Month: May 2020

North American oil companies have slashed production faster than skeptical OPEC officials and industry analysts expected, on course to cut roughly 1.7 million barrels per day by the end of June, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. state and company data. The group, known as OPEC+, agreed to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June. During talks last month, some OPEC members raised concerns that nations like the United States and Canada couldn’t muster that magnitude of cuts from private companies without state mandates. …read more […]

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates were mixed this week, continuing to hover near all-time lows. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan edged up to 3.26% from 3.23% last week, which was the lowest level since Freddie started tracking rates in 1971. Consumer confidence in housing was pushed in April to its lowest level since November 2011 as the economy and housing market reeled from the shutdown spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, the other large mortgage buyer, Fannie Mae, said Thursday. …read more […]

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While Detroit automakers’ unionized auto factories have been idled by the coronavirus pandemic, farm and construction equipment makers Deere and Caterpillar have won the support of the United Auto Workers and other unions to run their facilities during the pandemic. Giving employees sick time without penalty, temperature screenings, staggered shifts and hiring a hygiene-auditing firm are some of the measures the two companies have taken to reassure employees returning to production lines when many union and non-union workers balk at reporting for jobs that could expose them to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Detroit’s auto companies had …read more […]

Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel recap the latest earnings from PayPal, Grubhub, Anheuser-Busch Inbev and Lyft. …read more […]

Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre breaks down the latest market action. …read more […]

As U.S. oil prices plunged, sand suppliers have shut mines, dismissed workers and slashed operations as customers stop drilling and fracking new shale oil wells. “You can drive by plants and see which ones have already been walked away from,” said Peter Allen, a director at closely held Black Mountain Sand, which operates mines in Texas and Oklahoma. “It will remove a substantial amount of supply and will leave the healthy companies in place,” he said, adding Black Mountain sits on enough cash to weather the downturn. …read more […]