte Center City general manager, told CBJ, “It’s difficult for everyone.  We’re standing by, trying to be optimistic.”  

"Tourism, hospitality and related jobs are an important part of the local economy, a point made by Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles during a recent assessment of virus-related economic problems.   According to data compiled by research firm Longwoods International, tourism and hospitality accounts for one out of nine jobs in the 10-county Charlotte region, as defined by the Census bureau.  That equates to 140,800 jobs, including 53,000 in Mecklenburg County.   In 2018, the most recent full year for which statistics are available, the region established a record for tourism-related spending with an estimated $7.4 billion economic boost — an increase of 5.6% over the previous year.  All of the recent numbers lend insight, but more local data is needed to determine the damage in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County." 

"Mohammad Jenatian, president of the Greater Charlotte Hospitality & Tourism Alliance, said  ...  for those who want to make a difference for hotel housekeepers, restaurant servers, bar tenders, sales people and the many other workers affected, Jenatian offered some practical advice.   “If you are reading this and want to help, order food from a restaurant that's doing curb-side takeout or delivery,” he said.  “Start thinking about exploring your own city (or state).  Make a (hotel) reservation for May, June, July — that could really help.”

LInk  (Paywall / subscriber article):  https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/04/02/for-hotels-and-restaurants-a-recession-unlike-any.htm  

Image - Hilton Charlotte Center City

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by QCxpat

[videtur quam contuor]

42 minutes ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Just about everything going on right now is unprecedented in our lifetime and then some...

can confirm

[urbanlover568]

13 hours ago, urbanlover568 said:

Wow....

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims

Initial claims were 6,648,000 for the week ending 3/28 (+3,341,000).

Insured unemployment was 3,029,000 for the week ending 3/21 (+1,245,000).

Jobs report comes out tomorrow also. 

 

Keep in mind we are in week 2, with 4 more weeks to go. 

 

[KJHburg]

Here is a great loss for the community Dr. Francis Robicsek famed heart surgeon who was a pioneer  in so many ways here in Charlotte and the nation and fled communism from Hungary.  What a great life!  Read what he did when a fellow doctor had an heart attack in the elevator.   What a great life over his 94 years! 

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article241785731.html

[davidclt]

7 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Here is a great loss for the community Dr. Francis Robicsek famed heart surgeon who was a pioneer  in so many ways here in Charlotte and the nation and fled communism from Hungary.  What a great life!  Read what he did when a fellow doctor had an heart attack in the elevator.   What a great life over his 94 years! 

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article241785731.html

I wish McClatchy would allow "subscribe once, read anywhere" across their properties. Stupid paywall (same article from Charlotte - replace the domain name with any McClatchy paper and read the article in that paper's skin): https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article241785731.html

SacBee anyone? https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article241785731.html

[urbanlover568]

Looks like SoftBank pulled out of the wework rescue.

 

WeWork sues SoftBank over cancellation of $3 billion stock tender 

[Matthew.Brendan]

2 hours ago, urbanlover568 said:

Looks like SoftBank pulled out of the wework rescue.

 

WeWork sues SoftBank over cancellation of $3 billion stock tender 

lol. oh man, what a story, the whole thing.

[Madison Parkitect]

4 hours ago, urbanlover568 said:

Looks like SoftBank pulled out of the wework rescue.

 

WeWork sues SoftBank over cancellation of $3 billion stock tender 

Looks like the scammers got scammed.

[elrodvt]

Hey don't diss SoftBank. Loved going to their baseball teams (Fukuoka Hawks) games. Squid on a stick!

[JacksonH]

On 4/6/2020 at 6:19 AM, KJHburg said:

Here is a great loss for the community Dr. Francis Robicsek famed heart surgeon who was a pioneer  in so many ways here in Charlotte and the nation and fled communism from Hungary.  What a great life!  Read what he did when a fellow doctor had an heart attack in the elevator.   What a great life over his 94 years! 

