The Empire Financial Partnership offer expires TONIGHT at midnight; Jeff Bezos annual letters; Berna Barshay on the monthly Oil Market Report; Things to watch this weekend
1) As I mentioned in yesterday's e-mail, you can take advantage of the best deal we've ever offered for lifetime access to everything we publish – and ever will publish – at Empire Financial Research.
But the deal expires tonight at midnight, at which point the price rises 25% from $6,000 to $7,500, so please don't wait – you can sign up now by clicking here.
We're expanding rapidly – as is the value of this offer. Someday, I hope we'll be charging upwards of $30,000 for it, just like the Alliance membership from our corporate partner Stansberry Research.
Berna Barshay has just joined us as the third primary writer (along with me and Enrique Abeyta), we're hiring a fifth analyst shortly, and we're launching multiple new products in the future.
The next one is Enrique's new Empire Elite Growth... and it's launching next week. Each month, he'll share ideas that he thinks have five- to 10-bagger potential over the next three to five years.
That $6,000 (plus a $399 annual maintenance fee) gets you lifetime access to the Empire Investment Report ($5,000 per year), Empire Elite Growth ($5,000 per year), Empire Elite Trader ($828 per year), and Empire Stock Investor ($199 per year). The partnership pays for itself nearly two times over in the first year!
Again, the offer expires at midnight tonight, so sign up now right here.
2) Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos just released his annual letter. I've compiled a PDF of every one of his letters going back to 1997, which you can read and download here.
Though Amazon's stock is near its all-time high, I continue to think it's a buy... I see few companies better positioned for long-term growth and rising profitability.
3) My newest colleague, Berna Barshay, writes:
The International Energy Agency ("IEA"), released its monthly Oil Market Report a few days ago, and the numbers in it are nothing short of jaw-dropping. The organization is forecasting that global demand in April will be down 29 million barrels per day (mb/d).
The projected demand level is equivalent to 1995 levels... That means 25 years of global growth and developing market maturation completely will be erased by the global social distancing efforts occurring this month.
Even with an easing of travel restrictions, the IEA sees demand for the second half of 2020 down by 9 mb/d. In reaction to the staggering drop in demand, production is expected to contract by 12 mb/d starting in May, with about 80% of the decline coming from the OPEC producers and the remainder from non-members like the U.S. and Canada. The report goes on to say:
Low prices threaten the stability of an industry that will remain central to the functioning of the global economy. Even with demand falling by a record amount this year, oil companies still face the challenges of investing to offset natural production declines and to meet future growth. Global capital expenditure by exploration and production companies in 2020 is forecast to drop by about 32% versus 2019 to $335 billion, the lowest level for 13 years.
4) Berna has some suggestions for things to watch this weekend:
In an effort to stay positive in the face of the challenges of staying at home all the time, I've tried to regularly focus on the silver linings of our current situation. Besides the obvious positive externalities of more quality time with immediate family and less money spent on commuting and eating out, one amazing side effect of this crisis has been the rapid explosion of high quality free content being streamed.
Even without a job to do, markets to watch, children and pets to care for, cooking, and of course the endless hand washing and sanitizing of surfaces, you would be hard pressed to find time to watch all the streamed concerts, take in all the online interviews, and practice all the Zoom Yoga.
I had great fun belting out some old favorites with my seven-year-old tonight as we watched the Disney Family Singalong (which should be up on Hulu starting tomorrow for repeat viewing), so I thought I would share some of the things I'm looking forward to over the next few days, which look to be quite fruitful for high-quality, free music content – mostly online, but some broadcast.
The most anticipated of the events is the OneWorld: Together at Home concert, which will air Saturday, April 18 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Univision. The Lady Gaga-curated concert will be hosted by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel and feature artists such as Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, and Stevie Wonder.
There will be an additional six hours of streamed performances from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. accessible via Amazon Prime, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube – featuring additional artists including Adam Lambert, Annie Lennox, Jennifer Hudson, and Sheryl Crow (I've listed about a tenth of the people set to make an appearance). The event will benefit frontline health care workers and the World Health Organization.
And two less promoted events may also be of interest...
Tonight, April 17, you can stream a retrospective of 25 Years of Disney on Broadway, a rebroadcast of a benefit concert from November 2019, including numbers from hit shows such as The Lion King and Frozen. It can be streamed at 7 p.m. on either playbill.com or broadwaycares.com, and is a fundraiser for the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Finally, next Wednesday, April 22, the Jersey 4 Jersey concert to benefit the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund will be broadcast at 7 p.m. on several ABC affiliates in the tri-state area as well as on E-Street Radio on SiriusXM, and will simultaneously stream on AppleTV and Apple Music. New Jersey artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Tony Bennett, and Halsey will perform, and hosts will include Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, and Jon Stewart. They had me at Bruce! You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl.
Happy listening!
Thank you, Berna!
Best regards,
Whitney