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☆ England rushes to discharge hospital patients to ease bed-blocking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Some patients are being treated in corridors and ambulances have been queuing outside hospitals to hand over patients to emergency wards, as doctors and nurses struggle to discharge patients amid a shortage of staff and beds. The government said in a statement it would make up to 200 million pounds ($242 million) of additional funding available in England to buy short-term care places to allow patients who doctors judge have low medical needs to be looked after outside hospital and 50 million pounds to improve existing faciliites. The statement did not say if the NHS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would also be putting more funds into care beds. Barclays will address parliament on Monday to outline other measures to reduce the pressures facing the NHS. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said last week that reducing hospital waiting lists was one of his five priorities for Britain this year.

☆ These 6 Club stocks look reasonably priced as Wall Street shuns high flyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

We're focusing on forward price-to-earnings ratios, calculated by dividing share price by estimated earnings-per-share over the next 12 months. In this high-level hypothetical, start with the multiple you want to pay and multiply that by forward earnings estimates. But now growth is less certain and interest rates are going up, so you think paying 10x forward earnings is too risky. Instead, you think paying 8x forward earnings is more appropriate, meaning you're only willing to pay $40 per share. Oilfield services provider Halliburton (HAL) trades at roughly 13x forward earnings, a valuation that we find very reasonable.

The union, which remains locked in heated contract negotiations with Southwest Airlines, published the letter Dec. 31. Kelly served as Southwest CEO from 2004 until last February, and replaced Southwest co-founder Herb Kelleher as chairman in 2008. This is not an employees of Southwest Airlines problem. The union, Nekouei wrote, "has been beating this drum to management for nearly a decade pleading with them to spend the necessary capital to prevent the ultimate consequence someday." In an emailed statement responding to the union's letter, Southwest said that "it has a more than 51-year history of allowing — and encouraging — its Employees to express their opinions in a respectful manner."

☆ Wall Street names these 20 Club stocks as top picks for 2023. Here's the list and our takes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +16 min

Club take: We've pared back our position in AMD this year as the semicondcutor company worked through its inventory correction. The company has to do more in terms of managing its costs, but it will likely be a priority in 2023. Analysts described growth outlooks in these segments as "robust" and expect them to drive revenue growth and margin expansion. BofA calls the Club stock a "top tier operator" and expects the company to grow revenue in the coming year despite fears of an economic downturn. Analysts expect to see strong data center growth next year, a business they said could reach $20 billion by 2023.

☆ Oil expected to stay volatile in 2023, but the price could depend on China reopening
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Keeping a lid on prices Oil futures fell Wednesday amid signs that China is moving ahead to normalize its economy, with the removal of border and travel restrictions. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the biggest shock to the oil market in the past year, sending prices spiking in the first quarter. Under some scenarios, a strong reopening in China could drive oil close to about $120 if supply is short. The latest efforts to penalize Russia were Europe's ban on seaborne oil, as of Dec. 5, as well as a G-7 price cap on the price Russia can receive for its oil. Morse said more oil supply is coming on line from the U.S. and other Western Hemisphere producers in 2023.

☆ Here’s our third-quarter earnings report card for all the stocks in our portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

Third-quarter earnings season is finally behind us — and like the prior quarter, results were solid overall compared to analyst forecasts. Danaher (DHR) reported sales and earnings beats on the back of better-than-expected results in all three segments of the health technology company. While U.S. customer traffic was down in the quarter, management noted that it improved sequentially and improved throughout the quarter. Still the luxury hotel and casino company reported solid third-quarter results boosted by its U.S. properties. Amazon (AMZN) reported results that were disappointing, to say the least, and compounded by guidance that was even worse.

☆ Why Southwest is melting down
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

By Monday, air travel was more or less back to normal – unless you booked your holiday travel with Southwest Airlines. More than 90% of Tuesday’s US flight cancellations are Southwest, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Southwest warned that it would continue canceling flights until it could get its operations back on track. Similar to this month’s service mayhem, Southwest fared far worse than its competitors last October. While Southwest canceled hundreds of flights in the days following the peak of October’s disruption, competitors quickly returned to normal service.

☆ Energy stocks had a blowout performance this year. In 2023, the outlook is more uncertain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

After enjoying a monster rally in 2022, energy stocks are heading into an uncertain new year. Energy stocks surged this year after the war in Ukraine interrupted the global oil supply, and drove up the price of a barrel of oil. Ongoing geopolitical risks To be sure, not everyone believes that the outlook is positive for energy stocks, especially without the resolution of some ongoing geopolitical disruptions. That would be bad even for energy stocks. If they do add to their energy allocation, he stressed a preference for U.S. energy over global energy for a "more stable" investment environment.

