• Stock market news live updates: Stock futures rise after strong earnings; Gold tops $2,000 per ounce

    Stock market news live updates: Stock futures rise after strong earnings; Gold tops $2,000 per ounceStock futures rose Wednesday morning as investors awaited more updates on stimulus talks out of Washington and another batch of corporate earnings and economic data reports. During the regular session, the Nasdaq logged a fifth straight session of gains and closed at a record, and the S&P 500 and Dow rose for a third straight day. Gold topped $2,000 per ounce.

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

  • Is It Smart To Buy Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend?

    Is It Smart To Buy Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend?Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. Investors can purchase shares…

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

  • Norbord Reports Second Quarter 2020 Earnings; Declares Quarterly Dividend

    Norbord Reports Second Quarter 2020 Earnings; Declares Quarterly DividendNote: Financial references in US dollars unless otherwise indicated.Q2 2020 HIGHLIGHTS * Adjusted EBITDA of $84 million and Adjusted earnings of $0.

    from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3klA3JR

  • Lending seized up in the second quarter: Morning Brief

    Lending seized up in the second quarter: Morning BriefTop news and what to watch in the markets on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

    from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/3fD0oiZ

  • Brent Oil Tops $45 a Barrel With U.S. Crude Stockpiles Easing

    Brent Oil Tops $45 a Barrel With U.S. Crude Stockpiles Easing(Bloomberg) — Oil climbed to a five-month high in London, topping $45 a barrel after U.S. industry data showed a decline in the nation’s stockpiles.Brent futures gained for a fourth day, rising as much as 1.7% to the highest price since March 6. The American Petroleum Institute reported a 8.59 million-barrel drop in crude inventories last week, according to people familiar with the figures. Meanwhile, European equities and U.S. futures advanced on signs American lawmakers are making progress on an economic aid package.Oil has struggled to maintain its momentum after rallying from a plunge below zero in April as rising coronavirus infections raise concerns about a sustained recovery in consumption. OPEC+ is set to test the market by returning some supply this month after historic output curbs, while Saudi Aramco is poised to delay the release of its official selling prices for September as producers face pressure to reduce the cost of their crude with demand ebbing.“Oil prices are rising, pricing in what looks like a sizable decline in U.S. crude inventories,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.A Bloomberg survey shows U.S. crude stockpiles probably fell by 3.35 million barrels last week. That would be the third weekly decline in four weeks if confirmed by official data from the Energy Information Administration later on Wednesday.The forecast drop follows a sharp reduction in U.S. crude production since March. And on Tuesday, American shale drillers signaled the end of output growth, with Diamondback Energy Inc.’s chief executive officer saying there are currently no market signals that such growth is needed.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/2EKXNGI

  • Apple, Amazon and Google Are All Pretty Bulletproof

    Apple, Amazon and Google Are All Pretty Bulletproof(Bloomberg Opinion) — Europe has the motivation, but not the means, to break up Big Tech. For the U.S., the inverse is true. That’s bad news for anyone hoping for a full regulatory reckoning with Silicon Valley’s and Seattle’s giants over their monopolistic tendencies.Washington lawmakers see their job as protecting the consumer first and foremost, while Brussels wants to make sure other companies are allowed to compete with the incumbents. Sadly for Europe, the Americans have all the power but their approach is unlikely to produce radical change (as my Opinion colleague Tara Lachapelle wrote this week).That isn’t to say the European Union is wasting its time in leading the charge against Big Tech. Congress’s grilling last week of the chief executives of Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. showed that the “Brussels Effect” is in full force. The EU plays an outsized role when it comes to regulation because other regions — even the Americans — tend to follow its lead. Up to a point, at least.As U.S. lawmakers made the case against the West Coast giants, time and again their arguments echoed efforts already well underway in Europe. When the Democratic Representative David Cicilline tackled the way Google displays news snippets in search results without reimbursing the publishers, he evoked new copyright laws proposed by the EU last year.For two years Brussels has been looking at whether Amazon uses its marketplace data to compete unfairly with the sellers on its website; that’s now a hot topic on Capitol Hill too. The market power of Apple’s App Store and of virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, both of which are the subject of new EU investigations, were also on Congress’s agenda.QuicktakeHow the ‘Brussels Effect’ Helps the EU Rule the WorldWhen people ask Margrethe Vestager and other European trustbusters what power they really have to moderate the behavior of trillion dollar U.S. companies, this is often their answer: When Brussels uncovers bad corporate behavior, it lays out a road map for Washington D.C. to follow.Tackling companies with combined annual revenue of $782 billion, more than the gross domestic product of Switzerland, is a huge challenge, meaning competition authorities benefit from the work that’s already been done elsewhere. Even the British Competition and Markets Authority’s study of the digital-advertising market got a shout out from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who cited the agency’s findings on Google’s dominant market share.The European Commission does have the legal authority to try to break companies up, but no one thinks it would ever try this on a U.S. company. The political blowback would be too severe. The Americans could themselves seek breakups, and would have the power to do so, but their antitrust regime has different priorities. While the problems — and the levels of exasperation at the cavalier behavior of the companies — might be the same, the types of punishment that lawmakers have in mind are different, according to Nicolas Petit, the joint chair in competition law at the European University Institute.That’s because American antitrust law focuses on the interests of the consumer — primarily around pricing — while Europe considers the broader market dynamics and effect on competition. While Vestager probably wants to foster the creation of a company that could counterbalance Google and Facebook’s might in search and social media, her U.S. peers only worry if the impact of their dominance is detrimental to consumers.That narrower American focus limits the likelihood of far-reaching action, says Tommaso Valletti, the head of Imperial College London’s Department of Economics and Public Policy, and a former chief competition economist at the European Commission. “The U.S. has, de facto, abdicated any enforcement for 20 years in this area,” he told me.In her submission to the House of Representatives’ antitrust subcommittee, Vestager called for “common” policy responses, according to a document obtained by the website Euractiv. It’s an admirable goal and should be the logical conclusion of investigations tackling many of the same topics. It’s also a pipe dream.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

