Market Brief: August 10, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Monday, August 10, 2020
Cyclical Interest. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped Monday, as shares of previously beaten down or lagging cyclical sectors saw renewed investor interest at the expense of highflying tech shares. Investors were also assessing the outlook for coronavirus aid after President Donald Trump signed executive orders over the weekend that would extend a number of measures. The Dow rose around 358 points, or 1.3%, to close around 27,791, while the S&P 500 gained around 9 points, or 0.3%, to finish near 3,360. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell by around 43 points, or 0.4%, to close at about 10,968.
CHANGE
DJIA 27,791.44 357.96
S&P 500 3,360.47 9.19
NASDAQ 10,968.36 -42.63
US 10-Year Note 0.58 0.01
Dollar Index 93.59 0.16
Crude Oil 42.05 0.83
Gold 2,035.40 7.40
Global Dow 3,009.56 16.88
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
McDonald’s Sues Former CEO, Alleging Inappropriate Employee Relationships
McDonald’s says it’s suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relationships with other employees and destroyed evidence.

Easterbrook, according to a lawsuit, approved a special grant of restricted stock, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to one of those employees. The company now wants to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation paid to Easterbrook on his departure.

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Trump’s Measures Are More Likely to Have a Political Effect Than an Economic Impact
With negotiations in Congress over a new aid package at an impasse, President Donald Trump on Saturday signed four executive orders—including one to extend enhanced unemployment insurance. The orders, however, have big caveats and aren’t a substitute for a fiscal deal.

The executive orders also include deferrals of payroll tax withholdings for certain workers, deferrals of student loan payments, and action to minimize certain evictions. The president’s actions are likely to have more of a political effect—they should increase the urgency for negotiators to reach a broader fiscal deal—than an economic impact.

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Marriott Reports Big Loss Amid “Quite Challenging” Conditions
Marriott International reported a steep second-quarter loss owing to the global pandemic. CEO Arne Sorsenson called overall conditions “quite challenging.” Still, business in China was stronger and the company’s monthly cash burn improved.

Marriott, based in Bethesda, Md., lost 72 cents a share in the quarter, down from earnings of 69 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue totaled nearly $1.5 billion, compared with $5.3 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

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What Investors Liked—and Didn’t Like—About Berkshire Hathaway’s Second Quarter
Record stock buybacks, big equity sales, a huge cash balance, and a large write-down related to the company’s Precision Castparts unit were the highlights of Berkshire Hathaway’s second-quarter earnings, which were released Saturday morning.

Investors were particularly interested in what CEO Warren Buffett was doing with the company’s large cash balances. With Berkshire shares trading very cheaply relative to book value in May and June, Berkshire bought back a record $5.1 billion of stock in the quarter, up from $1.7 billion in the first quarter and $4.9 billion during all of last year.

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Kodak Stock Plummets as Government Puts Loan on Hold
Investors in the former photography giant Eastman Kodak endured unreal stock market extremes in recent weeks. Now, a government tweet sent Friday evening means wild trading will continue.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, tweeted that a loan due to Kodak appears to be on hold for now. Kodak shares were down 29% to $10.52 a share Monday morning in the aftermath of the DFC bombshell.

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Nikola Announces Order for 2,500 Electric Garbage Trucks
Nikola made news Monday morning, announcing an order for 2,500 battery-powered trucks from waste hauler Republic Services. Investors are pleased. Nikola stock was rocketing Monday, with a gain of more than 21% in midafternoon trading.

Nikola shares fell about 10% after the company reported its first quarter as a publicly traded entity on Aug. 4. Part of the disappointment in the aftermath of the report was the lack of any new details about customers for the company’s battery- and fuel-cell-powered heavy-duty trucks. The Republic announcement is the sort of news investors wanted to hear when earnings were released.

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Regeneron’s Covid-19 Treatment Could Be as Big a Deal as a Vaccine
Biotech Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has a cocktail of antibodies for treating Covid-19. That’s as big a deal as a vaccine, according to Cannacord Genuity analyst John Newman.

Regeneron announced a phase three trial, called REGN-COV2, after positive phase one safety data in July. Now Newman believes initial data from that study could come in late September, ahead of vaccine data.

Many companies, of course, are pursuing a Covid-19 vaccine. But returning the world to normal will take more than an effective vaccine. “REGN-COV2 would provide immediate treatment for active Covid-19, which is critical, since vaccines cannot treat active disease,” wrote Newman in a Monday research report.

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Foot Locker’s Pleasant Surprise: A Second-Quarter Profit
Foot Locker stock rallied on Monday after the retailer said it expects to report a surprise profit for the second quarter.

The athletic footwear and apparel store said early Monday that it plans to report a second-quarter profit of 38 to 42 cents per share. Analysts had forecast a loss of 46 cents per share, according to FactSet. Adjusting for one-time costs related to recent social unrest and restructuring expenses, it expects a quarterly profit of 66 to 70 cents per share.

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Why Apple iPhone Sales Could Take a Huge Hit From a WeChat Ban
Apple could see a 25% to 30% hit to global iPhone sales if the company is forced by the Trump administration to remove WeChat from the App Store, TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo asserts in a research note on Monday.

Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that demanded that all U.S. companies stop conducting business with the communications platform WeChat and its parent company, Tencent Holdings, within 45 days, citing privacy and security concerns.

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Avaya Reports First Quarter of Sales Growth in More Than 10 Years
Avaya Holdings shares spiked on Monday as the communications infrastructure company posted better-than-expected June quarter results—including its first quarter of year-over-year revenue growth in more than a decade.

For its fiscal third quarter ended June 30, Avaya reported revenue of $721 million, up from $717 million a year ago, and above the company’s guidance range of $674 million to $704 million. Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was $187 million, well ahead of guidance at $150 million to $170 million. The company had a profit of 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of $5.70 a share in the quarter a year ago.

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Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Daily Market Brief: August 5, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
The rally rolls along. U.S. stocks ended at or near records Wednesday, with the S&P 500 finishing within a stone’s throw of its February all-time high and the Nasdaq Composite notching its 31st record high of 2020. Hope of further stimulus from the U.S. government to help out-of-work Americans contributed to the upbeat trade on Wall Street. Still, some of the data have come in weaker than expected, setting the stage for a pivotal Friday jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up about 373 points, or 1.4%, at 27,201, representing its highest closing level since June 8. The S&P 500 finished 0.6% higher at around 3,328, putting the broad-market benchmark 1.71% off its Feb. 19 record high at 3,386.15, while the Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 0.5% to 10,992, marking another record finish.

CHANGE
DJIA 27,201.52 373.05
S&P 500 3,327.77 21.26
NASDAQ 10,998.40 57.23
US 10-Year Note 0.55 0.04
Dollar Index 92.89 -0.49
Crude Oil 42.15 0.45
Gold 2,051.60 30.60
Global Dow 3,001.56 29.77
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
Nikola’s First Quarterly Report Disappoints
Nikola, the start-up alternative-fuel truck maker, reported its first quarter as a publicly traded entity late Tuesday, and it didn’t go well.

Shares were down around 10% in early Wednesday trading. Earnings weren’t what vexed investors. Nikola doesn’t sell trucks yet, and its spending on future capacity is just ramping up. Instead, investors were disappointed that they didn’t hear more about corporate partnerships and new customers.

Wall Street is, essentially, standing pat of the stock. Analysts who liked the stock before earnings still do. Analysts who were more cautious still are.

