ConocoPhillips on Thursday announced it has struck an agreement to sell its U.K. oil and gas operations for nearly $2.7 billion, setting up its exit from the North Sea.
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Despite a 9% drop on the quarterly earnings, Morgan Stanley, the sixth largest U.S. bank, managed to marginally beat analysts’ estimates.
Morgan Stanley's wealth management business salvaged earnings for the quarter, as it accounts for almost half of the bank’s revenue and helps maintain stability during weak periods for trading and investment banking -- the two segments that suffered during the first quarter due to subdued volatility.Despite this scenario, Morgan Stanley’s wealth management profit margin and its return on equity of 13.1% were comfortably within the targeted range.
Facebook will soon launch its own voice assistant to rival the likes of Amazon’s (AMZN) Alexa, Apple’s (AAPL) Siri and the Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Assistant.
It has been working on this project since 2018 and is being spearheaded by the company’s augmented reality and virtual reality group, a division that works on hardware, based out of Redmond, Washington.Lead by Ira Snyder, director of AR/VR and Facebook Assistant, the team has been collecting information from vendors in the smart speaker supply chain for some time now.
Even though it is not fully disclosed how exactly people will use the assistant, it is estimated that the assistant will be used on the company’s Portal video chat smart speakers or the Oculus headsets.
However, the market for smart speaker is already being dominated by Amazon and Google with 67% and 30% shares in the U.S. in 2018, and Facebook’s foray into this segment will not be easy.
Previously, the company had launched an AI assistant for its Messenger App
Recently, the company transitioned F-35 suppliers to long-term Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contracts and 12 Master Repair Agreements (MRA) to enhance repair capacity and speed.
Replacing annual contracts, the new multi-year PBLs allow companies to make long term investments and actions towards improved efficiency and cost reduction.At present, the PBLs cover several contracts with BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Collins Elbit Vision Systems; and the MRAs cover contracts with 12 separate suppliers including companies like Honeywell (HON), General Electric (GE) and Eaton (ETN).
Not only are the initial multi-year contracts delivering positive results, the newer production aircraft are averaging more than 60% mission capable rates and is approaching the company’s 80% goal which amounts to reducing costs at $25,000 cost per flight hour by 2025.
Union Pacific Corp saw its profit rise by 6.2%, as the U.S. railroad raised prices, helping offset the impact of severe winter weather and record flooding that damaged rails in the Midwest.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s net income rose to $1.4 billion, or $1.93 per share, in the first-quarter ended March 31 from $1.31 billion, or $1.68 per share, a year earlier. Total operating revenue fell to $5.4 billion from $5.5 billion.
Credit card company American Express said its quarterly profit fell 5%, as it spent more on its rewards program. The company said net income fell to $1.55 billion, or $1.80 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.63 billion, or $1.86 per share, a year earlier. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations.The average estimate was for earnings of $2 per share.
Total revenue, excluding interest expense, rose 7% to $10.36 billion. American Express expects full-year earnings in the range of $7.85 to $8.35 per share.
JPMorgan Chase & Co shuffled the jobs of two of its most senior women executives on Wednesday, moving Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake to a role leading consumer lending and naming the head of card services Jenn Piepszak to replace her.
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Netflix fell about 1% after reporting its first-quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday.The company posted quarterly revenue that beat estimates but included light guidance for the following quarter.
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Oil prices steadied on Wednesday after Brent crude hit a 2019 high above $72 a barrel in early morning trade, supported by steady economic growth in China and data showing U.S. crude stockpiles shrank last week.
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After years of legal disputes about patents and royalties, Apple, Inc. AAPL 1.61% and QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM 11.73% finally reached an agreement on Tuesday.Apple agreed to pay Qualcomm an undisclosed amount of cash, and Qualcomm agreed to a chipset supply deal that presumably means Qualcomm will continue to supply Apple with iPhone chips.
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The U.S. goods and services deficit with its global trading partners fell to $49.4 billion in February, its lowest level since June 2018 and well below estimates, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
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Grocery giant Walmart is all set to launch its first subscription business, but for kid’s apparel.
