The weather was looking real nice here in Oklahoma last week. We had some beautiful sunny days with temperatures reaching the 70’s. The grass was greening up nicely (at least the fescue) and the Bradford Pear & Dogwood trees were finally in bloom. Then all of a sudden, a spring storm blew in from the north and dropped 8-10 inches of snow in the Tulsa area.
It was the heavy wet snow that is great for making snowmen and snowballs, but not good for those of us who are ready for sunny skies. The good news is that the snow didn’t stick around too long. The weather heated back up and all the snow was gone in 48 hours. Oklahomans often say that if you are bored with the weather, wait 30 seconds, it’s bound to change (I think about 40 other states claim that motto as well).
I think the business jet marketplace has been equally volatile as of late. For the last two weeks I have been extremely encouraged with the level of activity. We have received several offers to purchase and I have gotten quite a few calls from people claiming to be “real buyers”. I am sure some of that activity has to do with the climbing Dow Jones which finally broke 8,000 yesterday.
I think we can actually get some transactions put together over the next couple of weeks if consumer confidence can continue up for a little while. The last thing we need right now is a freak snow storm to blow into these markets and knock everybody down again. I don’t think it would take much to shake some of these “real buyers” back in to a wait-and-see attitude. In my opinion, a little global warming in the marketplace is long overdue.
I’m told one of the driving forces behind Thursday’s stock market rally is the change in accounting practices called “mark to market”. I had 15 hours of accounting in college, but it has been a while. Basically, the way I understand it, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to let banks and other companies change the way they value assets. The idea is to give them a break from mark-to-market accounting, which requires them to price the assets at whatever they could sell them for now. Maybe somebody who had more than 15 hours of accounting 15 years ago can tell me if and how this might affect the OEM’s whose inventory is worth a lot less today than it was 6 months ago.
The NCAA did not deliver on its promise of March Madness this year. With two #1 seeds, a #2 seed and a #3 seed playing in the final four, those who went with the boring picks in the office pool probably did pretty well this year. I don’t know about you, but I have had enough madness in the work place in March. I am looking forward to a nice and pleasant weekend with no snow and no surprises. I am even pulling for Connecticut and North Carolina, because the thought of a nice and boring #1 seed vs. #1 seed game sound just right to me.
Have a good weekend,
Toby J. Smith
Vice President
JBA JETS, Inc.
918-834-9100
toby.smith@jba.aero