symbol
stringlengths 1
9
| title
stringlengths 1
701
| text
stringlengths 1
140k
|
|---|---|---|
WFC | U S factory private payrolls data point to firming economy | By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON Reuters U S factory activity accelerated to more than a two year high in January amid sustained gains in new orders and raw material costs pointing to a recovery in manufacturing as domestic demand strengthens and the drag from low oil prices ebbs
Other data on Wednesday showed private employers boosted hiring last month While construction spending slipped in December the underlying trend remained strong The signs of momentum in the economy at the start of the year came as the Federal Reserve s policy setting committee met for a second day
The U S central bank which has forecast three rate hikes this year is not expected to raise rates when the meeting ends later on Wednesday The Fed hiked its benchmark overnight interest rate in December to a range of 0 50 percent to 0 75 percent
The economy is off to the races with the wind at its back The Fed will lift rates three times in 2017 for sure and maybe they might need to add a rate hike or start the year earlier with a policy firming in March said Chris Rupkey chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York
The Institute for Supply Management ISM said its index of national factory activity increased 1 5 percentage points to a reading of 56 0 last month the highest since November 2014 when oil prices started collapsing
A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing which accounts for about 12 percent of the U S economy Some of the increase likely reflects a surge in business confidence following last November s election of Donald Trump as president
Trump has pledged to cut taxes and reduce regulations The business mogul turned politician who was sworn in as president on Jan 20 has yet to offer more details about any fiscal stimulus package
Manufacturers comments on business conditions last month ranged from good to stronger Some described demand as very steady and others reported that sales bookings were exceeding expectations
The ISM s production sub index increased 2 0 percentage points and a gauge of new orders edged up 0 1 percentage point reaching its highest level in just over two years
A measure of factory employment jumped 3 3 percentage points to its highest level since August 2014 suggesting factory payrolls likely rose in January for a second straight month
Manufacturers reported paying more for raw materials That was the 11th consecutive monthly increase indicating inflation pressures at the factory gate could be building up The ISM s prices index increased 3 5 percentage points in January to its highest level since May 2011
If higher prices in the goods producing sector were sustained this would likely help reassure Fed officials that inflation will reach and maintain its two percent target said John Silvia chief economist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities in Charlotte North Carolina
However the strong dollar will likely help keep a lid on inflation
MANUFACTURING RECOVERING
A collapse in oil prices in 2015 and a surge in the dollar weighed on manufacturing for much of last year with most of the pain coming through sharp cutbacks in business spending on equipment Oil prices have since risen above 50 per barrel lifting some of the fog off manufacturing
The manufacturing rebound was also underscored by a separate survey on Wednesday from data firm Markit
The government reported last Friday that business spending on equipment increased at a 3 1 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter the first rise in over a year
January s data so far suggests that the economy is poised for an acceleration after gross domestic product increased at a 1 9 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter The deceleration from the third quarter s brisk 3 5 percent pace reflected a wider trade deficit
The dollar was trading higher against a basket of currencies while prices for U S government bonds fell U S stocks were marginally lower having surrendered earlier gains
Separately on Wednesday the ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added 246 000 jobs in January up from 151 000 in December The report jointly developed with Moody s Analytics came ahead of the Labor Department s more comprehensive employment report on Friday which includes both public and private sector payrolls
The ADP report has a spotty record predicting the private payrolls component of the employment report because of methodology differences Still economists said the ADP report and the jump in the factory jobs measure of the ISM survey raised the possibility that January nonfarm payrolls could beat expectations
While we wouldn t dismiss the strength of the ADP number entirely we would treat it with some caution particularly in January said Paul Ashworth chief U S economist at Capital Economics in Toronto
According to a Reuters survey of economists nonfarm employment probably rose by 175 000 jobs last month picking up from the 156 000 jobs added in December
A third report from the Commerce Department showed construction spending slipped 0 2 percent in December after shooting up 0 9 percent in November Construction spending increased 4 2 percent from December 2015 |
WFC | Trump travel curbs pose revenue challenges for U S colleges | By Megan Davies and Robin Respaut NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO Reuters President Donald Trump s travel restrictions on people from seven countries could dampen international enrollment at U S colleges at a time they have become increasingly reliant on tuition revenue from overseas students Colleges and universities have struggled in recent years with slowing tuition growth increased competition and a stronger focus on making education more affordable Graphic Those factors have increased the importance of international students who made up 5 2 percent of enrollment last year up from 3 2 percent a decade earlier according to the Institute of International Education or IIE International student growth is important for many institutions said Roy Eappen municipal research analyst at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Many international students come to the U S to study and are willing to pay full price for higher education Analysts said international student applications could be hit by the White House travel order Trump suspended travelers from seven majority Muslim countries Iran Iraq Libya Somalia Sudan Syria and Yemen saying the move would help protect Americans from terrorist attacks The curbs come at a delicate point in the admissions cycle because students are beginning to decide where to enroll this autumn said Susan Fitzgerald associate managing director Moody s You could see an impact in the fall We just don t know yet U S universities in both Democratic and Republican led states said over the weekend they were unnerved by the executive order Lee Bollinger president of New York s Columbia University wrote in a statement on Sunday that if this order stands there is the certainty of a profound impact on our University community Of the 1 043 839 international students in the United States during the 2015 16 school year 17 354 or 1 7 percent came from the countries affected by the order IIE data shows While that is a small portion of the total there could be a broader impact on the country s ability to attract students from the global marketplace if the United States becomes viewed as potentially less welcoming for international students some analysts said RIPPLE EFFECT Wells Fargo s Eappen said any kind of anti immigration sentiment may lead to a pullback in demand from international students IIE President Allan Goodman said in an emailed statement that beyond the immediate impact of students from specific countries who are not able to enter the country there could be a ripple effect of significant unintended economic consequences as students faculty and researchers from other countries decide whether to come to the United States Public universities have increasingly fallen victim to state budget cuts or tuition freezes while many private universities now discount tuition meaning they slash their price tags to lure prospective students In many parts of the country enrollment numbers are on the decline and university debt is on the rise That makes attracting international students increasingly important International students make up an estimated 10 to 12 percent of tuition revenue among U S schools rated by Moody s Fitzgerald said University education for Americans is subsidized by foreigners who occupy seats in classrooms said David Kotok chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors Ask any dean or provost what his school s financial structure would look like if there were no foreign students enrolled According to NAFSA an international education association international students contributed 32 8 billion and supported more than 400 000 jobs in the U S economy during the 2015 2016 academic year Moody s Fitzgerald said international students had become a counterweight to the relatively low revenue growth from domestic students among U S schools
It would be an additional challenge for the sector should it fall Fitzgerald said |
WFC | A Rate Hike Amid Modest Growth Expectations | The Atlanta s Fed s GDPNow model raised its outlook for US economic growth in the third quarter to 1 5 in Tuesday s Sep 15 That s still a sluggish pace but it beats a kick in the head Alas it still falls short of a clear signal for raising interest rates which is potentially on the agenda at the Fed s policy meeting which concludes with Thursday s statement and press conference
Meantime a question will Yellen and company launch the first rate hike in a decade with expectations for Q3 growth bumbling along at a tepid 1 5 more than half the pace of Q2 s strong 3 7 rise Probably not although it s worth pointing out that the Fed s last quarterly update is looking for relatively stronger growth in 2016 June s central tendency forecast for US GDP next year anticipates a 2 4 to 2 7 increase a sizable premium over what the GDPNow model s looking for when the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes the advance Q3 GDP report on Oct 29
Of course if you re looking for an upbeat economic forecast it pays to shop around Last week s Q3 GDP estimate from Wells Fargo NYSE WFC for instance isn t much higher than the GDPNow projection although next year s numbers also offer more traction for optimists by way of quarterly growth rates in the upper 2 range No wonder the bank s economics team has a hawkish bias about Thursday s rate decision arguing that we feel the data continue to support a move
As for the current quarter economists overall have a brighter outlook for Q3 relative to that pesky GDPNow model The Wall Street Journal s survey data for September has an average 2 4 estimate for GDP growth in the August to September quarter a moderate but respectable edge over the GDPNow forecast But wait it gets better at least for a while The Journal s survey anticipates that growth will accelerate to 2 8 in Q4 before ticking back down to 2 5 in next year s first quarter
But in a world awash in forecasts some of which may actually be correct the main event for the immediate future is how the Fed s new and improved guesstimate compares With that in mind keep your eye on Thursday s revised projections for this year s GDP growth for all of 2015 as well as assumptions for 2016 Will the monetary mavens cut June s outlook for growth from the low to mid 2 range If they do it ll be hard to rationalize a rate hike
According to estimates by Mark Zandi chief economist of Moody s Analytics even a quarter point hike would take a toll if only slightly It would have a meaningful but modest effect on growth he says
Modest doesn t sound all that threatening but it s all about relativity at this stage The problem is that the growth trend overall is modest again and so there s not a lot of cookies in the cupboard to spare The future will be brighter or so we re told But given what we know about forecasting it s still reasonable to use the hard data in hand as a rough proxy for what s coming By that standard the case for a rate hike is still on thin ice |
CMCSA | AT T expands local television stations on DirecTV Now service | By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK Reuters AT T Inc NYSE T has expanded the lineup of local channels on its DirecTV Now internet streaming service it said on Friday as the No 2 wireless carrier seeks to win online subscribers who prefer not to pay for a traditional cable package AT T which is in the process of buying Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX for 85 4 billion said the service now offers live local channels to 70 percent of U S households more than double at its launch in November The number of streaming services is growing rapidly as technology and telecommunications companies target about 20 million U S households which have no pay TV package Dish Network Corp sells a streaming service called Sling TV Hulu LLC owned by Walt Disney Co Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Time Warner and Twenty First Century Fox Inc launched its service in May New additions to DirecTV Now which starts at 35 a month include Disney s ABC in 30 new markets including Atlanta and Boston But the lineup does not include CBS Corp NYSE CBS which sells its own streaming service called All Access Adding more local channels allows AT T to offer customers a viewing experience more similar to a larger TV bundle AT T spokeswoman Erin McGrath said by phone that local news and sports are key considerations for consumers thinking of switching to a streaming service
AT T has been pushing DirecTV Now by bundling the service with wireless plans and has added support for Roku streaming devices |
WFC | Schumer to Trump Don t fire U S consumer agency s head | WASHINGTON Reuters One of the most powerful Democrats in the U S Congress on Tuesday pressed President elect Donald Trump to keep the consumer financial watchdog agency s current director as rumors about a possible termination and replacement swirled Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Trump will break his campaign promise of standing up for workers and consumers against the rigged system if he fires the U S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau s CFPB director Richard Cordray after taking office on Friday If Trump intends to keep any of his promises and un rig the system he would keep Rich Cordray the senator from New York said in a phone call with reporters Created in the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law the CFPB has battled all sorts of lenders through regulation and litigation It most recently participated in a settlement with Wells Fargo NYSE WFC for 190 million for allegedly creating ghost accounts By law the president can only fire the agency s director for cause but a recent federal court decision says the U S chief executive should be able to dismiss the director at will That decision has been stayed pending appeal Some want Trump to not wait for the appeals court and fire Cordray for cause as soon as he becomes president At the earliest the full U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is expected to announce in February whether it will review the case Last week Trump met with one of the agency s biggest critics former Republican Representative Randy Neugebauer of Texas who is frequently mentioned as a top choice for to replace Cordray Conservatives say Neugebauer would limit the reach of the CFPB which they say has gone too far and does not have enough accountability Congress is controlled by the Republican Party and most Republicans would prefer having a commission in charge of the agency instead of a director who both creates and enforces rules During the call with reporters Schumer characterized the possibility of making Neugebauer director as an attempt to dismantle the CFPB from the inside Also on the call Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said removing Cordray would allow Trump to block the CFPB s current work on rules on mandatory arbitration payday lending and debt collection
Democrats like Warren who came up with the idea of an agency to protect individuals finances after the 2007 09 crisis say the CFPB is an important guard against fraud in mortgages student loans and other consumer products |
WFC | Wells Fargo to stop giving branches advance notice of inspections | By Dan Freed Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC will eliminate its policy of notifying branches a day in advance before they are visited by internal inspectors a bank spokeswoman said on Tuesday The decision comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on the advance notice describing how it gave employees time to cover up problematic sales practices by shredding documents and forging signatures Mary Eshet a spokeswoman for the third largest U S bank by assets confirmed that Wells Fargo will halt the practice She had no immediate response to allegations outlined in the Journal which cited unnamed current and former Wells Fargo employees and executives Wells Fargo is conducting a broad internal review of its sales practices after it settled charges that it created as many 2 million credit card and checking accounts without customer authorization The 190 million settlement announced in September hammered the bank s share price and led to the resignation of then Chief Executive John Stumpf
The shares have recovered amid a broad based banking sector rally following the November U S presidential election |
WFC | Investors upbeat on data Fed wary of Trump | By Sinead Carew NEW YORK Reuters In an ordinary world a U S Federal Reserve meeting jobs data and a hefty number of earnings reports next week should provide investors with welcome distraction from speculation about the U S President s policy plans But the current world is less than ordinary and in the second week after his inauguration as U S president the likelihood is that Donald Trump s voice will still ring louder in investors ears than economic data and the words of Fed chair Janet Yellen Wall Street has already bet on solid economic data strong earnings and the pace of Fed interest rate hikes but investors are still uncertain how to bet on the President Wall Street s already figured out that the recovery is in place that the Fed is going to start getting aggressive What they haven t figured out yet is exactly who is Donald Trump said Robert Phipps a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin While stocks have risen since the Nov 8 election on hopes for tax cuts lighter regulation and fiscal stimulus investors are still waiting for evidence Trump has the willingness and ability to follow through on his pro business campaign promises On top of this add to the uncertainty fear of his threats to slap massive tariffs on imports and his comments on China s currency policy Fed fund futures show bets on a 96 percent chance the Fed leaves rates unchanged when it ends its two day meeting on Wednesday according to Reuters data Investors will watch for hints of policymakers plans for the rest of 2017 If their language indicates faster than expected hikes the equity rally could pause as investors recalibrate said Paul Christopher head global market strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Investment Institute in St Louis But investors don t see the Fed rocking the boat next week at least until it has some clarity on Trump s policies Like many of us the Fed is probably waiting to see what is going to come of all the new policies and changes that can be expected out of the new administration said Tim Dreiling senior portfolio manager at the Private Client Reserve at U S Bank in Kansas City Strong fourth quarter earnings reports and forecasts have been part of the driver for the S P 500 s SPX 10 percent increase since Nov 4 and many big companies are due to report next week A few weeks into reporting season analysts now expect quarterly earnings to have risen 6 8 percent up from an expectation of a 6 1 percent gain on Jan 1 according to Reuters data This growth rate would be the fastest in two years JOBS DATA On Friday the U S is expected to report 171 000 new non farm jobs were created in January up from 156 000 in December Unless the number is below 100 000 or above 300 000 stocks will likely not move sharply according to Wells Fargo s Christopher If the data coming in are unremarkable it would tend to turn attention back to Washington he said Aside from seeking clarity on Trump s pro business policies the market will also watch for signs of whether the President will help or hurt foreign trade For example the administration has said it would tax imports from Mexico to help pay for a new wall to secure the border But such a tax would push inflation higher nudging the Fed closer to tightening policy Investors are also nervous of the implications if Trump officially declares China a currency manipulator as he has implied he might do The best case scenario would be that he instead sits down to negotiate trade concessions with the world s second biggest economy said Wells Fargo s Christopher
I think Trump is serious about getting things done but he does have to reckon with the fact that even as the most powerful person in the world he does have to work with others he said |
WFC | Senator says U S Labor Department dismantled website for Wells Fargo workers | By Sarah N Lynch WASHINGTON Reuters Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday accused the U S Labor Department of dismantling a website designed to help Wells Fargo N WFC workers file whistleblower retaliation and other complaints against the bank and asked the department to reinstate it In her letter to Acting Labor Secretary Edward Hugler Warren said she noticed on Tuesday that the site was gone and contained the words Page Not Found Labor Department spokesman Steve Barr told Reuters the site was removed on January 9 but did not comment further on the reasons why it was taken down Former Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez created the special website last September shortly after Wells Fargo was ordered to pay 190 million in fines and customer restitution after its high pressure sales environment led to the opening of as many as two million accounts that customers may not have authorized Some of the bank s employees filed whistleblower complaints with the Labor Department s Occupational Safety and Health Administration saying they had been fired for reporting the gaming of sales quotas by Wells Fargo while others complained that they were forced to work late Taking down this website enables Wells Fargo to escape full responsibility for its fraudulent actions and the department to shirk its outstanding obligations to American workers wrote Warren who is a member of the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions which oversees the Labor Department When he launched the site Perez pledged to Warren he would conduct a top to bottom review of all the Wells Fargo complaints the department had received to see how they were handled The website also offered assistance on issues including proper pay for employees and workplace discrimination Reuters has reported on issues with some of the whistleblower cases including one involving a former Wells Fargo employee who waited nearly five years to be interviewed after telling OSHA she was fired for reporting the gaming On Friday Warren also asked for an update on the Labor Department s review The findings have not been made public but a person familiar with the review said that OSHA s San Francisco office which handled the bulk of the Wells Fargo complaints faced a particularly high caseload to staff ratio The review also found that OSHA does not have an effective case management system to track what is going on in the field the person added Labor spokesman Barr declined to comment on that part of the letter saying he cannot discuss ongoing investigations Warren s concerns could resurface on Feb 7 when fast food executive Andrew Puzder is expected to appear for his confirmation hearing to become the next labor secretary
Puzder is already facing a backlash by some of his own workers at CKE Restaurants who allege they are victims of wage theft |
WFC | Americans Rodgers and Snedeker share lead at Torrey Pines | Reuters Former college standout Patrick Rodgers seeking his first PGA Tour title produced bogey free golf in dazzling sunshine to charge into a two way tie for the lead after the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open outside San Diego on Saturday Four shots off the pace overnight American Rodgers fired a five under par 67 on the challenging South Course at Torrey Pines to end the day level with defending champion Brandt Snedeker at nine under 207 after 54 holes American Snedeker bidding for his third victory at the coastal venue birdied the 17th to join Rodgers at the top and narrowly missed a birdie attempt from 14 feet at the par five last before tapping in for a 70 On a crowded leaderboard Taiwan s Pan Cheng Tsung 69 and long hitting American Tony Finau 67 are one shot behind with eight others including Olympic champion Justin Rose two adrift The conditions were awesome today Rodgers whose round included a run of four birdies in five holes from the sixth told CBS Sports This is why we come to San Diego for the sun and there was hardly any wind out there today it was fun to make a few birdies out there The 24 year old who emulated Tiger Woods with a Stanford University record of 11 wins as a college player tied for second at the 2015 Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Championship and he planned to lean on that and his amateur experience during his bid for victory in Sunday s final round You have to learn from every experience said Rodgers I ve been fortunate to have a few chances on the PGA Tour and tons in college and I don t take those lightly
They re still great experiences down the stretch trying to figure out how to win so I feel very comfortable in contention That s probably when I am the most comfortable out here and I m really excited to have another chance tomorrow |
CMCSA | Olympics NBC monitors Korea tensions as it preps for Winter Games | By Liana B Baker SAN FRANCISCO Reuters U S broadcaster NBC is monitoring the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and so far does not expect to change its plans to send a more than 2 000 person workforce to the Winter Games in South Korea NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel said in an interview on Thursday Tension has been high for months over North Korea s nuclear and missile development and due to fears it will conduct a sixth nuclear test and more ballistic missile launches in defiance of U N Security Council resolutions Asia s first Winter Olympics outside Japan will see South Korea s alpine town of Pyeongchang and the coastal city of Gangneung host thousands of athletes and officials when the Games start in February There are obviously geopolitical issues Zenkel said speaking by telephone I don t think there s an Olympics or any global sporting event without them We re all aware of the issues facing that particular location and we re playing close attention and staying in touch with the different organizations and the experts we have access to Zenkel said adding the network gets information from the U S State Department NBC a unit of Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA is the U S exclusive broadcaster for the Olympics and it usually uses the games to host its best advertisers and clients on site It hosted hundreds of clients in Sochi in 2014 and about 1 500 in Rio last year In South Korea however NBC would not be inviting guests to the Games and would instead be hosting them in the U S ski town of Jackson Hole Wyoming Zenkel said Contrary to media reports Zenkel said NBC made that decision as far back as 2014 and it was because of limited accommodations near the Olympic venues unrelated to any security concerns NBC s priority was finding housing for its workers many of whom are coming from abroad Zenkel said Clients who want to go can still be invited by sponsors which are doing hospitality at the Games he added A 13 hour time difference between New York and South Korea could actually work to NBC s advantage for showing live events such as skiing and figure skating in U S prime time Zenkel said adding that events for U S ski racers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin should be a draw The events in morning or early afternoon will take place in prime time when our largest audience comes together he said |
CMCSA | NBC to offer direct streaming of Premier League games | NBC Sports CMCSA 1 is making a major soccer broadcast move offering streaming access to a big chunk of games without a cable subscription The division will offer an over the top subscription to Premier League games starting with August s new season with 130 live games and at least three per club available for a 50 Premier League Pass A few other games will still appear on NBC s broadcast network and still more on NBCSN and CNBC But the new offering doesn t call for a TV subscription at all and it takes what was previously a TV Everywhere feature and turns it into a potential new revenue stream for NBCUniversal Facebook FB 1 6 earlier announced it would stream a dozen plus matches from the Champions League along with Fox FOX 1 5 FOXA 1 3 Now read |
