Eagle Alpha hosted the largest virtual data conference to date across four half-days and featured over 75 speakers from the 19th to the 22nd of May. The conference attracted over 900 registered attendees from a diverse range of sectors, including data vendors, hedge funds, private equity funds, corporates, government agencies and central banks.This report features key takeaways from Day 1 speakers at the conference.

Job listing and Auto sales data can be used as a barometer of the US Macroeconomy and consumers spending. Job listings data is still in decline though April 19th, while US auto sales have rebounded from a low point in March. Job listing declines are most pronounced on the East and West Coasts and in major cities. In general, this is also true for the declines seen in auto sales, but there are exceptions. Both sets of data can be used to monitor current and future economic conditions in the US.

The Employee Profiling COVID-19 dashboard hosted on Eagle Edge shows sectors and companies that are most at risk from the Coronavirus outbreak. Risk scores help identify companies that may have elevated business risk and which companies may be less severely interrupted in coming months. Sectors with the highest risk scores are Utilities, Communications and Financials. Companies with high risk scores include Consolidated Edison, New York Times Co, CBS Corp and M&T Bank in the US and Intesa Sanpaolo, ITV Plc, UniCredit and Lloyds Bank in Europe.

Three different datasets are showing stability but no significant recovery of the Chinese consumer after COVID-19 lockdown. Online transaction volume (GMV) is up in March but does not represent a large snap back from January and February. Chinese cosmetics sales have recovered but South Korean duty-free sales to Chinese travellers in April, which are largely cosmetics related, have relinquished gains from early March. Lastly, hotel booking activity in Chinese cities remains at February levels. Sales for cosmetics companies like Estee Lauder and Revlon are holding up relatively well, while online sales for western brands like Tapestry, Capri and Apple are seeing some pressure.

Published April 14th 2020: The weekly COVID-19 Sales Signal dashboard hosted on Eagle Edge is showing a strong rebound in consumer search across consumer retail segments through the week ended April 5th. Some sectors are recovering more strongly than others. Within sectors, some tickers like HD and AEO are showing strong search trends while others, like RH and DBI, are still lagging.

Hotel room availability and room rates at 4&5 star hotels remain depressed globally. Room availability and room rates remain depressed in Greater China. The impact of COVID-19 is being felt more acutely across the hotel sector in other APAC countries in recent weeks. As an early read on the fundamental health of luxury hotels, and the broader luxury sector, the indicators are still in decline. China is showing some stability but is not recovering.

European and US cities showing early signs of recovery from low point in March. Geolocation data used to track people movement on an aggregate level is showing some cities starting to recover from the low points seen in March. In Europe, London and Berlin have started to recover. In the US cities like Dallas and Huston are starting to recover while New York has not. As the world emerges from lockdown this geolocation data can be used as a measure of how fast people movement resumes and will be a read on a recovery in economic activity.