Month: October 2020

The cannabis sector is a fascinating topic. It’s new, its legal status is shifting as society pushes the state legislatures, and that combination is creating opportunities for companies and investors alike. Which brings us to the disparate policy potentials of the major heading into the November election.To start with, the Republican platform simply does not prioritize cannabis legalization. The substance in illegal now, and Rs are not likely to change that any time soon. But – the Trump Administration has not been taking explicit anti-cannabis actions, and has allowed states which have legalized the drug, whether for medial or recreational …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — When talking about the biggest company in the world, it’s not unusual for there to be eye-popping numbers. But Apple Inc.’s latest superlative is not one investors would like to see.Since becoming the first American company to surpass $2 trillion in market value in August and peaking last month, the iPhone maker has lost $450 billion, wiped out by a 19% slump.The latest bout of selling — a 5.6% drop on Friday — took out more than $120 billion alone. Apple’s now worth $1.85 trillion and still the most valuable U.S. company, but the amount shaved from its …read more […]

Longer-dated Treasury debt sold off on Friday afternoon, steepening the yield curve to the widest since June, as investors anticipated the deluge of supply that would come from a post-election stimulus package. Investors pulled money out of the U.S. stock market, on track for its worst week since March, on rising COVID cases and election jitters. The benchmark 10-year yield was last up 3.1 basis points to 0.867%. …read more […]

Electric automaker Fisker completed its new spac merger and debuted at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Henrik Fisker, Fisker Inc. Chairman and CEO, Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland and The Final Round panel to discuss the new IPO and what to expect from the company. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Franklin Resources Inc. will need to defend their debt restructuring plan in December from attack by unsecured creditors who claim the proposal is built on a fraudulent scheme, a judge said Friday.U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones said he’ll consider the creditors’ claims Dec. 15 when he decides whether to approve Chesapeake’s proposal to exit bankruptcy by handing the company to senior lenders including Franklin. Jones also approved a disclosure statement that creditors will use to decide how to vote on Chesapeake’s reorganization plan.Between now and Dec. 15, a committee of unsecured creditors will prepare …read more […]

While today’s stock markets involve millions of complex transactions each day, a quick review of stock market history reveals a much simpler origin. The first stock exchange did not involve any exchange of actual stocks. Instead, the earliest example involved the buying and selling of debt.

Market Data by TradingView

The Beginning of the Stock Market
Before true stock markets were developed, moneylenders in Europe created an exchange system that was similar to a stock market. At the time, moneylenders performed a role similar to today’s banks. They loaned money to people and governments. Then, lenders would trade these debts with other lenders.
Soon, …read more […]

Call options are financial contracts that give the holder the right – but not the obligation – to purchase an underlying stock or asset at a specified price at a specified time or up until that specified time. Generally, when an investor buys a call option, they think the price of the underlying stock will go up and the option holder will make money as the price of the underlying stock increases.
You can buy call options to speculate on stock prices and magnify your returns. Or, you can sell them to collect income if you are bearish on the price …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that it would lift a ban on cruises in U.S. waters, even as government scientists warned that ships remain vulnerable to deadly Covid-19 outbreaks.The agency provided a list of detailed requirements that cruise lines must meet to resume U.S. operations — meaning that ships could return to U.S. ports in the next few months.“This framework provides a pathway to resume safe and responsible sailing,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in the statement.Yet with its statement Friday, the CDC said recent outbreaks show cruise travel “facilitates and amplifies” Covid-19 …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — PetSmart Inc. is shelving a $4.65 billion debt sale that would have helped finance its split from its online counterpart Chewy Inc. after struggling to get buyers on board.The company withdrew its joint junk bond and leveraged loan offering, citing market conditions, according to emailed comments from a PetSmart spokesman Friday. The financing, part of a plan to separate the companies led by private equity firm BC Partners, had yet to generate enough orders to match what it was trying to raise, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing a private …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — After all the hype around blank-check companies earlier this year, things have gotten ugly, with those shares selling off amid a stock-market rout.The Defiance Next Gen SPAC Derived ETF (SPAK), which primarily tracks companies that raise money for buying businesses, has plunged more than 14% since its October debut. Online sports-betting company DraftKings Inc. has tumbled about 40% this month, while Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. — a developer of space vehicles — is down about 9%.Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, have become a hot area of the market as a way for purchasers to avoid the costly …read more […]

Nearly a year into a global pandemic the world is still on the back of its heels. In the face of ever increasing infection rates, world economies have slowed rapidly and unemployment has increased significantly, and now governments are reconsidering shutting down entire countries once again. At the same time, the federal government has failed to pass a second stimulus package to prop up individuals who have lost their jobs and may be facing homelessness, as well as the need to help state and local governments provide a backstop against their own losses.Given this backdrop, there is a lot riding …read more […]

Imagine that Rip Van Winkle was an investor who fell asleep in January and just woke up.
He’d be ready for a big yawn. And he’d think stocks had given him good reasons for one.
After all, the Dow and S&P 500 are only showing modest single-digit gains for the year, putting them on course for their average annual return of about 10%.
But for investors who’ve been wide awake, 2020 has been anything but ho-hum.
The year got off to a good start with fresh all-time highs in January. But the pandemic and economic shutdown put a quick end to that.
From February to …read more […]

Last week, you might have seen that Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) released its full-year result to the market. The early response… …read more […]

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Boeing is unlikely to launch a new plane in the near future but its options will depend in part on how successfully its grounded 737 MAX regains its position in the market, the head of one of its engine suppliers said on Friday. The MAX is expected to win safety approval within weeks following a 19-month grounding in the wake of two crashes, Safran Chief Executive Philippe Petitcolin said. “We are doing everything with Boeing to put the MAX back in service in the best possible conditions,” he told reporters. …read more […]