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Square Revenue Jumps, Company Beats Earnings Estimate
Late Tuesday, Square said that it released its second-quarter earnings a day ahead of schedule because its quarterly financial information had been accessed externally.

The company topped consensus estimates for earnings and revenue rose by 64%, according to results it posted on its website late Tuesday. Square said that it had seen a July recovery in the gross amount of cash its retailer clients were moving across its payment networks.

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Analysts Say Novavax’s Covid-19 Vaccine Might Be the Best.
A day after Novavax released information on the first human trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, analysts are saying that the data looks extraordinarily promising.

In a note Wednesday morning, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Charles Duncan said Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be “more-than-viable, dare we say ‘class-leading.’” J.P. Morgan analyst Eric Joseph said it’s “not too far a stretch to conclude” that the neutralizing antibody activity of the vaccine “looks best-in-class.”

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Disney Earnings Come in Better Than Feared
Walt Disney’s diversified entertainment and media portfolio hit a major snag in the latest quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic impacted practically every business that Disney operates in around the globe.

Tuesday evening, the company reported a 147% tumble in its fiscal third- quarter profit. Management estimated that Covid-19 took a nearly $3 billion bite out of Disney’s operating income in the period. Big gains in its streaming segment didn’t make up for losses elsewhere.

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SpaceX Took a First Small Step to Mars. That’s Great News for Space Investors.
SpaceX is back in the news, creating hope for aspiring astronauts with a test of part of its Starship system, meant to eventually take crews to the moon, to Mars, and beyond.

The trial liftoff and landing also has the potential to fuel investors’ dreams of finding the next big thing. Space investing and the “low-earth-orbit economy” are still in the early stages of development.

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Oil Stocks are Surprising Winners as Investors Look Past a Rough Quarter
Oil companies are reporting their worst earnings results in years, but their stocks are on the rise. In fact, the energy sector is up 4% on the week, better than any other sector in the market.

It is a sign that investors have moved on from the disastrous second quarter and are starting to pick winners for the future. Among the companies winning strong reviews for their earnings reports are shale-oil drillers Devon Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, and Diamondback Energy.

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Bank Stocks Aren’t Leading the Charge This Time. Here’s Why.
Bank investors can’t be blamed for feeling frustrated.

While the broader market has recovered from its March lows—with several stocks notching fresh highs—bank stocks have only slightly trimmed their losses. Even more perplexing, banks and financial stocks are bucking the historical trend of being market leaders following a downturn.

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ADP Jobs Report Is a Stark Warning on the Economic Recovery That the Stock Market Is Ignoring
Hiring slowed markedly in July as a renewed spike in coronavirus cases prompted some states and companies to roll back reopenings, data released on Wednesday shows. It is the latest sign that the U.S. economic recovery is at risk of reversing.

Payroll provider ADP said companies added 167,000 jobs in July, far short of the 1.2 million economists polled by FactSet expected. That follows bigger gains in June and May, when employers added a total of 7.6 million jobs.

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Beyond Meat Earnings Easily Topped Expectations
Beyond Meat reported earnings that, once again, blew past Wall Street’s expectations. Sales growth at the alternative protein maker remained strong even as the pandemic shakes up the mix of sales between groceries and restaurants.

Beyond recorded $113 million in second-quarter sales and a per-share loss of 2 cents. Wall Street was looking for $99 million in sales and a similar small loss.

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Kodak Has People Talking Again
Wall Street was shocked to learn Eastman Kodak was awarded a $765 million loan to make generic-drug ingredients—often called active pharmaceutical ingredients.

News sent the stock all over the place. Now investors have to figure out what the new business—to be called Kodak Pharmaceuticals—is worth. It isn’t an easy job.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
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4300 Route 1 North, South Brunswick, NJ 08852
Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 29, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Fed Relief. Stocks ended solidly higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged near zero and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pledged to provide support to the economy until it recovered. The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to finish near 3258. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 160 points, or 0.6%, to 26,540, based on preliminary numbers. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.4% to close at 10,543. All three indexes flipped positive for the week. Investors also watched proceedings in Congress as top executives from the world’s largest tech firms were grilled by lawmakers over their business practices. General Electric shares were down 4.3% after the diversified industrial conglomerate reported a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,539.57 160.29
S&P 500 3,258.44 40.00
NASDAQ 10,542.94 140.85
US 10-Year Note 0.57 -0.01
Dollar Index 93.34 -0.35
Crude Oil 41.29 0.25
Gold 1,962.10 17.50
Global Dow 2,978.36 6.57
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
The Fed Says It Will Keep Easy Money Flowing
The Federal Reserve reiterated Wednesday that investors can count on interest rates being at or near zero in the coming years as the central bank works to support the U.S. economy through the coronavirus pandemic.

In its statement following a two-day meeting that concluded Wednesday, the Fed’s policy-setting arm, the Federal Open Market Committee, said economic activity and employment have “picked up somewhat in recent months” following sharp declines but “remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year.”

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What to Expect From the Worst GDP Report of All Time
Since the pandemic-related trough, America’s recovery over the past few months has been robust in some sectors, most notably retail sales, but much weaker in others. The overall result is that average output in the April-June period was substantially lower in the January-March period.

This is going to show up as a massive decline in second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product when the initial cut of the data is released Thursday. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, for example, estimates that the change in GDP from Q1 to Q2 will be minus 34% at an annual rate, which would vastly outstrip anything in the historical record.

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Tech CEOs Are Testifying Today. Here Are the Takeaways From Their Opening Statements.
The opening statements from the four tech CEOs who will testify during the House hearing Wednesday about “Online Platforms and Market Power” say a lot about their style—and what they’re worried about heading into the proceedings.

Late Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee posted the opening statements from the four executives— Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. All four stress that their companies create thousands or even millions of jobs, many for Americans. All talk about the power of entrepreneurship, and all talk about the intensely competitive markets they face. But there are differences in approach that illustrate the positions their companies find themselves in.

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GE’s Earnings Were Weak, but Cash Management Was Great
Industrial conglomerate General Electric reported terrible earnings as the pandemic raged through the global industrial economy in the second quarter. But investors knew earnings would be terrible, and the company made progress on debt, costs, and cash flow.

GE said it lost 15 cents a share on $17.7 billion in sales. Analysts were looking for a loss of 10 cents on $17 billion in sales. It’s an earnings shortfall, but the company did far better on cash management than expected.

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Boeing’s Results Fall Short
Aerospace and defense giant Boeing reported terrible results Wednesday morning. The stock rose initially in premarket trading but quickly erased those gains.

Boeing reported a loss of $4.79 a share on $11.8 billion in sales for the second quarter. Analysts were looking for a loss of $2.57 a share on $13 billion in sales. It’s a huge earnings miss, but the company is still dealing with the twin problems of the 737 MAX grounding and the viral pandemic. The MAX has been grounded world-wide since March 2019 following two deadly crashes inside of five months.

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GM’s Earnings Are Better Than Feared
General Motors stock is jumping after the company reported better second-quarter results than analysts had worried it might.

The company lost 56 cents per share from $16.8 billion in sales. Analysts were looking for a loss of $1.77 a share from $16.2 billion in sales. It’s a solid performance relative to expectations. Still, sales fell 55% year over year as the coronavirus pandemic hit auto sales hard. U.S. car sales, for instance, bottomed out in April, falling about 33% year over year in the second quarter.

