Year: 2020

(Bloomberg) — S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose after President Donald Trump called for a reduced group of stimulus measures. Euro-area bonds pared gains before European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde speaks in Paris.Italy’s Nexi SpA slid after news of private-equity backers selling shares in the payment-services provider. Denmark’s Ambu A/S surged after the maker of life-support equipment won a key U.S. contract. The dollar steadied before Federal Reserve officials comment later on Wednesday and release minutes from their past policy meeting.Treasuries fell while futures on the S&P 500 recovered some of their tumble from Tuesday after Trump tweeted …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Spain’s growing list of risks is starting to make investors nervous.The nation’s debt is lagging a regional rally that has driven the rate on Italian bonds — long regarded as the pariah of Europe and among the highest yielding — close to a record low. That’s narrowed the gap between Spanish and Italian yields to the smallest in more than two years.Citigroup Inc. this month recommended selling Spanish bonds versus their Portuguese peers, citing growing fiscal worries, renewed separatist tensions in the region of Catalonia, and the prospect of a credit downgrade after S&P Global Ratings cut the …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Poland’s antitrust watchdog slapped a $7.6 billion fine on Gazprom PJSC over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, opening a new front in the bitter political battle over the controversial gas project.The regulator said the Baltic Sea project impedes competition and “violates the interests of consumers.” It gave Gazprom and its partners 30 days to terminate financing agreements to “restore” competition. The fine amounts to 10% of the company’s annual revenues, the maximum allowed penalty.“The construction of Nord Stream 2 is a clear violation of market regulations,” Tomasz Chrostny, the head of the UOKiK regulator, said in Warsaw on …read more […]

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(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp. shares climbed to their highest in two decades, a sign founder Masayoshi Son is recovering from a rocky year marked by setbacks from the coronavirus and losses at startups such as WeWork.SoftBank rose for the eighth day in a row to finish at 6,955 yen, the highest since March of 2000. The stock had breached 6,900 yen in August before revelations that Son had begun trading options on tech stocks, a potentially risky endeavor that spooked some investors.After a record fall in its share price in March, SoftBank unveiled plans to offload 4.5 trillion yen …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — U.S. index futures rose as investors assessed the progress of a stimulus plan and a House panel proposal for far-reaching antitrust reforms to curb the power of American technology giants.Fresh comments from U.S. President Donald Trump calling for support for airlines and the Paycheck Protection Program helped reverse earlier losses. December contracts on the S&P 500 Index added 0.3% as of 6:41 a.m. in London, rebounding from a 0.6% loss. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index advanced 0.4%, erasing a drop of as much as 0.6%.“So there is still some stimulus perhaps coming before the election,” said Ben …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Global markets were whipsawed in the early hours of Wednesday after President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of sometimes conflicting Twitter posts.U.S. stocks slumped Tuesday while Treasuries surged after Trump tweeted that he had decided to halt stimulus talks. His posts during Asian hours on Wednesday — calling for support for airlines and the Paycheck Protection Program — helped erase losses in U.S. stock futures and Japanese shares. Most Asian currencies crept lower amid uncertainty over the next round of U.S. stimulus. In total, Trump tweeted or retweeted just under 40 times in the space of two hours.Trump …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — China is investing tens of billions of dollars in new mega-refineries even as its fuel demand is expected to peak within five years, raising the risk it will flood the region with cheap exports.At least four projects with about 1.4 million barrels a day of crude-processing capacity, more than all refineries in the U.K. combined, are under construction. That’s after the country already added 1 million barrels since the start of 2019. All that capacity will add more petroleum products and plastics just as China National Petroleum Corp. sees fuel demand peaking in 2025 as electric vehicles sap …read more […]

We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, which is why imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, professional investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not […] …read more […]

U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Tuesday Congress should quickly extend $25 billion in new payroll assistance to U.S. passenger airlines furloughing thousands of workers as air travel remains down sharply amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s new demand came hours after he announced his administration would abandon talks with congressional Democrats over proposals to spend at least $1.6 trillion in additional coronavirus relief funds, a move that appeared to scuttle a new $25 billion bailout for U.S. passenger airlines to keep tens of thousands of workers on the job for another six months. …read more […]

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump dashed hopes for a fourth stimulus package to boost the coronavirus-hit economy and on a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures fell 81 cents, or 2%, to $39.86 a barrel by 0411 GMT while Brent crude futures fell by 70 cents, or 1.6%, to $41.95 a barrel. “Crude prices got hammered with one-two punch after President Trump sent all risky assets into freefall after ending negotiations on fiscal stimulus and after US crude stockpiles posted their first build in four …read more […]

The president has cut off talks on a new aid bill, with loan payments set to resume. …read more […]

Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) is not a company immune to controversy, but one long standing overhang might have just been removed.Last week, the global generics pharma company announced the launch of the first FDA-approved generic versions of Gilead Sciences’ HIV treatments Truvada and Atripla.The launch brings to an end a patent case which stretches back to September 2018, one which Raymond James analyst Elliot Wilbur calls “one of the lengthier PIV battles in recent memory.”In addition to being able to tap into a lucrative market – Truvada generated global sales of $753 million in the first half of 2020, while Atripla …read more […]

The world’s last major onshore oil discovery could be made in a country where no oil has ever been produced, and the upside potential for the company that exploits it should be remarkable …read more […]

With the ramping up of global 5G networks, Nokia (NOK) is staking a claim to be one of the field’s main players. The Finnish company was once one of the world’s leading mobile phone makers, but that was long ago and over recent years has reinvented itself as a telecom equipment provider. The move appears to be paying off as it has just notched its 100th 5G deal.While Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold considers hitting the milestone as “great progress,” the analyst has reservations about Nokia becoming one of the leaders in an industry expected to boom as the new …read more […]