Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:LLNW) by…
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(Bloomberg) — Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman likes the idea of OPEC+ acting as the central bank of oil. And he expresses admiration for Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.The challenge now confronting the oil producers’ club is one that’s all too familiar to the Fed: how to avoid a “taper tantrum,” the market panic that ensued when the institution proposed tightening monetary policy in 2013.Having successfully doubled crude prices over the past few months through unprecedented output cuts, the OPEC+ alliance led by the Saudis and Russia is poised to begin unwinding these stimulus measures. As fuel demand recovers with the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns, the producers are about to open the taps a little.But as Greenspan’s successors discovered seven years ago, taking away the punch bowl carries its own risks.A second wave of the pandemic threatens another slump in oil consumption, while the billion-barrel mountain of inventories that piled up during the first outbreak still looms. If OPEC+ increases supply just as the market falters then prices could crash once again.“When they look at prices over the quarter, when they look at green shoots of demand pick-up, I think they feel good,” said Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets LLC. “I do think they are cognizant though of some of the potential clouds on the horizon.”It’s a balancing act that Prince Abdulaziz and his counterparts must weigh on July 15, when they hold an online meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, the panel that reviews OPEC+’s progress.Easing the CutsThe JMMC will consider whether the 23-nation alliance should keep 9.6 million barrels of daily output off the market for another month, or restore some supplies as originally planned, tapering the cutback to 7.7 million barrels.As the demand recovery gains traction, members are leaning toward the latter option, according to several national delegates who asked not to be identified. Shipping schedules for August are already being set, so the course is more or less locked in, one said.In Russia, the most influential non-OPEC member of the alliance, major oil companies are preparing to increase production next month in the absence of other guidance from the Energy Ministry, according to two people from the industry who spoke on condition of anonymity.Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on July 2 that no position on an extension had been taken yet, but stressed that it’s better if OPEC+ sticks to its previous decisions.OPEC+ can go ahead with the designated increase without inundating the market, said Bob McNally, founder of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official. Global demand will rebound by 18% this quarter to 95.7 million barrels a day as economic activity resumes, he predicts. That will whittle away inventories at a brisk clip of 5.6 million barrels a day.“Our balances show hefty deficits in the third and fourth quarters, even with a tapering,” McNally said. “I think the market will handle it pretty well.”Fragile MarketYet the strategy is not without risks.While oil prices have recovered to $43 a barrel in London, from a two-decade low of $15.98 in late April, sentiment in the market remains fragile.The acceleration of the pandemic in the U.S., where infections hit a record last week, and its re-emergence in Asia is “casting a shadow over the outlook,” the International Energy Agency warned in a report on Friday. The Paris-based agency advises major economies on energy policy.There’s also still a price discount on prompt crude futures — known as a contango — in the U.S. and Europe, suggesting the wider market hasn’t yet tightened. Crude inventories in the U.S. and China are near record levels, government and satellite data show.“The kind of recovery that people would have expected maybe by now has not materialized,” said Mohammad Darwazah, an analyst at Medley Global Advisors. “There’s no doubt the consensus is we will get a tightening of the market, we’re just not quite there yet.”As a result, Riyadh is expected to insist that if output is restored, countries abide by their mandated limits — and that exporters who haven’t yet made their share of the cutbacks atone for it.Falling in LineIraq, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Angola are among laggards who have promised “compensation cuts” over the next few months to make up for cheating in May, which equate to about 420,000 barrels a day each month. That should offset some of the group’s scheduled 2 million-barrel surge, and the JMMC could impose further reparations for overproduction in June.How far the likes of Baghdad and Lagos, which have a poor track record of adhering to OPEC+ agreements, go in their atonement is debatable, but Prince Abdulaziz has scored a victory in pressing them to deliver a surprisingly strong performance last month. He is unlikely to relax his vigilance when the producers gather on Wednesday.“While relieved and satisfied so far, ministers realize they are not out of the woods yet,” Rapidan’s McNally said. “Compliance is the No. 1 priority.”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.
