Month: September 2020

Stock futures fell Thursday morning, teeing up the three major indices to resume their declines after an at least temporary resurgence in technology shares sent stocks higher a day earlier. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — A meteoric rise in China’s U.S.-listed electric-vehicle stocks that disrupted market-value rankings and left some industry observers scratching their heads is showing signs of fizzling.After reaching record highs in New York, EV makers NIO Inc., Xpeng Inc. and Li Auto Inc. each lost more than 10% over the past week. A dramatic drop by giant Tesla Inc. — amid intensifying competition and the company missing out on being included in the S&P 500 Index — has some investors questioning the prospects of smaller Chinese contenders.The stocks’ surge was based on investors betting that Tesla will help broaden the …read more […]

Oh no… we’re doing it again.
Andy’s stirring up another controversy.
But this one’s worth the stress. It’s worth the teeth-gritting. We promise.
You see, we were invited to a marvelous place over the holiday weekend. It’s a farm whose rolling hills gently run right into a small college town. Tucked down a winding driveway that’s chased by a small freestone creek lies what the owners call a village of barns.
These barns don’t belong on a farm.
They’re immaculate 19th-century masterpieces, with brick floors, tongue-and-groove beams and ornate metalwork pounded out by the hands of a blacksmith who is clearly the master of masters.
Across …read more […]

Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, September 10, 2020. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — China’s top flash memory chipmaker sees no easy way to replace U.S. chipmaking gear, underscoring how a further crackdown on the supply of American technology will devastate the local semiconductor industry.Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. gets over 80% of its equipment from the U.S. and Japan now, said Zheng Jiuli, vice president in charge of supply chain management. While some Chinese suppliers have made breakthroughs in areas including etching, cleaning and coating, there aren’t enough local alternatives to replace everything, he added.“Long-term investments in innovation and R&D have led to technological advantages” at U.S. and Japanese suppliers, Zheng said. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Nano-X Imaging Ltd., a startup founded by Israeli investor Ran Poliakine, is joining forces with South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. to build a machine that could disrupt a century-old X-ray industry.Valued at about $2 billion after listing on Nasdaq last month, Nano-X is seeking to transform a multi-billion-dollar industry that has essentially relied on the same technology since Nobel prize winner Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in the late-19th century. Nano-X’s device uses semiconductors instead of metal filaments to generate X-rays.The backing of SK Hynix, the world’s second largest maker of memory chips, is a boost for an …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong’s police force said it arrested 15 people in connection to last month’s surge in shares of Next Digital Ltd., the media company owned by vocal government critic Jimmy Lai.The arrests were made on suspicion of the use of illegal funds and conspiracy to defraud, Chung Wing-man, chief superintendent of the narcotics bureau, told reporters at a Thursday briefing. The people, who made a combined profit of about HK$38 million ($4.9 million), traded a high volume of Next Digital shares and the police have reason to doubt their source of income, Chung said.Police said one of the …read more […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has raised its Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil price forecasts for 2020. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc, the oil giant that announced a seismic strategy shift last month, made its first venture into offshore wind power with a $1.1 billion purchase of U.S. assets from Norway’s Equinor ASA.The deal marks the start of an offshore-wind investment partnership in the region for the two companies, which have been at the forefront of the rapid changes in the oil industry as companies seek to adapt to the realities of climate change.BP has taken the boldest steps so far in abandoning the oil-supermajor business model. Just six months after taking the helm, Chief Executive Officer Bernard …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Oil held a rebound in the previous session as industry data pointed to a drop in U.S. gasoline stockpiles and after a report that China will buy more crude for its strategic reservesFutures in New York traded near $38 a barrel after rising 3.5% Wednesday. The American Petroleum Institute reported gasoline inventories fell by 6.89 million barrels, while crude stockpiles climbed by almost 3 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the data.See also: Oil Market Buckles Under Pressure of Pandemic’s Second WaveChina’s next five-year plan beginning in 2021 will call for increases to its mammoth …read more […]

The European Central Bank is all but certain to keep policy unchanged on Thursday but with the economic recovery losing momentum and a strong euro dampening already-anaemic inflation expectations, it may set the stage for more stimulus later. Having pulled out the stops this spring to halt a historic economic decline across the 19-country currency bloc, the ECB has time to let governments implement their own countermeasures and for its own ultra-easy policy to seep into the real economy. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail business to Amazon.com Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the matter.Amazon has held discussions about investing in the conglomerate’s Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. unit and has expressed interest in negotiating a potential transaction, the person said. Mumbai-based Reliance Industries is willing to sell as much as a 40% stake in the subsidiary to Amazon, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.A deal, if successful, would not only create a retail behemoth …read more […]

AstraZeneca Plc (NYSE: AZN) CEO Pascal Soriot said during a conference call with investors Wednesday that a person experiencing symptoms related to a rare neurological disorder caused its global COVID-19 vaccine trials to pause, Stat reported. What Happened: Soriot revealed that the trial participant, a woman in the United Kingdom, suffered symptoms consistent with a spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis, according to Stat.The diagnosis wasn’t confirmed and the woman could to be discharged from the hospital as soon as Wednesday, according to the executive.A board overseeing safety and data components of the trial reportedly confirmed that the participant was …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — The British pound has been on a losing streak in recent days as the likelihood increases the U.K. will leave the European Union without a trade agreement. Given the potential disastrous economic consequences of such a fractious departure, the question arises as to why traders haven’t punished sterling even harder.The answer probably lies in the fault lines that bedevil the pound’s peers. But its resilience may not last.The U.K. government said this week it’s prepared to break international law “in a very specific and limited way,” introducing legislation on Wednesday designed to dodge parts of the EU …read more […]

Lucid Motors on Wednesday unveiled the Lucid Air electric sedan in a web broadcast, its answer to Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model S vehicle.What Happened: The deliveries of the new electric sedan are slated to begin early spring next year, the Newark, California-based company said in a statement.”With the Lucid Air, we have created a halo car for the entire industry, one which shows the advancements that are possible by pushing the boundaries of EV technology and performance to new levels,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said.”We are building the best car in the world, the numbers simply speak for themselves,” …read more […]