CMCSA | Trump draws strong criticism for assailing woman TV host in personal terms | WASHINGTON Reuters U S President Donald Trump assailed a woman TV news host in highly personal terms on Thursday calling her crazy and alleging she had been bleeding at one point from a facelift in a Twitter attack that drew strong criticism including from fellow Republicans Trump who often decries what he calls fake news in the American media and who this week attacked CNN the New York Times and the Washington Post took fierce aim on Thursday at the hosts of the MSNBC program Morning Joe Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski The Republican president called Brzezinski a journalist and daughter of former White House national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski low I Q Crazy Mika and said she was bleeding badly from a face lift when she visited one of his properties around New Year s Eve He referred to former Republican U S congressman Scarborough as Psycho Joe Trump is known for his prolific Twitter habit which includes mocking attacks on critics and rivals but his tweets on Thursday drew a particularly strong response It s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job MSNBC s communications office said on Twitter The Morning Joe program aired live telephone interviews with Trump during the 2016 presidential race but its hosts have turned increasingly critical of him since he took office in January On Thursday morning s show Brzezinski excoriated the Trump administration and said its officials should not act lobotomized because they are so scared of the president Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA owns NBCUniversal MSNBC s parent company Republican lawmakers and others sharply rebuked Trump The tweets represents what is wrong with American politics not the greatness of America said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham while another Republican senator Ben Sasse called Trump s remarks beneath the dignity of your office I don t see that as an appropriate comment Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said of Trump s tweets ATTACKS ON MEDIA The remarks were an escalation of Trump s long standing criticism as a candidate and then as president of the news media which he once called an enemy of the American people A wealthy businessman and former reality TV star with no previous experience in government Trump has been quick to respond to criticism of his presidency lashing out at the media for its coverage of probes into potential collusion between his campaign team and Russia and other matters He has sometimes singled out individual journalists including a high profile attack while he was running for office on former Fox News and current NBC journalist Megyn Kelly That included a comment about blood coming out of her wherever which was widely interpreted as a reference to menstruation Trump has been criticized in the past for his comments about women His attack on Kelly came after she asked him during a presidential debate about his previous references to some women as fat pigs dogs slobs and disgusting animals Trump issued an apology last October just before the election after a 2005 video surfaced in which he said he could grab women by their genitals whenever he wanted because he was a star Trump has been critical before of the Morning Joe hosts but Thursday s attack was especially harsh Scarborough and Brzezinksi are engaged to be married During the January meeting at the Mar a Lago estate in Florida Trump offered to host their wedding and even officiate it the two said in an interview in Vanity Fair published in May Democrats condemned Trump s tweets as an example of what they view as his sexism Trump s bullying tweets are an attack on women everywhere Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said The tweets created a new distraction as Republican senators tried to bridge differences within the party and agree on major healthcare legislation White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended his tweets I don t think that the president has ever been someone that gets attacked and doesn t push back she told Fox News Channel
People on that show have personally attacked him many times Sanders added This is a president who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else |
WFC | Head of fraud ring targeting Wells Fargo accounts gets seven year sentence | By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK Reuters A California man behind an identity theft ring that stole more than half a million dollars from Wells Fargo Bank N WFC customers was sentenced on Thursday to over seven years in prison U S prosecutors said
Ronald Charles Reed 70 of Inglewood recruited Wells Fargo employees to obtain customers personal data including birthdates account and social security numbers the U S Attorney s office for the Central District of California said in a statement
Reed gave the information to people who impersonated customers at Wells Fargo branches in California and other states and made cash withdrawals of 580 332 from 75 accounts
Reed whose criminal history includes a conviction over counterfeit credit cards pleaded guilty to bank fraud and identity theft in the Wells Fargo case in March prosecutors said He was also ordered to pay restitution
Innocent victims of identity theft deserve the protection of the criminal justice system and this sentence attempts to achieve that goal U S Attorney Eileen Decker said in the statement
The former bank employees also pleaded guilty and await sentencing Authorities are seeking the identity of the runners who impersonated account holders the statement said
In September Wells Fargo paid 185 million to settle with California prosecutors and regulators over pushing customers into costly accounts they did not need or request
The bank said at the time it had fired 5 300 employees over the past five years for inappropriate sales conduct |
CMCSA | Wecast Network sets up joint venture with supply chain focus | Wecast Network WCST 1 5 is forming a joint venture with the Beijing He Ying private equity fund to increase its focus on business to business infrastructure The two will join on Seven Stars He Ying Smart Cloud 51 owned by Wecast It says it will focus on supply chain finance supply chain management and financial settlement for both the automotive and commodities industries Wecast also says it will work on a global commodity index exchange module based on its NextGen Exchange Group platform The new venture will work to raise 50B yuan about 7 4B from investment partners Wecast has undertaken a number of complex transactions many with other companies owned by its chairman Bruno Wu as it transitions from video firm You On Demand The company says that once it s fully operational the supply chain finance fund could theoretically convert each fund dollar into 6 10x sales turnover over a 12 month period with average gross margins for the commodity and auto industry of 1 3 Now read |
WFC | Wells Fargo looks to rebuild reputation with new compensation plan | Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC has unveiled a new compensation structure for branch bankers as it tries to recover from a scandal driven by aggressive sales targets that slammed its share price and led to the resignation of Chief Executive John Stumpf The new plan creates incentives based on customer service rather than sales goals is longer term in nature and includes additional monitoring of sales activities according to an internal document provided by Mary Eshet a bank spokeswoman Our top priority is to communicate the new plan to leaders and team members first and we are focused on ensuring they have the information they need to be successful Eshet wrote in an email This new plan is one step in our efforts to restore trust with team members and customers and we will continue to make additional changes Wells Fargo has struggled since September after it agreed with regulators to pay 190 million in fines and restitution to settle charges that its employees wrongly created as many as 2 million accounts without customer authorization |
WFC | U S Transportation nominee Chao hits no roadblocks in confirmation hearing | By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON Reuters Donald Trump s choice to run the U S Transportation Department Elaine Chao defended the president elect s 1 trillion infrastructure plan as a bold vision on Wednesday in an overwhelmingly friendly Senate confirmation hearing While there is criticism of Chao in particular on environmental issues there is no significant opposition to her nomination and she is expected to be confirmed She served as labor secretary under President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009 and was the first Asian American woman to hold a Cabinet position She was deputy secretary of transportation under President George H W Bush She was introduced by her husband Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell The top ranking Democrat on the committee Florida s Bill Nelson noted his wife s friendship with Chao Chao will take a leading role in Trump s plans to rebuild crumbling U S roads and bridges with a 1 trillion fund He would offer private investors who put money into projects an 82 percent tax credit but critics say it is unclear how they could recoup investments in most projects without sharply increasing costs for users of most roads and bridges Chao described the plan to the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation as a bold vision and acknowledged the need to work on the issue of paying investors back For them partnerships to be truly effective there need to be revenue streams that need to be assured she added We all know that the government doesn t have the resources to do it all Chao is nominated to head a department with such wide ranging responsibilities as oversight of the nation s airports and highways fuel economy rules for autos and probes into auto makers for safety recalls of key parts like airbags She declined to take positions on issues like whether the job of air traffic control should be privatized concerns over the safety of shipments of crude oil by rail foreign airlines like Norwegian Air Shuttle s push to move into the U S market and regulation of developing technology like autonomous vehicles and drones Chao faced no questions about her memberships on corporate boards Chao is on the board of Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co which has struggled since September after it agreed with regulators to pay 190 million in fines and restitution to settle charges that its employees wrongly created as many as 2 million accounts without customer authorization
Chao is an immigrant from Taiwan who arrived in the United States at age 8 Her father James S C Chao is founder of the Foremost Group an international shipping company |
WFC | Weekly jobless claims rise import prices push higher | By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON Reuters The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week pointing to a tightening labor market that is starting to spur faster wage growth Other data on Thursday showed import prices posting their largest gain in nearly five years in the 12 months through December suggesting that inflation could soon push higher Import prices are being driven by rising oil prices but a strong dollar could limit some of the impact on inflation Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10 000 to a seasonally adjusted 247 000 for the week ended Jan 7 the Labor Department said It was the 97th straight week that jobless claims remained below 300 000 a threshold associated with a healthy labor market That is the longest stretch since 1970 when the labor market was much smaller Jobless claims remain in a very constructive range and are still evidence of an environment in which turnover is low and employers are generally content to maintain and expand their payrolls said Jim Baird chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors in Kalamazoo Michigan Economists had forecast first time applications for jobless benefits rising to 255 000 in the latest week Jobless claims data tends to be volatile around the holiday season The four week moving average considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week to week volatility fell 1 750 to 256 500 last week The number of Americans still receiving jobless benefits after an initial week of aid fell 29 000 to 2 09 million in the week ended Dec 31 That was the first decline in the so called continuing claims since November U S financial markets were little moved by the data amid disappointment over the lack of details regarding president elect Donald Trump s economic policy on Wednesday during his first press conference since his Nov 8 election victory Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower while prices for U S government debt rose The dollar fell against a basket of currencies also as minutes from the European Central Bank s last meeting revealed a few policymakers had not backed an extension of the ECB s bond buying program During his election campaign Trump pledged to cut taxes increase spending on infrastructure and relax regulations While he has offered few details on these election promises economists are hoping that the proposed fiscal stimulus would boost economic growth this year The stimulus would come against the backdrop of a labor market that is at or near full employment with the unemployment rate near a nine year low of 4 7 percent With tightening labor market conditions starting to push up wage growth that could stoke inflation pressures and prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a faster pace than currently envisaged The Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate last month by 25 basis points to a range of 0 50 percent to 0 75 percent The U S central bank has forecast three rate hikes for this year Average hourly earnings increased 2 9 percent in the 12 months through December the largest gain since June 2009 In a second report the Labor Department said import prices increased 0 4 percent last month as the cost of petroleum products surged 7 9 percent Import prices slipped 0 2 percent in November In the 12 months through December import prices jumped 1 8 percent the largest gain since March 2012 after edging up 0 1 percent in the 12 months through November Import prices are rising as the drag from lower oil prices fades Oil prices have risen above 50 per barrel Import prices excluding petroleum however fell 0 2 percent in December after being unchanged the prior month This decline in underlying import prices likely reflects sustained dollar strength Prices of imported automobiles consumer and capital goods fell last month The dollar rose 4 4 percent against the currencies of the United States main trading partners last year with most of the gains coming in the wake of Trump s victory While the drag on import price inflation stemming from energy is fading dollar headwinds have resurfaced said Sarah House an economist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities in Charlotte North Carolina
We expect the renewed strength in the dollar to remain a challenge for import price reflation in the coming months but the rebound in energy prices should more than offset any drag |
WFC | Analysts Offer Differing Ratings Following Advanced Micro Devices | Advanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD announced weak first quarter results on April 16 Shares of the semiconductor company dropped 8 in after hours trading following the earnings release The company reported losses primarily due to the weakening PC market and lower SOC sales
AMD posted first quarter revenue of 1 03 billion below the analyst consensus of 1 05 billion and marking a 26 year over year decrease The company posted non GAAP 0 09 loss per share wider than the analyst consensus of 0 05 loss per share Furthermore AMD posted an operating loss of 137 million compared to an operating income of 49 million in the same quarter of last year
AMD s Computing and Graphics segment revenue decreased 38 year over year and operating loss widened from 56 million to 75 million Furthermore AMD s Enterprise Embedded and Semi Custom segment revenue decreased 7 year over year and 14 sequentially Forward looking guidance did not offer much to celebrate either with management expecting a 3 sequential decrease in second quarter revenue
CEO Lisa Su commented Building great products driving deeper customer relationships and simplifying our business remain the right long term steps to strengthen AMD and improve our financial performance Under the backdrop of a challenging PC environment we are focused on improving our near term financial results and delivering a stronger second half of the year based on completing our work to rebalance channel inventories and shipping strong new products
According to of Canaccord Genuity reiterated a Hold on AMD and lowered his price target from 2 50 to 2 00 Ramsay acknowledged that the company s quarterly report suffered from the decline of its Computing Graphics business but he believes that AMD s diversification strategy continues to show gradual progress and could position the company for more defensible long term sales and even profitability should the cost basis be lowered further or new semi custom deals produce higher margins Although Ramsay believes in AMD s leadership he will wait for tangible signs of core business stability since more cost cuts will likely be required and could be announced in the coming weeks As a result Ramsay maintains his Hold rating despite estimates moving sharply lower Matt Ramsay has a 76 overall success rate recommending stocks with a 7 7 average return per recommendation Separately on April 17 analyst of 0 Wells Fargo NYSE WFC reiterated an Outperform rating but lowered his price target range to 3 3 50 down from 3 50 4 Wong was disappointed in AMD s earnings report and believes it now emphasize s the substantial risks AMD faces given the continuing drop in sales and the ongoing losses the company is reporting Although Wong now predicts quarterly losses through 2016 he believes AMD has valuable expertise in microprocessor and graphics circuit design from which in time it should be able to generate a profit
David Wong has a 67 overall success rate and a 10 9 average return per recommendation On average the top analyst consensus for Advanced Micro Devices on TipRanks is Hold |
WFC | It s Time To Get Into This Stock | A stagecoach and some horses pulling it across the plains Nothing but sunshine and blue skies and fresh air It does not get much better than this rendition of Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC from the mid to late 19th century A lot has changed in the world since then But the trend higher in the stock price seems to date back to that time and shows no signs of changing
The chart above of weekly prices going back to 2012 shows part of that trend If you look closely there have been areas to get into an investment in the stock against a low risk level of downside price movement May 2012 was one So was March 2013 and January 2014 And now this week In fact the latest price movement gives two reasons to get into the stock with a very low downside risk level
The first is the break over resistance that has been in place since December 2014 shown by the yellow bar The second is the proximity of the rising trend support line that has merged into the 20 week SMA The 20 week has been a good spot for support over this run This allows you to get into the stock on the show of strength with a stop only 2 below If you have a bigger risk tolerance then the lower Bollinger Band has mopped up the liquidity whenever the 20 week SMA has not held And that is only 4 below |
WFC | Debate over firing U S consumer watchdog director intensifies | By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON Reuters The debate over whether President elect Donald Trump should fire the head of a U S consumer watchdog after taking office came to a boil on Tuesday with congressional lawmakers sending off strong letters that dug into constitutional law Republican senators pushing Trump to fire the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray portrayed the agency as overreaching its authority Meanwhile Democrats said firing Cordray would advance a Wall Street agenda to escape federal oversight The bureau created in the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law was originally proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren a Democrat from Massachusetts to guard individuals against lending fraud At the heart of the debate is a restriction that the president can only fire the director for cause The U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reviewing a recent court decision that the president should be able to fire the director at will Some want Trump to remove Cordray for cause soon after his inauguration on Jan 20 and not wait for the appeals court s decision That could open the door for Cordray to sue Senator Ben Sasse a Republican from Utah started Tuesday s fight with the tweet It s time to fire King Richard Sasse a member of the Banking Committee and fellow Republican Mike Lee of Utah then released a letter to Vice President elect Mike Pence saying the CFPB combines the powers of the executive legislative and judicial branches into the hands of a few unaccountable Washington elites Senator Sherrod Brown the most senior Democrat on the Banking Committee shot back with a statement that Cordray should stay until his term expires in 2018 Under Richard Cordray s leadership the CFPB has returned 12 billion to servicemembers seniors and working Americans who ve been ripped off by shady debt collectors for profit schools payday lenders and huge banks like Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Brown said The CFPB recently was part of a 190 million settlement with Wells Fargo which was accused of creating phony accounts In the House 21 Democrats sent a letter to Trump saying no U S president has ever removed an independent agency head for cause
While we understand that many powerful special interests would like to see Director Cordray leave we urge you not to bow to their demands to initiate costly meritless litigation and we stand ready to oppose any efforts you may make to do so they wrote |
WFC | Overbought Pullback Off The 60 s | The sixty minute charts got very overbought once the market went green today after the bell rang with a slight move lower We rallied right away and saw RSI s reach as high as 77 on the Nasdaq and 75 on the S P 500 We all know that these levels are basically unsustainable over time It didn t take long to see the market start to sell and although it doesn t feel great when it s happening you have to be happy on some level since it s healthier for the bulls to get things unwound It s extremely hard although not impossible to get much higher prices once RSI s get over 70 especially with readings as high as we saw today So now those short term RSI s on the key index charts are down into the 50 s Although it can get lower it s at a level where we should see some attempted upside action shortly There is strong support another 50 cents lower on the SPY thus I think we ll make another move back up in the near term although of course there are no guarantees on that prediction since we all know we re still dealing with very bad weekly and monthly charts The market never feels strong when it starts lower moves higher but then blasts back down as the day moves along basically closing on the lows There was absolutely nothing bearish with today s action Just normal unwinding with the oscillators behaving just fine Let s see if the bulls can get things going with the S P 500 moving no more than five points or so lower There will be lots of earnings reports to be seen by everyone in the next few days as the market s true leader the world of the financial stocks start reporting one by one Wells Fargo NYSE WFC tomorrow morning gets things under way with these stocks having held up pretty well overall The market is expecting good things from them If they don t deliver it will be far difficult for the market especially the S P 500 and Dow which is where these stocks live Maybe the Nasdaq will become the index of choice if the market wants to find a way to hold up But let s be real here these stocks need to come through at least decently if the bulls want to ultimately make a true run at the old high on the S P 500 up at 2119 There will not be any new highs if the bank stocks don t participate well on the upside of the ledger A lot of Nasdaq stocks and even small cap stocks individually have fallen pretty hard ahead of their reports as most don t expect the best from these parts of the market but the banks have behaved differently They have for the most part held up thus they need to prove they re worthy of their prices Things get rocking from here with regards to earnings If we look out deeper and focus only on the big picture then we re still just meandering around the wide open range of 2045 up to 2119 on the S P 500 While the market has behaved better of late it still hasn t done anything relevant It must clear 2119 with force or lose 2065 with force thus my 2045 number to get this market heading more directionally It s all just a big trading range no matter how it feels from day to day based on your bias Weakness can be bought for now as the technical picture isn t bad on the daily chart Just recognize the risk that will exist every day thanks to poor weekly and monthly charts We play the wide and loose range with guarded caution for now |
CMCSA | Hulu launches live TV streaming service | Reuters Hulu LLC said on Wednesday it has launched its live TV streaming service putting itself in the center of a growing and competitive market as viewers increasingly watch TV through the internet rather than on cable and satellite television
For 40 a month Hulu will offer 50 sports news entertainment and kids channels including ABC CBS FOX and NBC CNN CNBC Fox News MSNBC A E and the Disney Channel The new service will also include its current video streaming options
The service includes 50 hours of recording storage up to six individual profiles and two simultaneous streams per account
Hulu is owned by Walt Disney Co Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Twenty First Century Fox Inc and Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX
Hulu which competes with AT T NYSE T Inc s DirecTVNow and Dish Network Corp s Sling TV said in a separate statement that its viewership growth has reached 47 million total unique viewers In May 2016 Hulu said it had 30 million unique viewers |
CMCSA | Comcast launches new WiFi service as connected devices grow | By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK Reuters Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA launched a new cloud based service on Monday that allows users to control and monitor their Wi Fi usage as the largest cable provider in the U S looks for ways to boost consumer loyalty in its broadband business The service called XFi allows users to set up their home Wi Fi shut off children s devices at bedtime and troubleshoot problems from an application on their mobile phones website or television It is now available for free to 10 million of Comcast s Xfinity Internet customers with compatible WiFi devices Comcast is trying to improve the home Wi Fi experience at a time when its customers are connecting a growing number of devices The Philadelphia based company says that by 2020 Americans will have an average of 50 connected devices in their homes Its efforts come at a time when broadband subscribers are outnumbering video customers as more consumers drop their cable packages or never subscribe in the first place In 2016 Comcast had 24 7 million high speed Internet customers and 22 5 million video customers according to a filing On the company s post earnings conference call Chief Executive Brian Roberts said last month that we have more broadband customers than we do video and the rate of that growth is pretty exciting in broadband Comcast s broadband business grew 10 1 percent in the first quarter ended March 31 In creating XFi the company hopes to reduce churn or customer defections Chris Satchell chief product officer said in an interview that half of the customer complaints Comcast receives about Internet service are actually about Wi Fi
We want the connectivity in the home to be as good as connectivity to the home Satchell said |
CMCSA | Snap Stock Dips To New All Time Low Again | Shares of Snap Inc NYSE SNAP slumped again on Friday closing about 2 75 lower and touching a new all time low during afternoon trading hours The struggling social media stock is now nearly 15 below its IPO price
After closing at 14 89 per share on Thursday Snap slipped as low as 14 34 a new all time bottom on Friday afternoon
It s been a light news week for Snap which felt the full force of several critical analyst reports last week but the stock has been heading lower regardless In fact one of the few major stories we saw from the company this week is probably a good thing for the company
Earlier this week we learned that Snap partnered with NBC News to produce a twice daily headline news show called Stay Tuned for the Snapchat app Stay Tuned began airing on Wednesday and is the first ever daily news show on Snapchat
The show is supported by sponsorships and advertising and NBC will reportedly share a portion of its ads revenue with Snap Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA owned NBCUniversal invested 500 million in Snap during the company s IPO
Nevertheless Snap shares lost about more than 5 of their value during the week This weak momentum comes as investors are starting to eye the company s post IPO lockup expiration date
When a company goes public its employees are temporarily barred from selling their equity for a certain period of time For Snap this window is set to close on July 31 and that means new shares could flood the market and send the stock even lower
Holding SNAP over the next few weeks will not be an activity that I recommend for the faint of heart There is even more volatility on the horizon and if you re an investor that likes to avoid risk this Zacks Rank 4 Sell stock is probably not your best bet
Want more stock market analysis from this author Make sure to follow on Twitter
3 Top Picks to Ride the Hottest Tech Trend
Zacks just released a Special Report to guide you through a space that has already begun to transform our entire economy
Last year it was generating 8 billion in global revenues By 2020 it s predicted to blast through the roof to 47 billion Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce the world s first trillionaires but that should still leave plenty of money for those who make the right trades early |
CMCSA | 3 Reasons Why Comcast Corporation CMCSA Could Beat Earnings Estimates | Comcast Corporation NASDAQ CMCSA is among the world s leading communication companies providing basic cable digital cable and high speed internet services that connect people to what s important in their lives More importantly the company is prepared to release its quarterly earnings report before the market opens on July 27
Comcast currently sports a Zacks Rank 3 Hold has defeated its earnings projections in twelve of its past thirteen operational quarters including an impressive beat last quarter of 20 45 Furthermore Comcast operates in the Cable Television industry which ranks in the top 48 of the Zacks Industry Rank
Due to Comcast s adequate Zacks Rank impressive earnings results history and Earnings ESP of 2 08 investors should possess optimism heading toward the company s report date
If that isn t enough here are 3 additional reasons to be confident about Comcast as we approach July 27
1 Impressive Style Scores
Comcast currently holds impressive Style Score ratings including A grades for Growth and Momentum as well as a B grade for Value Comcast s B grade in Value is driven by a 5 04 earnings yield as well as a PEG ratio of 2 20 both of which defeat the industry averages of 3 52 and 3 17 respectively
Comcast s A grade in Growth is driven by a net margin of 11 12 and projected sales growth of 5 15 both of which beat industry averages Additionally Comcast s strong Momentum grade is partially due to its share price increase of 18 34 over the past year which crushes the modest 7 79 gain of its industry peers
2 Expansion to New Customers
In late March 2017 Comcast announced that it gained the rights to offer online TV services nationwide from several unnamed cable networks due to the most favored nation clause in its contract This allows Comcast to sell its video services outside its regional territories to new cities like New York and Los Angeles for the first time This marks Comcast s foray into online streaming TV services thus diversifying its range of offerings Also Comcast is working on renegotiating long term deals with some its major partners including CBS and ESPN
