Some hope for the company but disappointingly familiar news for copper in Freeport-McMoRan earnings today
The story in Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s (FCX) third quarter earnings report today was better news for the company than it was for the copper market in particular or the global commodities sector in general. The company did miss Wall Street estimates on...
Big test for Apple–and much of the rest of the tech sector–tomorrow with earnings
Apple (AAPL) is set to report earnings for the quarter that ended on September 30 (fiscal fourth quarter earnings for Apple) tomorrow after the market’s close. The stakes are higher than usual. Wall Street is forecasting that iPhone sales will be just 45 million...
Qualcomm acquisition of NXP Semiconductor looks more likely
Both Bloomberg and CNBC are reporting that Qualcomm (QCOM) and NXP Semiconductor (NXPI) have agreed to a acquisition at a price of $110 for each share of NXP Semiconductors. That’s within the range that I flagged in my earlier post “Can Qualcomm steal NXP...
Itau Unibanco gains on interest rate cut but advance in Brazilian stocks is muted by arrest of another big-fish politico
Yesterday the Banco Central do Brasil reduced Brazil’s benchmark Selic interest rate for the first time in four years. The cut, 25 basis points to 14%, was less than the 50 basis points the market was hoping for. But the dream is that it will be just the first...
Abbott Labs acquisition candidate St. Jude has a battery problem
Back on September 20 I questioned whether management at Abbott Laboratories had the skills to execute a growth through acquisitions strategy. At the time the company was–and it still is–involved in a dispute with Allere (ALR) over whether that company had...
Verizon looking to claw back part of purchase offer on Yahoo
Update October 7, 2016. It’s easy to understand why Verizon (VZ) might feel worried about what it might find at Yahoo (YHOO) after a purchase. After all, in just the last two weeks, after the deal $4.8 billion deal was announced, Yahoo confirmed that it had been...
Qualcomm acquisition of NXP Semiconductor looks to be moving ahead
Talks between Qualcomm (QCOM) and NXP Semiconductor (NXPI) are showing significant progress, according to a Bloomberg. Reporting by Bloomberg indicates that Qualcomm is the only company in talks with NXP about an acquisition. That is no rival suitors have emerged so...
Seadrill gets a huge bounce on refinancing story
Update October 4. The New York traded ADRs of deep-water drilling specialist Seadrill (SDRL) are up huge this morning on reports that the company’s largest shareholder (at 23%), John Fredriksen, is willing to lend the rig company as much as $1.2 billion. The...
Can Qualcomm “steal” NXP Semiconductor?
Update October 3. Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that Qualcomm (QCOM) was in talks to buy NXP Semiconductor (NXPI) for somewhere around $30 billion or roughly $90 a share. On Friday Bloomberg reported that NXP had hired an investment bank for advice on any...
PepsiCo beats on third quarter earnings and ups guidance
PepsiCo (PEP) announced third quarter earnings of $1.40 a share, well above analyst estimates for earnings of $1.32. (That’s year over year earnings growth of 4%.)Revenue of $16 billion was down 1.9% year over year–although it would have been up 4.2%...
Buying opportunity to come? Chesapeake Energy tumbles on fears that Icahn will sell remaining stake
Update September 27, 2016 Earlier this month Carl Icahn cut his position in Chesapeake Energy (CHK) by more than half. Nothing to worry about for other shareholders, he said. The sale was for tax reasons. Well, today that “Move along. Nothing to see here”...
Brazil–and Itau Unibanco–is rallying big on hopes of an interest rate cut from the central bank
Update September 26, 2016 Could Brazil see the first interest rate cut since 2012 in October? With the Banco Central do Brasil’s benchmark Selic interest rate at 14.25% there’s certainly plenty of room. And even though the country’s politics are a...
Two acquisitions in a day: What is Allergan up to?
Update September 23, 2016 Allergan (AGN), which I added to my Jubak’s Picks portfolio on July 30, 2015 on the strength of its Botox franchise, acquired two companies on September 20. Neither is in the Botox or cosmetic drugs space. Both, in fact, are companies...
What oil glut? Pioneer announces that it will add 5 rigs, increasing production by 13% to 17%
Update September 22. At the Johnson Rice energy conference yesterday, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) announced that it plans to add 5 new horizontal drilling rigs to the 12 already at work on its leased acreage in the northern Spraberry/Wolfcamp area of the Permian...
