Last week saw the strongest stock market gains in 46 years, as a bear market rally sparked a surge of opportunistic buying and investor confidence. Investors appear to have gotten used to the idea that times are bad right now; the shock has worn off, and traders are willing to buy again despite heightened risk.In a technical analysis report on recent trading, a JPMorgan team led by Jason Hunter, advised, “Key tactical support rests at 2350-2386. Breaks below would open the door for a more substantial retest of the Mar low. If that unfolds, we expect support in the 2100s to hold. We believe that area marks a floor for the market this quarter. Look for 2750-2850 area to cap rallies over that period.”In the meantime, investors will be looking for stocks to buy and JPMorgan analyst Jimmy Bhullar has tagged three as potentially strong investments. Each offers buyers a reliable...
The Australian dollar has continued to stretch higher during the trading session on Tuesday but is starting to get a bit overbought at this point as the 0.64 level is starting to see exhaustion come into play....
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) today announced earning results for first-quarter 2020. The company revealed Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $2.30, beating consensus by $0.30 and a GAAP EPS beat of $0.74. Meanwhile, revenue of $20.69 billion (+3.3% year-over-year) easily surpassed the consensus estimate by $1.21 billion.The company also announced a 6.3% increase in the quarterly dividend rate, from $0.95 per share to $1.01 per share, marking the 58th consecutive year of dividend growth. At the new rate, the indicated dividend on an annual basis is $4.04 per share compared to the previous rate of $3.80 per share.However, JNJ did lower its full year financial guidance to account for the impact of Covid-19 and the related investments the company is making to combat the pandemic.“We are leveraging our scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength in the effort to advance the work on our lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate” said Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive...
The $2.2 trillion stimulus bill recently passed by Congress sensibly restricts large companies getting help under that bill from distributing capital to shareholders or paying outsized executive compensation....
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- For Lukoil PJSC’s billionaire shareholder, Leonid Fedun, Russia’s decision to sign up to the OPEC+ oil deal was akin to its signing of the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which dragged the country out of the First World War. Both were humiliating, but necessary, he implied. The alternative was far worse.Back in early March, Russia, with its strong foreign currency reserves and low-cost producers, had expected to ride out the misery of tumbling crude prices. Unable to extend an existing output reduction deal with its fellow oil exporters, it spied an opportunity to squeeze out those seen by Moscow as free riders: namely, the U.S. shale producers who benefited from others’ production restraint, only to flood the market with supply.In the end, though, the damage inflicted by the coronavirus lockdowns on oil demand was too great. The potential geopolitical gains from being seen to participate in a solution — and the losses from being seen to hamper one — were too significant. Storage...
All the news right now is about the coronavirus and its effect on the economy – and rightly so. The damage – from lockdowns, quarantines, trade and travel restrictions – is unprecedented. US unemployment claims have rocketed in recent weeks, and government data indicates that between 14 and 17 million Americans are unemployed due to the shutdowns. There is no longer any question about hitting a recession – it’s here. What matters now is, how deep will it go, how long will it last, and how steeply will it recover.Stock markets plummeted when the lockdowns began, but last week was Wall Street’s best since 1974. Markets bottomed out on March 23, and what seemed at first to be a ‘bear market rally’ has turned into something more substantial. Traders are taking advantage of low stock prices to position themselves for what the inevitable economic recovery. Of particular interest are dividend stocks,...