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article241785731.html

Oh wow, sad to hear.  I was on a month-long educational visit to Guadalajara, Mexico when I was in college.  It was arranged by the UNCC foreign language department for college credits.  Dr. Robicsek's daughter was on that trip with us, even though she hadn't yet graduated from high school.  One weekend we went to Manzanillo and on the way back (eight-hour overnight bus ride) she got very sick.  They were having to locate a doctor in the middle of the night, driving through mountains and jungles.  Poor girl.  She was just a kid.  Later, I worked a temp job at the Mint Museum and remember some paintings on loan from (or donated by) Dr. Robicsek.  He was  a Charlotte institution.

[U_R_]

As Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) has implemented cost saving measures due to COVID-19, the company will furlough ~700 employees (of ~17,000 total employees), beginning April 20.

The company expects the furloughs to continue through June 21, during which these employees will not receive salaries but will continue to be provided with healthcare benefits.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/news/3561847-coca-cola-consolidated-to-furlough-700-employees

[Third Strike]

Neiman Marcus is going to file for bankruptcy this week:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-neimanmarcus-bankruptcy-exclusive/exclusive-neiman-marcus-to-file-for-bankruptcy-as-soon-as-this-week-sources-idUSKBN2210CW

[Hushpuppy321]

Oil Prices Crashed ($0.00 / Barrel) and Even went negative for awhile.  I read the article but still don’t understand the economic fallout from this.  Hopefully someone more economically savvy can put this on the bottom self for me....

[Madison Parkitect]

Brb gonna go buy up oil and store it in my backyard for a while.

[kermit]

I thought high oil prices were bad news?

The donald did promise to 'fix' oil markets back on April 2nd. I guess he got sidetracked solving all those COVID testing bottlenecks...

Anyone not emptying their swimming pools now and refilling them with West Texas Intermediate is behaving 'irrationally'.

Edited April 20, 2020 by kermit

[videtur quam contuor]

This is for May delivery. Futures contracts. Oil supply is far above demand and the storage capacity is near 100%. Soon tankers will be filled and sit in the water with no place to go as a mobile storage capacity. Then what? The general meaning of this price is that the cost to stop a currently producing well, cap it and dismantle and move equipment to storage and lay off workers and set aside cash for later reopening same well(s) is greater than what oil is selling for. The oil price means the difference between the selling price is less than the cost for all these other future activities above, plus debt maintenance etc. Oil still has value.

[urbanlover568]

Wow...

[videtur quam contuor]

My comment above, PLUS herd thinking, panic, world pandemic, fear, market confusion.

[Blue_Devil]

I mean, oil didn’t really Crash. Today was just the last day of the May commodities contracts, and since no one has any wear to store, people long on the May contracts panicked. June for tracts are still trading around 20

Dont get me wrong, this is not ideal, and some people might be jumping out of windows, but oil did not real go to zero, and we won’t see gas at .30$ tomorrow

[Madison Parkitect]

1 hour ago, Blue_Devil said:

I mean, oil didn’t really Crash. Today was just the last day of the May commodities contracts, and since no one has any wear to store, people long on the May contracts panicked. June for tracts are still trading around 20

Dont get me wrong, this is not ideal, and some people might be jumping out of windows, but oil did not real go to zero, and we won’t see gas at .30$ tomorrow

Brb gonna go return all that oil I just bought.

[videtur quam contuor]

Now if someone would pay me 30$ to take a barrel of Extra virgin olive oil I might do some buying.

[urbanlover568]

NCDOT announces layoffs, delays as coronavirus cuts into revenue

https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/ncdot-announces-layoffs-delays-as-coronavirus-cuts-into-revenue/19065265/

 

[Blue_Devil]

Interesting thing I heard yesterday. Oil futures contracts could hit -100 around late May due to the same reason it hit -40 in late April. There is nowhere to store the stuff and traders are going to have to pay to take the contracts of their hands at the last second.