Month: August 2020

Shares of Caterpillar (CAT) fell almost 2.8% on Friday despite beating 2Q earnings estimates. Its 2Q adjusted earnings of $1.03 per share exceeded analysts’ estimates of $0.64. Moreover, revenues of $10 billion surpassed Street estimates of $9.38 billion. However, the company’s outlook for dealer inventories weighed on its stock.During the second quarter, dealers reduced inventories for new equipment by $1.4 billion. The company now anticipates dealer inventories to decline by over $2 billion in 2020, up from its previous estimate of $1.5 billion.Following 2Q earnings, Oppenheimer analyst Noah Kaye reiterated his Hold rating on the stock. He said, “While decrementals …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Wealthy countries have already locked up more than a billion doses of coronavirus vaccines, raising worries that the rest of the world will be at the back of the queue in the global effort to defeat the pathogen.Moves by the U.S. and U.K. to secure supplies from Sanofi and partner GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and another pact between Japan and Pfizer Inc., are the latest in a string of agreements. The European Union has also been aggressive in obtaining shots, well before anyone knows whether they will work.Although international groups and a number of nations are promising to make vaccines …read more […]

Bitcoin and Ethereum crashed by 12% and 20% respectively in about 6 minutes as more than $1 billion of positions were liquidated. Bitcoin’s price went from $11,930 to $10,550. By press time, the price has now recovered to about $11,400. Ethereum crashed from $408 to $326. By press time, the price has now recovered to […]The post Bitcoin and Ethereum crash by more than 12% in 6 minutes as more than $1B of positions gets liquidated appeared first on The Block. …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Trading saved European Big Oil from the full impact of this year’s oil crisis. It’s not the first time that massive profits from in-house trading desks ameliorated poor operating results from the core business of finding and producing hydrocarbons — and it won’t be the last. But the companies may struggle to carry this safety net into the era of decarbonization.As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Chris Hughes wrote this week, Royal Dutch Shell Plc proved it could make a profit even amid the carnage of the oil market in the April-June quarter. The slump in oil and …read more […]

The SpaceX Dragon capsule is bringing two NASA astronauts back to Earth after Elon Musk’s company made the first commercial trip to orbit. Photo: Associated Press …read more […]

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Eastman Kodak Co on Monday granted its executive chairman options for 1.75 million shares as the result of what a person familiar with the arrangement described as an “understanding” with its board that had previously neither been listed in his employment contract nor made public. One day later, the administration of President Donald Trump announced a $765 million financing deal with Eastman Kodak, and in the days that followed the stock soared, making those additional options now held by executive chairman Jim Continenza worth tens of millions. The decision to grant Continenza options was never formalized or made …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Marathon Petroleum Corp, the largest U.S. independent oil refiner, said it won’t restart two refineries in California and New Mexico amid concerns that demand for fuels is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels this year.Marathon said in a statement it will convert its 166,000 barrel-a-day Martinez, California, refinery near San Francisco into a terminal facility and may add a renewable diesel plant to align with California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standards objectives and Marathon’s greenhouse gas-reduction targets. It will also close the 26,000 barrel-a-day Gallup refinery in New Mexico.Both refineries were idled in April as Covid-19 decimated demand for …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Siemens Healthineers AG is in advanced talks to buy Varian Medical Systems Inc. in a transaction that could value the company at more than $15 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The agreement could be announced in coming days, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the acquisition isn’t yet public. Plans aren’t final and it could still fall apart.Representatives at Healthineers and Varian couldn’t immediately be reached for a comment.The acquisition comes amid early signs of a pick up in deals after the spread of the coronavirus and a worsening outlook for …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — As Bernard Looney took to the stage in London in February to announce his plan to transform BP Plc for a low-carbon future, the U.K. capital confirmed its first case of Covid-19.The oil giant’s chief executive officer couldn’t have known how the virus would shake the foundations of his industry: since the start of the pandemic, BP has said it will write off as much as $17.5 billion of fossil-fuel assets, slash 10,000 jobs and exit the petrochemicals business. And on Tuesday, it may announce the first dividend cut since the Macondo oil-spill disaster a decade ago.But despite …read more […]

Recent large discoveries in the Guyana-Suriname basin have somewhat compensated poor results for shale giant Apache …read more […]

Eastman Kodak Co on Monday granted its executive chairman options for 1.75 million shares as the result of what a person familiar with the arrangement described as an “understanding” with its board that had previously neither been listed in his employment contract nor made public. One day later, the administration of President Donald Trump announced a $765 million financing deal with Eastman Kodak, and in the days that followed the stock soared, making those additional options now held by executive chairman Jim Continenza worth tens of millions. The decision to grant Continenza options was never formalized or …read more […]

* Insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors during periods of uncertainty. * The executive chair of an energy infrastructure firm has returned to the buy window. * None of the featured stocks saw a gain in the past week.Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10% owners buy shares of a company for one reason — they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit from it. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty.Insiders continued to add shares despite overall market …read more […]

* This weekend’s Barron’s cover story examines special purpose acquisition companies, the new hot thing on Wall Street. * Other featured articles look at how to play rising gold prices or China’s comeback, and how not to get burned by thematic ETFs. * Also, the prospects for car dealer stocks, the breakup of big tech, office REITs and more.Cover story “SPACs Are the New Hot Thing on Wall Street. What You Need to Know” by Nicholas Jasinski explains that blank-check companies give investors an opportunity to ride along with dealmakers looking to bring new businesses public, …read more […]

* Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week. * This week’s bullish calls included tech giants and a top biotech. * An aerospace giant and the electric vehicle leader were among the week’s bearish calls.This past week was a busy one, leaving investors much to ponder as the month of July concluded. After congressional testimony from big tech chiefs, followed by big tech earnings, and after a mixed view from the Federal Reserve, corporate surprises and shakeups and a historically bad gross domestic product report, the Nasdaq and the S&P …read more […]