Category: Stock Market

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2PAMJhv

(Bloomberg) — Former national security adviser Susan Rice, a Netflix director, sold some of her shares of the video streaming company worth $305,323 this week as speculation swirls that she is among the candidates to be Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate.A spokeswoman for Rice said the sale was unrelated to politics and was made under a stock trading plan she filed more than three months ago under Securities and Exchange Commission rules.“Ambassador Rice’s sale of a fraction of her Netflix stock has nothing to do with VP speculation,” Erin Pelton said.Rice, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is being vetted as a possible running mate for Biden. He’s expected to announce his choice next week.The share sales followed the exercise of options and were disclosed in an SEC filing Thursday night. Netflix stock has nearly doubled in the past year. Rice, who was named to the company’s board in 2018, exercised her options at $508.68. As a Netflix board member since 2018, Rice receives 125 stock options a month as part of her compensation package.Rice’s net worth was somewhere between $14.7 million and $28.5 million, according to a 2016 financial disclosure statement she made as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser. Those assets do not include her two homes, and her husband Ian Cameron’s inherited wealth could make their family’s assets significantly larger.(Updates with details in fifth paragaph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3kxVlnA

Does the July jobs report signal a V-shaped economic recovery? Special assistant to the president and NEC chief economist Joseph Lavorgna weighs in.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2PuLRLw

Nokia’s new chief executive Pekka Lundmark said he will take time to re-acquaint himself with the Finnish telecom equipment maker before setting a strategy, as the company jostles for position in the highly political 5G race. U.S. government pressure to limit the use of China’s Huawei [HWT.UL] presents an opportunity for Nokia as next generation technology is rolled out, but Lundmark would not be drawn. “Maintaining good relations with governments in pretty much all parts of the world is extremely important,” Lundmark said in a video interview with Reuters on Friday.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3gJJNve

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Firstly, we'll want to see a…

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/31yG3X3

Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel weigh in on the latest stories making headlines.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3ig4n6H

New York’s school districts will welcome students back into classrooms in the fall, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday, as the former coronavirus epicenter continues on its recovery.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/31AZb6O

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2DM1OtT

(Bloomberg) — In early 2018, Georg Schaeffler became Germany’s richest person as shares of Continental AG, the car-part maker in which he and his mother — Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann — own a major stake, surged in price. At the time, their combined fortune totaled $35 billion.They’re now worth about a quarter of that. That’s partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has significantly curbed auto sales, as well as the industry’s broader shift toward electric cars. The Schaefflers ended each of the last two years less well-off than they began, and 2020 may be the same. Both have lost about a quarter of their wealth so far this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people.Read more: World’s wealthiest family gets $1 billion richer every two weeksWhile they’re still super-wealthy, the slump in the Schaefflers’ fortune is among the biggest on the Bloomberg index and highlights the slowdown in global vehicle production. Georg, 55, and Maria-Elisabeth, 78, also control Schaeffler AG, the German engineering group that has faced similar pressures as Continental. Shares in both companies have tumbled by more than a fifth this year.A spokesman for the Schaefflers declined to comment.Rare SwingSuch swings are rare for multi-generational family fortunes of this size, thanks largely to diversification. While founders can be  single-minded in their pursuits, their heirs often look to reduce risks by branching out into new ventures.  For example, the Mars family began as candy makers but have since pushed into pet-care products, which now comprise about half of annual sales of the business behind their $120 billion fortune. Germany’s Reimann clan have parlayed the proceeds of a chemicals business into a consumer goods empire spanning Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Panera Bread restaurants.The Schaefflers are now worth $8.5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, though the family may have arrangements to protect them against slumping share prices. Other fortunes linked to the auto industry are also suffering during the pandemic. Susanne Klatten and Stefan Quandt, major shareholders of car-maker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-Koo have seen their fortunes fall about 10% this year, according to the Bloomberg index.Still, the Schaefflers have bounced back before. Their debt-fueled takeover of Continental forced them to ask for emergency support after credit markets contracted in the 2008 financial crisis, but the company’s share price then surged between 2009 and early 2018. In a sign of another potential rebound, Continental’s shares have climbed more than 50% since mid-March, though the company has said its outlook for the rest of the year remains uncertain.Read more: Continental sales beat estimates, but car supplier is waryContinental, one of the world’s largest supplier of vehicle components, mapped out plans last year for a fundamental overhaul to restore weak profits. The company then announced in March it would explore additional cost cuts and potential plant closures and later said it would cut its dividend payout to save about 350 million euros ($413.5 million). Meanwhile, Schaeffler AG is considering a fresh cost-cutting program to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.“We’ve gotten through the first trough, now we need to look at what we can do next,” Schaeffler Chief Executive Officer Klaus Rosenfeld said Tuesday in an interview to discuss first-half earnings. ““We’re cautiously optimistic that the crisis will slowly abate.’’Wooden HandcartsGeorg’s father and uncle founded Schaeffler — then called INA-Holding Schaeffler KG — in 1946 to make wooden handcarts. The company expanded in 1949 after Georg’s father, an inventor, developed a method to make critical machine components more reliable.By the early 1990s, Schaeffler had more than 20,000 workers at plants on three continents. When his father died in 1996, Georg Schaeffler inherited 80% of the ball-bearing business that carries his surname while his mother inherited the rest. Both serve on the supervisory boards of Continental and Schaeffler, which held an initial public offering in 2015 to help pay down its debts.While Georg grew up as the heir to an engineering empire, obtaining degrees in business and law, Maria-Elisabeth studied medicine and never expected to embark on a business career. Born in Prague and raised in Vienna, she was a medical student in the Austrian capital when she met Georg’s father. They married when she was 22, and Maria-Elisabeth eventually became involved in her family’s business affairs.“I grew into it step by step,” she said in a 2001 interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “When my son was old enough, my husband and myself decided I should get involved professionally. That’s why I completed — I must correct myself — was privileged to complete, an apprenticeship with my husband, which was excellent.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/31wMsBJ