3 Growth in Key Divisions
Comcast is projected to report revenue growth in several of its key divisions According to our consensus estimates Comcast s NBCUniversal division is expected to post 12 3 year over year revenue increase bringing its quarterly total to around 7 9 billion Furthermore our consensus estimates call for Comcast to post 40 growth in its Filmed Entertainment division and 13 growth Theme Parks division bringing these totals to around 1 9 billion and 1 3 billion respectively
These consensus estimates are from our exclusive non financial metrics estimate file These estimates are updated daily and are based on the independent research of expert stock analysts
Currently the Zacks Consensus Estimates call for revenues of 20 82 billion and earnings of 0 48 per share which would represent year over year growth of 8 03 and 16 27 respectively
The Hottest Tech Mega Trend of All
Last year it generated 8 billion in global revenues By 2020 it s predicted to blast through the roof to 47 billion Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce the world s first trillionaries but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early |
CMCSA | 3 Telecom Stocks Set To Beat Estimates This Earnings Season | Telecom service provider stocks have not performed well in the second quarter of 2017 The industry has declined 3 09 underperforming the S P 500 s rally of 16 53 Several near term headwinds continue to persist The chief ones include growing price competition for wireless services which are likely to reduce carriers revenue growth in 2017 Leading cable MSOs multi service operators have decided to enter the wireless field in 2017 This is likely to intensify competition in an already saturated market Furthermore capital spending by the U S telecom carriers may be muted in 2017 On the positive side the new U S telecom regulatory body Federal Communications Commission FCC has given enough indications that it will be less stringent compared with the Obama administration It is also likely to roll back several stringent regulations of the previous regime The lesser restrictive nature of the FCC will aid mergers and acquisitions which are likely to spur growth in 2017 Performance So FarPer the latest report 128 S P 500 members accounting for 36 1 of the index s total membership have reported second quarter earnings results as of Jul 25 Total earnings for these companies are up 7 from the same period last year on 4 2 higher revenues with 77 3 beating EPS estimates and 70 3 beating revenue estimates The above mentioned figures indicate that the growth pace is likely to be lower than what we had seen in the first quarter but will mostly be in line with the four quarter average It also presents a notable improvement over the last 12 quarter average Total second quarter earnings are expected to be up 8 6 from the same period last year on 4 7 higher revenues This would follow 13 3 earnings growth in the first quarter 2017 on 7 0 rise in revenues the highest growth pace in almost two years How to Make the Right Pick Given the large number of industry participants selecting stocks that have the potential to beat estimates appears to be a daunting task Nonetheless our proprietary methodology makes it fairly simple One way to narrow down the list of choices this earnings season is by looking at stocks that have the combination of a favorable Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy 2 Buy or 3 Hold and a positive
Earnings ESP is our proprietary methodology to determine which stocks have the best chance to surprise in their next earnings announcement It shows the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate Our research shows that for stocks with this combination the chance of a positive earnings surprise is as high as 70 Earnings beat boosts investor s confidence in the stock which is reflected in its rapid price appreciation You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they re reported with our
Our choicesWith the aid of the above methodology we have zeroed in on three telecom stocks that are likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this earnings season SBA Communications Corp has an Earnings ESP of 10 00 and sports a Zacks Rank 1 You can see The company is scheduled to report results on Jul 31 Last quarter the company posted a whopping positive earnings surprise of 40 91 and a long term earnings growth rate of 10 6 Cypress Semiconductor Corp has an Earnings ESP of 11 11 and sports a Zacks Rank 1 The company is scheduled to report results on Jul 27 It has an average positive earnings surprise of a massive 83 30 in the last four quarters and a long term earnings growth rate of 10 Comcast Corp has an Earnings ESP of 2 08 and carries a Zacks Rank 3 The company is scheduled to report results on Jul 27 It has an average positive earnings surprise of 5 11 in the last four quarters and a long term earnings growth rate of 9 1 The Hottest Tech Mega Trend of All
Last year it generated 8 billion in global revenues By 2020 it s predicted to blast through the roof to 47 billion Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce the world s first trillionaries but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early
See Zacks 3 Best to Play This Trend |
WFC | Dollar little changed in light pre Christmas trade | By Richard Leong NEW YORK Reuters The dollar held steady on Friday in a tight trading range as traders moved to the sidelines ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend leaving the greenback about half a percent below a 14 year peak set earlier this week The dollar will likely resume its recent rally when the new year begins It has gained 5 percent against a basket of currencies since Donald Trump s U S presidential victory on Nov 8 No one wants to take additional risk between now and the end of the year They don t want to jeopardize those gains said Stan Shipley strategist at Evercore ISI in New York Traders brushed off upbeat data on U S new home sales and consumer sentiment which reinforced views that the world s biggest economy is expanding at a steady clip Bets that Trump s economic policies would promote faster U S growth and inflation have fed appetite for the dollar stocks and corporate bonds while stoking selling in traditional safe havens the yen gold and U S Treasuries The Federal Reserve s hint that it might raise U S interest rates at a faster pace in 2017 along with the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan s maintaining their ultra loose policy stance has also bolstered the dollar in recent days The dollar index DXY was marginally softer at 103 04 after trading in a 0 34 point range and not far from the 14 year peak of 103 65 reached on Tuesday The euro was steady after the Italian government approved a rescue package for Monte dei Paschi di Siena MI BMPS after the world s oldest bank failed to raise needed capital from investors Worries about the European bank sector also diminished after Credit Suisse S CSGN and Deutsche Bank DE DBKGn agreed to settle with the U S Department of Justice over claims they misled investors when selling mortgage backed securities nL5N1EI1PL The euro was up 0 1 percent at 1 0446 holding above a nearly 14 year low of 1 0350 set earlier in the week With Japan markets closed for a holiday the yen edged up 0 1 percent against the euro EURJPY at 122 45 yen and up 0 2 percent versus the dollar at 117 26 yen For the yen there s a bit of consolidation after its recent weakening said Paul Christopher head global market strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Investment Institute in St Louis Missouri The yen recovered somewhat after hitting a 10 1 2 month low against the dollar this week helped by lower U S yields and safe haven bids stemming from the attacks in Ankara and Berlin analysts said
The benchmark U S 10 year Treasury yield US10YT RR was down 1 basis point from Thursday at 2 543 percent |
WFC | U S Justice Dept orders whistleblower to testify in Wells Fargo probe | By Sarah N Lynch Reuters The U S Department of Justice has subpoenaed a high profile whistleblower in its criminal investigation into Wells Fargo Co s N WFC opening of accounts without customer permission U S prosecutors in San Francisco have asked Wells Fargo banker Yesenia Guitron who lost a private lawsuit against the fourth largest lender to testify before a grand jury in San Francisco on Tuesday according to a subpoena dated Dec 12 which was seen by Reuters A Wells Fargo spokesman declined to comment Guitron is among at least five Wells Fargo employees who sued the bank or filed complaints with regulators alleging that they were fired after reporting the opening of customer accounts without their permission according to a Reuters review of lawsuits and complaints to the U S Labor Department The suits and complaints filed between 2010 and 2014 raise questions about how early Wells Fargo knew about such allegations and how it handled them San Francisco based Wells Fargo reached a settlement with U S regulators and the Los Angeles city attorney in September The Justice Department subpoena directs Guitron to bring all documents related to her employment at Wells including any related to sales practices discipline or other form of retaliation taken against you by Wells Fargo or Wells Fargo employees Guitron and her lawyer were not immediately available for comment A spokesman for the U S attorney for the Northern District of California which issued the subpoena declined comment The bank has acknowledged opening as many as 2 million accounts without customer permission and it fired 5 300 employees for the behavior Former staffers have publicly described a culture where they were pushed into hitting unrealistic sales targets and opened the sham accounts to do so Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf resigned in October after intense questioning before Congress Beyond the Justice Department probe Wells Fargo is facing others from various lawmakers and regulators including a criminal probe by the California attorney general s office Guitron and another personal banker Judi Klosek filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as a joint federal lawsuit in 2010 claiming Wells Fargo retaliated against them for blowing the whistle on similar conduct Guitron alleged that managers responded by falsifying a paper trail that purported to document her poor performance forbidding her from taking family medical leave and firing her improperly
A federal judge ultimately dismissed all of Guitron s claims saying Wells Fargo was justified in firing her because she failed to meet sales quotas and refused to meet with management |
WFC | Stocks could suffer as Trump trade policy takes shape | By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK Reuters The year end stocks rally on the heels of the election of Donald Trump as U S president was built on expectations of reduced regulations big tax cuts and a large fiscal stimulus Now signs are emerging from the Trump camp that harsher trade policies that could jeopardize the honeymoon are likely in the offing and investors would be well advised to give those prospects more weight when gauging how much further an already pricey market has to run By naming China hawk Peter Navarro as head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council the incoming administration is signaling Trump s campaign promises to revisit trade deals and even impose a tax on all imports are very much alive Among the policies favored by Navarro and Trump s pick for commerce secretary Wilbur Ross who has the president elect s ear on a range of economic issues is a so called border adjustment tax that is also included in House Speaker Paul Ryan s Better Way tax reform blueprint If implemented economists at Deutsche Bank DE DBKGn estimate the tax could send inflation far above the Federal Reserve s 2 percent target and drive a 15 percent surge in the dollar Analysts calculate that all else being equal a 5 percent increase in the dollar translates into about a 3 percent negative earnings revision for the S P 500 SPX and a half point drag on gross domestic product growth The dollar index DXY has already gained more than 5 percent since the U S election Harsher trade policies may not cause a full economic slowdown but I d expect a localized recession in manufacturing and smaller gains in factory employment as well said Brian Jacobsen chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Funds Management in Menomonee Falls Wisconsin He said the border tax could trigger retaliation pouring uncertainty into the market Even if the drafters of the legislation have pure intentions other countries could use this as a pretext for propping up or subsidizing their own favorite industries TOP ECONOMY RISK Stocks have rallied broadly since Nov 8 with the S P 500 advancing by 5 7 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI surging nearly 9 percent to brush up against the 20 000 mark Some sectors such as banks have shot up nearly 25 percent in the post election run U S equities have gotten substantially pricier from a valuation vantage as well The forward price to earnings ratio on the S P 500 has risen by a full point since Election Day from 16 6 to 17 6 Thomson Reuters data shows That makes stocks about 17 percent more expensive relative to their earnings potential than their long term average multiple of around 15 Small caps have gotten pricier still The forward multiple on the Russell 2000 RUT has risen to 26 from 22 on Nov 8 up 18 percent while the index price has climbed 14 percent S P 500 earnings are expected to rise 12 5 percent next year according to Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research estimates Anything that impedes companies from achieving that target such as a bump from a trade spat or further dollar appreciation in anticipation of new trade barriers would undermine equity valuations In the latest Reuters poll of U S primary dealers economists at Wall Street s top banks cited Trump s evolving trade policies over other factors such as fiscal policy a strong dollar and higher interest rates as the greatest risk to the near term economic outlook The idea of a tax on imports should alarm people according to Michael O Rourke chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich Connecticut If we do have a trade war that s going to be a major negative for stocks he said adding that the upward momentum in equities alongside the lack of participation due to the upcoming holidays have so far prevented a repricing but we could cap the rally here that could very well happen O Rourke said technology a sector that represents the globalization trade would be among the hardest hit by taxing imports
Deutsche Bank s auto sector equities analyst estimated the border tax could slam other industries that rely on global supply chains with the cost of a new car for instance jumping by as much as 10 percent |
WFC | Investors brace for 2017 shocks after surprise 2016 run | By Lewis Krauskopf and Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK Reuters After a late year rally fueled by the U S election pushed stocks to surprising new peaks investors are wary that the market could be primed for a spill to start 2017 The benchmark S P 500 SPX is set to post a roughly 10 percent price gain for 2016 and around 12 percent on a total return basis including reinvested dividends That tops the single digit increase expected by market participants polled by Reuters a year ago with more than half of the advance coming after Donald Trump s Nov 8 presidential victory The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI was on pace to rise more than 13 percent for 2016 with a total return above 16 percent From here though investors expect the S P 500 to rise by mid single digits in 2017 according to a Reuters poll earlier this month Reflecting the renewed bullishness for equities U S based stock funds pulled in 11 8 billion in the week ended Dec 28 data from Lipper showed on Thursday marking a sharp reversal from most of the year But investors see several warning signs for 2017 including stocks at traditionally expensive valuations investors registering particularly bullish sentiment and the Federal Reserve primed to raise interest rates several times this year Meanwhile a market lifted in part by hopes for Trump s policy agenda could be deflated should any of those hopes be dented once he begins in office The S P has rallied by more than 5 percent since Election Day while the Dow has climbed by more than 8 percent If anything we head into the new year with the likelihood we will probably see some near term weakness in equities primarily because of the move we ve seen higher said Peter Kenny senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group in New York You will see some winning trades being taken off the table and in general a reset A TAXING START TO THE NEW YEAR January has proven to be a difficult month for equities in recent years with the S P 500 falling at least 3 percent in each January of 2014 2015 and 2016 The beginning of 2016 was marked by the worst 10 day start ever for the S P plagued by worries about a rout in commodities a China slowdown and a potentially over aggressive Fed after it hiked interest rates for the first time since 2008 A year later a test for the market could come as soon as next week Investors may have been holding off on selling their winners until 2017 with hopes that any profits will be taxed at a lower rate under a Trump administration A lot of people have postponed selling gains this year expecting that they are going to have lower tax brackets next year said Paul Nolte portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago So we might see a weaker open to the year as investors take some of those gains that they have waited to do Trump takes office on Jan 20 so investors will begin to assess how easily the new administration will be able to fulfill its reflationary policies that were anticipated in the wake of the election and that helped drive the end of year rally There was a tinge more enthusiasm not only because Trump won and that is perceived as less headwinds for business but also because the Republicans were able to hold onto the Senate which was unexpected said Scott Wren senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Investment Institute in St Louis
But it s not like all these deals are rubber stamp deals They are going to have to be refined debated you don t know what the magnitude is and they have to be implemented |
WFC | Sales practices a key risk to banking system says U S regulator | By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON Reuters Wells Fargo s phony account scandal has spurred a top U S bank regulator to count sales practices as a chief risk to the country s banking system and to embark on a wide sweeping review of large and mid sized institutions In a half yearly report on threats to banks the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Thursday said it now counts governance over sales practices as a key risk issue The office along with other regulators has been looking at bank sales practices since it penalized Wells Fargo N WFC in September for 185 million for years of allegedly opening ghost credit card and bank accounts in customers names or convincing customers to add unnecessary accounts This is the first time the OCC has deemed sales practices a key threat putting them on the same level as hacking low reserves and a gathering storm of credit risk from significant growth in loans and deteriorating lending standards On a call with reporters Comptroller Thomas Curry said the review continues but declined to provide details and said he could not give a public assessment on individual banks or the sector as a whole The office is currently looking at how the banks it has selected for review large and midsized banks handle their sales practices and then will expand its work in the near future based on the findings he said While he would not give a timeline for the review Curry said OCC staff have an internal goalpost The OCC said it expects to continue to see mergers and acquisitions among banks which could pose risks to banks ability to manage information systems and platforms and controls It said that banks should consider the strategic implications of a lower interest rate environment for a longer time period A persistent low and flat interest rate environment continues to pressure some banks and asset managers to reach for yield by extending asset duration taking additional credit risk and looking for new revenue channels it said
OCC examiners meanwhile have found that banks are weak in preparing for losses on loans and leases and are not giving enough consideration to strong loan growth concentrations of credit increasing risk appetite and lower underwriting standards |
WFC | U S dollar to extend rally in 2017 may hit one to one with euro Reuters poll | By Sumanta Dey Reuters The U S dollar will keep strengthening against the euro with even chances of reaching parity this year a Reuters poll showed on Friday on expectations that President elect Donald Trump s planned tax cuts will force interest rates higher It was also expected to strengthen against Britain s pound and to stay buoyant against a basket of major currencies The findings suggest a good amount of optimism still prevails among currency strategists about the impact Trump s policies will have on growth inflation and interest rates especially considering the dollar has rallied almost 4 percent to a near 14 year peak last year In the months before the Nov 8 U S presidential election most foreign exchange analysts polled by Reuters said the dollar would decline 2 to 3 percent immediately after a Trump victory a view they have abandoned altogether A little under two thirds of analysts who answered an extra question in the poll said their forecasts for the dollar were more likely to be low than high Several of those responses came after minutes from the Federal Reserve s December meeting revealed policymakers had begun factoring in the likelihood of greater fiscal stimulus into their forecasts suggesting rates could rise faster than the three moves currently predicted by them The Fed s thinking seems to have shifted already with its dots moving higher in December compared to last year when they mostly moved lower and that signals a period of dollar strength said Eric Viloria FX strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC the top forecaster for major currencies in Reuters polls in 2016 Dots refers to a scatter chart of where Fed members see rates a year ahead But Viloria cautioned the dollar is well into its typical long term cycle So I think there could be some further rise this year but a turning point after that cannot be ruled out either The latest poll of 60 strategists taken this week forecasts the dollar index which measures the currency against a basket of six major currencies DXY USD at 101 5 by end 2017 That is roughly where it is now but only after surging over 40 percent since mid 2011 Since the election traders have been piling on long positions with the exception of the week before Christmas according to CFTC data Expectations of further gains have dented the outlook for almost every other currency around the world from Asia to Europe to Latin America Reuters poll data shows Trump takes office later this month There remain considerable uncertainties about his policies with regard to trade and China and the extent to which he would go to fulfill his protectionist election promises His middle of the night tweets are going to be an additional source of concern as financial markets attempt to slice and interpret his message said Khoon Goh of ANZ the number one Asian currencies forecaster in Reuters Polls in 2016 EURO NEAR PARITY After calling for the euro to rise right until the U S election result strategists have once again taken to forecasting a weaker euro owing to diverging monetary policy between the Fed and European Central Bank as well as important elections in several euro zone countries The main risk of the euro falling down further against the dollar should come from elections in Netherlands France Germany and maybe in Italy In case of a very large vote in favor of eurosceptic candidates or parties the euro should suffer said Jean Louis Mourier economist at Aurel BGC in Paris While the 12 month consensus is for the euro to weaken to 1 04 from 1 06 now respondents gave a median 50 percent chance of it reaching or falling below parity to the dollar in 2017 not seen since late 2002 when it was on its way up That probability is the highest in at least the past two years and half the 60 respondents had a euro forecast at or below 1 at some point in the poll horizon compared with little less than a third of participants in a poll last month The euro zone economy has started the year on solid ground private sector growth in activity the fastest in five years in December and inflation climbing to 1 1 percent but still well below the ECB s 2 percent target ceiling There has been some talk about whether the ECB ought to consider shutting down its monthly asset purchases program or even to raise rates But the ECB s decision in mid 2011 to hike rates pre emptively went awry fanning the currency bloc s festering debt crisis and won t be easily forgotten
Other stories from the Reuters FX poll Polling by Sarmista Sen and Shrutee Sarkar Editing by Ross Finley Jeremy Gaunt |
CMCSA | Global stocks slip after Trump tax plan euro softens after ECB | By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK Reuters A gauge of world stock markets slipped on Thursday as a three day rally stalled in the wake of a largely expected U S tax cut plan while the euro weakened after comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi On Wall Street stocks edged higher as the Nasdaq notched the day s best performance Investors focused on a stream of solid earnings reports after a lukewarm reception for U S President Donald Trump s tax plan unveiled on Wednesday as some details of the plan were largely anticipated by investors Corporate earnings continue to show strong results for the quarter Comcast O CMCSA up 2 1 percent was the top boost to the benchmark S P 500 index after reporting results Most folks were expecting a build in earnings acceleration and that s what we ve got said Michael Arone chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston Despite all the economic and geopolitical noise ultimately the market has been responding to improving earnings Arone said a premium has been built into stock prices on bets of tax reform and other policies expected from the Trump administration so when that is in question you see a sideways action First quarter earnings are expected to show growth of 12 4 percent the best since 2011 according to Thomson Reuters data U S economic data showed new orders for U S made capital goods rose less than expected in March but a second straight monthly increase in shipments suggested business investment accelerated in the first quarter The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 6 3 points or 0 03 percent to 20 981 39 the S P 500 SPX gained 1 32 points or 0 06 percent to 2 388 77 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 23 71 points or 0 39 percent to 6 048 94 Europe s main bourses closed lower after falling as much as 0 5 percent as traders pulled back after a six session winning streak on relief at the outcome of the first round of France s presidential election and encouraging earnings The pan European FTSEurofirst 300 index FTEU3 lost 0 23 percent and MSCI s gauge of stocks across the globe MIWD00000PUS shed 0 06 percent to edge down from a record As widely expected the ECB made no changes to its record low interest rates or stimulus program But euro zone government bond yields and the euro fell after Draghi said policymakers did not discuss removing the bank s easing bias on monetary policy at this month s meeting The benchmark 10 year Bund yield was last down almost 5 basis points at 0 303 percent The euro was down 0 24 percent to 1 0877 against the dollar After weakening against the greenback on Wednesday the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso went in opposite directions after Washington said it would not scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA The Mexican peso strengthened 0 67 percent versus the U S dollar at 19 05 while the Canadian dollar weakened 0 04 percent versus the greenback at 1 36 per dollar Oil prices renewed their slump after news that two key oilfields in Libya had restarted pumping crude for export into an already swollen market Brent crude is on track for its seventh decline in nine sessions
U S crude settled down 1 3 percent at 48 97 per barrel and Brent settled off 0 7 percent at 51 44 on the day |
WFC | SEC asks Wells Fargo to explain loan accounting practices | By Dan Freed Reuters The top U S securities regulator has questioned Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co over its accounting for a roughly 20 billion portfolio of troubled loans In a letter sent in September that became public on Tuesday the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC asked the bank s controller Richard Levy to explain how Wells Fargo went about valuing the portfolio which it acquired primarily by buying Wachovia The SEC s questions which may represent another headache for Wells Fargo following a sales scandal relate to assumptions the bank made in determining how to value the loans On a portfolio of so called Pick a Pay mortgages for example the discussion focused on metrics such as borrower credit score and loan to value Those valuation assumptions affect Wells Fargo s earnings in that when banks acquire distressed assets they must value them in a way that involves some guesswork about whether the loans will be repaid The values can rise or fall significantly over time depending partly on the accuracy of the guesswork which in turn can lead to gains or losses In recent months stock analysts at firms including Keefe Bruyette Woods and Credit Suisse SIX CSGN have raised questions about whether Wells Fargo s earnings are supported by underlying business growth or accounting maneuvers In a Sept 23 note Credit Suisse s Susan Katzke said the bank s shares were pressured by debatable earnings quality even before a sales scandal erupted on Sept 8 hammering its stock There is this sense they are managing earnings and the way you can manage earnings is if you interpret accounting in beneficial ways at the appropriate moments said Charles Peabody analyst at Compass Point Research Trading I don t think that is necessarily a bad thing The problem is that when you get on that treadmill it s hard to get off it Wells Fargo s Levy responded to the SEC s questions in detail in an October letter His response included tables showing how and why values changed over time In correspondence the next month the SEC s senior assistant chief accountant Stephanie Sullivan said the agency had completed its review Valuing such loans is challenging and that is the answer that Wells Fargo is offering said Judy Beckman an accounting professor at the University of Rhode Island Spokesmen for the SEC and Wells Fargo declined to comment The SEC regularly questions companies on their earnings reports The regulator sent 2 905 such letters to companies during the 12 month period ended June 30 according to a report from Ernst Young In September regulators ordered Wells Fargo to pay 190 million in fines and restitution to settle charges its employees created as many as 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without the consent of customers
