Pioneer Natural Resources signs deal to cut fracking sand costs by 50%
It’s always important to see who has the leverage–customers or suppliers–when costs start to rise. On the recent agreement between Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), perhaps the dominant oil shale producer in the Permian Basin, and fracking sand...
Is the next big tech stock thing, Chinese tech stocks?
There’s some evidence that the money that has left big U.S. tech stocks such as Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) on some recent days has been headed into big Chinese tech stocks such as Tencent Holdings (TCEHY), Alibaba (BABA),...
Do you have the patience for the Permian? Should you?
It hasn’t exactly been a great few months oil shale producers in the Permian Basin. Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), the biggest pure play on Permian oil, closed at $169.97 a share today, August 29, down from $212.31 a share on May 18. That’s a...
Randgold increases production, misses estimates on continued low price of gold
While I was on vacation I used the downtime to write posts on some of the earnings results that I missed during the very busy second quarter earnings season. This post was written on August 20 The relentless downward trend in the price of gold took a big bite out of...
Middleby bounces back strong, up 14%, on Q2 earnings report today
That’s better. Today, before the market opened in New York, Middleby (MIDD) reported second quarter earnings of $1.63 a share. That was 7 cents a share above Wall Street projections and 20.&% higher than the $1.35 a share reported for the second quarter of...
The two minor–but very important–flaws in Apple’s great quarter
If Apple (AAPL) hadn’t climbed to become the first $1 trillion company by market cap, these flaws probably wouldn’t be worth talking about. But when investors and traders have driven a stock’s valuation up to these levels–in clear anticipation...
Amazon to the earnings rescue after Facebook plunge
A day after Facebook (FB) told Wall Street analysts to expect slower growth for the rest of 2018 (and saw its stock plunge 18.96%) Amazon (AMZN) beat Wall Street earnings projections by a massive $2.58 a share, reporting earnings for the second quarter of $5.07 versus...
Facebook closes down 18.96% on the day
Golly gee, what could be the big story in the U.S. markets today? How about the rout in Facebook (FB) shares–down 18.96% or $41.24 to $176 at the close. That $112 billion dollar drop in the market value of Facebook gives the company the record for the largest...
PayPal marks eventful week ahead of Wednesday earnings
Shares of PayPal Holdings have soared ahead of Wednesday, July 25, earnings–and the move is actually on some news. Today, for example, peer to peer payment competitor Snapcash announced that it would shut down. That’s one less competitor in a brutally...
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference focuses on catching up and differentiation
The keynote that opened Apple’s (AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference (June 4 through 8) walked a tough balancing act between admitting that Apple needs to catch up with competitors in some areas (Poor Siri) and introducing stuff that will differentiate Apple from...
Putting gold back into the 50 Stocks Portfolio with Randgold Resources
My criteria for adding a gold stock to my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio have been reasonably consistent over the years: I’ve looked for a gold miner that was growing gold production and reducing production costs. Up until my latest revision of this portfolio in...
Amazon targets digital display ad market with new tool
OK, so even remembering that announcing a new technology product isn’t the same as actually putting a working product into the market (as Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) have proved over the years), but this announcement from Amazon (AMZN) is still a very big...
Ignore the short-term oil volatility and continue to hold Pioneer Natural Resources for the long-term story
So much near-term noise. Since Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) reported earnings on May 2–the company beat Wall Street estimates on earnings by 16 cents a share and reported revenue in-line with projections and up 56.5% year over year–there’s been...
Apple beats on earnings; iPhone sales of 52.2 million slightly below consensus of 52.3 million units
It wasn’t a big beat and iPhone sales weren’t wildly above consensus, but such was the fear and skepticism surrounding Apple (AAPL) that shares rose 3.61% in trading after the earnings announcement. The company reported earnings of $2.73 a share, five...
Israel’s Prime Minister announces major statement Monday night on Iranian nuclear program
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he will make a statement at 8 p.m. Tel Aviv time tonight on a “significant development” regarding the Iranian nuclear pact. (As best as I can do the conversions, 8 p.m. in Tel Aviv is 1 p.m. in New York.)...
Time to add China Southern Airlines to my 50 Stocks Portfolio
I’ve been looking to add shares of China Southern Airlines (ZNH) to my long-term 50 Stocks ever since I saw the newest list of the world’s 20 busiest airports from the Airports Council International on April 6. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson...
Did Intel and Amazon finally break the sell on earnings beat pattern today?
Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), and Microsoft (MSFT) all reported earnings after the close today. All three beat earnings estimates–but this market hasn’t been very generous in rewarding earnings surprises (after Netflix (NFLX)) that is. The key tests here...
Oil continues to move higher on Middle East fears
Oil futures in New York settled at their highest since December 2014. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate climbed 0.35% to close at $68.88 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.88% to $74.71 a barrel. The gains were unusual in that the U.S. dollar...
Siri hire from Google latest sign of Apple’s new aggressiveness
Yesterday Apple (AAPL) announced that it had hired John Giannandrea, the architect behind Google Assistant, to take its Siri digital assistant from disappointing to amazing again. (Or at least to make it a credible challenger to Amazon’s Alexa and Google...
What President Trump can actually do about Amazon–and what you should do about Amazon
Another day’s worth of tweets by President Donald Trump attacking Amazon (AMZN) and another day of losses for the stock. At 3 p.m. Monday New York time Amazon shares were down another 5.21% (in the midst of a meltdown in the technology sector, I’d note, so...
Little spillover (yet) from Concho acquisition of Permian producer RSPP
Today Concho Resources (CXO) announced the acquisition of RSP Permian (RSPP) to create the biggest oil and natural gas producer from the shales of the Permian Basin. The $9.5 billion all stock deal represents a 29% premium to the Tuesday close for RSP Permian. That...
Amazon tanks after report that President Trump wants to “go after” the company
Well, why not? Shares of Amazon (AMZN) were down as much as 7.4% after Axios reported that President Donald Trump is “obsessed” with regulating the company and has discussed changing the way the company collects (or doesn’t) sales tax. The stock...
Saudis push OPEC to go for $70 a barrel
The goal was to cut production enough to reduce global oil inventories to their five-year average. The hope of the coalition of OPEC and Russia that reduction in production would get oil prices up to $60 a barrel. Now with that inventory reduction just about in place...
China slides into correction too: Are Chinese stocks better buy on the dip candidates?
While our eyes have been glued to the volatility in U.S. markets, Chinese stocks have staged their own correction. The Shanghai Composite is down 12.1% from its high on January 24 to the low on Thursday, February 8. With the Lunar New Year and the week-long Spring...
Corning drops on accounting loss from tax cut bill
Shares of Corning (GLW) took a 5.61% hit Tuesday, January 30,as the company reported a huge quarterly loss of $1.66 a share–or $1.412 billion. But all that loss was due to a $1.8 billion accounting write down as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Excluding...
PayPal beats on earnings and revenue, but falls after hours on profit taking
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) reported fourth quarter earnings of 55 cents a share, 3 cents a share above Wall Street estimates, and revenue of $3.71 billion (on a foreign-exchange neutral basis) vs projections for $3.63 billion. Revenue climbed 24% year over year for the...
Two big deals for Tencent Holdings support valuation
First, on January 15, China’s Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) announced that it would partner with privately-owned Lego to develop a Lego streaming video zone for children on Tencent’s video platform and create Lego-branded games for Tencent’s gaming...
Turmoil isn’t done in lithium sector with volatility at SQM and ALB
The announcement of a deal between Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) and Chile’s development agency CORFO that resolves a long-standing dispute on royalty rates and that would allow SQM to expand lithium production from the brines at government-owned...
My long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio returned 28.10% in 2017, beating the S&P 500
Yep, it’s January. Time for reporting the performance of all my portfolios ranging from the oldest, the Jubak Picks (12-18 month holding period), to the Dividend Portfolio and the 50 Stocks (5 year holding period) to my one-year Volatility Portfolio and my...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
Every post from Jubak Picks straight to your mailbox. And they're free!