- Bond Losses Extend to Asia as Stocks Tread Water: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Asian bonds fell early Thursday, echoing selling pressure in Treasuries in the prior session that supported the dollar. Equities in the region opened mixed after a flat day on Wall Street. The 10-year benchmarks for Australia and New Zealand rose by around four basis points, mirroring the increase in Treasury yields of the same maturity Wednesday. - Oil Ticks Higher as Traders Digest Mixed US Inventory Snapshot
(Bloomberg) — Oil edged higher after a mixed snapshot of US inventories that included an unexpected drop in nationwide crude holdings. Brent crude rose toward $84 a barrel after climbing by 0.5% in the previous session, with West Texas Intermediate above $79. Overall stockpiles of crude declined by 1.36 million barrels last week. - Manulife Profit Beats on Growth in Asia, Wealth Management
(Bloomberg) — Manulife Financial Corp. posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, boosted by continued strength in its Asia operations and wealth management business. Core earnings increased 16% from a year earlier to C$1.8 billion ($1.3 billion), or 94 Canadian cents a share, the Toronto-based life insurer and asset manager said Wednesday. - Biden Warns He’d Hold Back More Weapons If Israel Invades Rafah
(Bloomberg) — US President Joe Biden said he would halt additional shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if the country proceeded with a ground invasion of Rafah, decrying the potential loss of civilian life as “just wrong.” “We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East. - China’s Factory Glut Alarms the World But There’s No Quick Fix
(Bloomberg) — The groundswell of complaints about China’s factory output keeps getting louder, but there’s no sign Beijing is ready for fixes that might backfire on its vulnerable economy. This week European Union leaders, who are threatening tariffs on electric cars, were the latest to scold China about overcapacity. Before she met visiting President Xi Jinping. - Fed’s Collins Says Reaching 2% Inflation Goal May Take Longer
(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan Collins signalled interest rates will likely need to be held at a two-decade high for longer than previously thought to damp demand and reduce price pressures. Collins, who noted the lack of disinflationary progress made in 2024, said slower economic growth will be necessary to make sure inflation remains on a sustainable path to the fed’s 2% goal. - NFL Falcons Owner, Bergdorf’s Penick to Raise Biden Cash
(Bloomberg) — Prominent business leaders, including Darcy Penick of Bergdorf Goodman Inc., former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, are among those hosting political fundraisers for President Joe Biden as the campaign taps Democratic-donor rich Silicon Valley and Chicago for cash. Tickets to the fundraisers, slated for May and June, go for as much as $250,000. - Blackstone’s Gray Sees Growth Slowing as Fed Battles Inflation
(Bloomberg) — Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said economic growth will slow as stubborn inflation weighs on the Federal Reserve’s ability to begin lowering borrowing costs. “We see a deceleration of growth,” Gray said at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney on Thursday. “Central banks will be slow on the cutting of rates, because they don’t want to see a rise. - Nomura, JPMorgan Limit Exposure to Hedge Fund Giant Segantii
(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc. are limiting dealings with Simon Sadler’s Segantii Capital Management Ltd., the Asian hedge fund giant charged with insider trading by authorities in Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the matter. New York-based JPMorgan won’t engage with Segantii on new block trades and initial public offerings. - Musk’s xAI Nears Funding at $18 Billion Value Soon As This Week
(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup X.AI Corp. is set to close its funding round at a valuation of about $18 billion as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The size of the round hasn’t been finalized, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. - Beyond Meat shares fell as much as 15% in aftermarket trading hours after its reported revenue fell in the first quarter, on the back of lower sales volumes. Revenue fell 18% to $75.6 million, driven by a 16% decrease in volume.
The plant-based meat company reported a first quarter adjusted loss of 72 cents per share, which missed estimates for a loss of 67 cents per share. - Drugmaker reports first-quarter sales that beat estimates and reiterates full-year outlook
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s American depositary receipts (TEVA) jumped more than 6% premarket Wednesday after the company reported first-quarter sales that topped expectations and released positive late-stage trial data on a schizophrenia treatment.
The Tel Aviv-based drugmaker reported a net loss of $139 million, or 12 cents per share, after a net loss of $220 million, or 20 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings per share came to 48 cents, up from 40 cents a year earlier but falling short of the FactSet consensus of 52 cents. Revenues totalled $3.819 billion in the quarter, up 4% from a year earlier and beating the FactSet consensus of $3.787 billion. - Lyft shares gain as much as 8.1% in US premarket trading, after the ride-hailing firm’s results and outlook beat estimates. Analysts said there were indications of a healthier marketplace and sturdy consumer demand. They are now looking ahead to the company’s June investor day for more details on market trends. Shares of larger rival Uber also rise, adding 3.6%.