The bank faced more trouble on Tuesday when it was the only major U S bank that failed to convince regulators it could go bankrupt without causing a major market disruption |
WFC | Wells Fargo says account openings fall in November | Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC reported another decline in monthly consumer account openings indicating that the bank is having trouble rebuilding its reputation after a sales scandal The bank agreed in September to pay regulators 185 million to settle charges that its staff opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge Wells Fargo said on Friday consumer checking account openings fell 9 percent in November from the previous month and were down 41 percent from a year earlier The bank started reporting monthly figures on retail banking activity last moth as part of an effort to win back the trust of investors Account openings fell 27 percent in October from September In the near term we still have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust Mary Mack head of Wells Fargo s community banking business said on a call with analysts Mack added that while the numbers still show weakness she expects an improvement as the bank focuses on customer service and announces a new compensation plan in January
The figures released on Friday also showed fewer customer interactions and a drop in debit card transactions in November |
WFC | BNP Paribas says makes first real time blockchain payments for clients | PARIS Reuters France s BNP Paribas PA BNPP said it had processed its first live payments in various currencies for two corporate clients via blockchain technology in a further sign of the growing importance of the new technology for major banks Blockchain is a web based transaction processing and settlement system whose efficiency banks say could slash costs It creates a golden record of any given set of data that is automatically replicated for all parties in a secure network eliminating any need for third party verification BNP Paribas said it had processed and cleared payments in various currencies between BNP Paribas bank accounts located in Germany the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for its clients Panini Group an Italian card collections producer and Australian packaging company Amcor The payments were fully processed and cleared in a few minutes highlighting the real potential of this innovative technology which eliminates delays unexpected fees and processing errors paving the way for real time cash management BNP Paribas said in a statement
In October Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Wells Fargo NYSE WFC said that the first cross border transaction between banks using multiple blockchain applications had taken place resulting in a shipment of cotton to China from the United States |
WFC | FINRA fines Wells Fargo others 14 million for records changeable format | By Elizabeth Dilts NEW YORK Reuters The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said it fined several Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co businesses RBC Capital Markets LPL Financial and others a combined 14 4 million on Wednesday for record keeping problems that may have allowed company and customer documents to be altered The securities industry s self regulator found that the firms failed to keep hundreds of millions of electronic documents in a write once read many format which would have made it impossible to alter or destroy records after they were written The firms agreed to the fines but neither admitted nor denied the charges FINRA did not say documents had been changed but said the records were pivotal to the firms brokerage businesses and that it relies on these files to ensure firms are following securities laws The regulator said it also is concerned about the security of the records because hackers in recent years have aggressively targeted banks electronic storage databases The regulator fined Wells Fargo s securities and prime brokerage businesses 4 million and the bank s brokerage and independent wealth management businesses 1 5 million FINRA also fined RBS LON RBS Securities SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Georgeson Securities Corp and PNC Capital Markets amounts ranging from 2 million to 500 000 Wells Fargo spokeswoman Elise Wilkinson said the firm took record keeping compliance seriously We self reported these issues to FINRA and continue to remediate as agreed she said in an emailed statement RBC declined to comment LPL and the other companies named did not immediately respond to requests for comment Corrects spelling of Wells Fargo spokeswoman s first name in seventh paragraph |
WFC | Top Trade Ideas For The Week March 16 2015 Bonus Idea | Here is your Bonus Idea with links to the full Top Ten
Wells Fargo NYSE WFC rose off of the October low but has struggled at resistance just under 56 But back at that level for the third time and from progressively higher lows it looks good for a technical break out higher The Ascending triangle it has built since October would target a move to 65 10 on a break out higher
The momentum indicators are supportive of the upside as well The RSI is bullish and rising while the MACD has turned back up and near a bullish cross The expanding Bollinger Bands after the squeeze are also a good sign
There is support lower at 54 and then 52 75 followed by 51 85 and 50 50 And there is no resistance higher over 56 Short interest is low under 1 and the company is expected to report earnings next April 14th before the market opens
This stock has weekly options to trade and the March Expiry Friday sees very large Open interest at the 55 Strike Call This is 50 more than the 52 50 Call Strike and 3 time the next largest at the 56 Strike Call This could easily stay in the 55 to 56 range this week and push these ideas into next week
Wells Fargo
Trade Idea 1 Buy the stock on a move over 56 with a stop at 54 25 A straight stock trade
Trade Idea 2 Buy the March 55 56 Call Spread offered at 53 cents late Friday Participation this week for a possible pin at 56 Friday
Trade Idea 3 Buy the March 55 56 Call Spread and sell the March 55 Put 27 cents Adding leverage to the call spread above and relying on the large open interest at 55 to protect the downside
Trade Idea 4 Buy the March April 55 March 55 50 Call Diagonal 1 00 For a longer term upside run into earnings with protection this week from the large open interest at 55
Trade Idea 5 Buy the Stock on a move over 56 and add an April 55 52 5 Put Spread 70 cents and sell a July 60 Covered Call 44 cents A longer term trade or investment with protection to 52 50 through earnings in April
After reviewing over 1 000 charts I have found some good setups for the week These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad picture reviewed Friday which Heading into the March Options Expiration week the equity markets are a bit mixed mostly better looking to the downside
Elsewhere look for gold to continue lower along with Crude Oil next week The US Dollar Index may consolidate in the uptrend but has a clear bias higher while US Treasuries are biased lower The Shanghai Composite is trying to break consolidation to resume the uptrend while Emerging Markets are biased to the downside still
Volatility looks to remain subdued but above the low range of the early 2014 keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF s SPDR S P 500 ARCA SPY iShares Russell 2000 Index ARCA IWM and PowerShares QQQ NASDAQ QQQ but with the wind easing at their backs Their charts all are consolidating in the short run with the bias to the upside for the IWM while to the downside for the SPY and QQQ The long term uptrend remains intact for each though Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad em well
The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog please see my page for my full disclaimer |
CMCSA | Company News For July 03 2017 | Shares of West Marine Inc NASDAQ WMAR surged 33 2 after Monomoy Capital Partners decided to purchase the company for 12 97 per share Shares of American Outdoor Brands Corporation NASDAQ AOBC declined 7 4 after reporting adjusted earnings of 0 57 per share down by 13 6 year over year AMC Networks Inc s NASDAQ AMCX shares gained 0 3 following the news that the company tested an ad free broadcast experience on Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA for viewers Parkway Inc s NYSE PKY shares surged 12 3 following news that Canada Pension Plan Investment Board decided to acquire the company for 1 2 billion |
WFC | Euro drops for second day after dovish ECB meeting | By Karen Brettell NEW YORK Reuters The euro dropped on Friday for the second consecutive day after the European Central Bank on Thursday extended its bond buying program longer than many had anticipated even as it cut the size of the monthly purchases The ECB said it would reduce its monthly asset buys to 60 billion euros starting in April from 80 billion euros currently and extend purchases to December from March It reserved the right to increase the size of purchases again Underlying its promise for extensive stimulus the ECB predicted inflation at 1 7 percent in 2019 arguing that more costly energy could boost consumer prices even without lifting the underlying trend The extension of the program was longer than most had expected and a lot of the language was pretty dovish said Erik Nelson a currency analyst at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC in New York Inflation forecasts were pretty subdued all the way out to 2019 and growth forecasts were pretty low and the risks are tilted to the downside The euro dropped to 1 0548 its lowest since Monday and was last down 0 47 percent at 1 0566 The U S Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates for the first time this year when it meets next week but may take a cautious tone on the economy Traders will focus on the Fed s economic projections known colloquially as the dot plot for indications of any change in expectations following Donald Trump s surprise election as U S president on Nov 8 Trump s victory increased market expectations of greater fiscal stimulus that could boost economic growth and inflation In the last three or four meetings we ve seen a continual marking down in the dot plot Nelson said so even if you see the officials maintain the current forecast it could be viewed as mildly hawkish
The dollar gained 0 37 percent to 101 47 against a basket of six major currencies DXY Against the Japanese yen the greenback increased as high as 115 27 yen its highest since Feb 9 and was last up 0 76 percent at 114 86 yen |
WFC | Coke CEO Muhtar Kent hands reins to Quincey in widely expected move | By Siddharth Cavale and Sruthi Ramakrishnan Reuters Coca Cola Co said on Friday that Muhtar Kent would step aside as chief executive next year and be replaced by James Quincey a company veteran credited with several recent changes to help the company cut its dependence on sugary drinks Quincey s ascension was widely expected since he became chief operating officer in August 2015 after jobs that included running Coke s businesses in Europe and Mexico over two decades Kent 64 will have completed nine years at the helm when he steps down in May but he will continue as chairman of the board a post he has held since 2009 Coke said Coke s shares were up 2 6 percent to 42 04 in afternoon trading making the stock biggest percentage gainer on the Dow Jones industrial average Quincey 51 is credited with several changes at Coke including introducing smaller bottles to boost profit and reducing the sugar and calorie content in drinks initiatives he would continue to focus on the CEO designate said on Friday The future in terms of the beverage industry in some parts of the world yes there ll be less added sugar and yes we think we need to push ahead with the smaller packages and reformulations and innovations Quincey said He said Coke would also concentrate on its sparkling beverage business push into other drink categories and continue to innovate Coke still gets about 70 percent of its volume sales from sodas and its sales have fallen in the last three years on sagging demand for sugary drinks which health experts and governments have blamed for rising obesity levels Since Kent took over as CEO in July 2008 Coke s sales have increased by about 39 percent while the company s shares have surged 61 percent VOTE OF CONFIDENCE Quincey who joined Coke in 1996 is also credited with streamlining Coke s bottling operations by merging its three main bottlers in Europe to form Coca Cola European Partners Plc now Coke s largest independent bottler by net revenue His latest promotion was given a vote of confidence by Warren Buffett CEO of Berkshire Hathaway NYSE BRKa Inc Coke s largest shareholder I know James and like him and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection Buffett said in the statement issued by Coke The CEO announcement comes a day after Coke said Buffett s son Howard Buffett would retire from its board next year Some analysts saw the move as potentially paving the way for Buffett s firm Berkshire Hathaway to sell down its nearly 17 billion stake Those counting on an eventual bid some day from 3G Capital and Budweiser for Coke may think Berkshire Hathaway being out of the picture would make it less awkward for that group to buy Coke Susquehanna analyst Pablo Zuanic said in a note Buffett teamed up with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital last year to buy Kraft and form Kraft Heinz Co That aside Wall Street analysts hailed the succession plan A move in the right direction as Quincey is a realist with a sense of urgency about diversifying the beverage portfolio and improving local execution via refranchizing CLSA analyst Caroline Levy said Quincey s background and significant experience in deal making as well as strong understanding and appreciation of the consumer and current trends would accelerate Coke s growth Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Senior analyst Bonnie Herzog wrote in a note His appointment is the second instance of a company elevating its COO to the CEO role in as many weeks
Starbucks Corp said last week that Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson would replace Howard Schultz as CEO |
WFC | U S regulator to fail Santander on community lending sources | By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON Reuters A U S bank regulator is poised to fault Spanish lender Banco Santander SA MC SAN for doing too little to reach poor neighborhoods and will fail the bank on a test of community lending according to sources familiar with the situation The decision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency OCC is due by early 2017 said the sources who spoke on background because they were not authorized to talk about the pending action They said Santander would be listed as a bank that needs to improve under terms of the Community Reinvestment Act which was enacted in the 1970s to help end discriminatory lending Such as listing would mean that Santander will face more regulatory hurdles if it wants to open more branches or seeks to merge The OCC and Santander both declined to comment Santander which has about 85 billion in assets in the United States is counted among the largest global lenders In June the bank failed a U S stress test meant to ensure the largest firms on Wall Street can weather a future financial crisis Santander s U S bank was the first to fail the test three years in a row The Federal Reserve in its review of Santander faulted the bank for poor risk management and financial planning rather than a lack of capital Consumer advocates said they were glad to see community concerns about Santander rise to the highest level of regulatory attention Banks have an obligation to blue collar communities but they haven t always seen it that way said John Taylor head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition Earlier this week Reuters reported that Wells Fargo NYSE WFC was also due be downgraded to needs to improve under terms of the Community Reinvestment Act The label means a bank must seek approval from the OCC before acting on many day to day management issues Such banks are also expected to outline how they will expand credit to the poor Earlier this month Thomas Curry the head of the OCC said he expected the agency to clear a backlog of Community Reinvestment reviews in the weeks ahead Officials have already made great strides in working through the agency s existing backlog of CRA performance evaluations he told a gathering of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders |
WFC | U S regulator launches hotline for ex Wells Fargo bankers fired during scandal | By Elizabeth Dilts NEW YORK Reuters A private U S regulator launched a hotline on Friday to hear from ex Wells Fargo Co employees who were fired for allegedly opening unauthorized accounts after news reports that the bank may have retaliated by terminating whistleblowers in the scandal Federal regulators ordered the San Francisco based bank to pay 190 million in fines and restitution in September because they said its high pressure sales environment pushed employees to open 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without customers permission The bank said that it fired 5 300 workers involved in the sales scandal Because about 200 of those employees were licensed to sell securities they fall under the jurisdiction of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA the securities industry s self regulator A handful of Wells Fargo NYSE WFC employees have sued the bank or filed complaints with regulators saying that they were fired only after they reported on the bogus accounts In a letter last month to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren Ron Wyden and Robert Menendez said that evidence they received from FINRA showed that the bank may have filed defamatory statements to retaliate against the employees for questioning the sales tactics Financial firms are required to notify FINRA when they terminate securities brokers and to describe why the employee was fired
The descriptions in the documents can have sweeping impacts on a worker s ability to get hired elsewhere and employees are supposed to be able to review the document before it is submitted to FINRA |
CMCSA | Comcast Cable CTO Kotay leaving company | Comcast Cable CMCSA 0 4 Chief Technology Officer Sree Kotay has left the company for personal reasons He had been promoted to that role last year replacing Tony Werner who had moved up to president Technology and Product Kotay joined the company in 2007 as chief software architect and played a key role in launching its X1 platform Kotay had also led Comcast Innovation Labs the company hasn t yet said who ll succeed him |
WFC | Bank lobby presses for commission to lead consumer watchdog agency | WASHINGTON Reuters Bank lobbying groups are pressing the U S Senate to once again work on reforming the country s consumer financial watchdog agency but this time around they may see those changes become reality In a letter to Senate leaders released on Wednesday the groups including the Consumer Bankers Association and the Credit Union National Association called for legislation to change the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from a single director to a five member commission They also asked Congress to void the CFPB s recent rule on prepaid cards and halt work on regulations for mandatory arbitration payday lending and third party debt collection using a law known as the Congressional Review Act The CFPB s sole director has unprecedented authority over financial institutions with minimal oversight they wrote in the letter which was also signed by the Independent Community Bankers of America and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions As the sole decision maker the director can promulgate regulations and levy enforcement actions that have sweeping and long lasting effects on credit availability for consumers the groups wrote Many have supported commission leadership since the CFPB was first created in the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law to protect everyday consumers from bad actors in the areas of mortgages student loans credit cards and banks Recently the CFPB and other agencies fined Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co 185 million for creating fake accounts Republicans drafted the first Senate bill to change the CFPB currently headed by Richard Cordray in 2012 and then introduced similar legislation in the following three years In the House of Representatives the Financial Services Committee recently approved a sweeping bill that would also create a commission to run the agency Democratic President Barack Obama who championed Dodd Frank has always stood in the way of establishing a commission with his veto pen President elect Donald Trump a Republican is expected to support any CFPB changes The single director structure allows the CFPB to move quickly and eliminates the risk of protracted fights among commission members proponents say
A three judge panel in the U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently agreed the director has too much power although it ruled that could be remedied by allowing the president to fire the director without cause The government has petitioned for a review of the decision by the entire court which has signaled it will approve taking up the review before Trump s Jan 20 inauguration |
WFC | Wells Fargo WFC Rises On Organic Growth Should We Hold | On Nov 28 2014 we issued an updated research report on Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC Shares of this major regional bank have recorded a year to date return of 23 8 The bank recently reported impressive third quarter 2014 results
Results were aided by increased loan and deposit balances along with higher revenues Though the company shows stability in its fundamentals we remain cautious due to the current economic uncertainty across the industry
Wells Fargo reported third quarter 2014 earnings of 1 02 per share thereby surpassing 99 cents earned in the year ago quarter However the reported figure was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate Net income was up 2 year over year to 5 4 billion Moreover revenues rose 4 year over year The company exhibited a decent performance in the last four quarters as evident from its earnings history Positive earnings surprises were posted in two of the last four quarters with an average beat of 2 57 and results were in line in the remaining two quarters Wells Fargo experienced strong growth up 4 in year end loans during the first nine months of 2014 despite the planned runoff from non strategic liquidating portfolios Notably third quarter 2014 was the 13th consecutive quarter of loan growth Further reflecting commercial and consumer businesses growth core deposits grew 7 year over year as of Sep 30 2014 Therefore both loan and deposit balances are poised to grow amid an improving economy Wells Fargo remains focused on managing capital levels efficiently This is well evident from the clearance of the 2014 stress test and estimated Tier 1 common equity under Basel III increasing to 10 46 as of Sep 30 2014 under the advanced approach fully phased in Recently in Apr 2014 the company increased its dividend by 16 7 Further Wells Fargo returned 11 6 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in the first nine months of 2014 We anticipate such capital deployment activities to boost investors confidence Wells Fargo has implemented company wide expense management initiatives In addition with the completion of the integration process and the continuation of the economic recovery expenses are anticipated to decrease thereby providing opportunities for future improvement in operating leverage Notably efficiency ratio for the first nine months of 2014 was 57 9 within the targeted efficiency ratio range of 55 59 Despite strong fundamentals we believe there are certain issues that may create pressure on the company s financials in the near term These include absence of credible improvement in the mortgage market declining net interest margin due to low interest rate environment and the prevailing stringent regulatory landscape Following the third quarter 2014 results the Zacks Consensus Estimate over the past 30 days remained stable at 4 10 per share for 2014 while it ticked up by a penny to 4 24 per share for 2015 Hence Wells Fargo currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold Key Picks from the Sector
Some better ranked finance stocks include Bank of the Ozarks NASDAQ OZRK First NBC Bank Holding Company NASDAQ NBCB and Customers Bancorp Inc NASDAQ CUBI All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank 2 Buy |
WFC | Yields Another Phase For The New Normal | The Treasury market s implied inflation forecast continues to fade dipping to 1 70 Thursday Dec 11 close to a four year low based on the yield spread for the nominal 10 year Note less its inflation indexed counterpart The slide looks worrisome but appearances can be deceptive at a time when US economic growth is holding steady if not accelerating Indeed while economic activity decelerates stagnates elsewhere the US trend is gaining momentum or so Thursday s retail sales data and last week s bullish payrolls update suggest Meantime the bear market in energy may end up boosting US growth on the margins in the months ahead while putting pressure on inflation Oil prices are continuing to decline and inflation expectations tend to be correlated quite highly with that says Allan von Mehren chief analyst at Danske Bank COP DANSKE At the same time there is a correction in risk sentiment and there is greater expectation of QE from the European Central Bank These are all pushing down yields
Europe s woes may create headwinds for the US eventually but at the moment America s macro resilience endures Reuters that the latest round of upbeat data inspired Macroeconomic Advisers to raise its estimate of fourth quarter GDP growth for the US by three tenths of a percentage point to 2 4 seasonally adjusted annual rate A key catalyst unexpected strength in consumer spending
Falling inflation expectations and an improving economic outlook make for strange bedfellows but the rosy glow appears genuine Looking to 2015 the economics group at Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC for instance
In the year ahead we expect real consumer spending growth to maintain its current course averaging 2 5 percent for the year Employment gains and modest real disposable income growth will help to provide support to overall consumer spending In addition lower gasoline prices should also bolster more discretionary consumer spending activity
The current state of macro adds up to a positive bias for the US but it s also leaving the Treasury market with a touch of bi polar disorder these days On the one hand downward momentum is conspicuous for the 10 year yield while the 2 year yield the most sensitive part of the curve when it comes to rate expectations is trending up
Economists are still anticipating that the Fed will start raising interest rates in the middle of 2015 according to a new survey of economists via By some accounts the central bank would be justified in raising rates today based on Blackrock s Yellen Index CNBC reports
The proprietary index is made up of a series of labor and growth metrics that the Fed would be watching as it contemplates interest rates and the index is showing improvement all fronts
It s pretty clear today that we hit virtually every metric said Rick Rieder BlackRock CIO of Fundamental Fixed Income We re at a place today where the Fed would move Quite literally we believe they could move today based on what the data shows
Higher rates and falling inflation expectations Welcome to the new new normal |
CMCSA | Comcast s Fandango Media to launch online merchandise store | Reuters Fandango Media LLC a Web based movie ticketing platform owned by Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA said it would launch an online merchandise store next month Fandango FanShop will offer curated wearables collectibles experiences and events tied to theatrical releases and movie franchises FanShop s initial offerings will feature gear from upcoming movies Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Wonder Woman Despicable Me 3 Fandango Media said on Thursday |
CMCSA | Facebook adds camera features moving closer to Snapchat | By David Ingram SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Facebook Inc O FB is giving the camera a central place on its smartphone app for the first time encouraging users to take more pictures and edit them with digital stickers that show the influence of rival Snapchat Shares of Snapchat owner Snap Inc N SNAP which held its initial public offering this month were down 4 1 percent at 22 85 after Faceook s announcement With an update scheduled to take effect on Tuesday Facebook will allow users to get to the app s camera with one swipe of their finger and then add visual details like a rainbow or a beard of glitter Users will be able to share a picture privately with a friend rather than to all of their friends and add a picture to a gallery known as a story similar to a feature on the Snapchat app Snapchat popularized sharing of digitally decorated photographs on social media especially among teenagers and exposed a weakness of Facebook as the companies battle for eyeballs and leisure time Snap has recently emphasized its ambitions to build gadgets and has called itself a camera company rather than a social media network Some analysts have warned that Snap is susceptible to competition from Facebook Facebook which with 1 86 billion users is the industry leader denies it took its camera ideas from Snapchat and says it got them from its own users Our goal here is to give people more to do on Facebook and that s really been the main inspiration Connor Hayes a Facebook product manager said in a briefing with reporters In a glimpse of how the features could tie in with other businesses one of the first camera effects will be the ability to morph someone in a photograph into a yellow cartoon Minion The latest Minion movie Despicable Me 3 is due out in a few months from Comcast Corp s O CMCSA NBC Universal Facebook has deals to license content from six film studios as well as from two artists said design director Kristen Spilman Another visual effect allows someone in a picture to become a laser cat with super powers Spilman said
