Month: October 2020

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The Pandemic’s Hidden Inflation… and What to Do About It

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on The Pandemic’s Hidden Inflation… and What to Do About It

We went out to dinner the other night.
It was a place we’d normally be proud to be seen in.
We masked up, waited in the car until a table was ready like we were told to and then were quickly shuffled by the tables full of maskless potential super-spreaders.
Oh my.
We accidentally looked one of them in the eye.
The hostess seated us and quickly took off for the safety of the front desk.
“Wait,” we cried. “What about the menus?”
“No,” she shot back. “We don’t use them anymore. Use your phone.”
It turns out we had to scan a code at the back of …read more […]

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Oil Falls to Four-Month Low as Renewed Lockdowns Menace Demand

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Oil Falls to Four-Month Low as Renewed Lockdowns Menace Demand

(Bloomberg) — Oil fell to a four-month low, deepening Wednesday’s slump as lockdown restrictions grow in Europe.Futures in London lost 3.9%, declining as the dollar reversed an earlier loss to trade higher. Germany and France, the European Union’s two biggest economies, will clamp down on movement for at least a month to try and curb Covid-19’s spread. There are already signs that road use in Europe is slumping, weighing on oil consumption.As the impact of the virus rears its head across markets once again, oil is also contending with supply issues too. American crude inventories rose the most since July …read more […]

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Shell raises dividend as retail boost drives confidence

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Shell raises dividend as retail boost drives confidence

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday raised its dividend after easily beating quarterly profit forecasts and outlined plans to shrink its oil and gas operations as it presses forward with a transition to low-carbon energy. The Anglo-Dutch company hit record earnings from its vast retail division, despite the impact on demand of the COVID-19 pandemic, which it said continued to generate “significant uncertainty”. In a sign of renewed confidence, Shell said it would boost its dividend on an annual basis after it cut the payout in April for the first time since the 1940s. …read more […]

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Shell Raises Dividend as Profit Beats Expectations

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Shell Raises Dividend as Profit Beats Expectations

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc raised its dividend and pledged to grow the payout steadily, just six months after slashing it for the first time since the Second World War.Amid a painful year for Big Oil, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant offered investors some good news. It also reported a larger-than-expected profit for the third quarter, lower net debt and strong cash flow, even as most of its divisions continued to be battered by the coronavirus pandemic.Shell’s dividend for the quarter will increase by 4% to 16.65 cents a share and increase annually thereafter, the company said in a statement …read more […]

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Nokia cuts full-year profit forecast, sets new strategy

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Nokia cuts full-year profit forecast, sets new strategy

Nokia cut its full-year profit forecast on Thursday even as the telecom network equipment maker’s quarterly underlying profit met expectations in its first earnings under new CEO Pekka Lundmark. The Finnish firm also announced a new strategy under which it will have four business groups: mobile networks, IP and fixed networks, cloud and network services and Nokia technologies, from January. “We expect to stabilise our financial performance in 2021 and deliver progressive improvement towards our long-term goal after that,” Lundmark said in a statement. …read more […]

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Stocks Drop in Asia; U.S., Europe Futures Recover: Markets Wrap

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Stocks Drop in Asia; U.S., Europe Futures Recover: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks dropped Thursday after shares tumbled in the U.S. and Europe, as rising coronavirus infections and tougher lockdowns added to worries about the economic hit from the pandemic. U.S. futures rebounded from the worst of the overnight declines.Losses were more modest across Asia than in the American session, with shares in South Korea and Australia faring worst, while Japan erased earlier declines. S&P 500 contracts climbed about 1% after the benchmark lost 3.5% Wednesday — its biggest drop since June. The dollar gave back some of its overnight advance and 10-year Treasury yields held at 0.78%. Oil …read more […]

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Central Banks Sell Gold for First Time in a Decade

October 29, 2020 admin Comments Off on Central Banks Sell Gold for First Time in a Decade

(Bloomberg) — Central banks became gold sellers for the first time since 2010 as some producing nations exploited near-record prices to soften the blow from the coronavirus pandemic.Net sales totaled 12.1 tons of bullion in the third quarter, compared with purchases of 141.9 tons a year earlier, according to a report by the World Gold Council. Selling was driven by Uzbekistan and Turkey, while Russia’s central bank also posted its first quarterly sale in 13 years.While inflows into exchange-traded funds have driven gold’s advance in 2020, buying by central banks has helped underpin bullion in recent years. Citigroup Inc. last …read more […]