Month: August 2020

(Bloomberg) — It took weeks of frenzied gold trading in Istanbul’s historic commercial center to spur one of the biggest gaps between the cost of physical dollar bills and the official exchange rate in 18 years.Home to scores of foreign-exchange kiosks that double up as brokers for the precious metal, the Grand Bazaar is often seen as the benchmark for the country. Traders there also mostly use cash to settle gold dealings — and dollars were in short supply.As a result, U.S. currency bills in this market have been trading at the biggest premium relative to the official exchange rate …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Baidu Inc.’s quarterly revenue shrank 1% and its projections suggest sales could slide again, as rivals like ByteDance Ltd. continue to chip away at its core advertising business.China’s leading search engine forecast sales of 26.3 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) to 28.7 billion yuan for the September quarter, compared with estimates for 27.62 billion yuan. Its shares slipped as much as 8% in extended trading after Netflix-style subsidiary iQiyi Inc. disclosed it was cooperating with a U.S. regulatory inquiry into allegations by Wolfpack Research that it inflated user numbers. Shares in iQiyi fell as much as 19%.Read more: Baidu-Backed …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. is offering Seattle-based employees a choice of smaller offices outside the city, suggesting the Covid-19 outbreak and a new local employers tax have pushed the e-commerce giant to consider alternatives to its hometown.In a message to employees Thursday, Amazon asked which communities near Seattle — including Tacoma and Redmond, Washington — they’d prefer. The title on the message, which was shared on Reddit and later deleted, was “office workplace options.” Amazon declined to comment on the matter.Amazon, which reported a total global workforce of almost 877,000 as of June 30, has been expanding beyond Seattle for …read more […]

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Oil prices advanced on Friday and were heading for a second week of gains amid growing confidence that demand for fuel is starting to pick up despite the coronavirus pandemic that has slammed economies worldwide. West Texas Intermediate had gained 12 cents, or 0.3%, to $42.36. “The situation has improved some, but the market dynamics are still less than stellar,” said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities, adding “the market is oversupplied”. …read more […]

Taking the top spot, Apple (AAPL) is the world’s largest company by market cap. Valued at almost $2 trillion, the tech giant keeps swatting away whatever headwinds it encounters.The level of devotion it inspires among its fans is like no other. Mega-cap rivals Microsoft and Amazon might also be considered untouchable titans, but their brands and products do not sparkle with the same aura as Apple’s offerings do.That said, should investors be comfortable with how much its valuation has increased recently? Deutsche Bank analyst Jeriel Ong took a look inside Apple’s core, to explore why the giant from Cupertino has …read more […]

OAKVILLE, ON, Aug. 13, 2020 /CNW/ – Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. …read more […]

Do you recall our alert from Tuesday, July 14?
I sure do…
And so do a lot of Trade of the Day members who acted on this alert – and made themselves a boatload of cash.
It was called “the Vending Machine of Cars.”
The advice that day was to buy shares of Carvana(NYSE: CVNA).
Back on June 14, Carvana was around $110 per share.
And as you can see, since we made that recommendation, shares have traded above $220.
That’s a double – in less than two months – off a free Trade of the Day pick!

Based on this huge run, Trade of the Day …read more […]

2020 is turning out to be a tale of two halves for Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO).The vaccine maker’s valuation increased 10-fold between January and early July, backed by vigorous coronavirus tailwinds. As one of several companies taking the fight to COVID-19, investors cheered the early development of its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate, INO-4800.However, sentiment has soured recently, as analysts and investors have questioned whether Inovio’s offering can go the distance against its weightier rivals. Over the past month, the share price has declined by 30%.As a company with no product to sell (Inovio’s candidates are all still in development), investors’ focus …read more […]

Electric heavy-duty truck maker Nikola Corp. (Nasdaq: NKLA) began trading on the Nasdaq on June 4, 2020.
Investors were excited – to put it mildly. Nikola’s share price immediately rocketed higher.
Within five days of listing, shares surged to $80. The market valued this unproven business at more than $30 billion.
I warned that Nikola’s share price was held up by speculative fever, not by fundamentals.
And since then, the Nikola fever has cooled.
Two months later, the company’s share price is down 45%. It has been down as much as 60%.
I was right to be leery of Nikola’s lofty valuation back in June. But …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Applied Materials Inc. gave a bullish forecast for the current period on increasing orders for equipment used by makers of computer chips.The Santa Clara, California-based company is the largest maker of machinery used to manufacture chips, the most important parts of the electronics supply chain. Its customers include Samsung Electronics Co., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp. Chip equipment takes months to make and even longer to install and test in production lines that cost billions of dollars, which makes Applied Materials’ results and forecasts important early indicators of future demand in the electronics industry.Key InsightsRevenue in …read more […]

In the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the contenders aren’t about to cross the finish line just yet. As the deadly virus resurfaces in several countries, the world is anxiously waiting to see which name will be the first to bring the coveted solution to market. Already underway for months now, it’s still anyone’s game in this battle of the ages.Who is emerging as a likely winner? If you ask 5-star analyst Vernon Bernardino, of H.C. Wainwright, of the 165-plus vaccine candidates (38 in clinical-stage testing) in development, Vaxart’s (VXRT) chances are looking pretty good.Based on the company’s Q2 …read more […]

All dollar amounts are in U. dollars, unless otherwise noted. …read more […]

Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model Y brought huge manufacturing improvements over the company’s last mass-market car, the Model 3. Although they share 70% of the parts, the Model Y was made with a two-piece rear body, much less than the Model 3’s over 70 pieces for the same area of the car.Now, it seems the rear casting machine will be operational soon. “Biggest casting machine ever made,” Musk said in a tweet. This will make the construction of the car faster and more efficient while using fewer parts, costing less, and at the same time reducing the weight of the …read more […]

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy bought some bitcoin Thursday with the help of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.The post Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy buys bitcoin after Winklevoss pitch appeared first on The Block. …read more […]