Month: October 2019

Oil prices were little changed on Monday, holding onto 2% gains from Friday amid renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, while a detente in the U.S.-China trade war buoyed market sentiment. Brent crude futures rose 9 cents to $60.60 a barrel by 1208 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures was at $54.79 a barrel, up 9 cents. Most of the gains were posted on Friday after an Iranian oil tanker was attacked off Saudi Arabia’s coast in the Red Sea. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — China’s shoppers and investors lost their appetite for gold this year — and there’s little expectation of any major improvement in 2020 as slowing growth and higher prices crimp consumer spending.Jewelry consumption is forecast to drop 4% to about 660 tons this year, according to forecasts from Metals Focus Ltd., while a decline of more than 20% to around 240 tons is seen for investment demand.Slowing growth and concerns over the trade war have hit consumer sentiment and a rally in prices is keeping some investors away, said Nikos Kavalis, a director at the London-based research firm. He …read more […]

Understanding AMA Group Limited’s (ASX:AMA) performance as a company requires examining more than earnings from one… …read more […]

Kevin Smith reflects on his 25-year-career in Hollywood. The writer, director and actor says because he makes specific types of movies, he’s never really judged against any other directors but himself. (Oct. 13) …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The pledges China and the U.S. made to keep prospects alive for a comprehensive trade deal did little to alter the deteriorating growth outlooks for both countries because they were sealed with something economists don’t trust: a handshake.China agreed Friday to more than double its annual purchases of American agricultural products to as much as $50 billion — providing a political shot in the arm to a rural constituency that’s key to President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid more than …read more […]

The package would significantly increase the stake of SoftBank, which already owns around one third of WeWork, and further dilute the influence of co-founder Adam Neumann, the Journal reported. Reuters previously reported that SoftBank was in negotiations to make a $1 billion investment to enable WeWork to go through a major restructuring. WeWork is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co to negotiate a $3 billion debt deal after a planned initial public offering was tabled last month because of investor concerns about how it was valued and its business model, sources told Reuters. …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — A small $1.5 billion company is attracting the biggest movers in finance in what’s shaping up as the first high-profile foreign hostile takeover in Japan. If successful, it could wake up the sleepy $228 billion market of publicly listed real-estate companies.The attention is on Unizo Holdings Co., until recently an obscure developer and hotel operator. The company has a big chunk of its office rental business, which accounts for about 90% of operating income, in Tokyo, where the vacancy rate is as low as 2% and a decent 3.5% yield can be earned. The developer’s stock came …read more […]

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of June 28. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as […] …read more […]

Investing in small cap stocks has historically been a way to outperform the market, as small cap companies typically grow faster on average than the blue chips. That outperformance comes with a price, however, as there are occasional periods of higher volatility. The last 12 months is one of those periods, as the Russell 2000 […] …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent troops to the northeast of the country to confront a Turkish offensive, raising risks of an escalation after Kurdish fighters turned to Damascus in the absence of U.S. support.The state-run SANA news agency said soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army had begun to move northwards. The Kurdish command for the northeast said it had reached a deal with Assad. The deployment comes after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered remaining U.S. forces in northern Syria to withdraw in the face of a rapid Turkish advance that has drawn international condemnation and the threat of …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — An unprecedented blackout that plunged millions of Californians into the darkness for days is over.And nobody can say when the next will hit.Even as PG&E Corp. declared an end to last week’s shutoffs — a deliberate move to keep power lines from sparking the kind of blazes that forced the utility into bankruptcy — the company warned that more will come. “It’s a future we must be ready for given the conditions and risks that we face,” Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said in a press conference with reporters.California still has six weeks left in its traditional wildfire …read more […]