AAA sees a huge jump in travel over Memorial Day weekend

U.S. highways will be far busier over the Memorial Day holiday weekend than last year, but traffic still won’t reach pre-pandemic levels, according to a forecast by the AAA auto club.

AAA officials say travel will increase because more Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — about one-third of U.S. adults — and consumer confidence is growing.

The auto club and insurance company said Tuesday it expects more than 37 million people to travel at least 50 miles from home during the holiday weekend, up 60% from last year, which was the lowest since AAA began keeping records in 2000.

If the AAA forecast is right, however, it would still be 6 million people, or 13%, fewer than left home over Memorial Day in 2019.

AAA said 34 million Americans plan driving trips between May 27 and May 31, a 52% increase over last year, and nearly 2.5 million will take plane trips, nearly six times more than the same period in 2020. A small number will take buses or trains.

So far in May, nearly 1.5 million people per day have gone through U.S. airport checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration. AAA said its air-travel forecast seems low because it counts each traveler once, while TSA counts somebody twice if they take a round-trip flight.

The US has approved a huge offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard — the first of its kind

• The Biden administration granted approval Tuesday for the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm.
• The Vineyard Wind project would be built off the coast of Matha’s Vineyard.
• The project is expected to power as many as 400,000 homes and businesses.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

The US Department of the Interior approved Vineyard Wind — the first large-scale wind farm in the US — on Tuesday. 

The Vineyard Wind project would be built off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and is slated to create up to 800 megawatts of electricity.

That would be enough to power as many as 400,000 homes and businesses, the Interior Department said.

“A clean energy future is within our grasp in the United States,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “The approval of this project is an important step toward advancing the Administration’s goals to create good-paying union jobs while combatting climate change and powering our nation.”

According to NBC Boston, the project is estimated to cost $2 billion and is part of President Joe Biden’s agenda to reduce carbon emissions in the US and generate 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2030.

Options traders are feeling bearish on Electronic Arts into earnings

Video game giant Electronic Arts reports earnings after the bell Tuesday, and options traders are betting that the stock's disappointing start to 2021 will continue after the results cross the wire.

"The options market right now is implying a move of about 5.6% [in either direction], more than the 3.3% or so that the company has averaged over the last eight quarters," Optimize Advisors CIO Michael Khouw said Monday on CNBC's "Fast Money."

The stock has vastly underperformed the broader market this year, down nearly 2% compared with 10% gains in the S&P 500 and 13% gains in the XLC Communication Services ETF, of which it is a constituent. That's certainly not an inspiring performance, and Monday's trading activity forecast even more losses.

"Put volume exceeded the average by more than seven times, and all of that was really the result of the June 140/130 put spread. Over 6,500 of those traded for about $3," said Khouw.

Those contracts break even below the $137 level, or just about 3% lower than where EA closed Monday's session. However, traders would see gains all the way down to the $130 level, which would represent a drop of 7.6%.

EA was trading slightly higher in Tuesday's session.

Disclaimer

European Economics Preview: Eurozone Final Composite PMI Data Due

Final composite Purchasing Managers’ survey results from euro area are due on Wednesday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.30 am ET, the Federal Statistical Office releases Swiss consumer price data for April. Inflation is forecast to rise to +0.3 percent from -0.2 percent in March.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain’s unemployment data is due.

At 3.15 am ET, IHS Markit is scheduled to issue Spain’s services PMI data. Economists forecast the index to rise to 50.0 in April from 48.1 in March.

At 3.30 am ET, industrial production and new orders figures are due from Statistics Sweden.

At 3.50 am ET, IHS Markit publishes France’s final composite PMI data for April. The score is forecast to match the flash estimate of 51.7.

At 3.55 am ET, Germany’s final composite PMI survey data is due. The final composite output index is seen at 56.0, unchanged from the flash estimate.

At 4.00 am ET, IHS Markit releases euro area final composite PMI survey results. Economists expect the indicator to rise to 53.7 in April, as initially estimated, from 53.2 in the prior month.

At 5.00 am ET, Eurostat is slated to publish euro area producer prices for March. Producer price inflation is seen rising to 4.2 percent from 1.5 percent in February.

L Brands will spin off Victoria’s Secret instead of trying to sell it.

By Lauren Hirsch

L Brands has decided to spin off Victoria’s Secret rather than sell it, the DealBook newsletter was the first to report.