Day: January 19, 2017

May Insists Banks of – Huge Value’ as They Step Up Plans to Exit

Theresa May offered her strongest support yet for London’s financial district, insisting that banks are of “huge value” to the U.K. economy as executives signaled they were accelerating plans to move staff abroad after Brexit. “I value financial services in the City of London, and I want to ensure that we can keep financial services in the City of London,” the prime minister said in an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.

Qualcomm’s Lucrative Licensing Model Jeopardized by FTC Scrutiny

Qualcomm Inc. built itself into the world’s biggest and most profitable smartphone chipmaker by using a simple formula: selling billions of dollars worth of semiconductors while raking in fat profits from licensing fees tied to the underlying technology. That lucrative model is under siege on a growing number of fronts — most recently this week when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accused Qualcomm of using its dual businesses to thwart competition in the $100 billion market for phone chips.

Popeyes Ad With Football Legend Jerry Rice Being Fried on Social Media for Racial Overtones

An advertisement that resonates with consumers can do wonders for a company, but the opposite also holds true for ads that miss the mark as fried chicken fast-food chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is finding out this week. An ad from the company, which features NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice wearing a helmet with a rotating face mask made of fried chicken, is causing a stir on social media.

Jim Cramer: CSX Needs to do ‘Something,’ or Else

Investors seem to be all abroad the CSX train on Thursday, as shares of the railroad corporation were spiking over 19% this afternoon. Despite reporting weaker-than-expected earnings results after Wednesday’s bell, the stock jumped after news broke of the departure of Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison is stepping down.

Trump Era Begins One Day Early in Davos

The heads of a thousand global leaders were already hanging in resignation as British Prime Minister Theresa May laid out her plans to make the U.K. more global by withdrawing from the European Union. Then she dug in the knife.

Buy Panera Bread Stock Over Bloomin’ Brands, Goldman Says

Goldman Sachs has swapped its rating on Panera Bread and Bloomin’ Brands , sending shares of the restaurants in opposite directions Thursday afternoon. “Estimate uncertainty remains an ongoing concern; however, we view valuation as increasingly compelling,” analysts Karen Holthouse and Gregory Lum said.

European Stock Markets Fall Despite Easy ECB

The European Central Bank held rates steady and kept its stimulus plan in place, but that wasn’t enough for markets to gain. European stock markets fell on Thursday despite a continued commitment from the European Central Bank to keeping monetary policy loose for the foreseeable future, as company news pushed the continent’s benchmarks lower.

Low Toronto temps didn’t stop a warm welcome for SHAK

Judging by the response to a “one day only” pop-up store Wednesday in Toronto, Shake Shack really needs to think about opening a restaurant in Canada. Hundreds of Torontonians withstood frigid temperatures and stood in line for hours at a Shake Shack that opened at 12:30 p.m. and closed around 6:30 p.m. At one point, the location had over 1,000 people in line, according to an Instagram post from Shake Shack’s CEO Randy Garutti .

What Happens When GE Earnings Meet Donald Trump’s Corporate Tax Plan

A wild card that may drive higher growth at GE and reposition manufacturers as drivers of the U.S. economy is President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to cut corporate taxes. For now, investors gauging General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s progress toward delivering $2 of profit per share in 2018 can monitor benchmarks such as fourth-quarter shipments of a But there’s a wild card that may deliver much more spectacular growth, though on a longer and fuzzier timeline: President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to cut corporate tax rates to 15% from as much as 35%.

BofA Management Admits It Can’t Turn a Profit on Invested Capital

Chief Executive Brian Moynihan has only produced a 6.7% return on shareholder’s equity since taking over in 2010 and thus is returning capital through stock buybacks Brian Moynihan has been chief executive of Bank of America for seven years, and when he took the helm in 2019, return on shareholder equity wasn’t positive. Last year, stock buybacks amounted to $5.1 billion.

How to Tackle the High Costs Of Long-Term Credit Card Debt

It takes 13 years to pay off a $5,000 credit card bill, if one pays the minimum monthly amount. How can cardholders cut that timetable down to size? That’s the sentiment from a study by CreditCards.com, which shows the states with the highest credit card burdens are: Buried in the report data is something even more revealing about credit card holders wrestling with high card debt, especially in the Sunshine State.

