Domain Money founder and CEO Adam Dell provides insight into crypto regulation and Elon Musk exploring the Twitter tender offer.
Elon Musk has registered three companies in Delaware under the name “X Holdings” to support his bid to buy Twitter and take the social media giant private.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, X Holdings I would serve as the parent company overseeing a potential transaction, while X Holdings II would merge with Twitter and be used to purchase its outstanding common stock. A separate SEC filing adds that X Holdings III would be used to help fund the transaction.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS CALL ON TWITTER TO PRESERVE ELON MUSK’S TAKEOVER BID RECORDS
Musk is exploring whether to commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Twitter’s common stock, citing the board’s lack of response to his $54.20 per share offer.
Musk says he has received commitments of approximately $46.5 billion to help finance a potential deal, including roughly $21 billion in equity financing and around $25.5 billion in debt financing through Morgan Stanley Senior Funding and other firms, including Bank of America, Mizuho Bank, Barclays, MUFG, Société Générale and BNP Paribas.
Twitter headquarters in San Francisco Oct. 27, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Twitter told FOX Business Thursday it was in receipt of Musk’s updated, nonbinding proposal, adding that it “is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”
TWITTER’S REACTION TO ELON MUSK ONLY PROVES CHANGE IS NEEDED
Musk, who has a 9.2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} stake in Twitter, has been a harsh critic of the platform and its chief executive, Parag Agrawal, and recently questioned whether the company rigorously adheres to free speech principles.
Though Musk was initially invited to join Twitter’s board, he later declined the offer. As part of joining the board, Musk would’ve been unable to own more than 14.9{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of Twitter’s stock while serving on the board or for 90 days after. Musk’s board term would have expired at Twitter’s 2024 annual meeting.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a tour of the plant of the future foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory Aug. 13, 2021, in Grünheide near Berlin, Germany. (Patrick Pleul – Pool/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Following the announcement of Musk’s $43 billion bid, Twitter adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan, commonly referred to as a poison pill, to prevent him or any other entity or group from acquiring beneficial ownership of 15{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} or more of Twitter’s outstanding common stock in a transaction not approved by the board. The plan will expire April 14, 2023.
Musk recently told TED’s Chris Anderson that combining everything into one company would be “tricky.”
“Telsa is a publicly-traded company, and the investor base of Tesla and SpaceX and certainly Boring Company and Neuralink are quite different,” Musk explained. “It’s not that easy to sort of combine these things.”
Marathon Oil Co. (NYSE:MRO – Get Rating) – Analysts at Capital One Financial dropped their Q1 2022 EPS estimates for Marathon Oil in a report released on Tuesday, April 19th. Capital One Financial analyst P. Johnston now forecasts that the oil and gas producer will post earnings of $0.83 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $1.05. Capital One Financial also issued estimates for Marathon Oil’s Q2 2022 earnings at $0.83 EPS, Q3 2022 earnings at $0.85 EPS, FY2022 earnings at $3.39 EPS and FY2023 earnings at $2.80 EPS.
Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 16th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.22. Marathon Oil had a net margin of 17.30{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} and a return on equity of 11.60{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.12) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 116.9{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} on a year-over-year basis.
Several other research firms also recently issued reports on MRO. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Marathon Oil from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 12th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Marathon Oil from $17.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Monday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Marathon Oil from $27.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 7th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Marathon Oil from $27.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Marathon Oil from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $26.80.
NYSE:MRO opened at $27.65 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $23.96 and its 200-day moving average is $19.49. Marathon Oil has a 52-week low of $9.70 and a 52-week high of $27.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a market cap of $19.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.85, a PEG ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 2.76.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its holdings in Marathon Oil by 111.7{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the first quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 43,622 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after buying an additional 23,012 shares during the period. Adams Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Marathon Oil in the first quarter worth $228,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Marathon Oil by 138.9{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,720 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Marathon Oil by 67.3{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,187 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,685 shares during the period. Finally, Richelieu Gestion PLC acquired a new stake in Marathon Oil in the first quarter worth $188,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.26{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the company’s stock.
In related news, insider Patrick Wagner sold 21,673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.45, for a total value of $551,577.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Rob L. White sold 8,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total transaction of $200,100.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,180,065 shares of company stock worth $29,703,167 over the last quarter. 0.76{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the stock is owned by company insiders.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 16th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}. This is a positive change from Marathon Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 15th. Marathon Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.14{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}.
Marathon Oil Corporation operates as an independent exploration and production company in the United States and internationally. The company engages in the exploration, production, and marketing of crude oil and condensate, natural gas liquids, and natural gas; and the production and marketing of products manufactured from natural gas, such as liquefied natural gas and methanol.
