Month: June 2020

Marathon Petroleum (MPC) is again engaging in discussions with potential buyers for a sale of its gas station Speedway unit, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Shares in MPC rose 6% in Thursday’s after-hour trading.Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard was one of the buyers reportedly interested in a deal, although no valuation was provided.The news follows a pre-Covid 19 Bloomberg report that MPC was working on a $22 billion sale of Speedway to Japan’s Seven & I, which fell apart during the crisis.MPC is still targeting a spinoff of Speedway for 1Q21. The US’s largest refiner was previously looking …read more […]

Oil prices rose around 1% on Friday, adding to gains in the previous session, after OPEC producers and allies promised to meet commitments on cutting supply and two major oil traders said demand was recovering well. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 38 cents, or 1%, to $39.22 a barrel. If the laggard producers do compensate over the next three months for their overproduction, that will effectively take extra barrels out of the market, even if OPEC+ does not extend its record 9.7 million barrels per day supply cut beyond July. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Stocks headed for a weekly advance, recovering after second-wave infection fears spooked investors last week, while the dollar retained most of its gains from the risk-off episode.U.S. and European futures drifted Friday ahead of a welter of options expiries on Wall Street. Asia’s benchmarks saw a mixed performance in thin trading in many locations. Treasuries were flat while crude oil rose, with West Texas Intermediate climbing past $39 a barrel. Investors continue to weigh a resurgence in some virus hotspots that may derail an economic recovery against record stimulus measures to help stave off the worst of the …read more […]

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures teetered in choppy trade on Friday as lingering concerns about an fresh spike in coronavirus cases offset growing hopes for a quick economic recovery. Oil futures rose in Asia on hopes that output cuts will put a floor under prices. On the whole, markets have been sideswiped this week on fresh contagion concerns, prompting some investors to temper their optimism about how quickly the global economy can recover for the pandemic. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — The cluster of oil tankers off China’s coast is growing and the vessels are waiting longer to offload their cargoes amid a lack of onshore storage space after a buying spree earlier this year.The number of oil-laden tankers parked in Chinese waters has swelled since the start of the month with almost 200 ships expected over the course of June, according to vessel-tracking information compiled by Bloomberg and data intelligence firm Kpler. Crude imports surged to a record in May as demand rebounded after the easing of lockdown restrictions.The congestion illustrates the explosion in purchases by Chinese refiners …read more […]

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(Bloomberg) — Oil was poised to resume a run of weekly gains on signs consumption is picking up as economies emerge from lockdowns, despite many countries still struggling to bring the coronavirus under control.Futures in New York edged above $39 a barrel Friday and are up around 8% this week. Top trading houses Vitol SA and Trafigura Group said global oil demand is recovering rapidly from its nadir in April, with Trafigura estimating it’s at 90% of pre-virus levels. Gasoline futures in the U.S. moved into backwardation for the first time in three months on Thursday, a bullish signal that …read more […]

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One of the most accurate predictors of how a stock will do in the future is insider buying.
But there’s a catch…
There must be a pattern.
This pattern is called “cluster buying.” It’s when three or more insiders buy at varying prices, lower and higher, on the open market.
But there’s more. This pattern also requires that one or two of the insiders be officers or lower. Directors often buy as part of a program, and major shareholders who own more than 10% of the outstanding shares buy for varying reasons.
However, when an insider like the vice president of marketing or the legal …read more […]

JetBlue Airways published a simple press release Thursday announcing 30 new routes starting this summer and fall, mainly for leisure customers, to leverage a nascent recovery. But to insiders, it was more — a manifesto showing that JetBlue, now in survival mode, no longer plans to play by the industry’s unwritten rules. First, some background. […] …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — CureVac AG, a player in the hotly contested race for a coronavirus vaccine and soon to be partly owned by the German government, is working with Bank of America Corp. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. on a U.S. initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.The vaccine maker, based in Tuebingen, Germany, could raise $150 million to $200 million, valuing the company at $1 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public. That valuation could change depending on whether regulators approve a vaccine.CureVac Chief Financial Officer Pierre Kemula said …read more […]

In the last few years, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has grown without the benefit of one of its best businesses. The company has long provided chips for the major video game consoles, but the related console business for this cycle peaked all the way back in 2016.AMD has seen surging demand for CPUs and data center chips, but the semi-custom chips provided to the console companies has collapsed to next to nothing. Both Sony and Microsoft plan to launch new consoles in 2020 with AMD chips providing another revenue boost for the company.Citing the upcoming PS5 launch, Northland analyst Gus …read more […]

The overnight moves came on the heels of a choppy session on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing slightly higher and the Dow ticking down. …read more […]

With much of America — and the world — working and studying from home under quarantine in the first half of 2020, there’s been a boom in demand for semiconductors to power individual notebook PCs, and also the server farms that make possible those PCs’ connection to the internet. It’s primarily for this reason that 5-star Nomura analyst David Wong recommended investors focus on semiconductor makers winning in business notebooks and “data centers” — with success in game consoles and automotive computers being of only secondary concern.Which stocks does Wong recommend most strongly? Chip giants Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD). …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith said it’s time for antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe to discuss tactics that app stores use to take advantage of those who want to distribute their software.Smith was referring to Apple Inc.’s App Store, a Microsoft spokesperson said, though he didn’t specify the iPhone maker in his remarks. European antitrust regulators on Tuesday opened an investigation into Apple’s policies, saying developers may be forced unfairly to provide a share of app store revenue to the company.Some app stores create a far higher barrier to fair competition and access than Microsoft’s Windows …read more […]