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Here’s What Hedge Funds Think About Liberty Latin America Ltd. (LILAK) We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, therefore imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, smart money investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not always available for the general crowd. This doesn't mean that they don't have occasional colossal losses; they do (like Peltz's recent General Electric losses). However, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on hedge fund activity. With this in mind, as the current round of 13F filings has just ended, let’s examine the smart money sentiment towards Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK). IsLiberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK)ready to rally soon? Investors who are in the know are turning less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions dropped by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that lilak isn't among the30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds' small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter. Even if you aren't comfortable with shorting stocks, you should at least avoid initiating long positions in our short portfolio. We're going to take a look at the recent hedge fund action regarding Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK). At the end of the first quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -5% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 19 hedge funds with a bullish position in LILAK a year ago. So, let's find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves. Among these funds,Ashe Capitalheld the most valuable stake in Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK), which was worth $120 million at the end of the first quarter. On the second spot was Fine Capital Partners which amassed $118.7 million worth of shares. Moreover, Two Creeks Capital Management, Wallace R. Weitz & Co., and GoldenTree Asset Management were also bullish on Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock. Seeing as Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK) has experienced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few money managers who were dropping their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, David Halpert'sPrince Street Capital Managementdropped the largest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $10.7 million in stock. Stephen J. Errico's fund,Locust Wood Capital Advisers, also said goodbye to its stock, about $5.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter. Let's go over hedge fund activity in other stocks - not necessarily in the same industry as Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI), Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB), Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC), and First Hawaiian, Inc. (NASDAQ:FHB). This group of stocks' market valuations are closest to LILAK's market valuation. [table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position SBGI,28,496817,-5 ASB,16,216472,-2 HWC,15,112402,0 FHB,23,384375,2 Average,20.5,302517,-1.25 [/table] View table hereif you experience formatting issues. As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $303 million. That figure was $417 million in LILAK's case. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we'd rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed thattop 20 most popular stocksamong hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Unfortunately LILAK wasn't nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); LILAK investors were disappointed as the stock returned -12.1% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out thetop 20 most popular stocksamong hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published atInsider Monkey. Related Content • How to Best Use Insider Monkey To Increase Your Returns • Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Top Dividend Stock Picks • 30 Stocks Billionaires Are Crazy About: Insider Monkey Billionaire Stock Index
Here’s What Hedge Funds Think About CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (CTMX) Investing in small cap stocks has historically been a way to outperform the market, as small cap companies typically grow faster on average than the blue chips. That outperformance comes with a price, however, as there are occasional periods of higher volatility. The last 8 months is one of those periods, as the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) has underperformed the larger S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 9 percentage points. Given that the funds we track tend to have a disproportionate amount of their portfolios in smaller cap stocks, they have seen some volatility in their portfolios too. Actually their moves are potentially one of the factors that contributed to this volatility. In this article, we use our extensive database of hedge fund holdings to find out what the smart money thinks of CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX). CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX)has seen an increase in support from the world's most elite money managers in recent months. Our calculations also showed that CTMX isn't among the30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. Hedge funds' reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn't keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds' small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter. We're going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action encompassing CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX). At the end of the first quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 6% from the fourth quarter of 2018. On the other hand, there were a total of 19 hedge funds with a bullish position in CTMX a year ago. With hedge funds' capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions). Among these funds,Perceptive Advisorsheld the most valuable stake in CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX), which was worth $34.1 million at the end of the first quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $13.9 million worth of shares. Moreover, Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc, Great Point Partners, and Point72 Asset Management were also bullish on CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock. Now, some big names have jumped into CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX) headfirst.Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc, managed by Mark Lampert, initiated the most outsized position in CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX). Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc had $12.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jeffrey Jay and David Kroin'sGreat Point Partnersalso made a $10.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CTMX positions are Julian Baker and Felix Baker'sBaker Bros. Advisors, Ken Griffin'sCitadel Investment Group, and Michael S. Weiss and Lindsay A. Rosenwald'sOpus Point Partners Management. Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX). We will take a look at Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA), Phunware, Inc. (NASDAQ:PHUN), Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:REPL), and Catchmark Timber Trust Inc (NYSE:CTT). This group of stocks' market valuations resemble CTMX's market valuation. [table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position PRTA,22,242026,9 PHUN,8,20348,6 REPL,5,75343,-1 CTT,9,48454,-1 Average,11,96543,3.25 [/table] View table hereif you experience formatting issues. As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $97 million. That figure was $93 million in CTMX's case. Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:REPL) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTMX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we'd rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed thattop 20 most popular stocksamong hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Unfortunately CTMX wasn't nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CTMX were disappointed as the stock returned -7.3% during the same period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out thetop 20 most popular stocksamong hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published atInsider Monkey. Related Content • How to Best Use Insider Monkey To Increase Your Returns • Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Top Dividend Stock Picks • 30 Stocks Billionaires Are Crazy About: Insider Monkey Billionaire Stock Index
Here's How Much Mortgage You Can Actually Afford Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Buying a new home is a big decision that involves a whole lot of smaller ones. Many people focus on the number of bedrooms or the quality of the kitchen appliances as they contemplate where they want to live. But new homebuyers shouldn’t let considerations like those persuade them to buy a home that’s more expensive than they can comfortably afford. With home prices on the rise in many parts of the U.S., keeping things affordable is getting harder to do. In May the median listing price for a home rose 6 percent from the previous year, to $315,000, a record high, according to a report by Realtor.com. Meanwhile, the number of homes priced above $750,000 rose 11 percent from a year ago. Buyers say that those high prices are forcing them to spend more than they planned. One-third of buyers report that they spent more than they expected to on their home, and nearly one-third put down a higher down payment than they anticipated, according to a June survey by CoreLogic, a real estate data analytics firm. Financial planners recommend limiting the amount you spend on housing to 25 percent of your monthly budget. Yet the average married couple with children between the ages of 6 and 17 spends 32 percent of their budget on housing, and single people spend almost 36 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And when people take on mortgages that are larger than they planned for, it becomes more difficult for them to reach other financial goals, such as saving for a child's college education or their own retirement. To make sure you don’t spend more than you should, here's some advice on getting a mortgage you can afford. Follow the 25 Percent Rule There’s a straightforward way to make sure you can afford your mortgage while managing your other goals, according to Eve Kaplan , a certified financial planner in New Jersey. “Housing—including maintenance—ideally shouldn’t consume more than 25 percent of a household budget. This goes for folks who rent, too,” Kaplan says. Mortgage bankers would disagree. They use various calculations to figure out how much you can afford, and the amount is often much higher than financial planners recommend. A common measure that brokers use is the debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which, for a qualified mortgage, limits your total debt payments, including your mortgage, student loans, credit cards, and auto loans, to 43 percent. Story continues Let’s say you and your spouse make a combined annual income of $90,000, or about $5,600 per month after taxes. Based on your DTI and depending on your other debts, you could be approved for a mortgage of $600,000. That might sound exciting at first, but with a monthly payment of about $3,225, it would eat up more than half your take-home pay. Following Kaplan’s 25 percent rule, a more reasonable housing budget would be $1,400 per month. So taking into account homeowners insurance and property taxes, you’d be better off sticking to a mortgage of $240,000 or less. If you have enough for a 20 percent down payment, the maximum house you can afford is $300,000. “People think, ‘I’m making really good money. I should be able to afford this,’” says Mary Beth Neeley, a certified financial planner and financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group , a financial planning firm in Jacksonville, Fla. “But most people don’t consider saving for the future. You have to put your priorities in place and look at all your goals. You don’t want to have a house that adds stress to your financial situation.” Neeley asks clients an important question when trying to help them determine what they’re willing and able to spend on housing: “Do you really want to change your lifestyle to have a more expensive home?” Aim to Put 20 Percent Down The amount of mortgage you can afford also depends on the down payment you make when buying a home. “In a perfect world, we recommend a 20 percent down payment to avoid paying mortgage insurance,” Neeley says. When your down payment is less than 20 percent, your costs rise. You typically have to pay private mortgage insurance, which can cost up to 1 percent of the entire loan amount each year until you build up 20 percent equity in your home. On a $240,000 mortgage, that’s $200 per month. Keep in mind that you will have other ongoing costs related to homeownership as well, including taxes, insurance, and utilities. All of these expenses need to be estimated before you settle on a monthly mortgage payment. Don't Be Fooled by the 5-Year Rule Kaplan says homeowners usually need to stay put for at least five years to make the closing costs of buying a home worthwhile. That's a useful rule of thumb, but if you're thinking of staying that long, you may be tempted to opt for a mortgage that's higher than you can comfortably afford now. Be careful. Predicting future income isn’t as easy as it may seem. Kaplan cautions that stretching your budget can backfire if you become unemployed for an extended period. When they're planning for the long term, many homebuyers may also see their home as an investment for the future, which can be an excuse for spending more today than they can easily afford. But real estate can be volatile, as we saw in the 2008 housing crash. Having too much of your net worth tied up in your home can be risky. Realize That Other Expenses May Come Up Even if your mortgage doesn't stretch your budget, an unexpected job loss or other event could cause you to struggle to make your mortgage payments. The more affordable a home is in the first place, the better chance you’ll have of recovering. Building up an emergency fund is easier if you limit your mortgage payment to 25 percent of your take-home pay. The more cash you have on hand, and the lower your monthly obligations, the better chance you’ll have of staying afloat if difficult times strike. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc. View comments
Does Theralase Technologies Inc. (CVE:TLT) Have A Volatile Share Price? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Anyone researching Theralase Technologies Inc. (CVE:TLT) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first category is company specific volatility. This can be dealt with by limiting your exposure to any particular stock. The second type is the broader market volatility, which you cannot diversify away, since it arises from macroeconomic factors which directly affects all the stocks on the market. Some stocks mimic the volatility of the market quite closely, while others demonstrate muted, exagerrated or uncorrelated price movements. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk' in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, while those with a beta below one are either less volatile or poorly correlated with the market. Check out our latest analysis for Theralase Technologies As it happens, Theralase Technologies has a five year beta of 0.97. This is fairly close to 1, so the stock has historically shown a somewhat similar level of volatility as the market. While history does not always repeat, this may indicate that the stock price will continue to be exposed to market risk, albeit not overly so. Many would argue that beta is useful in position sizing, but fundamental metrics such as revenue and earnings are more important overall. You can see Theralase Technologies's revenue and earnings in the image below. With a market capitalisation of CA$65m, Theralase Technologies is a very small company by global standards. It is quite likely to be unknown to most investors. Companies this small are usually more volatile than the market, whether or not that volatility is correlated. Therefore, it's a bit surprising to see that this stock has a beta value so close to the overall market. It is probable that there is a link between the share price of Theralase Technologies and the broader market, since it has a beta value quite close to one. However, long term investors are generally well served by looking past market volatility and focussing on the underlying development of the business. If that's your game, metrics such as revenue, earnings and cash flow will be more useful. In order to fully understand whether TLT is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Theralase Technologies’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for TLT’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor TLT’s outlook. 2. Past Track Record: Has TLT been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of TLT's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how TLT measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with thisfree list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Such Is Life: How Azarga Metals (CVE:AZR) Shareholders Saw Their Shares Drop 69% Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Azarga Metals Corp.(CVE:AZR) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 29% in the last month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last half decade have been disappointing. Indeed, the share price is down 69% in the period. So is the recent increase sufficient to restore confidence in the stock? Not yet. Of course, this could be the start of a turnaround. Check out our latest analysis for Azarga Metals With zero revenue generated over twelve months, we don't think that Azarga Metals has proved its business plan yet. You have to wonder why venture capitalists aren't funding it. So it seems that the investors focused more on what could be, than paying attention to the current revenues (or lack thereof). It seems likely some shareholders believe that Azarga Metals will find or develop a valuable new mine before too long. As a general rule, if a company doesn't have much revenue, and it loses money, then it is a high risk investment. There is usually a significant chance that they will need more money for business development, putting them at the mercy of capital markets. So the share price itself impacts the value of the shares (as it determines the cost of capital). While some companies like this go on to deliver on their plan, making good money for shareholders, many end in painful losses and eventual de-listing. Azarga Metals has already given some investors a taste of the bitter losses that high risk investing can cause. Azarga Metals had liabilities exceeding cash by CA$2,240,046 when it last reported in March 2019, according to our data. That makes it extremely high risk, in our view. But with the share price diving 21% per year, over 5 years, it's probably fair to say that some shareholders no longer believe the company will succeed. The image below shows how Azarga Metals's balance sheet has changed over time; if you want to see the precise values, simply click on the image. It can be extremely risky to invest in a company that doesn't even have revenue. There's no way to know its value easily. Given that situation, would you be concerned if it turned out insiders were relentlessly selling stock? I'd like that just about as much as I like to drink milk and fruit juice mixed together. You canclick here to see if there are insiders selling. While the broader market gained around 1.4% in the last year, Azarga Metals shareholders lost 19%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. However, the loss over the last year isn't as bad as the 21% per annum loss investors have suffered over the last half decade. We'd need to see some sustained improvements in the key metrics before we could muster much enthusiasm. Most investors take the time to check the data on insider transactions. You canclick here to see if insiders have been buying or selling. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies we expect will grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Facebook Talked to the Fed About Libra, Chairman Powell Says Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, said Wednesday that social media giant Facebook met with the central bank in the run-up to the reveal of itsLibra cryptocurrency. Speaking duringa press conferencethat followed a two-day Fed policy meeting, Powell was asked if he or the Fed had any concerns about Libra affecting the central bank’s ability to conduct monetary policy, as well as if Facebook met with Fed officials. “You know Facebook, I believe, has made quite broad rounds around the world with regulators, supervisors and lots of people to discuss their plans and that certainly includes us,” he said. Related:Senate Banking Committee Schedules July Hearing on Facebook’s Libra Crypto As for potential effects on monetary policymaking, Powell said that “we’re a long way from that,” going on to note that “digital currencies are in their infancy.” “So essentially…not too concerned about the central banks no longer being able to carry out monetary policy because of cryptocurrencies or digital currencies,” he continued. “It’s something we’re looking at,” said Powell, going on to state: “You know, there are potential benefits here, there are also potential risks, particularly of a currency that could, you know, have large application. So I would echo what Governor Carney said which is that we will wind up having quite high expectations from a safety and soundness and regulatory standpoint if they do decide to go forward with something.” Related:China’s Biggest Payment Firms Have No Plans to Follow Facebook into Crypto On Tuesday, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said that Libracould be subjectto the “highest standards” in global regulation and that the U.K. central bank would be looking “very closely” at the initiative. Powell also noted that “we don’t have plenary authority over cryptocurrencies” when asked if the Fed would directly oversee Libra, but he highlighted the Fed’s role in international regulatory groups, suggesting that the U.S. central bank would likely have input in any regulations that take shape in the wake of Facebook’s Libra debut. Image viaWikicommons • ‘I Don’t Trust Facebook With Anything:’ The World Reacts to Facebook’s Libra • Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Will Face ‘Regulatory Hurricane,’ Canaccord Analysts Say
The next rate cut is unlikely to be caused by weak growth, economist explains The next Federal Reserve rate cut may be driven by weak inflation rather than softening economic growth. “You'll notice that the statement was not all that downbeat on growth but did highlight weak inflation and uncertainties about the outlook,” wrote Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research, LLC, in a note to clients shortly after theJune statementwas released. “This feels more like the Fed sees the coming cut as more of an issue around inflation/insurance than growth.” Here’s what the Fed said in its statement on Wednesday: “The Committee continues to view sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the Committee's symmetric 2% objective as the most likely outcomes, but uncertainties about this outlook have increased.” After this line came an explicit acknowledgement of soft inflation, as Dutta pointed out: “In light of these uncertainties and muted inflation pressures, the Committee will closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” These two lines in the Fed’s statement help to narrow the reasons behind a future rate cut. Lower interest rates traditionally spur inflation. While the Fed made no changes to its dot plot for 2019 and expects no change in rates this year, the Fed’s dots signal two rate cuts in 2020. But Dutta expects the Fed to act earlier if needed. “If there is a growing conviction the Fed will have to cut next year, they'll probably be more willing to act sooner than later,” Dutta noted. Even Chair Powell, in his press conference, downplayed the firmness of the Fed’s dot plot. “If you pay too close attention to the dots, then you may lose sight of the larger picture,” Powell noted. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved higher following the Fed’s statement on Wednesday. The central bank kept rates unchanged. Scott Gamm is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@ScottGamm. More from Scott: • Why Trump should be worried about the stock market selloff • What the plunging 10-year Treasury yield says about the economy and stock market • Why one top strategist is bullish on tech even with lingering trade worries • Money managers are bracing for a 'sharp fall' • Retail investors have missed the rally — but that could be bullish Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn, andreddit.
Apple Is Playing Chicken With China. Will Beijing Flinch? Many companies have suffered in the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing, butApple(NASDAQ: AAPL)has arguably been among the hardest hit. After becoming the first U.S. company to surpass a$1 trillion market capand hitting all-time stock price highs in October 2018, Apple stock had lost about one-third of its value by January 2019. It has recovered some of that loss since January (now down about 14%) but is still feeling the strain of the trade war anddeclining iPhone salesin China. The first trade sanctions were imposed nearly a year ago, and with no end in sight, Apple is considering drastic steps to insulate itself -- including potentially moving some of its manufacturing out of China. Image source: Getty Images. Apple has reportedly asked each of its largest suppliers to evaluate the costs to shift between 15% and 30% of its production out of China to other countries in Southeast Asia, according toa reportby the Nikkei Asian Review. The company made this request toFoxconn, Pegatron, Wistron, and others, as Apple is considering a massive restructuring of its supply chain in the wake of the trade war. The events of the past year have hammered home the risk of relying too heavily on China for its production. In May, President Trump threatened to impose another $200 billion worth of tariffs on additional products from China, after already slapping $250 billion in levies on a previous list of goods. On several occasions over the past year, the countries have alternately signaled they were nearing a deal or imposing new penalties, but neither side has yielded to the other's demands. Hopes for a trade agreement were stoked again this week when Trump tweeted that he had a "good telephone conversation with President Xi of China," and that the two would have an extended meeting during the G20 Summit in Japan next week. Apple's massive operations in China have taken decades to set up, so any actions the company eventually takes to relocate manufacturing facilities certainly wouldn't happen overnight. Apple has built an "extensive and complex ecosystem of components, logistics, and talent" around its operations, according to the Nikkei Asian Review report. Duplicating them will take time and money. The iPhone maker is considering a number of countries to diversify its operations, including Mexico, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia -- with India and Vietnam emerging as the front-runners. Any move to get manufacturing up and running at a new location would take at least 18 months once a site has been chosen. Moving even just a portion of its manufacturing would be a costly step, both for Apple and for China. Once the wheels are in motion, there may be no going back. Apple employs about 10,000 Chinese directly and an estimated 5 million jobs in China rely in some way on the company, so this talk of Apple moving could be a calculated effort by the company to pressure officials in Beijing to make a trade deal. In a note to clients, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said, "We believe this is all a poker game and Apple will not diversify production out of China overnight." There would be some initial costs to diversify its manufacturing, but, over the longer term, the company would benefit from not having all its eggs in one basket. Your move, China... More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Danny Venaowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
MediaNews plans to cut 81 jobs at Reading Eagle The new owners of the Reading Eagle plan to lay off more than a third of the staff after they assume control of the 150-year-old newspaper and the company's other assets later this month. MediaNews Group stepped forward to buy the Reading Eagle Co. for $5 million after the family-owned company filed for bankruptcy protection in March. A filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry said that MediaNews intends to lay off 81 of the Reading Eagle's 221 employees. The Reading Eagle's other properties include news-talk radio station WEEU-AM and a weekly newspaper. "As we anticipated, (MediaNews) has determined it will have a reduced need for a large number of Reading Eagle employees following the closing of the sale," Jennie Rodriguez-Priest, the Reading Eagle's human resources director, wrote to the state labor department. The new owners are "still considering other Reading Eagle employees for possible employment," she wrote. The company promised a final list of cuts by June 28. MediaNews plans to complete its purchase of the paper June 30. A Reading Eagle spokeswoman had no information on how many newsroom jobs will be lost. A message was left with MediaNews seeking comment. The company has previously said it will "re-create" the Eagle so the paper "has the appropriate resources" to provide local news coverage in a city where the Eagle has long been the dominant source. Better known as Digital First Media, MediaNews has a history of buying struggling newspapers and slashing their staffs. Its portfolio includes about 200 papers and other publications, including The Denver Post and the Boston Herald. Its biggest shareholder is Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund that invests in distressed companies. Employees who are let go will not receive severance pay, according to the sales agreement. In a column published Monday, Eagle Editor Garry Lenton said that he would be leaving at the end of the month. "It wasn't an easy job. My tenure came during a difficult time in the newspaper's history, as the company struggled to meet the challenges of a changing market and strong competition for advertising dollars from online sources," he wrote. "Things will change because they have to, but the commitment to journalism by this staff will remain," Lenton added.
The best-laid plans of the Boston Celtics have gone awry Boston Celtics stars Kyrie Irving and Al Horford are reportedly leaving in free agency. (Getty Images) At this time last year, there was no more attractive collection of NBA assets with which to enter the next decade than those held by the Boston Celtics. Now, they are rebuilding at the very moment they were supposed to take over the league. So, what the hell happened? “S---,” a team source told Yahoo Sports when posed that question in the aftermath of Al Horford’s reported free-agency turnaround on Tuesday night, “I don’t know.” There is no quantifying just how much of a shock Horford’s increasingly likely exit came to the franchise. In the days before his decision to decline a $30 million player option for the 2019-20 season, sources close to Horford offered no indication of his intent to leave the Celtics, and even in the hours before the news broke, the All-Star big man’s camp told Yahoo Sports, “All I can say is Al really does love Boston!” After Horford officially entered free agency, all signs still pointed to a Celtics reunion on a win-win deal that lowered his salary next season, provided financial security into his mid-30s and granted Boston some cap flexibility in the process. As recently as two weeks ago, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge publicly pegged restructuring Horford’s contract as “ one of the priorities on our list .” That all changed when the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett tweeted this: Major change in the Al Horford situation: Per source close to Horford, his side is no longer discussing a new 3-year deal to stay with the Celtics. He is expected to sign a 4-year free agent contract elsewhere... Story to come. — Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) June 18, 2019 The Celtics had come to accept that Kyrie Irving is planning to leave when free agency opens on June 30. He has “ essentially ghosted ” them since the unsettling end to their season, The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach reported on Monday. That was bolstered by Tuesday’s reports from The Athletic’s Shams Charania and The New York Times’ Marc Stein that Irving is expected to join the Brooklyn Nets. Story continues The Celtics had already begun reimagining a road to contention with Horford and a fully healthy Gordon Hayward, along with the further development of promising prospects Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, all freed from the usage constraints of Irving. This was, after all, the same core that nearly reached the 2018 Finals, plus Hayward and whoever else they might have added by restructuring Horford’s deal. Now, there is a belief among some inside the organization that the Los Angeles Clippers may be the team preparing a lucrative offer for Horford. It certainly appears the Celtics either severely underestimated his value or are simply unwilling to meet his market rate. Either way, they have reportedly reached an impasse , even if there is a glimmer of hope that they can resurrect renegotiations at some point. Horford’s exit would change everything. Oft-criticized for his overpriced contract, he is one of the NBA’s most under-appreciated stars , the linchpin of a roster that exceeded expectations to reach back-to-back conference finals. He epitomizes the evolution of the center position , ranking among the league’s best passing, shooting and defensive bigs. His ability to stop anyone from Giannis Antetokounmpo at the arc to Joel Embiid in the post allowed everything else to fall into place for a Celtics team that beat their Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers in the 2018 playoffs. His departure would wreak symbolic havoc, too. It was his belief in the team’s culture and ability to build a contender that led him to sign a max contract with the Celtics in 2016, alleviating the real concern that Boston could not attract top-tier free agents. Hayward followed a year later, and Ainge finally cashed in some of his assets for Irving, cementing an All-Star trio that could further be bolstered by recent and future lottery picks. Now, Horford’s departure would signal to future free agents that the culture and ability to build a contender are no longer worth believing in. The Celtics will then be left with Hayward, Tatum and Brown as the cornerstones of the franchise. They are all capable of reaching elite levels, but questions still remain after Hayward failed to return to All-Star form and both Tatum and Brown fell back to flat earth after proving to be top-flight playoff options in Irving’s 2018 absence. Behind closed doors, the Celtics are still trying to put a positive spin on Tuesday’s developments. A contingent of the current Celtics was already in the gym when the Horford news broke. In addition to their talented wings, there is First Team All-Defensive guard Marcus Smart, restricted free agent Terry Rozier and 2018 first-round pick Robert Williams. They can create something close to max cap space if Horford leaves, and they have three more first-rounders in this week’s draft, even if those, too, are less valuable than they imagined a year ago. A lightly protected future pick from the Memphis Grizzlies, who could be among the league’s worst teams after just trading their best player , gives Boston one more high-end trade chip. “We have decent young players, Gordon will be better, have cap space and some picks,” a source told Yahoo Sports in the aftershocks of Tuesday’s news. “It’s not the end of the world, just different than what we thought it would be. Don’t panic.” The Celtics are suddenly back to being the sort of scrappy underdog that coach Brad Stevens has overachieved with in years past. Does it even make sense to chase a max-level free agent and package picks for another piece if Horford is no longer there to serve as the backbone of a championship contender? What might those pieces look like? Are you trading in your few remaining assets for the likes of D’Angelo Russell, Bradley Beal or Clint Capela? That is worlds different than the dream of Irving and Anthony Davis that they believed was a reality until recently. The Celtics were considered a championship contender at season's start. (Getty Images) As a result, Ainge must take a long look in the mirror to figure out how a team built to contend for the next decade dropped into the dreaded middle. For the most part, it is a confluence of seemingly random events that were not easy to see coming: October 2017: Hayward’s ankle injury and subsequent rehabilitation prevented the Celtics from reaching their ceiling in the only two years Irving was under contract. April 2018: Irving’s own season-ending surgery and the ensuing playoff run inflated perceptions of roles for several young Celtics, leading to friction when he returned. September 2018: Davis fired his agent and hired Klutch Sports, first leading to speculation and then confirmation that he wanted to join the Lakers, not the Celtics. October 2018: Irving committed long-term to Boston in front of a horde of season-ticket holders, encouraging the Celtics to continue building with him in the picture. December 2018: The Sacramento Kings were actually good , severely decreasing the value of the top-one protected pick the Celtics owned from a perennial loser. January 2018: Davis requested a trade at the very moment Irving publicly wavered in his commitment to Boston, giving the Celtics pause entering the trade deadline. May 8, 2019: Irving all but quit on the Celtics, both in a second-round playoff collapse against Milwaukee and by immediately distancing himself from the team. May 28, 2019: The Lakers jumped from 11th to fourth in the draft lottery , considerably improving the competition’s best trade asset in a rival offer for Davis. June 2019: Golden State Warriors stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson tore tendons , convincing opponents that Horford is their missing piece for a 2020 title. Each event bled into the other, and it tore apart Boston’s chemistry. As one member of the organization suggested to Yahoo Sports, a book could be written about the team’s dysfunction this season. The details may not be known, at least until Irving officially leaves in free agency, but it does not take an insider to see he was the Jenga piece that toppled the franchise’s carefully laid plans these past six years. Much has been made of Ainge’s past failures to pull the trigger for star talent, but there were real concerns about acquiring Jimmy Butler, Paul George or Kawhi Leonard without assurances any would re-sign. The decision not to include Brown in a deal for Leonard looks ill-advised in retrospect, but we might feel differently if Kawhi’s shot does not fall against Philadelphia or Milwaukee wins an overtime or even if injuries do not ravage Golden State. The Celtics genuinely felt they had a contender without Leonard last summer and a real shot to land Davis this summer. Second-guessing is a sport to itself, and who is to say acquiring any of those stars alters the chemistry enough to make a difference. Every path could have led back here. Does Ainge deserve blame for not seeing any of this coming? Absolutely. He hitched his wagon to a famously fickle superstar, overvalued his assets, misjudged the Davis market and did nothing to address a disconnected roster this season. At the same time, this is the impossibility of roster-building in an NBA era when the whims of max-salaried players shift with the wind, altering the entire landscape with a change of heart. The Celtics can make countless correct decisions, only to come undone on a Tuesday in June, just after Davis and LeBron James join forces on a Lakers team that has made an equal number of blunders over the same timespan. As one Celtics source told Yahoo Sports, “What a difference a year makes, man.” – – – – – – – Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach More from Yahoo Sports: CP3, Harden relationship deemed ‘unsalvageable’ From mid-major to NBA draft: Morant's historic rise Coach K on Zion’s NBA potential: 'He’s a gift from God' Why D-Wade supported son at Miami Pride
Should You Take Comfort From Insider Transactions At Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXDX)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inAccelerate Diagnostics, Inc.(NASDAQ:AXDX). It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market. Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.' See our latest analysis for Accelerate Diagnostics Chairman of the Board John Patience made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$150k worth of shares at a price of US$14.96 each. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of US$20.01. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices. Happily, we note that in the last year insiders bought 21600 shares for a total of US$308k. While Accelerate Diagnostics insiders bought shares last year, they didn't sell. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably donotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It's great to see that Accelerate Diagnostics insiders own 42% of the company, worth about US$461m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders. There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. With high insider ownership and encouraging transactions, it seems like Accelerate Diagnostics insiders think the business has merit. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check thisfreereport showing analyst forecasts for its future. But note:Accelerate Diagnostics may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Harley-Davidson partners with Chinese manufacturer to build 'smaller, more accessible' motorcycles Harley-Davidson, Inc.is seeking new customers in Asia through a new collaboration to buildmotorcyclesin China. The company announced on Wednesday it is working with Qianjiang Motorcycle Company Limited to sell “smaller, more accessible” Harley-Davidson motorcycles in China beginning in 2020. The motorcycles will include 338cc displacement engines, which are smaller than anything Harley-Davidson offers in the U.S. The company said the collaboration is part of an effort to grow its international business to 50 percent of its annual volume by 2027. “We’re excited about this opportunity to build more Harley riders in China, one of the world’s largest motorcycle markets, by creating new pathways to our brand,” said Matt Levatich, president and CEO of Harley-Davidson. The company said it will expand the smaller motorcycles to other Asian markets after China. They haven’t said how much the motorcycles will cost, but Craig Kennison, an analyst with brokerage firm Baird,told Reutersaffordability has been an issue for first-time Harley riders. “The international motorcycle market is huge, but Harley-Davidson has not been able to penetrate it with large/expensive bikes,” he said. President Trump criticized Harley-Davidson last year after the company said it planned to move production to Europe in order to avoid tariffs. Trump threatened the company wouldbe “taxed like never before." He later said he also supported plans to boycott the company if it moved its manufacturing overseas. More recently, Trump has offered a different opinion on Harley-Davidson, tweeting in April that the company has struggled with European Union tariffs. He threatenedto “reciprocate”against the EU. As of Wednesday afternoon, he has not yet responded to news of the expansion to China. Harley Davidson said it chose Qianjiang based on the Chinese company’s experience “developing premium small displacement motorcycles, established supply base, proven capabilities in emerging markets and ability to meet consumer requirements.” The company said the new motorcycles will adhere to the same standards and testing processes followed for all of its products. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Dongshao Guo, the general manager of Qianjiang, said the company is “pleased to collaborate with Harley-Davidson. “We have proven manufacturing capability and experience in China, and we are committed to improving the experience of motorcycling for riders in Asia,” he said. Fox Business’ Brittany De Lea and Matthew Kazin and Reuters contributed to this report. Related Articles • Best Buy Celebrates 50 Yrs With Saleathon; Will It Turn 60? • Canadian Solar Is Facing More Challenges Than It Appears • Target Adds Private Bathrooms to Quell Transgender Debate
Apple May Move 30% of Its iPhone Production From China. This Analyst Disagrees Appleis considering moving a substantial portion of its iPhone production from China to avoid any additional import tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration. But one analyst believes any shift in manufacturing would be much smaller. On Wednesday, theNikkei Asian Reviewcited unidentified sourceswho said Apple has asked its top suppliers to evaluatemoving up to 30% of iPhone productionout of China. Apple hasn’t placed a deadline on the proposals, according to the report, but is concerned that a possible $300 billion U.S. tariff against China-made goods would drive iPhone manufacturing costs higher. Apple could decide to transfer as little as 15% of its iPhone production out of China, according to the report. “With or without the final round of the $300 billion tariff, Apple is following the big trend [to diversify production],” one unidentified source told theNikkei Asian Review, suggesting Apple could still decide to move production even if the tariffs aren’t levied. But Wedbush analyst Dan Ives sees it differently. In a note to investors on Wednesday, Ives cast doubt that Apple could move up to 30% of its iPhone production from China anytime soon. He said it’s more likely Apple would only be able to move a small portion of its China-based iPhone production in the near future. “We believe realistically in a best case scenario Apple would be able to move 5%-7% of its iPhone production likely to India in the next 12 to 18 months,” Ives told investors. “Moving 15% of its iPhone production from China to other regions (India and Vietnam would be top candidates) would take at least 2-3 years in our opinion.” Ives added that Apple’s supply chain is so sophisticated and important to the company’s bottom line that moving substantial iPhone production out of China too quickly could cause problems in the supply chain or even drive Apple’s manufacturing costs higher. In an interview withFortune, Bill Ho, an analyst at 556 Ventures, said Apple is trying to get a full picture from its suppliers, who actually operate the manufacturing facilities, to see what’s feasible. But he cautioned that Apple would ultimately need to make a final, political calculation. “The costs would be higher,” if Apple stayed in China, Ho said, but the political risk of leaving China and angering consumers in that critical market, could be enough “to overcome those higher costs.” That said, Apple has already dabbled in moving iPhone production to other countries. The company’s manufacturing contractor Wistron has been producing itslow-cost iPhone SE in Indiafor the last two years. Reports from India this year also said that Apple wouldstart producing its iPhone Xin India later this year with help from its biggest manufacturing partner Foxconn. Some of the iPhone production Apple may move from China would be shifted to India, theNikkeireported. The news outlet’s sources added that Apple may also consider producing iPhones in Mexico, Indonesia, and Vietnam, among other locations. It’s unclear why Apple would choose those countries, but they all have low-cost, but relatively skilled labor. “Each has merits and certainly the costs in each country is a primary driver,” Ho toldFortune. “Additionally, it’s beyond lower labor costs but also talent pool, political stability, and incentives given to Apple and its suppliers to set up long-term manufacturing there.” Still, Ives isn’t sold. He thinks China is too important to Apple’s iPhone for the company to make a major shift in its smartphone production. And like it or not, Apple may haveno other choicebut to stay in the country. “Apple has ‘bet the farm’ on its flagship China production factory which produces the vast majority of iPhones globally and represents and the hearts and lungs of the Cupertino ecosystem,” said Ives, referring to the city in which Apple’s headquarters is located.
