web
analytics
Quick Search Tags
Smith's Research & Gradings
Volume: 
XXVIII
Issue: 
6
Author: 
April 20, 2020

Smith's Research & Gradings

Smith's Q3 2020 Index

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.

Take notice

Stay on top of the latest global news that can impact your investment strategy.

Clean Energy Needs Reliability Requirement

Clean energy needs to include reliability requirement as new technology advances. Transformation of the energy mix used in electricity generation globally has been focused on development of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar, but the major stumbling block has remained reliability.

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.

Disastrous Puerto Rico Elections

Puerto Rico's elections were a mess. On Sunday, August 9, Puerto Rico was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots, as officials called on the president of the Commonwealth's elections commissioner Juan Ernesto Davila to resign. The primaries for voting centers that had not received ballots by early Sunday afternoon were expected to be rescheduled, while voting would continue elsewhere, the commission said.

Subscribe Today to unlock insights that could impact you tomorrow!

With your monthly or yearly Subscription you will unlock online articles and have the ability to download the full PDF files for the publication.
SMITH'S RESEARCH & GRADINGS
$79.95 / Per Month
$850 / Year (Save 30%)
* Discounted Rates for Issuers and Governmental Entities

Smith's Research & Gradings focuses on the people, sectors and news that matter the most to you. Smith's analysis is an indispensable part of Wall Street and the world's capital markets. Our approach was inspired by the need for a consistent analytical approach across all asset classes.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC DOCTOR
$79.50 / Per Month
$850 / Year (Save 30%)
* Discounted Rates for Issuers and Governmental Entities

Let a subscription to The Global Economic Doctor provide you with access to sovereign news, analysis and insights. Concise and powerful, the Global Economic Doctor spans the globe, giving you a read on how today’s market developments and key players are impacting your business around the planet.