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At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (see why hell is coming). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. […]
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Mesoblast has developed a cellular therapy that may significantly reduce deaths among the most severely sick COVID-19 patients. CEO Dr. Fred Grossman joins Yahoo Finance’s On the Move to discuss what this development could mean in the fight against the virus.
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Oakmark Funds recently released its second-quarter investor letter – a copy of which is available for download here. In their recent letter to investors, Oakmark Funds announced that OAKMX portfolio returned 23.0% in the second quarter, as compared to 20.5% of the S&P 500 Index. You should check out Oakmark Funds top 5 stock picks […]
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We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, which is why imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, professional investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not […]
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For the last few months, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) failed to outperform Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) on the markets. But AMD stock is still a rewarding holding compared to Intel (NASDAQ:INTC).Source: Fabio Alcini / Shutterstock.com Investors are betting correctly that Nvidia's growth prospects in graphics processing cloud computing will lift its revenue. Intel's desktop chip refresh will keep the blue-chip giant relevant but AMD's Ryzen series continues to grow a larger user base.For now, AMD is stuck in a narrow trading range until its next quarterly earnings report. It posted its last report on April 28. What will AMD's results look like during the Covid-19 led economic slowdown in the period?InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Strong Gaming Demand to Lift AMD StockElectronic Arts' (NASDAQ:EA) strong stock performance suggests that gaming demand is hotter than ever. More consumers stayed at home for much of 2020. * The 7 Best Stocks to Invest in Right Now With nothing else to do for entertainment, game sales rose. If console sales rose, AMD's semi-custom revenue would improve in the period. Still, chances are high that consumers held off buying a second or alternative console. Click to EnlargeSource: https://ift.tt/1Cqi78v As the table shows, AMD trails its peers on value, while its margin of safety is only 7%. That might explain why the stock is stuck in a trading range.No one will want to invest in the current console platform when a new Xbox and PlayStation are available later this year. With Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) selecting AMD to power the newest Xbox, the refresh will add plenty of new revenue.In the PC market, where consumers often upgrade graphics processing unit (GPU) to support new game titles, AMD is still behind Nvidia. Sales of its previous generation Vega in 2017 started slowly. But the current generation GPU, Navi, may see better adoption rates.AMD may meet the high demand expectations for Navi. When Vega first launched, cryptocurrency miners bought the most available GPUs. This time, AMD introduced RDNA architecture.On paper, RDNA looks great. Its strong performance and power efficiency is a result of 7nm processing. Previous chips used 14nm processors. GDDR6 memory is faster, while Navi supports PCI Express 4.0. These specifications will enticing gamers to buy an AMD-branded GPU. AnnouncementsOn June 16, AMD unveiled three new desktop processors. The company added the Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, and Ryzen 5 3600XT to its line-up of third-generation Ryzen desktop chips.AMD priced these products at $499, $399, and $249, respectively. The "XT" branding represents maximizing performance under any workload. At the high-end price, customers may hold off buying these chips for now. Instead, they may wait for the Ryzen 4 release, which is a 5nm process.Holding off on buying the XT would save consumers money. They would get the last-generation chip at a lower price. Conversely, buying an Intel chip instead is another option. But Intel's 10nm chips may suffer from poor yield, limiting its availability.The company's CFO admitted the lower profitability of 10nm and the low yields. Despite Intel's issues, this benchmark showed that Intel's Core i7-1165G7, at 10nm, ran up to 30% faster than AMD's Ryzen 7 4800U, a 7nm CPU, in single-threaded workloads.AMD's Ryzen 3900XT has 12 cores and 24 threads:MODEL CORES/ BOOST5/ BASE6 FREQUENCY (GHZ) TOTAL CACHE (MB) TDP7 (WATTS) Platform SEP8 (USD) EXPECTED AVAILABILITY THREADS AMD Ryzen™ 9 3900XT 24-Dec Up to 4.7/3.8 70 105 AM4 $499 7-Jul-20 AMD Ryzen™ 7 3800XT 16-Aug Up to 4.7/3.9 36 105 AM4 $399 7-Jul-20 AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600XT 12-Jun Up to 4.5/3.8 35 95 AM4 $249 7-Jul-20Data courtesy of AMDFor videographers and Youtube channel owners, the high core count will offer high video processing performance. Therefore, investors may expect good sales numbers for these CPUs in the quarter ahead. Your TakeawayAMD shares are ready to rocket higher. To do that, it needs to report a faster pace of chip sales and Navi GPU sales that beat expectations. Investors may model such a scenario here and come up with a price target in the $65.00 range.Disclosure: As of this writing, the author did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG * America's 1 Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * Revolutionary Tech Behind 5G Rollout Is Being Pioneered By This 1 Company * Radical New Battery Could Dismantle Oil Markets The post This Is How AMD Stock Will Beat Investor Expectations appeared first on InvestorPlace.