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Spotify’s Losses Widen as Subscribers Grow
Spotify Technology posted a wide loss in the second quarter partially caused by the company’s success—Spotify’s stock gains in the quarter created a large on-paper loss in its accounting for stock compensation. The streaming music company lost $418 million, or $2.24 per share, versus analysts’ expectations for a 41-cent loss.

The stock fell by 2.4% in early trading on Wednesday, to $260.64. Spotify shares are still up 76% this year, on bullish expectations for the company’s podcasting business and hope about new deals with record labels. Spotify doesn’t release details of those deals, though it promoted its new arrangement with Universal Music Group, the world’s largest label. Spotify says the deal includes provisions about a “two-sided marketplace,” where Spotify will offer new tools for Universal’s artists as the streaming company attempts to get labels to pay for things like marketing.

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Mortgage Applications Increase From Last Year but Tick Down Week Over Week
The Mortgage Bankers Association, which measures the volume of applications for a loan to purchase a home on a weekly basis, reported levels for the week ending July 24 that were 21% greater than the same time one year ago on an unadjusted basis.

While demand remains elevated compared to last year, the volume of applications dipped week over week, falling 2% on an adjusted basis and 1% on an unadjusted basis. That’s a small drop, but it could be a sign of Covid-19’s impact on first-time buyers, says Mike Fratantoni, the trade group’s senior vice president and chief economist, noting a drop in purchase application volume among those seeking FHA, VA, and USDA home loans.

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Kodak Stock Is Soaring. Here’s What’s Behind the Renaissance.
Eastman Kodak shares are enjoying a renaissance. Shares were up an eye-popping 474% Wednesday afternoon, building on Tuesday’s nearly as eye-popping 200%-plus gain. Fresh capital and a new business are the reasons. The question for investors now is how high can shares go?

It isn’t an easy question to answer. There are no analysts covering the company and no target prices to help investors. What’s more, the company is taking a government loan to build a drug-ingredient business. Kodak has been and is in the imaging business. Valuing a huge new business is hard for any investor looking at a company.

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Airlines Are Retrenching as Virus Cases Spike
Hopes for a quick and lasting recovery in air travel are dimming by the day.

Airlines are cutting schedules for the rest of the summer and trimming capacity for the fall as coronavirus cases increase in the U.S. More layoffs are coming too. Budget carrier Spirit Airlines is preparing to furlough 20% to 30% of its staff this fall, according to a memo sent to employees this week. “It’s now clear that the demand increase we saw in June was an outlier, and the downward trend will continue,” CEO Ted Christie said in the memo.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
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4300 Route 1 North, South Brunswick, NJ 08852
Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 27, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Monday, July 27, 2020
Tech Rally. U.S. stock benchmarks finished higher Monday, powered by a rally in technology and e-commerce shares ahead of earnings from biggies including Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.com in the coming week. Thus far, those companies have helped to lead the Nasdaq to fresh records and propelled the broader market higher because those companies have an outsize influence on the overall market by dint of their market capitalization. Large-cap technology and e-commerce companies have been viewed as more resilient to the Covid-19 pandemic that has crippled a host of industries, including many travel and retail companies. Tech’s rally also comes as investors drove gold prices to a fresh settlement record and an all-time intraday high near $2,000, amid concerns about the spread of the viral pandemic and central banks and governments doling out trillions to curtail the economic
harm from the pandemic. Against that backdrop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 115 points, or 0.4%, higher at around 26,585, the S&P 500 index finished up 0.7% at about 3239, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 1.7% at around 10,536, and the Nasdaq-100, composed of the Nasdaq’s largest companies, closed up 1.8% at 10,674, FactSet data show. In economic news, a report on orders for durable goods, those lasting at least three years, climbed 7.3% in June, the government said on Monday. Wall Street economists had forecast on average a gain of 7%.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,584.77 114.88
S&P 500 3,239.41 23.78
NASDAQ 10,536.27 173.09
US 10-Year Note 0.61 0.02
Dollar Index 93.70 -0.74
Crude Oil 41.62 0.33
Gold 1,933.10 35.60
Global Dow 2,975.43 19.77
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
Under Armour Receives Enforcement Notice
Under Armour has received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission—which has been investigating the athletic apparel maker’s accounting practices—about potential action against the company.

The SEC sent Under Armour a Wells Notice, which is a notification the agency provides a company when it plans to deliver an enforcement action against it. It reflects a preliminary determination, not a final or formal charge. Under Armour said its practices have been appropriate. It said it would pursue the Wells Notice and expects “to engage in a dialogue with the SEC staff to work toward a resolution of this matter.”

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Moderna Begins Phase 3 Covid Vaccine Study
The biotech company Moderna said Monday that it had dosed the first patient in the Phase 3 study of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The news came a day after the company said that the federal government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority had committed an additional $472 million to fund the trial, on top of the $483 million it gave the company in April.

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Walgreens CEO to Step Down
Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance traded lower on Monday after the pharmacy chain said CEO Stefano Pessina was stepping down. The board is currently conducting a search for his successor.

Pessina, who was formally named CEO in 2015, has been named executive chairman, and the former executive chairman James Skinner will step down from that role.

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Google to Keep Employees at Home Until at Least Next July
Alphabet’s Google has told its employees that it will extend its work-from-home order until at least July 2021 in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, making the internet search giant the first to push back its back-to-normal plans that far.

The move will affect nearly all of its roughly 200,000 employees across Google’s parent, Alphabet, the WSJ report said. Google had previously told its staff to expect to return to the offices as early as the beginning of January.

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Durable Goods Orders Climbed 7.3% in June, Driven by Demand for Cars and Parts
Surging demand for autos and auto parts pushed orders for durable goods higher in June as production continued to pick up from shutdowns, but business investment has a long way to go before normalizing.

New orders for manufactured durable goods, or items meant to last at least three years, climbed 7.3% last month from May, the Commerce Department said Monday. That followed a 15.1% rise in May and topped the 6.5% increase economists polled by FactSet predicted.

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BMW Is Preparing to Battle Tesla in the Luxury All-Electric Segment
BMW is opening up a new front in its battle with electric-vehicle maker Tesla, offering an all-electric 5-series sedan.

According to Reuters, which reported on BMW’s plans, the German car maker plans to have almost five million fully electric vehicles on the road in 10 years. That works out to about 500,000 new EVs sold each year between now and 2030. BMW wasn’t immediately available to comment on the report.

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Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods Join Walmart in Closing Stores on Thanksgiving Day
Some large retailers are planning to sit out the big Thanksgiving Day sales because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Target on Monday said it will not open stores on Thanksgiving Day this year following a similar decision by Walmart last week. Target said, “this isn’t a year for crowds.” Dick’s Sporting Goods also followed suit.

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Hasbro Sales Slump in the Second Quarter
Hasbro’s sales plummeted during the second quarter—a decline the company attributed to store closures and supply-chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sales came in at $860 million, down 29% from the pro-forma figure combining second-quarter 2019 revenues for Hasbro and eOne, the Canadian entertainment company Hasbro bought last year. Wall Street’s consensus estimate called for sales of $985.5 million. The company reported adjusted earnings of 2 cents a share. Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet expected an adjusted per-share profit of 22 cents.

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Albertsons Stock Is Falling Because Strong Earnings Weren’t Enough
Albertsons Cos. delivered an upbeat fiscal first-quarter report on Monday, but its stock was falling because investors may have been hoping for more from the supermarket operator, given that so many food retailers have gotten a boost during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Albertsons said it earned $586.2 million, or $1 per share, up from 8 cents per share a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.35 a share on revenue of $22.75 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of $1.32 on revenue of $22.71 billion. Digital sales jumped 276% in the quarter, while same-store sales climbed 26.5%. But the company booked $615 million in costs related to the pandemic, including an additional $275 million for front-line workers’ pay, and it also saw some store closures and lower fuel sales.

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SAP Is Planning an IPO for Its Cloud-Software Qualtrics Unit
SAP announced plans late Sunday for an initial public offering for its Qualtrics experience-management software unit, while maintaining a majority stake.

SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion in January 2019. It said in a statement that its primary objective for the IPO is “to fortify Qualtrics’ ability to capture its full market potential within experience management. This will help to increase Qualtrics’ autonomy and enable it to expand its footprint both within SAP’s customer base and beyond.”

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Dow Jones Contact Us
| Privacy Policy
| Cookie Policy
4300 Route 1 North, South Brunswick, NJ 08852
Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 23, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Tech Leads the Slide. U.S. stocks fell into the red on Thursday afternoon, following a relatively flat morning as investors processed the latest round of second-quarter earnings reports and economic data. The price of gold, meanwhile, settled at a new high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 354 points, or 1.3%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.2%. Both indexes had hovered near the break-even line until the early afternoon, when technology shares led the market lower. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.3%, and the S&P 500 technology sector lost 2.6%.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,652.33 -353.51
S&P 500 3,235.66 -40.36
NASDAQ 10,461.42 -244.71
US 10-Year Note 0.58 -0.02
Dollar Index 94.82 -0.17
Crude Oil 41.05 -0.85
Gold 1,881.70 16.60
Global Dow 2,975.67 -17.62
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
Jobless Claims Turn Up for First Time Since March as Reopenings Get Rolled Back
Claims for unemployment insurance rose for the first time since late March, signaling the recovery so far in the U.S. labor market and beyond is sputtering as some states and companies roll back reopenings amid rising Covid-19 infections.

The Labor Department said Thursday that 1.42 million Americans filed for first-time jobless benefits in the week ending July 18 on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s up from a revised 1.31 million in the prior week, and it’s higher than the 1.3 million economists polled by FactSet had predicted. In recent weeks, what had been a steady decline in claims from a March peak started to stall.

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Ann Taylor Parent Ascena Files for Bankruptcy as Pandemic Crushes Troubled Retailer
Crushed by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its already troubled business, Ascena Retail Group, parent of the Ann Taylor and Loft retail chains, filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, with a restructuring agreement supported by more than 68% of its secured term lenders.

The Mahwah, N.J.-based company said it expects to reduce debt by about $1 billion in its pre-arranged restructuring, providing increased financial flexibility to become profitable. “The meaningful progress we have made driving sustainable growth, improving our operating margins and strengthening our financial foundation has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Carrie Teffner, the company’s interim executive chair, said in a statement.

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A Trio of Airlines Report Results. Expect the the Air Travel Recovery to Be Uneven.
A trio of airlines reported second-quarter results before the market opened on Thursday. American Airlines Group, Southwest Airlines, and Alaska Air Group collectively racked up billions of dollars in losses—as expected. And they indicated that the recovery in air travel will continue its uneven pace—likely causing more turbulence in the stocks.

American Airlines reported an adjusted loss of $7.82 a share, narrowly beating estimates for a loss of $7.84. Revenue in the quarter fell by 86% to $1.6 billion, beating estimates for $1.4 billion. Southwest, for its part, slightly beat earnings estimates. Revenue trends weakened in July, Southwest said, and the airline said it was re-evaluating its August and September schedules. Lastly, Alaska reported an adjusted loss of $3.54 a share, smaller than the consensus estimate for a $3.78 loss. Revenue declined 82% to $421 million, beating forecasts for $335 million.

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Spirit Airlines’ Loss Is Worse Than Expected and Demand Trends Remain Choppy
Leisure travel may be slowly coming back, but Spirit Airlines’ earnings report illustrates how bumpy the recovery has become.

Spirit reported an adjusted pretax loss of $364 million in the quarter, resulting in a loss of $3.59 a share, which was worse than the consensus estimate for an adjusted loss of $2.77 a share. Revenue collapsed by 86% to $138.5 million.

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Tesla’s Earnings Smashed Forecasts Again. Hello, S&P 500.
Elon Musk has done it again, beating Wall Street’s expectations for Tesla’s earnings significantly for the fourth quarter in a row.

The electric vehicle company late Wednesday reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.18, and a profit under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, of 50 cents a share. Analysts were looking for results near the break-even line. It’s hard to be more precise because earnings estimates on Tesla have been all over the place for the pandemic-affected second quarter.

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Twitter Reports Strong User Growth but Revenue Misses Estimates. The Stock Is Up.
Twitter stock popped on Thursday after the social media giant beat expectations for user growth, though earnings and revenue came up short of expectations.

The company said monetizable daily active users, or MDAUs, grew to 186 million during the quarter, topping consensus estimates that called for 172 million, according to FactSet.

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Chipotle Stock Slips After Earnings Because a Beat Wasn’t Good Enough
Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell on Thursday, despite better-than-expected second-quarter earnings, making the burrito seller the latest highflying stock to fall after posting results.

Chipotle late Wednesday said it earned 29 cents a share, nearly $3 less on a per-share basis than in a year earlier. However, on an adjusted basis, earnings per share were 40 cents, a nickel ahead of the average analyst estimate, according to FactSet. Revenue fell 4.8% to $1.4 billion, above the $1.33 billion consensus estimate.

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Nvidia Is Reported to Be Interested in Buying SoftBank’s Arm Unit
There is a new twist to the unfolding saga of what SoftBank Group might do with Arm Holdings, the U.K.-based chip design house it bought for $32 billion in 2016.

Given that so many chip makers license Arm’s microprocessor designs, the conventional wisdom has been that an IPO was more likely than an outright sale to a chip company. But on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Nvidia in recent weeks approached SoftBank about potentially buying Arm outright.

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Kimberly-Clark’s Earnings Were So Good It’s Buying Back Stock Again
Kimberly-Clark shares are cleaning up Thursday, after the household products maker’s second quarter was much better than expected. It also reinstated guidance and recommitted to repurchasing shares, signaling the company thinks the strength will continue even after the threat of Covid-19 fades.

Kimberly-Clark said it earned $681 million, or $1.99 a share. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share were $2.20, ahead of the $1.80 analysts were predicting. Revenue of $4.61 billion also came in ahead of the $4.46 billion consensus estimate.

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PulteGroup Stock Jumps After Earnings Show a Spike in New-Home Demand
PulteGroup‘s earnings reported Thursday morning help demonstrate why builder confidence is rebounding to prepandemic levels.

The home builder reported earnings per share of $1.29. Adjusted earnings per share was $1.15, beating the analyst consensus of 87 cents, according to FactSet. The company reported 6,522 net new orders. While that is down about 4% from the same quarter in 2019, it is much better than what Wall Street saw coming. Analysts polled by FactSet expected new orders to drop to 4,999, which would have represented a 26.4% drop from a year earlier.

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Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 22, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Dow Rises Back Above 27,000. U.S. stocks finished solidly higher Wednesday and the Dow booked the first close above 27,000 in more than six weeks, ahead of corporate results from Tesla and Microsoft. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165 points, or 0.6%, to around 27,006, marking its first finish above the psychologically significant level of 27,000 since June 9, according to FactSet data. The S&P 500 index closed 0.6% higher at around 3276, while the Nasdaq Composite Index finished 0.2% higher at 10,706. Markets shook off simmering tensions between China and the U.S. to finish the day higher, with investors focusing on corporate results to indicate the degree to which some of the biggest companies in America have been able to contend with the Covid-19 crisis. After the close of regular trading, Microsoft reported better-than-expected results.
CHANGE
DJIA 27,005.84 165.44
S&P 500 3,276.02 18.72
NASDAQ 10,706.13 25.76
US 10-Year Note 0.60 -0.01
Dollar Index 94.95 -0.17
Crude Oil 41.83 -0.09
Gold 1,867.20 23.30
Global Dow 2,992.27 -1.16
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Existing-Home Sales Leapt 21% in June. Expect More Gains.
The housing market is on fire, even as the broader U.S. economic recovery wobbles. Investors should expect further gains.

Sales of previously owned homes surged 21% in June from a month earlier, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That’s a record pace as sales snapped a three-month stretch of declines as mortgage rates tumble.

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U.S. Shuts a Chinese Consulate. Why Investors Are Paying Attention to the Move.
The U.S. ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, citing spying concerns Wednesday, a move that Beijing called “outrageous and unprecedented.” The latest ratcheting up of U.S.-China tensions leaves investors trying to gauge whether the next round of tit for tat could hit large U.S. companies and warrant the market’s attention.

The closure of the consulate—an unusual and dramatic move—comes after the U.S. accused two hackers in China on Tuesday of targeting U.S. companies working on coronavirus research. In a tweet on Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called the consulate a spy shop and a “central node of the Communist party’s vast network of spies and influence operations in the United States.”

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Pfizer Will Charge the U.S. $19.50 a Dose for Its Covid-19 Vaccine
The U.S. government has put in an order for enough doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate nearly every American. It is paying a bit more than analysts expected.

Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that the companies are selling 100 million doses of the vaccine to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense for $1.95 billion, a deal that prices each dose of the experimental vaccine at $19.50. The deal allows the U.S. government the option of buying an additional 500 million doses.

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Microsoft Reports Record Revenue to Wrap Up a Record-Breaking Fiscal Year
Microsoft Corp. wrapped up a record-breaking year Wednesday by announcing record quarterly revenue, but shares still shrank from near-record highs in after-hours trading.

Microsoft reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $11.2 billion, or $1.46 a share, on revenue of $38 billion Wednesday, after posting earnings of $1.71 a share on sales of $33.71 billion a year ago. Analysts on average expected profit of $1.34 a share on sales of $36.54 billion, according to FactSet.

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Slack Accuses Microsoft of Illegally Tying Teams to Office
Slack Technologies on Wednesday filed a complaint with the European Commission, asserting that Microsoft has engaged in illegal and anticompetitive competition in marketing its Teams communications tools.

Slack contends that Microsoft “has illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.”

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Biogen Beats Earnings Expectations but Leaves CFO’s Departure a Mystery
The biotech firm Biogen announced second-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations, but the news came bundled with a mystery: Why did the company announce the departure of its chief financial officer on the evening before the earnings call?

In a 6 p.m. news release on Tuesday, Biogen said CFO Jeffrey Capello, who has been in the role since December 2017, would step down on Aug. 15. He will be replaced by Michael McDonnell, who is now chief financial officer of Iqvia. The news release didn’t offer a reason for Capello’s departure.

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Best Buy Stock Surges to All-Time Highs Because Company’s Online Sales Are Surging
Best Buy stock traded to its highest levels ever on Wednesday after the electronics retailer provided a rosy fiscal second-quarter update that showed a triple-digit jump in online sales.

Best Buy said its quarter-to-date sales through July 18 climbed 2.5% year over year, with domestic sales up 2% and international sales rising 8%. However, with store closures and consumer fears about the spread of coronavirus, e-commerce was the star of the show. Best Buy notched a 255% increase in digital sales, with computers, appliances, and tablets among the strongest product categories.

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Snap’s Earnings Include Warning for Investors
Snap executives issued a warning to investors late Tuesday, as the company said it expects its third-quarter sales growth rate to slow considerably.

The first of the large internet advertising powerhouses to report earnings, the company’s revenue beat wasn’t enough to overcome advertising growth slowing to 20% amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Snap’s earnings may give investors a clue about what to expect from rivals Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter, which are all expected to report earnings in the coming weeks.

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Hydrogen Is the New Thing in Fuel. Just Look at Truck Makers’ Earnings.
The heavy-duty trucking giant Paccar reported good earnings, but the call to discuss the results was noteworthy for another reason. Hydrogen—the new fuel with a long history—came up again and again.

Hydrogen is the new, new thing for a few reasons. For starters, there is Nikola, the alternative-fuel trucking startup. Its market value has rocketed from less than $1 billion at the start of the year to more than $14 billion. Nikola plans to power heavy-duty trucks with hydrogen-powered fuel cells.

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Jamf Stock Is Popping as Expanded IPO Hits the Nasdaq
The initial public offering of Jamf surged nearly 90% in its market debut Wednesday, making the cloud software company’s IPO the latest to produce a strong first day.

Shares of Jamf opened on the Nasdaq at $46 a share. The stock was at $46.49 in midmorning trade, leaving it $20.49 above the IPO price. The positive showing comes after Jamf raised $468 million late Tuesday.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
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Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 20, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Monday, July 20, 2020
Yet Another Nasdaq Record. Technology stocks resumed a run to all-time highs on Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite marking a fresh closing record ahead of a clutch of corporate results from some of the biggest titans of technology. Tech companies have helped the broader market to stage a miraculous rebound from the depths of the coronavirus lows put in back in March. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 2.5% at around 10,767, marking the tech-heavy index’s best day since April 29 and its 28th record close of the year. The S&P 500 index finished 0.8% higher at about 3252. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session virtually unchanged at about 26,681. The moves come as the U.S. coronavirus case tally rose to 3.77 million on Monday and its death toll topped 140,000, as new infections continued to surge in the South and West. Markets appeared to be heartened
somewhat by upbeat news of vaccine candidates for the novel strain of coronavirus from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and a partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,680.87 8.92
S&P 500 3,251.84 27.11
NASDAQ 10,767.09 263.90
US 10-Year Note 0.61 -0.02
Dollar Index 95.80 -0.14
Crude Oil 40.74 0.15
Gold 1,818.60 8.60
Global Dow 2,970.04 12.06
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Ant Could Be the Biggest IPO Ever, but It Will Bypass the U.S.
The U.S. stock exchanges won’t get to brag about what could be the largest initial public offering in history.

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group Co., which owns mobile payment network Alipay, plans a dual listing in Hong Kong and on Shanghai’s version of the Nasdaq for its much-anticipated initial public offering.

The IPO of the company, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, could also be a harbinger for other big Chinese debuts.

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Chevron Makes First Big Energy Deal of the Pandemic Era
Chevron has announced an all-stock deal to buy Noble Energy, an oil and gas producer with large positions in U.S. shale and a major gas field off the coast of Israel. The $13 billion deal—about $5 billion in stock and roughly $8 billion in debt—values Noble at $10.38 a share, a 7.5% premium to its closing price on Friday.

The deal would expand Chevron’s oil and gas reserves by 18% at an average price of less than $5 a barrel of oil reserves, and the companies say they can cut $300 million in annual expenses. Chevron would add to its acreage in Colorado’s DJ Basin, and boost its position in the Permian Basin. Noble’s Israeli gas project—the largest discovery the company has made—is another key asset.

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IBM’s Earnings Beat Estimates. The Coronavirus Took a Toll on Services.
International Business Machines posted better-than-expected second-quarter financial results, in the enterprise technology giant’s first full quarter of operations since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company saw growth in its cloud and hardware businesses, but a deterioration in services, as some customers in heavily affected markets pushed to cut costs.

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EBay Reportedly Nears Sale of Classified Ads Unit to Norway’s Adevinta
EBay is zeroing in on a deal to sell its classified-advertising business for between $8 billion and $9 billion to Adevinta, a Norwegian company that operates online marketplaces in 16 countries, according to multiple media reports.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a cash-and-stock deal could be announced as soon as Monday. EBay has been shopping the classified-ads unit since February, and Adevinta’s name has come up in the past as a potential buyer. EBay’s classifieds unit, which includes the brands Gumtree and Kijiji, has operations in Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Mexico.

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Pfizer and BioNTech Agree to Supply U.K. With 30 Million Doses of Covid-19 Vaccine
The drug giant Pfizer and its partner, the German biotech BioNTech, said early Monday that they had reached a deal to supply 30 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine to the U.K. this year and next.

The financial terms weren’t disclosed, and the companies said payments would depend on the size and timing of the deliveries. Despite the lack of detail, investors took the announcement as a sign of confidence in the Covid-19 program.

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The Arms Race in Vaccines Continues as Glaxo Buys Stake in mRNA Company
GlaxoSmithKline on Monday said it was taking a 10% stake in German biotech CureVac, as the arms race for vaccines continues.

As part of a deal valued at up to £866 million ($1.09 billion), GlaxoSmithKline will pay £130 million for a nearly 10% stake in CureVac, which also counts the German government as a minority owner.

GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac reached an agreement for the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of up to five mRNA-based vaccines and monoclonal antibodies targeting infectious disease pathogens.

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AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Data Look Positive
Data on the Covid-19 vaccine under development by AstraZeneca and Oxford University published Monday in The Lancet appeared positive, but the stock fell on Monday after climbing last week on high expectations for the data.

Now that the official report is here, the data appear promising. Investigators reported only mild and moderate adverse events in subjects who received the vaccination, and said that the vaccine induced neutralizing antibody levels that were similar to those seen in patients who had recovered from Covid-19 infections. They also reported that the vaccine induced T-cell responses, another sort of immune response thought to be important in preventing Covid-19 infections.

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Walmart Restarts Talks to Sell a Stake in Its U.K. Grocer Asda
Walmart has revived talks about selling a stake in Asda, its U.K. grocery division, a spokesman said on Monday.

Interest has been picking up among potential investors in Asda, the U.K.’s third largest grocer, after Walmart put the sale process on hold during the coronavirus.

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Business Leaders Mourn the Death of Civil Rights Leader John Lewis
Tributes poured in over the weekend from Atlanta-area businesses and sports teams remembering civil-rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis, who died on Friday. Many remembered Lewis for his lifelong pursuit of justice, his relationships with constituents, employees, and executives, and the example he set in both his personal and professional life.

Lewis died at the age of 80 following a battle with cancer. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis was one of the core organizers of and speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1987, and most recently served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
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Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 17, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Friday, July 17, 2020
Mostly Higher. Stocks finished Friday’s session mostly higher, though the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost ground for a second consecutive day, in a lightly traded session. Investors monitored a continued rise in Covid-19 cases and the prospect for additional fiscal stimulus in Europe and the U.S. The Dow fell around 63 points, or 0.2%, to end near 26,672, according to preliminary figures, while the S&P 500 finished around 9 points higher, up 0.3%, near 3225. The Nasdaq Composite gained around 29 points, or 0.3%, to close near 10,503. Shares of video-streaming giant Netflix slumped 6.5% after the company reported strong subscriber growth and earnings that topped estimates but raised investor worries over the second-half outlook. Tech shares, which have been a pocket of strength for equities this year, saw a setback this week, with the Nasdaq Composite seeing a 1.1%
weekly decline while the S&P 500 advanced 1.3%, and the Dow gained 2.3%.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,671.95 -62.76
S&P 500 3,224.73 9.16
NASDAQ 10,503.19 29.36
US 10-Year Note 0.62 0.01
Dollar Index 95.95 -0.40
Crude Oil 40.58 -0.17
Gold 1,812.50 12.20
Global Dow 2,959.62 6.09
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Netflix’s Coronavirus Subscriber Boom Comes to an End
It turns out, there are limits even for Netflix. The streaming video giant’s shares traded lower Friday amid signs that the company’s Covid-19 driven growth spurt is coming to an end.

In the June quarter reported late Thursday, Netflix added 10.1 million net new subscribers, above the company’s forecast of 7.5 million, but falling short of Wall Street estimates that had reached 12 million or higher. Netflix is forecasting just 2.5 million net adds in the September quarter, well shy of analyst expectations.

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New Home Construction Leapt 17% in June
The Commerce Department on Friday said housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.186 million, up 17% from May’s revised figure of 1.011 million but 4% below the year-earlier rate. Single-family homes were built at a rate of 831,000, and multifamily buildings at a rate of 350,000.

New permits were authorized at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.24 million, up 2.1% from May but 2.5% below the year-earlier reading. Single-family permits were granted at a rate of 834,000, up 12%, versus 368,000 permits for multifamily buildings.

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‘We Are in Truly New Territory.’ Mortgage Rates Drop Below 3% for the First Time.
Mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed loan fell below 3% for the first time since at least 1971, according to Freddie Mac‘s weekly mortgage survey. They could continue to fall if current trends continue, one expert told Barron’s.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 2.98% for the week ending July 16, the report said, not including fees and points. That marks the first time in 50 years that rates have fallen below 3%, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a release.

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British Airways Retired the Boeing 747. Here’s What That Means.
International Consolidated Airlines Group airline British Airways is retiring the “queen of the skies,” meaning the Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

The move, while not a shock, says a lot about the state of the industry—as well as the impact of new airplane models, like the Boeing 737 MAX, on airline operations. British Airways blamed the “devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” saying air travel demand isn’t expected to hit 2019 levels until 2023 or 2024. Coronavirus has had an unprecedented impact on commercial aerospace, and the industry sees a very slow recovery—save for an efficacious vaccine.

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Cruise Stocks Are Lower Because the CDC Made It Official: No Sailing This Summer
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its no-sail order for cruise lines through Sept. 30, formally locking down U.S. ports through the prime summer sailing season.

The move was expected, but the stocks of the three big U.S. cruise operators were down midafternoon Friday amid a mostly higher broader market. The cruise companies have been shut down by the pandemic since mid-March. Carnival, however, said recently that it plans to begin sailings from Germany next month.

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It Has Been a Huge Week for SPAC Mergers. Here’s What You Missed.
Special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are on pace for a banner year in 2020. The previously obscure blank-check companies have raised more money, done more deals, and attracted a broader base of sponsors and investors than they ever have through the first half of a year—by a wide margin.

This week has seen the SPAC boom shift into overdrive, with a flood of merger and initial public offering announcements. And there is plenty more to come.

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BlackRock Easily Beat Earnings Expectations. Here’s How It Did It.
BlackRock’s second-quarter earnings jumped 22% to a higher-than-expected $7.85 a share, while net flows plunged during the period of market uncertainty. The earnings increase partly reflected a lower share count after BlackRock bought back some of PNC Financial Services’ massive stake in the asset manager.