Walmart announced on Thursday that it is partnering with Kidbox, a subscription-box company akin to Stitch Fix but focused solely on selling clothes for babies, girls and boys.
Moving forward, Kidbox will be responsible for curating as many as six different boxes each year on Walmart.com.Kidbox will curate based on a quiz before placing the order.
The move is not unprecedented as Walmart has already partnered with Lord & Taylor adding premium brands to its website.
It is expected that gold will end the year on a strong note owing to the Federal Reserve’s lower interest rates coupled with the advantage from global uncertainties like economy and geopolitical issues like trade war between U.S. and China.Even though gold prices have long stuck in the $1,217 to $1,330 range, but analysts believe that these could reach $1,400 by the end of the year.
This positive outlook is mostly boosted by Federal Reserve’s decision not to hike interest rates this year.
In partnership with environmental charity Hubbub, coffee giant Starbucks is launching a £1 million ($1.3 million) recycling program across the U.K. for paper coffee cups.
The partnership called the ‘The Cup Fund’ will support at least 10 large-scale recycling initiatives.The paper cups traditionally used for selling coffee cannot be recycled with ordinary paper and cardboard due to a plastic lining that prevents hot drinks from leaking.
Hubbub in a press release on Thursday noted that more recycling points specifically for paper coffee cups were needed, as well as clearer communication to help the public recycle more effectively.
The fund is open to applications from a range of organizations including local authorities, recycling companies and property owners.
Starbucks is also trying to find an alternative to plastic for future cups and will begin trialling in London next year.
Domino’s Pizza shares jumped almost +4% on Wednesday, following a rating upgrade from a Morgan Stanley analyst.
Morgan Stanley analyst John Glass raised his rating on the pizza chain company to overweight from equal weight citing "attractive valuation relative to slower-growing peers."
Glass also raised his price target on the stock to $283 from $268.
The current consensus estimates of Domino’s same-store sales growth is in the range of 2%-3% for the next two years, compared to the 5%-6% growth over the preceding two years.
Abbott Laboratories beat expectations of first quarter earnings .
The healthcare company reported adjusted earnings of 63 cents per share for the first quarter, which exceeded analysts’ estimates of 61 cents per share (based on FactSet survey). Its revenue came in at $7.5 billion, compared to analysts’ expectation of $7.48 billion.
For the second quarter, Abbott has forecasted earnings to range between 79 cents and 81 cents per share, in line with analysts' expectations of 80 cents.
For the full year, the company expects earnings of $3.15 to $3.25 per share, which is also in line with Wall Street's $3.21 expectation.
The proposed merger of telecom companies Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US is reportedly be facing a regulatory hurdle.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is skeptical of the $26.5 billion all-stock acquisition of Sprint by T-Mobile over antitrust concerns.
The proposed acquisition, which was first announced nearly a year ago, is apparently under the DOJ’s scanner as the Department is questioning the companies' arguments that the merged entity would create efficiencies, as reported by the Journal citing people familiar with the matter.
However, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted about the report, "The premise of this story, as summarized in the first paragraph, is simply untrue."
But it was still higher than the prior year period’s $9.03 billion.
Shaken by recent crashes of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircrafts flown by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines respectively, United said earlier this week that it was canceling MAX flights through early July.United has 14 737 MAX 9 jets in its fleet, not the MAX 8 variant.
United reiterated its full-year earnings guidance of the range $10 to $12 per share for 2019, which is higher than current FactSet consensus estimates of $11.09 a share.
Applications to U.S. lenders seeking loans to buy a home grew to their highest level in almost nine years even as mortgage rates increased for a second week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.
The seasonally-adjusted barometer on purchase mortgage activity, climbed up 0.9% to 280.7 in the week of April 12, marking its strongest reading since 291.3 in the week of April 30, 2010. “The spring buying season continues to be robust, with activity more than 7% higher than a year ago and up year-over-year for the ninth straight week,” Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said in a statement.