TOP STORIES:
HALLIBURTON
CEO: The oil industry's 'day of reckoning' is near - (www.businessinsider.com) The
clock is ticking for oil companies. The precipitous decline in the price of oil
has crushed profits across the industry, and many drilling projects are
expected to hemorrhage money until prices and
costs can reach some equilibrium. Dave Lesar, CEO of the oil-services giant
Halliburton, believes that a "day of reckoning" for these companies
is quickly approaching. Fluctuations in production activity continue to create
volatility in the oil markets. Lesar, however, thinks it's only delaying a
period of big changes for the business. "I think we just got to
wait," he said in Halliburton's quarterly earnings call Monday.
"These redeterminations are going on. And it looks, generally to me, like
it's a sort of kick-the-can-down-a-road approach that's being taken at this
point. But that really just pushes the day of reckoning into sort of the first
quarter of next year."
Tesla
Tumbles After Consumer Reports Yanks Its "Best Car Ever"
Recommendation, Now Says It Has "Poor Reliability" - (www.zerohedge.com) In what is truly historic flip flop, just a
month after Consumer Reports said the Tesla Model S is the best car it has
ever tested, the agency has not only yanked its original review, but has come
out with what is clearly a hitjob sponsored by another highest bidder, aimed
squarely at Elon Musk's overpriced science experiment. As a reminder, back in September, in "an expert
and unbiased review" Consumer Reports gave the Model S a rating of 100— a perfect
score — calling it "the best-performing car that Consumer Reports has
ever tested." … A little over a month later, the Elon
Musk marketing check appears to have bounced, because not only did Consumer
Reports yank, literally, its glowing September review, leading to the following
404-ed page...
Pummeled by Lousy Global Demand and Rampant Overcapacity, China
Containerized Freight Index Collapses to Worst Level Ever - (www.wolfstreet.com) Growth
of exports from China has been dropping relentlessly, for years.
Now this “growth” has actually turned negative. In September,
exports were down 3.7% from a year earlier, the “inevitable fallout from
China’s unsustainable and poorly executed credit splurge,” as Thomson Reuters’ Alpha Now puts
it. Most of these exports are manufactured goods that are shipped by container
to the rest of the world. And imports into China – a mix of bulk and
containerized freight – have been plunging: down 20.4% in September from a year
earlier, after at a 13.8% drop in August. That kind of decline in shipping
volume comes as a nasty surprise for the shipping industry that has been
betting on boundless increases, and has been adding capacity in quantum
leaps. Back in early 2011, when Maersk, the world’s largest container carrier,
ordered 10 ultra-large container ships capable of carrying 18,000
twenty-foot-equivalent container units (TEU), it expected demand for containers
to grow by 5% to 8% every year. Maersk has since been whittling down its
forecast to 2% to 4% annually. And as things stand, that may be a stretch.
Yet…
Leveraged Loan Investors Demand Steepest Discount Since 2011
- (www.bloomberg.com) Wall Street banks are being forced to sell leveraged
loans at the steepest discounts in four years as sentiment sours for risky
assets amid a commodities slump. The average discount needed to sell U.S.
first-lien loans in October widened to 97.13 cents on the dollar from 99.10
cents in September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
difference translates into an extra $18 million in increased costs for every $1
billion borrowed. Fullbeauty Brands LP, an apparel retailer for plus-sized
people, issued a $820 million loan backing its buyout by Apax Partners at 93
cents on the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s one of the
biggest discounts offered this year on a loan. Foundation Building Materials
borrowed a $245 million loan backing Lone Star Funds’s takeover of the
construction materials distributor at 95 cents. Leveraged loans are losing
favor with investors pulling cash for 12 straight weeks from mutual funds that
invest in the debt. Offering loans at a discount boosts investor yields and can
also eat into underwriting fees and create losses for banks.
Worker’s Cancer Linked to Fukushima Blast for First Time -
(www.bloomberg.com) Japan’s health ministry confirmed for the first
time that leukemia found in a worker at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima
Dai-Ichi power plant is a result of the March 2011 atomic disaster. The male
was in his 30s while working at the Fukushima facility north of Tokyo between
October 2012 and December 2013, according to a statement from the Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare. The finding comes as Tokyo Electric has sought to underscore progress in cleaning up and
containing the worst nuclear disaster in decades and as the company, also known
as Tepco, eyes a return to the bond market. Tokyo Electric’s shares fell 4.5
percent to 832 yen on the Tokyo stock exchange, the biggest one-day drop since
Sept. 1. “First signs of big trouble ahead for Tepco as radiation exposure
looks to be taking its
toll on workers’ health,” Amir Anvarzadeh, Singapore-based
global head of Japan equity sales at BGC Capital Partners Inc. said in an
e-mail. “Tepco could be facing huge lawsuits
if and when radiation
leaks are linked to health issues.”
Canada's Trudeau sweeps to victory, toppling Harper in election - (www.reuters.com)
Brazil's Opposition to File Key Request to Impeach Rousseff - (www.bloomberg.com)
For Hedge Funds, a Can’t-Miss Trade Goes Bust - (online.wsj.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment