Month: October 2020

“Why are the rental rates of farmland versus its market value so disparate compared with any other rental-versus-ownership ratios?” one of our apprentices asked at supper last week.
I wish I had a nickel for each hour I’ve spent trying to explain that, unlike residential and commercial real estate, farmland rental rates will not pay the mortgage. Many people have become wealthy investing in commercial and residential real estate by having the rent pay the mortgage.
But that doesn’t happen in agriculture.
In our area, going rental rates for farmland run about 0.5% of the land’s value. In other words, farmland worth $7,000 …read more […]

Caterpillar Inc on Tuesday reported lower third-quarter earnings as equipment sales fell across all three primary segments. Caterpillar Chief Executive Jim Umpleby, however, said the company was witnessing “positive signs” in certain industries and geographies. Construction machine sales in Asia-Pacific, for example, were up 14% year-on-year in the latest quarter. …read more […]

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Hasso Plattner, chairman and co-founder of SAP, bought shares worth nearly $300 million in the German software company on Monday after a once-in-a-generation price slide triggered when management dumped its profit targets. The 76-year-old billionaire bought shares worth 248.5 million euros ($294 million) at an average price of 101 euros, according to a regulatory filing published on Tuesday. SAP shares slumped by 20% after CEO Christian Klein ditched his “ambition” for profit margins to expand steadily through 2023 and lowered the outlook for this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — European stocks dropped on Tuesday amid concern about the relentless spread of coronavirus, while U.S. equity futures turned higher before some of the biggest drug companies report results.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell toward its lowest close since June. Declines in miners and energy firms overshadowed positive earnings from banking powerhouses HSBC Holdings Plc and Banco Santander SA, which both signaled a brighter outlook for dividends. BP Plc warned of many challenges ahead as the pace of recovery in oil demand remained uncertain.The modest move up in S&P 500 futures comes after the index suffered its biggest daily …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Banco Santander SA rebounded from its worst-ever quarter with a profit that beat estimates and improved capital as it seeks to convince regulators that its balance sheet is strong enough to resume dividend payments.Net income totaled 1.75 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in the third quarter, beating estimates of about 1 billion euros, the bank said on Tuesday. The CET1 ratio, a key measure of capital strength, improved to 11.98% from 11.84% at end-June.The results strengthen the Spanish bank’s push to overturn the European Central Bank’s de-facto ban on paying dividends, which has driven down share prices. Santander Chairman …read more […]

The bank is yet to say if it will shed more jobs beyond the 35,000 it flagged earlier this year. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc narrowly avoided a third-quarter loss, but warned there are many challenges ahead as the pace of recovery in oil demand remains uncertain.The company defied analyst expectations to eke out a small profit as a rebound in earnings from fuel marketing offset “extremely weak” refining margins. Yet the positive surprise may do little to change the gloomy outlook for Big Oil amid the coronavirus pandemic.While crude prices have recovered from historic lows seen in April, BP’s profit was down 96% from a year earlier as restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus in …read more […]

Oct.27 — The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Iran’s Minister of Petroleum as well as some of the entities related to the country’s oil production and that comes as tensions rise between the two countries ahead of the U.S. election next week. Bloomberg’s Simone Foxman reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East.” …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, is unwinding a bet he placed on oil more than three decades ago by paring his group’s stake in Husky Energy Inc., a Canadian asset dealing with mounting losses.The tycoon’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and a Li family trust, which together own almost 70% of Husky, agreed over the weekend to sell a part of their stakes to Cenovus Energy Inc. in an all-stock deal. The $2.9 billion merger of two of Canada’s biggest oil-sands players would reduce Li’s and CK Hutchison’s combined holdings in the new entity to 27%.By cutting their …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — No one ever said that the casino industry didn’t involve risky bets. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., is considering a $6 billion sale of the Nevada casinos that made his fortune, people familiar with the matter told Gillian Tan and Christopher Palmeri of Bloomberg News.That’s a gutsy move. The casino industry is in the grip of a record slump. Gaming revenues on the Las Vegas Strip were down 39% from a year earlier in August. In Macau, where Sands China Ltd.’s resorts accounted for 61% of its parent’s operating income last year, …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. is planning to stop taking investor orders for the Hong Kong leg of its initial public offering a day earlier than scheduled as the record stock sale has already been heavily subscribed, according to people familiar with the matter.Demand has been so great the Hangzhou-based firm is set to close the institutional investor order book on Wednesday, said the people, requesting not to be identified because the matter is private. The company was initially planning to close the Hong Kong book at 5 p.m. Thursday for each region globally, according to terms of …read more […]

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has ended a controversial practice where it paid its CEO Elon Musk to provide Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance, the electric vehicle maker revealed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.What Happened: The automaker said it paid Musk $3 million for 90 days worth of coverage — up to a total of $100 million — but didn’t further extend the agreement.”Following the lapse of the 90-day period, we did not extend the term of the indemnification agreement with our CEO and instead bound a customary directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policy with …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — There’s no shortage of superlatives for Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering. Here’s a look at some of the key metrics, and why billionaire Jack Ma seems to be such a fan of the number eight.IPO: $34.5 BillionAnt’s $34.5 billion IPO blows past the previous record, set last year by Saudi Aramco at $29 billion. Ant’s money raise will likely jump another $5.2 billion once bankers sell additional shares to meet demand in what’s known as the greenshoe option. This chart of the 10 biggest IPOs also reflects the growing economic clout of Asia. The top five are …read more […]