So What Are We Going to Do with the Retail Malls? – (www.wolfstreet.com) Brick-and-mortar retailers all know what they have to do to survive: ease out of brick-and-mortar, and get big online. Or else. Target’s crummy results too were boosted by a 34% jump in online sales. But from a small base. So it wasn’t nearly enough. And online is even more competitive than brick-and-mortar. J.C. Penney touted its buy-online-pickup-in-store options when it reported “positive net income” – instead of negative net income, we assume – of $1 million for the year on a decline in sales. And analysts cut their price target to $7.50 a share from $12. Shares currently trade at $6.35, down 4.3% for the day. To raise cash, the company is trying to sell distribution centers and other properties that aren’t leased, but most of the stores are leased and there isn’t much to sell. In January it sold its headquarters in Plano, Texas, for $353 million. It’s also shuttering two distribution centers, which it owns and might be able to sell.
SEC
Freezes Accounts Of "Highly Suspicious" Traders Who Made $3.6 Million
On Fortress Takeover - (www.zerohedge.com) First,
it was the leak of the massive Heinz-Unilever deal that may have scuttled the
Warren Buffett-inspired transaction, now it appears that another recent
megamerger was leaked 4 days ahead of the announcement. On Wednesday morning,
the SEC froze brokerage accounts of several unnamed traders who made more than
$3.6 million in profits by trading in the four days before the $3.3 billion
takeover of Fortress Investment Group was announced by Japan’s SoftBank. According to the FT,
the traders placed “highly suspicious” orders for shares and contracts for
difference, or CFDs, through Singapore-based Maybank Securities and a brokerage
in London, R.J. O’Brien. Breaking the second cardinal rule of insider trading,
i.e., never to buy stocks in bulk in the day ahead of the announcement (the
first such rule is never to buy calls the before a deal is announced although
the "insiders" did that too), all the trades through Maybank were
made within a 24-hour period before the deal to buy the US-listed private
equity firm was announced to the market; meanwhile trade through R.J. O’Brien
took place between February 10 and 14, the day the deal was disclosed the SEC
reported.
China's
Evergrande proposes bond amendments to take on much more debt – (www.reuters.com) China
Evergrande Group said it is asking creditors to approve amendments to its bond
covenants to allow the country's top homebuilder to take on billions of dollars
of additional debt, as it paves way for a Shenzhen backdoor listing. Evergrande,
China's most indebted developer, seeks to amend some covenants on four notes
due in 2018 to 2020 that will allow for the issuance of new capital to
strategic investors. The firm last month sold 13.16 percent of the enlarged
shares in a property subsidiary to eight investors for a total of 30 billion
yuan ($4.32 billion), as part of its China backdoor listing plan. "(The
proposed amendments seek) to provide us with more flexibility in ... pursuing
investment opportunities that suit our business development strategies,
including to facilitate the proposed reorganization," the developer said
in a consent solicitation document seen by Reuters late Monday.
Fed
officials jolt market with talk of pending rate hike - (www.reuters.com) A
handful of Federal Reserve policymakers on Tuesday jolted markets into higher
expectations for a March U.S. interest rate increase, with comments that
suggested rate-setters are worried about waiting too long in the face of
pending economic stimulus from Washington. New York Fed President William
Dudley, among the most influential U.S. central bankers, said on CNN that the
case for tightening monetary policy "has become a lot more
compelling" since the election of President Donald Trump and a
Republican-controlled Congress. John Williams, president of the San Francisco
Fed, said that with the economy at full employment, inflation headed higher,
and upside risks from potential tax cuts waiting in the wings, "I
personally don’t see any need to delay" raising rates. "In my view, a
rate increase is very much on the table for serious consideration at our March
meeting."
Mom
and Pop Investors Are Behind This Historic Market Rally - (www.bloomberg.com) You
can thank the little guy for Dow 20,000. That’s the takeaway from data tracking
money flows into and out of stocks, according to an analysis by JPMorgan Chase
& Co. The telltale sign retail investors are behind the longest string of
U.S. stock highs in decades? An $83 billion surge of cash into passive
strategies so far this year amid a $15 billion withdrawal from actively managed
funds. That’s on top of evidence that institutional traders have backed away,
the bank says. “Investors are normalizing their equity fund buying; this is a
return to normal,” Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, global market strategist at the
U.S. bank, said in a phone interview.
Fed
Officials Signal Greater Willingness to Consider March Hike - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed's Williams Says March Hike to Get ‘Serious Consideration’ - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises to Highest Level Since July 2001 - (www.bloomberg.com)
China's Policy Balancing Act May Face Bumps as Bond Pain Endures - (www.bloomberg.com)
Donald Trump Faces a Conservative Revolt in Congress - (www.wsj.com)
US stocks have calmest start to a year in a half-century – JPMorgan - (www.ft.com)
Fed's Williams Says March Hike to Get ‘Serious Consideration’ - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises to Highest Level Since July 2001 - (www.bloomberg.com)
China's Policy Balancing Act May Face Bumps as Bond Pain Endures - (www.bloomberg.com)
Donald Trump Faces a Conservative Revolt in Congress - (www.wsj.com)
US stocks have calmest start to a year in a half-century – JPMorgan - (www.ft.com)
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