Here’s the bad news for anyone planning to travel over Memorial Day weekend.

Demand for gas “has come roaring back,” according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan. Unfortunately, it’s happening at a time when “oil production has not made a full recovery to pre-Covid levels.”

And that’s apparently going to lead to the kind of pump prices we saw back in 2014: “as much as $3.25 a gallon.”

But it doesn’t stop there. Because, despite the Colonial Pipeline’s operations being fully restored now, some gas stations could still be low on gas. So if you’re going to travel, make sure to fill up where you can.

Now here’s the good news from AAA spokeswoman Jeanette McGee. She says that 37 million people are expected to travel by car or plane for the holiday, a 60% increase over last year’s figure… when pretty much nobody was on the road.

It’s one more sign that the economy really is picking up.

Now, hopefully, you have your own car to get where you need to get to. Because there’s apparently a shortage of rental cars right now. This caution comes from AAA again, though from its senior vice president of travel, Paula Twidale.

Rental car companies decreased their inventories last year, it seems. As a result, Fox Business reports that “per-day prices for Memorial Day weekend have almost doubled compared to last year.”

In short, if you’re going to travel, it’s going to cost you something.

Though, with that said, isn’t that how life always works?

The World According to REITs

In more it-depends-on-how-you-look-at-it news, grocery stores are struggling to match the “it’s finally over” mentality taking over the U.S.

Grocery store chain Stew Leonard CEO Stew Leonard Jr. told Cavuto: Coast to Coast that:

“You don’t know how much of this [food inflation] is actually price-driven and how much of it is just supply and demand-driven. People are euphoric, it seems. Our customers are coming in [with the mindset that] life’s getting back to normal.”

One way or the other though, groceries are definitely getting more expensive.

Along the same re-opening lines, Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) reported that Q1 net sales rose 119% to $2.92 billion. There was a whole lot of pent-up demand in those figures, of course. So we shouldn’t expect to see such exponential movement in Q1-22.

All the same, it’s nice to see that Amazon (AMZN) hasn’t permanently stolen everything away from traditional retailers. I imagine a few real estate investment trusts (REITs) out there raised a toast to the news.

Probably not these three, but they’re moving forward nonetheless:

1. Digital Realty (DLR) opened its newest North American data center, this one in downtown Toronto. The strategically located YYZ12 opens 800 kilowatts and 6,900 square feet worth of colocation facility space.
2. Invesco Mortgage Capital (IVR) will make a public offering of 37.5 million common shares with a 30-day option for underwriters to buy an additional 5.625 million should they so choose. Proceeds will go toward paying off its 7.75% series A cumulative redeemable preferreds.
3. Medical Properties Trust (MPW) declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.28 per share to be paid on July 8 to stockholders of record on June 17. That keeps it steady at already established 2021 levels.

And here are yesterday’s biggest share-price givers and takers…

(Source: The Daily REITBeat)

Happy Investing