ANALYST COMMENTARY: Barclays (equal weight, PT raised to $20 from $17): Lyft’s top line is showing no signs of consumer weakness, says analyst Ross Sandler. These trends, along with a healthier marketplace, are flowing through to very strong revenue growth with the Lyft story getting better by the quarter Morgan Stanley (equal-weight, PT $13): The results and guidance signal progress across driver efficiency initiatives, analyst Brian Nowak writes. In line Ebitda speaks to higher insurance costs and rider incentives. - Shopify Inc. shares tumbled after the Canadian e-commerce company reported a surprise net loss in the first quarter after the sale of its logistics business last year.
The company posted a loss of $273 million after a profit of $68 million a year earlier. The loss per share was 21 cents on revenue of $1.86 billion, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The US-traded shares fell as much as 21%, for the biggest intraday decline ever, as the markets opened in New York. After rallying more than 120% last year, Shopify shares have struggled this year after the company had projected higher operating costs than expected for this quarter. The stock, which fell as much as 2.7% in US trading on Tuesday, is roughly flat in 2024, lagging the Nasdaq 100 Index. - Twilio shares fall as much as 6.1% on Wednesday, the biggest intraday drop since March 5, after the software company’s second-quarter guidance fell short of the average analyst estimate. The result indicates the company is still wading through a transitionary period, analysts said.
ANALYST COMMENTARY: Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Butler. Twilio needs more time for its initiatives to take effect. “1Q results reflect a state of transition focused on diversifying beyond its core messaging business, which continues to slow”. Piper Sandler analyst James Fish (overweight, raises PT to $79 from $78): Twilio’s growth is “showing stability as headwinds are abating”. “Volume stabilization commentary is encouraging and may point to management conservatism”. While Twilio remains a “show me” story, at current levels “the risk-reward remains positive. - Uber’s share price dropped as much as 8% in premarket trading Wednesday after it reported a mixed bag of Q1 results.
Its gross bookings of $37.7 billion were up 20% compared to the same period last year, but fell short of its target. Plus, its forecast for gross bookings in the second quarter was also shy of Wall Street’s expectations. The ride-hailing app reported revenue of $10.13 billion, just about Wall Street expectations of revenues of $10.11 billion. Its earnings-per-share, however, missed forecasts, coming in at negative $0.32, compared to a forecast of $0.22. The firm reported an income from operations of $172 million, but the Financial Times reported analysts had forecast this to be over $600 million. Uber cited “discrete legal and regulatory reserve changes and settlements.” - Emerson Electric recorded higher sales but a smaller profit in the fiscal second quarter, and gave its annual earnings outlook a boost while narrowing its sales guidance.
The industrial manufacturer posted a profit of $501 million, or 87 cents a share, for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $792 million, or $1.38 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were $1.36 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting $1.25 a share. Sales jumped to $4.38 billion from $3.76 billion in the year-ago quarter, clearing analyst estimates for $4.29 billion, according to FactSet. - Arm’s full-year forecast merely brackets the consensus view, even though its view of the current quarter tops estimates
After a sharp run for Arm Holdings PLC shares recently, they looked set to give back some of their gains after Wednesday afternoon’s earnings report. The chip-design stock fell 9% in Wednesday’s extended session as the company walloped expectations with its latest quarterly results but delivered a full-year forecast that failed to pack the same extent of upside. Arm (ARM) reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $224 million, or 21 cents a share, whereas the company essentially broke even on the metric a year before. - Alibaba rolls out latest version of its large language model to meet robust AI demand
Alibaba Cloud on Thursday said its large language model has seen more than 90,000 deployments in companies across industries. Alibaba Cloud said the latest version of its Tongyi Qianwen model, Qwen2.5, possesses “remarkable advancements in reasoning, code comprehension, and textual understanding compared to its predecessor Qwen2.0.” - China’s imports jump 8.4% in April, exceeding expectations as purchases from the U.S. grow
China’s customs agency released data Thursday that showed exports rose in-line with expectations in April, while imports surged ahead of forecasts. Chinese imports from the U.S., European Union and Russia rose last month, despite a drop in exports to all three, according to CNBC calculations of official data. - Japan is not seeking a strong yen but a stable currency
The Japanese are not aiming at a particularly strong yen. I think they’re aiming at a relatively stable yen they don’t want it to go through the floor anymore,” Roche said. The Japanese yen has been on a roller coaster ride, with the currency breaking past 160 against the greenback last week — steepest decline in more than three decades.
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