Business Channel 2006-11-23&25

Let's start out with the airlines, because airlines can be measured, Richard, in so many different ways, by revenue, by market cap, miles flown by paying customers, and one more, number of people flown.

Well, in August, Southwest Airlines took the lead in that final category for the first time ever, the low-cost carrier flew 8.7 million passengers during the month, topping American's 8.5 million passengers, but American's total includes 2 million international travelers. Southwest only flies here in the US. So in terms of miles flown, American still can call itself the world's largest carrier. Nonetheless, analysts 1 say that Southwest's conquering of that first milestone 2 is a confirmation 3 the carrier has become a major player in the domestic airline business. The low-cost airline has not posted a quarterly loss in 15 years. It has continued to grow even as larger rivals took big hits after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Richard.

That Southwest is really quite amazing. You, you know, the airlines, while Southwest is doing well and Thanksgiving is gonna help them do well, are any of the airlines helping 4 folks out?

Well, yes. I mean, according to USA Today, the airlines face, well, the busiest Thanksgiving air travel period ever. This year 25 million passengers are expected to fly from now through November 28th. That is up 3 percent from last year. But there's a big concern that new travelers won't be familiar with new federal restrictions 5, you know the ones about bringing liquids, gels and aerosols 6 on board. The rules have confused some screeners as well. Because of this, airlines are taking steps to urge passengers to follow new security procedures, everything from running ads and posting billboards 7 to deploying 8 extra workers in the terminal. And Hefty is planning to give away more than one million, one-quart plastic bags to help the fliers meet security requirements, Richard. I don't know if you've been flying recently, but they now will say to you "Well, do you have a baggie to put this in?" (Yeah) And if not, they provide it.

Yes, it's, it's quite nice, and some...

There is also more disappointing news on the nation's rapidly cooling housing market. A government report showed housing starts dropped to nearly 15% in October to the lowest level in 6 years.

And a key measure of builder confidence fell to its slowest pace in nearly 9 years. So with that as a backdrop, let's check the final numbers. Looking at the New York Stock Exchange Big Board, the Dow rose 36 points; that's about a third of a percent, closing at 12,342. It is the fourth straight record close. (Holy Moses) But the Nasdaq Composite, the Nasdaq slipped about a tenth of one percent.


market cap
Abbreviation for "market capitalization." The market cap is the value of an entire company as determined 9 by the market at any given time. You can calculate this by multiplying the price per share by the number of outstanding shares. Because this value is set by the stock price per share, it fluctuates daily along with the stock price.

aerosols (n.)
a small metal container with liquid inside. You press a button on the container to make the liquid come out in very small drops.

Holy Moses
a phrase that can be used interchangeably with "holy crap" or "holy Lord." usually exclamatory.