As new weather forecasts by Jacob Meisel, chief weather analyst at Bespoke Weather Services, hinted that the cold snap would linger a little longer than expected, natural gas prices rallied to their highest finish since December 2016 - with front-month Nymex futures closing +5.1% to $3.71/MBtu.
Another tailwind to prices was a report that natural gas storage in U.S. is at its lowest level to start the winter heating season in nearly 15 years, and also 16% below the five-year average.
With the potential for natural gas shortage at the end of the season, most companies like EQM Midstream Partners (EQM, $47.22), Range Resources (RRC, $17.70), Chesapeake Energy (CHK, 3.63) and Cabot Oil & Gas (COG, $25.61) were some of the top gainers in Friday's trading session, with gains ranging between 2% to 5%.
The German-based European multinational software corporation, SAP SE, in an official statement on Sunday declared that it is set to acquire the survey software company, Qualtrics, for $8 billion.
This deal, the second highest acquisition in the history of SAP (after the $8.3 billion acquisition of travel and expense software company Concur in 2014), would be an all all-cash deal and has been approved by the boards of both companies and also by Qualtrics shareholders.
Qualtrics, which competes with SurveyMonkey, is a bigger and more profitable organization compared to Survey Monkey and has been growing at a faster rate. Founded in 2002, it reported a revenue growth of 41.7% to $184.2 million in the first-half of 2018.
J.P.The company further added that it is taking the necessary aggressive measures to strengthen its balance sheet through accelerated deleveraging and by restructuring efforts.
The question is, does the market have any confidence left in GE?
Brexit is making its mark in the financial services world, just as the separation of Britain from the EU is supposed to take place. Several major U.S. investment banks are moving their assets to Frankfurt from the U.K., which could ultimately see their balance sheets grow in Germany by about $283 billion, according to sources talking to Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc. have made plans to move assets to their German subsidiaries.The banks have so far not commented on the move, however.
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Wynn Resorts shares declined more than 12 percent during after-hours trading as the company missed estimates in its quarterly earnings.
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Facebook will soon allow you to delete messages that you've already sent via its Messenger app.
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U.S.oil production jumped to a record 11.6 million barrels a day last week, and rising U.S. output is a factor that could prompt OPEC members and allies to react when they meet over the weekend.
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New Age Beverages wants to launch CBD-infused drinks.
The beverage company recently hinted at its interest in the marijuana component that does not cause users to get high.CEO Brent Willis told CNN that the company is already in talks with many retailers about selling its potential line of CBD-mixed waters, teas and other drinks.
The implementation and success of the plan could also hinge on whether the Congress would pass the Farm Bill, which would make it legal to produce hemp and potentially make way for more production of drinks containing cannabidiol, or CBD.
Several beverage makers in recent times have either expressed interest or already have actively ventured into the cannabis space.
The company has won approval to clear card payments in that country, which is expected to be the world's biggest card market by 2020.
Other companies such as Visa and MasterCard have applied for licenses as well but are still waiting to see if approvals will be granted.The preliminary approval for AmEx allows it to process and settle payment in the domestic currency and has set up a network with Chinese joint venture partner LianLian Group. The approval is a "significant step toward opening up China's bank card market to foreign investors", said China's Central Bank, in a statement.
Sears Holdings will be closing doors at 40 more locations.
On Thursday, the retail company announced that by February 2019, 29 Sears stores and 11 Kmart shops will be shuttered.Closing stores (particularly the underperforming ones) is part of its liquidation sales, as the retailer apparently found it hard to improve dwindling margins. The newly announced 40 store closures will begin next week, according to the company.
Adding the latest closures, Sears will be left with less than 500 Sears and Kmart stores open – that’s around half of what it had as of February.
A wave of consolidation across the U.S. energy sector continues to hold center stage.In a string of recent M&A deals, the latest to go under the hammer is the much-anticipated deal between Western Gas Equity Partners (WGP, $30.97) and Western Gas Partners (WES, $46.91) – wherein the former has agreed to acquire affiliate Western Gas Partners in an all-equity deal to create a single, simplified midstream company.
The above-mentioned transaction consolidates two midstream entities controlled by U.S. oil giant Anadarko Petroleum (APC, $57.79), which will retain a majority stake in the company.
The American multinational energy company, Chevron Corporation, is still in two minds in terms of whether to leave Venezuela amidst decreasing profit and increasing corruption in the country.
Criticized for working in close quarters with the Venezuelan Maduro government, Chevron is the last major U.S.-based oil producing company still operating in Venezuela.However, the top executives of the company in U.S. are yet to confirm anything.
A pair of charts suggests stocks will stage a significant rally, no matter what happens with the midterm elections.
According to J.P. Morgan's Jason Hunter, investors could be on the cusp of solid gains following the October correction.
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If you've been paying attention in the past years, it seems that all anyone can talk about is the coming artificial intelligence boom on the horizon.Whether it's the Amazon, Google, or Facebook, everyone seems to be getting in on the AI game as fast as they can.
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Casino operator Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) has been trending lower since falling below its 50-day moving average back in June.A clear trend channel has formed and seems to be guiding the stock lower.
What is interesting is that the 50-day hasn’t been touched as it is just slightly above the upper rail of the channel, but running parallel to the rail.
The stock saw the so-called death cross of the 50-day dropping below its 200-day moving average in August and then fell approximately 25% from that point to the low in late October.
The fundamental picture for LVS is mixed.
Chinese social media company Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) is set to announce earnings on Wednesday, November 7 and the stock has been defying the odds in a certain manner.The stock has been trending lower since February within a clearly defined trend channel, but the company has some incredible fundamentals.
The daily chart shows the trend channel and how the stock has moved methodically lower over the last nine months.
On top of that, Apple has decided to use Intel chips instead of Qualcomm’s for its new iPhones.
Qualcomm reported a loss of 35 cents a share for the fiscal fourth quarter.Apple’s decision is likely to affect Qualcomm’s first fiscal quarter guidance for 2019, but CEO Steven Mollenkopf said, “this will become less impactful to our quarterly results" as they progress through the year.
The chipmaker is also facing challenges from weakening global smartphone demand, which might be a headwind to its Snapdragon MSM chips shipments.
Johnson Controls International plc reported strong fiscal fourth quarter earnings.
The industrial conglomerate's EPS of $0.93 was +7% higher from the year-ago period.The company projects its fiscal 2019 adjusted EPS to be in the range of $2.90 to $3.05, representing organic EBIT growth of 8% to 12%.
The company announced an additional $1 billion of share buyback plan.
In recent times, Walmart has reportedly been upping the ante on baby products, including the addition of a new version of its diaper brand.
However, the overall prices on Amazon were an average of 13 % lower than those on several other major online retailers, according to Profitero’s research.But for certain specific categories, Amazon could not offer the cheapest prices: Chewy.com’s pet supplies was 2.3% cheaper, while Jet.com had 0.4% lower prices than Amazon in Beauty and 2.6% cheaper offers in Music & CDs.