U.S. envoy for Iran traveling to Middle East -State Department WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook will travel to the Middle East on Wednesday for meetings in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain to discuss "Iran's regional aggression," the State Department said. "He will also share additional U.S. intelligence on the range of active threats Iran currently poses to the region," the department said in a statement. Hook travels next week to Europe to meet with officials from Britain, Germany and France "to discuss a range of issues concerning the Iranian regime," the statement said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
5 Top-of-the-Line T. Rowe Price Mutual Funds Getty Images T. Rowe Price ( TROW ) employs more than 600 investment professionals who manage nearly $1.1 trillion for investors in 49 countries. But when you visit the Baltimore headquarters, you still get a feel of the firm as a small, collegial group that enjoys working together. The secret to T. Rowe Price's success, in my view, is its sterling corporate culture. This is a company with character. The average investment pro has 22 years of experience; many remain with T. Rowe for their entire careers. All this - plus the products' above-average long-term returns and below-average expense ratios - makes T. Rowe mutual funds a good choice for investors. The firm was launched in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price Jr., who had a novel idea (at the time) that buying growth stocks - those with rising earnings and revenues - could be just as successful as value investing, which was ascendant during the Great Depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash. The theory was sound, but the timing was awful. The T. Rowe Price investment firm didn't turn a profit until 1950 - the same year that it launched its first mutual fund, T. Rowe Price Growth Stock ( PRGFX ). The firm subsequently broadened its scope to include value stocks, foreign stocks and small-cap stocks, as well as bond funds. Since then, it has done quite well indeed. Do you think index funds are the only way to invest? T. Rowe begs to differ. Indeed, 79% of its U.S. equity funds beat their benchmark over the past 10 years. But which are the best T. Rowe Price mutual funds on offer? Here are my thoughts. SEE ALSO: The 27 Best Mutual Funds in 401(k) Retirement Plans T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Getty Images Yield: N/A Expenses: 0.70% 3-year return: 21.6% 5-year return: 14.9% T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ( TRBCX , $115.31) is a classic T. Rowe growth fund. Manager Larry Puglia has been at the helm since 1993. He looks for companies with sustainable competitive advantages over their rivals, strong cash flow, healthy balance sheets and managers who have a record of allocating profits wisely. Story continues Puglia isn't afraid to load up on stocks that possess the rare growth characteristics he treasures. Although TRBCX owns 127 stocks, 44% of assets are in the fund's top 10 holdings. Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is a nearly 10% position in the $62.6 billion fund. Microsoft ( MSFT ), Facebook ( FB ) and Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) are each in the 5% to 6% range. But troubled Boeing ( BA ) is also a 3% holding, demonstrating Puglia's willingness to depart from the herd. Half the fund is in technology and consumer discretionary stocks, while another 17% is in health care and 16% is in communications services. None of these sectors are cheap. Accordingly, the weighted price-to-earnings ratio of the fund's holdings is 24 and the price-to-cash-flow is 17. Puglia holds stocks about three years, on average. It's hard to argue with the returns. Over the past 10 years, the fund returned an annualized 17.5% - an average of three percentage points higher than Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The fund beat the index and the average large-cap growth fund in eight of the past 10 years. This performance hasn't gone unnoticed, with Kiplinger placing TRBCX in its Kip 25 list of top no-load mutual funds . SEE ALSO: The Best T. Rowe Price Funds for 401(k) Retirement Savers T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth Getty Images Yield: 1.6% Expenses: 0.64% 3-year return: 14.3% 5-year return: 11.3% Slow and steady wins the race at T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth ( PRDGX , $49.18), another Kip 25 fund , albeit one that is very different from Blue Chip Growth. This gem among T. Rowe Price mutual funds owns 110 stocks, and none comprise as much as 4% of assets. Manager Tom Huber, who has been in charge since 2000, typically owns stocks for five years or longer. While Blue Chip Growth is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500, Dividend Growth is 15% less volatile than the bogey. Returns have been solid. Over the past 15 years, the fund returned an annualized 9.2% - an average of one-half of one percentage point per year higher than the S&P. The fund has held up particularly well during crummy markets. In 2018, for instance, it slipped 1.1% compared to a 4.4% haircut for the S&P. Huber looks for companies with the ability and willingness to continue hiking dividends, as well as make share buybacks. Holdings such as Visa ( V ) and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) are prime examples. The fund doesn't usually make big sector bets, although Huber has been underweight commodity stocks for years - which has helped returns. SEE ALSO: The 19 Best ETFs for a Prosperous 2019 T. Rowe Health Sciences Getty Images Yield: N/A Expenses: 0.77% 3-year return: 14.3% 5-year return: 12.9% Face it: There's little exciting about health insurance companies or hospital companies. What's compelling in health care are biotechnology and other life sciences stocks that have the potential to transform medical treatments. In that sub-sector, T. Rowe Health Sciences ( PRHSX , $77.48) is a terrific pick. T. Rowe has been strong for decades. Consider the record: Over the past 15 years, the fund topped the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the S&P 1500 Health Care index by an average of 3.5 and 4.5 percentage points, respectively, per year. PRHSX has topped both indexes over the past five years, too. Unfortunately, the fund has had lots of personnel turnover since star manager Kris Jenner quit in 2013 and took two analysts with him. His replacement moved to another T. Rowe Price mutual fund three years later. In 2016, Ziad Bakri - a physician who had been an analyst for PRHSX since 2011 - took over the fund. T. Rowe also has hired several other analysts Health Sciences. But Bakri has kept the fund true to its roots. It searches for innovative companies, including a generous helping of mid-size and even some small-cap stocks. About 40% of the fund is invested in biotech and other life sciences stocks. That does makes the fund volatile - about 30% more volatile than the S&P 500 - as many small biotech companies will thrive or die depending on the success or failure of a single new biotech compound. In short, this is not a fund for your "safe" money. SEE ALSO: The 5 Best Vanguard Funds for Retirees T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Small-Cap Growth Equity Getty Images Yield: N/A Expenses: 0.8% 3-year return: 15.6% 5-year return: 10.5% Looking for an index-beating, actively managed small-cap fund that's open to new investors and charges reasonable fees? Do you even believe such a fund exists? Consider T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Small-Cap Growth Equity ( PRDSX , $37.87), a computer-driven, quantitative fund run by Sudhir Nanda, who holds a Ph.D. in finance, and a bunch of like-minded quants. Over the past 10 years, the fund topped the Russell 2000 Growth Index by an average of 2.7 percentage points per year. The fund lagged the benchmark in just one of those years. What's more, the outperformance has come with about 10% less volatility than the index. This is one of the best T. Rowe Price mutual funds you can buy, and its success is tied to Nanda's first-rate team. The fund's model gives its greatest weighting to valuation, ranking stocks based on price-to-cash flow. But the model also accounts for profitability and dividend growth. The fund spreads its assets among nearly 300 stocks, and turnover is surprisingly low: the small-cap stocks are held on average for at least five years. Nanda has run PRDSX since 2006, and he has been with T. Rowe's quantitative analysis team since 2000. The quant group, incidentally, runs three other T. Rowe funds - T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Value Equity Fund, ( TQMVX ), T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Small & Mid-Cap Core Equity Fund, ( TQSMX ) and T. Rowe Price QM Global Equity Fund ( TQGEX ) - that have short track records but still bear watching. SEE ALSO: The 5 Best American Funds for Retirees T. Rowe Price Retirement Getty Images Virtually every fund company nowadays offers a retirement or target-date fund. These are designed primarily for 401(k) plans and the like, especially for employees who want someone to choose their investments for them. Almost all target-date funds are "funds of funds" - usually all of its holdings are funds from the same sponsor. The sad fact is most fund companies don't have a broad enough menu of solid funds to do a credible job with target-date offerings. But T. Rowe Price mutual funds a rarity in that they do so many things well, making it easy to recommend the T. Rowe Price Retirement line of target-date funds. Indeed, 95% of the firm's target-date funds outperformed their average competitor over the past 10 years. That's partly due to T. Rowe's decision to weight the funds more heavily in stock in the pre-retirement years. For instance, its 2045 fund - designed for investors who plan to retire in about 25 years - is 90% in stocks compared to an industry average of 85%. The 2020 fund, intended for those retiring any day now, is 55% in stocks compared to an industry average of 44%. Of course, a bear market could, at least temporarily, obliterate T. Rowe's edge in this regard. Low expenses don't hurt either. T. Rowe Price Retirement 2025 ( TRRVX ), for instance, charges 0.61%. That's cheap for active management. The underlying performance of the T. Rowe Price mutual funds has likewise been a positive. Bottom line: Among actively managed retirement funds, I think T. Rowe's are pick of the litter. Steve Goldberg is an investment adviser in the Washington, D.C., area. SEE ALSO: 19 Best Retirement Stocks to Buy in 2019 EDITOR'S PICKS The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Funds to Buy Now The Best and Worst Mutual Funds of the Market Correction The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio: All 48 Buffett Stocks Copyright 2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors
Meghan Markle has fought this feminist issue for decades — and Britain is finally banning it It's no secret that Meghan Markle is a self-proclaimed feminist. The Duchess of Sussex hasshared her voiceandacted on a wide range of women's issues, which she seemingly started doing at the young age of 12. Back in 2017, avideo fromNick Newsre-surfaced of a young Meghan fighting for gender equality. She explains on camera how upset she was after watching TV in social studies class and coming across a commercial for dish soap that said "women are fighting greasy pots and pans." "When I first saw the commercial, I knew something had to be done, because I was furious," she said before explaining what compelled her to write a letter to the president ofProctor & Gamble, the company behind the ad. "While flipping through the channels, we saw a commercial for the new Ivory Clear Dish Washing Liquid. In the commercial, they saidwomenare battling grease, meaning only women do dishes. When I heard this, the boys in my class started saying, 'Yeah, that's where women belong, in the kitchen.'" Per Meghan's letter, Proctor and Gamble actually listened and changed the commercial to say "people" instead of "women." You can watch the video above. The root of Meghan's issue with the ad back then and many ads today is the use of gender stereotypes to sell a product. For example, men failing to change a diaper, women doing housework, girls playing with dolls, boys working on DIY projects — you know the ones. But in December 2018, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority announced a ban on these types of ads and published a64-page reportbased on a review that showed how gender stereotypes can have a negative effect on people's public and private lives. "The review found evidence suggesting that harmful stereotypes can restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults and these stereotypes can be reinforced by some advertising, which plays a part in unequal gender outcomes," theASA explained on their sitelast week. They further explained that, "the evidence does not show that the use of gender stereotypes is always problematic and the new rule does not seek to ban gender stereotypes outright, but to identify specific harms that should be prevented." The ban gave companies six months to update or remove any ads that violated the new rules that state “advertisements must not include gender stereotypes that are likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offense.” And as of June 14, the ban (although still a bit murky) is in full-effect and being enforced across a multitude of mediums. According toThe New York Times, Britain is not the first to enforce a ban on gender discrimination or sexism in ads. Other countries like Belgium, France, Finland, Greece, Norway, South Africa and India have already installed such laws. But knowing this, and how hard 12-year-old Meghan Markle fought for these changes, we can't help but think of how happy the duchess must feel today watching the changes take place around her. So, will the U.S. be next?
UPDATE 1-Argentina economy starts 2019 in reverse with 5.8% drop (Adds context, graphic) BUENOS AIRES, June 19 (Reuters) - Argentina's economy contracted 5.8% in the first quarter of 2019, the country's statistics agency said on Wednesday, a reflection of the biting recession that has hammered domestic consumption and production. The steep fall marks a slight improvement versus the previous quarter, which had been the weakest quarterly performance in a decade, but keeps the pressure on President Mauricio Macri as he battles to revive growth. The stalled economy, which started to contract in the second quarter of last year, has badly hurt Argentine consumers and business owners, and dragged down Macri in the polls ahead of presidential elections towards the end of the year. South America's second largest economy shrank 2.5% last year and 6.2% in the final quarter of 2018, capping a tumultuous period where the country was rattled by a plunging peso currency and rampant inflation. Analysts polled by Reuters had seen first quarter GDP falling an average of 5.9% and a median of 5.7%. The country's unemployment rate rose to 10.1% in the first quarter from 9.1% in the first three months of last year, the official INDEC statistics agency also said. (Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Before You Buy Tri Origin Exploration Ltd. (CVE:TOE), Consider Its Volatility Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Anyone researching Tri Origin Exploration Ltd. ( CVE:TOE ) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market. Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk' in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, while those with a beta below one are either less volatile or poorly correlated with the market. See our latest analysis for Tri Origin Exploration What we can learn from TOE's beta value Tri Origin Exploration has a five-year beta of 1.05. This is reasonably close to the market beta of 1, so the stock has in the past displayed similar levels of volatility to the overall market. Using history as a guide, we might surmise that the share price is likely to be influenced by market voltility going forward but it probably won't be particularly sensitive to it. Many would argue that beta is useful in position sizing, but fundamental metrics such as revenue and earnings are more important overall. You can see Tri Origin Exploration's revenue and earnings in the image below. Story continues TSXV:TOE Income Statement, June 19th 2019 Could TOE's size cause it to be more volatile? Tri Origin Exploration is a rather small company. It has a market capitalisation of CA$1.8m, which means it is probably under the radar of most investors. It doesn't take much money to really move the share price of a company as small as this one. That makes it somewhat unusual that it has a beta value so close to the overall market. What this means for you: It is probable that there is a link between the share price of Tri Origin Exploration and the broader market, since it has a beta value quite close to one. However, long term investors are generally well served by looking past market volatility and focussing on the underlying development of the business. If that's your game, metrics such as revenue, earnings and cash flow will be more useful. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it's well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as Tri Origin Exploration’s financial health and performance track record. I urge you to continue your research by taking a look at the following: Financial Health : Are TOE’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here . Past Track Record : Has TOE been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of TOE's historicals for more clarity. Other High-Performing Stocks : Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here . We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Avidian Gold Corp. (CVE:AVG) Insiders Increased Their Holdings Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inAvidian Gold Corp.(CVE:AVG). Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' View our latest analysis for Avidian Gold Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Director James Polson for CA$250k worth of shares, at about CA$0.50 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than CA$0.09 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock when an insider has bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. James Polson was the only individual insider to buy over the year. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. From our data, it seems that Avidian Gold insiders own 14% of the company, worth about CA$749k. Whilst better than nothing, we're not overly impressed by these holdings. There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. We'd like to see bigger individual holdings. However, we don't see anything to make us think Avidian Gold insiders are doubting the company. Along with insider transactions, I recommend checking if Avidian Gold is growing revenue. This free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings should make that easy. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
AOC’s Holocaust Remarks Divide Congressional Democrats Democrats are split over Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments earlier this week equating American immigrant-detention centers with the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, some in her party defending the remarks while others spoke against them. “The U.S. is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are,” the 29-year-old New York Democrat said during an Instagram Live stream on Monday. “I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that ‘never again’ means something.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday cautioned freshman Democrats that they are responsible for remarks they make. “They come to represent their districts and their point of view,” Pelosi said. “They take responsibility for the statements they make.” “The President must walk away from these cruel, ineffective and discriminatory policies, and work with Democrats to support smart, effective immigration reform that honors our values and keeps families together and safe,” Pelosi added in a statement. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Ocasio-Cortez was “wrong” to make the comparison. “They are entirely different realities,” de Blasio said on MSNBC. “Of course she was wrong,” “You cannot compare what the Nazis did in concentration camps,” he said. “It was a horrible moment in history. There is no way to compare.” However, Senator Brian Schatz, who is of Jewish heritage, defended Ocasio-Cortez’s use of the comparison. “Every American Jew that I know is disgusted by the cruel treatment of children and families at our southern border,” the Hawaii Democrat wrote on Twitter. “If you want to show solidarity with American Jews, help us to stop this, and don’t feign outrage at the language that people use to describe this tragedy.” Story continues The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, who is also Jewish, also defended Ocasio-Cortez. “One of the lessons from the Holocaust is ‘Never Again’ – not only to mass murder, but also to the dehumanization of people, violations of basic rights, and assaults on our common morality. We fail to learn that lesson when we don’t callout such inhumanity right in front of us,” he wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers made no secret that they found the New York representative’s comments distasteful. Representative Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, took to Twitter to ask Ocasio-Cortez to “do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this.” The Jewish Communities Relations Council (JCRC) also issued a condemnation of the remarks. “As concerned as we are about the conditions experienced by migrants seeking asylum in the United States . . . the regrettable use of Holocaust terminology to describe these contemporary concerns diminishes the evil intent of the Nazis to eradicate the Jewish people,” the JCRC said in a statement. More from National Review Ocasio-Cortez: ICE Doesn’t ‘Deserve a Dime’ of Funding Poll: AOC’s Net Favorability Declines as Name Recognition Grows Conservative Group Hits AOC with Ethics Complaint
Fed Chair Powell says central bank has spoken with Facebook about Libra Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters during his FOMC press conference today that the central bank has spoken to Facebook about Libra. Powell also reiterated that he believes cryptocurrencies are still a long way from impacting monetary policy. "Facebook has made rounds with regulators around the world to discuss its plans [Libra], including us. There are benefits...but also risks we're watching, and echo the statement [Bank of England] Governor Carney issued." Yesterday, BoE governor Mark Carney said he was open-minded about Facebook's Libra token, but warned mass adoption would force it "to be subject to the highest standards of regulation," theFinancial Times writes(paywall). Carney noted seeing the penitential utility of Libra, especially in countries where moving money is expensive and slow. Going forward, the BoE will pay close attention to Facebook’s proposal and will coordinate efforts with the G7, the Bank of International Settlements, the Financial Stability Board and the IMF. Carney concluded Libra would not launch with an “open door” from regulators.
Senate Banking Committee Schedules July Hearing on Facebook’s Libra Crypto The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on July 16 regarding Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra. The hearing, “Examining Facebook’s Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations,” comes in the wake of calls from members of Congress to more closely examine Libra and its potential risks. There have even been calls to halt work on the project until hearings are held. In light of those comments, a Facebook representative said that “we look forward to responding to lawmakers’ questions as this process moves forward.” Related: Will Facebook’s Libra Be an On-Ramp or Dead End for Crypto? The July 16 meeting will be held at 10 a.m. EST, and as of yet, no information about witnesses has been released. The hearing will be broadcast to the public. It was the Banking Committee that wrote an open letter to Facebook last month seeking answers about its work on Libra, including how it works and to what extent the social media giant has sought input from regulators and market watchdogs. As of this week, Facebook hadn’t directly responded to that letter, with a representative telling CoinDesk that “we received the letter and are addressing the senators’ questions.” After today’s hearing news broke, committee member and 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted that “Facebook has too much power and a terrible track record when it comes to protecting our private information. We need to hold them accountable—not give them the chance to access even more user data. #BreakUpBigTech.” Related: Facebook Talked to the Fed About Libra, Chairman Powell Says U.S. Capitol image via Shutterstock Related Stories China’s Biggest Payment Firms Have No Plans to Follow Facebook into Crypto ‘I Don’t Trust Facebook With Anything:’ The World Reacts to Facebook’s Libra
Investors Who Bought Amilot Capital (CVE:TOM) Shares Five Years Ago Are Now Down 91% Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. We really hate to see fellow investors lose their hard-earned money. Spare a thought for those who heldAmilot Capital Inc.(CVE:TOM) for five whole years - as the share price tanked 91%. And we doubt long term believers are the only worried holders, since the stock price has declined 70% over the last twelve months. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 45% in the last 90 days. We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway. Check out our latest analysis for Amilot Capital Amilot Capital hasn't yet reported any revenue yet, so it's as much a business idea as an actual business. You have to wonder why venture capitalists aren't funding it. As a result, we think it's unlikely shareholders are paying much attention to current revenue, but rather speculating on growth in the years to come. It seems likely some shareholders believe that Amilot Capital will find or develop a valuable new mine before too long. We think companies that have neither significant revenues nor profits are pretty high risk. There is usually a significant chance that they will need more money for business development, putting them at the mercy of capital markets. So the share price itself impacts the value of the shares (as it determines the cost of capital). While some companies like this go on to deliver on their plan, making good money for shareholders, many end in painful losses and eventual de-listing. Amilot Capital has already given some investors a taste of the bitter losses that high risk investing can cause. Our data indicates that Amilot Capital had CA$5,558,379 more in total liabilities than it had cash, when it last reported in January 2019. That makes it extremely high risk, in our view. But since the share price has dived -39% per year, over 5 years, it looks like some investors think it's time to abandon ship, so to speak. The image below shows how Amilot Capital's balance sheet has changed over time; if you want to see the precise values, simply click on the image. In reality it's hard to have much certainty when valuing a business that has neither revenue or profit. Would it bother you if insiders were selling the stock? I'd like that just about as much as I like to drink milk and fruit juice mixed together. It costs nothing but a moment of your time tosee if we are picking up on any insider selling. Investors in Amilot Capital had a tough year, with a total loss of 70%, against a market gain of about 1.4%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 39% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. You might want to assessthis data-rich visualizationof its earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on CA exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
4 charged in downing of Malaysian airliner over Ukraine NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands (AP) — International prosecutors announced murder charges Wednesday against four men — three of them Russians with military or intelligence backgrounds — in the missile attack that blew a Malaysia Airlines jet out of the sky over Ukraine five years ago, killing all 298 people aboard. The case, built with the help of wiretaps, radar images and social media posts, marks the most significant step yet toward tying the tragedy to Moscow, which has backed the pro-Russian separatists fighting to seize control of eastern Ukraine. In announcing the charges, prosecutors appealed for witnesses to help lead them even further up the chain of command in President Vladimir Putin's Russia. Investigators "want to go as far as we can get" because "it's important to know who can be held responsible for this absolute tragedy," top Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said. The trial for the defendants, who also include a Ukrainian separatist fighter, was set for next March in the Netherlands, though it appeared unlikely any of them would be brought before the court, since Russia and Ukraine forbid the extradition of their citizens. Russia's Foreign Ministry called the charges against the country's citizens "absolutely unfounded" and accused the investigators of using "dubious sources of information" and ignoring evidence provided by Moscow in order to discredit Russia. It said, too, that the international team turned a blind eye to Ukraine's failure to close its airspace to commercial flights despite the fighting that endangered aircraft. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine by what investigators said was a Buk missile from a Russian anti-aircraft unit. Investigators believe the Ukrainian rebels probably mistook the Boeing 777 passenger jet for a Ukrainian military plane. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack, but eastern Ukraine's pro-Moscow rebels have relied heavily on Russian military assistance during the separatist conflict that erupted in April 2014 and has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Story continues Associated Press reporters spotted a Buk, an unusually big and sophisticated type of weapon, in the Ukrainian town of Snizhne just hours before the jetliner was shot down, raining debris and bodies down onto farms and sunflower fields. The investigation team said that even if the four defendants may not have actually pushed the button to launch the missile, they had a role in the preparations. One of those charged was Russian citizen Igor Girkin, a retired colonel in Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB. He led Russian and separatist forces in Ukraine's Donetsk region in 2014. Girkin dismissed the accusations in a telephone interview Wednesday, saying the "insurgents did not shoot down the Boeing." Girkin lives in Moscow. The three others charged are Russian citizens Sergey Dubinskiy, identified as a former employee of Russia's military intelligence service, and Oleg Pulatov, described as a former soldier in military intelligence; and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen who led a combat unit in the Donetsk. Girkin led a group of Russian men who crossed into Ukraine and occupied the town of Slovyansk, which became the site of major fighting. He wrote on his social media account around the time of the jetliner attack that the rebels had shot down a Ukrainian military plane in the area where the Malaysian aircraft went down. He later deleted that post. The Joint Investigation Team, made up of detectives from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine, said the trial will begin with or without the defendants in a top-security courtroom near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport under Dutch law, which allows trials in absentia. The men could get life in prison if convicted. The Netherlands has taken the lead in efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice because nearly 200 of those killed were Dutch citizens. Investigators have been gathering and analyzing evidence largely without help from Moscow, which dismissed the team as biased because it has no Russian members. Last year, the team said it was convinced that the Buk missile system used to shoot down the plane came from the Russian army's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile brigade, based in the Russian city of Kursk. Prosecutors appealed for witnesses to come forward to help identify the crew that manned the missile launcher and to take them further up the chain of command to identify those who authorized its deployment. The team did not reveal much evidence Wednesday, saying the courtroom is the place to lay out the case, but played a wiretap of an alleged conversation between Alexander Borodai, who was rebel leader in the Donetsk in 2014, and senior Kremlin official Vladislav Surkov in which they appear to discuss military aid for the separatists. Borodai on Wednesday denied discussing military support with Surkov, calling the recording a fake. Asked to characterize Moscow's cooperation with the probe, Westerbeke said it "wasn't too good," saying investigators had asked plenty of questions, "and a lot of those questions weren't answered." The families of those killed were informed of the trial date at a closed-door meeting. Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, whose son Bryce was among the dead, expressed relief. "This is what we hoped for," she said. "This is a start of it. It is a good start." She said she holds Putin responsible for the attack, saying: "He made this possible. He created the situation." As for Russia's lack of cooperation, she said, "I think it's disgusting. They deny everything, they don't cooperate. Nothing."