(Bloomberg) — With the stroke of a pen on Thursday night, Donald Trump made his strategic fight with China hit home for potentially billions of people — generating confusion, panic and fear around the globe.The U.S. president’s move to ban the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat beginning 45 days from now sent shockwaves through the tech industry and the many American businesses who rely on the apps to sell goods in China. Shares of WeChat’s owner, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., fell as much as 10% while the yuan weakened the most since July 22.The decision also spurred alarm on Chinese social media, with WeChat users in the U.S. posting contact information so friends and family could reach them if the app disappeared. An online forum popular with stock investors asked users if they would give up their iPhones or WeChat if Apple Inc. eliminated the app from its store: They voted to ditch their phones by a margin of 20 to one.Of all Trump’s shots against China, from imposing tariffs to battling Huawei Technologies Co. to ending Hong Kong’s special trading status, the executive orders against TikTok and WeChat potentially have the widest impact. Beyond the financial blow, they threaten to sever communications ties among the people of the world’s biggest economies in addition to spurring a decoupling of the tech industry that could ripple around the world.“This move points to a hegemonic war — the U.S. is trying to suppress China’s rise as a super power,” said Yik Chan Chin, who researches global media and communications policy at the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou. “All these things will leave a bad impression in China, and the tide of nationalism is already very high right now.”It’s hard to overstate how ingrained WeChat and Tencent are in China and among its diaspora around the globe: WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users, is relied upon so heavily that many people have never exchanged phone numbers or emails. From Wal-Mart Inc. and Starbucks Corp. to the NBA and Nike Inc., nearly every major American consumer brand with business in China is deeply intertwined with Tencent and its network, which includes WeChat and investee JD.com.Jason Gui, co-founder of San Francisco-based startup Vue Smart Glasses, said his team has to rely on WeChat to communicate with suppliers in China and a ban would be very “disruptive.” Emails sent to manufacturers in China are often unanswered for days, whereas inquiries through WeChat will get immediate attention, he said.“When the U.S. imposes these bans, they may not realize how intertwined the relationships between U.S. and China have become,” he said. “Our communication lifeline with China depends on WeChat. It hurts small businesses that have limited resources to figure out how to circumvent these bans.”‘Hot War’China officially reacted with caution on Friday, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin defending the companies and saying the U.S. “is using national security as an excuse and using state power to oppress non-American businesses.” Just a day earlier, Foreign Minister Wang Yi again tried to offer an olive branch by urging the U.S. to “reject decoupling” and stop “any attempt to artificially create a so-called ‘new Cold War.’” Yang Jiechi, a Politburo member, said the door for talks with the U.S. is still open.Trump’s administration has stepped up its campaign against China in recent weeks, betting that a hard line against Beijing will help him win November’s election despite upsetting millions of younger TikTok users. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo this week urged American companies to bar Chinese applications from their app stores, part of his “Clean Network” guidance designed to prevent authorities in China from accessing personal data of U.S. citizens.Pompeo’s announcement generated alarm in China. Hu Xijin, the editor of the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper, suggested a division of the internet that stifles commerce and ties between people would prompt the risk of a “hot war” to rise.But for many U.S. officials, the bans are simple reciprocity. China walled off its own online sphere years ago, creating an alternate universe where Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stood in for Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.Yet while President Xi Jinping was an early proponent of cyber-sovereignty, China’s view has changed as its tech champions have become fierce global competitors. By banning certain apps, the U.S. is also looking to deprive China of valuable data that is essential for honing the algorithms that will fuel the modern economy powered by artificial intelligence.The U.S. also potentially has a lot to lose in terms of soft power. Beyond angering the roughly 5 million Chinese Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese students in America, there’s also the risk that other countries start to ban U.S. technology.‘Awful for America’“Pretty much any large country can kick out Facebook and make their own social network if they want to legislate that,” said Matthew Brennan, managing director of marketing consultancy China Channel. “That would be awful for America. But that’s the road we’re going towards with this kind of legislation.”While the short-term economic impact won’t be large, the decoupling of the tech industries will ultimately lead to slower global growth in the long run, according to Shaun Roache, Asia-Pacific chief economist at S&P Global Ratings. And they could ultimately be more significant than the trade deal between the two countries, which is one of the few areas of cooperation that remain.“These sorts of measures on technology are as serious if not more serious than tariffs because these are the growth industries of the futures,” Roache said. “Once you erect barriers how do you take them down? That’s the question.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/2PL4WJD