Month: August 2020

Smartphone shipments in China plunged 35% in July compared with a year earlier, government data released on Tuesday shows. The numbers suggest handset demand in China remains weak despite indications of a recovery after coronavirus cases peaked, boding poorly for companies like Apple Inc and its local rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. Phone makers shipped 21.3 million handsets in July, versus 33 million a year earlier, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a state-backed think tank. …read more […]

Shares in Lemonade (LMND) dropped 5% in Tuesday’s after-hours trading after the digital insurance company reported its inaugural earnings following the July 2 IPO. 2Q adjusted gross profit was modestly ahead of Street estimates, with KPIs beating substantially.Specifically, Q2 GAAP EPS of -$1.77 beat Street forecasts by $0.41 while revenue of $29.9M surged 116.7% year-over-year, and topped consensus expectations by $0.59M.Gross Earned Premium came in up 121% year-over-year and 4% above Street estimates, vs. 1Q’s 143%. And 2Q adjusted gross profit rose 203% year-over-year, yielding a 20% ratio of adjusted gross profit to gross earned premium.IFP, defined as the aggregate …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s WeChat ban targets a celebrated Chinese innovation at the heart of the world’s largest mobile gaming and social media empire, threatening one of the more eye-catching stock rallies of 2020.It’s hard to overstate WeChat’s importance to Tencent Holdings Ltd. It’s the means through which Tencent introduces a billion people to games and other online content, funneling trillions of dollars in annual payments to brands from Apple Inc. to Walmart Inc. WeChat’s reach underpinned Tencent’s $280 billion gain in market value since a March 18 Covid-19 trough — equivalent to one Samsung Electronics Co. and the fifth …read more […]

Typically, investors consider consumer staple stocks as safe bets during economic slowdowns or recessions. The defensive nature of consumer staples and attractive dividends make them desirable during challenging times.Generally, consumer staples do not deliver spectacular sales growth rates. However, COVID-19 changed that for some companies like Clorox. Heightened focus on sanitizing and cleaning led to a major spike in Clorox’s sales. Procter & Gamble is another staples company that benefited from higher pandemic-led demand for some of its products.Using the TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the two staples alongside each other to see which stock offers the most …read more […]

An Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: KODK) board member and his wife donated nearly half their stock holding in the company, amounting to 3 million shares, to a religious charity on a day when the company’s stock hit its highest valuation since 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. What Happened George Karfunkel and his wife Renee Karfunkel made the donation to New York-based Congregation Chemdas Yisroel on July 29, according to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The donation, thought to be the largest made to a religious organization based on a list maintained by the …read more […]

U.S. gold futures slid 2.4% to $1,900. “It looks like some of the euphoria is coming out of the gold market,” with a test of support around $1,800 now looking possible, IG Markets analyst Kyle Rodda said. A jump in U.S. Treasury yields helped the dollar extend its winning streak, making gold more expensive for those holding other currencies. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Gold’s rout is not yet done. Prices sank below $1,900 an ounce on Tuesday, extending the precious metal’s slump into a second day after the haven lost more than 5% in the week’s opening session.After setting a record above $2,000 an ounce last week, gold’s rally has come to a juddering halt as U.S. bond yields advanced, eroding the haven’s appeal. The swift drop followed modest outflows from gold-backed exchange-traded funds, and a 15-day run in overbought territory for the relative strength index.Gold had been on a tear in 2020, and the reversal represents a challenge for the …read more […]

The United States in recent weeks has made deals to acquire hundreds of millions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines from several companies as part of its Operation Warp Speed program, which aims to deliver a vaccine in the country by the end of the year. Moderna’s price per dose comes to around $30.50 per person for a two dose regimen. With the exception of its deal with AstraZeneca, which offered a lower price per drug in exchange for upfront research and development costs, all the deals price COVID-19 vaccines between $20 to $42 for a two dose …read more […]

Tesla’s stock, which traded at $1,475 after the announcement, is among the highest priced on Wall Street, and the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a press release it was looking to make its shares more accessible to employees and investors. Tesla’s stock has surged over 200% this year, while shares of General Motors and Ford Motor declined on fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Stock splits are a way for companies to make shares more accessible to retail investors, potentially attracting individual investors who make small trades. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Eastman Kodak Co. significantly increased its spending to lobby the federal government in the months before the Trump administration announced a $765 million loan to the beleaguered camera company.Kodak spent $870,000 lobbying Congress and federal agencies from April through June, according to public disclosures filed with Congress. The Rochester, New York-based company hadn’t spent any money on lobbying since an expense of less than $5,000 in the first quarter of 2019, the reports show.The recent lobbying may have helped secure a letter of interest from the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., announced on July 28, that would give …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Payments processor StoneCo Ltd., which counts Warren Buffett among its top investors, said it signed a definitive agreement to combine business with Brazil software firm Linx SA for about $1.1 billion.The deal will be implemented through a merger of shares in a cash-and-stock transaction, Stone said in a filing after markets closed. The base exchange ratio represents a total of 33.7625 reais ($6.3) for each Linx share, valuing the company at more than 6 billion reais. In a separate filing, Stone said it’s planning a $1 billion share offer to finance the acquisition.Talks of the potential business combination …read more […]

There is a quote that has been attributed loosely to Ernest Hemingway that I find very useful in teaching my two daughters.
My preferred version of it is this:
When asked how he went bankrupt, the man replied, “Slowly, and then all at once.”
The point is that you can get away with something for a really, really long time.
And then, all of a sudden, you find yourself paying a price so dear you can’t believe how stupid you were.
I’m thinking of this quote today for a specific reason.
Because generally speaking, if you print a lot of money, you get inflation.
Well, let …read more […]

This just might be the greatest Trade Talk Tuesdays I’ve ever recorded…
It’s a special “alternative investments” episode…
Which reveals a “secret” sports card that just sold on eBay for more than $38,000!
And guess what?
If you’ve ever set foot inside a grocery store, you just might have this card in your house – right now.
Do you have it?
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Watch my newest Trade Talk Tuesdays alternative investments episode right now!
Just click the link below!

For more insight on investment opportunities, trading strategies and more… join me in The War Room!
The post Sports Card Investing: This $38,000 Card Might Be …read more […]

To say Seres Therapeutics (MCRB) began the week with a bang would be a severe understatement. More like an earth-shattering explosion. Shares surged by 390% in Monday’s trading after the microbiome drug maker announced positive results from a clinical trial.In a Phase 3 study of SER-109 for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI), the oral microbiome medicine exhibited a 30.2% drop in the proportion of patients who experienced a recurrence in CDI within an eight week period compared to placebo. Overall, only 11.1% of patients given the treatment experienced a CDI recurrence as opposed to 41.3% in the …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. is splitting its elevated shares in a 5-for-1 exchange, a move timed to make the stock less expensive for individual investors after the company become the world’s most valuable automaker. Its shares surged on the news in aftermarket trading.Each shareholder of record on Aug. 21 will receive a dividend of four additional shares of common stock for each share, the Silicon Valley electric-car manufacturer said Tuesday. Trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis on Aug. 31.The split is a timely decision to capitalize on Tesla’s recent surge, which has pushed its valuation to around $256 billion, …read more […]