Can Apple rebound from an uneven 2018 in which its shares dropped 7%, or are there more choppy waters ahead?
Since reaching a high of $233.47 on Oct. 3, a mix of trade fears, weak iPhone reports, legal troubles and more have dragged down the once high-flying stock, though it has jumped 7% since Christmas.Here are a few of the biggest issues facing Apple in the coming year. READ MORE...
More than a dozen retailers — including major department store chains, mattress sellers and shoe companies — filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018, despite strong consumer spending that otherwise lifted the U.S. economy.READ MORE...
Big banks are reportedly looking to reduce or change some rewards plans on credit cards.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, large financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and American Express Co. are planning to reduce upfront rewards bonuses that they offer to borrowers on credit cards – but in a way that encourages card usage as well, according to the Journal article which cited people familiar with the matter.
The cost of rewards programs had increased at an average rate of +15% on a year-over-year basis as of the third quarter of 2018 at several large credit card providers, bank analyst Charles Peabody told the Journal.
Also, fees paid by retailers to the credit card companies are reportedly thinning since retailers are slapping lawsuits against what they consider excessive charges (as reported by the Journal).
Tesla stock price fell -9% on the news.
At 90,700 vehicles, total deliveries of Tesla vehicles fell a bit short of Wall Street’s delivery estimates, but was higher than the previous quarter’s figure.Tesla also announced that it is slashing prices by $2,000 for Model S, Model X and Model 3 each – a move that is apparently a response to the reduction in federal tax credit.
Total production of Tesla vehicles increased +8% to 86,555 vehicles.
The final month of the year brought no joy for Wall Street with the S&P 500 losing 10.9% on renewed global growth worries, Fed’s policy tightening and the government shutdown.Though markets saw the biggest single-day jump on Boxing Day since 2009, most of the dissuading factors are still in place (read: Alternative ETFs See Solid Volume: Are Investors Still Shaky?).
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At the start of 2018, Wall Street had predicted that oil prices would surpass the $100 mark in 2018 – for the first time in four years.The declines mark the first annual loss and the biggest yearly drop since 2015, when both contracts fell more than 30%.
So, what went wrong for oil?
First, following the Trump administration’s restored sanctions on Iran, fear of a supply shortage resulted into OPEC members and its allies led by Russia abandoning their 2016 agreement to restrict supply, adding about 1 million barrels per day between June and November.
Second, forecasts of a weaker than expected demand growth for oil resulted into broad stock market sell-off as investors dumped riskier assets.
2018 proved to be a miserable year for the U.S. stock market.Out of the 505 companies in the S&P 500, only 160 managed to post a positive year in 2018 – less than a third.
Amidst such a challenging environment, Chipotle emerged as one of the best stocks of 2018 after its shares soared nearly 50% in 2018 — the stock's best performance since its 80% surge in 2013.
Chipotle’s investors scored big in 2018, thanks to the new CEO of the company, Brian Niccol, who not just helped reinvigorate investor confidence but also helped the stock grow nearly 67% since the announcement of him taking charge in February 2018.
After reaching its peak in August 2015 at $758.61 a share, currently trading at $431 a share, Chipotle’s shares came down the hill at an alarming rate and found it hard to regain customer trust after being hit by a series of foodborne illness outbreaks.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the e-commerce giant is so pleased with its collaboration with Whole Foods since the acquisition of the company in 2017, that now it plans to add more Whole Foods stores in cities like Idaho, southern Utah and Wyoming.
Amazon’s optimism for its physical presence is such that the to-be launched stores are supposed to cover an area larger than the average Whole Foods store, which are currently operational.Further, this is reflected in the company’s revenue from its physical stores swelling to more than $4 billion in the third-quarter, in addition to $29 billion generated through its online sales.
Amazon’s growing bet on physical stores is also evident in its other physical store formats like the recently opened Amazon go stores and bookstores across U.S., especially in cities like Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco.
But analysts expect the rise to be just temporary, amidst lingering concerns over a demand-supply imbalance.