The effects will vary by location Spilman said that when Facebook tested the ability to add the phrase LOL the acronym for laugh out loud users in Ireland did not know what it meant |
CMCSA | Comcast to expand streaming service amid cord cutting trend | This March 27 story corrects second paragraph to make clear ESPN is not an add on option but part of regular offerings By Anjali Athavaley and Jessica Toonkel NEW YORK Reuters Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA is planning to rebrand and expand a streaming video option for broadband subscribers who do not want to pay for a traditional cable package sources told Reuters on Monday The service dubbed Xfinity Instant TV will be priced as low as 15 a month to roughly 40 a month sources said It will include major broadcast networks as well as sports channels like ESPN and Spanish language channels such as Telemundo and Univision Xfinity Instant TV is expected to be available in the third quarter to more than 50 million homes within Comcast s footprint which includes cities such as Philadelphia Washington D C and Chicago The company is changing its video offerings to be more targeted as viewer habits evolve Xfinity Instant TV will be aimed at high speed Internet subscribers who cannot afford or do not want to pay for bigger cable bundles sources said The hope is that subscribers will eventually upgrade to Comcast s X1 platform Comcast has already given a 15 a month streaming video service known as Stream a trial run in Boston and Chicago sources said Xfinity Instant TV is a revamped version of that offering and will be rolled out nationwide in Comcast s territories Other pay TV providers including Dish Network Corp and AT T Inc NYSE T have started online streaming services for cord cutting consumers or those who are dropping their cable packages for other options
Comcast s service is different in that it is limited to its territories and to its own broadband subscribers It has yet to offer an over the top streaming service more broadly nationwide |
CMCSA | NBCUniversal slightly ahead of Sochi for 2018 Winter Olympics ad sales | By Tim Baysinger Reuters Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBCUniversal is pacing ahead in the amount of advertising inventory it has sold for next February s Winter Olympics compared with the same time four years ago NBC Sports executives said on Wednesday NBCUniversal is paying 963 million for the right to broadcast the Winter Olympics from PyeongChang South Korea as part of a 4 38 billion media rights deal with the International Olympic Committee IOC that carries through the 2020 Summer Olympics from Tokyo NBCU has a separate 7 65 billion deal with the IOC for U S rights through 2032 NBC Sports executives met with advertisers on Wednesday to get them to purchase ads for next year s Olympics NBC Sports executives said on a conference call with reporters that they were a little bit ahead of where they were at this point four years ago Executives would not give any dollar amount for the advertising commitments for PyeongChang which is costing NBC nearly 200 million more than the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics which cost the network 775 million NBC brought in more than 800 million in ad sales for the Sochi Olympics The Winter Olympics begin Feb 8 2018 only four days after NBC s airing of Super Bowl LII Dan Lovinger executive vice president said NBC will offer advertisers the chance to package ad buys across both events It will be the first time since 1992 that any U S network will air both events in the same year As it did with the 2016 Rio Olympics NBC is working with Snap Inc s Snapchat giving the mobile app access to Olympic content which will be curated by BuzzFeed NBCU which is famously guarded about giving access to official Olympic video to other outlets has invested in both companies
For the Winter Olympics NBC will be able to sell Snapchat s geofilters and lenses for advertisers to sponsors which can cost as much as 700 000 for 24 hours It will be the first time Snap has allowed a third party to sell those to advertisers |
CMCSA | Cord Cutters Stunned by TV Company s Comeback | Cable s once rapt audience has been cutting the cord in droves
But one left for dead company is making a shocking recovery
Shares won t stay this cheap for long
Thirty years ago cable television was one of the most powerful forces in the world
Through its walled garden a person could get their news movies and sports all without leaving the comfort of their home
Advertisers shelled out the biggest premiums to have their ads beamed directly to these rapt audiences
Fast forward to today after 20 years of high speed internet and 10 years of smartphone expansion the game has changed completely
Cable customers are cutting the cord in droves and advertisers fat ad dollars have shifted dramatically in favor of mobile devices
But as senior analyst Jonathan Rodriguez notes below one left for dead cable services firm has made a shocking reversal And it stands to make investors a killing
Pause rewind fast forward
It s been nearly two decades since cable watchers were given the power to perform these actions on a live TV program
Sure the VCR allowed viewers to tape their favorite shows or sporting events
But you could only zip through this content after it was recorded and audio visual quality wasn t nearly as good as it was on TV
That all changed in the late 1990s when TiVo NASDAQ TIVO Corp s first digital recording device hit the market
For the first time ever users could record their cable or high quality satellite feeds and hit the pause button
And while the recorded content was compressed from its original state it was practically indistinguishable
I was teenager then but I ll never forget how profound the invention was or still is
Unfortunately the idea of TV watchers fast forwarding through carefully curated ads didn t sit well with marketers
TiVo waged a decade long war with advertisers and cable providers too which came to market with competing recording devices in the 2000s
To be sure the company still faces the same pressures today
But after years of unprofitability the company finally saw positive earnings growth in 2011
And several major developments have put profits on the horizon for TiVo and its shareholders
If You Can t Beat Em Sell Out
After proving themselves profitable TiVo was acquired by rival tech firm Rovi Corp for 1 1 billion last year
In September 2016 Rovi assumed TiVo s name and began trading under the ticker TIVO
It s a little confusing I know But TiVo now represents the combined companies Rovi and the former TiVo
Rovi not only acquired TiVo s existing customer base but also its portfolio of more than 280 patents The combined company now holds more than 6 000 issued and pending tech patents
In addition to subscription revenue TiVo also licenses its patents out to firms building their own DVR tech
Recently subscription revenue has declined in tandem with a drop in cable viewership But TiVo still commands a base of more than 20 million subscribers
And the company has made up for the shortfalls through licensing which now makes up 54 of total revenue
In fact TiVo just signed a multiyear licensing deal with Roku the company that developed the wildly popular streaming TV device for cord cutters
TiVo trades at just 10 times forward earnings well below the industry average 25 and the S P 500 20 Earnings are also projected to rise 48 next year
It also trades at 2 6 times trailing sales compared with 5 7 for its peers
And stock has a price to book value of 1 2 an 82 discount to the industry 6 8
Better still the company sports a 4 yield nearly double the yield of the S P 500
The company also received a favorable ruling against Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA over copyright infringement last week which resulted in a 15 pop in shares
And at a market cap of 2 billion the company has plenty of room to grow or be acquired itself
Either way with double digit earnings growth on deck for TiVo over the next two years shares won t remain this cheap for long |
WFC | Citizens Bank signs SigFig for robo adviser investment services | By Elizabeth Dilts NEW YORK Reuters Rhode Island based Citizens Bank said Thursday it is partnering with SigFig a leading robo adviser to help manage the portfolios of the bank s 1 2 million middle income retirement savers Citizens is the third major bank with a wealth management business to sign a deal with SigFig Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co and UBS AG s UBSAG UL U S wealth management unit both announced deals with the digital investment platform earlier this year Citizens will roll out the robo offering in 2017 to clients with 100 000 to 2 million in investible assets Those clients classified as affluent and mass affluent can choose from a handful of pre selected investment portfolios which SigFig s software automatically rebalances according to the market It is the bank s bid to get more business from the roughly 52 percent of clients who are considered mass affluent or have between 100 000 and 500 000 in assets Those clients will see SigFig s investment portfolios right alongside checkings and savings account products We think bundling this digital platform with deposit products is a powerful combo said John Bahnken Citizens Bank head of wealth management Bahnken said they chose SigFig because the software s algorithm is malleable and easy to customize for Citizens clients SigFig received 40 million from investors including UBS AG earlier this year |
WFC | U S bill would allow Wells customers go to court over scandal | By Suzanne Barlyn Reuters Legislation introduced by two Democratic lawmakers on Thursday would allow Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co customers to go to court instead of private arbitration to resolve claims about accounts opened without authorization according to a media release The bill which faces an uphill battle in Congress is a challenge to Wells effort to force plaintiffs in a lawsuit involving unauthorized accounts to resolve claims in closed door arbitration proceedings Wells in a September settlement with the U S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators agreed to pay 185 million in penalties and 5 million to customers for opening up to 2 million deposit and credit card accounts in their names without their permission The Justice for Victims of Fraud Act of 2016 introduced by Senate Banking Committee Ranking Minority Member Sherrod Brown from Ohio and Representative Brad Sherman from California takes aim at mandatory arbitration clauses in Wells Fargo account opening agreements Wells Fargo s agreements prohibit customers from joining class actions or suing the bank Instead they require individual closed door arbitration The bill would allow individuals who had accounts opened without permission to sue Wells Fargo in court even if they signed arbitration agreements for other legitimate Wells Fargo accounts according to a statement from the lawmakers Wells on November 23 filed a motion in a U S District Court in Utah asking a judge to order plaintiffs suing the bank about the accounts to resolve their disputes in private arbitrations instead of in court The case was the first class action lawsuit filed against Wells since settling with regulators Wells Fargo is providing free mediation services to resolve disputes a spokesman said in a statement If a resolution is not reached the arbitration clause allows for a forum in which a customer has his or her dispute heard and resolved quickly and efficiently within a neutral third party legal process the spokesman said
Last year a court dismissed an earlier lawsuit against Wells Fargo saying that customers had signed arbitration clauses when opening legitimate accounts |
WFC | U S military veterans backing North Dakota pipeline protests | By Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester CANNON BALL N D Reuters U S military veterans plan to build a barracks on Friday at a protest camp in North Dakota to support thousands of activists who have squared off against authorities in frigid conditions to oppose a multibillion dollar pipeline project near the Standing Rock Native American reservation Veterans volunteering to be human shields have been arriving at the Oceti Sakowin camp near the small town of Cannon Ball where they will work with protesters who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Sioux reservation organizers said The Native Americans and protesters say the 3 8 billion pipeline threatens water resources and sacred sites Some of the more than 2 100 veterans who signed up on the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock group s Facebook NASDAQ FB page are at the camp with hundreds more expected during the weekend Tribal leaders asked the veterans who aim to form a wall in front of police to protect the protesters to avoid confrontation with authorities and not get arrested The plan is for veterans to gather in Eagle Butte a few hours away and then travel by bus to the main protest camp organizers said adding that a big procession is planned for Monday Protesters began setting up tents tepees and other structures in April and the numbers swelled in August at the main camp Joshua Tree 42 from Los Angeles who has been visiting the camp for weeks at a time since September said he felt pulled to the protest Destiny called me here he said at the main camp We re committed This cause has created momentum GO HOME Those voices have been heard by companies linked to the pipeline as well including banks that have been targeted by protesters for their financing of the pipeline Wells Fargo Co N WFC said in a Thursday letter it would meet with Standing Rock elders before Jan 1 to discuss their concerns related to Wells Fargo s investment in the project There have been violent confrontations near the route of the pipeline with state and local law enforcement who used tear gas rubber bullets and water hoses on the protesters even in freezing weather The number of protesters in recent weeks has topped 1 000 State officials on Monday ordered them to leave the snowy camp which is on U S Army Corps of Engineers land citing harsh weather but on Wednesday they said they would not enforce the order There is an element there of people protesting who are frightening North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said on Thursday It s time for them to go home U S President elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he supported the completion of the pipeline and his transition team also said he supported peaceful protests Members of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council denounced the involvement of veterans in a protest that has damaged property and asked them not to take part North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said on Wednesday it was probably not feasible to reroute the pipeline but he would try to rebuild a relationship with Standing Rock Sioux leaders On Friday Morton County Commission Chairman Cody Schulz said his office has been working in conjunction with the governor s office to meet with tribal leaders soon FREEZING COLD Morton County Sheriff s Department spokeswoman Maxine Herr said 564 people have been arrested since the start of demonstrations State officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters and Dalrymple said his evacuation order stemmed mainly from concerns about dangerously cold temperatures Engineers interviewed by Reuters also said such weather made some aspects of pipeline construction more difficult The temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 4 degrees Fahrenheit 16 Celsius by the middle of next week according to Weather com forecasts The 1 172 mile 1 885 km pipeline project owned by Texas based Energy Transfer Partners LP N ETP is mostly complete except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River Protesters who refer to themselves as water protectors have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer to tunnel under the river The Army Corps has twice delayed that decision The pipeline operator said in a legal filing in late November that delays following the projected Jan 1 startup would cost about 84 million a month
Trump is due to meet on Friday with Democratic U S Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota who according to a source familiar with the matter is under consideration for a Cabinet position in the Trump administration |
WFC | Buffett s Berkshire could get 29 billion Trump tax boost analyst | Reuters Warren Buffett s Berkshire Hathaway Inc N BRKa could get a 29 billion boost to its book value if President elect Donald Trump is able to slash the U S corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent Barclays LON BARC Capital wrote on Monday Trump s proposed reduction could help Berkshire lower its net deferred tax liability to 21 6 billion from 50 5 billion excluding sums associated with its regulated utility units Barclays analyst Jay Gelb said Shareholders could reap the benefit particularly because Buffett considers book value a measure of assets minus liabilities a key measure of Berkshire s growth Gelb said a 29 billion increase would equal about 11 percent We would view this magnitude of increase as favorable for Berkshire shares since it is generally valued based on price to book value Gelb wrote Berkshire s Class A stock price has risen 8 4 percent since the Nov 8 election touching an intraday record 240 500 on Monday The gain has been fueled by optimism that Trump s policies could be friendly toward business and the rising value of holdings in bank stocks such as Wells Fargo Co N WFC Buffett endorsed Trump s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for president though in his more than half century running Berkshire has long tried to limit the Omaha Nebraska based conglomerate s tax bill
He said in April that the odds were extremely high that Berkshire would buy back a lot of stock if the price fell below 1 2 times book value Buffett also said the company was worth much more |
WFC | Wells Fargo expects short term profit hit from interest rates rise CEO | By Dan Freed Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC will see a near term profit hit because of the sharp rise in interest rates Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan said on Tuesday The news may be somewhat surprising to investors who have been bidding up shares of Wells Fargo and other banks in part because of the view that they are likely to benefit from rising interest rates Ten year treasury yields have risen to 2 38 percent on Tuesday from 1 78 percent on Nov 4 Wells Fargo shares are up some 23 percent over the same period Speaking at an investor conference Sloan said the bank will however benefit in the longer term from rising interest rates In the short term certain securities the bank owns have declined in value Sloan said He said the bank is likely to see hedging losses from the rate rise and currency fluctuations While Sloan did not specify the size of the hedging losses he pointed for comparison to a 379 million first quarter hedging gain because of interest rates and foreign currency moves
So far interest rates and foreign currency fluctuations have moved even more than in Q1 and in the opposite direction he said |
WFC | Asian Equity And Currency Traders Are Underwhelmed | On Monday morning there was little action in the Asian markets which traded marginally positive taking cues from higher US equities in the last week This might prompt the yen to open a tad stronger however from the global front the euro currency is trading down and the US Index is higher at 80 26 indicating the gains might also be curtailed Wall Street climbed on Friday but closed lower for the week as investors weighed quarterly results from Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC and readied for a slew earnings ahead Stress over Portugal s banking sector receded and as investor attention turned to corporate earnings The US budget deficit so far this fiscal year was the smallest since 2008 as a stronger economy bolstered tax payments by consumers and businesses a government report showed The 365 9 billion shortfall from October through June compared with a 509 8 billion gap in the same period a year earlier
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said turmoil in global markets caused by a Portuguese bank underscores the euro region s fragility and shows the need for governments to respect debt and deficit limits Traders will await Mario Draghi s speech later in the day The euro is trading at 1 3603 this morning and expected to decline throughout the day The European Central Bank plans to limit the amount of data it carries over from its asset review into a subsequent stress test as it tries to manage the burden from an unprecedented health check of euro area lenders
In Asia this morning the Aussie is trading just under the 94 price level after comments from the RBA The Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said he sees the likelihood of some disruption in markets when the U S Federal Reserve raises interest rates He reminded investors that the AUD is overvalued but his comments have no real effect this morning The market will be dissecting the RBA Board minutes for July which will be released tomorrow for further hints to future monetary policy
The Kiwi is remains near its record high at 0 8816 but flat this morning against the stronger US dollar New Zealand s currency surged this year as the nation s central bank became the first in the Group of 10 to raise interest rates since 2011 At the same time the Federal Reserve has reiterated its commitment to an accommodative monetary policy with Chairwoman Janet Yellen saying last month that borrowing costs will stay at an all time low for an extended period A Credit Suisse Group index based on swaps shows traders are betting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will increase its 3 25 percent main rate by another 0 84 percentage point in the next 12 months The Fed has kept its benchmark rate in a record low zero to 0 25 percent range since 2008
The Japanese yen is light to start off the weak as global tensions seemed to ease over the weekend lowering safe haven demand on the Asian currency The JPY is trading at 101 37 against the greenback and at 137 90 against the weak euro A policy review by the Bank of Japan is due on Tuesday a batch of Chinese economic data on Wednesday and earnings results from major global banks this week all but ensured a nondescript start for Asia |
WFC | Wells Fargo 5 Bonus Trade Ideas | Here is your Bonus Idea with links to the full Top Ten
Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC
Wells Fargo had been pulling back in a falling channel since the beginning of June until it broke the downtrend higher a week ago It has consolidated since then at the 50 day SMA and looks ready for a break higher The RSI paused during the consolidation but was turning higher Friday with a MACD that is rising The Bollinger bands are starting to open as well A break higher carries a target on a Measured Move to 53 25 just above the previous high There is resistance at 52 15 and 53 Support lower may come at 51 and 50 60 followed by 50 25 and 49 70 Open interest this week favors the 52 Strike if it holds up and 50 on a fall back
Trade Idea 1 Buy the stock on a move over 51 70 with a stop at 51
Trade Idea 2 Buy the September 5 Expiry 51 50 Calls offered at 22 cents late Friday Cheaper than a stop on the stock
Trade Idea 3 Buy the September 5 Expiry 51 5 52 Call Spreads 18 cents Capped profits but a 177 return if it is
Trade Idea 4 Buy the September 51 5 52 5 Call Spreads 37 cents Capped profits but a 170 return if it is
Trade Idea 5 Buy the September 51 5 52 5 Call Spreads and sell the September 50 Puts 25 cents Increases leverage in the Call Spread but requires margin for the short put
Disclaimer The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog please see my page for my full disclaimer |
CMCSA | Hulu to launch non stop customer service as it readies live TV | Reuters Hulu will provide customer help 24 hours a day seven days a week ahead of the upcoming launch of its live TV streaming service and plans to open a service center by the fall doubling investment in customer service over the next year so it can cope better with any glitches that arise the company told Reuters this week
The TV streaming service provider which is owned by Walt Disney Co Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX will set up a new center in New Mexico or Texas by this fall and will hire 100 representatives this year bringing its total to 300
The increased spending on customer service comes as Hulu is about to go head to head with internet channels that offer live TV from AT T NYSE T s DirecTVNow and Dish Network Corp s Sling TV
The services have had hiccups like shows freezing viewers getting error messages and system crashes Their owners also have large customer service staffs already handling calls from their traditional pay TV customers said Brett Sappington senior director of research at Parks Associates
The stakes are high for Hulu which has a customer defection rate of 50 percent according to Parks Associates a Dallas based market research firm
Live TV is a challenge particularly for events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars which draw millions of subscribers all at the same time Sappington said You are never sure what s going to break until you have a few million people watching at the same time
Social media has amplified the need for good service because upset customers are more likely to go to Twitter with their complaints rather than call the company itself said Bernard Gershon president of media and technology consulting firm Gershon Media
Hulu will have staff available by phone 24 hours a day seven days a week starting March 12 a change from the current hours of 5 a m to 10 p m Pacific Time the company said It will eventually add email and chat as well as social media
Hulu which currently has most of its reps working remotely will open a customer service center by the fall and plans to have a staff of 500 by 2018 The company would not disclose how much it is investing in customer service
Currently Hulu is running practice drills of potential glitches said Ben Smith a senior vice president at Hulu In the next few weeks Hulu will start running these drills on an unscheduled basis he said
Everyone s plan is great until the emergency actually happens he said |
CMCSA | NBCUniversal invests 500 million in Snap s IPO | By Jessica Toonkel Reuters Comcast Corp s O CMCSA NBCUniversal has invested 500 million in Snapchat owner Snap Inc N SNAP according to a memo on Friday its latest move aimed at driving digital growth as more viewers go online for their favorite content Like other traditional U S media companies NBCU is pushing more into digital media and over the past 18 months it has invested 400 million in online publisher Buzzfeed and 200 million in Vox Media operator of The Verge and Recode news The latest investment was made as part of Snap s 3 4 billion initial public offering NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke said in a memo to employees Snap priced the IPO above its target range on Wednesday as investors set aside concerns about the company s lack of profits and slowing user growth Snap shares surged in their first day of trading on Thursday closing 44 percent above their 17 IPO price to give the company a market value of 28 3 billion Shares were last up 8 percent on the day at 26 54 Investing in the IPO makes sense for NBCU given how popular Snapchat is as a marketing platform for programmers and studios to reach millennials said Brian Wieser an analyst with Pivotal Research NBCUniversal has already launched entertainment programs such as The Voice SNL and E News The Rundown on Snapchat and said in its memo that it expects to launch more shows on the disappearing message app in the coming weeks Earlier on Friday CNBC reported that Snap s stock allocation to NBCUniversal appeared to be the only one made to a new strategic investor which would make it the lone U S media company with a stake NBCUniversal has agreed to hold Snap s shares for at least a year according to CNBC Snap disclosed last month that it expected investors buying up to a quarter of its shares in the IPO to agree not to sell them for a year Lock up periods help companies moderate stock volatility by preventing company insiders from selling their shares within an allotted time NBCUniversal courted Snap co founder Evan Spiegel for the past year CNBC said and both companies have been working on deepening their relationship Snap declined to comment beyond details noted in its prospectus and other U S Securities and Exchange Commission filings Comcast shares were marginally lower in late morning trading at 37 34 |
CMCSA | Schwarzenegger fired didn t quit Apprentice Trump | NEW YORK Reuters U S President Donald Trump disputed Arnold Schwarzenegger s announcement about quitting as host of the reality show The Celebrity Apprentice saying on Saturday that Schwarzenegger was leaving involuntarily after drawing few viewers Schwarzenegger had announced on Friday that he would not return for a second season of the NBC show He blamed Trump an executive producer and former host of the show for low ratings describing the president s involvement as baggage Trump sees it differently Arnold Schwarzenegger isn t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice he was fired by his bad pathetic ratings not by me Trump wrote in a message on his personal Twitter account Sad end to great show The squabble then continued on Twitter You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker a message on Schwarzenegger s Twitter account read responding to Trump NBC a unit of Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA on Friday did not comment on Schwarzenegger s decision not to return for another season or on the show s future Schwarzenegger a movie star and former California governor took over as host of Celebrity Apprentice last year His first season premiered in January and was watched by around 4 million to 5 million viewers Trump faced criticism over potential conflicts of interests after winning the presidency last November when he said he would retain an executive producer credit on the show On at least one occasion he has used part of a public appearance as president to scornfully discuss Schwarzenegger s ratings
Trump was a celebrity businessman long before he became president and hosted The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice for 14 seasons overseeing contestants competing in business challenges before deciding which ones to fire |
