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☆ Tech giants bury mediocre results under AI hype
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The technology giants’ quarterly results released on Tuesday jumped the low bar of being better than investors feared. Microsoft’s revenue was $52.9 billion, or about 7% higher than a year ago, and almost perfectly flat from the previous quarter. Still, the company earned $18.3 billion, up 9% year-over-year. The company earned $18.3 billion, or $2.45 a share, compared to $16.7 billion, or $2.22 per share, a year ago. The firm earned $15 billion, or $1.17 per share, compared to $16.4 billion, or $1.23 a year ago.

Adult ADHD can make it harder to focus on tasks that don't capture your attention, experts say. Strategies for managing your finances with ADHD include getting outside help and giving yourself extra time. It's no surprise, then, that adult ADHD affects your ability to stay on top of your financial management and overall financial well-being. Experts say there are ways you can keep your finances under control with adult ADHD, though. "When I was managing my business finances and using QuickBooks, it was a very visually overwhelming experience for me," says Potter.

☆ GM to end production of Chevrolet Bolt EV later this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] A close-up view of the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle is seen at Stewart Chevrolet in Colma, California, U.S., October 3, 2017. "We have progressed so far that it's now time to plan to end the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EU production, which will happen at the very end of the year," GM CEO Mary Barra told investors on Tuesday. The Bolt, GM's first mass market EV, still accounts for more than 90% of all U.S. GM EV sales. The Bolt was preceded by the Chevrolet Volt -- a plug-in hybrid that GM ended production in 2019. The recall prompted GM to halt Bolt production and sales for more than six months.

☆ Bob Iger’s stalling may be stifling
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The $180 billion company run by Bob Iger is kicking off its second round of layoffs, according to Reuters, part of an effort to cut $5.5 billion in costs. That’s a solid effort to keep activist Nelson Peltz, who had griped about Disney’s margins, at bay for now. The tricky part is ensuring assets don’t lose even more value before Iger heads out the door. Iger said he would leave the company and is meant to be setting up a successor. The balance act is ensuring Iger doesn’t degrade value, leaving a mess for his successor, whenever that person comes along.

☆ J&J carves itself up at a discount
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) is paying a price to dismember itself. That’s nearly a 20% discount to rival Haleon (HLN.L), the consumer business spun off from GSK (GSK.L) last year. The drug and surgical businesses remaining with J&J are higher margin and potentially faster-growing, so perhaps the two firms will appeal to different sets of investors. Even the unknown at the former J&J company is better than the unknown elsewhere. Johnson & Johnson is in the midst of trying to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits that its talc-based products caused cancer.

☆ Data-hungry AI models could help Reddit valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Reddit’s data, as it benefits AI models, may be just the catalyst that it needs. Reddit plans to introduce a new revenue stream to supplement what it already earns from advertising. While Alphabet, say, won’t want to sell data to Microsoft, Reddit is going to be willing to create a competitive market. And on that basis, it would need to get just 40 customers to nearly double the $350 million revenue it made in 2021. It would take some mind-bending when Reddit tries sell shares to public investors.

☆ P&G earns household-staple status
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The $356 billion company said on Friday that sales grew 4% year-over-year to $20 billion in the three months ended March 31. That growth was led by a 10% price hike for the second consecutive quarter, while also growing market share in the United States. P&G warned of higher commodities and packaging costs, as well as wage inflation. P&G is proving that the cushy Charmin double roll is irreplaceable. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ ‘South Park’ showdown animates streaming dilemma
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Paramount Global (PARA.O) and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) bosses are fighting over “South Park” like the foul-mouthed cartoon fourth graders featured in the hit adult-oriented series. Paramount has countersued its rival to stream the program whose library Warner Bros Discovery bought for $500 million, along with the rights to new episodes, for its newly rebranded Max service. Not long ago, producers were keeping movies and shows to beef up their own streaming audiences. Paramount boss Bob Bakish and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav both champion the idea of letting others carry the content for which their companies are paying so dearly to develop. These sorts of complicated dealings will only get tougher as the streaming wars get more cutthroat.

☆ Morning Bid: April boomlet mocks recession script
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanThe signal is still lost in an awful lot of noise. With next week's Big Tech earnings reports hoving into view, the overall U.S. corporate healthcheck remains pretty mixed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the overall global stock market direction remains equivocal. Although Asia bourses had initially followed Wall St's Thursday swoon, European indexes and S&P500 futures were little changed on Friday. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Chipmaking tool firms expect boom in China sales despite export rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

April 20 (Reuters) - Two companies that make tools for manufacturing chips said that they expect sales to China to boom later this year despite U.S. export restrictions on equipment used to make cutting-edge semiconductors. Lam is subject to the U.S. export restrictions, and ASML will face new rules from the Dutch government on China sales later this year. But those rules so far have only affected equipment used in making the most advanced chips. In Lam's case, it had originally estimated that the China restrictions would cost it between $2 billion and $2.5 billion of revenue in 2023. That's a jump from November, when ASML said China made up 18% of its then 38 billion euro backlog.

