What we’re reading (1/1/21)
Happy New Year!
“US Gas Prices End The Year Near A Pandemic-Era High” (CNN Business). “Gas prices are now close to their highest point since the pandemic prompted stay-at-home orders in March. The average price of a gallon of regular gas stood at $2.25 on Thursday, according to AAA, off only a penny from the nine-month highs reached last weekend but up 13 cents from a month ago.”
“Airlines Buckle Their Seat Belts For A Bumpy 2021” (Wall Street Journal).”Airlines are betting that coronavirus vaccines will reignite demand for travel this year. The question is when. Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Ed Bastian expects improvement starting this spring. Alaska Airlines President Ben Minicucci said he hopes to get back to 80% of pre-pandemic capacity by summer. United CEO Scott Kirby, however, said travel may not start getting back to normal until vaccines are widely distributed—in late 2021.”
“New York To Delist Chinese Telecom Firms In Symbolic Shift” (New York Times). “The New York Stock Exchange said it would delist China’s three big state-run telecommunications companies following an executive order from the Trump administration, in a symbolic severing of longstanding ties between the Chinese business world and Wall Street.”
“A Bitcoin ETF Could Finally Become A Reality In 2021 After An SEC Filing From VanEck” (Business Insider). “A bitcoin exchange-traded fund could go live in 2021 if an application from VanEck filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission proves successful. A bitcoin ETF operated by VanEck would follow the path of gold-trust ETFs in that it would hold the underlying bitcoin, the filing said. The VanEck Bitcoin Trust would reflect the performance of the MVIS CryptoCompare Bitcoin Benchmark Rate.”
“World’s Richest Men Added Billions To Their Fortunes Last Year As Others Struggled” (Washington Post). “The pandemic has forced untold hardships onto many Americans, with tens of millions of families now reporting that they don’t have enough to eat and millions more out of work on account of layoffs and lockdowns. America’s wealthiest, on the other hand, had a very different kind of year: Billionaires as a class have added about $1 trillion to their total net worth since the pandemic began. And roughly one-fifth of that haul flowed into the pockets of just two men: Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon (and owner of The Washington Post), and Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX fame.”