MONEY MARKETS-Traders see U.S. rate cut in July * Traders now see 67% chance Fed cutting rates 75 bps by year-end * Trade tensions seen as key risk to Fed's economic outlook (Updates market action after FOMC) By Richard Leong NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - U.S. interest rates futures prices jumped on Wednesday as traders now fully expect a rate cut from the Federal Reserve in July after policy-makers signaled they are prepared to ease policy due to greater uncertainty on the economic outlook. The Fed's latest guidance supported market expectations the U.S. central bank would lower key lending rates at least one more time after a possible July cut. “The Fed leaned dovish as it noted higher uncertainty and more officials saw scope for rate cuts," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington. The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's rate-setting group, in its policy statement said it "will act as appropriate to sustain" the economic expansion. Traders have piled on bets the Fed would lower interest rates multiple times by year-end as trade tensions between the United States, China and other trading partners have exacerbated a softening in global business activities. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan next week. It is unclear when the formal U.S.-China trade negotiations will restart but the United States is "certainly willing to engage" with China in the discussions, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at his press conference after the latest policy meeting that news about trade has been an important driver of sentiment since the Fed's previous meeting in May. In late U.S. trading, federal funds futures implied traders saw a 100% likelihood the Fed would cut the target range on short-term interest rates by a quarter point to 2.00%-2.25% in six weeks, compared with an 86% chance late on Tuesday, CME Group's FedWatch program showed. The fed funds complex implied traders are pricing in a 67% possibility that the Fed would lower short-term rates by 75 basis points by year-end, up from 49% the day before, according to the CME FedWatch. (Additional reporting by Ann Saphir Editing by Nick Zieminski and James Dalgleish)
EMERGING MARKETS-Latam FX firm as Fed meets expectations on rate cut signals (Updates prices) By Susan Mathew June 19 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies firmed on Wednesday, with Brazil's real and Mexico's peso reversing session losses to trade higher after the Federal Reserve signaled possible rate cuts of as much as half a percentage point in 2019. Brazil's real was up 0.2%, reversing losses of up to 0.6% logged earlier in the day, while Mexico's peso rose 0.1%, recovering from a decline of as much as 0.4%. Other regional currencies added to their gains. Most Latam stocks followed suit, with Sao Paulo-traded shares erasing losses to trade 0.8% higher, while gains in Mexican and Colombian stocks were bolstered. "As is stands, it (Fed statement) is EM positive and dollar negative," said Christian Lawrence, a senior market strategist at Rabobank. The dollar fell sharply after the Fed held rates unchanged. Chair Jerome Powell reiterated at the press conference that members of the Federal Open Market Committee see a stronger case for rate cuts. This met broad market expectations. The Fed move comes just a day after the European Central Bank chief's sharp dovish turn had fueled hopes of a global wave of central bank stimulus which gave a fillip to markets worldwide. Investors in Brazil's real will now be watching for the local central bank's interest rate decision at market close, which is also expected to signal rate cuts while holding the key rate steady at this meeting. "The combination of weak data and increased pension reform approval chances have led markets to price in almost 70 basis points of cuts in 2019," Morgan Stanley strategists said in a note, adding that a rate cut before September seemed unlikely. "We do think that there might be greater room to cut as the neutral rate continues to decline. So, if the central bank were to approach a potential easing cycle similar to how it has done in the past, then markets could price in an additional 100-125 bp of cuts next year," they said. Meanwhile, gains on Brazil's Bovespa stock index were limited by a 5% slump in Smiles Fidelidade. Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, the country's largest domestic airline, said it had failed to reach an agreement to buy out its independently listed loyalty program, Smiles Fidelidade, after five months of negotiations. Gol shares traded 3% higher, reversing early losses. Stock indexes in Chile and Argentina stayed in the red, although those in Chile cut some losses. Data showed that Argentina's economy contracted 5.8% in the first quarter of 2019 versus the same period a year earlier. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1930 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily pct change MSCI Emerging Markets 1,040.73 1.64 MSCI LatAm 2,815.17 0.72 Brazil Bovespa 100,219.92 0.82 Mexico IPC 43,351.80 0.44 Chile IPSA 5,036.11 -0.09 Argentina MerVal 40,315.88 -0.91 Colombia IGBC 12,548.38 0.82 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 3.8531 0.16 Mexico peso 19.0918 0.14 Chile peso 692.2 0.58 Colombia peso 3,236.03 0.53 Peru sol 3.329 0.09 Argentina peso (interbank) 43.2800 0.49 (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Slack is a 'very significant' company: IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital offers an ETF (IPO) that includes a basket of all companies that recently went public. The ETF is up 37.3% so far this year. With the IPO index hitting a record high this year, investors will be looking to add newer public offerings, such as Uber (UBER) and Beyond Meat (BYND), to their portfolios. “A lot of indices are looking at Uber. They don't own Uber in their portfolio. They don't own Zoom Video (ZM) in their portfolio, Pinterest (PINS),” Kathleen Smith, principal of Renaissance Capital, said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. “And so these companies that have gotten into the IPO market are in this index, and will then be picked up in time.” The next big tech unicorn, work messaging software company Slack, is set to make its market debut Thursday througha direct listing. (A direct listing means it didn't have investment bankers pitch its shares to institutional investors, and will sell shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WORK, which will be immediately available for trading). This will be the second direct listing in the U.S. since Spotify (SPOT) debuted last year. If Slack were to follow in the audio streaming platform’s footsteps, it would be off to a good start. When Spotify came to market, the NYSE set its price at $132 per share, and the stock opened 25% higher at $165.90. Spotify is now trading about flat with the price it began trading in April 2018. “So it's done alright, but, you know, it took some time to get into public markets. And it was a very big direct listing. In the case of Slack, it looks like the company could be valued at $16 or $17 billion,” said Smith. “This Slack direct listing will be extremely important,” Smith said. “[It will be] the second-largest float in the IPO market so far this year. A very significant company. The business is a real strong business, high growth. But I think the thing that has to be reconciled most is the valuation of this company at $17 billion, is going to be anenormous multiple.” Jennifer is a Production Assistant for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter@shankerjennifer READ MORE: • Victoria's Secret won't make it unless it reinvents itself: expert • The most attractive employers in 2019, according to current college students • Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,SmartNews,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.
Winnebago's Towable Segment Shows Promise in a Difficult Quarter Recreational vehicle (RV) dealers continue to trim their orders to manufacturers in 2019 as the industry returns to more normalized retail purchases after a surge in business in 2018. Unsurprisingly,Winnebago Industries(NYSE: WGO)reported a year-over-year revenue decline in its fiscal third quarter of 2019 (the three months ended May 25, 2019). The company's motorized division saw a significant drop-off in shipments against the year-ago period. However, sales of towable RVs actually increased, providing some optimism around prospects for the upcoming 2020 fiscal year. As we discuss the last three months below, note that all comparative numbers are presented against the prior-year quarter. [{"Metric": "Revenue", "Q3 2019": "$529.0 million", "Q3 2018": "$562.3 million", "Change (YOY)": "(5.9%)"}, {"Metric": "Net income", "Q3 2019": "$36.2 million", "Q3 2018": "$32.5 million", "Change (YOY)": "11.4%"}, {"Metric": "Diluted earnings per share", "Q3 2019": "$1.14", "Q3 2018": "$1.02", "Change (YOY)": "11.8%"}] Data source: Winnebago Industries. YOY = year over year. • Motor home sales tumbled 34.6% to $160.2 million, a result that management attributed to ongoing dealer inventory rationalization, especially in Class A and Class C vehicles (the largest and smallest sizes of RVs, respectively). Class B (middle-sized vehicles, often referred to as "van campers") sales dipped due to a supply chain issue related to the chassis used for two of the company's most popular camper models. • Towable segment sales rose nearly 11% to $346.8 million. This somewhat surprising result was due in part to rising sales in the company's Grand Design RV brand. • Efficient production in the towable segment helped lift overall companygross marginby 120basis points, to 16.4%. • The gross margin gains positively affected operating profits, although this was offset somewhat by restructuring costs as the company moved its diesel manufacturing platform from Junction City, Oregon, to Northern Iowa.Operating marginimproved by 70 basis points to 9.3%. • Winnebago's order backlog declined 17.1% to $420.1 million, as dealers worked on right-sizing inventory on their lots, an effect partially offset by a climbing backlog in Class B vehicles resulting from the chassis supply issue mentioned above. • Winnebago has reduced its total long-term debt by roughly 11% since the beginning of the fiscal year, to $260 million at quarter-end. Image source: Getty Images. In Winnebago's earnings press release, CEO Michael Happe put the quarter's earnings into perspective by arguing that an advance in profitability helps to compensate for weaker sales as the market rebalances supply and demand: We are pleased to deliver another quarter of solid consolidated results highlighted by continued margin expansion and market share gains. Winnebago Industries' third quarter results are a testament to the strength and resiliency of our brand portfolio amid a challenging and highly competitive RV market. We continue to focus on manufacturing high-quality products, maintaining disciplined production management and enhancing channel relationships. Despite a moderate decrease in overall sales in a difficult RV wholesale market, consolidated margin continued to expand, primarily due to the strength of our dual-branded Towable segment. We continue to be pleased with our strengthened market position as we outperform the industries in which we compete. Winnebago avoids providing specific, detailed quarterly guidance. However, management discussed several factors in the company's earnings press release that will bear on the next few quarters. First, the manufacturer continues to expect to gain market share -- today's filing observed that Winnebago's share of the North American retail RV market now approaches 10%, up from 3% only three years ago. Second, management asserted that the imbalance between wholesale and retail sales in the RV industry will keep normalizing during the second half of calendar year 2019. This may signal a return to sales growth in the near future. The company expects that its Class B sales will resume their strong growth midway through the fiscal fourth quarter and into fiscal 2020. In addition, management believes that the materials cost environment across all vehicle classes will remain volatile, as Winnebago begins to feel the impact of recently enacted import tariffs in its manufacturing process. All in all, Winnebago's perspective on the coming quarters appears reasonably optimistic, and shareholders endorsed the sanguine view: Shares traded up as much as 3% on Wednesday in the trading session following the release. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Asit Sharmahas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Some Atossa Genetics (NASDAQ:ATOS) Shareholders Have Copped A 99% Share Price Wipe Out Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. We don't wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Spare a thought for those who heldAtossa Genetics Inc.(NASDAQ:ATOS) for five whole years - as the share price tanked 99%. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 43% in the last 90 days. We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson. Check out our latest analysis for Atossa Genetics Atossa Genetics hasn't yet reported any revenue yet, so it's as much a business idea as an actual business. This state of affairs suggests that venture capitalists won't provide funds on attractive terms. As a result, we think it's unlikely shareholders are paying much attention to current revenue, but rather speculating on growth in the years to come. It seems likely some shareholders believe that Atossa Genetics will significantly advance the business plan before too long. Companies that lack both meaningful revenue and profits are usually considered high risk. There is usually a significant chance that they will need more money for business development, putting them at the mercy of capital markets. So the share price itself impacts the value of the shares (as it determines the cost of capital). While some such companies go on to make revenue, profits, and generate value, others get hyped up by hopeful naifs before eventually going bankrupt. Atossa Genetics has already given some investors a taste of the bitter losses that high risk investing can cause. When it last reported its balance sheet in March 2019, Atossa Genetics had cash in excess of all liabilities of US$18m. That's not too bad but management may have to think about raising capital or taking on debt, unless the company is close to breaking even. We'd venture that shareholders are concerned about the need for more capital, because the share price has dropped 63% per year, over 5 years. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Atossa Genetics's cash levels have changed over time. Of course, the truth is that it is hard to value companies without much revenue or profit. Would it bother you if insiders were selling the stock? I would feel more nervous about the company if that were so. It costs nothing but a moment of your time tosee if we are picking up on any insider selling. While the broader market gained around 4.6% in the last year, Atossa Genetics shareholders lost 20%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. However, the loss over the last year isn't as bad as the 63% per annum loss investors have suffered over the last half decade. We would want clear information suggesting the company will grow, before taking the view that the share price will stabilize. Shareholders might want to examinethis detailed historical graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies we expect will grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
KuCoin Lists Binance Coin, Supports Binance Chain Projects Singapore-basedcryptocurrency exchangeKuCoin has announced that it is now listing thecryptocurrencyBinance Coin (BNB) issued by the exchangeBinance, according to apress releaseon June 19. KuCoin will reportedly offer BNB trading pairs with Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT). The announcement also notes that KuCoin will support projects based on Binance’s native blockchain, Binance Chain, in addition to its native coin BNB. The recent development shows that major trading institutions are putting trust in Binance’s token-vetting process on its initial exchange offering platform. At press time, KuCoin is the 46th largest cryptocurrency exchange on CoinMarketCap, with an adjusted 24-hour trade volume of over$47 million. Binance recentlypartneredwith TrustTroken to offer the latter’sdollar-backedstablecoinTrueUSD (TUSD) on the exchange as afiat-to-crypto conversion mechanism. There are reportedly no additional fees to buy the stablecoin, and users can then use TUSD to convert their funds one-to-one withU.S.dollars. As recentlyreportedby Cointelegraph, researchers at Binance conjectured thatsocial mediagiantFacebook’supcoming Libra stablecoin could increase the crypto market’s volume by making crypto payments more accessible. The researchers discussed how Libra aims at becoming a global currency standard, saying: “Backed by a basket of fiat currency-denominated assets in its initial release, Libra represents a first attempt at creating a world currency, on-chain or not, with everyday usage by billions of individuals and institutions across the globe.” • CME: Open Interest in Bitcoin Futures Contracts Hit All-Time High • Binance Research: Facebook’s Libra Could Spark Additional Cryptocurrency Volume • Binance Announces Bitcoin-Pegged Token on Binance Chain • Hodler’s Digest, June 10–16: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week
Website documents histories of Georgetown-owned slaves BOSTON (AP) — A Boston-based genealogical organization and a Georgetown University graduate who launched a project to trace the family histories of hundreds of black slaves sold by the Jesuits who ran the college in 1838 have teamed up to digitize the information and make it available to people researching family histories. The public announcement Wednesday of what's known as the GU272 Memory Project coincides not only with Juneteenth — the annual observance of the 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in America — but also with the anniversary of the 1838 sale of 272 of the more than 300 slaves the Washington, D.C., college sold over a five-year period. American Ancestors, also known as the New England Historic Genealogical Society, has troves of genealogical information on its website, but the GU272 Project is unique, said Claire Vail, the project director. "For this project, we said, 'Let's do something different and let's talk to the living descendants,' most of whom have ... no family lore that stretched back to their enslaved ancestors," she said. So in addition to documents, photographs and the indexed genealogies of thousands of descendants, the project includes recorded interviews with dozens of living descendants. "As black Americans — as descendants of enslaved people — we have always been told, 'You'll never know who you are. You'll never know where you came from.' Now that we have this data, my hope is that we can use it to open doors and make connections," Mélisande Short-Colomb, 65, a slave descendant pursuing a history degree at Georgetown, said in a statement released by American Ancestors. Facing mounting debt, the Jesuits who ran what was then known as Georgetown College made the decision to sell the slaves to a Louisiana sugar plantation. The slaves themselves were Roman Catholic, having been baptized by the Rev. Thomas Mulledy, Georgetown's president. Story continues The sale raised $115,000, or about $3.3 million in today's dollars, and allowed the Jesuits to settle their most pressing debts and start the process of transforming the modest college into today's prestigious Georgetown University. Much of the information for the American Ancestors site comes from a project launched several years ago by Richard Cellini, an attorney from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown. His interest was sparked by student protests on campus over the slave sale. University folklore held that all of them died soon after the sale, a conclusion he refused to accept because it didn't make sense. "Even the Titanic had survivors," he said, stressing that his research was independent and received no funding from the university. The university has, however, done its own research into the sale and the fate of the slaves in a project started in the 1990s. Archived documents include a letter detailing how Jesuit priests from Maryland traveled to Louisiana a decade after the sale in order to understand the lives of the slaves sold there, according to a Georgetown spokeswoman. Cellini hired genealogists who dug into Louisiana and Maryland records. The ongoing project has so far located 224 of the slaves and nearly 8,500 descendants, about 4,000 of whom are living. When it came to making the information public, he knew American Ancestors was the place to go as what he calls the gold standard of genealogical research. Cellini dearly loves his alma mater, but he acknowledged that the project has shocked some people. But he said the slaves deserve a place of honor in school history. "Everyone who loves Georgetown should be proud and grateful to the people who founded it," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, the slaves are part of that, and I am grateful and proud of these families who helped make Georgetown what it is."
Mexico first to ratify USMCA trade deal, Trump presses U.S. Congress to do same By Miguel Angel Lopez and Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Wednesday became the first country to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) agreed late last year to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump. By a vote of 114 in favor to 4 against, Mexico's Senate backed the deal tortuously negotiated between 2017 and 2018 after Trump repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if he could not get a better trade agreement for the United States. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had already anticipated ratification this week in the Senate, where his leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and its allies have a comfortable majority in the 128-member chamber. There has been little parliamentary opposition in Mexico to trying to safeguard market access to United States, by far Mexico's top export destination, and the trade deal was approved with overwhelming cross-party support in the Senate. Mexico sends around 80% of its exports to the United States, and Trump last month vowed to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods if Lopez Obrador does not reduce the flow of U.S.-bound illegal immigration from Central America. Lopez Obrador says he wants to avoid conflict with Trump, but noted at the weekend that the tariff dispute showed Mexico needed to become more economically self-sufficient. Trump congratulated Lopez Obrador on Twitter for Mexico's approval. "Time for Congress to do the same here!" he wrote. Lopez Obrador, meanwhile, posted a video on Twitter in which he called the Senate's approval "very good news" and said it augured well for Mexico's relations with the United States. Canada, which has also fought with Trump over trade, is pressing ahead to ratify the deal. The main question mark hanging over its ratification is in the United States, where Democratic lawmakers have threatened to block the process. Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he believed Democrats' concerns on enforcing labor and environmental provisions in USMCA can be sorted out quickly. He spoke just hours after Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she still has many concerns over USMCA. Trump, who had excoriated the 25-year-old NAFTA as a "disaster" for U.S. workers, wants to claim a first major trade deal victory as the campaign for the 2020 presidential election begins. The Republican formally https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump/trump-launches-re-election-campaign-presents-himself-as-outsider-and-victim-idUSKCN1TJ10W opened his re-election campaign in Florida on Tuesday and two dozen Democrats are competing for the party's nomination to run against Trump. Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico's previous president Enrique Pena Nieto signed USMCA on Nov. 30, 2018 after months of often acrimonious talks stretching back to the American president's first few days in office. Lopez Obrador took office on Dec. 1, 2018. Three of the four Mexican votes against the deal came from MORENA senators, as did one abstention. The other vote against the deal was from an independent senator, while two members of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) also abstained. Seven senators were not present for the vote. (Additional reporting by Sharay Angulo in Mexico City and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Brown and Grant McCool)
Why It Seems Like Everyone Is Rich but You — and What To Do About It It’s easy to feel like everyone has more money than you. We live in a world of conspicuous consumption, where people flaunt everything from fancy cars to designer clothes to luxury vacations both in real life and on social media. But whenever I feel like everyone is rich but me, I try to take a step back and put things into perspective. There are so many people in this world who are struggling financially — they just don’t share it on their social media accounts. According to new data fromNitro, 80.9% of baby boomers, 79.9% of Gen Xers and 81.5% of millennials are in debt. There are also 39.7 million Americans who live in poverty, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s the pressure people feel toappearwealthy that drives so many of us to spend above our means — there’s a saying my grandpa always repeated: “A fool and his money are soon parted.” I try to always remember that things aren’t as they appear when it comes to how much money people have. Some of my own family members who were extremely wealthy appear to be the poorest if you judged them by their car, home, etc. That just shows that you should never judge a book (or a bank account) by its cover. Find Out:Money Secrets That Wealthy, Successful People Know Even if you rationally know that everyone isn’t richer than you, it’s still hard not to feel that way sometimes. Here are some steps to take to prevent those negative feelings. One easy way to get discouraged is to start comparing yourself or your life to someone else’s. It’s hard in the day of social media not to think everyone is killing it. That’s why I limit the time I spend on social sites. Allow yourself to check your accounts only a certain amount of times per day — ideally only once or twice — and stop mindlessly scrolling at every chance you get. Another great thing to do when you’re feeling sorry for yourself financially is to go and help someone less fortunate than yourself. I’ve made a point to volunteer and help others as much as I can. It’s something my dad would always tell me to do whenever I got down about my life. Not only does this help put your own situation in perspective, but it’s a rewarding experience that will improve your mood. It almost goes without saying, but one of the best ways tofeelricher is to actuallybericher. Although this seems easier said than done, there are plenty of things you can do to make more money. Pick up a side hustle during your downtime that allows you to monetize your skills and interests. This can be anything from driving for a rideshare company to bartending to walking dogs to freelance writing. Learn new skills that make you more of an asset at work, and negotiate a raise — or move to a different company that will pay you more. If you feel like you have more earning potential working for yourself than for a company, take the leap and start your own business. These changes — big and small — can add up to more dollars in your wallet. I work hard every day to stay positive and focused on the goals I’ve set for myself, and remember how lucky I am to have so many wonderful things in my life. The greatest thing a person can do to help themselves have the life they dream about is to chase the wins in their life and focus on the positive. Click through to see101 ways to make money without a 9-to-5. More on Money • Here’s Where Americans Are Storing Most of Their Wealth • How To Build Wealth Using Other People’s Money • 96% of Americans Are Missing Out on Major Savings Using This Trick Gabrielle Olyacontributed to the reporting for this article. This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Why It Seems Like Everyone Is Rich but You — and What To Do About It
Quotedge by PositiveEdge Solutions Now Available on Microsoft AppSource NEWARK, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 19, 2019 /PositiveEdge Solutions today announced the availability of Quotedge onMicrosoft AppSource, an online cloud marketplace providing tailored line-of-business solutions. Quotedge is a standalone app for Microsoft Dynamics 365. Arunabh Hazarika, CTO of PositiveEdge Solutions, said, ''Selling products and services that are customizable or upgradable has its pros and cons. On the plus side, more choices for customers means more upsell opportunities and therefore more profit and revenue. The downside, however, is an added layer of complexity that comes with having to provide accurate price quotes. PositiveEdge's Quotedge, a multi-tiered quoting tool, helps manufacturers define the price of their products across a wide range of continuously changing variables and factors. It allows companies to simplify pricing complexities so they can focus on serving their customers, creating the best bundles and offerings, and selling products. ''By integrating our Quotedge tool with existing CRM systems, PositiveEdge can help manufacturers offer the best price for customers. It enables enterprises to easily configure their products and pricing so they can give them the best product and customer experience. Quotedge works best when deployed on Microsoft Azure, as Azure rapidly scales and ensures reliable and robust deployments by providing pre-configured services such as backups, archiving, disaster recovery, and portability.'' Kirsten Edmondson Wolfe, Senior Director, AppSource Product Marketing, Microsoft Corp., said, ''We're excited to welcome PositiveEdge Solutions to Microsoft AppSource, which gives our customers access to the best solutions available from our extensive partner ecosystem. Microsoft AppSource offers partner solutions such as Quotedge from PositiveEdge Solutions to help our manufacturing customers meet their needs faster.'' Get a free trial of Quotedge at itspageon AppSource. About PositiveEdge Solutions PositiveEdge Solutions LLC is one of the premier providers of business solutions on Microsoft platforms. Since 2007, PositiveEdge has been helping companies leverage solutions from leading cloud companies such as Microsoft to stay connected and competitive in a highly crowded business world. PositiveEdge has a long history of successful business solution implementations and development. We have delivered these capabilities to several clients across many industries. We believe that our experience, plus our in-depth technical knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics 365 will provide high-value solutions. PositiveEdge can easily handle complex, large-scale or uncommon projects efficiently and accurately. Our key achievements are as follows: • Successful projects for Fortune 500 companies like Roche, PG&E, etc. • 250+ dedicated professionals across three offices in (UAE, US & India) • ISO 9001:2015 certified quality processes • CMMi Level 3 Dev • Global ''Center of Excellence'' in Bangalore • More than a decade of experience in handling GP, CRM implementations and support projects • Extensive experience and expertise in handling large implementations (2,000 seats) and complex implementations • 100 percent referable customers • Extensive library of intellectual property assets PositiveEdge has implemented solutions in various business verticals, including energy and utilities, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, education, contact center, real estate, IT and ITES, retail, media, and food processing. Formore information, press only: Prashanth Prahlad, PositiveEdge Solutions LLC, (510) 315-0061,pprahlad@positiveedgesolutions.com SOURCE:PositiveEdge View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/549275/Quotedge-by-PositiveEdge-Solutions-Now-Available-on-Microsoft-AppSource
Riskier borrowers face heightened scrutiny as uncertainty mounts By Aaron Weinman NEW YORK, June 19 (LPC) - Speculative grade companies looking to the leveraged loan market to fund their operations are bracing for heightened scrutiny from investors demanding greater compensation for deals being executed under a cloud of macroeconomic uncertainty. Some US leveraged loan borrowers, particularly companies languishing in single-B rated territory such as dialysis services provider US Renal Care, midstream water firm Waterbridge Operating and supermarket chain Smart & Final, have introduced improved covenant packages to skeptical investors while banks offer steeper discounts in a sign of their mounting challenges to underwrite loans. The US$1.2trn leveraged loan market has fallen under the spotlight of a US Congressional subcommittee wary of the potential risk such loans could bring to the economy in the event of a downturn. Near-term cuts to US interest rates this year, meanwhile, could weaken demand for floating-rate loans and 30 consecutive weeks of loan outflows have further dampened the sentiment. “Investors are concerned about downside scenarios and demanding more protections and higher pricing based on their perception risk,” said David Mihalick, head of US high yield investments at Barings, adding there is a “general risk-off sentiment” in both the bond and loan market. This investor pushback comes as companies rated B3 by Moody’s Investors Service made up 44% of new bond and loan issuances in 2018, against 22% in 2007, the ratings agency said in a May 29 report. Low-rated corporates have gorged on low interest rates in recent years and high investor demand while increased activity from private equity firms has led to a high proportion of speculative-grade borrowers with loan-only debt, Moody’s said. LATE-CYCLE BEHAVIOR While there is no shortage of investor liquidity — US$58.6bn of new collateralized loan obligations (CLO) have been arranged through June 14, roughly in line with 2018’s record numbers for the period — single-B rated companies lack the “juice” to force aggressive covenant packages on loan buyers, according to Charles Tricomi, the head of leveraged loan research at Xtract Research. Story continues “Lenders are starting to say ‘no’ the closer you get to the bottom of the barrel,” Tricomi said of companies teetering on the edge of CCC ratings status. B3/B-rated US Renal Care, for example, on June 13 sweetened the price of a US$1.6bn seven-year term loan to 500bp over Libor from an initial suggested range of 450bp-475bp, banking sources said. Investors also have looked to limit borrowers from easily incurring additional debt and are pushing back on language including most-favored nation clauses, carve-outs and ways to mitigate a company’s ability to move assets away from investors should a borrower struggle to repay debt. US Renal Care added a 25% cap on the amount of add-backs, or projected cost savings, it can include in the transaction, which serves as a means to lower leverage. WaterBridge Operating, rated B1/B/B+, is in the market for a US$1bn seven-year loan. On June 14 the company also widened the interest rate of the loan to 575bp over Libor from prior guidance of 550bp. Importantly for investors, WaterBridge adjusted its excess cash flow sweep, or free cash left to pay back debt, to 50% once its first-lien net leverage hits 4.0 times. Originally, the cash sweep was offered at 50% once first-lien net leverage hit 4.5 times, a source familiar with the transaction said. “These two deals are examples of investors seeing that we are late in the credit cycle and it is high time to compel lenders to put covenants in place that will protect lenders,” Mayra Rodrigues Valladares, a banking and capital markets consultant said. Banks have taken a hit, offering steeper discounts to get deals across the finish line. Smart & Final on Tuesday priced its B3/B-rated US$340m term loan B at 675bp over Libor and a discount of 90 cents on the dollar, sources said. Smart & Final, which is using the leveraged loan market to back its purchase by Apollo Global Management, had initially pitched the loan at 650bp over Libor and a discount between 97-98 cents. To be fair, better-rated deals are getting done without much trouble as CLO demand remains strong while supply has been limited. Aircraft components provider Wencor, rated B3/B-, on June 13 finalized terms on a US$405m first-lien term loan at 425bp over Libor with a leverage-based step-down to 400bp and a discount of 99 that will refinance existing debt. Software provider Perforce on June 12 also finalized terms on a B2/B- first-lien term loan at 450bp and tightened the discount to 99.5 cents from 99. “There is a market of ‘have and have not.’ And a lot of reasons why certain deals go through and others do not,” an investment banker said, adding that borrowers in cyclical industries would struggle to complete transactions as opposed to familiar, higher-rated companies with simple refinancing needs or borrowers in high-growth sectors such as technology. “It’s nice to see the broader market pushing back on riskier credits,” Barings’ Mihalick added. (Reporting by Aaron Weinman. Editing by Michelle Sierra and Jon Methven)
Survey Debunks Freelance Misconceptions If you’ve been hesitant to embrace a freelance lifestyle because of fears of erratic pay, sparse opportunities and a stressful life, a new study may leave you more open to giving freelancing a try. Not only are many freelancers finding professional and financial success, but 76% say they are happier being their own boss than working for a traditional employer. The number of freelancers has grown from 53 million in 2014 to 56.7 million in 2018, according to research garnered from a survey of 6,001 workers. Thesurvey, commissioned by freelance platform Upwork and Freelancers Union, an organization that advocates for independent workers, was given to 2,100 freelancers and 3,901 non-freelancers. When it comes to taking the freelance plunge, more people are choosing to work as an independent contractor rather than doing so out of necessity after, say, a layoff. In fact, 61% of freelancers said freelancing was a choice in 2018, up from 53% in 2014. Survey respondents also debunked some of the myths surrounding freelancing, such as the belief that it leads to a life of low pay and sporadic job opportunities. Among respondents, two-thirds, or 66%, said they made more money as a freelancer than they did working for a traditional employer, and it didn’t take them long to reach that financial goal. Most — 81% — said it took them less than a year to start making more freelancing than they made in their 9-to-5 jobs. Also when it comes to money, 82% of respondents said they believe they have earned more in the past year than others who do similar work. The survey also painted a picture of freelancers having a wealth of opportunities and high expectations for the future. For example, 72% said they have as much work as they need or more than they want. An overwhelming 92% said they expect freelance work opportunities to increase in the future and 90% said they believe the best days for freelancing are ahead of them. Many of those opportunities are for high-skilled and high-paid workers, according to Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork. “What many don’t understand is that the skilled work performed by independent knowledge workers is in important ways more similar to full-time professional jobs rather than the one-off, relatively low-skilled gigs many associate with the freelance economy,” Ozimek said in a press release. Finally, the survey suggested that most freelancers are happy with their decision to leave a traditional job behind. More than half — 54% — said no amount of money alone would entice them to take a traditional job. Also, 78% said freelancing gives them the freedom to live their ideal lifestyle. If you’re thinking about freelancing, take some time to researchhow to get startedso you can improve your odds of success. Also, consider the benefits you’ll lose when you leave a traditional job and determine how you will replace them. For example, if your company currently offers health insurance benefits, you’ll want to explorehealth insurance options for self-employed freelancers. The more you know about what you can expect, the better prepared you will be to weather any storms.