AT&T (T.N) shares dropped 10.4% after the wireless carrier missed market estimates for first-quarter revenue and free cash flow. The S&P 500's rally to start the year is set to be tested by a first-quarter earnings season that investors expect to show tepid results. “The market has been overbought for the last week or two," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial. In other earnings news, American Express Co (AXP.N) profit missed Wall Street estimates and its shares fell 1%. Shares of Lam Research (LRCX.O) rose 7.2% after the chip-making equipment supplier's revenue topped estimates, while shares of D.R.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, IBM, American Express, AT&T and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

American Express posted earnings per share of $2.40 for the first quarter, below an estimate of $2.66, per Refinitiv. On Wednesday, the casino and resort company posted a beat on first-quarter earnings. The decline comes a day after Zions missed earnings expectations in the first quarter. The company posted earnings of $2.73 per share on revenue of $7.97 billion. The downgrade comes ahead of the defense firm's first quarter earnings report, which is set to release April 25.

☆ Bank chiefs move fluttering interest-rate needle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bank bosses are adding some dramatic tension to the U.S. monetary policy saga. It’s a possibility rather than a prediction, but when Wall Street’s highest and mightiest opine, it pays to listen. At the same time, the bank chiefs may be talking their books. He added that interest rates of “high 5% or 6%” would be “not shocking.”JPMorgan on April 15 reported $12.3 billion of quarterly earnings, a 56% increase from a year earlier, driven by rising interest rates. Dimon has previously warned that rates could hit 6%, and said in April 2022 that the bank was prepared for “drastically” tighter monetary policy.

☆ Lam Research forecasts lower quarterly revenue as China export curbs weigh
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 19 (Reuters) - Chip-making equipment supplier Lam Research Corp (LRCX.O) forecast lesser-than-expected June-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as U.S. restrictions on sale of certain technology to China and weakness in the semiconductor market weigh on the business. Wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) makers Lam Research, KLA Corp (KLAC.O) and Applied Materials Inc (AMAT.O), have said their 2023 revenue projections are likely to be hit between $600 million and $2.5 billion due to the export restrictions. Lam Research, whose shares dropped 2.2% after-market, forecast June-quarter revenue at $3.1 billion, plus or minus $300 million, lower than analysts' projection of $3.47 billion, according to Refinitiv. Lam Research cut 7% of its workforce in January and had projected WEF spending is likely fall to mid-$70 billion range this year from mid-$90 billion in 2022. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Tesla, Las Vegas Sands, IBM and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Las Vegas Sands — The stock rose 4.3% after the casino and resort company issued quarterly results. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.36, beating the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Refinitiv by 10 cents. For its fiscal fourth quarter, the company anticipates adjusted earnings of $5 per share and $3.1 billion in revenue. Zions reported earnings per share of $1.33, falling short of analysts' expectations of $1.53, according to Refinitiv. Alphabet preliminarily reported between $108 million and $109.5 million in first-quarter revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet estimated $101.6 million.

☆ Morning Bid: Crowded bonds unnerved
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

This has some wondering if the recent dash for cash and top-rated bonds has become a bit crowded and how much more tightening central banks have to do. As we move into the weeds of the first-quarter U.S. earnings season, it's been a mixed bag so far. That clearly unnerved UK government bonds - where 10 year yields jumped 10bps - but it also jarred sovereign bonds around the world. Elsewhere, further signs of healing were evident in the global bank funding market. Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) sold $1 billion of additional tier-1 debt, the first major global bank to sell the risky securities since similar bonds issued by Credit Suisse were wiped out last month.

☆ Sotheby's to auction world's largest ruby in New York in June
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Jessie Pang | Thomson Reuters | Jessie Pang Joined Reuters In After An Internship. She Covers Hong Kong With A Focus On Politics | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An employee shines a light at the 55.22 carat "The Estrela de Fura" ruby, the largest in the world and expected to fetch up to $30 million in an upcoming New York auction, during a preview at Sotheby's, in Hong Kong, China April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Lam YikHONG KONG, April 17 (Reuters) - The largest ruby in the world to come to auction will be offered by Sotheby's in New York in June, the auction house said at a preview in Hong Kong on Monday, and is estimated to achieve more than $30 million. That would probably make the 55.22-carat gem, known as the Estrela de Fura, the most expensive ruby ever sold at auction, said Uni Kim, a specialist in Sotheby's jewellery department in the Asian financial capital. The current world record for a ruby sold at auction was set in May 2015 by "Sunrise Ruby," a 25.59-carat Burmese stone that fetched $30.3 million at Sotheby's in Geneva. "We estimate Estrela de Fura to be sold in excess of $30 million," Kim added.

