The chief executive of Wirecard resigned on Friday after the search for $2.1 billion of cash missing from the embattled electronic payments firm hit a dead end in the Philippines. Markus Braun, who built the German company into one of the hottest investments in Europe, leaves Wirecard facing a looming cash crunch amid allegations of fraud over the missing money. In a statement, the company said James Freis, a former compliance officer at Germany's stock exchange, had been appointed as interim CEO....
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 to split from the chain in Q4 2020, but delayed the move citing market conditions caused by Covid-19.RBC Capital’s Brad Heffern believes a deal could be a ‘clear positive’ for MPC. “We previously saw a sale of Speedway at a $20+ billion valuation as a “silver bullet” for the issues facing the company”...
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. and European futures edged up after a lackluster Asian session that left global equities shuffling toward a weekly advance. Lower-than-usual trading volumes late this week have preceded a welter of options expiries on Wall Street Friday that could still see a bout of volatility. While global shares have recouped much of their losses trigged by second-wave infection fears, the dollar and Treasuries have retained much of their gains from that risk-off bout. Elsewhere, crude oil saw a modest rise.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 pandemic’s impact. New cases in Florida were above the past week’s average and Texas hospitalizations rose by another record.Meanwhile, Sino-American tensions continue to simmer -- President Donald Trump said the U.S. could pursue a “complete decoupling from China” in response to unspecified...
Shares in DraftKings (DKNG) rose 2% in Thursday’s after-hours trading after the sports betting company announced the upsize and pricing of its underwritten public offering of 40 million shares of Class A common stock.DraftKings will sell 16 million shares and certain selling stockholders of DraftKings will sell 24 million shares, at a public offering price of $40 per share for a total offering size of $1.6 billion. The selling stockholders have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 6 million additional shares.The offering was upsized from the previously announced offering size of 33 million shares. DraftKings says it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. The company will not receive any proceeds from the stockholder share sale.On June 17 Oppenheimer analyst Jed Kelly reiterated his buy rating on the stock with a $48 price target (18% upside potential). According to Kelly, DKNG is taking advantage...
Oil rose to above $42 a barrel on Friday, adding to gains in the previous session, after OPEC producers and allies promised to meet supply cuts and signs of demand, hit by the coronavirus crisis, recovering. Iraq and Kazakhstan, during a meeting of an OPEC+ panel on Thursday, pledged to comply better with oil cuts, sources said. This means curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, could deepen in July....
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....
(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. handled record sales of $136 billion during the country’s biggest online shopping gala of the post-pandemic era, suggesting China’s nascent consumer spending recovery has legs.The twin e-commerce giants put nationwide consumption to its first major test since the pandemic with the annual “6.18” summer extravaganza that concluded Thursday. Transactions across JD’s online platforms during the 18-day marathon leapt 34% to 269.2 billion yuan ($38 billion), a faster pace than in 2019. And Alibaba said it handled 698.2 billion yuan during its own campaign, without a year-earlier comparison. JD’s shares stood largely unchanged after rising 3.5% in their Hong Kong debut.China’s largest retailers counted on pent-up demand during the event -- created by JD to commemorate its June 18 founding anniversary -- to make up for lost sales during a coronavirus-stricken March quarter. Global brands and smaller merchants alike stocked up on goods...