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* This weekend's Barron's cover story presents the results from the Barron's 2020 Midyear Roundtable. * Other featured articles look how to manage risk in a time of market volatility and which companies the U.S. government is and is not bailing out. * Also, the prospects for some retail stocks, a telecom, a social media giant and more.Cover story "Barron's 2020 Midyear Roundtable: 37 Picks From Our Investment Pros" by Lauren R. Rublin shows why the panelists say current trends have created ample opportunities to invest in good companies selling at deep discounts.Darren Fonda's "Market Volatility Is Back. Here's How to Manage Risk" points out that it might seem like a good idea to hedge portfolios against another downturn, but hedging strategies come at a price. What does that mean for the likes of Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD)?In "The U.S. Is Bailing Out Companies. Regeneron Doesn't Need the Help," Ben Levisohn examines how the government is deciding who the winners among individual companies are and giving losers another chance. What about Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: REGN)?A pre-IPO business development company has invested in a lot of interesting assets, according to "Information Is Scarce on a Palantir IPO. Here's One Way to Play It" by Eric J. Savitz. That includes nearly 20% of its assets in this secretive data-analytics company.In Teresa Rivas's "3 Retail Stocks That Sell More Than Just the Product," see whether selling the experience, not just the product, is still how retailers such as Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) survive in the age of Amazon.See Also: Why Tesla Margin Requirement Changes Could Be A Buying Opportunity"Nokia Stock Stands to Gain From 5G Spending" by Eric J. Savitz makes a case that struggling telecommunications maker Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) will benefit as wireless operators upgrade their networks. See how resistance to Huawei also helps.The hope that technology would lower the cost of pay-TV is long gone. So says Alex Eule's "Cutting the Cord Is No Longer Cool. It's Not Even Cheap." See what that could mean for Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and others.In "Facebook Stock Remains Resilient Amid Controversy," Max A. Cherney shows why Wall Street's outlook for Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) revenue has barely budged, even as 1,000 major advertisers pause their spending on the platform.Also in this week's Barron's: * How we're all tech investors now, for better or worse * How the coronavirus contraction is unlike past recessions * How to play a pre-election bull market in stocks * What is at stake in the reopening of schools * The relevance of China opting to cool off overheating stocksSee more from Benzinga * Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Apple, Facebook, Tesla And More(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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As of June 29, Beijing-based coffee retailer Luckin Coffee (OTCMKTS:LKNCY) got delisted from the NASDAQ Exchange. Now, Luckin stock is a penny stock that may also be a bankruptcy-candidate.Source: Keitma / Shutterstock.com There has recently been increased day trading interest in shares of potentially bankrupt companies, such as Hertz Global (NYSE:HTZ), JCPenney (OTCMKTS:JCPNQ), and Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL). As a result many analysts are wondering if equity markets have become over-speculative in the post-coronavirus world.It might be time for investors to accept the reality that some companies are bankrupt and their stocks are not worth their hard-earned cash. Although Luckin Coffee has not yet declared bankruptcy, investors may be better off if they look for better companies for their long-term portfolios.InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips How Luckin Stock Got DelistedThe Xiamen-based company started operations in Oct. 2017. Since its early days, Luckin stock has been touted as the Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) of China. * The 7 Best Stocks to Invest in Right Now In May 2019, the company went public in the U.S. as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) at an opening price of $25. Luckin Coffee offered 33 million American Depository Shares in its IPO. And it