Bristol-Myers gambled and lost on a quick expansion of cancer drug Opdivo’s market–but there’s still good upside in the shares
Update September 21. Let’s be clear about what happened to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and its key immuno-oncology drug Opdivo on Friday, August 8, when the company announced that Opdivo had failed to demonstrate its efficacy in a trial for treating lung cancer....
Looking for a tech stock for earnings season: Think Qualcomm
Update September 20, 2016 Going into the third quarter earnings season, Wall Street analysts had pegged the information technology sector of the Standard & Poor’s 500 as the only sector where estimates for the third quarter had climbed since June 30. That...
Abbott looks to acquire its way out of a growth slump
Where do you find growth in a low-growth economy? If Wall Street projections are correct, the about-to-close third quarter of 2016 will show a 2% year-over-year drop in earnings for the Standard & Poor’s 500 companies–the sixth consecutive quarterly...
Intel raises third quarter guidance; now up 94% since I added it to my Dividend portfolio
Update September 16, 2016 In new guidance today Intel raised its outlook for third quarter revenue to $15.6 billion, $300 million above previous guidance. The midpoint forecast for gross margin climbed to 63% versus the earlier midpoint forecast of 62%. None of this...
Navistar/Volkswagen hookup no big deal for Cummins
Update September 12. When on September 6 Volkswagen announced that it would take a 16.6% stake in Navistar International (NAV) for $256 million, it sent competitors in the truck market slipping lower. Shares of Cummins (CMI) fell 2.6% from September 8 to September 9...
Update Chesapeake Energy
Update September 6. Today shares of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) climbed 3.03% to close at $6.80 in the first post-Labor-Day trading session. The shares finished 24.8% ahead in August. Part of this was thanks to the market. A weaker than expected report on the...
Targa Resources can climb from here but the attraction is the 8% dividend
Last year prices for natural gas liquids fell even faster than oil prices did. Hard as that may be to believe. Which is why the price for shares of Targa Resources (TRGP) are down 23.16% for the last twelve months This year natural gas liquids have recovered faster...
Deere soars on big earnings beat from cost cutting
Update August 19, 2016. It’s not often that you’ll see a stock climb 13.49% on the day when the company announces that full year sales will fall 10%, worse than the 9% drop it had forecast earlier. But that’s the story today for Deere (DE.) The...
Time for me to stop fighting the Fed and its delays on raising interest rates, and sell Capital One
There’s really nothing wrong with the shares of Capital One Financial (COF) that a stronger U.S. economy, a more confident U.S.consumer, and an interest rate increase–or two–from the Federal Reserve wouldn’t fix. It’s just that I...
Trend toward tougher rules on emissions and fuel efficiency continues–with Cummins as a key beneficiary
Update August 17, 2016. New rules proposed by the Obama administration that would require up to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions from heavy-duty trucks over the next 10 years are good news in the long run for Cummins (CMI.) The proposed rules are 10% tougher than...
Xylem looks to buy some growth
Update August 15, 2016 Today, Xylem, a maker of wastewater and water treatment systems, and a member of my Jubak Picks portfolio since September 4, 2012, announced that it would acquire Sensus, a maker of smart meters for the utility market, for $1.7 billion. The...
Alibaba’s 59% increase in revenue puts growth worries to bed
Update: August 11, 2016. Okay, the top line numbers were impressive. Today Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) reported a 59% increase in revenue for its June quarter. But for the first time Alibaba provided segment details on its various businesses–due at least in...
Qualcomm: Now that’s a surprise
Update July 21. After the close of the market yesterday, July 20, Qualcomm (QCOM), the biggest maker of chips that run mobile phones, reported net income of 97 cent a share for the quarter that ended on June 26. That beat the 73 cents a share earned in June quarter of...
U.S. stocks pause ahead of earnings
Not terribly surprising that U.S. stocks are meandering in slightly negative territory today after busting out to new all-time highs. (The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was off 0.09% at the close in New York.) We’re about to head into the meat of...
Stocks break above all-time high but that doesn’t answer the growth question
In my Saturday Night quarterback post of July 9 on my subscription site JubakAM.com I wrote that the big question for the upcoming week was whether or not the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index would this week take out the all-time high near 2135 set in May 2015....Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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