☆ Chegg pitches itself as an AI middleman
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Educational software company Chegg (CHGG.N) is trying to stay one step ahead of artificial intelligence. With its stock down 40% since ChatGPT’s November release, Chegg has a new plan to act as an intermediary between students and AI. To that end, Chegg on Monday announced a partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to build a virtual tutor, CheggMate. With awareness of AI proliferating, schools will face pressure to adapt; Chegg could fashion itself as a safer way to do so. Other companies with domain-specific databases may follow suit, rebranding themselves as middlemen to avoid being made obsolete by AI.

☆ China resorts to extraordinary measures to soothe entrepreneurs amid deep retreat of private business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Hong Kong CNN —After years of regulatory crackdowns and draconian Covid curbs, private entrepreneurs in China are low on enthusiasm. If anything, the private sector seems to be retreating even more so far this year. State-led investment surged 10.5%, while private investment increased a mere 0.8%. In 2022, state investment rose 10.1%, while private investment ticked up 0.9%. “We always regard private enterprises and private entrepreneurs as people on our own side,” Xi said.

☆ Next week's stock market moves hinge on the longer-term outlook for earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Next week's market action could be dictated by how well the latest quarterly reports from corporate America are received. Expectations about the immediate earnings outlook have been down for so long, the actual numbers themselves could look like up to investors. Earnings for all financials in the S & P 500 are actually expected to expand in the first quarter by 4.3%. ET: NAHB Housing Market Index (April) Earnings: Charles Schwab, M & T Bank, State Street, J.B. Hunt Transport Tuesday 8:30 a.m. ET: Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker speaks on the economic outlook Earnings: AT & T, American Express, D.R.

☆ Canadian ETF slipup could have spillover effect
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TORONTO, April 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Canadian regulators have halted trading in 11 exchange-traded funds after their sponsor, Emerge Canada, failed to file audited financial statements by a deadline of March 31, the Financial Times reported. Toronto-based Emerge Canada, which distributes Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest ETFs among other products, failed to find a replacement auditor after announcing in December that it ended its relationship with the previous auditor, BDO Canada. Emerge Canada has been looking for a new auditor ever since. Some investors flocked to invest in Canadian ETFs during the U.S. regional bank turmoil. If Canada wants to build on its new-found safe haven status, it will have to make sure the problems at Emerge Canada are short-lived.

☆ Guest view: Direct lending may be entering new era
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Armen Panossian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Challenges in the banking system are expanding the opportunities available to direct lenders. I believe direct lenders’ market share will increase significantly in the future due to the substantial mismatch of supply and demand that has emerged in the market for funding large-scale LBOs. Direct lenders, including funds at Oaktree, are now seeking to fill this gap. Not all direct lenders will be able to take advantage of this opportunity, though. This, in turn, is attracting interest and capital from those direct lenders able to fill the massive gap.

☆ Only the big will crack the $1 trln LBO code
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Lenders will only tiptoe back, meaning deals need the big checks and extra elbow grease in credit markets that favor the largest private equity firms. Private equity firms depend on borrowed money to reduce how much of their own they use in any single deal and to magnify returns as a percentage of their initial investment. Imagine a private equity firm acquires a company for $1 billion, then flips it five years later for $1.5 billion. Though the private equity industry is awash in so-called dry powder, fundraising is increasingly tilting to the largest fund managers. Buyout firms are apt to keep their plans more conservative to garner higher ratings – meaning, again, less leverage and more upfront cash.

☆ Electric cars get a reality check
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Regulators want to encourage electric vehicles by flattering them less. The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed tweaking a decades-old formula for calculating EVs’ fuel efficiency. The overhaul will lower electric mileage ratings – but could encourage automakers to ditch fossil fuels more quickly. Automakers must meet a minimum overall CAFE mileage; falling short results in penalties. GM and rivals already want to catch up to electric leader Tesla – and its $600 billion valuation.

☆ Tupperware Brands boxes itself into a corner
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TORONTO, April 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tupperware Brands’ (TUP.N) options are looking less airtight. As with other direct selling companies, it casts doubt over its business model, as well as how speedily it can remake itself as consumer habits shift. An earnings misstatement, which has left it late in filing its annual report, could cause creditors to declare Tupperware has violated its debt covenants. Even if Tupperware can appease its creditors or find new investors, the rise of e-commerce has dented the fortunes of companies that lean on direct selling. Compared with the company’s heyday, customers have more options for food storage, more places to buy from, and less time for Tupperware parties.

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