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Qantas cuts flights to Asia amid coronavirus outbreak; stock jumps

SYDNEY — Australia’s Qantas announced Thursday it will slash flights to Asia as the coronavirus crisis cuts into the airline and travel industries.

The decision to reduce the carrier’s overall capacity to Asia by 16% until at least the end of May is expected to cut between 100 million and 150 million Australian dollars ($67 million-$100 million) from Qantas’ earnings this year, the airline said in a statement.

Qantas shares QAN, +5.87%QAN, +1.04%  jumped about 5% in Sydney trading.

The move will affect Qantas services to China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Qantas’ secondary carrier Jetstar will cut back services by 14%.

The airline said, however, the impact of the cuts would be offset by a reduction in fuel prices worldwide, also caused by the virus outbreak as other airlines reduce Asian services.

Qantas flights between Sydney and Shanghai will remain suspended, while the Hong Kong-Sydney service will be cut from 14 to seven flights per week.

“Cononavirus resulted in the suspension of flights to mainland China and we’re now seeing some secondary impacts and weaker demand on Hong Kong, Singapore and to a lesser extent Japan,” Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

Joyce said the decision would leave Qantas with a surplus of some 700 full time workers from its overall staff of 30,000. The company would consequently make adjustments, such as asking for workers to volunteer to take leave owed to them while the reductions take place.

“What’s important is that we have flexibility in how we respond to coronavirus and how we maintain our strategic position more broadly,” Joyce said. “We can extend how long the cuts are in place, we can deepen them or we can add seats back in if the demand is there.

“We know demand into Asia will rebound. And we’ll be ready to ramp back up when it does,” he said.

As the global tourism industry continues to be battered by the outbreak, Qantas and Jetstar will also reduce their domestic capacity by 2.3% for the second half of the Australian financial year, which ends on June 30.

“These past few months have been extraordinarily difficult for the tourism industry and we’ve tried to minimize the impact of our capacity reductions as much as possible,” Joyce said.

He said about half of Qantas’ domestic cancellations are between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but he said the airline was avoiding any route exits.

The airline’s capacity reductions came as it also announced a 3.9% fall in profits to AU$445 million ($296 million) in the first half of the financial year.

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Some Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings

Household debt climbs to almost $16 trillion

Center for Freedom and Prosperity co-founder Dan Mitchell discusses household debt concerns and the state of the market.

More than a quarter of Americans have more credit card debt than they do in emergency savings, according to a new survey released by Bankrate on Thursday. However, the personal finance company found that 49 percent find themselves in the opposite circumstance.

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HOW DO CREDIT CARDS WORK, AND HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT FROM DEBIT CARDS?

The number of U.S. adults who have more credit card debt than emergency savings went down by one percent when compared to last year’s 29 percent. It is also on par with the highest level seen between 2011 and 2018, which ranged between 21 and 28 percent.

Conversely, the number of U.S. adults who have more in emergency savings than credit card debt increased by five percent from last year’s 44 percent. Though, at the same time, they are not saving as much as they used to. Between 2011 and 2018, American emergency funds surpassed credit card debt with a range that fluctuated between 51 and 58 percent, according to Bankrate.

US HOUSEHOLD DEBT TOPS $14T, REACHES NEW RECORD

“High rate credit card debt should be attacked with urgency,” said Bankrate Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride, who is also a designated Chartered Financial Analyst.

“Utilize zero percent balance transfer offers, trim other expenses, and generate additional income through freelance work or a second job to make 2020 the year you pay off credit card debt for good,” he advised in an official statement from Bankrate.

Forty-five percent of American households told Bankrate that they are prioritizing emergency savings growth over paying down debt. On the flip side, 38 percent of American households said they are prioritizing debt elimination over boosting their emergency savings.

HOW TO APPLY FOR A CREDIT CARD AND GET APPROVED

Six percent of American households said they are focused on prioritizing both simultaneously, but an alarming eight percent said they aren’t prioritizing either.

Younger Millennials between the ages of 24 and 30 were found to be more likely to have more credit card debt than emergency savings when compared to their older counterparts. In fact, 46 percent of young Millennials have more in credit card debt while 35 percent have more in emergency savings.

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Consequently, this young demographic is more focused on increasing their emergency savings. Older Millennials who are between the ages of 31 and 39, on the other hand, are more focused on paying down their debt than boosting their emergency savings.

Having a large emergency fund tends to become more important with age, according to Bankrate’s findings. When comparing the 46 percent of young Millennials that have credit card debt to those who are age 66 and older, Bankrate observed a significant decline. Only 15 percent of those 66-year-olds and above had more credit card debt than emergency savings.

“It takes time to build emergency savings and it is a moving target as expenses increase from young adulthood to middle age,” McBride noted. “The habit of regular saving is critical to starting, growing, and replenishing your emergency savings cushion.”

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Bankrate created its survey with a sample of 1,011 respondents.

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Michael Bloomberg: My Taxes Are Too Complicated To Make Public Right Now

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed that releasing his tax returns to the public would be complicated and take “a long time” during Wednesday’s ninth Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas.

“It just takes us a long time. Unfortunately or fortunately, I make a lot of money and we do business all around the world and we are preparing it,” the billionaire, who is self-funding his presidential campaign, said when asked about making them public. “The number of pages will probably be in the thousands of pages. I can’t go to Turbo Tax.”

Bloomberg entered the race in November, months after his competitors had already begun their campaigns. In addition to not releasing his tax returns, Bloomberg has twice delayed filing a personal financial disclosure form with federal regulators, leaving details of his self-financed campaign hidden, potentially until after the critical Super Tuesday contests next month.

“We’re releasing them. They’ll be out in a couple of weeks. That’s as fast as we can do it,” Bloomberg said at the debate Wednesday.

The former mayor’s answer didn’t sit well with the other candidates on stage, who groaned and immediately shot their hands in the air to register their desire to respond.

“Everyone up here has returned their tax returns,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said. “It is a major issue because the president of the United States … has been hiding behind his tax returns.”

Donald Trump was the first major party nominee since Gerald Ford to not release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign. He has since claimed they are under an audit that has now lasted four years.

In January 2016, Trump’s explanation for not releasing his tax returns was similar to Bloomberg’s: “We’re working on that now. I have very big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very beautiful and we’ll be working that over in the next period of time,” Trump said at the time. “This is not, like, a normal tax return.”

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Twitter Users Pull Out The Popcorn As Democratic Debate Goes Into Total Smackdown

The Democratic debate quickly intensified into a heated showdown Wednesday night as candidates wasted no time in tearing into Michael Bloomberg ― and each another ― during the billionaire presidential contender’s first appearance on the debate stage.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) set the tone, taking aim at Bloomberg from the get-go by pointing to the former New York City mayor’s controversial stop-and-frisk policing policy, which disproportionately affected Black and Latino people.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) came out (and kept on) swinging, blasting Bloomberg for his wealth and past offensive comments about women.

“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians,” Warren said. “And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also dove in, blasting Sanders and Bloomberg as the “two most polarizing figures on this stage.”

Warren went on to go after Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for their health care proposals, labeling Buttigieg’s “thin” plan as nothing more than a “PowerPoint” and scorning Klobuchar’s as nothing more than a “Post-It Note.”

“I take personal offense because Post-It Notes were invented in my state,” Klobuchar replied. Buttigieg countered that he was “more of a Microsoft Word guy.”

Later, the two Midwestern candidates exchanged blows. Buttigieg criticized Klobuchar for forgetting the name of Mexico’s president, and Klobuchar accused him of “trying to say that I’m dumb.” They faced off again toward the end of the debate: Klobuchar derided the mayor’s lack of experience, and Buttigieg retorted that you “don’t have to be in Washington to matter.”

As things on the debate stage spiced up, so did the reactions on Twitter. Here’s a glimpse of what viewers had to say.

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Disney CEO Bob Iger gets personal

New York (CNN Business)Bob Iger’s tenure as the CEO of Disney (DIS) has been marked by a series of epic achievements.

The decision to acquire Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm helped Disney (DIS) shatter records at the box office. He oversaw the expansion of theme parks in Asia and unveiled Galaxy’s Edge earlier this year at Disneyland in California. Under his leadership, 21st Century Fox came into Disney’s fold, resulting in a whole new roster of intellectual properties for the nearly 100-year-old company.
And soon, Iger will take on Netflix (NFLX) with the launch of Disney+, a streaming service with its own slate of exclusive offerings.

    It seems like success has come easy for Iger, but his long climb to the top was far from a straight shot and he credits a number of “very generous people” for helping him get there.
    “It’s an extraordinary experience to have to work for people who are considered the best in the business at what you know, at what they specifically did in the business and that’s incredibly good fortune on my part,” Iger said. “It wasn’t planned, it’s just good luck.”

    Bob Iger on Disney Plus: 'There's nothing like it'
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    Iger, 68, was referencing four specific figures who loomed large over his 45-year career: Legendary ABC executives Roone Arledge, Tom Murphy and Dan Burke and Iger’s predecessor at Disney, Michael Eisner.
    Iger sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour recently for a wide-ranging interview about his new memoir “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.” He opened up about his childhood and talked about his father’s struggles with mental health issues and how they affected him in “profound ways.”
    “Even with all of his trouble, he believed in his son,” Iger told Amanpour. “I don’t know what it was that he saw in me but he believed in me. And I don’t think you can really believe in yourself until someone else believes that there is value within you.”
    He said his father’s manic depression taught him to “be resilient and to understand that there was an unpredictable situation right there in my own home and to learn how to cope with that.”
    It seems like Iger carried this lesson with him throughout his career. After failing as a weatherman at a local TV station in New York, Iger ended up in production at ABC where he met mentors like Arledge, Burke, and Murphy.
    “He just took the time, made sure when he sat with you, he wasn’t distracted,” Iger said about Burke. “Now that’s before mobile devices and email and so maybe it was easier but he was just a wonderfully generous man. And Tom Murphy too. They were such highly-principled people.”
    Before Iger took over for Eisner in 2005, the Magic Kingdom was running low on magic. Disney’s stock was down and Iger said the board was desperate for change. Board members at first didn’t think Iger was the right person for the job and they believed they needed to “go outside the company” to fill the CEO role. Iger had been president and COO of Disney for five years at the time and he “did not in any way represent change.”
    Bob Iger thinks Apple and Disney might have combined if Steve Jobs were still alive
    “But they — fortunately for me — they decided that they should consider me as the inside candidate and that led to 15 interviews, which is how long it took me to convince them that, even though I was an insider, that I could bring change to the company,” Iger said.
    According to Iger, his relationship with Eisner was fraught at times, but he said “as I think about Michael I think actually, quite positively” about him. Iger credits Eisner with “re-creating” Disney when he became CEO in the 80s.
    “I learned tremendous amounts from him, about creativity, particularly multi-disciplined creativity, about theme park creativity, and movie creativity,” Iger said. “I was a TV person. And he had incredible guts, he did big things. That’s something that I believe in as well.”
    This belief became apparent when it was Iger’s turn to do big things. After years of churning out hits like “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin,” Disney’s animation unit produced a string of expensive bombs like “Hercules,” “Atlantis” and “Chicken Little,” to name a few.
    “That great era had been over for a while and we hadn’t been able to find ourselves, so I knew when I got the job, that if I had one priority in terms of business performance or creative performance, it was Disney animation,” Iger told Amanpour.
    Iger said he “quickly discovered that the right people were at Pixar,” the acclaimed animation studio behind the groundbreaking “Toy Story” franchise that was chaired by Steve Jobs.
    When Iger became CEO, he took it upon himself to repair Disney’s relationship with Jobs, which was broken at the time because “he had had a tough relationship” with the company when Eisner was at the helm.
    When Iger successfully closed a deal in five days to have Disney and ABC programs available on Apple iTunes for download on iPods, he said Jobs “looked at me differently than he had before.”
    Iger said the deal gave him the confidence to propose to Jobs the “crazy idea” of Disney buying Pixar.
    “And the rest is history,” Iger said.

      Now Iger is entering the twilight of his career as he plans to step down as CEO in 2021. Launching Disney+ will be one of Iger’s final acts.
      “There’s nothing like it out there. It’s an incredibly compelling proposition for consumers,” Iger said of the service.
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      See what Shanghai, China, looks like as coronavirus fears linger

      Hong Kong (CNN Business)Qantas Airways is warning of a big hit from the novel coronavirus outbreak, as it slashes flights across Asia.

      The airline reported Thursday that the “negative impact” from the coronavirus outbreak will likely cost it between 100 million and 150 million Australian dollars ($67 million to $100 million) in pre-tax profit for the second half of the company’s fiscal year.
      Despite the warning, shares in Qantas (QABSY) rose 5% in Sydney.

        As demand to Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan continues to plummet, Qantas will reduce flights across Asia by 15% until the end of May, CEO Alan Joyce said during an earnings presentation Thursday. The airline had already canceled its service to Shanghai until the end of May.
        These airlines have suspended flights to and from China
        “We have a lot of flexibility in how we respond across the (company). We can extend these cuts, cut deeper if we need to, or add capacity back in,” Joyce said.

        The company reported pre-tax profit of 771 million Australian dollars ($512 million) for the six months ended in December, down 4 million Australian dollars ($2.7 million) from the same period a year earlier.

          Qantas also announced a share buyback of 150 million Australian dollars ($100 million).
          The global airline industry is facing huge financial losses, after dozens of carriers canceled or reduced flights to China and other Asian countries because of the coronavirus outbreak. The economic damage will likely be worse than the $7 billion hit wrought by the 2003 SARS epidemic.
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          A Hot Emerging-Market Bond Strategy Comes Back on Coronavirus Fears

          The emerging-market bond strategy that delivered a bumper return last year is regaining momentum as the new coronavirus spreads.

          Going long duration in a bet the outbreak will slow global growth and convince central banks to ease policy has already returned more than 5% since the start of 2020, after surging 26% last year. Lombard Odier, Pictet Asset Management and Emso Asset Management all say they’ve revised their portfolios investing in developing-economy debt to boost duration, which measures a bond’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

          “A situation like the coronavirus basically impacts global growth that is already quite fragile,” said Dhiraj Bajaj, a fund manager at Lombard Odier in Singapore, whose Asia debt team oversees $5 billion. “We increased duration last year as we felt global growth will slow. We increased again in January, given the virus situation and to protect our portfolios.”

          Emerging-market bonds denominated in the dollar due in 10 years or more have returned 5.5% this year, according to a Bloomberg Barclays index that includes sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate debt. The index rallied from December 2018 through August last year as the U.S.-China trade dispute fueled concern global growth would slow, only for gains to ebb when the two sides reached a phase-one deal. The spread of the coronavirus has seen it gather pace again.

          Lombard’s Bajaj recently bought the debt of quasi-sovereigns issuers in Thailand, Indonesia and India with maturities of 30 to 40 years. His main fund, the $2.8 billion Lombard Odier Asia Value Bond, has a duration position of 5.9 years, compared with 4.5 years for the benchmark it uses to gauge performance. The fund has outperformed 98% of its peers over the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

          Policy Easing

          The spread of the epidemic needs to be watched closely as it threatens the world economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told U.S. lawmakers last week. The Thai and Philippine central banks both cut rates this month as the epidemic hammered Asian tourism, travel and business confidence, while policy makers in Malaysia and Singapore have also signaled a willingness to ease following the outbreak.

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          Pictet has boosted its overweight duration position in developing-market bonds, partly on the view the coronavirus will convince central banks to become more accommodative.

          “We like 30-year bonds, 40-year bonds and even in some selected cases, 100-year bonds,” said Guido Chamorro, co-head of emerging hard-currency debt in London at the company that oversaw $208 billion at the end of 2019.

          Chamorro said his team has been building its overweight duration position since last year as the Fed pivoted to a dovish stance, and is focusing on investment-grade countries such as Peru, Panama, Mexico, Romania and Qatar.

          Emso’s View

          For Emso Asset, value lies in the 20- to 30-year bonds of BB and BBB rated sovereigns such as Indonesia, Paraguay and Peru, according to Jens Nystedt, a fund manager in New York, who helps manage $6 billion. Longer-maturity bonds in emerging markets offered the best value even before concern about the coronavirus surfaced because of their attractive spreads, he said.

          And that means such trades will probably remain rewarding even if the coronavirus outbreak fades given the global growth outlook, according to Lombard’s Bajaj. There’s no reason for the Fed to raise rates and the two largest emerging Asian economies — China and India — are both slowing, he said.

          “Even if the virus goes away, and we certainly hope it will, it will not meaningfully change the global picture for fixed-income investors,” Bajaj said.

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          Tyro unveils $19m loss, revenue jump in first result since ASX debut

          Payments disrupter Tyro has reported a 28.4 per cent lift in revenue and record growth in new clients but also a blow out in its statutory loss, as it booked its first half-year result as an ASX-listed company.

          Following one of the most successful Australian floats of 2019, Tyro on Thursday announced first-half revenue of $117 million, with more than 6000 new merchants signing up to use the company's eftpos machines, which processed $11.1 billion in transactions, over the six-month period.

          Tyro chief executive Robbie Cooke said the company’s half-year performance was “a great result all round”.Credit:Peter Braig

          "We're very pleased with the performance over the last six months," chief executive Robbie Cooke said.

          The company's statutory loss for the half blew out to $19.2 million from $7.7 million in the prior corresponding period. The company put this down to funding an expansion into online retail that resulted in employee costs jumping by 16.6 per cent and a 46.3 per cent hike in marketing costs.

          Tribeca Investment Partners portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu, who bought into the IPO, said the results were ahead of the prospectus forecasts and predicted the company would double, or triple, in size in a few years.

          "It's very important for them to continue to invest," Ms Bei Liu said.

          'I don't really see neobanks as competitors to us because they are trying to do everything. Home mortgages, credit cards, the full gamut. We're not.'

          Founded in 2003, Tyro is a payment specialist that competes with the major banks for merchant customers. The firm declared itself "Australia's fifth largest bank" by terminal count, as it booked a 26 per cent jump in eftpos modules to 58,993 over the period.

          Analysts have fretted over the risk posed by competitors to Tyro, be it as a smaller company taking on the big banks or a larger company staring down the emerging neobanks. Morgan Stanley warned the big four could suddenly build a tech-enabled payments platform to stamp out Tyro, but Mr Cooke said "there is no point whingeing" about competitors.

          "The way you win in this space is to actually do what the customer wants. We're focused on giving merchants the best possible payment product. If we get that right, people will come to us. It does not actually matter what the big guys do," Mr Cooke said.

          Tyro became an authorised deposit-taking institution in 2015 and faces the same amount of red tape as the big four. Mr Cooke said he was not worried about regulatory costs despite complaints from other companies operating in the sector.

          "Post the banking inquiry, there hasn't been a raft of new laws, there's actually been a step up in the enforcement and oversight of the existing framework. We've always worked within that framework and we're comfortable with that.

          "It's part and parcel of being a bank and if you have the right focus in your business, your customers, you'll be fine," he said.

          Tyro has seen gains in its banking operation, with merchant loans increasing by 82 per cent in the half to $37.4 million. Similar leaps have been made in the take up of its deposit offerings, with 3100 active accounts holdsing a total of $39.7 million as of December 31 last year.

          Mr Cooke said Tyro was focused on keeping its offering simple.

          "I don't really see neobanks as competitors to us because they are trying to do everything. Home mortgages, credit cards, the full gamut. We're not," he said.

          Looking forward, Mr Cooke said there were plans for Tyro to enter the accommodation and hotels sector but added a lack of brand recognition was the biggest hurdle facing the company.

          In late afternoon trade, Tyro shares were 1.6 per cent lower at $4.28.

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          Record wheat output expected, arranging storage for harvest a worry

          India is expected to harvest 291.95 mt of foodgrain in 2019-20

          India is expected to produce record 106.21 million tonnes (mt) of wheat in the crop year 2019-20, according to the second Advance Estimates released on Tuesday.

          Arranging storage for this harvest, which is set to far exceed demand, could be one of the many challenges the government may encounter in 2020-21 unless quick measures are taken to liquidate a big portion of the stock in the coming months.

          The data released on Tuesday showed estimated wheat production in the 2019-20 crop year, which started in July 2019, is 2.61 mt more than the 2018-19 harvest and 5.71 mt more than the target for this year.

          Assuming that almost 30-35 per cent of this huge production has to be purchased by state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies from April 2020, as has been the norm, almost 28-37 mt will be added on to the existing inventories.

          This could further stretch the already precarious financial position of FCI, which according to the 2020-21 Budget document is projected to borrow 24 per cent more in 2020-21 at Rs 1.36 trillion from the National Small Savings Fund.

          The data showed that total foodgrain stock (wheat+rice) in the Central pool as of February 7, 2020, was estimated to be around 57.81 mt, of which wheat stock was estimated to be 30.36 mt, a whopping 124 per cent more than the requirement.

          Rice stock was estimated to be 27.41 mt, a staggering 260 per cent more than the required stock position on January 1 each year.

