The summer sun is seducing stir-crazed American families tired of penny-pinching. Add to that a strong dollar and I predict that those who can will travel.

Now, as swine flu continues to make the news, it will perhaps prompt some to avoid cruise lines and foreign travel to “high-risk” destinations.

That leaves European and domestic travel and as airlines have taken a hit lately, I chose that industry to sort through for just the right bargain.

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU), Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ADR) (OTC:DLAKY) and Air France – KLM (ADR) (OTC:AFLYY) look to be ready to bounce, but not as high as these two airline stocks…

Cleared for takeoff

On the domestic front, AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE:AAI) has felt the recession like other airlines. It announced earlier in the week that it anticipates a drop in second quarter revenue of perhaps as much as 7%.

And like its competitors, it will seek to mitigate the loss by cutting capacity around 8%.

But Airtran is small and consolidated. But the most compelling aspect of this stock is its fundamentals. Its got a forward P/E of 5.52 and a tiny PEG of .18.

The price and most importantly, the timing, are just right to invest in this company.

I recommend you buy shares of AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE:AAI) at or under $5.75 and hold on for 20% gains in the next 6 months.

My other pick is British Airways plc (ADR) (OTC:BAIRY). To cope with declining business, the company asked pilots to accept a pay cut in return for shares. The pilots agreed.

I think they were right to… The companies P/E of 4.02 is just where I like it to be, and the current share price is under half of its 52-week high.

British Airways is set for a rebound.

I recommend you pick up shares of British Airways plc (ADR) (OTC:BAIRY) under $23 and hold on for at least 20% gains in the next 6 months.

Source: The Best Way to Play a Strong U.S. Dollar

• U.S. sales in November fell 31% for Ford Motor Co. (F) and 34% for Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR:TM) Every line of Ford vehicle posted falling sales, and the company responded by slashing first-quarter North American output for 38% to 430,000 vehicles, Bloomberg reported.

• Crippled by global slowdown, British Airways plc (OTC:BAIRY) said it is in merger talks with Australian airliner Qantas Airways and Spain’s Iberia, Reuters reported. Should the three mesh together, it would create the largest airline company.

• U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co. (GE) said it is looking for ways to cut costs, including job cuts and its finance and industrial units, in order to reach the low end of its fourth-quarter profit forecast. “Obviously the macro environment remains very challenging,” Keith Sherin, GE’s chief financial officer, said in a briefing with investors, Reuter reported. “We know that we have to reduce our cost structure in this environment.”

• In the midst of a dour holiday shopping season, Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) posted a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss, as its Sears and K-Mart stores took a beating from the U.S. recession. The company also announced it would close more stores and buy back as much as $500 million of its stock, MarketWatch reported.

• Oil prices fell to a 3-year low yesterday (Tuesday) as mounting job losses and fears of a protracted recession continued to weigh on investor confidence. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $2.32 – more than 4% – to settle at $46.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices touched $46.82 earlier in the day, the lowest level since 2005.

• U.S. credit card write-offs will continue to increase in 2009, as the unemployment rate continues to climb from the 6.5% reached in October, the top executive at Discover Financial Services (DFS), said yesterday (Tuesday) according to The Associated Press. David Nelms, Discover’s chief executive, said write-offs could be near 5% in the fourth quarter and 6% in the first quarter of 2009.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

• British Airways PLC (OTC ADR: BAIRY), AMR Corp.’s (AMR) American Airlines Inc. and Iberia SA (PINK: IBRLF) announced yesterday (Thursday) that they were applying for European and U.S. antitrust immunity. If the three airlines receive the requested exemption, the three carriers will cooperatively set fares and share seats on transatlantic flights, BusinessWeek reported.

• Despite oil’s recent pullback, icon investor T. Boone Pickens feels crude will not drop below $100 due to the United States’ heavy dependence on foreign oil. “I don’t think it’ll drop below $100,” Pickens told Reuters yesterday (Thursday) in a telephone interview. “I would say $110 is where it might go, something like that.”

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) announced yesterday (Thursday) that net income increased 17% in its fiscal second quarter driven by bargain hungry shoppers hurting from high food and fuel prices. For the quarter ended July 31, Wal-Mart reported net income of $3.45 billion, or 87 cents per share, an increase from $2.95 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the same period in the prior year,
  The Wall Street Journal reported.

• Amusement park operator Six Flags Inc. (SIX) said yesterday (Thursday) that revenue in the third quarter through Aug. 12 was up 7.6%, or $23.5 million, from the same period last year, and included fewer operating days. Attendance grew 5.1%, or 407,000 people, to 8.4 million, the company said. Year-to-date, Six Flags said its revenue was up 6.1% from last year, representing an increase of $43.1 million.

• Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI) Inc will eliminate 1,000 positions from its local newspapers around the U.S. because of declining advertising and circulation revenue, Reuters reported. The company said the cuts equal about 3% of the positions in its Community Publishing unit.

• General Motors Corp. (GM) said yesterday (Thursday) that it would finalize the design of the all-electric Chevy Volt by mid-September and hopes to have 50 prototypes with production-ready parts by the end of 2008. GM plans to launch the car in 2010, Reuters reported.

• Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. (EL) said yesterday (Thursday) that net income hit $120.2 million, or 61 cents a share, in the quarter ended June 30, from $88.6 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Quarterly sales rose 14% to $2.01 billion. For fiscal 2009, the company said it expected earnings per share of $2.57 to $2.72 and net sales growth of 6% to 8%.

• Netflix Inc. (NFLX) has suffered a major disruption in its mail-service DVD rental business, The Wall Street Journal reported, that has prevented the majority of customers from receiving movies since Tuesday. Steve Swasey, a spokesman for California-based Netflix, described the cause of the disruption as a “pretty severe technical” problem with the company’s shipping system and could not speculate as to when the problem might be resolved.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, August 15th, 2008