Month: August 2020

The dancing girl came back.
This time, she was here to teach. She put an ad on Facebook the day before and promised a good time… and her class filled up.
Half a dozen folks showed up to learn how to forage… and paid us to pick our weeds.
It was a hit.
Nobody got sick.
After the class, we chatted a bit. And as many conversations tend to do this time of the year, we meandered to the topic of our schools.
We went back and forth on what’s being taught these days… and what’s not.
We created a long list of essentials that have been …read more […]

Target posts some insane second quarter financials. Bottom line. …read more […]

AMC Theatres has had a tough year, global pandemic or not. But with major movie theater chains like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) and Regal Cinemas set to reopen this week, will audiences be ready to return to the theaters? All the signs are pointing to no. And that could be a real problem for shareholders of AMC stock.

AMC Stock’s Pandemic Plight
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit movie theaters hard, and AMC stock had already been on a decline for years. But now, the status of one of my favorite movie theaters is in more peril than ever.
AMC is set …read more […]

Top news and what to watch in the markets on Wednesday, August 19, 2020. …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — It will sound familiar. You’re doing an electronic transfer for $10 and just stop short of sending $1,000 by mistake. Sometimes bungled transactions like this go through — but rarely on the scale of last week’s $900 million payments blunder by Citigroup Inc., which paid debt investors roughly 100 times more than it was supposed to.The problem here is not just the size of the giant bank’s mistake. A history of bad will between Citi and some of the recipients is making it hard to undo the lapse.If you gave someone an unintended windfall through an erroneous …read more […]

OPEC oil producers and allies such as Russia, a grouping dubbed OPEC+, meets on Wednesday to review compliance with oil cuts meant to support oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. OPEC+ is unlikely to change its output policy, which currently calls for reducing output by 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) versus a record high 9.7 million bpd up until this month, according to OPEC+ sources. Compliance with the cuts was seen at 95% to 97% in July, according to OPEC+ sources and a draft report seen by Reuters on Monday. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — The $20 trillion U.S. Treasury market is giving the Federal Reserve a thumbs-up for its efforts to revive inflation after the coronavirus pandemic threatened to inflict a damaging bout of deflation on the U.S. economy.The best measure of that is inflation-adjusted interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds, which have plunged well below zero as nominal yields held fairly steady. Other signs of success include rising expectations for future prices among U.S. households.Those are all signals that investors reckon some degree of inflation may be on the way, in part because Fed Chair Jerome Powell and colleagues slashed interest …read more […]

OPEC oil producers and allies such as Russia, a grouping dubbed OPEC+, meets on Wednesday to review compliance with oil cuts meant to support oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. OPEC+ is unlikely to change its output policy, which currently calls for reducing output by 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) versus a record high 9.7 million bpd up until this month, according to OPEC+ sources. Compliance with the cuts was seen at 95% to 97% in July, according to OPEC+ sources and a draft report seen by Reuters on Monday. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — European equities are stuck near the same levels they were at two months ago, and if strategists are to be believed, that rut may drag on into the year-end.Equity strategists surveyed by Bloomberg on average expect the Stoxx Europe 600 to end 2020 at a level of 370, leaving little upside for European shares as of Tuesday’s close. They forecast a year-end level of 3,192 for the euro-area gauge Euro Stoxx 50, implying about 3% downside.After recouping more than half their pandemic-fueled losses in just three months, European stocks have stalled amid rising Covid-19 infection rates across the …read more […]

Shares of Sorrento Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: SRNE) traded 13.5% lower in after-hours trading on Tuesday as a reaction to the company firing its Chief Financial Officer Jiong Shao. What Happened: Sorrento Therapeutics, a biotech drug manufacturer in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday stated that Shao is “terminated in its entirety, effectively immediately.” Further, the company announced it has appointed Najjam Asghar as its new CFO.Asghar has already been performing the role of chief accounting officer for the company since June 2019.Why It Matters: Sorrento also claimed that Shao’s termination is in association with the company’s …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — European stocks edged lower while U.S. futures drifted as investors weighed what’s next for the post-pandemic rally after shares hit all-time highs on Wall Street. Gold slipped back below $2,000 an ounce.Declines in RWE AG and other utilities outweighed gains in travel shares as the Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened. Contracts on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 erased earlier moves after the benchmarks closed at records Tuesday. The dollar held five days of declines against its major peers and Treasuries rose before the Federal Reserve releases minutes of its last open-market committee meeting.Asia stocks were mixed. …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Dear investors readers,In response to recent rumors, started by me, that I’m in talks to purchase the U.S. operations of TikTok, I’d like to clarify. I am indeed interested in buying the hip viral short-video service. I’d also like to fly to Mars, cure cancer, or climb Mount Everest. Just as with my bid for TikTok, I have no intention of doing so. However, I have “held talks” with TikTok. By which I mean I tweeted at them. They didn’t reply.Despite the fact that I have no money, no operational experience, no management team and even this …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — The pound erased this year’s drop against the dollar, catching up with some Group-of-10 currencies that made the move months ago.The currency rose as much as 0.2% to $1.3267, extending gains after inflation in July was faster than anticipated. The rally, however, is mostly driven by the greenback’s drop. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has fallen every month since the end of March.”The dollar is doing most of the heavy lifting for the pound,” said James Athey, a money manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “Sterling is still cheap as chips. Everyone has problems, most of them huge, but …read more […]

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Sorrento sank 14% in extended market trading after the biotech company announced the ousting of its chief financial officer Jiong Shao.The stock plunged to $10.62 in the after-market session after Sorrento (SRNE) said in a SEC filing that Shao’s employment “terminated in its entirety”, effective immediately. Shao served as the company’s Executive Vice President and CFO.Sorrento announced the appointment of Najjam Asghar, 39, as the company’s CFO effective from Aug. 18. Asghar will serve as the company’s principal financial officer and principal accounting officer until a successor will be found. Asghar has been Sorrento’s Chief Accounting Officer since June 2019.The …read more […]