RBC Raises CarMax Price Target, Says Headwinds Will Ease Used car retailer CarMax, Inc (NYSE: KMX ) reported weakness in its past few quarters, but any headwinds should now ease moving forward, according to RBC Capital Markets. The Analyst RBC's Scot Ciccarelli maintains an Outperform rating on CarMax with a price target lifted from $86 to $92. The Thesis Ciccarelli said recent weakness in CarMax's earnings can be attributed to three factors: elevated prices in used cars, unfavorable omni-channel capabilities versus its peers and struggles with "value" rankings on marketplace windows. All three factors will ease moving forward, the analyst wrote in a note. First, depreciation patterns in used autos are likely to normalize back to historical norms which will create a better environment for CarMax as it offers consumers better value propositions versus buying new. Second, CarMax introduced new omni-channel capabilities in test markets which posted comps in the double-digit range in the fourth quarter. The company plans on expanding its omni-channel capabilities to Florida in the near term with the objective of expanding to most of its major markets by February 2020. Third, CarMax typically has a small number of vehicles for sale that rank as a great deal or good deal in third-party marketplace platforms, like CarGurus (NASDAQ: CARG ). The analyst said this headwind, for the most part, remains "largely unaddressed" but should improve over time as the new omni-channel capabilities could offer a solution to improving its offerings versus Carvana (NYSE: CVNA ). Price Action Shares of CarMax closed Wednesday at $83.49. Related Links: 10 Biggest Price Target Changes For Wednesday Morgan Stanley, Wedbush Cautious On Carvana Latest Ratings for KMX Jun 2019 Maintains Outperform Apr 2019 Maintains Outperform Outperform Apr 2019 Maintains Overweight Overweight View More Analyst Ratings for KMX View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga 'Murder Mystery' May Have Set A Netflix Viewing Record Jefferies: Move In Melinta Is 'Overdone' Adobe Analyst Reactions To Q2 Print Range From 'Solid' To 'Boringly Excellent' © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Alexion's (ALXN) Ultomiris Gets Approval in Japan for PNH Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALXN announced that Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Ultomiris (ravulizumab), the first and only long-acting C5 complement inhibitor administered every eight weeks, for the treatment of adult patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). The approval was based on comprehensive results from two phase III studies, which included 441 patients who had either never been treated with a complement inhibitor before or had been stable with Alexion’s lead drug, Soliris. Results showed that Ultomiris administered every eight weeks was non-inferior to the efficacy of Soliris administered every two weeks on all 11 endpoints. Additional data showed that the drug provided immediate and complete C5 inhibition that was sustained for eight weeks. Moreover, Ultomiris eliminated breakthrough hemolysis associated with incomplete C5 inhibition. The approval will strengthen Alexion’s PNH franchise. The drug is already approved in the United States for this indication. Initial conversion rates of Soliris patients have been encouraging. The drug is under review in Europe for the same. Alexion’s share price has increased 27.1% year to date compared with the industry’s growth of 5.2%. Meanwhile, the company is working to expand Ultomiris’ label. In January 2019, Alexion announced positive top-line results from a phase III study on the drug in complement inhibitor naïve patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). The company submitted an application in the United States for the approval of the same in patients with aHUS. It has also initiated a single, PK-based phase III study on Ultomiris administered subcutaneously once a week to support registration in PNH and aHUS. The company also initiated a phase III study on the drug in gMG in the first quarter of 2019 and plans to initiate another phase III study on the same in the neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) indication by the end of 2019. Additionally, the company plans to conduct a proof-of-concept study for Ultomiris in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and an exploratory clinical study for Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider Alexion currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the biotech sector are Anika Therapeutics Inc. ANIK, Acorda Therapeutics Inc. ACOR and Celgene Corp. CELG. While the first two sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Celgene carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Anika’s earnings per share estimates have moved up from $1.21 to $1.31 for 2019 and from $1.21 to $1.33 for 2020 in the past 60 days. Acorda’s loss per share estimates have narrowed from $3.84 to $3.59 for 2019 and from $3.32 to $3.09 for 2020 in the past 60 days. Celgene’s earnings estimates have moved up by a cent to $10.72 over the past 60 days. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019 Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities. These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated +98%, +119% and +164% gains in as little as 1 month. Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportAcorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCelgene Corporation (CELG) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAnika Therapeutics Inc. (ANIK) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAlexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALXN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Dish Might Save the T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Dish Network(NASDAQ: DISH)is reportedly interested in buying assets fromSprint(NYSE: S)andT-Mobile(NASDAQ: TMUS)to help them gain approval from the Justice Department for their $26 billion merger. The two wireless carriers have already agreed to sell off Sprint's prepaid brand, Boost Mobile, in an effort to winapproval from the FCC. The DOJ wantsadditional concessionsin order to establish a fourth wireless competitor, and it would prefer to keep Boost Mobile and other divested assets like spectrum licenses together. Dish Network is a good fit for any additional wireless spectrum, and it's willing to pay for the Boost brand, too. It's in talks to pay $6 billion for Boost and additional spectrum licenses, as well as assets T-Mobile and Sprint are offloading to gain approval for their merger, according to a Tuesday report fromBloomberg. Boost was previously valued at about $3 billion, so the additional concessions Sprint and T-Mobile are considering are quite substantial. Image source: Getty Images. Dish has been stockpiling wireless spectrum since 2011, cutting deals with the FCC, and it's become very creative with how it has acquired spectrum licenses over the past few years. Dish's antics have evengotten it in troublewith the agency, and it faces an impending deadline to deploy some of its spectrum holdings, or the FCC could reclaim them. In fact, Dish is at risk of losing about $35 billion worth of spectrum licenses. So, $6 billion is a good investment for Dish if it means it can keep its current spectrum holdings. The company originally opposed the Sprint and T-Mobile merger because it saw one of the wireless carriers as a potential partner for leasing or selling its spectrum and getting value out of its holdings. Acquiring an established wireless brand, some additional spectrum, and some other assets to help deploy that spectrum provides Dish a nice path to make use of all its spectrum holdings. The FCC may even be willing to give Dish an extension on its deadlines if it can show progress in the wireless market. One of the big factors in T-Mobile's and Sprint's decision to merge their businesses is the value of their combined spectrum holdings. The combined company plans to use those holdings to deploy a fast 5G network with broad coverage. Additionally, it would offer home broadband service to about half the population by relying on excess network capacity afforded by the vast spectrum holdings it would have. Giving up around $3 billion worth of spectrum licenses could put a dent in the combined company's plans. It's hard to tell without knowing exactly what Sprint and T-Mobile would have to give up. Sprint has plenty of unused high-band spectrum, but the two companies may hold their low-band spectrum closer. Dish's existing spectrum holdings give both parties an advantage over other buyers. Dish can make do with pretty much whatever spectrum the carriers are willing to part with, which means T-Mobile and Sprint can be more selective with their license divestitures while still appeasing the DOJ. Getting a deal done with Dish with the condition of the merger's approval would likely still allow the combined company to execute its plans for a 5G network and home broadband service. The company would also have the scale in its customer base that would enable it to truly compete with the bigger wireless companies while showing investors strong profits. It's worth it for all three companies to get a deal done. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Adam Levyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
US said in late stages of YouTube kids' video investigation SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is in the late stages of an investigation into how Google's YouTube handles children's videos, a probe prompted by complaints that the company failed to protect kids who used the service and improperly collected their data. That's according to a report Wednesday in The Washington Post, which said the company faces a possible fine and that YouTube executives have accelerated internal talks about possible changes in how the service recommends videos to viewers. Reports this week said YouTube is also considering moving all kids' content into a separate app. The FTC had no comment. Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville said the company had no comment on the Post report. She added in a statement that the company considers "lots of ideas for improving YouTube."
Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra aims to 'put the currency back in cryptocurrency' Libra, the Facebook-supported cryptocurrency coming in 2020, has very ambitious plans and, already, vociferous critics. Facebook on Tuesdayannounced dual crypto venturescoming in 2020: Libra, a cryptocurrency that will be governed by the Libra Association, an “independent” consortium of 28 “founding members”; and Calibra, aFacebooksubsidiary that will offer a digital wallet app for storing and sending Libra. While the “founding members” of Libra include some very big names in payments and commerce—like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, Coinbase, and eBay—many still see the entire project as a Facebook venture, considering the simultaneously coordinated announcements and that Facebook executive David Marcus oversaw the Libra launch. But the Libra Association’s head of policy Dante Disparte, in an appearance with Yahoo Finance’s live show YFi AM, says that all of the founding members are buying in to an ambitious plan aimed at “universal adoption” of Libra. “I think there’s a clear, common connection among all the founding partners,” he says. “At one level, it’s a big moment for digital assets and cryptocurrencies generally, which is that they would be accepted with near universal adoption given those types of networks... also a commitment among the founding members to really drive a wedge on issues of financial inclusion and opportunity.” That sounds like a pretty grand plan for a digital coin that cryptocurrency devotees are already widely dismissing as not truly decentralized (since it’s overseen by a roundtable of companies that have each agreed to invest a minimum of $10 million) and running on a blockchain that is not truly “permissionless.” On the other hand, one of the biggest criticisms mainstream financial giants and Wall Street folks have had about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that they still don’t really function as cryptocurrencies—and indeed, even their biggest flag-wavers have shifted to hyping their use as stores of value, rather than actual daily currencies to spend. Libra, Disparte says, aims “first and foremost to put the term ‘currency’ back in cryptocurrency. It really is designed to be a unit of purchase and a unit of daily transactions, as opposed to a speculative asset—which is, candidly, where many cryptocurrencies have stood. And they’ve done well in that class if you’re interested in volatility. Libra, as an asset, is really meant to serve daily needs.” As for the questions around whether Libra can truly be seen as an independent cryptocurrency, Disparte counters: “I would say that from a structural point of view, this is a fairly enlightened moment on many levels. We have 28 founding members in this organization; it’s independent; the technology itself, while incubated initially at Facebook, is being set up as an open-source technology... The association itself is very much independently structured and governed.” There’s a key part there: the technology was incubated at Facebook – Facebook execs oversaw the rollout. But eventually, when the Libra blockchain launches, it aims to have 100 founding members, with no one member having more than 1% say in the governance. With that stated plan, Libra will aim to win over both the cryptocurrency skeptics and the cryptocurrency believers who are Libra skeptics. Lawmakers and politicians aren’t convinced: a handfulcame out immediately against the launch, using Libra as a punching bag to call forheightened regulation of Facebook. On Wednesday the Senate Banking Committee scheduled a July 16 hearing on Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans. — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: Facebook’s crypto play is called Calibra, will launch in 2020 Cryptocurrency CEO who paid $4.6M for lunch with Buffett: 'It might be unrealistic' SEC lawsuit against Kik has major implications for crypto industry Exclusive: SEC quietly widens its crackdown on ICOs There are now two 2020 candidates accepting crypto donations JPMorgan blockchain chief: Why we launched our own cryptocurrency Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.
ESPN may distance itself from Lavar Ball Lavar Ball won't be on ESPN any time soon. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis) ESPN may distance itself from LaVar Ball following his inappropriate comment to “First Take” host Molly Qerim. A spokesperson for the network told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch that ESPN has “ no plans moving forward ” involving Ball. Ball found himself in hot water Monday for comments he made on “First Take.” During an interview, Qerim asked Ball is she could “switch gears” with Ball to ask a question about a different topic. Ball responded by saying, “You can switch gears with me anytime.” LaVar shooting his shot at Molly Qerim during First Take interview? Jalen Rose gonna bust him up lol pic.twitter.com/HeIB9CFIxH — gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 17, 2019 That response drew a surprised look from Qerim, and a disgusted look from Stephen A. Smith. Later in the show, Qerim jokingly mentioned she might need to call HR. On Tuesday, Qerim spoke to TMZ, saying she was happy ESPN had her back during the situation. She said the network had been “ very supportive .” Through a spokesperson, Ball denied his statement was sexual in nature. As of Tuesday, Qerim said she had not received an apolog y from Ball. ——— Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik More from Yahoo Sports: CP3, Harden relationship deemed ‘unsalvageable’ From mid-major to NBA draft: Morant's historic rise Coach K on Zion’s NBA potential: 'He’s a gift from God' Why D-Wade supported son at Miami Pride
Is News Corp Looking to Offload News America Marketing Unit? Shares ofNews CorporationNWSA rose 5.3% on Jun 18 following its announcement of exploring strategic options for News America Marketing (NAM) business, including a potential sale. This move will enable the company to simplify its structure, optimize portfolio and enhance shareholders’ value. Also, it will be able to focus on core areas that include creation and distribution of premium content along with digital real estate services.This provider of home-delivered shopper media, in-store marketing products and services, and digital marketing solutions has been in troubled waters for a while now. We saw a drop in revenues from NAM unit to the tune of 8% in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 and 7% in the nine months period ended Mar 31, 2019, owing to reduced home-delivered revenues.Management informed that NAM has extensive in-store marketing media options in more than 60,000 outlets in the United States and Canada. It has reach in households across the country, with circulation of more than 60 million via roughly 2,000 publications. Further, its mobile cash back apps, retailer load-to-card programs and print-at-home couponing help convert shoppers into potential buyers.For now, News Corporation has not provided any details regarding the timing of review. The company has been looking into every corner for growth prospects. Its efforts to expand digital offerings, with greater emphasis on real estate businesses, bode well. Additionally, the company is diversifying its revenue streams through acquisitions and operational enhancement. It is also concentrating on augmenting the digital subscriber base.We note that this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company gained 14% in the past six months outperforming the industry’s growth of 7.2%. Three Stocks You Can’t MissImax Corporation IMAX has a long-term earnings growth rate of 17.5%, with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.New York Times NYT delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 29.4% in the trailing four quarters. It currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1.Tribune Media Company TRCO has a long-term earnings growth rate of 9.30%, with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated +98%, +119% and +164% gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTribune Media Company (TRCO) : Free Stock Analysis ReportIMAX Corporation (IMAX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNews Corporation (NWSA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportThe New York Times Company (NYT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Meat-loving Brazil joins the search for plant-based alternatives By Alberto Alerigi SAO PAULO, June 19 (Reuters) - Beef-crazy Brazil, with its all-you-can-eat steak houses, world-leading meatpackers and more cattle than people, is not the first place you might look for plant-based alternatives to meat. But companies from JBS SA, the largest beef producer in the world, to BRF SA, the No.1 chicken exporter, are looking to tap a wave of interest from environmentally conscious eaters seeking vegetable substitutes. Spurred on by competition from fast-growing pioneers such as Beyond Meat Inc and venture capital-backed Impossible Foods, the Brazilians are joining a crowded field of innovators, with several new products for sale or under development. Such "plant-based meats" generally use a processed mix of protein from soybeans or peas, for example, blended with mushrooms or vegetables such as beets to approach a texture, appearance and taste similar to animal products. Of course, no one expects Brazilians to give up meat overnight. The average Brazilian eats about 42 kg (93 lbs) of meat per year, second only to the 53 kg devoured by their Argentine neighbors, according to agribusiness consultancy Athenagro. Brazil's cattle population has grown to around 215 million, while the country has about 210 million residents, according to official statistics agency IBGE. Yet about 30 million people in the country call themselves vegetarian, according to a poll by the Brazilian Vegetarian Society (SVB). Of those, 7 million are self-declared vegans, foregoing animal products altogether such as cheese, milk and eggs as well. Consumers ranging from the strictest meat avoiders to the growing ranks of "flextarians," who are looking to reduce but not eliminate meat from their diets, are finding a flood of new options in the supermarket, from vegetable sausages and hotdogs to pea-based "chicken breast filets". Seara, the poultry and pork unit of JBS, is launching a plant-based hamburger, eyeing 13% of the market in three years. "It is not a defensive move, we are only looking at opportunities," its marketing director José Cirilo said. Seara and other newcomers are taking on some established local vegetarian producers, including Superbom, a food processor linked to the country's Adventist Church, which itself reports a surge of new demand. "Our client base today is much bigger outside of the church," said marketing director David Oliveira, estimating that demand for meat substitutes in Brazil is growing 30% annually. Poultry giant BRF is also eyeing a return to the vegetarian market after discontinuing a line of non-meat products in 2010. "It is a market that it is here to stay," said Fabio Baganara, BRF's R&D director, who said new innovations have allowed plant-based products to better approach the qualities of animal meat. (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Writing by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Brad Haynes and Sandra Maler)
Oyo Plans $300 Million U.S. Expansion With Focus on Major Cities Oyo Hotels & Homes, the young and rapidly expanding India-based hotel startup, has announced plans to invest $300 million into increasing the company’s footprint in its “newest home market” of the U.S. The growth will be driven by two of the company’s budget hotel brands, Oyo Hotels and Oyo Townhouse, it said. The expansion will focus on Oyo’s under-penetrated markets such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Oyo currently offers more than 50 hotels in 35 cities across the U.S., including Atlanta, Miami, and Dallas, where it recentlyopened a U.S. headquartersin February. “We are in the largest country in the world when it comes to the hospitality industry and there is a definite need here for chic and comfortable hospitality experiences at prices never thought of before,” said Abhinav Sinha, chief operating officer of Oyo Hotels & Homes, in a statement. Oyo has racked up the venture capital dollars since its founding back in 2013, totaling $1.7 billion, according to Crunchbase. In September the hotel chainraised $1 billion from top investorsSoftBank Vision Fund and Sequoia Capital, among others, to help fund expansion into China. Speaking onstage at the inauguralSkift Forum Asialast month,CEO Ritesh Agarwal announced a new strategic partnership in China with Ctripaimed at elevating the budget hotel’s business in the country where it holds more rooms but sees lower margins compared to its homeland. Referencing the agreement Agarwal said, “Ctrip gets access to our quality inventory in tier two to tier five markets in China. Additionally, China is the world’s fastest-growing outbound travel market, so we expect more traffic for India, UK, Southeast Asia, and other markets where Oyo is present.” The chain earlier this year doubled down on itsexpansion plans in Asiaby committing $200 million towards eclipsing 25,000 hotels in the region. Agarwal believes his company will be the largest hotel chain in the world by 2023, already sporting 23,000 hotels and 46,000 vacation homes in 74 countries to date. The company’s “global stayed room nights,” or yearly customers, skyrocketed from 6 million guests in 2016 to 75 million guests at the end of last year. Subscribe to Skift newsletterscovering the business of travel, restaurants, and wellness.
What to Expect from Marijuana Giant Canopy Growth's (CGC) Q4 Earnings Ontario-based Canopy Growth Corp CGC is, as of April 2019, the largest cannabis company in the world based on its market cap of $14.6 billion. The company began selling cannabis for recreational use in Canada when it was legalized in October 2018. Before that, it sold marijuana for medical purposes. Canopy also has multiple subsidiaries and partners throughout the world and sells medical use-marijuana in multiple other countries. Canopy also has a license from New York State to process and produce hemp in the U.S. Canopy’s stock is up 58% YTD, but all of this growth came in the first month of the year and the stock has struggled to maintain the levels it hit earlier this year. Canopy’s stock, similar to the stocks of other big cannabis companies such a Cronos CRON and Aurora Cannabis ACB, had a rough past 3 months, losing 8%. New Acquisition It’s an important couple of days for Canopy Growth. On Wednesday, both Canopy and Acreage Holdings Inc. shareholders will vote on whether or not Canopy can buy Acreage. If half of Canopy shareholders agree and two-thirds of Acreage shareholders agree, Canopy would have the rights to purchase Acreage as soon as cannabis is federally legalized in the U.S. If the deal were to be approved, Acreage would receive $300 million and shareholders would receive 0.5818 Canopy common shares per Acreage subordinate voting share held. As of the time this article was published, no news had come out regarding the results of the vote. Expectations Canopy is also set to release its Q4 and fiscal year earnings for the quarter and year ended March 2019 on Thursday. Zacks Consensus Estimates call for Q4 revenue of $71.06 million, which represents year over year growth of 293.66%. Although quarterly revenue is expected to grow substantially, Q4 EPS is expected to be -0.17, a 70% decline. Additionally, fiscal year 2019 earnings is expected to be down 237.50%. It is important to note that although these numbers look bad, they are the expectations. So, if the company were to beat expectations, even if it still were to not have positive earnings, its stock could receive a boost. The earnings report may also provide guidance as to the expectations for fiscal year 2020 and Q1. Current Zacks Consensus Estimates call for Q1 year over year earnings growth to surge 45% on the back of 346% top line growth. Looking even further, fiscal 2020 estimates predict Canopy will have 58% earnings growth and 213% revenue growth on top of the fiscal 2019 estimates. But of course, these estimates are likely to change based on the firm’s actual Q4 results and guidance. Bottom Line All these estimates have been made without the federal legalization of marijuana in the U.S. With that said, we are still likely a long way away from federal legalization—if it ever happens. But if it were to happen, Canopy seems set to profit.Its earnings report tomorrow after the bell will provide a lot of information and could have significant impact on analysts’ outlook for the company, especially since the company is yet to report positive earnings and it may still be some time from reaching that point. Eleven states and Washington, DC, have now legalized marijuana for recreational use for adults over 21. And 33 states have legalized medical marijuana. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated+98%,+119%and+164%gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportCronos Group Inc. (CRON) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportCanopy Growth Corporation (CGC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Bucket List Family travels the world Many people dream of traveling the world. But the Gee family — better known as the Bucket List Family — is actually doing it, and with three young kids in tow, no less. Their journey started in August 2015. After Garrett Gee sold an app he’d co-created to Snapchat (earning the founders a reported $54 million dollars, according to CNBC ), he and wife Jessica thought about what they wanted to do next. The answer was to travel. But rather than go on luxury trips, they decided to sell all of their belongings for around $50,000, according to Forbes , and used that income to fund their travels, while investing the money they’d earned in the app sale. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Bucket List Family (@thebucketlistfamily) on Feb 25, 2019 at 9:00am PST They decided to embark on a six-month trip around the world, with their two young children at the time, Dorothy and Manilla. That turned into years of traveling — and a third baby, Calihan — with their popular blog , Instagram (which has 1.7 million followers), and YouTube channel earning them enough to continue to support their globetrotting. “Our families were treating us like it was some crazy idea to sell our house, all of our belongings, put everything we own into two pieces of luggage and then just leave home for a trip around the world,” Garrett tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But that didn’t stop them. “From the beginning, [travel] was my passion in life,” Garrett says. “And by the time I was 15, I had probably traveled to maybe 16 countries, and I just loved the influence it’s had on my life. And so it became something I always wanted for my own children someday.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Bucket List Family (@thebucketlistfamily) on Mar 5, 2019 at 7:00am PST Now the Gee family has traveled to more than 70 countries with their three young children, documenting their journeys with beautiful photographs from all over the world. In their travels, they’ve also learned that “bucket list” is mainly an American term. “But it’s cool because we’ve also been able to educate and teach different cultures around the world what is a bucket list about and what that means as far as motivation and inspiration to live life to the fullest.” Story continues Even though the family is often in different places around the world each week, they are “together as a family 24/7,” Garrett says. “And as a father, that’s honestly one of the things I’m just most grateful for.” Adds Jessica, “We’re watching our kids grow up and hit these milestones in the most epic places. And I was super proud of us for doing something so unique.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Bucket List Family (@thebucketlistfamily) on Apr 20, 2019 at 10:03am PDT The experience has been invaluable for their children, filling their days with “adventure” and doing “amazing things,” notes Jessica. Garrett says it’s all played out almost like a children’s book: “Each night we tell them a story, like, ‘We’re going on an airplane, we’re going to get to this new country, there’s going to be these cool animals.” While the Gee family realizes they initially captured media attention for being millionaires who sold all of their belongings, the family, who does charity work all over the world, believes people have continued to follow them “to see good and spread good throughout the world.” Although traveling has been life-changing for the Bucket List Family, they don’t tell people to sell everything and travel the world like they did, noting that you can still gain great experiences with your family even if you stick close to home. “Get out of your comfort zone and go do really cool things together with your family,” Garrett says. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Expert packing tips on how to travel like a pro this summer Jessica Nabongo wants to become the first black woman to travel to every country. Here's what she packs. Solo travel for women: 8 things to know Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
Stocks rise as Fed keeps rates unchanged, drops "patient" posturing Stocks edged up as investors reacted to the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy decision tokeep benchmark interest rates unchanged. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) increased 0.3%, or 8.71 points, as of market close. The Dow (^DJI) rose 0.15%, or 38.46 points, while the Nasdaq (^IXIC) rose 0.42%, or 33.44 points. The bond market’s reaction to the Federal Reserve’s announcement was more pronounced. Treasury yields fell across the curve, with the more policy-sensitive shorter-term yields posting steeper declines. The two-year yield fell to as low as 1.741% as of 3:38 p.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced in astatementWednesday that it would keep benchmark interest rates unchanged at a band of between 2.25-2.50%, as had widely been expected. The vote was 9-1, with St. Louis Fed President James Bullard voting against the decision to hold rates steady and instead favoring a 25-basis point cut. The Fed’s updated quarterly dot plot, which depicts the individual rate projections of each Fed policymaker over the next several years, showed that eight of 17 officials projected a reduction in benchmark interest rates by the end of 2019. Seven foresaw a 50-basis point reduction, while one expected a 25-basis point reduction. The median dot reflected no rate changes through the end 2019, and one 25-basis point rate cut in 2020. The previous dot plot from March had shown a median dot calling for a rate hike in 2020. Equities edged up as investors digested commentary in the Fed’s statement appearing to leave the door open to easier monetary policy. FOMC members dropped the word “patient” in their statement as applied to their monetary policy path forward. They instead said they would “closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook.” Members also wrote that they would “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,”echoing previous public commentaryfrom Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which investors had taken as a suggestion that a rate cut could soon be implemented. In a press conference, Powell noted that “crosscurrents” had re-emerged in the weeks since the Fed’s last meeting, “raising concerns about the strength of the global economy.” “The case for somewhat more accommodative policy has strengthened,” Powell said. However, he later noted that the U.S. consumer and consumption – which comprises 70% of domestic economic activity – remained strong. As of Wednesday afternoon, markets priced in a 100% probability that a rate cut would take place before the end of 2019, according toCME Group. Investors’ calls for easier monetary policy had swelled in recent months as global trade concerns flared up and threatened to hinder economic growth. A future rate cut by the Federal Reserve “could be characterized as an ‘insurance’ rate cut, a rate cut that is not justified by slowing economic growth but is instead meant to provide a measure of protection from potential but unpredictable risks,” Jason Pride, chief investment office of private wealth at Glenmede, wrote in an email. He added that the “main risk to the economic outlook remains U.S.-China trade relations.” The Fed’s decision comes after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi on Tuesday gave a speech signaling further stimulus – or easier monetary policy – would be warranted in the even of further economic deterioration. The comments sent European equities higher and the euro lower. — Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck Read more from Emily: • Don’t say ‘IPO’: What to know about Slack’s direct listing • Buffett on the American economy, capitalism: ‘It works’ • Tech companies like Lyft want your money – not ‘your opinion’ • Levi Strauss shares jump more than 30% above IPO price at open • Facebook sued by Trump administration for alleged ‘discriminatory’ ad practices • Boeing 737 Max groundings ‘pressure’ U.S. economic data: Wells Fargo Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn, andreddit.
