Notes From All Over, The Late Afternoon Edition -- May 26, 2020

AAPL: I just returned from Costco -- a family errand -- and yes, I wore the requisite mask. I always enjoy looking at the Apple Inc area. Wow, well stocked with iMac table top models. $1,049 or $1,099 -- I forget which, perhaps the latter. But what I was really interested in were the iPads since I have given Sophia my relatively new iPad. Incredibly, Costco was sold out of all iPads! Amazing. And so, there you have it.

Bicycles: I also stopped by my favorite bicycle shop, the Grapevine Bicycle Shop.

The sole proprietor was working on bicycles. The shop looked empty, except for dozens of used bikes. Mike was not wearing a mask.

I was in the market for a new bike for the middle granddaughter, but Mike says he has sold out his entire inventory and no more bicycles are in the pipeline. Apparently suppliers were shut down just like everyone else.

He did have a tandem bike marked down from $1,999 to $1,499. But he is way behind on servicing bikes.

He now closes his shop on Monday simply so he can devote more time to servicing. I told him I had planned to bring my bike in for routine servicing. He says I can expect to wait six weeks for him to get to it. I remarked that I was impressed with the loyalty of his customers. He said it has nothing to do with loyalty: bikers simply can't find anyone to service their bikes. Folks are coming from as far away as Ft Worth to get their bikes serviced at his shop. There must be two dozen (or more) bicycle shops between here and Ft Worth, but clearly not enough. Interesting. I've been visiting this shop since 2013; this is the emptiest (by far) it's ever been; and, yet, the busiest.

Reminder: NASCAR truck racing tonight; Cup Series tomorrow night.

Market: holding?

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Business headline: the three major indices advanced (sic) as hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine and improving data around consumer activity picked up.

Markets go up and down for myriad reasons; every day headline writers and analysts try to trim the reason / the explanation to fit the room allotted for a headline. My first thought: the never-Trumpers will stress the vaccine as an explanation, knowing that the vaccine is well down the road, well past November 3. The never-Trumpers will build the vaccine expectations of Americans to impossible heights, and as we enter October, with no vaccine on the horizon, the story will change: vaccine trials failing, delayed, questioned. Pick your verb. So, we'll see. 

Economy: the real question -- to what degree will all the government stimulus programs have on the economy over the next six months? Should be fascinating to watch.

Coronavirus -- North Dakota: both total and active corona viruses in North Dakota have decreased as the state lab retests dozens of cases following the recent malfunction of two pieces of lab equipment. State data is tracked here. Let's see if this headline holds up over the next two weeks. As of yesterday, the state shows a total of 54 deaths attributed to corona virus with one new death "yesterday." I find it hard to believe that ND is alone in having "bad" equipment. Deaths per million: North Dakota (71); Maine (58); South Dakota (57); TEXAS (53); Tennessee (49); and then nine more states to Hawaii (12), dead last (no pun intended). At the other end of the scale: Iowa (145); Minnesota (159); Michigan (525). The latter, in same ballpark as New Jersey, New York.