Month: October 2020

(Bloomberg) — Intel Corp. agreed to sell its Nand memory unit to South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. for about $9 billion, part of a broader effort by the U.S. chipmaker to concentrate on its main business.The Asian company will pay 10.3 trillion won for the Intel unit, which makes flash memory components for computers and other devices. The acquisition, which will take place in stages through 2025, includes Intel’s solid-state drive, Nand flash and wafer businesses, as well as a production facility in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian. Hynix’s shares rose as much as 4.8% Tuesday morning.The deal will …read more […]

Amazon (AMZN) hosted its annual Prime Day event last week, and although it has yet to release overall sales, Truist analyst Youssef Squali believes the available data indicates this year’s event “was a record sales period again for the company.”The sales data so far shows 3P (third party) vendors experienced robust growth. The platform’s marketplace sellers – made up mostly of small-to medium sized businesses – saw year-over-year sales increasing by 60% to $3.5 billion across 19 different countries, beating Amazon’s 1P business.As a side note, with e-commerce surging across the globe, the pandemic appears to have boosted the amount …read more […]

The report released on Monday showed registrations in California, a bellwether for the electric-car maker and its largest U.S. market, recovered from a second-quarter low of roughly 9,800 vehicles to around 16,200 vehicles in the three months ended September. California registration for Tesla’s Model 3 mass-market sedan, which in the past accounted for more than half of total registrations, fell 60% on a yearly basis to 6,500. …read more […]

The recent coronavirus vaccine race has been fraught with setbacks. Both Astra Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson recently halted their respective COVID-19 vaccine programs due to a participant’s unexplained reactions.There appears to be no such trouble right now for a fellow pharma heavyweight seeking to be first to market with a viable solution.On Friday, Pfizer (PFE) said that based on interim data, by the end of October it hopes to find out whether its COVID-19 vaccine – developed in collaboration with BioNTech (BNTX) – is effective or not.Moreover, by mid-November it hopes to have enough safety and manufacturing data available …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — There is no more dramatic sign of the U.S. shale industry’s fall from grace than one of the best in the business being sold off for less than a third of its peak value.Concho Resources Inc., an early explorer of the Permian Basin’s once-coveted oil riches that was worth $32 billion just two years ago, is selling for $9.7 billion in stock. ConocoPhillips is paying a meager 15% premium over Concho’s closing price on Oct. 13, the last trading session before Bloomberg News first reported the companies were in talks.Concho is not alone: More than half of the …read more […]

November 3 is Election Day in the United States. What could that mean for the markets?
You’re not supposed to fight the Fed, and the Fed is expected to keep interest rates low. However, there are a lot of forces pushing on this market, and I expect stocks to be lower in 2021.
Let’s take a look at some different scenarios and how the market might react…
1. Chaos: One or both candidates declare victory while both refuse to concede. Results take weeks to become official.
I think this is the most likely outcome, and it is what the market already expects. The natural …read more […]

Third quarter earnings season kicks off, and Wall Street is tuning in. Anxiously awaiting the quarterly numbers, investors will get more clarity on the extent of COVID-19’s impact on fundamentals.While the U.S. Presidential election and the next pandemic stimulus package have stolen some of the spotlight from the upcoming quarterly reports, analysts have taken a deep dive into the data to gain insights on what might be in store.According to estimates, S&P 500-listed companies are expected to report earnings of $32.97 per share, down 22% from the prior-year quarter. That said, Refinitiv data indicates that about three-fourths of S&P 500 …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — WeWork and its primary backer, SoftBank Group Corp., paid Adam Neumann only a portion of the $185 million fee that was part of his controversial exit package as chief executive officer, a person familiar with the transaction said.The fee was tied to a noncompete agreement for Neumann, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. A portion of the payment depended on the completion of a deal to acquire WeWork stock from Neumann and other shareholders, the person said. SoftBank backed out of that stock transaction, a move that is the subject …read more […]

Stock futures traded higher as the overnight session kicked off Monday, with investors hoping that lawmakers might succeed in coming to an agreement for more stimulus ahead of the November election. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — International Business Machines Corp. reported third-quarter revenue that beat analysts’ forecasts, driven by gains in its cloud offerings, an area the company will focus on exclusively after spinning off legacy business units.Earlier this month IBM announced plans to shed its division that manages corporate computer systems and go all-in on cloud services and artificial intelligence to help revive fortunes at the 109-year-old company. After two years of declining or flat revenue, IBM is hiving off the unit that handles day-to-day infrastructure service operations and accounts for about a quarter of the company’s total sales. But that business has …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Intel Corp. has stumbled lately. To right itself, the semiconductor giant needs to get back to basics and prioritize its main business. An exit from the memory industry would help that effort.On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Intel is close to selling it memory-chip subsidiary to SK Hynix Inc. for about $10 billion, citing people familiar with matter. Despite large investments in flash memory, Intel has never been able to become a big player in these types of semiconductors, which are used in storage devices inside computer hard drives and consumer electronics. That’s a problem …read more […]

Stocks ended near session lows on Monday, with the Dow falling more than 400 points as shares of Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Apple weighed on the blue-chip index. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq logged its fifth straight day of declines, as investors continued to weigh fading prospects of a near-term stimulus package, and eyed still-rising coronavirus cases in the U.S. …read more […]

Trends Expert Matthew Carr gives three holiday shopping tips to help you keep money in your pocket. Although the holidays can give investors great investment opportunities, Matthew notes another way to reach financial freedom: saving money.
I often say that this is my favorite time of year because of all the profitable trends coming to a head.
But beyond the potential investment opportunities it offers, this season can lead to some financial stress… especially when it comes to gift giving and money.
Holiday Shopping Tips to Help You Save Money
Look, we’ve all been there.
We want to lavish our friends and loved ones with …read more […]

On Monday, IBM reported third-quarter revenue and EPS that were in-line with Wall Street estimates, with $17.6 billion in revenue and $2.58 in EPS. Emily McCormick breaks down the company’s results on The Final Round. …read more […]

The results come just weeks after Big Blue surprised investors with its announcement of splitting itself into two public companies, placing big bets on cloud computing to drive its future growth. “We continue to see a very strong pattern in acceleration of our clients’ digital transformation … We are seeing that play out in our Red Hat business,” Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh told Reuters. IBM’s total revenue fell 2.6% to $17.56 billion in the reported quarter, but was slightly above analysts’ estimates of $17.54 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. …read more […]