    from Yahoo Finance https://ift.tt/33rSTc0

  • Advance NanoTek share price on watch after mixed full year result and outlook

    Disappointing results

    The Advance NanoTek Ltd (ASX: ANO) share price could come under pressure on Thursday following the after-hours release of its FY 2020 results.

    How did Advance NanoTek perform in FY 2020?

    For the 12 months ended 30 June 2020, the sunscreen-focused advanced materials company delivered revenue from ordinary activities of $17.97 million. This was a 46% increase on the prior corresponding period and in line with its May guidance for revenue of $18 million.

    One metric that did fall short of its guidance was its profit before tax. Advance NanoTek reported a 121% increase in profit before tax to $7.46 million. This compares to the guidance of $8.4 million for FY 2020 it gave on 11 May. No explanation was given in relation to why the company hit its sales target but fell short of its profit before tax guidance.

    On the bottom line, the company reported a net profit after tax of $5.3 million, which was down 44.7% on the prior corresponding period. Though, it is worth noting that FY 2019’s profit after tax was positively impacted by its decision to write back a tax benefit of $6.25 million.

    FY 2021 outlook.

    The increasing demand for hand sanitiser globally during the pandemic looks set to impact its sales in FY 2021. Management notes that this increase is limiting the production capacity of manufacturers for products such as sunscreens.

    The company is also anticipating a gap in sales over the next three months as distributors sell down inventory. While management expects the first half to be an improvement on the first half of FY 2019, it looks likely to be down on the corresponding period in FY 2020.

    Despite this, Advance NanoTek has been ramping up production and building up its inventory. Management commented: “The Board is very satisfied with this new strategy because ANO has significantly shortened delivery times-frames to five days and reduced the cashflow burden on our distributors of having to hold significant inventory in their warehouses.”

    5 stocks under $5

    We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Altium or Afterpay when they were first recommended by The Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true.

    And while Altium and Afterpay have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $5 a share!

    *Extreme Opportunities returns as of June 5th 2020

    More reading

    James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Advance NanoTek Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

    The post Advance NanoTek share price on watch after mixed full year result and outlook appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

    from Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/39VLhQe

  • Why the Pinnacle Investment share price has rocketed 40% since 1 July

    Investor riding a rocket blasting off over a share price chart

    Investment management firm Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd (ASX: PNI) saw its share price rocket 28.8% higher in July alone, and it’s now up by 40.3% since the start of last month.

    The Pinnacle Investment share price hit a monthly high of $5.19 on 30 July, before following the broader market down to close the month at $5.01 per share. That earns it a spot among the top performers on the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) last month.

    Year-to-date, the Pinnacle Investment share price has gained 18.02%, after falling 1.96% in today’s trade. Over that same time the All Ords — down 0.5% today — lost 9.9%.

    Like most stocks, Pinnacle fell sharply during the big pandemic-fuelled equity selloff in late February into mid-March. Pinnacle shares bottomed on 25 March at $2.51 per share. Since then, the Pinnacle Investment share price has gained a whopping 119%.

    What does Pinnacle Investment Management do?

    Pinnacle is an Australian-based investment management firm with multiple affiliates. The company works to establish and support a wide range of investment management firms. It provides investment managers with distribution, fund infrastructure and support services. Its affiliated managers operate autonomously.

    As at 31 May 2020, Pinnacle’s 15 affiliates managed a combined $57.0 billion in assets covering a range of asset classes.

    Why did the Pinnacle Investment share price shoot higher?

    In an announcement on 6 July, Pinnacle reported that 5 its affiliates earned approximately $25.8 million in performance fees for the 2020 financial year. At the time, Pinnacle forecast the performance fees would increase its net profit after tax (NPAT) by $6.7 million. Pinnacle’s share price surged 10.4% the day following its announcement.

    Pinnacle also is a likely beneficiary of a wider shift away from traditional banks as investors seek to take more control of their finances. This trend gained traction after the Royal Commission into banking and financial services unearthed a range of unethical practices amongst some of Australia’s best known banks and financial institutions.

    Annual shareholder report

    Pinnacle released its annual shareholder report yesterday. Coming in at $32.2 million, the company’s NPAT attributable to shareholders is up 5.6% from the $30.5 million achieved in the 2019 financial year (FY19).

    Earnings per share (EPS) attributable to shareholders also increased year-over-year to 17.9 cents. That’s up 4.7% from 17.1 cents in FY19.

    Pinnacle’s fully franked final dividend per share of 8.5 cents saw total dividends reach 15.4 cents, the same total dividend payout as the previous year.

    The Pinnacle Investment share price is currently sitting at $5.50 per share with a market capitalisation of $1.02 billion.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of June 30th

    More reading

    Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

    The post Why the Pinnacle Investment share price has rocketed 40% since 1 July appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

    from Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/2DFf7fC