Coal comeback? Trump plan breathes new life into aging power plants, but critics say climate will suffer WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is keeping a signature campaign promise to boost the coal industry, but environmentalists say the energy plan his administration rolled out Wednesday would lead to premature deaths, increase the risk of lung disease and hasten climate change . The Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule , an amendment to the Clean Air Act, is likely to extend the lives of potentially scores of aging coal-fired power plants across the country whose carbon emissions are blamed for contributing to global warming. It replaces the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama's aggressive strategy to confront climate change that never took effect after the Supreme Court prevented its implementation in 2016. Obama's approach sought to shutter dozens of coal-fired power plants by forcing utilities to cut down on emissions of carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that contribute to global warming. Many of those plants are likely to operate longer under the Trump administration rule because it gives states and utilities flexibility to design a plan that proponents say will keep energy costs for coal plants and consumers low while gradually reducing carbon emissions. The Navajo Generating Station coal-fired power plant near Page, Arizona, is slated to close by December 2019. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler unveiled the ACE rule during a news conference at agency headquarters attended by coal miners, congressional lawmakers and energy industry representatives. Under ACE, states have three years to submit a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions to the EPA for review. The agency estimates that 600 coal-fired electric generation units at 300 facilities nationwide will be covered by the rule though officials could not say how many of them would run longer as a result. The new rule, Wheeler said, "gives states the regulatory certainty they need to continue to reduce emissions and provide affordable and reliable energy to all Americans." Opponents argue it does little to confront the escalating dangers posed by climate change and will allow power plants to keep spewing air pollutants, such as soot, that lead to asthma and other lung-related diseases. Story continues “As rising temperatures, surging seas and record-breaking natural disasters ravage communities everywhere, the Trump Administration continues to ignore science and put the interests of polluters ahead of the American people," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement shortly after the proposal became public. Rising carbon: Earth's carbon dioxide levels are highest they've been in millions of years Too late?: Global carbon emissions rose in 2017, dimming hopes to rein in climate change Environmental groups and some states vowed to sue to stop the plan's implementation, just as opponents of Obama's Clean Power Plan did successfully four years ago. "Like so many other Trump regulatory rollbacks, these new (ACE) rules will hit the wall in the courts," David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) wrote . "NRDC, joining forces with state, environmental, and business allies, will challenge the Clean Power Plan repeal and the Dirty Power Plan replacement – and we expect to win." Trump has made reviving the coal industry a signature plank of his "Make America Great Again" agenda. He is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement to lower carbon emissions and has repeatedly questioned the science – some of it from his own administration – confirming the evidence of a warming planet and the threat that poses. The issue could be a factor in the 2020 election in swing states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, where coal is still mined. Andrew Wheeler, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, addresses reporters Wednesday at EPA headquarters after announcing the new Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. Labor Department statistics show that the industry workforce has risen slightly under his administration after hitting a low in 2016, Obama's last year in office. Obama's Clean Power Plan was finalized in 2015, mainly targeting coal-fired power plants that account for nearly 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. It remains on hold under a Supreme Court stay, pending the outcome of a legal challenge from states. Mandy Gunasekara, who worked on the ACE proposal as a top official in the EPA until leaving the agency in February, said ACE has a better chance of improving air quality than the Clean Power Plan because it's more likely to survive a court challenge. "For all the fanfare around the CPP, it achieved a total number of zero emission reductions due to Supreme Court intervention," said Gunasekara, who runs a nonprofit group called Energy45 to promote Trump's energy policies. "ACE establishes a cooperative framework whereby the federal government works alongside state government to advance environmental goals. For any honest environmentalist, this (is) something to be celebrated." Coal comfort: Coal comeback? EPA plan would prolong life for power plants seen as climate change culprit World leader: Coal is the main offender for global warming, yet the world uses it more than ever The new rule lists six technologies that coal-fired plants can use to lower emissions, including ways of modernizing facilities to improve efficiency. It does not allow plants to count emissions reductions achieved through carbon capture technology . It does not permit carbon trading or carbon pricing, methods pushed by environmental advocates as more effective. Even if it survives a court challenge, the Trump proposal might not do much to help an industry that's been buffeted by economic and political forces. Coal-fired plants across the country have been closing regularly over the past decade and dozens more are scheduled to close by 2030. This month, former New York City mayor and environmental activist Michael Bloomberg pledged $500 million as part of an effort to shutter every coal-fired power plant in the USA. Conrad Schneider, advocacy director for the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental organization, said the Trump rule is misguided not only because it promotes bad policy but because the industry doesn't even want it. "It contemplates investing more money in old, dirty coal plants," he said. "The one thing they chose to base this rule on is the one thing that no one is doing. Nobody is putting money into old coal plants right now." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coal comeback? Trump plan breathes new life into aging power plants, but critics say climate will suffer
Do Treasury Wine Estates's (ASX:TWE) Earnings Warrant Your Attention? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it completely lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. In contrast to all that, I prefer to spend time on companies likeTreasury Wine Estates(ASX:TWE), which has not only revenues, but also profits. Now, I'm not saying that the stock is necessarily undervalued today; but I can't shake an appreciation for the profitability of the business itself. Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, but time is often a friend of the profitable company, especially if it is growing. See our latest analysis for Treasury Wine Estates The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so share price follows earnings per share (EPS) eventually. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Who among us would not applaud Treasury Wine Estates's stratospheric annual EPS growth of 58%, compound, over the last three years? While that sort of growth rate isn't sustainable for long, it certainly catches my attention; like a glint in the eye of my lover. I like to take a look at earnings before interest and (EBIT) tax margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. Treasury Wine Estates shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 20% to 22%, and revenue is growing. That's great to see, on both counts. In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. For finer detail, click on the image. Fortunately, we've got access to analyst forecasts of Treasury Wine Estates'sfutureprofits. You can do your own forecasts without looking, or you cantake a peek at what the professionals are predicting. We would not expect to see insiders owning a large percentage of a AU$11b company like Treasury Wine Estates. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. Indeed, they hold AU$21m worth of its stock. That shows significant buy-in, and may indicate conviction in the business strategy. Even though that's only about 0.2% of the company, it's enough money to indicate alignment between the leaders of the business and ordinary shareholders. Treasury Wine Estates's earnings per share growth has been so hot recently that thinking about it is making me blush. That EPS growth certainly has my attention, and the large insider ownership only serves to further stoke my interest. The hope is, of course, that the strong growth marks a fundamental improvement in the business economics. So to my mind Treasury Wine Estates is worth putting on your watchlist; after all, shareholders do well when the market underestimates fast growing companies. Now, you could try to make up your mind on Treasury Wine Estates by focusing on just these factors,oryou couldalsoconsider how its price-to-earnings ratio compares to other companies in its industry. Although Treasury Wine Estates certainly looks good to me, I would like it more if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, too, then thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Hiring discrimination levels are highest in this country, study finds France outpaces six other European countries, as well as the U.S. and Canada, in racial discrimination in hiring, according to a new study. The authors of the study looked at data from 97 studies in nine countries, including more than 200,000job applications,to examine the magnitude of discrimination in different countries. They compared the percentage of callbacks for jobs members of white majority groups received and the percentage of callbacks members of minority racial and ethnic groups received. The study waspublished in Sociological Science,a peer-reviewed journal, this week. France had the highest “discrimination ratio” — 43 percent higher than the U.S., the study found. Sweden followed close behind with a discrimination ratio 30 percent higher than the U.S. Minority applicants in those countries would have to distribute 70 to 94 percent more resumes to potential employers than white applicants to get the same number of responses. Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada also had larger levels of discrimination than the U.S., though authors of the study said the differences among them were not statistically significant. Northwestern University sociologist Lincoln Quillian, the lead author of the study, said some laws and institutional practices in the U.S. explain why it had lower levels of discrimination. “No other countries require monitoring of the racial and ethnic makeup of ranks of employees as is required for large employers in the U.S.,” Quilliansaid in an online statement. “For instance, large employers in the U.S. are required to report the race and ethnicity of employees at different ranks to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” Only Germany had less discrimination than the U.S., the study found. Still, neither country was free of discrimination. Minority applicants in the U.S. and Germany had to send out 25 to 40 percent more resumes than white applicants to get an equal number of responses. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Job applicants in Germany submit additional documents like high school grades and apprenticeship reports. Quillian said he suspects having more information about applicants reduces “the tendency to view minority applicants as less good or unqualified.” Conversely, France forbids employers from asking about an applicant’s race. Having more information about applicants gives employers less room to project their own views or stereotypes, according to Quillian. Related Articles • How Much is Michael Phelps Worth? • Ryan Lochte's Brand Value Sinks Amid Rio Scandal • Here's How You Get a Body Like An Olympian
National Beverage Trades Lower As Company Faces More Questions Over LaCroix Ingredients Shares of LaCroix sparkling water makerNational Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ:FIZZ) fell again Wednesday after a second negative media report in just over a week, with Consumer Reports highlighting the company’s long-documented secrecy over thepopular drink’singredients. Mystery Ingredients Consumer Reports published an article Tuesdayin which it said it tried to determine what LaCroix uses to flavor its water by requesting regulatory information from the state of Massachusetts — only to find that state regulators couldn’t provide it because they said the brand doesn’t have the proper permitting to be sold there. The ingredient issue isn’t new; there aremedia reportsgoing back years about the company’s insistence on telling consumers only that its sparkling water is flavored with “natural essence oils.” Last year, National Beverage was sued in a class action suit in which plaintiffs alleged the ingredients aren’t “all-natural,” as LaCroix’s marketing says. The company has vigorously denied the claims. Consumer Reports said it was told the Massachusetts Department of Public Health doesn’t have a permit for LaCroix, and that the agency sent the beverage company a notice ordering it to submit required paperwork. If it doesn’t, it could be fined or barred from selling there. Headlines Send Stock Lower The latest story on the company’s ingredients follows reports last week about chemicals in the company's beverage cans. Several media outlets reported last week that National Beverage is being sued by a former employee who alleges he was fired after questioning whether company president Joseph Caporella planned to publicly claim the company’s cans were free of the chemical commonly known as BPA before they actually were. After that report, the company's stock fell to its lowest point since 2016."As of April 2019, all cans produced for LaCroix products were produced without BPA liners," the company said in a statement on that issue that it sent to Benzinga. "False statements were made in litigation brought by a former employee seeking to extract a monetary recovery from the company. We intend to vigorously defend our company and our brands against false claims brought by this disgruntled former employee." Bloomberg reported last week that the stock's recent drops have erased a considerable part of founder Nick Caporella's wealth. Joseph Caporella is the founder's son. Price Action National Beverage shares ended Wednesday's session down 0.29% at $44.02. Related Links National Beverage Shares Fall Amid LaCroix Suit Involving Toxic Chemical Use Analyst Shows Concerns With 'Impaired LaCroix Sales Growth' For National Beverage Photo by Quote Catalog/Flickr. See more from Benzinga • Goldman Turns Bearish on Airline Vendor Sabre • Bank Of America's Energy Drink Case Study: Early Distribution Deals Could Decide Winners In Cannabis Market • Federal Measures To Protect Cannabis Users In Legal States Head To House Floor © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
American Outdoor Brands: Fiscal 4Q Earnings Snapshot SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) _ American Outdoor Brands Co. (AOBC) on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $9.8 million. The Springfield, Massachusetts-based company said it had net income of 18 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 26 cents per share. The firearm maker posted revenue of $175.7 million in the period. For the year, the company reported profit of $18.4 million, or 33 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $638.3 million. For the current quarter ending in August, American Outdoor Brands expects its per-share earnings to range from 3 cents to 7 cents. The company said it expects revenue in the range of $120 million to $130 million for the fiscal first quarter. American Outdoor Brands expects full-year earnings in the range of 76 cents to 84 cents per share, with revenue ranging from $630 million to $650 million. American Outdoor Brands shares have dropped 29% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $9.09, a decrease of 31% in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AOBC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AOBC View comments
Nike (NKE) Q4 2019 Earnings Preview: China, North America & More Shares of Nike NKE have fallen nearly 4% over the last three months after the sportswear powerhouse warned Wall Street of slowing growth last quarter. With Nike set to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2019 financial results on Thursday, June 27, let’s see what investors should expect from the company’s top and bottom lines, as well as its key region: China and North America. Overview Nike is coming off a better-than-projected Q3. However, executives said they expect a low-single-digit revenue gain in Q4, due to currency headwinds, which are projected to reduce growth by 6%. NKE stock is down over 10% since the firm reported its Q3 fiscal 2019 financial results on March 21. Meanwhile, the apparel market is down 7.6% as investors fear the U.S.-China trade war will negatively impact growth going forward. In fact, in late May, Nike, Foot Locker FL, Adidas AG ADDYY, and a total of 173 companies in the general footwear industry wrote an open letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to reconsider his tariffs on shoes made in China. “The proposed additional tariff of 25 percent on footwear would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies, and the American economy as a whole,” the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America wrote. With that said, Nike has returned to growth in its key North American market over the last year, after a downturn. This comes even as it faces more competition from the likes of Lululemon LULU, Adidas, Puma, Gap-GPS owned athleisure brands, and other smaller players. Nike, like other retailers, has focused its future on direct-to-consumer and digital-first growth through its own apps, website, as well as expansion across social platforms such as Instagram FB—which has beefed up its shopping capabilities. CFO Andy Campion has said he expects Nike’s digital division will make up 30% of the company’s total business by 2023, compared to roughly 15% in the second quarter of 2019. It is far too easy to say that Amazon AMZN caused this change, but shopping habits have made the likes of Macy’s M, Nordstrom JWN, and Dick’s Sporting Goods DKS less relevant. Outlook Before we dive into what to expect from the firm’s Q4 fiscal 2019 metrics, investors will notice that NKE stock has easily outpaced the Apparel Market’s average over the past five years. This gap has shrunk in the last year and Nike is up 12% in 2019, compared its industry’s 19% climb. Nike shares hovered down 1.10% at $83.37 through late-afternoon trading Wednesday, which represented a roughly 7% downturn compared to its 52-week intraday high of $90.0 a share. Looking ahead, our Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for the company’s quarterly revenue to pop 3.8% to $10.16 billion. Last quarter, Nike’s quarterly revenue climbed roughly 7% to $9.611 billion to surpass our Zacks Consensus Estimate. This, however, marked a slowdown from Q2’s 10% revenue growth. At the bottom end of the income statement, Nike’s adjusted Q4 earnings are expected to slip 2.9% to $0.67 per share. NKE’s third-quarter earnings came in flat from the prior-year period. This also topped our estimate, which Nike pretty much always does. The firm boasts a 9.8% average earnings surprise over the trailing four quarters. North America Moving on, Nike’s North American revenues are projected to jump nearly 7% from $3.875 billion in the year-ago period to $4.139 billion, based on our NFM estimates. This would match last quarter’s 7% expansion in the region that accounted for around 40% of total Q3 sales. Greater ChinaChina, with its growing middle class and massive fashion hubs, has long been an area of intense focus for Nike. In fact, last quarter marked the firm’s 19thconsecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Sales in China surged 19% to hit $1.588 billion, which came in well above our $1.54 billion estimate. However, Nike’s performance in Greater China fell short of Q2’s 26% expansion. With this in mind, Nike’s Q4 sales in the region are projected to climb just 6% from $1.468 billion in Q4 2018 to $1.558 billion—Nike’s sales in China soared 35% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Bottom Line Clearly, Nike is projected to see a slowdown, which management warned was due in part to currency headwinds. This means that Wall Street might pay even closer attention to the firm’s Nike Direct progress and any trade war updates. Nike is scheduled to release its Q4 fiscal 2019 financial results after the closing bell on Thursday, June 27. Make sure to head back to Zacks for a complete breakdown of the sportswear giant’s actual quarterly metrics. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated+98%,+119%and+164%gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportAmazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFacebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFoot Locker, Inc. (FL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportThe Gap, Inc. (GPS) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNordstrom, Inc. (JWN) : Free Stock Analysis Reportlululemon athletica inc. (LULU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportDICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMacy's, Inc. (M) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdidas AG (ADDYY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNIKE, Inc. (NKE) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Oracle rises on strong quarterly forecast driven by licenses, cloud services By Sayanti Chakraborty (Reuters) - Oracle Corp on Wednesday forecast current-quarter profit above estimates, as the business software maker benefited from demand for its on-premise IT, cloud services and license support businesses, sending its shares up as much as 7% in extended trading. The company said, assuming currency headwind, it expected first-quarter adjusted profit to be between 80 cents and 82 cents per share. Analysts were expecting 80 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Oracle has been aggressively pushing into cloud computing to make up for a late entry in the fast-growing business. Chairman Lawrence Ellison said the company saw a surge in database license sales and a rapid growth in database options required to run Autonomous Database, a cloud-based technology that automates routine tasks needed to manage Oracle databases. The company added more than 5,000 customers on a trial basis in the quarter, as it migrates database users to the cloud. Microsoft Corp and Oracle earlier this month announced an agreement to make their two cloud computing services work together with high-speed links between their data centers, which "will only help accelerate the transition from on-premise database to the Autonomous Database service," said co-Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz. Revenue from Oracle's shrinking hardware business was down 11% this quarter to $994 million. "Our high-margin Fusion and NetSuite cloud applications businesses are growing rapidly, while we downsize our low-margin legacy hardware business," Catz said. Revenue from the cloud services and license support business, its biggest, rose marginally to $6.80 billion, above analysts' expectation of $6.79 billion. "The revenue and EPS beat, coupled with upbeat commentary in release should lift the stock, as expectations were low," said Steve Koenig, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. The company's net income rose to $3.74 billion, or $1.07 per share, in the fourth quarter ended May 31, from $3.28 billion, or 79 cents per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose 1% to $11.14 billion, above analysts' expectation of $10.93 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.16 per share beating estimates of $1.07. The Redwood, California-based company's shares were up 4.6% at $55.12 in after-market trading. (Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Does Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) Have A Place In Your Dividend Stock Portfolio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. In this case, Westpac Banking likely looks attractive to investors, given its 6.7% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. We'd guess that plenty of investors have purchased it for the income. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Westpac Banking for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Westpac Banking! Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. In the last year, Westpac Banking paid out 91% of its profit as dividends. This is quite a high payout ratio that suggests the dividend is not well covered by earnings. Consider gettingour latest analysis on Westpac Banking's financial position here. From the perspective of an income investor who wants to earn dividends for many years, there is not much point buying a stock if its dividend is regularly cut or is not reliable. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Westpac Banking's dividend payments. During this period the dividend has been stable, which could imply the business could have relatively consistent earnings power. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was AU$1.16 in 2009, compared to AU$1.88 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.9% a year over that time. Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend. Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. Westpac Banking's earnings per share have been essentially flat over the past five years. Over the long term, steady earnings per share is a risk as the value of the dividends can be reduced by inflation. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Westpac Banking is paying out a larger percentage of its profit than we're comfortable with. It's not great to see earnings per share shrinking. The dividends have been relatively consistent, but we wonder for how much longer this will be true. To conclude, we've spotted a couple of potential concerns with Westpac Banking that may make it less than ideal candidate for dividend investors. Given that earnings are not growing, the dividend does not look nearly so attractive. Very few businesses see earnings consistently shrink year after year in perpetuity though, and so it might be worth seeing what the 14analysts we track are forecasting for the future. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Disney World's Huge Price Hike Is Great for SeaWorld and Universal It was the price hike heard around the world -- or at least the Mickey Mouse universe.Walt Disney(NYSE: DIS)jacked up its Disney World annual pass priceson Monday night. The world's leading theme park operator increases its ticket prices every year, but this wasn't a run-of-the-mill boost. Disney World annual passes now cost as much as 25% more than they did earlier this week. Throw in a moremodest increaseeight months ago, and annual passes have risen by as much as 28% over the past year. Social media is in an uproar. Longtime Disney World buffs are voicing their outrage online, threatening to take their theme park business elsewhere. It's likely just bluster. Most of the people venting now will bite the bullet when renewal notices come along. However, if they do stray, there's no denying thatSeaWorld Entertainment(NYSE: SEAS)and Universal Studios parentComcast(NASDAQ: CMCSA)will be the greatest beneficiaries -- and that is if they don't take advantage of the window that Disney has opened by raising prices themselves. Image source: SeaWorld Entertainment. SeaWorld Entertainment will be the biggest winner if locals with Disney World passes find themselves priced out of the House of Mouse. Five of its dozen gated attractions are in Central Florida, including its two most popular theme parks and its most visited water park. A SeaWorld Orlando annual pass without any blackout dates costs less than a fifth of Disney World's comparable pass, and even an annual pass that includes all but one of SeaWorld's dozen parks nationwide costs less than a third of Disney World's premium offering. The influx of budget-conscious families priced out of their Disney World passes -- and for a family of four, the $900 increase for the priciest plan is not an insignificant amount -- would come at an ideal time. SeaWorld stock hit five-year highs earlier this month, keeping the momentum going after a breakout 2018. Attendance at SeaWorld's parkssoared 8.6% last year, a surprising turnaround after four consecutive years of declining revenue. The growth was starting to slow this year. Revenue rose just 1.6% in the first quarter, but a migration of more free-spending former Disney World passholders can do wonders to get growth accelerating at SeaWorld again. Comcast's Universal Orlando will probably be an easier sell for disgruntled Disney World regulars. The resort's theme parks have far more rides than SeaWorld's attractions, and Comcast will open its seventh on-site resort hotel this summer for the ultimate staycation experience. Universal Orlando's annual passes are a lot more expensive than SeaWorld's, but still quite a bit cheaper than Disney's. Comcast is more in need of rolling out the welcome mat than SeaWorld. Theme park revenue actually declined slightly in its latest quarter, and Universal Orlando's newHarry Potter-themed coaster has beenmarred by downtimesince last week's grand opening. The reason SeaWorld Entertainment stock is likely to benefit more than Comcast is that theme parks accounted for just 6% of Comcast's revenue in 2018. It will take a lot to move the needle, unlike at SeaWorld, where leisure attractionsarethe business. SeaWorld Entertainment and Comcast will have a lot of potentially lucrative decisions to make. Do they hike admissions in response to Disney? If they do increase pass prices, the boosts will be minor, as neither company has the ammo of new attractions to match what Disney World has in the pipeline for at least another year. Universal's best shot opened last week, and the initial wave of positive reviews has been overtaken by complaints of mechanical and weather delays. Unreliability trumps marketing. Still, it's a win-win scenario for SeaWorld and Comcast. If Disney World's competition inches prices higher, most of the increase will trickle down to the operating profit line. That's a win. If the competition decides to hold their ground on pricing, they're going to be collecting new passholders tossing out their mouse ears in the trash cans on the way in. That's also a win. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Rick Munarrizowns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Danny Glover speaks out in support of reparations for slavery Actor and activist Danny Glover appeared before a House Judiciary panel on Wednesday, and spoke out in favor of a measure that would establish a committee to look into the impact slavery has had on the African-American community. The measure, known as H.R.40, also calls for the committee to develop a proposal for potential financial or other reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans. “A national reparations policy is a moral, democratic, and economic imperative,” said Glover. “I sit here as the great grandson of a former slave, Mary Brown, who was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. I had the fortune of meeting her as a small child,” he added. Glover went on to point out the importance of the hearing. “Despite much progress over the centuries, this hearing is yet another important step in the long and heroic struggle of African Americans to secure reparations for the damages inflicted by enslavement and post-emancipation and racial exclusionary policies.” Other speakers at the hearing included Senator Cory Booker, and author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates’s piece, The Case for Reparations, is credited by many as reviving the conversation surrounding reparations. The subject remains controversial, and Twitter had mixed reactions to the speakers. Some supported Glover and applauded him for speaking out: Danny Glover knows what's up! https://t.co/JGxc9nysO1 — Sarah Small (@freyalita) June 19, 2019 @DannyGlover has moved me to tears and I am hoping this hearing gets the same coverage that Jon Stewart and 9-11 Benefits - because, once again, there are mostly empty chairs and this is their job... #environmentaljustice — KimNoreen (@KimNoreen22) June 19, 2019 Others disagreed with the concept of reparations: Story continues I'm sure Danny Glover has millions to spare. Let HIM pay reparations. When I meet someone from Germany, I don't shoot them because their grandfather may have killed my family members. So don't shoot me (take my money) for something I had nothing to do with. — Coach Cam (@coachcamxxx) June 19, 2019 I have nothing to do with slavery or the past. I will have -0- to do with any reparations in the future. "Danny Glover" can suck it. — Ponder A Thought™❌ (@constitutionguy) June 19, 2019 Whoopi Goldberg seemingly blames actress Bella Thorne for nude photo leak: Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Joy Behar says Harvard was right to rescind Parkland shooting survivor's admission: 'Take your gap year to contemplate your racism' Veteran meteorologist 'let go' from job after objecting to station's 'Code Red' weather alerts Meghan McCain says Gwyneth Paltrow's living situation with her husband 'sounds like rich people stuff' Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle's newsletter.
Why PG&E, Jabil, and Axalta Coating Systems Jumped Today The stock market saw modest gains on Wednesday as investors reacted favorably to the latest from the Federal Reserve on interest rates. The central bank chose not to make any changes to its Fed funds rate for June, but it did signal that a majority of participating members expect to see lower rates in the future. Moreover, there was one dissenting vote that called for an immediate rate cut, and that gave market participants confidence that the Fed will work to support economic growth even in the face of a possible global slowdown. Some stocks saw much larger moves higher due to company-specific events, andPG&E(NYSE: PCG),Jabil(NYSE: JBL), andAxalta Coating Systems(NYSE: AXTA)were among the top performers. Here's why they did so well. Shares of PG&E climbed 7% after the California electric and natural gas utility reached settlements to resolve liability to certain cities, counties, districts, and public agencies for wildfires over the past four years. The company said it would pay $1 billion to 18 different public entities to resolve claims for the Butte fire in 2015, various wildfires in Northern California in 2017, and the Camp fire last year. The deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court overseeingPG&E's pending case under Chapter 11of the Bankruptcy Code. The utility still has other stakeholders where it'll need further resolution, but CEO Bill Johnson said that PG&E is making progress and hopes to keep working on finding ways to move forward. Image source: Getty Images. Jabil's stock jumped 10%after the product solutions company reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results. Jabil said that revenue climbed 13% compared to the year-earlier quarter, helping to lift adjusted earnings by 24%. The company continued to acquire new work sites for its healthcare segment, working on a collaboration withJohnson & Johnson's medical device unit to integrate various healthcare facilities into Jabil's business. At the same time, strong gains in electronic manufacturing services offset a slight decline in diversified manufacturing, and Jabil has high hopes that its outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year reflects the full potential that areas like cloud computing and the rollout of 5G wireless networks could bring. Finally, shares ofAxalta Coating Systems gained nearly 14%. The paint specialist revealed that its board of directors has begun to review strategic options for the company, which could include a potential outright sale. CEO Robert Bryant highlighted the fact that Axalta has continued to follow a long-term strategy focusing on lower costs and smarter investments in growth, and he believes that given its current industry position in key areas, the time is right for Axalta to look to maximize shareholder value. There's no guarantee that Axalta will be able to find a potential buyer, but even the effort to seek one out seems to be making investors more comfortable in their views about the company. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends JNJ. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Military grapples with white nationalists in ranks Amid concerns about white nationalists enlisting in the U.S. military to gain combat training, the Marines have discharged a reservist who was identified as belonging to a notorious hate group, Yahoo News has learned. Meanwhile, the Army National Guard took a different approach in dealing with an enlisted man who held, but has renounced, similar extremist views. Last month, the Marines severed ties with reservist Lance Cpl. Logan Piercy, who was one of 11 active-duty service members alleged to have ties to Identity Evropa by HuffPost in April . Identity Evropa is classified as a white supremacist group by the Anti-Defamation League, listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and was a key organizer of the 2017 Charlottesville, Va., white supremacist rally that resulted in the murder of counterprotester Heather Heyer. Piercy was deeply involved with the hate group, participating in white nationalist events, including the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. He also posted photos of himself placing Identity Evropa flyers on college campuses and repeatedly used anti-Semitic language in conversations on Discord, a group chat app. Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: AP, Getty Images “Lance Corporal Piercy was administratively separated from the Marine Corps at the end of May,” Maj. Roger Hollenbeck told Yahoo News via email Wednesday. “There is no place for racial hatred or extremism in the Marine Corps. Our strength is derived from the individual excellence of every Marine regardless of background. Bigotry and racial extremism run contrary to our core values.” The Minnesota National Guard came to a different decision in the case of another service member named in the same article. Pfc. Andrew Schmidt, 19, was recalled from basic training in April after the same HuffPost report identified him as having ties to Identity Evropa. The Minnesota National Guard said this week that Schmidt “did not engage in prohibited activity during his period of service” and will be retained, in accordance with Pentagon policy. Schmidt’s involvement with the group was not as deep or as long-lasting as Piercy’s, and he has renounced their ideology. Story continues “Private First Class Schmidt has received counseling and training on Army policies against involvement in extremist groups and the prohibition of extremist activities,” said Col. Joe Sharkey, director of communications for Minnesota National Guard, in a statement to Yahoo News. “Private First Class Schmidt has disavowed any continued association with any groups or participation in activities that discriminate, or condone discrimination based on Race, Religion, Sexuality or Gender. The Minnesota National Guard is confident Schmidt will uphold our core values in his service to our state and nation." Neo Nazis, Alt-Right, and White Supremacists encircle counter protestors at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., USA on August 11, 2017 (Photo: Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Schmidt told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he was “embarrassed and ashamed” of his ties to the group and no longer shared its ideology, and added that “those groups are really manipulative. They target young men and make them feel like they’re part of something.” Schmidt posted 30 messages over the course of 16 months in an Identity Evropa-linked chat room, some discussing his future plans in the military and others about traveling to a gathering of the group in Colorado and paying membership dues. An Air Force spokesperson told Yahoo News that an investigation into a master sergeant with alleged ties to Identity Evropa was ongoing. But concerns remain about extremist organizations using the U.S. military to train their members. Elizabeth Yates and Patrick James, researchers at the University of Maryland’s Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism program, told Yahoo News earlier this year that white supremacists are joining the military in order to receive combat training. A report in the Washington Post found that immigrants face more scrutiny than white supremacists when enlisting. “Extremist organizations actively seek out active and veteran members of the military,” said James. “A lot of these groups really value the types of experience, tactical training, leadership ability that you get in the military, so often, now, these groups are actively encouraging people to go and join the military to get that experience and then bring those skills back to their extremist groups. That’s another thing we need to look out for in terms of these groups actively seeking those types of experience.” “We have also seen from reporting and scholarship outside our database that in this recruiting, they’re also encouraging members if they do join to avoid signals that might tell a recruiter that they’re extremist,” said Yates, “saying, ‘Don’t get tattoos, grow your hair long.’ And we just don’t know to what extent that’s being implemented.” The issue of white supremacists and extremists in the military was given prominence by the arrest of Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson earlier this year. Hasson, who resided in Silver Spring, Md., was alleged by prosecutors to be plotting murder “ on a scale rarely seen in this country ,” inspired by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik. Following Hasson’s arrest, four Democratic representatives sent a letter to the Department of Defense asking what processes were in place to screen for extremists in the military and expressed concern “that an individual that espouses these views could repeatedly serve in the military across multiple services.” Hasson is currently awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges. In a reply to the letter, Assistant Secretary of Defense James Stewart wrote that “Department policy provides that Service members ‘must not actively advocate supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes, including those that advance, encourage or advocate illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, religion, ethnicity, or national origin’ and must ‘reject active participation’ in such organizations.” Rep. Anthony Brown. (Photo: Sarah Silbiger/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images) Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., who signed the February letter, added an amendment to the latest National Defense Authorization Act to attempt to address the issue. The amendment would ensure that surveys of Department of Defense employees would include questions of whether or not the respondents have experienced or witnessed supremacist activity, extremist activity and/or racism. The amendment awaits passage by the full House and Senate. A 2017 poll of service members from the Military Times found that a quarter of respondents — and 42 percent of minorities — said they had witnessed white nationalism in the ranks. The Trump administration has been criticized for not acting to counter the rise of far-right extremism. Last November, former Homeland Security staffers stated that the White House was not doing enough to combat white supremacists at home , and that the administration had failed to renew millions in funding for anti-extremism groups , despite raising the overall Homeland Security budget. Concerns about connections between the U.S. military and white nationalists are not new. In 1996, after the Oklahoma City bombing (which was partially inspired by the far-right group National Alliance ) and the racially motivated murder of a black couple by Army paratroopers, the Pentagon launched an investigation into extremists in the armed services . A 2009 study from the Department of Homeland Security warned that extremist groups were likely to target disgruntled veterans returning from deployment. “The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today,” the report said. The report also found that Army veteran Joshua Beckett had trained members of Atomwaffen, a far-right group linked to at least five murders , in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. In the group’s chats, Beckett wrote that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and explained how his time in the service had influenced his views. “The army itself woke me up to race and the war woke me up to the Jews,” wrote Beckett. Read more from Yahoo News: Trump wants his next press secretary to be a cable news 'street fighter' For politicians, the D.C. elite and even a presidential candidate, a Navy program has been an attractive fast-track path to military service Trump admits his Cabinet had 'some clinkers' Confronted with multiple errors in his new Trump book, a testy Michael Wolff says, 'You have to trust me' Why are people willing to risk death for a selfie? PHOTOS: Dancing under the stars
Why Energizer Holdings, Gran Tierra Energy, and Green Plains Slumped Today Wednesday proved to be a relatively quiet day on Wall Street, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve made a key decision that could foreshadow a shift in interest rate policy in the near future. As expected, no change to interest rates occurred this month, but many investors now believe that it's only a matter of time before the central bank has to become more accommodative in order to spur economic growth. Though the market made gains following the announcement, some stocks missed out on the upward move.Energizer Holdings(NYSE: ENR),Gran Tierra Energy(NYSEMKT: GTE), andGreen Plains(NASDAQ: GPRE)were among the worst performers. Here's why they did so poorly. Shares of Energizer Holdings fell 6% after the battery maker got negative comments from Wall Street analysts. JPMorgan downgraded Energizer stock from neutral to underweight, reducing its price target by $9 per share to $36. Energizing isn't selling as many units in some of its battery lines as it has in the past, according to industry data that the analyst company observed, and the fact that a major shareholder will have the ability to sell off its stake in Energizer at the beginning of next year is also weighing down sentiment. Longer-term, JPMorgan sees some reasons for optimism, butrecent resultssuggest that it'll be tough for Energizer to overcome short-term headwinds along the way. Image source: Energizer Holdings. Gran Tierra Energy saw its stock drop 11.5%after the Calgary-based company gave its latest operations update. Gran Tierra said that it achieved record drilling results at a key facility in Colombia, but a combination of equipment failures and local unrest led it to shut in some of its oil wells in the country's Acordionero region. The company tried to put the difficulties in context, referring to them as "temporary operational issues" and telling shareholders that it's taking "necessary steps to get production back on track." Nevertheless, investors seem concerned that the situation in Colombia remains volatile and could cause further problems down the road. Finally, shares ofGreen Plains lost 9%. The ethanol producer said that it would suspend its cash dividend immediately, eliminating its $0.12-per-share payout that had given the stock a yield approaching 4%. Green Plains noted that it intends to use the savings from not having to pay a dividend toward investing in its Project 24 initiative, which involves buying back stock and deploying new technology in the high-protein feed area. The company also hopes to cut costs by building greater efficiency, and a refinancing effort should buy Green Plains more time to improve the quality of its balance sheet and make it easier to go forward with business-enhancing moves that it hopes will pay off in the long run. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Mark Cuban: AOC, Sanders, Warren wouldn't complain if they had my 'level of success' Despite the fact that politicians like U.S. Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) and presidential candidates U.S. Sen.Bernie Sanders(I-VT) and U.S. Sen.Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.) have made it a point to call out ultra-wealthy Americans, not everyone agrees with their philosophies. BillionaireMark Cubanimplied that had they been as successful as him, they might not have as much to say about the ultra-wealthy. He remarked that AOC’s criticism of capitalism is “headline porn” and noted the fact she started a business,a now-defunct publisher called Brook Avenue Press. “Bernie Sanders has a book business, you know, Elizabeth Warren buys and sells houses — or did,” Cuban said. “If they would have had the level of success that I and others have had, I don’t think they’d be complaining as much.” He is likely referring to how Warren previously “bought or helped finance two dozen properties in Oklahoma,” according to theBoston Globe. Sanders, meanwhile,profitedfrom his best-selling book “Our Revolution.” Cuban made the remarks to Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment. Cuban has had a relatively successful career — according to Forbes, his net worth is $4.1 billion. The billionaire owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and is a startup investor, having poured money intoover 120 tech startupsandinvested in hundredsof ventures while hosting “Shark Tank.” And, in an interview with theNew York Daily News, he revealed he hasn’t ruled out a 2020 presidential run yet, either. As a means for ensuring there isless wealth inequality, AOC proposed a 70% tax on those who earn more than $10 million, while Warren has suggested a 2% wealth tax on individuals who possess a net worth over $50 million and 3% tax on those over $1 billion. In both of those circumstances, that would entail Cuban paying significantly higher taxes. And while he has not vocalized a specific plan at tackling this issue,self-proclaimedsocialist Bernie Sanders hasn’t been shy about his opinions: In aspeechat the George Washington University on June 12, hesingled outPresident Trump, Wall Street, fossil fuels, andAmazon(AMZN). In his speech, Sanders said, “While President Trump and his fellow oligarchs attack us for our support of democratic socialism, they don’t really oppose all forms of socialism.” He quoted Martin Luther King Jr. by charging the U.S. “has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.” Despite what Cuban sees as a lack of understanding from people like Sanders and Warren, “that doesn’t mean that there’s not an income inequality problem,” he said. “There is. And it’s something we have to deal with. I tell other business people that the greatest cost to business is social disruption.” “If people are rebelling and burning things and aren’t satisfied with their lives and they’re [incentivized] to do horrific things, that’s the greatest cost of business,” Cuban said. “And that costs us more. Now the question becomes, how do we deal with it?” Adriana is an associate editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter@adrianambells. READ MORE: • Mark Cuban: We'll see fewer mass shootings by 'taking care of income inequality' • Mark Cuban describes the best way to reduce wealth inequality • Mark Cuban says Joe Biden has a ‘good chance' of defeating Trump Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,SmartNews,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.