Analysts tracked by Bloomberg had expected BlackRock to report second-quarter earnings of $6.96, with estimates ranging from $6.37 to $7.61. BlackRock repurchased $1.1 billion of shares during the quarter, and its weighted-average diluted shares fell 1% to 15.7 million shares during the quarter.

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Watch Sports Betting Boom Once Major U.S. Sports Resume
Sports betting could hit record levels once major U.S. sports resume soon because of pent-up demand and abbreviated seasons that will magnify the importance of each game.

That was one of the takeaways of Morgan Stanley analyst Thomas Allen from the SBC Digital North America Summit that ended Thursday. The summit bills itself as the largest online betting and gaming event.

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Vietnam Is Booming Economically. Not Its Stock Market.
Vietnam is a bundle of contradictions for investors. Economically, the country is an all-star. Growth was cruising around 7% annually before this year. Exports are climbing the value chain from apparel to electronics. The population of 100 million is young, educated, and urbanizing at a rate around 1 million a year.

Governance-wise, Vietnam is a mess. Foreign stock ownership is capped. Arcane trading bottlenecks choke liquidity and elevate prices well above what’s listed on the exchange. These and other problems have kept the country in frontier market status, with inclusion in the MSCI emerging market indexes years away, at best.

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Maserati Goes Electric with a Ghibli Hybrid
On July 16 Maserati introduced the first hybrid in its history, the 2021 Ghibli Hybrid. It’s no Prius—the car offers 330 horsepower and 331 pound feet of torque, fairly close to the output of the regular twin-turbo V6 Ghibli, which offers 345 horsepower.

The last-generation Ghibli went on sale in 2013, and a fairly impressive (for a supercar) 100,000 were sold. But the car was getting rather dated, so the update was long awaited. The new car is what’s called a “mild hybrid,” meaning it gets electric assistance to its two-liter, direct-injected turbo four. Yes, a four-cylinder Maserati.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
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4300 Route 1 North, South Brunswick, NJ 08852
Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.

Market Brief: July 16, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Dow Snaps Winning Streak. Stocks ended modestly lower on Thursday after mixed corporate earnings and economic data struggled to offer an impetus for additional gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 135 points, or 0.5%, to finish near 26,735, putting an end to its four-day winning streak. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 3216. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.7% lower at 10,474. Tech companies led the market decline, with Amazon and Microsoft taking a breather from their sharp rally this year. In data, first-time U.S. jobless claims for the week ending July 11 were down only 10,000 compared with the previous week, suggesting the labor market was still under strain. In China, an unexpected fall in retail sales spooked investors.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,734.71 -135.39
S&P 500 3,215.57 -10.99
NASDAQ 10,473.83 -76.66
US 10-Year Note 0.62 -0.01
Dollar Index 96.33 0.25
Crude Oil 40.70 -0.50
Gold 1,796.30 -17.50
Global Dow 2,949.33 -12.44
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
Retail Sales Spiked in June. Since Then, Coronavirus Cases Have Spiked, Too.
Retail sales increased at a better-than-expected clip in June from May. And even better, sales were also up from a year earlier. The same cloud, however, hangs over this report as it has others this month: The data were collected before coronavirus cases began to spike anew.

U.S. retail and food-services sales jumped a seasonally adjusted 7.5% in June, the Census Bureau said Thursday, better than the 5.4% increase economists polled by FactSet predicted. Investors have gotten used to sizable increases in economic gauges from depressed levels in April and May, when the economy was virtually shut down and slowly reopening. But the fact that retail sales rose 1.1% in June from 2019’s level suggests some real strength beyond just favorable month-over-month comparisons.

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1.3 Million Americans Filed New Jobless Claims Last Week
In the week ending July 11, the Labor Department said there were 1.3 million first-time claims for unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 10,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The four-week moving average of initial claims was 1.375 million, down from 1.435 million for the previous week. Initial claims have now exceeded the 1 million threshold for 17 straight weeks.

An additional 928,000 workers sought Pandemic Unemployment Assistance—representing gig workers and others not normally eligible for jobless benefits—in the latest week.

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Morgan Stanley’s Strong Results Stand Out
A surge in trading activity allowed Morgan Stanley to be the rare bank to see a year-over-year gain in profits as lenders struggle with the pandemic.

The investment bank reported profits of $3.2 billion, or $1.96 per share, in the second quarter, beating profits of $2.2 billion in the year-earlier period. Revenue popped to $13.4 billion—a $3.2 billion jump from last year.

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Bank of America’s Better-Than-Expected Earnings Are Still Down From a Year Ago
Bank of America shares dropped on Thursday even though the giant lender reported better-than-expected earnings.

The bank, led by CEO Brian Moynihan, posted profits of $3.5 billion, or $0.37 a share, beating expectations of earnings of $0.27 per share. But profits were down by more than half from the year-ago quarter, when the bank earned $7.3 billion. Revenue also took a hit in the second quarter, coming in at $22.3 billion, just under the $23.1 billion recorded a year earlier.

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Facebook, Other Tech Companies Could Face Pressure After EU Court Ruling
In what could turn out to be a major blow to the technology sector, the European Court of Justice on Thursday struck down Privacy Shield, a cross-border legal agreement that governs data transfers from the European Union to the U.S. The court found that Privacy Shield fails to adequately protect Europeans from weak U.S. consumer-data-privacy laws.

The ruling could cause considerable issues for tech companies like Facebook, Alphabet, and Amazon.com that routinely store and process data generated by European customers on U.S. servers, where they could be subject to surveillance by U.S. government authorities. More than 5,000 companies rely on the Privacy Shield agreement for cross-border data transfers.

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Twitter Suffers High-Profile Hack
A day after what was the most high-profile security breach in Twitter’s history, details remain scarce.

The company said late Wednesday in a series of tweets that hackers used some form of deception to gain access to its systems and tools normally reserved for employees—and used them to send messages asking for bitcoin from dozens of verified accounts, including those of celebrities, politicians, business tycoons, and some tech giants’ corporate accounts.

Twitter hasn’t yet disclosed details on how the attackers breached its security and exactly what the breach—known as a social-engineering attack—looked like, though it has said it is continuing to investigate the matter. U.S. lawmakers have also raised questions about the attack and asked Twitter to disclose what occurred in detail.

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American Airlines and JetBlue Team Up
JetBlue Airways and American Airlines Group are forming an alliance in which they plan to code-share flights and integrate some of their networks. It could be a sign of industry consolidation as carriers try to regain profitability in a world of sharply reduced air travel.

JetBlue and American said their partnership, announced Thursday, will include code-sharing and network cooperation. JetBlue will add more than 60 routes to its network with flights operated by American, expanding JetBlue’s presence across the three major airports in the New York region. JetBlue plans to add flights at LaGuardia and Newark and increase its presence at JFK to connect to international flights run by American.

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Target Is Latest Big Retailer to Require Customers to Wear Masks
Target said Thursday it will require customers to wear face coverings in all of its stores starting next month, following the moves by its biggest rivals Walmart and Kroger a day earlier.

The retail chain will mandate face coverings to help prevent the spread of coronavirus for all store visitors except for those with underlying medical conditions and young children starting on Aug. 1, a Target spokesperson said in a statement to Barron’s.

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Johnson & Johnson Beats Earnings Expectations, Raises Guidance
Johnson & Johnson announced second quarter financial results on Thursday morning that beat Wall Street’s expectations, reporting earnings per share of $1.67, just over the S&P Capital I.Q. Consensus estimate of $1.51. The company also raised its guidance for the 2020 fiscal year, saying it now expects earnings per share of between $7.75 and $7.95, up from its previous projection of between $7.50 and $7.90.