CMCSA | Exclusive Former Global Crossing CEO bets on over the top streaming video | By Jessica Toonkel NEW YORK Reuters The founder of former telecommunications company Global Crossing Inc Gary Winnick has acquired a majority stake in live streaming concert service Qello the first step in creating a new company and technology platform to capitalize on the surge in online TV consumption Winnick told Reuters Winnick said the company which will keep the name Qello is aiming to provide the technology for video streaming services and has approached Viacom and MGM Studios Inc as content partners Eventually he will broaden the offering beyond television to enable companies in the music healthcare and education industries to launch the streaming platform Winnick is entering the over the top online video streaming space as companies like Walt Disney Co 21st Century Fox and Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX acquire firms or build platforms to serve viewers abandoning traditional cable to watch their favorite shows online Qello which was acquired for an undisclosed sum will be the backbone technology for the new company Winnick said Qello runs Qello Concerts and provides the tech platform for Acorn TV an online streaming service for British shows owned by RLJ Entertainment In 2017 700 000 U S households will cut the pay TV cord pushing the total number of cord cutting households to 7 4 million according to data firm Emarketer But Winnick s path will not be easy as new players in streaming technology are popping up every month In January Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBC and Turner announced plans to help sports leagues and networks live stream sports It s like back in the day when everyone headed to California thinking they were going to find gold said Mio Babic chief executive of iStreamPlanet an online video streaming platform that is majority owned by Turner The decision to take a stake in Qello also comes months after Disney took a 1 billion minority stake in BAMtech a technology company spun off from Major League Baseball s digital media company MLB Advanced Media MLBAM BAMtech provides the streaming platform for such entities as Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment and HBO Disney holds the right to purchase the remaining stake and many industry executives expect it to follow through Winnick who built Global Crossing into a 48 billion company and sold shares worth 734 million before it went bankrupt in 2002 ultimately expects to grow the new company with other services incubated through venture capital investments by his company Winnick and Company Despite the competition there is an opportunity for a new entrant to come into the space said Dave Morgan founder and CEO of ad tech firm Simulmedia Not much of the telecommunications infrastructure or services were built to support what we are seeing as an emerging one to one personalized video streaming service on demand he said Winnick is not looking to compete with BAMTech and has no plan to go after its customers he told Reuters While BAMTech is becoming more of a rights owner Winnick said he wants to focus on being a pure technology provider for programmers For Winnick the over the top video space is what the telecommunications area was before the internet fully took hold in that the web opened up new businesses and competition in the sector I see a major disruption in the works and we want to be one of the leaders of that disruption he said |
CMCSA | Why Is Comcast CMCSA Up 3 3 Since The Last Earnings Report | It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Comcast Corporation NASDAQ CMCSA Shares have added about 3 3 in that time frame outperforming the market
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to the stock s next earnings release or is it due for a pullback Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late let s take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers Comcast Q1 Earnings and Revenues Surpass EstimatesGAAP net income in the first quarter of 2017 came in at 2 566 million or 0 53 per share compared with 2 134 million or 0 43 in the prior year quarter Quarterly earnings per share of 0 53 outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 0 44 Quarterly total revenue was 20 463 million up 8 9 year over year and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 20 113 million Operating costs and expenses totaled 13 431 million climbing 8 1 year over year Operating income came in at 4 530 million up 10 8 year over year Operating margin rose to 22 1 compared with 21 8 in the year ago quarter During the first quarter Comcast repurchased 20 4 million common shares for 750 million and paid dividends of 657 million In the first quarter of 2017 Comcast generated 5 656 million of cash from operations compared with 5 399 million in the year ago quarter Free cash flow in the reported quarter was 3 079 million compared with 2 805 million in the prior year quarter Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter of 2017 were 4 022 million up from 3 301 million at the end of 2016 Total debt at first quarter end was 61 785 million compared with 61 046 million at the end of 2016 The debt to capitalization ratio at the end of the reported quarter was 0 50 flat with the 2016 end figure Cable Communications SegmentQuarterly total revenue of 12 912 million reflected a 5 8 rise year over year Adjusted EBITDA was 5 198 million advancing 6 3 year over year Within this segment Video revenues were 5 774 million up 4 3 from the prior year quarter High Speed Internet revenues totaled 3 606 million up 10 1 year over year Voice revenues were 863 million declining 3 6 year over year Advertising revenues totaled 512 million down 6 3 from the year ago quarter Business Services revenues were 1 490 million rising 13 6 year over year Other revenues were 667 million up 4 4 from the prior year quarter As of Mar 31 2017 Comcast had 25 131 million up 5 7 year over year high speed Internet customers 11 681 million up 0 9 year over year voice customers and 22 549 million up 0 7 year over year video customers The company added a net of 429 000 high speed Internet customers 42 000 video customers but lost 5 000 voice customers in the reported quarter The company gained 18 000 triple play subscribers 141 000 double play subscribers and 104 000 single play subscribers in the reported quarter NBC Universal SegmentQuarterly total revenue of 7 868 million displayed a 14 7 year over year increase Adjusted EBITDA was 2 017 million exhibiting a rise of a 24 4 year over year Within this segment Cable Networks revenues were 2 641 million up 7 6 year over year Broadcast TV revenues came in at 2 208 million rising 5 9 year over year Filmed Entertainment revenues were 1 981 million up 43 2 from the year ago quarter Theme Parks revenues were 1 118 million up 9 year over year
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then
It turns out fresh estimate flatlined during the past month There have been two revisions higher for the current quarter compared to two lower Comcast Corporation Price and Consensus
VGM Scores
At this time Comcast s stock has a nice score of B on both growth and momentum front Charting an exact path the stock was allocated a grade of B on the value side putting it in the top 40 for this investment strategy
Overall the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of A If you aren t focused on one strategy this score is the one you should be interested in
Based on our scores the stock is equally suitable for value and growth and momentum investors
Outlook
The stock has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy We are expecting an above average return from the stock in the next few months |
WFC | Wells Fargo asks U S court to dismiss account scandal lawsuit | By Suzanne Barlyn NEW YORK Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC has asked a U S court to order dozens of customers who are suing the bank over the opening of unauthorized accounts to resolve their disputes in private arbitrations instead of court according to legal documents The motion filed in the U S District Court in Utah on Wednesday is in response to the first class action lawsuit filed against Wells since it agreed to pay 185 million in penalties and 5 million to customers for opening up to 2 million deposit and credit card accounts in their names without their permission The scandal has shaken Wells the third largest U S bank by assets Its former Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf stepped down amid the furor it has been put under tougher regulatory scrutiny and its reputation has been damaged as it faces multiple probes The move to enforce the mandatory arbitration clauses comes as Wells Fargo has launched an advertising campaign to win back customer loyalty in the wake of the scandal We are saddened that despite Wells Fargo s commercials and promises to make things right Wells Fargo is choosing to harm their customers once more said Zane Christensen the plaintiffs lawyer in Sandy Utah in a statement A spokesman for Wells Fargo declined to comment on the filing In a written response to questions from U S lawmakers published last week the bank said it would stand by its arbitration policy but was offering free mediation services to affected customers Mandatory arbitration rules inserted into account opening agreements prohibit customers from joining class actions or suing Wells Fargo Instead the agreements require individual closed door arbitration Mandating arbitration when signing up for financial products has become standard practice after a 2011 U S Supreme Court decision validated the practice But customer advocates say it improperly denies customers the legal protections of court proceedings such as the right to appeal and helps to conceal corporate misconduct from the public and regulators because documents and hearings are not made public Customers trying to recover small sums of money are also unlikely to find lawyers to represent them in arbitration critics say and the cases do not set a legal precedent to help other affected individuals Last year a court dismissed an earlier lawsuit against Wells Fargo saying that customers had signed arbitration clauses when opening their accounts
The bank has come under fire over its mandatory arbitration clauses from Democratic lawmakers in Congress including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts |
WFC | Wells Fargo employees sue over funds in retirement plans | By Jonathan Stempel Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC faces a new U S lawsuit claiming that it funneled more than 3 billion of employee retirement savings into expensive underperforming proprietary mutual funds to enrich itself The proposed class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in Minnesota accused the third largest U S bank of self dealing and imprudent investing by steering 401 k contributions to its Wells Fargo Dow Jones Target Date funds The lawsuit filed by employees led by John Meiners from St Louis seeks to recoup excess fees and unrealized profits stemming from Wells Fargo s alleged breach of fiduciary duties to all 401 k participants over the last six years the complaint said A Wells Fargo spokesman had no immediate comment on Friday Wells Fargo already faces many lawsuits over its opening of unauthorized customer accounts in a scandal that led to last month s departure of the San Francisco based bank s longtime chief executive John Stumpf Target date funds also known as lifecycle funds blend mutual funds that invest in stocks bonds and cash shifting the mix based on investors expected retirement dates According to the complaint Wells Fargo s target date funds cost 2 5 times more than similar funds from such rivals as Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group In the complaint Meiners said the difference reflected the layering of an extra set of fees to run the funds on top of fees to manage the underlying indexed funds Despite this assets allegedly grew in part because Wells Fargo made its target date funds a default investment option and provided an easy and quick enrollment feature This generated substantial revenues for Wells Fargo and provided critical seed money that kept the funds afloat by boosting market share the complaint said Meiners said employees could have earned 323 million more in returns in the five years ended June 30 had Vanguard target date funds been used Wells Fargo s 401 k plan has about 35 billion in assets and more than 350 000 participants the complaint said Lawsuits targeting alleged retirement plan mismanagement are growing more common Boeing Co N BA settled one such lawsuit for 57 million in November 2015 and several lawsuits targeting U S universities were filed this summer A California federal judge in August refused to dismiss another such lawsuit against Pacific Investment Management Co and other units of German insurer Allianz AG DE ALVG The Wells Fargo case was assigned to U S District Judge David Doty in Minneapolis
The case is Meiners v Wells Fargo Co et al U S District Court District of Minnesota No 16 03981 |
WFC | U S financial watchdog puts employee incentives under the microscope | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday released guidance on how companies should use incentives to get higher productivity out of workers showing it is making good on its promise to scrutinize possibly compromising practices after the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC scandal The CFPB a consumer watchdog and other regulators in September fined San Francisco based Wells 185 million for creating thousands of ghost accounts Former and current bank employees have said the bank s incentive program put extraordinary pressure on them to open accounts while Wells Fargo executives have said rogue employees acting on their own created more than 2 million phony accounts After the Wells settlement was announced CFPB Director Richard Cordray said he did not see a broader problem in the U S banking industry with abusive sales practices but pledged to continue looking into the issues The bulletin released on Monday which combined previous guidance in a single document said that risks these incentives may pose to consumers are significant and both the intended and unintended effects of incentives can be complex It added the CFPB welcomed more dialogue and discussion about incentive programs Alongside opening fake accounts employees may deceptively market products and put customers into products not in their interests in order to meet sales benchmarks or to qualify for bonuses the CFPB said Since it opened its doors in 2011 the CFPB has settled 12 different cases where banks deceptively marketed add on products to credit cards or lied to keep customers in the products according to the bulletin It also has found a bank s telemarketing service provider had enrolled customers into overdraft protection services without their consent |
WFC | Warren slams Wells Fargo over arbitration position | By Suzanne Barlyn NEW YORK Reuters Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday criticized Wells Fargo Co s N WFC decision to require customers affected by its unauthorized accounts scandal to go through arbitration rather than allowing them to sue The San Francisco based bank last week asked a U S court to uphold contract clauses that mandate arbitration something financial firms often use to protect against litigation Wells Fargo s situation is unusual though because it opened accounts without customers permission calling into question whether the contracts and their clauses are legitimate In a Facebook NASDAQ FB post on Monday Warren a frequent critic of the banking industry said Wells Fargo s promise to treat customers better in light of the scandal is meaningless as long as it is pursuing arbitration After dozens of Wells Fargo customers sued the bank to recover fees they were charged from these fake accounts Wells Fargo tried to boot the claims from court and into the closed door industry friendly arbitration process Warren said Unfortunately there s a real chance a court will let Wells Fargo shuffle these claims off to die in arbitration A Wells Fargo spokesman said the bank has an arbitration clause in its customer account agreements In cases where customers have received a product that they did not want or authorize related to our recently announced settlements we are providing free mediation through an impartial third party the spokesman said Last year The bank successfully argued in another lawsuit that arbitration agreements customers signed when opening legitimate accounts extended to the unauthorized ones Warren also used her Facebook post to advocate for a rule proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would eliminate mandatory arbitration
Before being elected to Congress Warren was a vocal proponent of such an agency being created as part of the 2010 Dodd Frank financial reform law Some Republican lawmakers in newly powerful positions following the 2016 elections have pledged to eliminate it |
WFC | State treasurers renew call for independent chair at Wells Fargo | By Ross Kerber Reuters Investors including the state treasurers of Connecticut and Illinois called on Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co to require an independent board chair saying the bank needs stronger oversight in the wake of a scandal over fake customer accounts Although Wells Fargo already has shuffled its leadership structure Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier on Tuesday said the investor group has filed a shareholder resolution for the San Francisco bank s annual meeting next spring seeking a change in its bylaws Improvements need to be formalized she said because a board whose chair is also chief executive the dual role once held by John Stumpf at Wells Fargo creates a potential conflict of interest At the end of the day the company s shameful conduct was fueled by poor governance that fostered a culture of irresponsibility and deficiencies in risk management Nappier said in a statement Via email Wells Fargo spokesman Ancel Martinez said We appreciate the feedback that we receive from our investors and we will review the proposal Stumpf resigned on Oct 12 bowing to pressure following a 190 million settlement the bank reached with regulators in September Reviews found the bank s staff opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge to meet internal sales targets Stumpf was replaced as CEO by the bank s president Tim Sloan The role of board chair was given to Stephen Sanger who had been Wells Fargo s lead director and was listed as independent in the bank s latest proxy filing Nappier called the splitting of the roles a welcome first step but said Wells Fargo must still put a better leadership structure in place Co filers of the resolution included Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs shareholder adviser Hermes EOS and Needmor Fund which had filed before Stumpf s departure In a separate news release on Tuesday Frerichs said the bank s predatory and illegal banking practices have proved that the company needs a set of independent eyes to ensure stronger unbiased oversight
Frerichs had earlier cut some state business with Wells Fargo such as suspending its use as a broker dealer |
WFC | Wells Fargo general counsel postpones planned retirement | By Dan Freed Reuters James Strother Wells Fargo Co s N WFC general counsel who had originally planned to retire at year end will stay on indefinitely in the position to deal with fallout from the bank s sales scandal according to a bank spokesman In light of recent events the decision was made to have Jim Strother remain with the company and continue to serve as our general counsel said Peter Gilchrist a Wells Fargo spokesman The decision was made by the bank s board of directors and a search is under way for Strother s replacement Gilchrist said An email and call to Strother were not returned The scandal pertains to Wells Fargo opening as many as 2 million accounts in customers names without their permission The bank is facing lawsuits from former employees and customers as well as increased regulatory scrutiny Strother became the San Francisco based bank s top lawyer in 2003 and sat behind then CEO John Stumpf at a bruising congressional hearing about the scandal in September He has been at Wells Fargo and its predecessor Norwest Corporation since 1986 Strother was deeply involved in Wells Fargo s acquisition of Wachovia during the 2008 financial crisis He also keeps a close eye on compliance issues something that is not always a general counsel s responsibility Wells Fargo reached a 190 million regulatory settlement over the phony accounts in September and parted ways with Stumpf the following month It is now working to answer questions from politicians and regulators replace a flawed compensation system that incentivized employees to open phantom accounts and repair its reputation among customers including municipalities that have cut business ties Because he turned 65 this year Strother would ordinarily be required to retire at the end of the year according to an internal policy at Wells Fargo affecting members of the bank s operating committee
However the bank occasionally makes exceptions to this rule in extraordinary situations During the financial crisis then Chairman Dick Kovacevich postponed his retirement by slightly more than a year |
CMCSA | Despite overtime finish NFL Super Bowl draws lower TV ratings | By Tim Baysinger Reuters Fox Television s broadcast of Super Bowl LI on Sunday night drew 111 3 million viewers according to Nielsen data released by the network on Monday the smallest audience for the National Football League s title game in four years The contest included a thrilling finish with the New England Patriots staging a comeback to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football league s first ever Super Bowl overtime The Patriots returned from a 25 point deficit and quarterback Tom Brady 39 won his record fifth championship The Falcons were in control for much of the game with a 28 3 lead midway through the third quarter Viewership surged as the Patriots pushed the game into overtime peaking at 117 7 million from 10 p m to 10 15 p m ET Without the Patriots rally ratings would ve been even worse for Fox which still posted the least viewed Super Bowl since 2013 when 108 7 million watched the Baltimore Ravens defeat the San Francisco 49ers Lady Gaga s halftime show drew 117 5 million viewers Last year s Super Bowl drew a 111 9 million viewers to CBS Corp s N CBS CBS while the Patriots previous title game appearance in 2015 helped Comcast Corp s O CMCSA NBC television draw 114 4 million viewers the most watched TV broadcast in U S history Despite the lower viewership the brief overtime in which the Patriots scored a touchdown in their first possession allowed Fox to add four more commercials It is not clear how many more ad dollars Fox was able to get the network was charging 5 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the game Fox brought in an estimated 509 6 million in ad revenue for the broadcast according to research firm iSpot TV Advertising took up 23 percent of the broadcast with 51 minutes and 30 seconds of commercials That made it the second most ad cluttered Super Bowl game according to ad tracking firm Kantar Media The four year viewership low comes on the heels of a disappointing NFL season that saw ratings decline 9 percent and another 6 percent through the playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl The NFL s four U S TV partners Fox NBC CBS and Walt Disney Co s ESPN are collectively paying 5 4 billion per year under their current media rights contracts Much of the ratings decline during the season was blamed on the contentious U S presidential election drawing interest away as well as the lackluster quality of play early in the season Prior to the Nov 8 election ratings were down 12 percent but were only off by 5 percent after according to analysis by MoffettNathanson |
CMCSA | U S regulator charges China citizens over Comcast Dreamworks trades | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday it had filed civil securities fraud charges against five Chinese citizens for alleged insider trading ahead of the April 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc by Comcast Corp O CMCSA
The SEC said in a statement it had also won a court order freezing brokerage accounts holding more than 29 million in illegal profits from the insider trading
The SEC complaint filed in U S District Court in the Southern District of New York charges Michael Yin with securities fraud and names the holders of the five brokerage accounts Lizhao Su Zhiqing Yin Jun Qin Yan Zhou and Bei Xie as relief defendants The SEC also said it is seeking a permanent injunction return of profits civil penalties and other relief |
CMCSA | NBC buys stake in Euronews names new president | Reuters NBCUniversal the U S media conglomerate owned by Comcast Corp O CMCSA has made an investment in European broadcaster Euronews and named Noah Oppenheim as the president of NBC News according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday Financial details of the investment were not disclosed in the memo However Reuters citing sources reported in November that NBC would buy a stake of between 15 percent and 30 percent The investment will allow NBC to reach out to 277 million new households in 13 languages across Europe Africa and the Middle East Euronews was created in the wake of the 1990 Gulf War as a European CNN and used to be owned by a consortium of state owned European channels before Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris took a 53 percent stake in the broadcaster The memo said Oppenheim the executive in charge of NBC s morning show Today will replace Deborah Turness president since 2013
Turness will be named as the first president of NBC News International Both Oppenheim and Turness will report to NBC News Chairman Andy Lack |
WFC | U S consumer agency seeks full court review of ruling against its structure | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late on Friday asked the entire U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review an October decision that its structure is unconstitutional The review will involve all the court s judges a group generally seen as more liberal on the whole than the three judge panel that decided that the agency vests too much power in its sole director The panel had also said the president should be able to fire the director at will but stayed the decision pending appeal In its petition the agency said last month s ruling overrides Congress s explicit determination to create an independent agency in the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law Also it said the decision could affect similar agencies with single directors who can only be removed for cause such as the Social Security Administration The review s losing side is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court Senator Sherrod Brown the most powerful Democrat on the Banking Committee who strongly supports the CFPB said he expects the full court to find the CFPB s structure sound The decision in a lawsuit involving PHH Corp reflects a larger debate about the bureau that President elect Donald Trump could soon weigh in on Members of Trump s Republican party say the CFPB should be governed by a commission Trump could seek to withdraw the CFPB s petition and let the October decision stand allowing him to fire the current director Richard Cordray This is an important first step in the fight to overturn the court s reckless politically motivated decision that was designed to cripple the CFPB said Karl Frisch executive director at Allied Progress which has lobbied the bureau to tighten regulation of the payday lending industry
Under Cordray its first director the CFPB brought a landmark case against Wells Fargo N WFC bank for creating accounts without customers knowledge It has also tightened oversight of the student loan and mortgage markets and this year has proposed rules on payday lending mandatory arbitration clauses and debt collection |
WFC | Wells Fargo faces tighter controls as U S regulator reverses course | By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON Reuters A leading U S bank regulator on Friday reversed course and positioned the agency to claw back pay of former executives at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co after a phony accounts scandal The lender must also now seek prior approval before naming new bank leadership said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency the main regulator for federal banks Friday s move may target executive pay at Wells Fargo at a time when some lawmakers complain bank bosses have not paid a fair price for their part in financial scandals Wells Fargo in September agreed to pay 190 million to settle charges that bank employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge The fraud went on for at least five years said the San Francisco based bank that fired 5 300 employees involved Congressional hearings followed news of the scandal and John Stumpf the firm s chief executive officer resigned Meanwhile the September settlement with Wells Fargo remained relatively lax The OCC exempted Wells Fargo from some controls on golden parachutes in that agreement The move Friday evening voids those earlier allowances and puts Wells Fargo under toughened standards for oversight the OCC said The OCC informed the Bank today that it has revoked relief from specific requirements and limitations regarding rules policies and procedures for corporate activities the agency said in a Friday evening statement A Wells Fargo official said on Friday that the bank is on track to restore its reputation and business This will not inhibit our ability to execute our strategy rebuild trust and serve our customers said spokeswoman Jennifer Dunn Stumpf and Carrie Tolstedt former head of retail banking did relinquish about 60 million in stock in the wake of the scandal according to a Reuters review of securities filings But the pair also stood to take home more than 350 million in compensation according to filings NEW TERMS Friday s move is an about face for the OCC which had settled the Wells Fargo matter without imposing the toughest controls on executive payouts Wells Fargo is not subject to the limitation on golden parachute and indemnification payment according to the September settlement That allowance on executive pay appears in an eight page stipulation that also exempts the bank from requiring OCC approval of a change in directors and senior executive officers If the OCC has asserted its right to screen Wells Fargo executives it could have asked that incoming executives satisfy tests of experience character or integrity according to banking rules Regulators gained the right to freeze executive payouts at troubled banks after the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s but exemptions are common The OCC has granted an exemption on golden parachute standards roughly half the times it issued cease and desist orders this year according to a Reuters tally ANSWERS LAWMAKERS In Congress lawmakers on Friday urged Wells Fargo to come clean about the scope of the phony accounts scandal Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee had asked Wells Fargo to share emails memos and meeting minutes from the bank s inner workings but the firm largely declined On Friday those lawmakers published Wells Fargo s response to dozens of questions about the scandal which the bank said it was still investigating Sherrod Brown of Ohio said he was not satisfied by the reply from Wells Fargo Wells Fargo did tell lawmakers that in 2012 there was an internal probe over problematic sales practices included examining whether accounts were a poor fit for the customer The settlement covered only accounts that may have been opened without customer authorization It did not address accounts that were authorized but might have been a poor fit It seems unlikely that Wells Fargo can restore the trust of its customers if it continues to ignore or dodge basic questions about the causes and consequences of the fraud that it permitted for years Brown said in the statement |