Deutsche Bank faces investigation for potential money-laundering lapses -NYT June 19 (Reuters) - U.S. federal authorities are investigating whether Deutsche Bank AG complied with laws meant to stop money laundering and other crimes, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing seven people it said were familiar with the inquiry. The investigation includes a review of the German bank's handling of so-called suspicious activity reports that its employees prepared about possibly problematic transactions, including some linked to President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, the Times reported https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/business/deutsche-bank-money-laundering-trump.html. The investigation into Deutsche Bank is one element of several separate but overlapping government examinations into how illicit funds flow through the U.S. financial system, the Times reported, adding that several other banks are also being investigated. Earlier this month, a group of U.S. Senate Democrats urged the Federal Reserve to investigate Deutsche Bank's relationship with Trump and Kushner. Reuters could not independently confirm the report. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson declined comment on the Times report, but said: “We remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations.” (Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru Editing by Bill Rigby)
Why Mattel Stock Fell Today What happened Shares of Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) were down 6% as of 3:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday following news it has officially called off merger talks with fellow toy maker MGA Entertainment. But the news didn't come in a typical press release. Rather, in a scathing statement earlier today, MGA CEO Isaac Larian said Mattel "cannot be salvaged" given a combination of its "hostile board and management," high debt load, and a "major legal liability" stemming from its faulty Fisher Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper product. Various Barbie dolls made by Mattel. IMAGE SOURCE: MATTEL. So what Then again, perhaps it's worth taking the statement with a grain of salt when we remember MGA, which claims toy brands including Little Tykes, Bratz, and L.O.L. Surprise, previously made an unsuccessful attempt to buy Mattel in 2015. We should also consider Mattel only just rejected a buyout bid from MGA last week, after which Larian accused the company of breaching its fiduciary duty to shareholders and hinted at a potential hostile takeover. Now what Nonetheless, with the prospect of one juicy acquisition premium apparently gone, it's hardly surprising to see Mattel stock pulling back today. And I think shareholders would do well to focus instead on the prospects of its underlying business. More From The Motley Fool 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) What Is an ETF? 5 Recession-Proof Stocks How to Beat the Market Steve Symington has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
Connecticut budget mistake? Tax hikes and lost business United Technologiesis the latest company to announce its departure from Connecticut, after atax rateincrease appears to have contributed to the state’s multi-year corporate exodus. United Technologies will merge with Raytheon, relocating its headquarters from Farmington, Connecticut to Waltham, Massachusetts – Raytheon’s home base. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the merger raises “doubts about its impact on the Connecticut workforce and economy.” The company's CEO said the move was not motivated by taxes. United Technologies' departure, though it plans to maintain a presence in the state, is the latest blow to the state’s business presence, as wealthy residents also flee. A recent report from theYankee Institute for Public Policyhighlights a 2016-2017 biennial state budget that included $1.3 billion in tax increases, which led to “disastrous consequences” for the state economy. Income tax hikes went into effect in 2015 (top rate increased to 6.99 percent from 6.7 percent), while higher corporate rates did so in 2016 (top rate was raised to 9 percent from 7.5 percent). While the corporate tax increase was expected to bring in $481 million over the course of two years, after some businesses left, the state ended up only bringing in about $323 million, the report noted. As the state was raising taxes, it was also trying to lure – or keep – companies via an incentive program – which was at least partly comprised of both borrowed and bond funds. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, which was the largest beneficiary of the state’s incentive program, announced in 2017 that it would no longer keep its headquarters in New Haven – moving, instead, to Boston. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development spent $26 million on the company, through loans and grants. Alexion repaid some of the money. General Electric, which warned the state against hiking its tax rates, left Connecticut in 2016. It also relocated to Boston. Drugmaker Bristol Myers-Squibb left the state the same year, headed for New York, while advanced materials company Rogers Corp. fled to Arizona. Hallmark and the Royal Bank of Scotland have cut jobs in the state. Health insurer Aetna had announced it was relocating to New York City, but after it was acquired by CVS in a $69 billion deal, the companies decided not to make the move just yet. Aetna will remain in Connecticut for about another 10 years. CVS Caremark Corporation is headquartered in Rhode Island. Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and editor ofwww.DownsizingGovernment.org, previously told FOX Business that the business exodus is unsurprising since the state not only has high corporate taxes, but also high property taxes – which hurt businesses as well as homeowners. Record levels of individual outmigration were seen between 2015 and 2016 – including a $2.5 billion net loss from households earning more than $200,000. Job, wage and economic growth also stagnated. Outflows have continued. As previously reported by FOX Business, of the moves conducted within Connecticut last year, 62 percent were outbound – the third highest of any state. Those with incomes of $100,000 or higher made up the largest share of exoduses. The outflow of residents is also bad for the business climate since companies typically want to be located where they not only have favorable tax rates, but also access to talent. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP The state is still grappling with fiscal problems. Connecticut is facing a projected budget deficit of about $3.7 billion over the next two fiscal years. It is also dealing with unfunded pension liabilities that amount to $32,805 per person. According to a 2018 Tax Foundation analysis, Connecticut collected the second most in per capita state and local individual income taxes. Related Articles • How Much is Michael Phelps Worth? • Ryan Lochte's Brand Value Sinks Amid Rio Scandal • Here's How You Get a Body Like An Olympian
The Canyon Resources (ASX:CAY) Share Price Is Up 188% And Shareholders Are Boasting About It Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The worst result, after buying shares in a company (assuming no leverage), would be if you lose all the money you put in. But on the bright side, you can make far more than 100% on a really good stock. For instance, the price ofCanyon Resources Limited(ASX:CAY) stock is up an impressive 188% over the last five years. We note the stock price is up 5.0% in the last seven days. See our latest analysis for Canyon Resources Canyon Resources didn't have any revenue in the last year, so it's fair to say it doesn't yet have a proven product (or at least not one people are paying for). So it seems that the investors focused more on what could be, than paying attention to the current revenues (or lack thereof). For example, investors may be hoping that Canyon Resources finds some valuable resources, before it runs out of money. As a general rule, if a company doesn't have much revenue, and it loses money, then it is a high risk investment. There is usually a significant chance that they will need more money for business development, putting them at the mercy of capital markets. So the share price itself impacts the value of the shares (as it determines the cost of capital). While some such companies go on to make revenue, profits, and generate value, others get hyped up by hopeful naifs before eventually going bankrupt. Canyon Resources has already given some investors a taste of the sweet gains that high risk investing can generate, if your timing is right. When it last reported its balance sheet in December 2018, Canyon Resources had cash in excess of all liabilities of AU$4.9m. While that's nothing to panic about, there is some possibility the company will raise more capital, especially if profits are not imminent. Given the share price has increased by a solid 24% per year, over 5 years, its fair to say investors remain excited about the future, despite the potential need for cash. You can see in the image below, how Canyon Resources's cash levels have changed over time (click to see the values). Of course, the truth is that it is hard to value companies without much revenue or profit. However you can take a look at whether insiders have been buying up shares. If they are buying a significant amount of shares, that's certainly a good thing. You canclick here to see if there are insiders buying. It's nice to see that Canyon Resources shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 119% over the last year. That's better than the annualised return of 24% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. You could get a better understanding of Canyon Resources's growth by checking outthis more detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. We will like Canyon Resources better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out thisfreelist of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Deutsche Bank faces FBI investigation for possible money-laundering lapses - source FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining whether Deutsche Bank complied with laws meant to stop money laundering, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. The inquiry, first reported in the New York Times, follows a report by that newspaper last month about bank employees in its U.S. compliance division who had flagged suspicious financial transactions to their superiors who then opted not to escalate them to government authorities. The transactions were notable because they were linked to companies controlled by U.S. President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, according to the report. Trump rejected the report last month, saying he had little need for banks because he had so much cash on hand and denying that the money came from Russia. The resulting FBI investigation is viewed as routine following the report about the bank whistleblower, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about an ongoing investigation. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson declined to comment on the Times report, but said: "We remain committed to cooperating with authorized investigations." Kushner Companies said allegations about its relationship with Deutsche involving money laundering are "completely made up and totally false". The FBI, the White House, and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours. The NYT reported a Trump Organization spokeswoman as saying she was unaware of Deutsche flagging any transactions. Deutsche Bank has struggled to bounce back after the 2008 financial crisis and has been plagued by failed regulatory stress tests, multi-billion dollar fines and management upheavals and most recently a failed merger. The lender, Germany's largest, has been making progress working its way through a raft of litigation over past years, but it has recently made headlines about lapses in safeguards meant to identify money laundering. In 2017, regulators fined Deutsche Bank nearly $700 million for weak controls that allowed money laundering from Russia. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation is still ongoing. Shares in Deutsche, which hit a record low earlier this month, were 0.9% lower on Thursday, making the bank the biggest loser on the DAX index of blue-chip companies. The New York Times report, published on Wednesday, cited seven people it said were familiar with the inquiry. Earlier this month, a group of U.S. Senate Democrats urged the Federal Reserve to investigate Deutsche Bank's relationship with Trump and Kushner. Deutsche Bank has long been a principal lender for Trump's real estate business. A 2017 disclosure form showed that Trump had at least $130 million of liabilities to the bank. (Reporting by Tom Sims in Frankfurt and Ishita Chigilli Palli and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Michelle Martin in Berlin; Editing by Kathrin Jones, Bill Rigby, Alexander Smith and Jan Harvey)
Why MoneyGram International Stock Sank Today What happened Shares of MoneyGram International (NASDAQ: MGI) plunged nearly 25% on Wednesday. The decline came one day after the money transfer company surged 168% on news of a deal with cryptocurrency giant Ripple. So what On Tuesday, MoneyGram stock soared following news that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Ripple. The blockchain company is investing $30 million in MoneyGram in exchange for an equity stake. Ripple also has the option to invest another $20 million to boost its stake in the future. Notably, Ripple is buying the stock at $4.10 per share. It closed at only $1.45 on Monday, before news of the deal broke. As part of the deal, Ripple will become MoneyGram's key partner for cross-border settlement. MoneyGram will use Ripple's xRapid product, which leverages its controversial XRP digital token in foreign exchange settlement. Now what The XRP token's key features include low transaction fees and ultra-fast transaction speeds. Yet the company has struggled to gain wide adoption for its cryptocurrency among banks and payments firms. The partnership with MoneyGram is no doubt geared toward proving XRP's utility and effectiveness in real-world operations. Should MoneyGram recognize the benefits that Ripple claims, it could go a long way toward highlighting XRP's value. A downwardly sloping line drawn over an erased upwardly sloping line Image source: Getty Images. As for MoneyGram's decline on Wednesday, it may simply be a case of profit-taking after Tuesday's massive gains. It could also be related to Facebook 's blockbuster announcement of its new payments-focused cryptocurrency, which could become a formidable new rival to Ripple's products. One thing is certain: Competition is intensifying in digital payments. Companies that are able to adapt their business models and implement disruptive new technologies like cryptocurrency stand to benefit, while those that don't will likely be left behind. Whether MoneyGram can continue to compete effectively in this rapidly changing world remains to be seen. Story continues More From The Motley Fool 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) What Is an ETF? 5 Recession-Proof Stocks How to Beat the Market Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
Media in Russia's south protest journalist's arrest MOSCOW (AP) — Journalists in southern Russia are protesting the arrest of a newspaper editor on terrorism charges they say were trumped up as part of an official campaign to silence independent media. Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, the religious affairs editor of the independent weekly Chernovik, was arrested Friday in the Caspian Sea province of Dagestan. The case comes shortly after the arrest of Moscow journalist Ivan Golunov on drug charges, which were dropped for lack of evidence last week amid public outrage. Following the example of Russia's three top business newspapers that put out front pages to support Golunov, Chernovik and two other newspapers in Dagestan said Wednesday they would publish a joint editorial under the headline "I am/We are Abdulmumin Gadzhiev." Authorities have accused the editor of involvement in a terrorist organization and financing terrorism — charges based on testimony from another suspect who said it was extracted by torture. Investigators alleged he sent money to charities suspected of funding the Islamic State group and other militants. Gadzhiev, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, denied the accusations. The Chernovik weekly dismissed the charges as "absurd and unfounded" and described them as part of the official crackdown on news outlets in the region. In 2011, the newspaper's founder, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, was shot and killed in Dagestan. The murder has remained unsolved. Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Russian authorities to free Gadzhiev. It noted that a suspect who had testified against Gadzhiev appeared badly bruised in court on Tuesday and retracted his statement, saying that police used force to extract the testimony. Police haven't responded to the allegations of torture. "You cannot imprison a journalist on the basis of testimony extracted under torture," Johann Bihr, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. "If the police are unable to produce any convincing evidence against Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, they must free him at once and drop all proceedings against him."
Union Pacific CEO on Trump trade war: 'This is something we can’t screw up' CEOs have a message for President Donald Trump: getting trade negotiations right is, well, non-negotiable. “It needs to be, right? I mean, this is something we can't screw up,” Union Pacific (UNP) Chairman, CEO and President Lance Fritz said on Yahoo Finance’sOn the Move, referring to Trump’s strategy on tariffs and trade. “While I know our economy is largely driven by consumers, our economy is tightly linked to our trading partners. And if you think about it this way, we represent 5% of the world's population, 25% of the world's wealth. A lot else is happening outside, and we have to have markets available to us.” Fritz said Trump was receptive to their message. “The president listened to our commentary, probed, was very much engaged in the conversation, but of course, he's the one who has to do the calculus on what he thinks is the right thing to do for the U.S. economy in the long-term.” Trump said this week he plans to have an“extended meeting” with President Xi Jinpingof China during the G-20 meeting in Japan at the end of the month. Union Pacific gets all of its revenue from within the United States, and China’s move to impose retaliatory measures has driven second-quarter volumes down by 4%. China’s ban on imports of U.S. soybeans has had a negative effect on customers, as has inclement weather in the Midwest. “What we’re seeing right now, most of our customer base becoming a little bit more cautious, either on inventory, working capital, or on capital investment, or both,” Fritz said. That, along with an efficiency push at the railroad company, could result in more job cuts at Union Pacific. “Right now, our employment is down year over year,” Fritz said. “And there's probably still a bit more of that to go as we get more productive. That'll be offset if we can get some top line growth.” At the same time, Fritz said some of the effect of trade disputes is mitigated by new measures Union Pacific has taken to increase efficiency. He said tariffs may cause a hit to sales, but he doesn’t expect a drop in the bottom line. The railroad CEO isn’t alone in trying to put pressure on the White House. Earlier this week, a group of 200 apparel and footwear industry executives sent a letter to Trump urging him not to impose new tariffs on China, andan industry association executive said his members are “livid.” While Fritz is concerned over China tariffs, he and his employees’ more immediate concern is the ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, since it involves the country’s largest trading partners. The railroad’s 42,000 workers are “probably, first and foremost, worried about our relationships with Mexico and Canada, and getting the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) across the finish line,” Fritz said. “Our employee population very much has a feel of what's going on in the economy directly — how much traffic is moving through their part of the territory, what kind of work are they being asked to do,” he added. “And so they feel when the economy doesn't feel quite right.” Julie Hyman is the co-anchor ofOn the Moveon Yahoo Finance. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,SmartNews,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.
Draghi's "whatever it takes" a tough act to follow FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank head Mario Draghi is credited with saving the euro by using new and sometimes unorthodox policy tools. The question now is, will the next ECB president be as quick to use them - or invent new ones - as Draghi has been? European leaders are searching for a replacement for the 71-year-old Draghi, whose term expires Oct. 31. But whether candidates share his pragmatic and activist approach is not the only consideration: Picking the ECB president is also part of complex horse trading among governments over top EU jobs. Their choice will determine whether the next ECB leader will be someone that is as ready to step up in a crisis, and as willing as Draghi was to innovate and resist criticism. European leaders meeting Thursday and Friday will discuss top European Union jobs, though they may not yet reach a deal on any of them. Speculation so far has focused on Jens Weidmann, head of Germany's Bundesbank national central bank and an opponent of some of Draghi's new measures; Francois Villeroy de Galhau, the head of the Bank of France; former Finnish Central Bank head Erkki Liikanen, and current Finnish central banker Olli Rehn. Leaders will pick one for an eight-year, non-renewable term in a process that some think risks focusing more on national turf wars than on the policies the candidate would pursue. In Weidmann's favor is the fact that Germany has never held the ECB presidency since the euro was launched in 1999. He is a stimulus skeptic, however, and may face opposition from indebted countries such as Italy that have benefited from Draghi's stimulus. All the candidates have served under Draghi on the ECB's rate-setting council through their posts as heads of national central banks. Some ECB watchers are disconcerted that the job is being seen as secondary to choosing successors for Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, and for Donald Tusk, president of the European Council of heads of state and government. The thinking goes that Germany and France cannot hold both the commission and the ECB job; that means that if a German such as European parliament member Manfred Weber is chosen for the commission, Weidman's chances at the ECB would suffer and Villeroy de Galhau's would improve — and vice versa in case of a French commission president. Story continues Yet it was the ECB that stepped up during the debt crisis and took quick action credited by many with keeping the euro from breaking up. Draghi's willingness to act was crucial during market turmoil that hit the eurozone in 2011-2012, says Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank in London. "Draghi has steered the eurozone through a tremendously difficult time, through a much bigger storm than anyone could have imagined," Schmieding said. "He made sure that the ECB rose to the unforeseen challenge, in my view without breaking or violating the mandate, but under unforeseen circumstances he found new tools to help the ECB meet its mandate." Draghi's trademark moment came on July 26, 2012, as Italy, the third largest country in the euro, was facing unsustainably high borrowing costs that threatened its financial stability. Draghi said that "within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough." The utterance proved to be a turning point for Europe. The ECB followed up with a plan to purchase the government bonds of countries experiencing borrowing costs that were out of line with the ECB's efforts to steer interest rates in the eurozone. Market panic around Italy subsided. The program survived court challenges from opponents who said the ECB exceeded its powers. As the eurozone slowly recovered, Draghi and the bank's governing council backed other innovations to push up alarmingly weak inflation that threatened the eurozone with crippling deflation. Under Draghi, the bank used the unorthodox tool of negative interest rates, putting a minus 0.4% rate on deposits left at the central bank by commercial banks, a penalty to push them to lend. Lastly, the bank bought 2.6 trillion euros ($2.9 trillion) in government and corporate bonds across the eurozone over almost four years, a move that pumps newly created money into the banks with the aim of supporting lending and a healthier level of inflation. Those tools remain for Draghi's successor. The program that halted the crisis in Italy was opposed, however, by Weidmann. He has argued that buying bonds takes the heat off governments to shape up, and that it could unfairly spread losses to other countries in case a country defaults on bonds held by the ECB. He softened his position in an interview with the Die Zeit weekly published Wednesday, saying he recognized the bond purchase offer as legal and binding - a statement that appeared aimed at reassuring countries worried he would reverse it if chosen. Villeroy de Galhau has expressed concern that the negative interest rate could hurt bank profits; Rehn has proposed a top to bottom review of the ECB's monetary policy. That is because despite all the stimulus, inflation at 1.2% remains stubbornly below the ECB's goal of just under 2%. How to finally achieve the goal will be a key problem for Draghi's successor. Carsten Brzeski, chief economist for Germany and Austria at ING, said that no future ECB president could afford to ignore the bank's firefighting role in any new crisis, and suggested that Weidmann could prove "much less dogmatic" as the head of the ECB, a role that requires building consensus on the 25-member rate-setting board. "We could see a subtle, gradual change in how the ECB will reach to developments," said Brzeski, with the bank more likely to take a wait and see approach before acting.