raised $571.2 million through the IPO.In China, listing requirements are in general quite strict and lengthy. Chinese stock exchanges would have required Luckin to have been profitable over the three years prior to the proposed IPO date. In other words, it could have not listed in China. The group possibly initially chose the U.S. due to easier listing requirements for ADRs.The LK share price hit an all-time high of $50.38 on Jan. 17. But the story has changed and gone literally downhill since then. On April 2, management said that it was investigating reports that senior executives and employees fabricated transactions totaling $310 million (or 2.2 billion RMB). It also urged investors to not rely on its previous financial statements for the nine months ended September 30, 2019.As a result, Luckin stock tanked from a closing price of $26.20 on April 1 to an opening price of $4.91 the next morning. Then trading got halted on April 7, when the share price was at $4.39.On April 27, the headquarters of the scandal-hit chain was raided by regulators in China. And the stock started trading again on May 20. In late June, the company notified shareholders of the delisting.Finally, in recent days, shareholders voted out its chairman Charles Lu, who was also a co-founder. However, the issue of trust is likely to linger over Luckin Coffee for a long time to come. It would also mean the company would find it extremely difficult to raise fresh capital, at least in the U.S. Where to Invest for the Love of Coffee in ChinaMany know China as a nation of tea-drinkers. But coffee consumption has also begun to take off in the country. That consumer trend was in part behind the initial interest behind Luckin stock.Are you an investor who would like to take invest in the potentially lucrative market of coffee in a land of 1.4 billion residents? Then you may want to do due diligence on SBUX stock. Starbucks has over 4,300 stores across China.On April 28, the Starbucks chain released Q2 Fiscal 2020 results that said its quarterly global same-store sales fell 10%. Americas and U.S. comparable store sales declined 3%. For the quarter, adjusted earnings per share came at 32 cents. Revenue was $6 billion, a decline of 5% from the prior year due to lost sales related to the viral pandemic.Starbucks management also warned that third-quarter results would take a larger hit from the COVID-19 outbreak, even though sales in China were recovering.Starbucks opened 255 net new stores in the quarter, which means a 6% YoY unit growth. At the end of the period, it had 32,050 stores globally, of which 51% and 49% were company-operated and licensed, respectively.So far in 2020, SBUX stock is down about 15.5%. Long-term investors may consider buying dips on SBUX stock, especially if it goes toward $70 or lower. I regard it as one of the best dividend-paying stocks to buy, especially in a long-term portfolio. The current dividend yield stands at 2.3%. The Bottom Line on Luckin StockFollowing a major revenue fraud, the rather short trading history of Luckin stock in the U.S. seems to have come to a halt. But there are other ways to invest in the growing consumer markets in China.In addition to the Seattle-based coffee chain Starbucks which has established Chinese operations, investors may also consider researching China ETFs. Examples would include the Global X MSCI China Consumer Discretionary ETF (NYSEARCA:CHIQ), the VanEck Vectors ChinaAMC SME-ChiNext ETF (NYSEARCA:CNXT), or the Xtrackers MSCI All China Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:CN).Tezcan Gecgil has worked in investment management for over two decades in the U.S. and U.K. In addition to formal higher education in the field, she has also completed all 3 levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination. Her passion is for options trading based on technical analysis of fundamentally strong companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls for income generation. As of this writing, Tezcan did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG * America's 1 Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * Revolutionary Tech Behind 5G Rollout Is Being Pioneered By This 1 Company * Radical New Battery Could Dismantle Oil Markets The post There's No Good Reason for Long-Term Investors to Buy Luckin Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
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