Good afternoon and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving and why.
Alaska Airlines is pressing forward with its new Seattle-to-London transatlantic route even as jet fuel costs bite hard across the industry. Carriers are absorbing as much as fifty percent of those elevated fuel expenses rather than passing them fully to travelers, a margin squeeze that makes Alaska's premium international bet a calculated but genuinely risky play in this environment.
Turning to the consumer, ground beef hit a record six dollars and ninety cents per pound in April, and the pressure doesn't stop there. The domestic cattle herd is at its smallest in decades, propane costs are climbing, and Americans heading into cookout season are going to feel that combination squarely in the wallet before the first burger hits the grill.
And on the deal side, Poppi cofounders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are speaking publicly about their two billion dollar sale and what comes after. Their story is a useful lens on how founder-led consumer brands get built through concentrated risk and sacrifice, and how sudden liquidity reshapes decision-making for entrepreneurs who bet everything on a single product.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