Bassari Resources (ASX:BSR) Shareholders Have Enjoyed An Impressive 129% Share Price Gain Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! WhileBassari Resources Limited(ASX:BSR) shareholders are probably generally happy, the stock hasn't had particularly good run recently, with the share price falling 16% in the last quarter. But that doesn't change the fact that shareholders have received really good returns over the last five years. In fact, the share price is 129% higher today. We think it's more important to dwell on the long term returns than the short term returns. Only time will tell if there is still too much optimism currently reflected in the share price. View our latest analysis for Bassari Resources We don't think Bassari Resources's revenue of AU$14,000 is enough to establish significant demand. As a result, we think it's unlikely shareholders are paying much attention to current revenue, but rather speculating on growth in the years to come. For example, investors may be hoping that Bassari Resources finds some valuable resources, before it runs out of money. As a general rule, if a company doesn't have much revenue, and it loses money, then it is a high risk investment. There is usually a significant chance that they will need more money for business development, putting them at the mercy of capital markets. So the share price itself impacts the value of the shares (as it determines the cost of capital). While some companies like this go on to deliver on their plan, making good money for shareholders, many end in painful losses and eventual de-listing. Bassari Resources has already given some investors a taste of the sweet gains that high risk investing can generate, if your timing is right. Bassari Resources had liabilities exceeding cash by AU$3,302,000 when it last reported in December 2018, according to our data. That puts it in the highest risk category, according to our analysis. So we're surprised to see the stock up 18% per year, over 5 years, but we're happy for holders. Investors must really like its potential. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Bassari Resources's cash levels have changed over time. In reality it's hard to have much certainty when valuing a business that has neither revenue or profit. Given that situation, many of the best investors like to check if insiders have been buying shares. If they are buying a significant amount of shares, that's certainly a good thing. Luckily we are in a position to provide you with thisfreechart of insider buying (and selling). Bassari Resources shareholders are down 24% for the year, but the market itself is up 11%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 18% per year over half a decade. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. If you would like to research Bassari Resources in more detail then you might want totake a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company. If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
MLB details first three matchups for live games on YouTube By Hilary Russ NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and YouTube on Wednesday released details of the first three matchups under their agreement to stream a package of 13 live games every week on the video-sharing website. Their deal, announced in April, was the first agreement for YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc's Google, to exclusively stream MLB games in major markets. MLB also has other deals to stream some live games on both Facebook and Twitter. The YouTube pact is one of several showing how digital platforms, streaming services and social media networks have been stepping into live sports - traditionally the territory of broadcasters. YouTube has global distribution rights that are exclusive in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico via MLB's YouTube channel, free to view. Subscribers to YouTube TV will also be able to watch the games on a forthcoming channel. In the first game on July 18, six-time World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers will play the Philadelphia Phillies. Week two on July 23 features the Cleveland Indians versus the Toronto Blue Jays, with the third game on July 29 between the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels, MLB said in a statement. All games will include pregame and postgame shows. (Reporting by Hilary Russ Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Anadarko Petroleum Makes FID on Mozambique LNG Project Anadarko Petroleum CorporationAPC and the co-venturers in Mozambique's Offshore Area 1 made a final investment decision (FID) on the Mozambique LNG project. The facility will be Mozambique's first onshore LNG unit. The project comprises two LNG train with total initial capacity of 12.88 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). Of the total capacity, 86% is committed by the key LNG buyers in Asia and Europe. Moreover,the project is expected to boost Mozambique's in-country consumption as well as contribute to domestic economic development. Development in Mozambique LNG project Anadarko’s asset portfolio comprises a natural-gas discovery in Mozambique. Anadarko Petroleum continued to make significant progress with the Mozambique LNG project. Recently, Mozambique LNG1 has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement with JERA Co., Inc (JERA) and CPC Corporation, Taiwan (CPC) for 17 years for ex-ship supply of 1.6 million tonnes per annum MTPA). Shifting to Liquid Composition in Production Mix Anadarko Petroleum is gradually shifting to a greater liquid composition in its total production mix.The transition towards high-quality domestic onshore assets has started to yield results. In the first quarter, average daily sales volume increased 11.2% year over year to 715,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Onshore assets generated sales volume of 465,000 boe/d, up 15% from the prior-year quarter’s figure. Acquisition Agreement The company has a strong asset base in the Permian Basin and premium shale properties, which include the Delaware and Denver-Julesburg basins, the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico as well as Powder River basin. These assets are well placed to boost stakeholders’ value over the long term. Initially, Chevron Corp. CVX made a bid for Anadarko Petroleum. However, Occidental Petroleum OXY raised its bid, and Chevron decided to move out with $1-billion breakup fee. Moreover, TOTAL S.A. TOT has entered into a binding agreement with Occidental to acquire Anadarko Petroleum’s assets in Africa (for a consideration of $8.8 billion), which includes Mozambique holdings. Zacks Rank & Price Performance Anadarko Petroleum currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Shares of the company have surged 59.4%, compared with the industry’s gain of 1.1% year to date. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated+98%,+119%and+164%gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTOTAL S.A. (TOT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportChevron Corporation (CVX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAnadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportOccidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Costs, delays mount for Boeing's NASA launch system, audit finds By Joey Roulette (Reuters) - NASA's flagship space launch system being built by Boeing is taking years longer than expected with cost overruns of nearly $2 billion, an audit found on Wednesday, raising questions about meeting a goal of returning humans to the moon by 2024. The General Accounting Office (GAO) identified $1.8 billion in cost overruns, including $800 million that NASA obscured in previous reports on its Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket and capsule that will eventually take humans back to the moon. The issues around the rocket's development, led by Boeing Co, mean that the first launch of the SLS originally scheduled for late 2017 could be delayed until June 2021. Boeing's space division restructured the SLS leadership team in 2018 and early 2019 to adjust to the program challenges and simplified its manufacturing process, Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling said. "No one is building a rocket like this, and we’re creating a very in-depth database for all future rockets," he said. The Trump administration directed NASA in March to land humans on the lunar surface by 2024, part of a broader program called Artemis that will use the moon as a staging ground for eventual missions to Mars.The accelerated timeline, four years faster than originally planned, is likely to cost $20 billion to $30 billion over the next five years, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in an interview with CNN last week. SHIFTING COSTS The $1.8 billion cost overrun was nearly double what NASA reported to its inspector general in 2018 for SLS and the Orion capsule - the crew pod built by Lockheed Martin that will launch atop the rocket - the report said. "NASA’s reporting of cost data for the SLS and Orion programs is not fully transparent," it said. NASA obscured the full cost growth of the SLS program by shifting roughly $800 million to future SLS missions to downplay the cost of the initial mission, the GAO report said. Officials from NASA and Boeing also underestimated the manufacturing complexity of the "core stage" of four attached rocket engines, which could increase the cost and cause delays of two years or more, the report said. Despite the cost overruns, NASA has awarded Boeing at least $146 million and Lockheed $87 million in “award fees” to stay on schedule, but “the programs have not always achieved overall desired outcomes,” the report said. The space agency agreed to the report’s recommendation to re-evaluate its incentive system. NASA’s associate administrator for human spaceflight and operations, William Gerstenmaier, said in a response to the GAO's report that the audit "does not acknowledge NASA is constructing some of the most sophisticated hardware ever built." A NASA spokeswoman declined further comment. (Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando, Florida; editing by Bill Tarrant and Cynthia Osterman)
Pilots criticize Boeing for mistakes on its grounded jet Airline union leaders and a famed former pilot said Wednesday that Boeing made mistakes while developing the 737 Max, and the biggest was not telling anybody about new flight-control software so pilots could train for it. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who landed a crippled airliner safely on the Hudson River in 2009, said he doubted that any U.S. pilots practiced handling a specific malfunction until it happened on two Max jets that crashed, killing 346 people. Max pilots should train for such emergencies in simulators — not just on computers, as Boeing proposes, he said. "We should all want pilots to experience these challenging situations for the first time in a simulator, not in flight, with passengers and crew on board," Sullenberger said, adding that "reading about it on an iPad is not even close to sufficient." Sullenberger's comments to the House aviation subcommittee came during the third congressional hearing on Boeing's troubled plane, which has been grounded for three months. Daniel Carey, the president of the pilots' union at American Airlines, said Boeing's zeal to minimize pilot-training costs for airlines buying the 737 Max jet contributed to design errors and inadequate training. That has left a "crisis of trust" around aviation safety, he said. Former Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt said his old agency too readily accepted Boeing's design changes on the Max, and pilots should have been better trained. Sara Nelson, president of the largest flight attendants' union, joined in hammering Boeing and the FAA, although she acknowledged she has recently noticed "a chastened tone" from the company. As the hearing unfolded in Washington, the head of the pilots' union at Southwest Airlines in Dallas said his group will seek compensation from Boeing for lost flying assignments and the costs of complying with a Justice Department subpoena for its records, which are part of the government's criminal investigation into Boeing. All of the comments underscore the challenges Boeing faces convincing pilots they can be confident the Max can be made safe. Those pilots, in turn, are key to convincing reluctant passengers to fly on the plane. "That bond between the passenger and the pilot is one that is critical," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said during an investor presentation in April. Pilots complain that Boeing did not tell them about flight software called MCAS until after the October crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia. That same software, which could misfire on the failure of a single sensor, was implicated in a second crash five months later of an Ethiopian Airlines jet. The MCAS software was designed to make the Max feel like previous 737 models to pilots despite engines that were larger and placed more forward on the wings and changed the plane's aerodynamics. "This was a fatal design flaw built into the aircraft at the factory," Carey said in an interview before the hearing. After the Lion Air crash, Boeing sent pilots and airlines a checklist of steps to take if MCAS malfunctioned, including disabling the software and hand-cranking a wheel to manually rotate part of the plane's tail and point the nose up. The Ethiopian Airlines pilots tried that, but they couldn't physically move the tail part because the jet was flying too fast. "We not only have to devise checklists, we have to make sure those checklists are able to be performed by a flight crew," Carey told the lawmakers. Carey said video training for pilots on the MCAS updates would be enough to get the planes back into the air, but he advocated simulator training during each pilot's training updates. Boeing engineers have finished making fixes to the software and expect to soon demonstrate their work to government safety officials on test flights in hopes that the FAA will certify the plane as safe. The changes will be accompanied by additional pilot training. FAA technical experts endorsed Boeing's conclusion that simulator time is not immediately needed for pilots who know how to fly older 737 models. Acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell said recently the agency has not made a final decision. Carey and Sullenberger also questioned the FAA's independence from Boeing and other companies it regulates. Sullenberger criticized an FAA program that relies on industry employees to perform some safety tests and inspections, and he urged lawmakers to give FAA more money so it can do the work itself. No one from Boeing Co. testified at Wednesday's hearing. Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat and chairman of the full House Transportation Committee, said his panel has received "a substantial number" of the documents it has requested from Boeing and the FAA about development and approval of the Max, and he will summon the company to a future hearing. In a statement, Boeing spokesman Peter Pedraza said Boeing was providing information to regulators, airlines and pilots "to re-earn their trust and know we must be more transparent going forward." Boeing's path to regaining trust still looks bumpy. Jon Weaks, president of the pilots' union at Southwest — which owns 34 Max jets, more than any other carrier, and is the world's biggest 737 operator — faulted Boeing for many missteps during the crisis. "Boeing seems to receive more bad news with every passing week and still needs to learn how to rebuild trust as well as the airplane," Weaks wrote in a memo to his pilots on Wednesday. ___ David Koenig can be reached athttp://twitter.com/airlinewriter
What Happened in the Stock Market Today The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday, but Chairman Jerome Powell said there was support for a cut later, and that was enough to give stocks a boost higher. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)closed with small gains. [{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.15%", "Point Change": "38.46"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "0.30%", "Point Change": "8.71"}] Data source: Yahoo! Finance. As for individual stocks,Adobe(NASDAQ: ADBE)reported better-than expected Q2 results, andCannTrust Holdings(NYSE: CTST)announced it is establishing operations in the U.S. Image source: Getty Images. Software specialist Adobe reportedfiscal second-quarter earningsthat beat expectations and shares jumped 5.2% to an all-time high. Revenue grew 25% to $2.74 billion, topping the $2.7 billion the company had said that it was expecting. Non-GAAPearnings per share grew 10.2% to $1.83, exceeding Adobe's guidance of $1.77. Adobe's digital media segment, which includes the company's popular photography and digital video programs, posted revenue growth of 22% to $1.89 billion, with a 5.4% increase in annualized recurring revenue since last quarter. Growing mobile usage is a strong tailwind for the segment. Digital experience, which is more oriented toward business solutions in areas like advertising, analytics, and commerce, saw revenue jump 34% to $784 million. The company's guidance for next quarter was less than analyst predictions for both the top and bottom lines, but the summer months are typically light for Adobe, and officials on theconference callwere confident that itsmomentumwill carry over into the second half, with expectations for a strong Q4. Canadian marijuana producer CannTrust Holdings announced that it's entering the U.S. market by way of a joint venture to produce hemp for cannabidiol (CBD), and shares soared 8.9%. CannTrust is partnering with Elk Grove Farming Company to get access to 3,000 acres of farmland in Southern California for the production of low-cost hemp with high CBD content. CannTrust and Elk Grove will each own 50% of the joint venture. CannTrust will process the plants and sell hemp-derived CBD products in the U.S. where it is legal, with commercial operations expected to start in 2020. CannTrust, one of thelargest marijuana producers in Canada, isincreasing production capacityto meet strong demand for recreational pot in that country, but has also said that extracts are an important part of its growth strategy. In its most recentconference call, the company said it was in discussions with potential partners to help it enter thebooming U.S. CBD market. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Jim Crumlyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Adobe Systems and CannTrust Holdings Inc. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
These 3 Chinese Stocks Will Soar on a Trade Truce This week, President Trump said he had a "very good phone conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that their two teams would hold talks ahead of the G-20 summit in Japan next week. Trump also stated that he will hold "an extended meeting" with Xi during the summit, sparking hopes for a trade truce between the world's two largest economies. Investors should remain skeptical about a truce, but some beaten-down Chinese stocks could soar if it actually happens. Three stocks that stand to benefit from some actual forward movement on a trade resolution include:Baidu(NASDAQ: BIDU),JD.com(NASDAQ: JD), andHuya(NYSE: HUYA). Image source: Getty Images. Baidu, which owns the largest search engine in China, lost more than 50% of its value over the past 12 months as its core advertising business hit a brick wall. Last quarter its total ad revenue, which accounted for 73% of its top line, rose just 3% annually. Baidu attributed that decline to the slowdown in the Chinese economy, which throttled ad spending from certain companies, especially in the healthcare, online gaming, and financial sectors. Its longtime search chief, Hailong Xiang, also abruptly resigned. Baidu's total revenue rose 15% annually (21% excluding its upcoming divestments), but that growth was mostly fueled by its stake in the video streaming companyiQiyi. iQiyi is still unprofitable, and Baidu subsidizes its growth, making it a dead weight on its bottom line. Other big investments, including expansions into the smart speaker, AI, and automotive markets, are also weighing down its profits. That's why Baidu posted its first-everquarterly losslast quarter, and analysts expect its full-year earnings to tumble nearly 50%. Things look grim now, but the stock's downside is arguably limited at just 15 times forward earnings. Moreover, a trade truce could help Baidu's core advertising business recover quickly, and the stock could suddenly look very cheap relative to its long-term growth potential. JD.com is China's top direct retailer and the second largest e-commerce player afterAlibaba. JD lost more than 30% of its market value over the past 12 months as it struggled with slowing sales growth, rising costs, and a rape allegation against its founder and CEO Richard Liu. But those clouds are parting. JD's revenue rose 21% annually last quarter, marking itsslowest growthsince its IPO, but its forecast for 19%-23% growth in the second quarter indicates that its growth is finally stabilizing. Image source: JD.com. JD also grew its base of active customers, expanded its gross margin year-over-year, cut costs with layoffs, boosted its adjusted net income 150%, and generated positive free cash flow again. JD also expanded its Prime-like JD Plus membership service, sold more marketplace ads, and offered more of its logistics services to third-party companies. The rape charge against Liu was also dropped, although the alleged victim is still suing Liu and JD.com. Analysts expect JD's revenue to rise 18% this year and for its adjusted earnings to nearly double, which are high growth rates for a stock that trades at 28 times forward earnings andless than onetimes next year's sales. If a trade truce is reached, the growth of JD's core marketplace could accelerate again and make the stock even cheaper. Huya, which was spun off fromYYlast year, owns a live streaming platform that mainly hosts gaming and esports videos. Huya more than doubled its revenue annually last year and posted 93% sales growth in the first quarter. It also expanded its gross margin and grew its adjusted net income 93% annually. Huya's average monthly active users (MAUs) grew 33% annually to 123.8 million during the quarter. Within that total, its average mobile MAUs climbed 30% to 53.9 million. It generated 95% of its revenue from sales of virtual gifts and items that viewers buy for their favorite broadcasters. Its total paid users rose 57% to 5.4 million last quarter. Analysts expect Huya's revenue and earnings to rise by 57% and 33% this year. Next year they expect its revenue to rise 34%, but for its earnings -- boosted by an increase in paid users -- to nearly double again. That's ajaw-dropping growth ratefor a stock that trades at 34 times forward earnings. Unlike Baidu and JD, Huya's core business model is well-insulated from economic headwinds. Yet this baby was tossed out with the bathwater, and the stock lost nearly half its value over the past 12 months. Any positive news about China could cause investors to flock back to this stock. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Leo Sunowns shares of Baidu and JD.com. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu and JD.com. The Motley Fool recommends HUYA Inc. and iQiyi. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
How High Can Starbucks Fly? It All Hinges on One Metric Who says megarestaurant chains can't be high-octane growth companies?Starbucks(NASDAQ: SBUX)has rocketed 46% higher in the last year as the world's third-largest restaurant chain by number of locations has reignited existing store sales growth. Despite the surge in stock price, though, the coffee shop and retailer can keep climbing if it can demonstrate that its recent momentum in comps is more than just fleeting. Comparable-store sales is a combination of the number of transactions (foot traffic) and ticket size per order at existing stores -- in Starbucks' case, stores that have been open for at least 13 months. For a company with over 30,000 locations worldwide, rising comps is one of the primary ways Starbucks can increase profitable sales. Comps were touch-and-go in 2018. Though the metric ended the year up 2%, there were quarterly declines at times -- especially in theimportant growth region of Chinaand greater Asia. The annual rate was a deceleration from years past. As early as 2016, Starbucks was still putting up 6% global comps growth. For fiscal 2019 to date, though, Starbucks has had a resurgence in comps -- up 4% in the second quarter and 3% in the first. Leading the charge has been the U.S. Though new store openings in North America have slowed to a low single-digit crawl, it's where the majority of global locations are located (currently over 17,700). Thus, comps are the most important way to grow overall sales in what is still Starbucks' largest market. What accounts for the sudden rebound in the U.S.? A lot of it has to do with the successful expansion of theStarbucks Rewards loyalty programand app. Digital ordering has helped boost sales by keeping customers returning again more often. Plus, though existing store foot traffic was flat during the second quarter, ticket size grew by 4% year over year. What that means is that customers are buying more every time they visit -- and the ability to see the full menu on the app, order ahead, and pick up a drink or snack on the fly is why. Image source: Starbucks. Even though this coffee empire is already a name brand around the globe, new stores are still key to the company's continued growth. That is especially the case in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. [{"Metric": "Store count", "Americas": "17,710", "China and Asia-Pacific": "8,993", "Europe, Middle East, and Africa": "3,468"}, {"Metric": "Comparable-store sales", "Americas": "4%", "China and Asia-Pacific": "2%", "Europe, Middle East, and Africa": "2%"}, {"Metric": "Year-over-year increase", "Americas": "4%", "China and Asia-Pacific": "12%", "Europe, Middle East, and Africa": "10%"}, {"Metric": "Year-ago increase (decrease)", "Americas": "2%", "China and Asia-Pacific": "3%", "Europe, Middle East, and Africa": "(1%)"}] Figures for end of second-quarter 2019. Data source: Starbucks. It's clear that Starbucks still has a lot left in the tank as far as expanding its global footprint goes. However, as the chain continues to mature, comps will be an increasingly important metric for driving growth and overall profitability. It's also one of the main ingredients in the stock's big increase in the last year. The stock price could continue to run higher, but it will depend largely on comps maintaining their recent trajectory. Management said it expects full-year 2019 global comps to do just that, forecasting they'll be up 3% to 4%. As previously mentioned, foot traffic at existing locations is flat, with ticket size being the sole contributor to comps as of late. It'll be tough for comps to remain strong if Starbucks doesn't start bringing more customers in the door. Nevertheless, the expectation is that Starbucks' bottom line will continue to benefit for now -- implied by a trailing-12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 36.1 versus a lower forward P/E ratio of 27.0. Given where this coffee company is, it'sa little too rich for my personal tasteto go making a stock purchase at the moment. Nevertheless, shares could hold on to those big annual gains if comparable-store sales can manage a minimum of 3% growth in the quarters ahead. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Nicholas Rossolilloand his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
The Average Millennial's Net Worth Is Shockingly Low When we think of millennials, we often picture flannel-clad hipsters sipping overpriced coffee, bemoaning their overly difficult lives. In reality, though, millennialsdohave it rough, and their net worth reflects that struggle. The average net worth of Americans aged 18 to 35 is less than $8,000, according to a new Deloitte study. The reason, however, very much boils down to increased costs over the past decade. Takecollege, for example. Higher-education costs rose 65% over the last 10 years, and as such, student debt levels increased by 160% between 2004 and 2017. Millennials, of course, were hit hardest by this trend, as they were the ones attending college during that time. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. But it's not just higher education that's gone up. Housing, healthcare, and many other essential expenses have also increased, effectively forcing millennials to spend more and save less. Another reason millennials are having a hard time building wealth? They're putting off homeownership, partly because of rising property costs, and partly because they're sosaddled with student debtthey can't imagine swinging their monthly loan paymentsanda mortgage simultaneously. Still, the picture for millennials isn't all bleak. One thing theydohave going for them is their age, and the fact that they have many working years ahead of them to get on a solid financial path. If you're a younger American who's unhappy with your net worth at present, a few key lifestyle changes could be your ticket to an uptick. You can start by mapping out abudgetto see how much you can afford to be spending each month based on your earnings coupled with mandatory expenses, including the debt payments you have hanging over your head. Cutting back on one or two big expenses could allow you to boost your savings rather quickly, or knock out some of the loans that currently monopolize too much of your income for comfort. For example, if you're willing to downsize to a smaller apartment for a couple of years, you might conceivably slash $300 from your monthly rent. Bank that money for two years, and you'll be sitting on $7,200. That cash could then go a long way toward paying off debt or building anemergency fundso you're not forced to incurmoredebt when unplanned expenses hit you out of nowhere. At the same time, consider getting aside hustleif a raise doesn't seem to be on the horizon at work. The great thing about getting a second gig is that the money you earn from it won't be earmarked for regular expenses, and because of that, you'll have the option to use it to build savings, pay off debt, or both. Finally, don't discount the importance of investing. Putting your money to work is a great way to grow wealth, and being relatively young, you have the option to load up on stocks and see where the market takes you. (Hint: Investors who hold stocks for the long haul generally come out ahead.) In fact, the stock market has historically averaged around a 9% annual return. Even if we downgrade that to a 7% return, investing $100 a month over a 30-year period will leave you with $113,000 when we factor in growth. You can invest in a traditional brokerage account, or in a retirement plan, like an IRA or 401(k). With the latter options, you'll need to keep your money locked away until at least age 59-1/2, but seeing as how you'll need savings to fund your retirement anyway, that's not a bad thing. It's easy to see why millennials have struggled to build wealth. If you're unhappy with your net worth, make some lifestyle adjustments. And also, don't give up -- you still have many years to boost your earnings and improve your overall financial picture. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Papa John's to invest $80 million in marketing, U.S. franchisees (Reuters) - Papa John's International Inc, which has been struggling to boost sales, said on Wednesday it would spend $80 million to boost its brand image and support its franchisees in the United States from the third quarter of fiscal year 2019. The pizza chain said it will lower royalties and provide royalty-based service incentives to its U.S. franchisees until the end of 2020. Papa John's has been working to fix its brand image as negative publicity dented sales last year after founder John Schnatter reportedly used a racial slur during a media training conference call last year. The company settled a bitter feud with Schnatter over control of the company in March. In the same month, it also named former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal as a board member, brand ambassador and investor in a bid to boost sales. (Reporting by Soundarya J in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Adobe (ADBE) Stock Spikes on Q2 Earnings Beat: Should You Buy? Adobe Systems ADBE reported second quarter earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday. The company was able to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by five cents a share with a reported $1.83 EPS, up 10.2% from the same quarter the previous year. This EPS surprise of +2.81% sent shares up over 4% after market close. In addition, Adobe reported quarterly revenue of $2.74 billion that was also able to beat our consensus estimate. The company’s digital media segment rose 22% to $1.89 million. Adobe was, in part, able to achieve this strong quarterly report after switching their company focus to the fast-growing cloud business. Adobe posted a cloud subscription increase of 27.7% bringing in revenue of $2.46 billion. However, Adobe faces some fierce competition in this market from tech giants like Microsoft MSFT, Oracle ORCL, and Salesforce.com CRM. In March, Adobe partnered with Microsoft in an attempt to boost its marketing software capabilities. The strong quarter comes as the company is up over 27% year-to-date, outperforming the broader software market. Going Forward Despite a strong outing for the quarter, the company’s revenue guidance for next quarter was a bit under what analysts were looking for. Adobe is expecting earnings of $1.95 per share with revenue of $2.80 billion, which was lower than what analysts polled by Refinitiv expected. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen stated in a conference call that the software company picked up some new business from Amazon AMZN. Narayen also said that they would continue their first half momentum into the second half of the year. Adobe’s shift to cloud-based subscriptions brings in a more predictable revenue stream for the company; it allows the company to sell their software through web-based subscriptions instead of selling through packaged licensed software. With the way modern markets have switched to digital sales, this adjustment could prove to further the company’s development within a constantly changing industry. Bottom Line Adobe is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The stock has a Style Score of F, as it is currently trading at 35X its forward earnings, which is above the industry average. The stock’s P/CF (price-to-cash-flow) of 43.5 also indicates the company is currently trading at a much higher price than the rest of its industry peers. On the other hand, Adobe has a Style Score of B in Growth. According to Zacks Estimates, Adobe has projected EPS growth of 15.59% as well as a projected sales growth of 23.45% for the current fiscal year. Both metrics surpass industry averages, distinguishing the stock as a true growth prospect within the industry. Adobe can also attract momentum seeking investors, as the stock is currently listed with a Zacks Style Score of A for Momentum. The software stock has a 12-week price change of +4.21% and has gone up over 5% today setting a new 52 week high. The company’s 20-day average volume is over 2 million, and its recent quarterly success are more than enough to cater to momentum-based investors. If investors can look past the company’s current inflated valuation, then there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel for Adobe. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated+98%,+119%and+164%gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportAmazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMicrosoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Reportsalesforce.com, inc. (CRM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportOracle Corporation (ORCL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
5 Must-See Announcements From Shopify's Unite Conference On Wednesday,Shopify(NYSE: SHOP), the leading provider of e-commerce tools for businesses of all sizes, hosted Shopify Unite, the annual conference that brings together its global partner and developer community. At the yearly event, Shopify provided a laundry list of updates regarding platform additions and enhancements designed to give merchants the tools they need to build and manage an online business. Investors got a boost of confidence from these developments, driving the stock up more than 7% in the wake of the announcements. Let's take a look at some of the most noteworthy revelations and how they're positioning Shopify -- and its merchants -- for the future. Image source: Shopify. Taking a page fromAmazon.com, the master of e-commerce, the company debuted the Shopify Fulfillment Network, "a new way to get orders to your customers quickly and easily." Qualifying merchants in the U.S. will be eligible to apply for early access to the program, which offers a dedicated network of fulfillment centers and smart inventory-allocation technology. The system, which is powered by artificial intelligence (AI), helps determine the closest fulfillment center and optimal level of inventory at each location to help ensure both fast and low-cost delivery. By offering a solution that not only lowers delivery costs but accelerates shipments, Shopify is providing services that are typically reserved for larger, more established merchants -- and making its services stickier in the process. After initially focusing on small- and medium-sized merchants, Shopify realized that some of its more established sellers were outgrowing its services. The company developed its Shopify Plus platform to cater to the unique needs of enterprise level e-commerce merchants, who can operate dozens of stores across a multitude of geographies. Shopify has overhauled its Shopify Plus platform to offer a centralized view that aggregates data from multiple locations. The system also allows enhanced user control and permissions for businesses with multiple users, while allowing them to add new stores to the system quickly and easily. The company also expanded the capability of Shopify Flow, an integration tool that helps simplify workflows by connecting applications and automating repetitive tasks. The more robust Shopify Plus platform will be available later this year. Enterprise is a fast-growing opportunity for the company. Inthe first quarter, Shopify Plus merchants contributed 26% of the company's monthly recurring revenue, up from 22% in the prior-year quarter, and now accounts for 8% of Shopify's subscription-solutions revenue. Image source: Shopify. The merchant of today exists across a variety of sales platforms, selling in both brick-and-mortar and online stores. In order to cater to the needs of both facets of a growing business, Shopify is adding to the existing capabilities of its point-of-sale (POS) software. The latest iteration is designed to simplify the checkout experience by "creating new customer profiles, sorting collection lists, finding top products, and checking out." The system also allows store managers to set individual permissions for store employees, giving each a unique login and level of access that can be accessed from any store during any shift. The system can also be customized to integrate with customer loyalty and rewards programs and promotions. Merchants that deal with international and cross border sales face a host of unique challenges, including language and currency issues. Shopify has been making significant investments in recent months to localize its platform in a variety of global markets. That trend continued this week, with the addition of 11 new languages to the Shopify platform -- on top of the six that were added last year. The platform also permits international merchants to sell products in multiple currencies while getting paid in the currency of their choosing. The system automatically updates product prices based on current exchange rates so customers get the most up-to-date information. Shopify is also providing a Translations feature that can be used on buyer-facing content, product descriptions, and blog posts. The ability to offer a customized experience to shoppers is one of the hallmarks of e-commerce, and this fact hasn't been lost on Shopify. The company introduced tools that allow merchants to customize the look and feel of any page in their online store quickly and easily, without having to rewrite the computer code. In addition to these improved editing tools, Shopify is adding new, more robust customer-engagement features, like the ability to display products using video, 3D, and augmented reality, all within the Shopify platform. E-commerce is the wave of the future, and businesses that don't adopt and embrace this reality will surely be left behind. Shopify's bread and butter is providing merchants with the tools they need to succeed. Each of the announcements highlighted above shows the lengths to which Shopify is going to empower their merchants and help them to prosper. In the end, it will be Shopify -- and its investors -- that will reap the rewards. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Danny Venaowns shares of Amazon and Shopify. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Shopify. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
'Where is the CEO?' Google's founder skips shareholder meeting amid protests Alphabet's annual shareholder meeting concluded with predictable results: every shareholder proposal was voted down despite protesting workers and increasingly pointed criticism. At Google parent company Alphabet's annual meeting Wednesday, shareholders advocated for a number of proposals meant to address numerous issues at the company, from sexual harassment and diversity, to the company's policies regarding China and forced arbitration. As with Facebook'srecent shareholder meeting, there was also a proposal to limit Alphabet's power by breaking up the company. And, as with Facebook, these shareholder proposals had no chance of passing since Google's two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, control a majority of the most powerful shares.Read more... More aboutTech,Google,Big Tech Companies,Tech, andBig Tech Companies
U2 guitarist won't get to build mansions on Malibu hillside MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — A plan by U2 guitarist The Edge to build a cluster of mansions on a ridgeline above Malibu appears to be dead after California's highest court declined to consider his last-ditch appeal. The musician, whose real name is David Evans, staged a 14-year legal fight to build five large, eco-friendly homes dubbed Leaves in the Wind in an undeveloped section of the Santa Monica Mountains west of Los Angeles. The state Supreme Court decided last week not to review a lower court ruling, which denied approval to build on the land after the Sierra Club sued to block construction. The lower court said the California Coastal Commission improperly granted Evans' 2015 permit. The compound's green pitch didn't get very far with neighboring residents and environmental groups, which raised concerns about biological and visual effects in such sensitive habitat. Sierra Club lawyer Dean Wallraff said Wednesday that the $100 million development would have been a "scar" on an untouched hillside. Evans' representatives didn't respond to requests for comment. If Evans wants to pursue the building process again, he has to start at the beginning by reapplying to the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning.
Bank of America CEO: ‘We Want a Cashless Society’ Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan kicked off Fortune’s inaugural Brainstorm Finance conference in Montauk, N.Y., on Wednesday by discussing the tech-driven strides made by one of the country’s largest financial institutions. Speaking withFortuneeditor-at-large Shawn Tully, Moynihan touched on BoA’s embrace of artificial intelligence-driven technology via applications like Erica, a voice-activated virtual assistant used by 7 million customers. By his estimation, the financial institution has “probably spent $30 billion on code” over the past eight years to develop and improve its technological infrastructure. With 27 million mobile customers, 37 million digital customers, and more than half of its transactions already “digitized” via methods like payments application Zelle, Moynihan said the banking industry “will continue to move” toward a digital, tech-enabled models—which, as he noted, are cheaper and more efficient than traditional methods. “If you think about the major types of technology that people talk about—voice recognition, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics—all of those apply to our industry,” he said. “That’s how we reduce the size of our company, [by] applying technology across all procedures.” Moynihan added that heightened importance of, and reliance on, technology has “changed the way money works,” not only improving the customer experience but also allowing banks to cut billions of dollars of costs. In that respect, the shift to a “cashless society” is one thatBank of Americais embracing. “We want a cashless society,” he said. “We have more to gain than anybody from a pure operating costs [perspective].” While 75% of Bank of America deposits are no longer made through the bank’s branches, BoA still operates 4,300 physical locations frequented by 800,000 people daily—and Moynihan cited the importance of addressing the needs of all of its customers, from Gen Z to baby boomers. “We have to drive down both avenues at once and build products and services that appeal to the entire customer base,” he said. Moynihan also touched on the challenges of keeping customers within the “tent” of traditional banking at a time when the financial services industry is more fragmented than ever, with myriad non-bank entities taking a growing piece of services ranging from personal checking to mortgage lending. In that regard, he noted the importance of ensuring that rules and regulations apply to all players in the interest of a level playing field as well as “customer protection.” “If it’s a deposit, it’s a deposit; if it’s a loan, it’s a loan,” Moynihan said. “The [banking] industry believes that people have to be governed by the same rules…Half of the mortgage business is done outside of banks today. You’d rather everyone had a common set of rules.” —A red flag to investors: The stock market may behitting the “triple top” —TheRenault deal is dead, but Fiat Chrysler still needs a partner —Many economists thinkthe next recessionwill be before the 2020 election —TheS&P 500 has performed far worseunder Trump than Obama —Listen to our new audio briefing,Fortune500 Daily Don’t miss the dailyTerm Sheet,Fortune‘s newsletter on deals and dealmakers.