WFC | OCC shocker tightens regulatory noose for Wells Fargo | In a surprise announcement late yesterday the OCC unilaterally changed the terms of its September agreement with Wells Fargo NYSE WFC in regards to the account opening scandal The bank says the agency is now prohibited from offering golden parachute payments to exiting executives and must now get a green light from D C before altering business plans firing senior execs or changing the makeup of its board I ve never seen anything like this a former OCC official tells the WSJ It s surprising to see the agency reverse themselves on a negotiated agreement without some new information coming to light The OCC move of course comes ahead of the new sheriff s arrival in Washington and what is likely to be a move to rein in the reach of regulators |
WFC | Obama admin seeks curbs on mandatory arbitration for insurance | WASHINGTON Reuters The Obama administration is pressing U S states to curb insurers use of fine print in contracts that bars unsatisfied customers from suing taking the latest step against mandatory arbitration clauses in an insurance report released by the Treasury Department on Monday The federal government does not regulate insurance companies or products Each state has its own oversight process But in recent years the U S government has dipped its toe into regulating the industry most notably by identifying some insurers as too big to fail a label triggering additional capital requirements In its report the Treasury Department says states should consider developing appropriate constraints on mandatory arbitration clauses in insurance contracts State policymakers and insurance regulators should assess whether the current lack of uniformity in state laws and regulations raises questions about whether state consumer protections for insurance consumers should better align with those afforded to the consumers of other financial products and services it also said The clauses are recent additions to many contracts including those for cellphones and nursing homes In order to open accounts customers must agree that they will take any future dispute to an independent arbitrator often selected by the company instead of joining a class action lawsuit Critics of arbitration say that it is often conducted in secret denying customers due process or a legal precedent and that arbitrators have cause to rule in the company s favor Supporters say it is quicker than lawsuits and more of the money in a settlement goes directly to a customer than in class action lawsuits where people band together to sue In May the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created in 2010 proposed a rule that would only allow optional arbitration clauses in contracts in sectors the agency oversees More recently the U S Department of Education finalized rules barring the clauses in contracts for for profit colleges
Meanwhile customers hoping to sue Wells Fargo Co N WFC over the opening of bogus accounts in their names have found that the fine print meant they agreed to take claims to an arbitrator instead of a courtroom |
WFC | Bonus Trade Idea Wells Fargo Company | Here is your Bonus Idea with links to the full Top Ten
Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC
Wells Fargo is poking through the top of a consolidation channel between 48 80 and 50 It has support for more upside from a rising RSI in the bullish zone and a MACD that crossed up and is rising The Bollinger bands are also rising as are the SMA s on the 50 100 and 200 day timeframes The price action has also traced out an ascending triangle since early February that carries a target of 55 85 There is no resistance higher and support lower may come at 50 and 48 80 followed by 48 30 and 47 30
Trade Idea 1 Buy the stock now over 50 with a stop at 48 75
Trade Idea 2 Buy the June 50 Calls offered at 73 cents late Friday on the same trigger
Trade Idea 3 Buy the July 47 52 50 Bullish Risk Reversal buy the 52 50 Call and sell the 47 Put 2 cents
Trade Idea 4 Buy the May 30 July 3 Expiry 50 50 Call Calendars buy July and sell May 55 cents
Trade Idea 5 Buy the July 3 Expiry 50 50 52 50 call Spreads 56 cents
After reviewing over 1 000 charts I have found some good setups for the week These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad Market Macro picture reviewed Friday which as we kick off summer and head into the shortened Holiday week sees the equity markets looking solid and positive Elsewhere Gold looks stuck in a holding pattern while Crude Oil continues to rise The US Dollar Index and US Treasuries are both biased higher The Shanghai Composite is doing a good job of holding support but showing no signs of strength while the Emerging Markets ARCA EEM are biased to the upside Volatility looks to remain subdued and biased lower keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF s SPY IWM and QQQ Their charts agree with the SPY and QQQ looking strong on both timeframes while the IWM lags on the weekly timeframe The Dollar Treasuries and Oil moving higher will cause many to raise caution on equities as they do not all move together in theory But they can advance for long period before any change Stick to what the price action is saying Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad em well
The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog please see my page for my full disclaimer |
CMCSA | Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly leaving to join NBC | By Jessica Toonkel and Tim Baysinger Reuters Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly a star of the U S cable network s highly rated prime time lineup has decided to leave to join NBC News in a broad role that includes hosting a one hour daytime news show NBC announced on Tuesday Kelly also will anchor a Sunday night news show and take part in the network s special political programing and other big event coverage NBC News said in a statement The departure is a potential blow to Fox News the top rated cable news network owned by Rupert Murdoch s 21st Century Fox O FOXA Just months ago its founding chairman Roger Ailes left following sexual harassment allegations by several women Kelly was one of the accusers and detailed Ailes behavior in her best selling book Settle for More Ailes has denied the allegations Fox News which is known for a roster of conservative commentators such as Bill O Reilly remained at the top of cable news ratings amid the Ailes turmoil The network delivered its highest annual viewership in its 20 year history in 2016 Kelly 46 played a large role in that success with 2 7 million viewers on average for her prime time show The Kelly File second on Fox only to O Reilly s program The O Reilly Factor I have decided to end my time at FNC incredibly enriched for the experiences I ve had Kelly wrote on Facebook NASDAQ FB She became a subject of news stories after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attacked her as unfair for her questioning of him at a primary debate during the 2016 election campaign Fox made a bid to keep Kelly offering her more than 20 million per year according to an October report in Vanity Fair In a statement on Tuesday Murdoch thanked Kelly for her 12 years of contributions to the network We hope she enjoys tremendous success in her career and wish her and her family all the best Murdoch said Kelly will host her prime time show on Fox News through Friday While her departure leaves a hole in the Fox News lineup it comes at a time when the network needs to reinvent itself to appeal to younger viewers said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser Fox News like many of its peers has an older audience with a median age of over 65 higher than MSNBC and CNN whose viewers median ages are 64 and 60 respectively according to Nielsen data Advertisers generally seek a much younger market Their audience is aging Wieser said The question now for investors is What will Fox put in Kelly s place Some media buyers said they expected Fox to maintain strong ratings given interest in the White House transition and the network s other popular hosts Barry Lowenthal president of agency The Media Kitchen called Kelly s departure neutral for the network Given Fox s ratings dominance they ve shown that they re bigger than any one anchor he said Kelly joined Fox in 2004 as a Washington based correspondent Her decision to move to NBC News a unit of Comcast Corp O CMCSA was first reported by The New York Times While details about Kelly s upcoming shows were scarce she will be trying to succeed where high profile news anchors have struggled In recent years Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper lasted just two seasons with syndicated daytime talk shows
Kelly s new NBC News colleague Brian Williams meanwhile saw his low rated prime time news magazine show Rock Center end after only two years |
CMCSA | CBS signs deal to be on Hulu s live streaming platform | Reuters CBS Corp NYSE CBS has signed a deal to have its broadcast network and some cable programming on Hulu s live streaming service which is expected to go live this year the companies said Wednesday Under the deal the New York based broadcaster s sports programming including its NFL games and the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Championship as well as CBS Sports Network and POP an entertainment channel will be on Hulu Hulu subscribers will also be able to subscribe to CBS Corp s Showtime for an additional price CBS whose shows include news magazine 60 Minutes and the comedy The Big Bang Theory will bring in more than 3 per monthly subscriber for its channels with increases that could eventually get to more than 4 according to a source familiar with the situation The source requested anonymity because the deal is not yet public The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the agreement For Hulu the addition of CBS s shows is a potential edge since its competitor AT T DirectTV N T has not inked a deal with CBS for its own live streaming platform DirecTV Now which went live late last year In December CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said he expected to reach a deal with AT T DirecTV to be on the platform
Hulu is owned by CBS s competitors Walt Disney Corp Twenty First Century Fox Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA and Time Warner inc |
CMCSA | Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren joins MSNBC | Reuters Comcast Corp s O CMCSA MSNBC unit said on Thursday that Fox News veteran Greta Van Susteren had joined the company and will host a new program called For the Record Van Susteren hosted On the Record with Greta Van Susteren for 14 years at Fox News a unit of Twenty First Century Fox Inc O FOXA Van Susteren is the latest high profile exit from Fox News Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said on Tuesday she would leave the channel and join Comcast unit NBC News Van Susteren s new show on MSNBC will debut on Jan 9 and will replace Bloomberg s political television show With All Due Respect which ended in early December |
CMCSA | Facebook hires former CNN anchor Campbell Brown for news role | By Tim Baysinger Reuters Former CNN reporter anchor and host Campbell Brown is joining Facebook Inc NASDAQ FB to lead its news partnerships team an appointment aimed at repairing the online social media company s troubled relationship with the traditional media Brown announced the move in a post on her Facebook page on Friday Facebook has come under scrutiny for its role in disseminating what became known as fake news during last year s U S presidential election which had a negative effect on the businesses of more legitimate media companies In her new job Brown will lead Facebook s news partnerships unit which works with media outlets which publish content on Facebook The company faced criticism following the election of U S Republican Donald Trump for not doing enough to stop misinformation and baseless news reports being circulated by users With a growing number of readers getting information from social media rather than traditional media companies own web pages Facebook is getting more attention for what it puts in users feeds In recent months Facebook has taken steps to combat misinformation working with the Associated Press PolitiFact and website Snopes to fact check articles that appear in users news feeds Campbell with 15 years of experience at Time Warner Inc s CNN and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBC News unit will be tasked with helping news organizations and reporters work more closely and more effectively with Facebook Brown founded nonprofit education focused news site The 74 in 2015 She said she will step back from her editorial role there but remain on the board in a note on the company s site on Friday Facebook executives told the New York Times on Friday that Brown s role would not be a de facto editor in chief as she will not be involved in any content decisions but more of a liaison to media companies When asked to elaborate a Facebook spokeswoman referred to Campbell s post
I will be working directly with our partners to help them understand how Facebook can expand the reach of their journalism and contribute value to their businesses wrote Campbell |
CMCSA | NBCU shutting cable s Esquire Network re launching as digital | By Tim Baysinger Reuters Comcast Corp s NBCUniversal is shutting down its Esquire Network cable channel one month after it was dropped by DirecTV and will re launch it this spring as a digital only brand the company said on Wednesday Esquire will return as a direct to consumer service on Esquire com which will house all its existing programming and new shows that were slated for the TV channel including Borderland USA and Edgehill Smaller cable channels such as Esquire are finding themselves vulnerable as more consumers cut back on pay TV services dropping their packages entirely or opting for a so called skinny bundle of fewer channels The move by NBCU comes a month after AT T Inc NYSE T decided to drop Esquire from its DirecTV and U Verse offerings Major providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network Corp have also launched slimmed down streaming packages of live TV channels that omit many smaller networks Esquire is currently only available on Sony Corp s PlayStation Vue service Men today consume content on a variety of platforms and it is essential that we follow our viewers Adam Stotsky president of Esquire and NBCU s E Entertainment channel said in a statement Esquire Network debuted in 2013 when NBCU re branded it from what used to be the Style Network The channel was a partnership between the Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA unit and Hearst Corp which owns the magazine on which the network was based
NBCU was aiming to appeal to the same affluent male audience as the magazine trying to position itself as an upscale option to other male focused TV networks like Viacom s Spike |
CMCSA | Cable ONE CABO Tops Earnings And Revenue Estimates In Q1 | Small sized cable MSO multi service operator Cable ONE Inc NYSE CABO reported strong financial results in the first quarter of 2017 wherein both the top line and bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate Quarterly net income was 33 2 million highlighting an increase of 22 9 from the first quarter of 2016 First quarter 2017 earnings per share of 5 80 outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 5 62 Total revenue was 207 4 million up 2 3 year over year and slightly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 206 8 Of the total Residential Data revenues were approximately 90 2 million up 8 1 Residential Video revenues totaled 72 5 million down 3 2 Residential Voice revenues were 9 9 million down 12 8 Business Services segment generated 27 million in revenues up 13 2 Advertising sales were 5 6 million down 19 7 Other revenues were 2 3 million down 2 In the reported quarter operating expenses totaled 147 1 million down 5 4 year over year Operating income was 60 4 million up 27 4 year over year Adjusted EBITDA was 97 9 million up 14 6 year over year Adjusted EBITDA margin was 47 2 compared with 42 1 in the year ago quarter Net profit margin was 16 compared with 13 3 in the year ago quarter Cash FlowIn the first quarter of 2017 Cable ONE generated 78 3 million of cash from operations compared with 77 5 million in the prior year quarter Free cash flow in the reported quarter was 42 3 million compared with 50 1 million in the year ago quarter LiquidityAt the end of the first quarter of 2017 Cable ONE had 173 5 million of cash and cash equivalents compared with 138 million at the end of 2016 Total debt at the end of first quarter 2017 was 536 3 million compared with 537 1 million at the end of 2016 At the end of the reported quarter the debt to capitalization ratio was 0 52 compared with 0 54 at the end of 2016 Cable ONE operates and shares space with leading cable MSOs like Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Charter Communications Inc NYSE T and AT T Inc NYSE T in an intensely competitive cable TV market The company currently carries a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy You can see Operating StatisticsAs of Mar 31 2017 the total customer base of Cable ONE was 660 968 down 0 7 year over year Non video customer base was 353 205 up 13 7 year over year Non video customers accounted for 53 of the total customer count compared with 47 at the end of the year ago quarter Residential Segment Total customers were 608 515 down 1 4 year over year Data PSUs were 477 439 up 2 2 Video PSUs were 293 726 down 12 7 Voice PSUs count totaled 94 741 down 11 7 Total PSUs were 865 906 down 4 9 Business Segment Total customers were 52 453 up 8 5 year over year Data PSUs were 45 888 up 11 Video PSUs were 13 461 down 4 2 Voice PSUs totaled 18 627 up 12 5 Total PSUs were 77 976 up 8 4 Average Revenue Per User ARPU Residential data ARPU was 63 53 up 6 Residential video ARPU was 80 47 up 10 7 Residential voice ARPU was 34 18 down 1 Business services ARPU was 172 87 up 4 2 Cable One Inc Price Consensus and EPS Surprise
Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars Here s another stock idea to consider Much like petroleum 150 years ago lithium power may soon shake the world creating millionaires and reshaping geo politics Soon electric vehicles EVs may be cheaper than gas guzzlers Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply one company stands out as the 1 stock to buy according to Zacks research It s not the one you think |
WFC | Financial ETF sees fastest ever inflows | Investors poured 4 9B into the Financial Sector SPDR NYSEARCA XLF in the week following the election the fastest weekly pace ever and more than the fund has accumulated in the past three years combined Source BloombergIn the week ended yesterday the XLF gained 11 its first weekly stretch of double digit gains since 2011 it s down 1 5 today Performance chasing says David Schawel of the rush Meanwhile at least some on the sell side are recommending investors cash in their chips after the big run higher Previously Another valuation related downgrade for BofA Nov 16 Previously Sell side takes profits on banks Nov 16 Previously Wells Fargo NYSE WFC and BofA downgraded at Guggenheim Nov 15 ETFs XLF FAS FAZ UYG VFH IYF BTO IYG FNCL SEF FXO RYF FINU RWW XLFS FINZ JHMF FAZZ FNCF |
WFC | Account openings card applications tumble at Wells Fargo | The new Wells Fargo NYSE WFC is now reporting monthly retail banking activity Customer Interactions Customer interactions with tellers were down 10 Y Y in October as clients move to mobile where digital sessions were up 7 Branch banker interactions fell from September and Y Y thanks to a slowdown in new account openings Deposit Balances and Accounts Average consumer and small business deposit balances flat from September and up 8 Y Y Consumer account openings down 27 M M and 44 Y Y Debit and Credit Cards Applications down 35 M M and 50 Y Y Customer Experience Surveys Loyalty scores slipped both M M and Y Y Shares 0 45 premarket |
WFC | Wells Fargo says account openings slow in October | Reuters Wells Fargo Co s N WFC account openings slowed in October following a sales scandal that shattered the bank s folksy image triggered federal and state investigations and cost the bank s chief executive his job October consumer account opens fell 27 percent from September and were down 44 percent from a year earlier Wells Fargo said on Thursday Because the sales practices settlement was announced on Sept 8 October data reflects the first full month of impact Mary Mack head of Wells Fargo s community banking business said in a statement The bank agreed in September to pay regulators 185 million to settle charges that its staff opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge or approval Reuters reported in October that thousands of small business customers were also affected by the misconduct Since the scandal Wells Fargo has launched an internal probe apologized to customers and employees changed compensation plans and hired a consultant to review sales practices It has also said it would eliminate sales goals for its retail banking business sooner than planned Former employees have blamed being browbeat into hitting aggressive daily sales quotas for their part in creating the unauthorized accounts We recognize we have work to do and we are focused on strengthening our relationships with existing customers and building new ones with potential customers Mack said
The bank said survey results of consumers satisfaction with their most recent visit fell to 73 9 percent in October from 77 4 percent a year earlier |
WFC | The Case For Deflation | The Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS reports inflation in the U S economy increased by 0 1 in February from the previous month As usual these numbers have again brought up the theory of deflation a period when general prices decline
Reasons For Deflation Fear
In 2013 inflation for the entire year was 1 5 In 2012 it was 1 9 Going back further in 2011 it was three percent If we extrapolate the inflation numbers from January and February of this year and assume the increase will be the same 0 1 throughout the year we are looking at an inflation rate of 1 2 for 2014
Wells Fargo Securities LLC NYSE WFC has gone one step further Economists at the firm believe there s a 66 chance that deflation in the U S economy will prevail and these chances have been increasing since 2010 Source Bloomberg February 21 2014
To me that s sheer nonsense
Food And Energy
The reality of the matter is that the inflation numbers reported by the BLS exclude changes in food and energy prices the most important things consumers use on a daily basis When you include food and energy inflation is running at a much higher rate
The prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing Take corn prices for example since the beginning of the year corn prices are up more than 15 Wheat prices are up almost 20 year to date When you look at meat prices such as lean hogs you will see they have increased by more than 45 since January
As I see it deflation is nothing but a farfetched idea for the U S economy In a recent survey we ran at Profit Confidential the average estimate for current inflation from our readers was five percent
Why do I believe inflation will be the big problem for the U S economy and not deflation
Below I present the M2 money stock The M2 money stock is considered to be a broader measure of the money supply because it includes money on deposit in savings accounts deposit accounts and non institutional money market funds in addition to the currency already in circulation
Chart courtesy of
Lots Of Money Supply
Since 2009 the money supply in the U S economy has increased by 35 And the more money in circulation the greater the chances of price inflation down the road
The higher inflation goes the higher interest rates will go to control it The Federal Reserve in its most recent economic projection said it may increase the federal funds rate to one percent by 2015 and two percent by 2016 from the current 0 25 I question if the Fed is seeing higher inflation ahead but it s just not talking about it
If a higher inflation rate causes a hike in interest rates we will see a significant amount of trouble for the housing market and the stock market in 2015 and 2016 |
WFC | Wells Fargo To Report Higher Earnings Lower Revenue | Wells Fargo Company NYSE WFC is set to report FQ1 2014 earnings before the market opens on Friday April 11th Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks in the United States In pre earnings coverage for JPMorgan Chase we mentioned how a JPMorgan s earnings expectations have been taken down throughout the quarter as the economy was sluggish Wells Fargo is actually expected to increase its earnings despite investor nerves over the Fed s taper and slower than predicted growth out of China and other emerging markets This quarter Wall Street is projecting Wells Fargo to increase earnings by 5 4 compared to FQ1 last year although revenue is expected to be lower Here s what investors expect from Wells Fargo Friday morning
The information below is derived from data submitted to the Estimize com platform by a set of Buy Side and Independent analyst contributors
The current Wall Street consensus expectation is for Wells Fargo to report 97c EPS and 20 502B revenue while the current Estimize com consensus from 34 Buy Side and Independent contributing analysts is 98c EPS and 20 754B in revenue This quarter the buy side as represented by the Estimize com community is expecting Wells Fargo to beat the Wall Street consensus by 1c per share in earnings and 252 million in revenue
Over the past 6 quarters the consensus from Estimize com has been more accurate than Wall Street in forecasting WFC s EPS and revenue 5 and 3 times respectively By tapping into a wider range of contributors including hedge fund analysts asset managers independent research shops students and non professional investors Estimize has created a data set that is more accurate than Wall Street up to 69 5 of the time but more importantly it does a better job of representing the market s actual expectations It has been confirmed by Deutsche Bank Quant Research and an independent academic study from Rice University that stock prices tend to react with a more strongly associated degree to the expectation benchmark from Estimize than from the Wall Street consensus
The magnitude of the difference between the Wall Street and Estimize consensus numbers often identifies opportunities to take advantage of expectations that may not have been priced into the market In this case we are seeing an average differential between the two groups expectations on earnings but a wider delta on revenue
The distribution of estimates published by analysts on the Estimize com platform range from 90c to 1 01 EPS and from 20 495B to 22 000B in revenues This quarter we re seeing a wide distribution of estimates on Wells Fargo
The size of the distribution of estimates relative to previous quarters often signals whether or not the market is confident that it has priced in the expected earnings already A wider distribution of estimates signaling less agreement in the market which could mean greater volatility post earnings
Over the past 4 months the Wall Street EPS consensus rose from 94c to 97c while the Estimize consensus increased from 93c to 98c Meanwhile the Wall Street revenue consensus declined from 20 713B to 20 502B while the Estimize forecast sank from 21 092B to 20 754B Timeliness is correlated with accuracy and at the end of the quarter we saw rising EPS estimates but falling sentiment around revenue The Estimize revenue consensus fell sharply at the end of the quarter but still remains significantly higher than the Street s projection
The analyst with the highest estimate confidence rating this quarter is sana5000 who projects 1 01 EPS and 20 564B in revenue sana5000 is ranked 59th overall among over 4 000 contributing analysts Over the past 2 years sana5000 has been more accurate than Wall Street in forecasting EPS and revenue 58 and 44 of the time respectively throughout 161 estimates Estimate confidence ratings are calculated through algorithms developed by deep quantitative research which looks at correlations between analyst track records and tendencies as they relate to future accuracy In this case sana5000 is expecting Wells Fargo to beat the Estimize consensus on EPS but come up short of the community s expectations on revenue
While investors have been cautious and risk appetite has been low generally unfavorable conditions for a bank Wells Fargo is still expected to post 5 4 earnings growth compared to FQ1 last year Contributing analysts on the Estimize com platform are expecting Wells Fargo to inch past Wall Street expectations on profit and beat the Street s sales projections by a considerable margin
Get access to estimates for Wells Fargo published by your Buy Side and Independent analyst peers and follow the rest of earnings season by heading over to Estimize com Register for free to create your own estimates and see how you stack up to Wall Street |
CMCSA | Turner will create shows for Snapchat in expanded partnership | By Tim Baysinger Reuters Turner Broadcasting System Inc will create more video content for mobile app Snapchat and collaborate with the social media company on advertising Turner said on Wednesday as they expand a partnership to broaden their reach among millennials TV networks of the Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX unit including TBS and Adult Swim will create original series exclusively for the unit of Snap Inc the broadcaster said in a statement The companies also renewed their March agreement for Snapchat to create Live Stories collections of user submitted photos and videos centered around a specific event with sports shows from Turner The shows include the National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAAA Division I Men s Basketball Championship and the Professional Golfers Association PGA Championship Turner will lead sales efforts for Live Stories and shows while Snapchat will take the lead for sponsorships on the Discover channels Financial terms were not disclosed Turner formed the partnership with Snap in 2015 and forged links with other digital media companies to court younger viewers who prefer mobile gadgets to television Turner said its networks reach more than 75 percent of millennials each month the same audience that Snapchat targets The partnership began with the launch of Snapchat s Discover feature which allows companies to offer and manage their own content The original channels included Turner s CNN and Bleacher Report a San Francisco based sports news website Bleacher Report which had been available worldwide except in the United States France and Australia will launch a U S Discover channel on Jan 4 CNN will increase its content on Discover Snap has partnered with multiple traditional U S media companies including Viacom Inc and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBCUniversal as it prepares to go public early next year