Yet sales were $18.3 billion for the quarter, 10.8% less than the same quarter last year. Shares of Johnson & Johnson traded lower for much of Thursday’s session but moved into positive territory late in the session.

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Domino’s Posts Better-Than-Expected Results
Pick up or delivery? It doesn’t matter. No matter how U.S. consumers choose to get their pizza pies, they are getting a lot of them. Just look at Domino’s Pizza.

The restaurant chain crushed second-quarter earnings estimates on Thursday. Domino’s earned $2.99 a share from $920 million in sales. Analysts were looking for $2.25 a share from $912 million in sales. It is the largest earnings “beat” since, well, the first quarter, when earnings exceeded analyst estimates by 32%. U.S. same-store sales, a key metric for any retail operation, advanced more than 16% year over year.

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The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

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Market Brief: July 15, 2020

A daily summary of news, analysis and data shaping the market.
Market Brief
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Vaccine News Spurs Gains. U.S. stocks finished higher on Wednesday as corporate earnings came in better than expected and positive developments around a Covid-19 vaccine helped to buoy investor sentiment, despite the U.S. notching a record tally of new Covid-19 cases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 228 points, or 0.9%, to end at 26,870, based on preliminary numbers. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% to close at 3227, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% to finish around 10,550. The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reported that economic activity increased in almost all its districts, but remained well below where it was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Moderna shares rallied sharply after the biotech firm reported promising results from a study of its coronavirus vaccine candidate.
CHANGE
DJIA 26,870.10 227.51
S&P 500 3,226.56 29.04
NASDAQ 10,550.49 61.91
US 10-Year Note 0.62 -0.00
Dollar Index 96.04 -0.22
Crude Oil 40.97 0.68
Gold 1,813.80 0.40
Global Dow 2,960.36 38.18
Powered by Dow Jones Research, FactSet, Eurostat, SIX Financial Information.
Here Are the Long-Awaited Data on Moderna’s Vaccine Trial. So Far, So Good.
Moderna’s announcement of positive data on a Phase 1 trial of its Covid-19 vaccine in May was met with skepticism from some experts, who noted that the company had not included much detail on the trial’s outcome in its press release. Now, two months later, that detail is here.

The vaccine “induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified,” says a New England Journal of Medicine paper published on Tuesday evening. “These findings support further development of this vaccine.”

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Positive Data Reportedly Are Coming for AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine Trial
Shares of U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca surged Wednesday on an anonymously sourced report from a prominent British journalist claiming the medical journal The Lancet will publish “positive news soon” on the Covid-19 vaccine the company is developing with Oxford University.

The brief article, which appeared early Wednesday on the website of the British television network ITV, was by Robert Peston, ITV News’ political editor. Peston writes that The Lancet will publish positive news on the Oxford vaccine, and that the paper will show that the vaccine elicited both antibody and T-cell responses in study participants.

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Apple and Ireland Win Appeal in EU Dispute
The European General Court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission was wrong in 2016 to order Ireland to claw back some €13.1 billion ($14.9 billion) from Apple as undue tax advantages deemed illegal state aid.

Even though Apple and the Irish government, which had appealed the decision, rejoiced at the ruling, this may not be quite the end of the legal story. The Commission has the right to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union—the EU’s highest court—and it may take another few years before a final ruling is issued.

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Increased Trading Helps Goldman Sachs Smash Earnings Estimates
Goldman Sachs Group just reported a blowout quarter, thanks to a surge in trading and underwriting.

Goldman Sachs saw net revenue of $13.3 billion for the quarter ending June 30, blowing past analysts’ estimates of $9.8 billion and marking the bank’s second-highest quarterly revenue ever. Earnings per share totaled $6.26, again eclipsing Wall Street’s projections of $3.78 a share, as well as the profit of $5.81 a share from the same quarter a year ago. The strong result was largely the result of increased trading activity amid the volatility of the second quarter.

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Uncertainty Colors Business Outlook Even as Reopening Boosts Activity
Business activity has mostly picked up across the U.S., though the outlook remains uncertain and activity remains well below pre-pandemic levels, the Federal Reserve’s latest collection of anecdotes from its 12 districts shows.

The beige-book report, prepared based on information collected by regional Fed banks on or before July 6, gives investors an anonymized glimpse of the economy from businesses at the ground level. As lockdowns lifted and businesses reopened, many respondents reported that demand picked up and prompted hiring. But as the coronavirus continues to spread and threatens reopenings, businesses remain worried about the magnitude of the pandemic’s economic implications.

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Surging Factory Output Supports Case for V-Shaped Industrial Recovery
Investors still betting on a V-shaped recovery, at least in some parts of the U.S. economy, got a batch of good news that underpins hope that the worst is over for the beleaguered industrial sector.

Industrial production climbed 5.4% while manufacturing output jumped 7.2% in June from a month earlier, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Economists expected increases of 4.3% and 5.5%, respectively, according to FactSet. In May, those rates were 1.4% and 3.9%, respectively.

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The Manufacturing Sector Is on the Mend, New York Factory Survey Suggests
Industrial stocks have been hammered this year, lagging behind the broader market as the coronavirus pandemic slowed factory activity and trade tensions linger. A report Wednesday offers a glimmer of hope that the worst for the sector might be over.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its Empire State manufacturing index, comprising survey results collected July 2 through July 9, rose for the first time since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. as demand sprang back. It came in at a better-than-expected 17.2 for July, breaking a streak of contracting activity that included record lows in May and April. Economists surveyed by FactSet predicted an improvement to 10 from minus 0.2 in June.

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Oil Rises on OPEC Deal and Inventory Drop. Don’t Expect Further Gains Soon.
After a shaky few days, oil prices rose on Wednesday following an unsurprising result at an OPEC meeting and better-than-expected government data out of the U.S.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, settled 2.1% higher to $43.79 on Tuesday, as West Texas Intermediate crude prices settled up by 2.3% to $41.20. Oil stocks were rising, with U.S. producer Diamondback Energy up 1.3%.

OPEC and its allies, a group known as OPEC+ that includes Russia, agreed to boost production by 2 million barrels a day in August. That would leave the group’s production of 7.7 million barrels below normal levels, rather than its current 9.7 million barrel cut. The production increase threatens to result in another oil glut, but OPEC ministers have said that the production increase will be buffered by more cuts from countries like Iraq that didn’t comply with the group’s prior deal.

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UnitedHealth Beats Earnings Expectations but Says Costs Will Come Later This Year
The health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group reported second-quarter earnings of $7.12 a share Wednesday, higher than the FactSet consensus estimate of $5.28 per share. The company attributed the number to patients deferring medical care due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Company expects these results will be offset in the quarters ahead by…the resumption of deferred care and future COVID-19 cost and economic impacts,” UnitedHealth Group said. Demand for care had hit relatively normal levels by the end of the second quarter, after falling dramatically from mid-March through April, the company said.

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Beyond Meat Is Entering Brazil, in Latest Expansion
Beyond Meat is expanding its geographic borders again. The company announced a new partnership on Wednesday to bring its alternative-protein products into Brazil.

Beyond Meat products will start off in 19 St. Marche locations across São Paulo. St. Marche is owned by private-equity firm L Catterton.

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Dow Jones Contact Us
| Privacy Policy
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4300 Route 1 North, South Brunswick, NJ 08852
Copyright ©
2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not for redistribution.
The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market or economic conditions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance.