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Smith's Research & Gradings

Volume:

XXVIII

Issue:

6

April 20, 2020

Smith's Research & Gradings

Smith's Q3 2020 Index

Publications
& ARTICLES

RECENT
ARTICLES

Malls and Retail Shopping

"The American Dream Mall was a nightmare to begin with and it is never going to work in the new normal," according to a senior portfolio manager in Boston.

Indeed. The American Dream Mall is the poster child for what went wrong during the last bull market in high-yield municipal bond: Excessive amounts of debt; Bloated feasibility studies; Revenue streams that are thin and tenuous.

Moreover, there is a case being made that retail shopping centers and malls were never going to work. "If there is any lesson from the COVID-19 crisis it's that people are shifting to shopping on the internet," a portfolio manager from New York said. "Amazon is doing a record business."

Online Shopping Spree

Overall, demand for retail delivery is booming with shopping app global downloads hitting 106 million during the week of March 29 and April 4, 2020, according to App Annie, which provides App Intelligence. App Annie says online shopping at the beginning of April was up 15% from the weekly average in January 2020. Downloads in the U.S. alone were 14.4 million — up 20% from the same period.

The big winner was Walmart Grocery, which jumped a whopping 460%. Amazon saw a 20% growth in average daily downloads from January.

The record demand for online grocery shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic has sent the apps for grocery pickup and delivery services up the charts. Walmart Grocery, as a result, has now hit an all-time high in downloads — grabbing the No. 1 ranking position across all Shopping apps in the U.S. on April 5, 2020, and surpassing Amazon by 20%, according to App Annie.

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Beirut’s Agony: Ports, Food, and China

On August 4th the port of Beirut was the scene of a horrific explosion, which killed more than 150 people, injured 6,000 and left some 300,000 homeless. The damages are estimated to be in excess of $15 billion. The city’s hospitals, already struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were damaged by the blast and swamped with injured. On top of already raging economic and political crises, the explosion now raises the question of food security. Prior to the explosion, 80 percent of Lebanon’s imports passed through Beirut’s port. Without a functioning port in Beirut, the country now relies on a handful of secondary ports, chief among them being Tripoli in the north, to import food and to export its products.

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Yankee Stadium Bonds Baa1/NR/BBB+

Fitch Ratings assigned a 'BBB+' rating to the New York City Industrial Development Agency's (NYC IDA) $923 million PILOT Revenue Refunding Bonds,Series 2020, Yankee Stadium Project. Fitch has also affirmed the 'BBB+' rating on the Series 2006 and 2009 bonds, as well as the NYCIDA's Series 2006 and 2009 Rental Revenue Bonds, issued on behalf of Yankee Stadium LLC (StadCo). The Rating Outlook is Stable. The transaction will refund $863 million Series 2006 and 2009 bonds, generating more than $200 million in present value savings.

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Treasury Launches State & Local Recovery Funds

The US Treasury launched the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to provide $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments.

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