This year Turner has also invested in digital media companies Mashable and Refinery29 and launched a digital video startup within CNN called Great Big Story |
CMCSA | IOC USOC and NBC join forces on U S sports channel | Reuters The International Olympic Committee United States Olympic Committee and NBC Universal have joined forces to bring year round Games programming to the United States The new partnership complements the Olympic Channel that launched as a worldwide digital platform following the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games During the second half of 2017 the partnership will start a U S television network under the Olympic Channel Home of Team USA brand that will offer fans year round programming with an emphasis on American athletes and teams The launch marks an exciting opportunity to promote and celebrate Olympic and Paralympic sport said Scott Blackmun USOC CEO said in a statement on Thursday Launching in conjunction with the inaugural Team USA Winter Champions Series broadcast is a great way to serve the fastest growing fan base in American sports An earlier effort by the USOC to create a network was undone following objections from the IOC The USOC had originally wanted to launch its project in 2010 with Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA agreeing to carry the channel in its cable lineup
The move though sparked the ire of the IOC which said it had not been consulted |
CMCSA | FCC chairman to step down handing GOP a majority | By David Shepardson WASHINGTON Reuters U S Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to step down on Jan 20 he said on Thursday a move expected to hand Republicans a 2 1 majority on the panel when Donald Trump takes office as president Wheeler could have kept the commission at 2 2 until Trump names a new member who needs to be confirmed by the Senate Last week two Republican FCC commissioners said the Trump administration should quickly reverse many significant policies set by the telecommunications and cable regulatory body under Democratic President Barack Obama Unless the U S Senate reconfirms Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel she will have to leave at end of the month Senate Democrats on Thursday held out the possibility that Republicans could put her back on the FCC next year With the departures of Wheeler and Rosenworcel the only remaining Democrat on the panel would be Mignon Clyburn whose term does not expire until June 2017 Trump will get to select the next chairman Wheeler a former cable TV and mobile phone industry lobbyist repeatedly clashed with companies during his tenure at the FCC especially over the 2015 order to reclassify broadband internet service providers under a section of communications law that treats them more like public utilities and subjects them to stricter regulation as part of the commission s net neutrality rules The rules bar broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet essentially a fast lane on the information superhighway to certain services over others Commissioner Ajit Pai a Republican said last week he believed the net neutrality rules days are numbered He also said he hoped the commission would eliminate many regulations and propose fewer actions Wheeler also scrutinized a series of proposed mergers demanding significant conditions to some and rejecting others In 2015 Wheeler blocked Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s proposed 45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and said the FCC had serious concerns about allowing a tie up of Sprint Corp and T Mobile US Republican Commissioner Mike O Rielly said last week that the FCC under Trump needed to undo the more harmful policies adopted by the current commission O Rielly criticized the FCC s decision in October to impose stricter privacy rules on internet service providers than on websites like Facebook Inc NASDAQ FB or Twitter Inc NYSE TWTR Last month Wheeler dropped plans to push through a proposed reform of the 45 billion business data services market He also dropped a plan to allow pay TV subscribers to ditch their set top boxes
Former FCC chairman Julius Genachowski a partner at Carlyle Group NASDAQ CG LP said Wheeler fought relentlessly for broadband competition and consumers and our country s innovation economy today is strong and world leading |
CMCSA | Ratings tick up for Thursday football toward season s end | Thursday Night Football has ended for the year and ended well for NBC CMCSA 0 5 with its share of the schedule averaging 17M viewers That s up from the CBS CBS 0 3 five game portion earlier in the season which averaged 14 7M viewers but competed with a heavily watched U S presidential election NBC s games came after the election was over NBC and CBS split a season of broadcasts that were simulcast on the NFL Network and on Twitter TWTR 0 6 For Twitter s part the average minute audience was 220 000 viewers significantly smaller than the linear broadcast numbers Football ratings were down 14 Y Y in the early part of the season prompting networks to give make goods to advertisers Despite criticism from various angles the NFL denied speculation that it would back off from the weeknight We are fully committed to Thursday Night Football and any reports to the contrary are unfounded Previously NBC takes over Thursday football with reportedly higher ad rates Nov 17 2016 Previously Sunday night football ratings hit five year low Oct 18 2016 |
CMCSA | ESPN posts second worst Monday Night Football season | By Tim Baysinger Reuters If not for this past Monday night s highly watched NFL game The Walt Disney Co s ESPN network would have had its smallest audience for Monday Night Football in 2016 since the 2006 season The National Football League has been plagued all season by ratings downturns forcing its TV partners to give free extra commercial time to advertisers to compensate for lower than promised ratings Advertiser demand has remained high though as NFL games still attract more viewers than almost everything else on television according to the Nielsen ratings service Monday s Dallas Cowboys Detroit Lions game averaged 18 6 million viewers the most ESPN has garnered for a Monday Night Football game since 2014 That helped ESPN post an average of 11 4 million viewers for its 17 games this season finishing ahead of only the 2007 season when it drew 11 2 million according to Nielsen data provided by ESPN The NFL franchise moved from ABC to ESPN for the 2006 season both companies are owned by The Walt Disney Co This year marks the third consecutive year that ESPN s Monday Night Football audience has declined and the fifth decline in the past six years The NFL ratings downturn was most notable in primetime ESPN was among the hardest hit with viewership falling nearly 12 percent from last season according to the Nielsen data ESPN had to contend with the contentious U S presidential election often cited by league officials as a key cause for lower ratings this season While the election hurt NFL ratings the three major U S cable news networks 21st Century Fox s Fox News Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s MSNBC and Time Warner Inc s CNN all benefited from the unpredictable race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton
Fox News finished 2016 as the most watched U S cable network in primetime for the first time in its history according to Nielsen data released late on Wednesday Time Warner s CNN and Comcast Corp s MSNBC also had huge viewership gains |
WFC | Republicans to U S securities regulator Leave new rules to Trump | By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON Reuters Republican lawmakers told the top U S securities regulator on Tuesday they are concerned her agency will rush out new rules in the final weeks that President Barack Obama a Democrat holds the Oval Office The chair of the House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling who has been mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary under Republican President elect Donald Trump said whenever there is a transfer of power from one presidential administration to another there is a temptation for federal agencies to rush pending rulemakings to completion as a way of cementing the policy priorities of the outgoing administration I would strongly urge you to respect the results of last week s election and resist the temptation to finalize any regulations including Dodd Frank regulations added Hensarling during a hearing on the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC Chair Mary Jo White was the hearing s sole witness On Monday she announced she will leave her post when Obama s term ends in January a decision made before Trump s stunning election win She told the committee firmly there would be no surprise rulemakings or ramming pending rules through to completion I don t see any last minute rushes I do intend to carry out the agenda I outlined in February 2016 as much as I can she said I don t think any rulemaking benefits from it being rushed It s hard to do it right she also said Nonetheless White would not commit when asked about a proposed multi agency rule for clawing back compensation from executives who have committed wrongdoing The SEC and fellow major financial regulators must approve the rule for it to become final and the lawmakers pressed White to not bring it up for a commission vote while she is still chair White said she could not predict what will happen in the next 2 1 2 months or what will be included in the final draft of the rule To continue carrying out its agenda announced earlier this year the SEC will focus on capital segregation rules an outstanding derivatives rule and a staff recommendation on mutual fund disclosure White said The 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform law is considered one of Obama s signature domestic achievements and federal agencies have furiously put in place new regulations and systems to carry out its many moving parts Trump has said he would repeal parts of the law and he is expected to use legislation Hensarling drafted as a blueprint for his plans Only half a dozen Democrats attended Tuesday s hearing primarily asking about corporate board diversity and the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC ghost account scandal or blasting Trump White an independent has been criticized by both parties Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren recently called on Obama to fire her and progressives say she slowed down implementing Dodd Frank
White said the SEC has completed 80 percent of the rulemakings required by Dodd Frank She added that she would not want to see parts of the law including the Volcker rule restricting banks from making speculative investments rescinded in the future |
WFC | A post Trump SEC could shake up current policy | By Sarah N Lynch WASHINGTON Reuters It will be a new day at the U S Securities and Exchange Commission after President elect Donald Trump installs his choice to run the agency With Trump s transition team already in regulatory relief mode and promising to revamp the Dodd Frank financial reform legislation some rules already are marked for death or dialback Expected on the chopping block soon after Trump takes the oath of office is a proposal that would require companies to disclose pay ratios between their CEOs and employees Another would require companies to disclose whether their products contain conflict minerals minerals that were mined in a war torn region of Africa Dead for now is any prospect of the SEC approving a tough fiduciary rule for financial advisers say policy experts Trump s decision to tap former Republican SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to help manage the Trump team s transition efforts at the SEC and other financial agencies offers a window into some other changes that could be in store Atkins the founder of the regulatory consulting firm Patomak Global Partners is viewed by some to be a top contender for the position of SEC chairman itself though as the transition head he could also recommend someone else for that job Atkins well known conservative views on everything from enforcement penalties to corporate governance are likely to be reflected in the SEC s agenda Here are five policy areas likely to change CORPORATE AUDITING RULES COULD GET LOOSER Paul Atkins was a staunch critic of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board PCAOB a body created after the Enron accounting scandal to police and write new rules for corporate auditors Atkins raised concerns about the board s budget and high salaries and advocated against prescriptive accounting rules that he felt constrained auditors from making professional judgments Recently Republicans have criticized the PCAOB for taking on more progressive causes such as proposing companies rotate auditors to reduce conflicts or requiring accounting firms to disclose the name of individual partners working on company audits The PCAOB s chairman Jim Doty who advocated for the controversial reform measures will almost certainly not be re appointed by the incoming SEC chair I expect that a new Chair will refocus the Board s standard setting agenda on the core audit function said Hunton Williams Partner Scott Kimpel I would expect a return to the basics PENALTIES COULD SHRINK PEOPLE COULD PAY The topic of whether to impose corporate penalties against a company would come under scrutiny During his time at the SEC Atkins advocated for an enforcement approach that he said did not unduly punish corporate shareholders that had already suffered from the misconduct He called for the SEC to carefully weigh who had profited from the bad behavior and urged the SEC to hold individuals accountable for their actions STOCK MARKET TRADING WOULD GET SECOND LOOK Atkins has long opined that the SEC s rules requiring best price execution of stock trades actually skews the market by causing fragmentation and harming price discovery by directing orders away from traditional stock exchanges into dark pool trading platforms As a commissioner Paul Atkins was critical of the rule called Regulation National Market System NMS saying it could impede true price discovery and encourage gaming of the system In January 2016 he wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for the SEC to do major surgery on the rule allowing considerations beyond best price and speed to determine order flow WHISTLEBLOWERS COULD FACE MORE HURDLES The Dodd Frank law gave the SEC newfound powers to reward whistleblowers who come forward with tips of corporate malfeasance From August 2011 through fiscal year 2015 the SEC has received more than 14 000 tips and by August of 2016 the program had given out more than 100 million in rewards But corporate America has long disliked the part of the rule that protects whistleblowers from having to report wrongdoing to their own companies before they tip off the government In 2011 Atkins urged the SEC to require whistleblowers to report internally first saying a failure to do so could undermine compliance programs Whether this will change remains to be seen especially in the wake of the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co scandal where employees who reported internally about the opening of unauthorized accounts were fired Atkins cares deeply about the commission and its enforcement program said Jordan Thomas a whistleblower attorney at Labaton Sucharow who previously worked in the SEC s enforcement division during Atkins tenure I find it very hard to believe that he would support undermining such a successful program CAPITAL FORMATION COULD GET A BOOST Atkins was a strong proponent of the 2012 Jump Start Our Business Startups Act which scaled back some SEC rules to help smaller companies raise capital
In testimony on Capitol Hill Atkins advocated for additional steps to be taken to help smaller companies including rules to help create venture exchanges for mid cap stocks and broadening efforts to exempt private capital raising rules from regulation by states |
WFC | Are Investor Fears Over EM Contagion Justified | The market s fear index is flipping out
Trading volumes in front month VIX futures hit a record high last week in terms of the number of contracts traded
Anomaly Hardly
It turns out that this surge in weekly trading volume caps off the VIX s largest monthly trading volume too
In other words fears have been building for weeks
So what s got investors so freaked out And is it justified Let s take a closer look
Call it a Contagion
After rallying nearly 30 last year U S stocks got off to a downright nasty start to 2014 dropping 3 6 in January alone
Yet there was nothing overwhelmingly negative to spark such a precipitous selloff at least in the United States All of the trouble has been brewing overseas particularly in emerging markets
As the Financial Times John Authers puts it we ve experienced ugly political eruptions in Argentina Ukraine and Turkey
On the financial front the world s fastest growing and largest emerging market China isn t growing that fast anymore The latest GDP growth figures checked in at a 14 year low of 7 7 At the same time the country is pulling out all the stops to avoid a 15 trillion shadow banking crisis
Add it all up and as much as pundits tried to tell us years ago that emerging markets were decoupled from developed markets it s just not true
Like I wrote before Globalization an undeniable decades old economic force created one quantum entanglement So what happens in emerging markets doesn t stay in emerging markets
And now we re witnessing the negative consequences of this reality
With that in mind here are three frightening statistics that underscore the potential severity of a slowdown in emerging markets
Frightening Emerging Markets Stat 1 Say Hello to the New Majority
Years ago we could easily dismiss a downturn in emerging markets Why Because developing countries accounted for a minority of global GDP
Fast forward to today though and we can t be so cavalier
According to Wells Fargo s Global Economist Jay Bryson developing countries accounted for 49 6 of global GDP at the end of 2012
Although 2013 data isn t available yet it s safe to assume that the trend has continued pushing developing countries contribution squarely above 50
Simply put what happens in emerging markets significantly impacts the world
Frightening Emerging Markets Stat 2 A Bigger and Bigger Customer
When most people think of emerging markets they think of cheap manufactured goods Get rid of that stereotype
Developing economies are increasingly consumption driven And guess what Developed economies are the ones supplying their needs
Statistically speaking 35 of exports from developed economies now go to developing economies That s up from just 20 in 2000
If developing country customers cut back developed countries can t help but be impacted
Frightening Emerging Markets Stat 3 Addicted to Debt
The U S government isn t the only one that can rack up trillion dollar liabilities
Alan Ruskin of Deutsche Bank points out that developing country liabilities now rest at 8 trillion up nine fold from 1997
To help put that in perspective consider that global portfolio liabilities stood at about 5 7 trillion in 1997 So we re talking about the potential for a far reaching financial crisis should emerging economies start defaulting on their liabilities
Bottom line Unlike any other time in history the economic importance of developing countries has reached a critical level whereby the developed world must pay attention So investors fears over an emerging markets contagion are completely justified
By no means am I suggesting that you should join in the panic Right now I just want to make sure you re aware of the legitimate threat |
WFC | US Economy You Want the Good News Or The Bad News | We ve got some good news and we got some bad news Seems to have become the story of the U S economic recovery The good news is that Washington managed to pass the debt ceiling law which takes the anchor from around the economy s neck till next year Then the passed the budget which removed any further shutdowns until 2015 as well
The debt limit was passed with much drama The only thing House speaker John Boehner could do was punt the issue and put a clean bill on the floor This put the onus on the Democrats to pass the debt bill He attempted to put something together the Republicans would have liked but there was such drama that nothing worked The drama makes the Republicans look like one big dysfunctional family
Soft Economic Data Continues to Worry Investors
The bad news is that we have gotten a flurry of weak economic reports that hit us last week This could give the Republicans more ammunition that the administration policies are not working Still it way too early to even think this data is indicative of a slowdown and One thing is clear the harsh winter weather is taking its toll
Retail sales tumbled by a surprising 0 4 percent in January We expected an increase Industrial Production fell by 0 3 percent we had expected a 0 2 percent fain Heating bills rose thanks to cold taking away from consumer spending increasing inventories and hitting new factory orders
The only good news slightly at best was that that University of Michigan consumer sentiment was steady at 81 2 for early February It was unchanged from the last report in January This indicates the volatility in the jobs report have not scared the public into thinking we are on a verge of a spring dive for the economy
The next couple of months will be critical as we will get a clear perspective of the labor markets If the job data and other economic recover right their ships and return to their pace of growth then the GOP will lose ammunition against Obama and his administration Job creation and economic activity are key indicator of voter behavior
Good Signs Data will Pick Up
There are many good reasons indicating the uptrend will resume Consumer balance sheets are better than they have been in quite some time Corporations still have enormous cash piles to use once they become confident in demand The fact Washington passed the budget and debt ceiling shows corporations that Washington won t wreck the economy installs confidence
Another good sign comes from Wells Fargo They have dropped their lowest acceptable FICO score from 640 to 600 This means they are about to reenter the subprime lending market Wells Fargo is the nation s biggest home lender This is good news for the housing market and its continued recovery
With credit starting to flow freely and Washington adverting disaster we could see the park that is needed to drive the economy in 2014 This is great news for the economy and helps the Democrats who wish to hold on to the Senate in the November elections
BINARY OPTION S TAKE FOR THE DAY
We should see movement in the Forex market today as the Dollar continues to weaken Look to the EUR USD to show more strength Capital should also flow into Gold as the Dollar weakens |
WFC | Economic Growth Blame It On The Weather | The sharp drop in confidence among home builders this month adds another disappointing number to the growing list of troubling economic updates Unusually severe weather conditions across much of the nation along with continued concerns over the cost and availability of labor and lots caused builder confidence in the market for newly built single family homes to post a 10 point drop to 46 on the National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo Housing Market Index NAHB yesterday Analysts are increasingly divided when it comes to interpreting the mounting wave of discouraging data On one side are the optimists who argue that it s all about the weather Once the warmer temperatures arrive the US economy will perk up and the modest recovery will again reign supreme This group still represents the majority But there s a small band of skeptics and with each new data point that falls short of expectations their doubts resonate a bit deeper As usual
This morning s catastrophic drop in the National Association of Home Builders sentiment index has rapidly been spun as due to the weather of course makes perfect sense right What would happen if these drops were actually real fundamentals If the status quo the common knowledge was shown to be full of shit once again Well riddle us this Batman if weather was to blame then why did the West region plunge the most In fact why did The West plunge the most on record Too much sunny dry weather not good for sales In fact even the entirely independent provider of real estate research Trulia said that weather is not to blame
Mainstream economists aren t blind to the risks As Jim O Sullivan at High Frequency Economics the weak report on home builder confidence will keep alive concerns in the markets that the weakening in the data recently is not just due to weather
What s beyond debate is that the harsh winter is taking a toll on the macro trend Economists estimate that the weather will pinch growth by 0 3 percentage points according to a published last week by CNBC
University of Maryland economist Peter Morici put a positive spin on the outlook the LA Times Folks that did not buy cars in January and February will purchase those in March and April Buildings will be repaired and improved and that adds not subtracts from GDP
Meantime this month s lineup of discouraging economic releases includes nonfarm payrolls personal income ISM Manufacturing Index industrial production and yesterday s NAHB Housing Market Index On its face the numbers look damning but the possibility that the spring will save the business cycle is a plausible theory However it s only a theory and it could be wrong But it s going to take time to convincingly sort out reality Perhaps once we have the March macro profile in hand we ll have something approximating the truth In other words we won t know much until April at the earliest
Numbers are affected by things like the weather and winter this year has contributed to an unusual economic pattern Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser I suspect it will be another couple months before we have an underlying read on the economy |
WFC | Excessive Borrowing Increased Debt Financial Crisis Ahead | Turns out the whiz kids in Silicon Valley aren t the only ones playing with funny money these days So are mom and pop Americans
In the same week that Facebook FB plunked down 12 billion in stock to buy WhatsApp the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed that U S consumers don t mind spending money they don t have in the bank either
In the last quarter household debt increased by 241 billion the biggest rise in more than six years
Is this a legitimate cause for concern or merely symptomatic of a legitimate economic recovery
The answer matters immensely to our overall investment outlook So let s discuss
From Deleveraging to Releveraging
As we all know consumer spending drives the U S economy The more spending there is the more optimistic we should be about GDP growth
Of course since we re not a nation of savers like for example China most of that spending gets financed Put simply we borrow to grow
Therefore as Tim Duy a former U S Treasury economist told Bloomberg recently Signs that consumers are starting to releverage again and take on more debt are consistent with the idea that we re turning a corner on the recovery
Agreed
But let s not be na ve Mr Duy Everyday Americans don t exactly possess a stellar track record of borrowing responsibly
We tend to borrow and borrow and borrow some more until lenders tell us no As it stands 28 of Americans now have more credit card debt than cash in their savings account according to a recent Bankrate com survey
My point We need to keep a careful watch on consumer behavior for signs of excessive borrowing Because it always leads to ruin
The good news There s nothing to panic about yet
Far From the Brink
We re nowhere near peak borrowing levels again In fact total indebtedness remains 9 1 below the high water mark of 12 68 trillion hit in 2008
Delinquency rates on all types of debt except student loans are trending lower not higher Ditto for bankruptcy filings
Here s what concerns me though
At the same time as consumers are forgetting about their financial sins of the past and leveraging up again banks are encouraging it
They ve been quietly extending more credit to consumers Total aggregate credit card limits increased by 5 in the last year to 2 91 trillion That s the highest level since late 2009
Even more troubling banks including Wells Fargo Co WFC are loosening credit standards on mortgages
And believe it or not subprime loans are making a comeback too Only this time industry insiders are calling them nonprime loans
Lipstick on a pig anyone
The word subprime in a lot of people s minds is dirty but the product today is much different much safer So says Brian O Shaughnessy of Athas Capital Group which began making subprime loans about nine months ago
Given higher down payment requirements and stricter verification processes O Shaughnessy makes a valid point
To be fair at about 3 billion the current amount of subprime lending qualifies as a mere trickle compared to the 625 billion flood we witnessed in 2005
Nevertheless we can t downplay the significance of the re emergence of subprime lending It signals a key transition to more risky behavior
And I m afraid it s not the only example
More Risky Business
One of the newest investment fads on Wall Street involves slicing and dicing debt tied to single family homes and selling the bonds to investors
Does the term financial weapons of mass destruction sound familiar
It should because collateralized debt obligations CDOs like this which went south are what ultimately sparked the credit crisis
But Wall Street assures us that it s different this time Don t they always
You see instead of securitizing mortgages of actual homeowners they re securitizing the mortgages of investors who purchased homes and turned them into rental properties
Private equity giant The Blackstone Group BX sold the first of these single family rental bonds last year The 479 billion offering attracted six times that amount in demand
I m sorry but the new twist on securitization doesn t fool me It s just as potentially dangerous as it allows well heeled investors in single home rental properties to leverage up and buy even more homes
Like I said before there s never a happy ending to excessive borrowing
Bottom line It s not time to sound the alarms yet Clearly though attitudes and actions involving debt are shifting sowing the seeds for another financial crisis
We d be wise to keep a close watch on these trends |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.