☆ Dan Yergin says oil prices could hit $121 a barrel when China fully reopens
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Dan Yergin predicts oil prices could hit $121 a barrel when China fully reopens, but warned there are three major uncertainties looming over the market. "Our base case for 2023 is $90 for Brent but you have to look at other cases," the S&P Global vice chairman said, adding there are three major uncertainties: the Federal Reserve's decisions, China demand and Moscow's reaction to the price caps. "If China gets over Covid ... then you add a lot of demand to the market," Yergin told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Tuesday. That could be "one big boost" and push prices to $121 a barrel, building on strains caused by underinvestment in oil and gas, Yergin said. On the flipside, Yergin said prices could fall to around $70 per barrel in a recession.

Following Friday's trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 2,375 shares of HAL, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to about 3.04% from about 2.85%. Halliburton is currently going through a period where an extremely tight equipment market has given the company tremendous pricing power. While it has been a good year already for EMR shareholders with the stock up nearly 3%, we believe the stock can outperform again next year. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. A Halliburton oil well fielder works on a well head at a fracking rig site January 27, 2016 near Stillwater, Oklahoma.

☆ UK strikes set to escalate as nurses prepare for ‘unprecedented’ walkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“It is pretty unprecedented,” Billy Palmer, senior fellow at Nuffield Trust, a health research firm, told CNN. While small pockets of nursing staff have walked out before, the country’s National Health Service has seen “nothing of this scale until now,” he added. ‘Enough is enough’Earlier this year, the RCN rejected an offer by the government to increase nurses’ pay by a minimum of £1,400 ($1,707) a year. Each additional 1% pay rise for nursing staff would cost the government around £700 million ($854 million), he added. Internationally, it is hard to compare UK nurses’ pay, given health care systems differ significantly between countries, but it falls somewhere in the middle of the range of comparable economies, Palmer said.

☆ Pentagon Reviews Munitions Needs as Ukraine Drains Stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Doug Cameron | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Pentagon is reassessing the U.S.’s stockpile of missiles, artillery shells and other munitions in light of the huge quantities consumed in fighting in Ukraine this year, and could find the U.S. needs to keep less ammunition in its arsenal because the Russians have fired so much of theirs, defense officials said. The sheer quantity of U.S.-made munitions that Ukrainian forces have shot at the Russians has stretched U.S. stocks and worn out howitzer barrels, military officials and company executives said. It has brought to the fore years of underinvestment in munitions manufacturing and purchasing, which the Pentagon said it aims to reverse.

☆ GameStop reports decline in revenue and sharp decrease in cash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A screen displays the logo and trading information for GameStop on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) March 29, 2022. GameStop said Wednesday its fiscal third quarter sales declined and its cash pile sharply dwindled, as the brick-and-mortar retailer has been working to expand its digital presence. The company's cash and cash equivalents fell to nearly $804 million from approximately $1.4 billion a year earlier. GameStop has been working to become profitable and revamp its brick-and-mortar retail business, after what executives have said were years of underinvestment. GameStop said last month that it had ended its partnership with FTX, after the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Following Monday's trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 2,225 shares of Halliburton, decreasing its weighting in the portfolio to about 3% from 3.38%. Energy stocks are early outperformers Monday, trading slightly higher at the initial open despite broad weakness in equity markets. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude — the U.S. oil benchmark — has climbed more than 5% over the past week, trading at roughly $81 a barrel in midmorning trading Monday. The latter stock in particular has climbed significantly over the past few months, rallying from roughly $25 a share in late September, to $38.45 a share as of Monday morning. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

☆ Community health groups that played crucial role during Covid-19 pandemic say they’re being left out of government funding
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Elizabeth Cohen Lauren Mascarenhas | Elizabeth Cohen | Lauren Mascarenhas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

“A lot of times, the funding streams have names that say ‘community,’ ‘community-based organizations’ or ‘community health workers,’ but the funding often goes to states and doesn’t end up helping at a grass-roots level,” said Denise Smith, executive director of the National Association of Community Health Workers. “HRSA strongly values the critical role that community health workers play – and can increasingly play – in supporting the health and well-being of communities. “Community health workers are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of the community they serve. The group’s promotores de salud, or community health workers, encouraged vaccination and set up a hotline to distribute accurate information about the virus. “Grantees will be able to hire community health workers, as needed and appropriate,” said Nordlund, the CDC spokesperson.

☆ "We're still early days in this downturn": A portfolio manager at Lazard reveals the 3 asset classes that will provide investors with the steadiest returns as recession fears mount — and shares 3 high
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But in a year like 2022 when stocks are down, real assets can suddenly look a lot more attractive to investors. On the other hand, real estate has been a relatively weak performer this year due to its inverse correlation with interest rates. Year-to-date the Lazard Real Assets fund is beating 85% of its peers, down 5.7% versus its category average of a negative 12% return. "It's gone from a second-class in the real estate space to now an integral part of the supply chain," he explained. Finally, in the infrastructure space McGoey highlighted Targa Resources (TRGP) as a key midstream player.

POLITICAL TALKSFollowing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, Chevron received an exemption to trade its Venezuelan crude to recoup pending debts. Chevron's four PDVSA joint ventures produced about 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil and exported the crude around the world prior to the sanctions. It also allows the U.S. company to import supplies to help process the country's crude oil into exportable grades. That limits any wider expansion of Venezuelan oil production. Chevron and other U.S. oil refiners could benefit from supplies of Venezuela's heavy crude flowing to their U.S. Gulf Coast processing plants.