Driven by healthy demand and a suitable equilibrium, oil prices rose consistently from January to October 2018.After reaching a four-year high of $86.74 per barrel in early October, oil prices dropped continuously.
After dropping nearly 25% in 2018, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures ended the year at $45.55 a barrel.
To the relief of many Verizon customers who had feared a football playoff blackout, Verizon and Disney in a joint statement on Sunday announced that both companies have reached a broad-based distribution agreement.
Verizon, as per its current contract with Disney, is responsible for the distribution of various Disney-owned channels such as ESPN and ABC stations - like New York City’s WABC to its ~4.6 million subscribers.But the company faced a December 31 deadline just in time for the renewal of the contract, failure to which would have deprived more than 4.5 million Fios TV customers -- especially the millions of football fans’ access to the big playoff games like college football games on New Year’s Day and one of the NFL wild-card playoff games.
Although the details of the agreement are yet to be disclosed, this last-minute deal has helped end a high-stakes dispute over programming fees that threatened to drop Disney’s programming from the Fios TV network.
The dispute became publ
Beginning January 2, 2019, its new NYSE ticker symbol will be CPRI.
With the acquisition of Versace, a brand synonymous to Italian glamour, style and fashion industry, Capri now operates three luxury brands -- namely, Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors with pro-forma revenue of $6 billion and 1,238 stores combined.The Versace addition to Capri’s portfolio, according to analysts, is expected to increase the mix of the company's European revenue to 24% from 18%.
According to the terms of the deal, Capri Holdings acquired Versace for a total enterprise value of 1.83 billion euro (or approximately US$ 2.12 billion).
As of this weekend with only just over a day left in the quarter, Tesla still had over 3,000 Model 3 vehicles left in inventory in the US, according to a source familiar with the matter.READ MORE...
Amazon is reportedly planning to open more Whole Foods stores in the U.S.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Amazon is looking for retail spaces in parts of Idaho, southern Utah and Wyoming – although no confirmation on the exact spots were made.
The expansion plan is expected to boost customer count for Amazon’s two-hour Prime Now delivery service.Citing sources,the report suggested that Amazon is planning to expand those services to almost all its 475 Whole Foods stores.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 1979.READ MORE...
Verizon will continue to broadcast Disney content, with the two companies reaching “a broad-based distribution agreement” as announced by them.
Verizon Fios’ contract to carry programming from Disney Media Networks, including ESPN, and Disney-owned ABC stations, was scheduled to expire at year-end.But Sunday’s agreement on programming fees will now allow Fios’ 4.5 million TV subscribers to access Disney channels.
The two companies said about the deal, “details will be released in the coming days.”
Allegations against Google’s face recognition technology was shot down by a U.S. judge on Saturday.
In March 2016, some consumers filed a lawsuit in Illinois claiming that Google’s photo sharing and storage service violated users’ privacy by collecting/storing biometric data from people's photos via facial recognition software without their permission – a charge dismissed by a U.S. judge due to a lack of "concrete injuries."
Plaintiffs had asked more than $5 million collectively for all the state residents affected, according to court documents.
Those are the traditional levels considered to mark “oversold” territory for those two indicators.
The scan of the stochastic readings showed that 479 members of the S&P were in oversold territory after the decline on Christmas Eve.These are the seven stocks in the S&P that had stochastic readings above 30 on Monday, December 24.
The energy sector is down over 23% during that time.
Looking through a number of charts last evening, there are several utilities stocks with similar chart patterns.They have formed trend channels over the last six months, and when the sector got hit with some selling last week, many of them dropped down to their lower rails.
One such stock that caught my eye was NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG).
The relentless selling pressure on stocks over the last few months has presented an interesting situation on the S&P 500.If we look at a Raff Regression channel, the index has just ventured further away from the regression line than at any point since the low in 2009.
A Raff Regression channel starts with the regression line over the set period.
One utility stock that has held up and even gained ground in the last few months is NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE).
The stock has formed a trend channel over the last six months with the lower rail connecting lows from June, September, and November.This is the first time the indicators have been in oversold territory since the end of September and only the second time in the last six months.
NextEra has mixed fundamentals readings.