✈️ Airlines Stall, AI Pays, and Wall Street Picks Favorites

Hey nutcrackers 🌰
This week brought turbulence in the skies, quiet comebacks in tech, and a reminder that Wall Street doesn’t reward effort — it rewards execution. Let’s crack open what really mattered.

The most crippling issues in finance firms take shape long before they demand attention.

That string of late responses Bill wrote off? Quiet cultural erosion that kills deal momentum? Repeated client concerns that evade the right eyes? These issues are so insidious that it can be impossible to see them coming till that high conviction fund is in the red...

Unless you know what to look for.

✈️ American Airlines Hits Heavy Turbulence as Rivals Cruise Higher

Storms exposed a tech problem, not just a weather problem

Winter Storm Fern didn’t just delay flights — it exposed how far American Airlines ($AAL) has fallen behind its rivals.

💥 The damage:

• 10,570 flights canceled (39% of schedule)

• Delta: 18% canceled

• United: 15.5% canceled

• Revenue hit: up to $200M

The real issue?
Crew couldn’t even access scheduling systems — a tech failure, not just weather.

📉 Market reaction:

• AAL: -8% this week

• Down 22.5% YoY

• Meanwhile:

  • US Global Jets ETF: +7.2%

  • S&P 500: +15.3%

👎 Labor isn’t happy either:
Flight attendants want leadership changes, saying the airline is years behind competitors in tech and customer experience.

🛫 Competitors Gain Altitude

Premium seats = premium profits

While American struggles, rivals are flying business class.

• United ($UAL) beat Q4 earnings and guided $12–$14 EPS for 2026

• Delta ($DAL) ordered 31 Airbus widebody jets for premium international routes

• Southwest ($LUV) shocked investors by:

  • Ending open seating

  • Adding assigned seats

  • Introducing premium-style fares

Southwest Q4:

• EPS: $0.58 (beat)

• Revenue: $7.44B

🧭 Bottom line:
Premium products are paying. American is still discounting.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧠 IBM Finds Its Role in the AI Gold Rush — Selling Shovels

When everyone builds, the consultants get rich

While hyperscalers burn cash on data centers, IBM ($IBM) is quietly printing money.

📊 Q4 results:

• EPS: $4.52 (beat)

• Revenue: $19.7B

• Best revenue growth in years

• Stock: +5%

🔥 Standout:

• Mainframe sales: +67%

• AI consulting backlog: $12.5B

• 80% from real billable AI implementation

IBM’s playbook:
👉 Don’t build the mine
👉 Sell picks and shovels

⚠️ Valuation check:
At 27x earnings, IBM trades like a growth stock — but grows like a consultant. Now it has to prove this isn’t a one-quarter wonder.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🤖 Why Meta Got a Standing Ovation… and Microsoft Got Booed

Same AI story, very different reactions

Meta and Microsoft both:
✔ Beat revenue
✔ Spent more on AI
✔ Said monetization is coming

Yet:

• Meta ($META): +10%

• Microsoft ($MSFT): -10%
  (That’s a $350B wipeout)

🎯 The difference:

• Meta revenue growth: 24%

• Microsoft: 17%

• Azure growth slowed slightly

• Microsoft depends heavily on OpenAI

• Nearly half of future revenue tied to ChatGPT’s success

Analysts say fears about OpenAI funding spooked investors — maybe too much.
But when bubbles are whispered… even strong numbers can crack.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🗞️ Other News — In a Nutshell 🥜

• 📦 Trade deficit jumps 94.6% in November to $56.8B, with Europe driving a third of the increase

• 🏭 Factory orders +2.7%, led by aircraft demand surging 97.6%

• 👷 Jobless claims steady at 209K despite layoffs from UPS, Amazon, and Dow

• 🚜 Caterpillar ($CAT) beat earnings as AI data centers drove generator demand — but warned tariffs could cost $2.6B in 2026

• 💳 Mastercard ($MA) beat earnings, then cut 4% of staff (1,400 jobs), taking a $200M restructuring charge

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🥜 Bottom Line

✈️ Airlines: Premium wins, tech failures lose
🧠 AI: Infrastructure burns cash, consultants cash checks
📉 Markets: Same earnings, wildly different verdicts

Wall Street isn’t asking “Are you in AI?” anymore.
It’s asking “Are you making money yet?”

Thanks for cracking the markets with us 🥜
See you in the next edition of Cash Nut 💰

Are you too young to think about how you’re aging? Probably not.

Starting in our 30s, some key cellular processes begin to slow down, making us feel tired and weak over time. This decline affects not just our physical strength and endurance, but significantly reduces our quality of life making everyday activities harder to enjoy.

Luckily, scientists have discovered a way to shape how we age. Mitopure®, by Timeline, targets the root cause of this cellular decline and is clinically proven to increase cellular energy, giving our bodies the energy they need to function optimally. The results? Double-digit increases in muscle strength without any change in exercise.

Take aging into your own hands. Cash NUT readers get 30% off with code 30NEWSLETTER for a limited time, while supplies last.