(Bloomberg) -- China’s second accounting scandal in less than a week is underscoring concern over lax corporate governance at some of the country’s fastest-growing companies.TAL Education Group, a tutoring business whose success turned founder Zhang Bangxin into one of China’s richest people, delivered the latest bombshell on Tuesday after saying a routine internal audit found an employee had inflated sales by forging contracts. The company’s American depositary receipts sank as much as 18% in late U.S. trading.The sell-off follows the 83% slump in Nasdaq-listed Luckin Coffee Inc. since the company announced that its chief operating officer and some underlings may have fabricated billions of yuan in sales for 2019. Accounting firm Ernst & Young later said it discovered the fabrications when it audited the firm’s financial statements. Trading in the ADRs was suspended Tuesday.While China Inc. is no stranger to claims of financial irregularities -- particularly from short sellers who have...
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump is trying to do something no U.S. president has dared to do in decades: Drive up the price of oil.For more than three decades, U.S. presidents proclaimed cheap fuel as an almost God-given right for American motorists and homeowners, shaping the country’s foreign policy in pursuit of lower prices. As president, Trump didn’t just back cheap crude, he was its biggest supporter, frequently attacking OPEC and celebrating the shale boom’s deliverance of “energy dominance.”Now, the Russia-Saudi price war and a killer pandemic have caused prices to plunge, putting Trump in the awkward position of begging those same countries to turn off the taps, even though retail gasoline will become more expensive as well. The U-turn comes as America has gone from being the top importer of oil to the top producer, aligning its interests more closely with Saudi Arabia and Russia in a shift that holds the...
Photo-sharing site Pinterest (PINS) has released first quarter revenue guidance of $269- $272 million, bracketing the Street’s estimated $270 million, causing shares to jump in after-hours trading on April 7.For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the company is now looking for global monthly active users in the range of 365-367 million- implying a record-high 30 million+ Net Additions and dramatically exceeding Street estimates of 353 million.PINS also withdrew financial guidance for the full year 2020 citing the growing uncertainty of the impact of COVID-19 on the economic environment, and the resulting effect on advertiser demand.“First-quarter revenue performance was consistent with our expectations through the middle of March, when we began to see a sharp deceleration.” commented Todd Morgenfeld, CFO, Pinterest. “Fortunately, despite weakness across nearly the entire advertising market, our exposure to some of the most affected segments like travel, automotive, and restaurants has not been significant.”However, despite the recent...
Photo-sharing site Pinterest (PINS) has released first quarter revenue guidance of $269- $272 million, bracketing the Street’s estimated $270 million, causing shares to jump in after-hours trading on April 7.For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the company is now looking for global monthly active users in the range of 365-367 million- implying a record-high 30 million+ Net Additions and dramatically exceeding Street estimates of 353 million.PINS also withdrew financial guidance for the full year 2020 citing the growing uncertainty of the impact of COVID-19 on the economic environment, and the resulting effect on advertiser demand.“First-quarter revenue performance was consistent with our expectations through the middle of March, when we began to see a sharp deceleration.” commented Todd Morgenfeld, CFO, Pinterest. “Fortunately, despite weakness across nearly the entire advertising market, our exposure to some of the most affected segments like travel, automotive, and restaurants has not been significant.”However, despite the recent...
After the close on Tuesday, GenMark (GNMK) preannounced above-consensus 1Q20 revenue given tailwinds from COVID-19 testing. The molecular diagnostics company is now expecting first quarter revenue of about $38.7 million, up about 80% year-over-year.It also raised its 2020 revenue guidance to $112- $122 million, up from the previously estimated $100- $110 million.“Our sample-to-answer test enables healthcare providers to determine if a patient has COVID-19 in under two hours and is a critical diagnostic solution for hospitals. I’m extremely proud of our team’s hard work throughout this crisis as we continue to work at maximum capacity to provide our ePlex SARS-CoV-2 test and Respiratory Pathogen panel” said CEO Scott Mendel.GNMK announced that it received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its ePlex SARS-CoV-2 test on March 19 and management noted that the COVID-19 test accounted for ~5% of ePlex revenue (~$1.7M) in 1Q20.“With GNMK raising guidance by just the amount it beat in...