Western Digital’s Rally to Slow

WDC has doubled since the low made in May, but this rapid pace is probably going to slow as momentum has weakened and overhead resistance looms. This analysis is not different from our observations back on Dec. 3 when we said, “I would trade WDC from the long side, risking below $60 even though gains may be slow going in the weeks ahead.”

Finding a Diamond in the Energy Rough

GPOR has given up nearly half its value since the October highs, and although I don’t see many mid-cap names I find compelling at the moment, I’m taking a half-sized long position in GPOR shares. By half-size, I mean if my normal trading size is 4% of the portfolio, then I’m using 2%.

EpiPen competitor to launch in February

A major competitor to EpiPen, the lifesaving allergy injection that has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over high drug prices, will launch on Valentine’s Day at a list price of $360 for a two-pack, the company KalA o announced on Thursday. For years, pharmaceutical company Mylan hiked the price on EpiPen — to $609 for a two-pack, enjoying a near monopoly on the growing allergy injection market.

Sears To Replace Employee Discount Program With New Points Program

Sears Holdings Corp. will replace its associate discount program with a new associates points program that will award points and other perks through the company’s Shop Your Way loyalty program, effective Jan. 29. With the current system, a discount is taken on items at the time of purchase. Under the new points program, associates will receive 20% back in points on softlines categories, such as clothing, and 15% back on hardlines purchases, such as home furnishings and appliances, according to company spokesperson, Howard Riefs.

Over 652K vehicles involved in latest Takata air bag recall

Thirteen automakers are recalling more than 652,000 vehicles in the U.S. in the latest round of dangerous Takata air bag inflator recalls. Automakers with front passenger inflator recalls posted Thursday are Audi, Nissan, Jaguar-Land Rover, Subaru, Daimler Vans, Tesla, Mitsubishi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes, Mazda, McLaren and Karma.

European And U.S. Bond Yields Remain Higher After ECB Rate Decision

Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds and European sovereign bonds remained higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate and bond-buying program unchanged. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 1.5 basis point to 2.444%, while the yield on the 10-year German bund, considered the European benchmark, rose 3.3 basis points to 0.389%.

ECB Maintains Stimulus as Growth Picks Up Speed

The European Central Bank kept its super-easy monetary policy unchanged as expected on Thursday, maintaining extraordinary stimulus to aid a tepid recovery in growth after nearly a decade in the doldrums. With growth slowly picking up pace, the ECB kept rates deep in negative territory and asset buys at a record pace, likely arguing that the recovery is not yet self sustaining and underlying inflation is still too low.

ECB Leaves Rates Unchanged; Draghi Up Next

The European Central Bank, as expected, left interest rates unchanged Thursday, putting the focus on ECB President Mario Draghi’s news conference. The ECB Governing Council left its rate on main refinancing operations at 0%, while holding the rate on its overnight deposit facility at minus 0.4% and the rate on its marginal lending facility at 0.25%.

5 Facts About Stocks Every Retiree Should Know

Many retirees think that they should pull away from the stock market, mistakenly believing that the risks involved with stocks makes them unsuitable investments for a retiree’s portfolio. Yet the fact is that with retirees living longer than ever, having stocks in your investment portfolio is almost a necessity if you want your retirement nest egg to provide enough growth to meet your financial needs for the rest of your life.

At HSN, smartphones are the flagship store

For many legacy retailers, online sales still make up only a tiny fraction of their overall sales haul. And yet it’s a much different story at HSN, the parent company of the eponymous home-shopping network as well as brands such as Garnet Hill.

Complimentary Coverage Area Products Available from TitanTV, Inc.

With the ongoing Reverse Spectrum Auction, TitanTV, Inc. reminds broadcasters of two free products, Antenna TechSpecs and Signal Area Map, that allow stations to better visualize their signal coverage areas before and after the Federal Communications Commission’s auction off a portion of the broadcast TV spectrum. Antenna TechSpecs Up-to-date technical data about a broadcaster’s transmitters is vital to ensuring its coverage area is accurate.

Banks ‘working hard’ to keep cash machines free

As a result all 38 members of the LINK network are due to have a series of meetings to try to reach an agreement, beginning next week. But Peter McNamara, the Chief Executive of Note Machine, a member of LINK, said that consumers could face being charged at many more of them.