Dow lost 12, decliners over advancers 4-3 & NAZ advanced 73. The MLP index dropped 4+ to the 152s & the REIT index fell 1+ to the 174s. Junk bond funds were mixed & Treasuries saw modest selling, taking the yield on the 10 year Treasury over 1.1%. Oil remained weak in the 53s & gold added 2 to 1869 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
United Airlines (UAL) expects to surpass its pre-pandemic margins by 2023 but warned sales would suffer early this year as the COVID-19 Covid health crisis wears on. UAL
swung to a net loss of $1.9B in Q4 from a $641M profit a year earlier. Revenue fell 69% to $3.41B, below estimates of $3.44B. The carrier's full year net loss of $7.07B was the largest since 2005. “Aggressively
managing the challenges of 2020 depended on our innovation and
fast-paced decision making. But, the truth is that COVID-19 has changed
United Airlines forever,” CEO, Scott Kirby, said. Airline executives have said widespread
availability of coronavirus vaccines will fuel a recovery in air travel.
But the vaccine rollout has been slow & chaotic, marked by a shortage of doses. While UAL was upbeat about its 2023 goal, the carrier isn't expecting a quick turnaround early this year. Q1
revenue will likely come in 65% to 70% below 2019 levels. It estimated capacity in Q1 will be at
least 51% below the same period in 2019. The company
burned about $33M a day on average in the qtr, including
debt & severance payments. Core daily cash burn, which strips those
items out, averaged $19M in Q4, $5M less
than in Q3. Adjusted EPS were for a loss of $7 versus an expected loss of $6.60 a share & revenue was $3.41B versus expected $3.44B in revenue. The
cargo business again proved to be a bright spot in the pandemic with
revenue jumping 77% in the qtr to $560M. That unit
contributed 16% of Q4 revenue, up from just a 3% a year
earlier. Passenger airlines last year raced to beef up those business as
customers faced a worldwide crunch in air freight capacity. The stock fell 2.59.
If you would like to learn more about UAL, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/UAL?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
United’s losses mount but airline expects to surpass 2019 margins in 2023
Gold futures logged a modest retreat, a day after
settling at their highest in nearly 2 weeks in the wake of the
inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US pres. A
weakening $ & expectations that the Biden administration
will support gov spending to help boost the virus-hobbled economy
provided the recent lift to gold prices. Initial jobless claims declined by 26K to a seasonally adjusted 900K last week. Meanwhile, new-home construction in Dec was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.67M, up 5.8% from Nov, while the the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business condition index jumped to 26.5 in Jan from 9.1 in Dec. Feb gold edged down by a fraction to settle at $1865
an ounce, after rising 1.4% yesterday to the highest finish for a
most-active contract since Jan 7. Traders also eyed the latest meeting of the ECB which, as expected, made no changes to interest rates or its asset-buying program after moving last month to bolster its efforts to support the
eurozone economy. The ECB also will continue its asset purchase program
at a pace of €20B a month.
Gold prices mark modest retreat from a nearly two-week high
Senate Dems had hoped to have several of Pres Joe Biden's cabinet nominees confirmed & in place by end of his first day in office. At the rate things are going, there may be only one to show for his first week on the job. Biden's nominees – one of 3 early priorities named by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – are one part of an early standoff in the chamber as it starts work under a 50-50 party split that, while it gives Dems floor control, makes getting the Senate organized more difficult than usual. Reps are demanding Dems promise not eliminate the requirement to get 60 votes to end debate on legislation – the legislative filibuster – in exchange for agreeing to a resolution laying out how the chamber's resources are to be divided for the next 2 years with respect to how many slots there will be for each party in committee, staffing, & offices for example. “The legislative filibuster is a crucial part of the Senate. Leading Democrats like President Biden himself have long defended it,” said Senate Rep Leader Mitch McConnell on the floor. “I cannot imagine the Democratic Leader would rather hold up the power-sharing agreement than simply reaffirm that his side won’t be breaking this standing rule of the Senate,” he added. Usually the organizing resolution, as it's called, is the subject of minor squabbling between the parties over the committee party ratios.
Democrats’ hope for fast start in Senate stalled by Republican filibuster demand
Oil futures ended on a mixed note, with global prices slightly higher but US prices modestly lower, as data from the American Petroleum Institute showed an unexpected rise in US crude inventories, ahead of the US gov's supply report due tomorrow. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) won't be releasing its weekly data on oil & petroleum product supplies until tomorrow because of the delay due to federal holiday on Mon, as well as yesterday's presidential inauguration. West Texas Intermediate crude for Mar fell 18¢ (0.3%) to settle at $53.13 a barrel, while Mar Brent crude, the global benchmark, tacked on 2¢ to $56.10 a barrel. The API reported yesterday that US crude supplies rose by 2.6M barrels last week. The EIA report is expected to show crude inventories down by 2.5M barrels.
Oil prices end mixed ahead of Friday’s EIA data on U.S. crude inventories
Dow Jones Industrials
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