TERMS OF THE LICENSEThe terms readied for approval will prevent Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA from receiving proceeds from Chevron's oil sales. And they will "the use of corrupt shadow firms that control the flow of Venezuela oil to countries like China," said a person familiar with the matter in Washington. The United States this year has kept oil prices from soaring by releasing more than 200 million barrels of the nation's emergency oil reserves. Chevron is a partner with PDVSA in several oil joint ventures that pump and process crude oil for export. Following oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, Chevron got an exemption to trade its Venezuelan crude to recoup billions of dollars in pending debt.

☆ Meme-stock billionaire Ryan Cohen explains why he bet on GameStop and dumped Bed Bath & Beyond in a new interview. Here are the 10 best quotes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ryan Cohen reflected on his GameStop bet and explained his sudden sale of Bed Bath & Beyond stock. Chewy's billionaire cofounder emphasized the impact of higher interest rates on investors. "Higher interest rates are a game changer. "Before, you had 0% interest rates so there really was no discount rate, and there really wasn't much of a difference between long-term cash flows and short-term cash flows. Now you have a real discount rate, you've got the 10-year Treasury north of 4%, so the value of short-term cash flows is much greater than long-term cash flows."

☆ U.S. export restrictions of powerful chips to China hurt now, but should prove bullish long term
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The advanced chips are what we want to focus on as those represent the big risk to the current world order should they fall into the wrong hands. As a result, it is simply too risky to allow China to continually gain an increasing controlling position over the semiconductor manufacturing process. For this reason, we think that as painful as it may be in the near term, the U.S. isn't wrong to block advancement in China. Lastly, don't forget, thanks to the latest restrictions, U.S. citizens risk losing their citizenship should they choose to help China pursue its advanced chip production goals. Along with these defensive actions, we are pleased to see more domestic support for the semiconductor industry.

☆ A top-performing fund manager who warned of a huge collapse for stocks 6 months ago shares why he changed his tune and became bullish — and where he's investing now
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Salem Abraham, whose fund is in the top 9% of its category in 2022, is now bullish on stocks. But according to the manager of the Abraham Fortress Fund (FORTX), which is in the top 9% of its category in 2022, those worries are overblown. However, now that inflation is slowing down it would be a mistake for the Fed to raise interest rates too far, Abraham said. That explains why Argentina, which has struggled with hyperinflation for years, has seen its stock market grow instead of collapsing under the weight of higher prices, Abraham said. "The game of interest rates is run by central bankers.

☆ Recession-shy investors can turn to capital cycle
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

But another factor is the capital cycle: the amount of investment entering or exiting an industry. Capital spending by energy firms and miners has declined since the investment boom peaked in the middle of the last decade. Capital spending by large European oil companies has fallen from more than twice depreciation in the mid-2010s to less than one times, according to Bernstein. A similar picture emerges in the mining industry, whose capital spending boom also ended around eight years ago. Freeport-McMoRan (FCX.N), one of the world’s largest copper producers, cut capital spending from $7.2 billion in 2014 to $2.1 billion last year.

We are restricted from trading nearly every tech stock in the portfolio Thursday so unfortunately there's not a lot we can do right now for the Club portfolio. Our approach Thursday would be to pick one or two of our tech stocks that are up significantly and only lightly trim. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER .

How Putin and Friends Stalled Climate Progress A handful of powerful world leaders rallied around Russia and undercut global cooperation. Mr. Putin has gained from this as the increasingly autocratic Mr. Xi finds common cause with the Kremlin. “Much depends on whether authoritarian leaders perceive climate action to be in their self-interest.”Though their actions help Mr. Putin, their track records on climate are mixed. Mr. Xi called Mr. Putin his “best friend.”He was returning the favor from a year earlier, when Mr. Putin hosted Mr. Xi at the Grand Kremlin Palace and awarded him one of Russia’s highest medals for foreign dignitaries. At a news conference with Mr. Putin, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked his “dear friend,” saying that Mr. Putin had offered him support when other world leaders were criticizing his Amazon policy.

☆ Brazil's Petrobras to pay out $8.5 billion dividend amid squabble
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SAO PAULO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) will distribute dividends of around 43.68 billion reais ($8.5 billion) on its third quarter results, the firm said on Thursday, amid controversy over its massive payouts. Exxon has said it will pay dividends of $3.7 billion, while the other four firms will pay out a figure between $1.14 billion and $2.7 billion, according to data compiled by Reuters. Nearly all global oil majors have reported blockbuster profits this quarter, helped by surging oil prices. Workers' Party head Gleisi Hoffmann wrote on Twitter before the latest dividend was revealed that the payout policy "deprives the company of its investment capacity and only enriches shareholders." They say that while the company paid roughly 130 billion reais in dividends in the first six months of the year, investments made during the same period total only 17 billion reais.

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