The Fed Gave the Stock Market What It Expected, but Not What President Trump Wanted The Federal Open Market Committee did not cut interest rates today as the President has repeatedly demanded, but it did open the door for the possibility in the near future. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the risks the committee saw to the economy had strengthened the case for "more accommodation," citing trade developments and concerns about global growth. The market is now expecting a near 100 percent chance of a rate cut next month, based on the prices of Fed Funds futures contracts. The stock market got a small pop from the Fed's statement mid-afternoon and held on to the gains. The Dow and S&P 500 indexes were up 0.15 percent and 0.3 percent respectively while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.42 percent. TheEntrepreneur Index™closed the day up 0.56 percent. ENTREPRENEUR Quotesby TradingView Adobe Inc. was the standout on the index today, jumping 5.21 percent after reporting strong financial results. The software maker had quarterly revenue growth of 25 percent over the same period last year and beat earnings estimates by five cents per share. Investors overlooked slightly lower forward guidance than Wall Street estimates. The stock is up 28.7 percent this year. The rest of thetechnologysector was mixed.Netflix(1.79 percent) andsalesforce.com(2.36 percent) had good gains while social media giantsTwitterandFacebookwere down 0.98 percent and 0.53 percent respectively.TripAdvisor Inc.(1.9 percent) andAkamai Technologies(1.71 percent) were up nicely whileCognizant Technologyfell 1.74 percent. Related:Investors Optimistic for President Trump and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping's Meeting Next Week Gains were relatively modest outside the tech sector.L Brands, down 9.3 percent this year, was up 1.84 percent today. Fellow apparel-makersUnder Armour Inc.(-1.14 percent) andRalph Lauren Corp.(-0.64 percent) were both down on the day. Other gains included medical products makerBoston Scientific Corp.(1.76 percent), business services firmCintas Corp.(1.58 percent) and whiskey-makerBrown-Forman Corp. (1.46 percent). Losses on the index were also generally modest. HomebuilderD.R. Horton Inc.had the biggest decline, falling 2.16 percent. Homebuilder stocks as a group were down sharply prior to the Fed announcement and ticked up only mildly after it. O'Reilly Automotive Inc. was also down 1.65 percent. Other losses on the index includedCapital One FinancialandFord Motor Co., down 0.89 percent and 0.59 percent respectively. TheEntrepreneur Index™collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance, no matter how much a company has grown. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time onEntrepreneur.com.
Tala CEO: How Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Can Help Companies Scale Facebook’s ambitious plan to release its own cryptocurrencydubbed Librahas been met with an avalanche of concern from regulators worldwide. House Financial Services Chairwoman and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.) called for Facebookfbto pause work on Project Libra, which is slated for release next year, for further regulatory scrutiny. Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament warned the social media giant could turn into a shadow bank. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney noted that if it takes off, “it will have to be subject to the highest standard of regulation.” But the CEO of Tala, a mobile lending company that focuses on the under- and unbanked around the world, sees a more optimistic possibility. “The promise of it is exciting. What it could do for a company like ours is it could accelerate our ability to go horizontally very quickly,” Tala CEO Shivani Siroya said at theFortuneBrainstorm Financeconference in Montauk, N.Y. on Wednesday. “Right now when going into a new country, we are having to build all our own connections.” Tala offers loans as little as $10 to the unbanked and underbanked populations. Thus these lines of credit go to consumers in Kenya, Tanzania, Philippines, Mexico, and India. And each country has different regulatory requirements—making it harder for companies to port platforms internationally. Through Project Libra, Facebook plans to release the new cryptocurrency to its billions of users on platforms including Messenger and Instagram. This new borderless virtual currency could then be transacted not only within the app, but also with the partners on the project, such as Uber and Spotify. And similar to Siroya, Project Libra’s plan it to reach some 1.7 billion people worldwidewho cannot access banks,and may also see an opportunity to cheapen cross-border money transfers. “What would be interesting for us is to see how they can execute on it, with managing regulators and intra-country regulation,” said Grab Financial Managing Director, Reuben Lai. “At Grab, that is the problem we are trying to solve. How can we move money across borders in the most seamlessly and the cheapest way possible. We could do that using crypto, or we could do that with our own closed system and integrating with multiple providers that offer the same functionality.” Already, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is already being used by many low-income users as part of the remittances process, Libra Association’s Head of Policy Dante Disparte toldFortunein a recent interview—which could make Libra a natural fit. “I never understood why they didn’t do it before,” says Softbank Partner Paulo Passoni of Libra, adding the caveat that he’s still getting his head around the project.”If you go to Latin America, every person there uses WhatsApp thirty times a day. Everything is on WhatsApp. I never understood why they didn’t monetize that.” —Brainstorm Finance 2019: Watch the livestreamof the inaugural conference —Bank of America CEO: “We want acashless society” —Western Union and Zelle dishon the competition and talk mobile payments —Charles Schwab CEO: Actually, we’rekilling it with millennials —Listen to our new audio briefing,Fortune500 Daily Sign up forThe Ledger, a weekly newsletter on the intersection of technology and finance.
Singer Heidi Merrill claims Carrie Underwood stole NFL anthem 'Game On' Carrie Underwood has been accused of plagiarizing , and is facing a lawsuit from singer Heidi Merrill that claims the American Idol winner’s song “Game On” was straight up lifted from a similar song by Merrill — and even has the exact same name. Merrill, a Nebraska native, rose to internet fame in 2015 with her song “Cornhusker Strong,” a sports anthem that raised her profile. Two years later, she tried to increase her brand by putting the song and video for “Game On” on YouTube. Merrill, who is now living in Southern California as she pursues her music career, claims that in August 2017, nearly six months after she posted the “Game On” video online, she met with Mark Bright, one of Underwood’s producers. The two chatted at a Nashville event, where Merrill is alleged to have asked Bright if Underwood would be interested in a new song for the 2018 season of Sunday Night Football , which Underwood has performed for since 2013. Merrill says she sent “Game On” to Bright, but he passed. However, just over a year later, Underwood debuted her own song, also called “Game On,” on the NFL broadcast. Merrill’s plagiarism suit names not only Underwood and Bright, but also the NFL and NBC, the broadcaster of Sunday Night Football . Also named as co-defendants are music publishers Sony Corp. and Warner Music Group. Merrill’s suit says that Underwood’s “Game On” is “substantially — even strikingly — similar, if not identical” to her 2017 song of the same name. Lawyer Tim Foster, on behalf of Merrill and her song’s co-writers, said that his team attempted to reach out to Underwood’s camp to resolve the situation but were summarily rebuffed. “Ms. Underwood recorded a song that was substantially similar to the original song submitted through her producer, without giving credit or compensation of any kind to the original songwriters,” Foster told Reuters . “We assume that there will be significant damages.” The case, Merrill et al v. Underwood et al , was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Story continues So far, Underwood’s camp has not commented on the situation. Underwood has previously been accused of lifting work from other songwriters. Songwriters Ron McNeill and Georgia Lyons filed a lawsuit alleging that Underwood failed to give them writing credit on her hit “Something in the Water.” Similarly to the “Game On” situation, McNeill and Lyons allege that they got the song to Underwood’s people through a proxy in Nashville. And in 2016, Underwood and fellow country artist Brad Paisley were sued by songwriter Amy Bowen, who claimed that Paisley’s duet with Underwood, “Remind Me,” featured elements purloined from a song of the same name that Bowen had written. The case was resolved in Paisley and Underwood’s favor, with the former even mocking his accusers in his song “High Life” from his 2014 album, Moonshine in the Trunk . According to Forbes , Underwood has sold more records than any other winner of American Idol , with over 15 million records to her credit. Read more on Yahoo Entertainment: Happiness begins: Jonas Brothers give recovering addict Able Heart his big break on 'Songland' Maren Morris says she lost 5,000 social media followers after sharing photo of Parkland shooting survivor: 'Not many country artists speak up' Make Keanu Reeves Time's Person of the Year, fans demand Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle’s newsletter.
Gold Price Prediction – Gold Breaks Out Following Decision Gold prices broke out as US yields slipped lower following the Fed’s decision to keep rates unchanged, and a downward revisions to future rates. The Fed’s average dot plot, which is graph of future interest rate levels, dropped significantly, as Fed governors readjusted their thinking. The new projections now show 1-fed officials seeing at leave 25-basis points by the end of the year and 7, that see rates lower by 50-basis points. Eight fed governors see rates unchanged through the balance of the year. The decision allowed the dollar to ease paving the way for lower gold prices. Gold prices broke out hitting fresh 18-months highs and closing near 1,359. Support is seen near the former break out level at 1,346. Resistance is seen near the 1,370-1,375 region and then 1,392, and up to 1,423. Short term momentum has turned positive as the fast stochastic generated a crossover buy signal. The current reading on the fast stochastic is 86, above the overbought trigger level of 80, which could foreshadow a correction. The RSI (relative strength index) which is a momentum oscillator also broke out which reflects accelerating positive momentum. The current reading on the RSI is 75, above the overbought trigger level of 70, which could foreshadow a correction. The MACD histogram is printing in the black with an upward sloping trajectory which points to higher prices. The Fed left rates unchanged as expected. What was unexpected was that eight FOMC members now see rate cuts this year as appropriate versus none in March.  That number rises to nine in 2020.  The end-2019 median Fed Funds remains at 2.375%, but the end-2020 median dropped to 2.125% down 50-basis points from March.  The Fed tweaked its economic forecasts raising GDP slightly to 2.1% and then declining to 2%, which is higher than the 1.9% increase they say in March. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets explode to the upside • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Surge and Continue to Break Out Reaching 5-year Highs • U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – June 20, 2019 Forecast • Soybeans on Recovery Mode, Coffee Performs its First Positive Day in June • Gold to Highs Since 2013 on Fed, 100% of Probabilities of a Rate Cut in July • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar falls
PGA Tour signs umbrella sponsor deal for developmental tour PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The PGA Tour has signed a 10-year umbrella sponsorship deal for its developmental tour that provides the best path to the big leagues. Los Angeles-based Korn Ferry takes over immediately from Web.com. The Korn Ferry Tour is the seventh name of the tour since it began in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour. What doesn't change is the top 25 players from a regular season points list, and 25 players from a three-tournament postseason series, earn PGA Tour cards. The postseason series is now called the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and Korn Ferry has agreed to be title sponsor of the final event in Indiana. The developmental tour has produced alumni such as Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Bubba Watson and Zach Johnson.
Boeing Foresees $2.5T Defense Market Opportunities til 2028 The Boeing CompanyBA recently revealed its market outlook (BMO) that forecasted $2.5 trillion of defense and space opportunities through 2028. The current forecast has been made keeping in mind the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts in modernizing various military platforms and systems, inventing and adapting to military platforms and systems, and accelerating new exploration opportunities within the defense space.Recent Budget Proposal to Aid Defense MarketIn March 2019, the U.S. government proposed its fiscal 2020 defense budget, under which the Department of Defense would receive $718 billion, reflecting a 4.9% increase from the prior year. Boeing itself could be a significant beneficiary, as the proposed budget includes a spending plan of $57.7 billion on military aircraft, reflecting a 166% surge from the approved fiscal 2019 defense spending.If approved, this increased spending provision will surely boost the aerospace and defense market across the United States, as it would usher in more contracts for the nation’s major defense companies.Expected Rise in Foreign Military SalesIncreasing geo-political tensions across the globe have prompted nations to strengthen their defense systems manifold. Evidently, in the recent past, there has been a rise in demand for missile defense systems, fighter jets, autonomous systems, satellites, spacecraft and other critical defense products. Such steady rise in the global demand will lead to an increase in the foreign military sales of U.S.-based defense companies alongside improving inter-personal relationship among nations.Mergers and Acquisitions to Boost IndustryIn recent times, rising focus on cost-reduction initiatives, widespread competition and increased control over production procedures have prompted defense industry giants to engage in mergers and acquisitions. Moreover, the current U.S. administration has been increasing the defense budget over the past couple of years, which has enticed defense companies to strengthen product portfolio through mergers and acquisitions.Raytheon Company’s RTN latest all-stock merger deal with multinational conglomerate United Technologies Corp. UTX is expected to create an entity worth $121 billion. Also, Harris Corporation and L3 Technologies LLL are expected to combine in Merger of Equals, which will be one of the biggest defense mergers in recent years. Such consolidations by leading industry players should improve economies of scale for the aerospace-defense industry as a whole.Price Movement In a year’s time, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 9.3% compared with the industry’s 6.2% growth. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated +98%, +119% and +164% gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportThe Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportUnited Technologies Corporation (UTX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportL3 Technologies Inc. (LLL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportRaytheon Company (RTN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
NYSE sets Slack reference price at $26.00 per share The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesdayset a reference pricefor shares of Slack (WORK) at $26.00 each. Slack, a workplace messagingsoftware company, is set to go public on the NYSE Thursday under the ticker “WORK” by way of a direct listing. In a direct listing, existing shares owned by employees and other private investors are converted into publicly tradeable securities and sold to the public. Unlike an initial public offering, a direct listing does not include underwriters or the issuance of new equity. [Read more:What to know about Slack’s direct listing] The reference price is not a share offering price. It’s also not the opening public price for shares of Slack. Instead, it is a point of reference for investors as they put in orders for the stock. Slack’s opening share price will be determined in a price discovery process similar to that of a regular-way IPO. Buy and sell orders will be collected from broker-dealers starting at 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday, according to the NYSE. Throughout the process, a designated market maker will put out indications on the floor of the stock exchange showing a range in which the stock could hypothetically open at a given time. Once the market maker and Slack’s financial advisers feel the price discovery process has played itself out, new orders will be halted, the first cross will be executed and trading will continue for the newly public stock. Shares of Slack traded in a range of between $21.00 per share and $31.50 per share in private transactions during the period of February 1 through May 30, the companysaid in its prospectus.The companyannouncedthat as of June 18, there were 194 million shares of Class A common stock available for trading Thursday. Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Allen & Co. are advisers for Slack’s direct listing.— Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck Read more from Emily: • Don’t say ‘IPO’: What to know about Slack’s direct listing • Buffett on the American economy, capitalism: ‘It works’ • Tech companies like Lyft want your money – not ‘your opinion’ • Levi Strauss shares jump more than 30% above IPO price at open • Facebook sued by Trump administration for alleged ‘discriminatory’ ad practices • Boeing 737 Max groundings ‘pressure’ U.S. economic data: Wells Fargo Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn, andreddit.
RPT-Sierra Leone president opens bids for 7 km airport bridge (Adds reporting credit at bottom of story, no other changes) FREETOWN, June 19 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's president opened a tender process on Wednesday for building a 7 km bridge at a cost of up to $2 billion to link Freetown to the country's only international airport. Freetown International Airport at Lungi is currently accessible only by boat or helicopter, separated from the capital by the nearly five km (three mile) wide mouth of the Rokel river. "I will closely superintend the entire process and ensure that every tender is compliant and every tender is in the best long-term interest of Sierra Leone," President Julius Maada Bio said in a Wednesday speech at State House. Sierra Leone officials have previously estimated the Lungi bridge could cost anywhere between $1.3 billion and $2 billion. James Turner, an official from Sierra Leone's transportation ministry, told Reuters the project would take between four and five years to complete, and would likely be financed through a public-private partnership scheme, such as a toll gate. Bio first proposed the bridge project to the state-funded Chinese firm Power China International during a visit to Beijing last September. A month later, he axed a plan of his predecessor's to build a new $400 million airport closer to the capital with Chinese labour and loans. (Reporting by Cooper Inveen Editing by Tim Cocks and David Evans)
FDA Says It Will Evaluate Cannabis Scientifically The Food and Drug Administration says it knows there’s demand for cannabis products, but says it's taking a “science-based” approach to determine their safety and efficacy as it considers how to handle their legality. What To Know The FDA recently opened a public docket on cannabis and cannabis-infused products and held itsfirst-ever hearingsas it starts the process of figuring out if, and what, it will regulate in the cannabis space. In a message posted on theFDA website, the agency signaled an open-mindedness to the potentially beneficial effects of cannabis and cannabis-derived substances. Cannabidiol, or CBD, is the principal ingredient in one FDA-approved drug, seizure drugEpidiolex, already. But the agency urged the public to understand its interest in analyzing evidence. “We recognize that there is significant public interest in these products, for therapeutic purposes and otherwise,” the FDA said. “At the same time, there are many unanswered questions about the science, safety, and quality of many of these products. As we approach these questions, we do so as a science-based regulatory agency committed to our mission of protecting and promoting public health.” Need more cannabis news?Check out all of our coveragehere. What's Next Among the potential issues the FDA wants to know more about is whether cannabis causes liver problems. The agency is also interested in whether cannabis-derived substances can be beneficial in veterinary medicine. But the FDA also signaled its clear understanding that many in the health community think the plant may have therapeutic value. “It is critical that we continue to do what we can to support the science needed to develop new drugs from cannabis,” the FDA said. The FDA is currently reviewing written comments submitted to the public docket which is open until July 16. While the FDA has approvedGW Pharmaceuticals'(NASDAQ"GWPH) Epidiolex, the agency looks at substances on two parallel tracks – one for drugs and one for food and dietary supplements. Currently, it is illegal to sell foods to which CBD has been added, or to market it as a supplement. The FDA memo also said it's serious about its consideration of CBD in food and other non-drug products. “The Agency is committed to science-based decision making when it comes to CBD, while also taking steps to consider if there are appropriate regulatory pathways for the lawful marketing of CBD, outside of the drug setting,” the FDA said. Related Links FDA To Hold CBD Hearing Friday: What You Should Know Stakeholders Await The FDA's First Public Hearing About Cannabis And CBD See more from Benzinga • Lamb Weston Analyst: Potato Bearishness Is Half-Baked • National Beverage Trades Lower As Company Faces More Questions Over LaCroix Ingredients • Goldman Turns Bearish on Airline Vendor Sabre © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Alphabet Executives Confronted By Frustrated Employees at Shareholder Meeting Employees ofGoogleparent Alphabet went to the unusual length of grilling their bosses about several hot-button issues during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The employees—upset about how the company deals with sexual harassment, its employment practices, and its development of a censored search engine for China—risked their jobs to tell Alphabet leadership that they wanted change and transparency. The meeting, hosted in Sunnyvale, Calif., further demonstrated a recentcultural shift in Silicon Valleyin which employees feel more empowered to speak out against their employers. “We see these problems because we live them,” a Google employee, who identified herself as Marie, told the corporate leadership lined up on stage. “We are already organizing with or without you.” But despite the concerns, all 14 items proposed by shareholders—most of which aimed to increase Alphabet’s accountability, equality, and transparency—were rejected. The results came as no surprise, given that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin control the majority of voting power. And the fact that Page, who is Alphabet’s CEO, did not attend the meeting upset several people present. In fact, he’s rarely seen in public these days and is referred to as a Silicon Valley’s recluse CEO. “Year after year, there’s no CEO here,” said a shareholder who did not identify himself at the meeting. “That we can’t address him once a year—I think that’s disgraceful.” Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat, and Google’s vice president Kent Walker did attend the meeting. In addition to fielding the usual questions about Alphabet’s business and innovations like self-driving cars, they got an earful from Google employees who wanted their voices to be heard. Max Kapczynski, an employee at Alphabet’s life sciences arm Verily, spoke to support a proposal that would require Google to end allegedly unfair employment practices, like forced arbitration for Alphabet employees who don’t work in the Google division. He wants Alphabet to maintain the same standards across all of its various business units. “Coming here today wasn’t easy,” said Kapczynski. “As an at-will employee I can be let go at any time for any reason or for no reason at all. “I’m here today to add my voice to the growing number of workers shareholders and community members demanding that Google do better.” Some Google workers have previously accused the company of retaliating against vocal employees. For example, Google employees Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton recently claimed that Google tried to demote them after they organized a walkout to protest how the company handled sexual harassment. Regardless of the potential ramifications of speaking out, Marie, one of the employees at the shareholder meeting, said workers would continue to do so until the company makes critical changes. “If I’m not longer employed here in a year, five others will be here to fill this spot,” she told the corporate leaders. “What more will it take for you to decide to accept our experience and our offering to help and start fixing these problems with us?” —Phishing hackers can nowbypass two-factor authentication —Apple’s sign-in featureis a “shot across the bow” at tech giant rivals —Uber’s CEO hasabsorbed the COO rolefor more control —Google is changing its search results.Here’s what to expect —Listen to our new audio briefing,Fortune500 Daily Catch up withData Sheet,Fortune‘s daily digest on the business of tech.
Got an IRS Notice? Don't Panic You submitted yourtax returnback in April and thought you were done with all things IRS-related until the following tax season. But what happens when you get a notice from the IRS in the mail? Your initial reaction may be to panic, but don't. Chances are, the IRS simply has an adjustment to your tax return, and addressing it as soon as possible is the easiest way to avoid unwanted trouble with the agency. Often, the IRS will reach out to taxpayers on an individual basis when the information it has on record doesn't match certain details of their return. It's known as a CP 2000 notice, and you can get one in the mail several weeks or several months after submitting your taxes. A CP 2000 will generally propose a monetary adjustment to your tax return based on the information the IRS has on file. If you don't agree with that adjustment, you can respond and supply proof backing up your claim. If you do agree with the number the IRS is proposing, you'll need to sign that letter and submit whatever underpayment results from it. Unfortunately, you may be liable for interest and penalties in the event of an underpayment, as would be the case if you failed to pay your initial tax bill in full. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Why might you receive a CP 2000? For example, if the IRS has information on file that contradicts what you included on your tax return, it will send you a notice. For example, if you failed to report interest income from your bank, but the IRS gets a1099 formfrom that institution stating that you received $200 in interest, it will effectively ask you if the bank is correct. And if not, you'll need to offer proof to the contrary. Keep in mind that it's important to respond to your IRS notice within the appropriate time frame -- usually 30 days from the date of the notice itself. If you're not sure how to respond, and the adjustment in question is substantial, contact your tax preparer, or find yourself a tax professional if you didn't use one initially. When you receive a CP 2000 notice, you might assume that it's the IRS's way of telling you you're beingaudited. But actually, that notice isn't a formal audit notification. All it's doing is proposing a different tax liability than the one you initially presented. Going back to the above example, let's say you simply forgot to indicate that you received $200 in interest from your bank. If the IRS picks up on that error, and you agree to pay the tax difference, the agency should have no reason to audit you unless it spots something else suspicious on your return. Finally, keep in mind that a CP 2000 adjustment can actually work out in your favor if the IRS sees that you overpaid your taxes, so don't flip out if you wind up with a letter in the mail, because there's a chance it'll save you some money in the end. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Here's Why You Should Hold AvalonBay (AVB) Stock Right Now Residential REITAvalonBay Communities Inc.AVB is expected to benefit from its high-quality assets, located in some of the premium markets of the United States, favorable demographics, household formation, healthy economy and job-market growth.Particularly, high consumer confidence on the back of job growth and rising wages will likely spur demand for the company’s properties. In fact, the company’s same-store like-term rent change improved in the first quarter as well, led by its East coast markets. Moreover, AvalonBay’s current development activity is expected to contribute significantly to its net operating income growth.Moreover, demographic growth continues to be strong in the young-adult age cohort, which has a higher propensity to rent. In fact, a significant change in lifestyle has taken place and life-cycle events are getting delayed. This is leading to an extension of the average age of first-time homeownership. This age cohort has also experienced a considerable part of the net job growth and is helping grow primary renter demand. Household formation is also picking up pace, which is encouraging.Also, in the recently-issued operating update for the second quarter, AvalonBay mentioned that its total rental revenues for established communities were up 3.4% for the two-month period ending May 31, 2019. This is 40 basis points (bps) higher than what was expected by the company for the period, when it provided the 2019 established communities rental revenue growth outlook in February.Furthermore, the company noted that established communities’ like-term effective rent change for April and May were 3.2% compared to the 3% witnessed in the comparable period last year. Additionally, the company stated that the renewal offers for June and July are being provided to residents at an average rise of 5.3% over the existing lease.AvalonBay has a healthy balance sheet and ample liquidity to support its growth needs. The company has reduced near-term debt maturities and enhanced financial flexibility. As of Mar 31, 2019, AvalonBay did not have any borrowings outstanding under its $1.75-billion unsecured credit facility. The company had around $195.2 million in unrestricted cash and cash in escrow as of the same date.In addition, the company’s annualized net debt-to-core EBITDA for the January-March quarter was 4.6 times. Also, during the first quarter, the company sold 755,054 shares of common stock at average sales price of $198.26 per share, reaping net proceeds of $147.5 million under its current continuous equity program established in December 2015.However, new apartment deliveries are anticipated to remain elevated in a number of the company’s markets in the near-to-mid term. This high supply might put pressure on rental rates. Hence, growth in its stabilized portfolio is likely to remain modest in the upcoming period. Further, there is high concession activity amid higher supply which is a concern.In fact, not only AvalonBay, other residential REITS, like Equity Residential EQR, Essex Property Trust Inc. ESS and UDR Inc. UDR, have been plagued with elevated deliveries in their markets.AvalonBay currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The company’s shares have gained 19.9% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry’s growth of 20.3%.This Could Be the Fastest Way to Grow Wealth in 2019Research indicates one sector is poised to deliver a crop of the best-performing stocks you'll find anywhere in the market. Breaking news in this space frequently creates quick double- and triple-digit profit opportunities.These companies are changing the world – and owning their stocks could transform your portfolio in 2019 and beyond. Recent trades from this sector have generated +98%, +119% and +164% gains in as little as 1 month.Click here to see these breakthrough stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportAvalonBay Communities, Inc. (AVB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportUnited Dominion Realty Trust, Inc. (UDR) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEssex Property Trust, Inc. (ESS) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEquity Residential (EQR) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research
Watch Ta-Nehisi Coates school Mitch McConnell on American history The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on reparations for descendants of slaves today (June 19). The hearing was held on Juneteenth, the anniversary of the 1865 abolition of slavery. The proposal to pay reparations to the African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States is more than four decades old , but it has failed to gain substantial support and momentum in Congress. Chinese buyers are pulling out of New York real estate in droves The US government has supported and paid reparations on several occasions. It helped survivors of the Holocaust get compensation , for instance, and compensated the Japanese interned in concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. But when it comes to compensating African Americans, the list of objections is often long—from lack of financial feasibility to difficulty in determining who would be entitled to payments. Analyses have shown these concerns could be addressed, yet there has scarcely been any solid political will to push the issue forward. Ahead of the hearing, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell rejected the idea of reparations. “I don’t think reparations for some things that happened 150 years ago for which none of us currently living are responsible are a good idea,” he said. Facebook’s Libra isn’t the next bitcoin, but you can make money off it anyway Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer and intellectual who authored an in-depth feature on reparations in 2014 and spoke at the hearing, questioned McConnell’s statement. Coates said McConnell failed to acknowledge the contemporary ramifications that slavery and racism have on American society. And he pointed out the logical shortcoming of the argument that responsibility ends within ones lifetime, noting that the country honors and respects laws and treaties that were made long before anyone alive today. Finally, Coates noted that the US government continued to deny rights to African Americans long into McConnell’s own lifetime. Story continues Watch the full video here: Coates broke down the enormous financial value of slavery to the United States ($3 billion in 1860, or more than 90 billion in today’s dollars) and the direct link between slavery and the current conditions of black people in America: It is impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery. As historian Ed Baptist has written, enslavement “shaped every crucial aspect of the economy and politics of America,” so that by 1836, more than 600 million, or more than half of the economic activity in the United States, derived directly or indirectly from the cotton produced by the million-odd slaves. By the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America: 3 billion in 1860 dollars, more than all the other assets in the country combined. The method of cultivating this asset was neither gentle cajoling, nor persuasion, but torture, rape, and child trafficking. Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could have extended its hallowed principles: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all regardless of color. But America had other principles in mind. And so for a century after the Civil War, black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror. A campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell. […] [I]t was 150 years ago and it was right now. The typical black family in this country has one-tenth the wealth of the typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women, and there is of course the shame of this land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet, of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share. The author went on to explain why paying reparations isn’t just a matter of financial compensation, but an acknowledgement of the complexity of American history: The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct redress, but it is also a question of citizenship. In HR 40, this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism. To say that a nation is both its credits and its debts. That if Thomas Jefferson matters, so does Sally Hemings. That if D-Day matters, so does black Wall Street. That if Valley Forge matters, so does Fort Pillow. Because the question really is, not whether we will be tied to the “some things” of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: The underlying tension behind Ethiopia’s flawed federal system and its risks Indians can worry less as the US denies capping H-1B visa quota
Lower rates will 'squeeze' regional banks: Former BB&T CEO The financial sector (XLF) took a hit on Wednesday on worry over future profitability after the Federal Reserveraised concerns about the U.S. economyand signaled it is prepared to cut interest rates if necessary. John Allison, former CEO of BB&T, is warning rate cuts could have a negative impact on the banking sector, telling Yahoo Finance’s “The Ticker” that regional lenders (KRE) are at risk and not well-positioned. “I don’t think a quarter point move either way matters, but if you get a significant trend to lower rates, that will squeeze regional banks,” said Allison. An investor note by Bank of America Merrill Lynch published earlier this month echoed this sentiment. According to the bank, if the Fed were to lower rates by 75 basis points by early 2020, large-bank earnings could be impacted by an average of 10%, while profits at some regional banks could be reduced by more. KeyCorp (KEY) could see its earnings drop by 13% while M&T (MTB) could see a 14% decline. The reason behind the potential drop is that a cut in rates would reduce a bank’s net interest margins, and in turn weigh on profitability. “I think most regional banks will be better if rates don’t get cut a lot soon,” said Allison. “I think most of them are still squeezed in terms of their margin. The loan demand has still been moderate relative to the economic recovery. They’ve done a pretty good job and have been able to hold down their deposit rates but they’ve had more pressure on that — so I think regional banks would prefer for rates to remain flat or maybe even go up a little bit.” In terms of the Federal Reserve’s next move, the central bank said on Wednesday that is doesn’t expect to cut rates this year. However, it did forecast one rate cut for 2020. Seana Smith is the anchor for The Ticker. READ MORE: • US farmers face 'huge' impact from flooding • Auto-parts retailers are ‘best positioned’ for second half of 2019: Wedbush analyst • The US-China trade war is 'difficult to handicap' at this point • The best way to invest during the trade dispute: Annandale's George Seay • Escalating US-China trade tensions has ‘raised the stakes’ for both sides: Barclays Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,SmartNews,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit.