“We remain comfortable with our ability to complete the full $24 billion of share repurchases within four years from when we started the program at the beginning of this year assuming no major downturn in the travel environment.”

In context

“r-over-year. Our average share count in the second quarter was 9% below Q2 2022 and 15% below Q2 2019. On a GAAP basis, we had net income of $1.3 billion in the quarter. Now on to our cash and liquidity position. Our Q2 ending cash and investment balance of $15.7 million was up versus our Q1 ending balance of $15.3 billion due to the $1.9 billion of debt issuances in May 2023 and the $1.6 billion of free cash flow generated in the second quarter offset by the $3.1 billion in share repurchases we completed in the quarter. In the first half of the year, we repurchased $5.1 billion of our shares, which represented 5% and of our year end 2022 share count. The repurchases so far this year take our combined authorization down to $19 billion from the $24 billion we discussed earlier in the year. We remain comfortable with our ability to complete the full $24 billion of share repurchases within four years from when we started the program at the beginning of this year assuming no major downturn in the travel environment. Now on to our thoughts for the third quarter of 2023. In July, we saw year-over-year room night growth of about 20% up from 9% in Q2. Looking across our major regions, in July we saw Asia up about 45%; rest of World up over 20%; Europe up mid-teens; and the US up mid single-digits. When comparing versus 2019 July room night growth was in a similar range to the 26% growth in Q2. The US was our most recovered region with growth at over 30% versus 2019. Our comments for the third quarter made the assumption that room night growth will be up low double digits year-on-year assuming some moderation in growth from July due in part to harder prior year comparables in August and September. You'll recall from our commentary on the third quarter of 2022 that room night growth versus 2019 was 4% in J”