          As of January 1, FCI along with state agencies had around 75.81 mt of storage space available with them, of which 62.64 mt is covered storage space, while another 13.20 mt is covered area plinth (CAP).

          In the financial year 2019-20 (FY20), the Centre is projected to allocate 60.39 mt for targeted public distribution system and other welfare schemes, far less than the quantity procured.

          Meanwhile, the second Advance Estimates show that among other major rabi crops, production of gram is estimated to be 11.22 mt, up 12.80 per cent from last year.

          Output of mustard, the biggest oilseed crop grown during the rabi season, is projected to fall marginally to 9.11 mt, down 1.54 per cent from last year.

          Total rabi foodgrain that also includes pulses and coarse grains, according to the second Advance Estimates, was projected at 149.60 mt, up 4.10 per cent than last year.

          Together with kharif foodgrain production, India is expected to harvest 291.95 mt of foodgrain in 2019-20, which is 2.36 per cent more than 2018-19’s.

          Photograph: Ajay Verma/Reuters

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          Democratic Voters Now See Sanders As Primary Front-Runner, Poll Finds

          Democratic voters now see Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as more likely to win the party’s presidential primary than his rivals, even as uncertainty about the eventual outcome of the race remains high, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. Nearly 8 in 10, meanwhile, say they’re at least satisfied with the field of candidates currently running.

          Sanders, who pulled off a victory in New Hampshire primary, has seen his numbers rise in national polls.

          About a third of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters now say they think Sanders is the most likely nominee. This represents a shift from late January, when former Vice President Joe Biden was seen as the most likely eventual winner, and from the days after the Iowa caucuses, when Sanders and Biden were seen as having about equal prospects.

          In the latest poll, just 15% name Biden as the most probable winner; 12% name former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and 15% say another candidate. About a fifth say they’re not sure ― a faction that has actually gotten bigger since the beginning of the year.

          Just 4% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say it’s clear which candidate will win. Another 43% say it’s down to a few candidates, and 42% say the primary is still anyone’s to win.

          Early-state contests like the ones held in Iowa and New Hampshire are meaningful for the momentum and viability they offer, even if there are limited number of delegates at stake. And public perception about the results isn’t always as simple as crowning one candidate the winner and saying the rest are losers ― multiple contenders may be seen as having pulled out stronger-than-expected performances, or as having failed to meet expectations.

          Two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say Sanders did well in New Hampshire, with 58% saying the same of former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and 48% of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. On the flip slide, 60% see Biden as having done poorly in the state, while 38% say Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard did poorly, and 36% each that businessman Tom Steyer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren did.

          These numbers probably reflect, to some extent, voters’ own preexisting opinions about the candidates. But they also reflect a fairly broad awareness of the dynamics of the election, and the campaign narratives that have played out: After Iowa, voters gave roughly equal standing to Sanders and Buttigieg, with Warren and Biden trailing ― rankings that echoed the eventual results reported from the caucuses.

          Just under two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say they followed the results of the New Hampshire primary at least somewhat closely, although just about one-third say they followed it very closely.

          After the Iowa caucuses, Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters were divided in their levels of confidence that the results were accurately counted. That’s not the case for New Hampshire. About three-quarters are at least somewhat confident in the results from that state, and about 4 in 10 are very confident. Roughly three-quarters also say they’re at least somewhat confident that the presidential primary as a whole will be conducted fairly.

          These voters are also overwhelmingly content with the state of the field. Seventy-nine percent say they’re either satisfied with or enthusiastic about the candidates running in the primary, and just 14% say they’re either dissatisfied or upset. When asked to pick which of the individual candidates they’d be enthusiastic to see as the nominee, 46% picked Warren and 43% chose Sanders, followed by Biden and Klobuchar at 34% each, Bloomberg at 31%, Steyer at 13% and Gabbard at 2%.

          Forty-three percent would be upset if Gabbard were nominated, the poll finds, with about a quarter each saying they’d be upset with Bloomberg or Sanders as the nominee. About a fifth would be upset with Biden, and between 12% to 15% say they’d be upset with Warren, Klobuchar, Buttigieg or Steyer.

          Use the widget below to further explore the results of the HuffPost/YouGov survey, using the menu at the top to select survey questions and the buttons at the bottom to filter the data by subgroups:

          The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Feb. 12-15 among U.S. adults, including 322 Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

          HuffPost has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.

          Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some but not all potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.

           

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