Cargo chaos

Good morning, freight fanatics. This is your Stock Market Rundown for October 4th, 2024. Thanks for setting sail with me today. Let’s launch:

TODAY’S TOP STORY: PORT PAYDAY

This week, corporate America had a collective heart attack over a strike by 45,000 dockworkers. The work action started Tuesday, and halted shipments at 36 East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. It brought half the nation’s shipping activity to a dead stop, and cost the economy billions a day.

The ports hit by the work stoppage handle about a million containers a month, which is a heck of a lot of Ikea furniture and auto parts. With shipping companies enjoying record profits, the dockworkers demanded their fair share in the form of a big pay bump. They also insisted that automation be banned from ports—worried it’ll steal their jobs.

The head of the longshoreman’s union, Harold Daggart, raised eyebrows with his pugnacious threats to “cripple” the economy if the port operator didn’t pony up. (Especially after a tabloid ran photos of his 7,000-square-foot mansion. Apparently, Daggart is fighting for the working man, while parking his Bentley in his five-car garage.)

Some American shoppers panicked, clearing supermarket shelves of canned food and toilet paper. Also worried? Retailers getting ready for the holiday sales season—because you can’t have the Christmas spirit without shelves full of imported Barbies, Transformers, and Legos.

If the strike had dragged on, it would have hammered the supply chains of everything from toys, to hamburgers, to artificial Christmas trees. Luckily, disaster was averted. 

Yesterday, the union and the port operator reached an agreement to extend their contract to January 2025, with the dockworkers scoring a 62% pay raise over 6 years. Even though questions over automation haven’t been settled, our artificial Christmas trees are safe—for this holiday season, at least.

Did a friend forward this email to you? Sign up here.

SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

• Retailers are getting started hiring for the Christmas season, with Target planning to hire 100,000 seasonal employees and Macy’s bringing on more than 30,000. If you’re looking to make some extra money this holiday season, get your elf costume dry-cleaned and apply now.

• The FDA has just approved a nasal spray version of the flu vaccine, made by AstraZeneca. Maybe next they can come out with a scented candle that prevents shingles.

• If you see a Tesla on the highway, stay out of its blind spot. Drivers using “advanced assistance systems” like sensors are more likely to be distracted by stuff like texting, balancing a coffee on their lap, or putting on lipstick in the rearview mirror.

• The largest US movie theatre chains are planning $2.2 billion in upgrades, including immersive sound, laser projection technology, and chairs comfortable enough to nap through yet another Fast & Furious sequel.

That’s it for today, my friends. Let’s circle back for more next week, and in the meantime—stay skeptical. Yours in capitalism, The Axe

Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed today’s Stock Market Rundown, the #1 thing you can do to help me out is forward it to a friend.