Thursday, April 25, 2024
The U.S. economy remains mostly shut down to combat the spread of COVID-19. Only history will tell if the politicians got it right. One thing we know is that the shutdown did produce a stock market crash. The challenge now is to find investments that will provide superior returns in what will become the new […]
When Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) reported earnings last week, CEO Jame M. Loree chose an unusual way to begin his earnings call remarks. Mr. Loree read a quote from the company’s recent shareholder letter, about a military college’s description of the atmosphere at the beginning of the post-Cold War era. As Mr. Loree said, […]
Amazon (AMZN) reported earnings this past week and beat on revenues but missed on the bottom line. Revenues were higher than expected with so many people ordering products online, but the company had higher costs due to changes made necessary by the pandemic. While AMZN has an uncertain outlook for the remainder of the year […]
Fate Therapeutics (FATE) is still seeing a good deal of momentum. Over the last few days, FATE announced the presentation of a new off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-targeted cell-based cancer immunotherapy program at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 23rd Annual Meeting. The new preclinical program targets MHC class I related […]
The financial world had quite a shock last week when crude oil prices dropped into negative territory for the first time. While the price of the front-month oil futures contract is no longer negative, it’s still trading at just over $13 per barrel. With the exception of last week, the price hasn’t been that low […]
Not Everyone Is Feeling the Covid-19 Squeeze Earlier this week, General Motors (GM) said it’s suspending its dividend and halting all share buybacks. This is tough to hear but I can’t say this much of a surprise. The auto giant has been taking it on the chin recently. It’s no secret why. As a result […]
Zynga (ZNGA) just teamed up with Amazon.com to offer promotional content to prime subscribers. In fact, ZNGA just debuted its Words With Friends 2 content for Amazon Prime subscribers earlier this week. “This is our first deal working with Amazon (AMZN), and it’s similar to a lot of Twitch Prime deals in the market already,” […]
It seems to be every day that I read a press release or two announcing a dividend reduction. The COVID-19 triggered shutdown of the economy has a lot of companies looking to conserve cash. One way to keep money in a company is to cut or suspend dividend payments. While the dividend reduction may be […]
As communities and individuals are forced to social distance, raising anxiety, and removing many of the social outlets that are key to physical and mental health, Humana (HUM) is raising awareness of the social determinants of health. The company believes social determinants, along with health or clinical factors, should play an increasingly important role in […]
One of the primary beneficiaries to the stay-at-home revolution brought on by COVID-19 is the video communication industry. In particular, Zoom Video Communication (ZM) has been on a tear in recent weeks as more and more people use the product for meetings, discussions, and chats. ZM was trading at new highs when Facebook (FB) announced […]