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The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Administration and Comptroller recently identified spending budget and useful resource management teams throughout Military Materiel Command and its subordinates with 8 awards.
Both equally divisions and people today were being awarded for their do the job in regions like budgeting, price tag discounts and money management.
“It feels excellent to be regarded, primarily at the Military amount,” stated Christina Freese, deputy chief of employees for resource management, who also received the Comptroller of the 12 months award. “This is indicative of the significant contributions we designed to the AMC enterprise and to the Military as a complete very last year.”
The G-8, made up of the Army’s price range and useful resource specialists, is the Army’s guide for matching offered assets to the protection strategy and the Military prepare. By way of source management, materiel integration and analytical and modeling abilities, the G-8 is able to assistance Troopers by balancing existing drive needs with potential drive abilities.
The entire AMC G-8 workplace was honored as Outstanding Financial Management Business for their perform on closeout strategies in fiscal year 2021. Amidst supporting Procedure Allies Welcome, the G-8 staff navigated the closeout of over $40 billion in funding and authorizations. Moreover, the team designed centralized reporting and analytical capabilities to give management enhanced operational perception on the yr-finish spending plan.
“It was weighty lifting by our group, on top rated of working day-to-working day functions,” Col. Samuel Glover, AMC G-8 military deputy, mentioned. “We’re happy to have a team of gurus that understand the great importance of leveraging each competence and character to help the mission.”
Freese and Tanya Willis, chief of the G-8 price range integration and cost division, were being regarded for their management in the execution of the spending plan even though working underneath the restraints of COVID-19 and synchronizing the fiscal oversight of Procedure Allies Welcome system. Aaron Okoro, chief of the G-8 useful resource, acquisition and assist division, acquired his award for building an method to classification management that created process advancements which resulted in virtually $100 million in discounts for the command.
Glover reported the AMC G-8’s most important mission is to resource the warfighter. The do the job that the workplace and subordinate command’s offices do each and every day makes sure that combatant commands, company customers and ahead-deployed civilians can execute their mission to gain the nation’s wars.
“AMC G-8 generally makes certain we have the proper resources in the suitable spot at the proper time,” Glover explained. “We could not do that without the need of the good dialogue and partnership we have with equally our great AMC personnel and mission guidance instructions as we both of those unify to acquire care of our warfighters and civilians ahead deployed.”
ASA, FM&C award winners from the AMC business involve:
This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe
Friday, April 22, 2022
Today’s newsletter is by Sam Ro, the author of TKer.co. Follow him on Twitter at @SamRo.
This week came with the World Bank and IMF cutting their outlooks for global economic growth.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs made waves when its chief economist concluded there’s a roughly 35{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} chance the U.S. economy will go into recession within two years.
It’s worth stressing that the World Bank and IMF still expect growth, and Goldman Sachs’ forecast implies that the U.S. economy will more likely avoid a recession.
Nevertheless, it’s always good to be vigilant about recessionary risks. And few are being more vigilant right now than the Federal Reserve, which is currently engineering monetary policy in a way aimed at cooling the economy to a level that brings inflation down from decades-high levels.
Whether the Fed’s plan can help the economy avoid recession will become clear in hindsight.
But there’s a way to track Fed’s progress: Job openings and unemployment.
After the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market was “tight to an unhealthy level.” Specifically, he noted that at the time there were 1.7 job openings for every unemployed person. He argued that this extraordinary demand for labor has fueled significant wage inflation, which in turn has helped spur inflation across the economy.
Powell seems to believe that with the right amount of tighter monetary policy, the level of job openings can come down, relieving wage pressure, without causing unemployment to rise. Assuming unemployment is contained, then the risk of recession should be limited.
Signs that job openings are down, while unemployment remains unchanged
As of February, there were 11.27 million job openings. That’s about in line with the 11.28 million openings in January. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job openings data comes on a significant lag with the March numbers being released on May 3.
However, job listings site Indeed regularly publishes more current job openings stats based off of its own data. And while job openings remain considerably above pre-pandemic levels, they have been coming down in the weeks going into April 15.
The Department of Labor, however, provides weekly updates on initial claims for unemployment benefits. While not as comprehensive as the BLS’s monthly jobs report, initial claims do provide some indication as to what’s going on in terms of job cuts.
In the week ending April 16, there were 184,000 initial claims filed. This is down from the prior week’s tally of 186,000. This was the ninth straight week this reading was depressed below the 200,000 level.
It’s still early days in the Fed’s tightening effort. But so far, we’re getting early indications that job openings can indeed decline without forcing unemployment significantly higher.
If this trend is confirmed and it continues, then the Fed thinks we should begin to see wage growth slow down, which in turn should cause broad inflation reading to cool. We shall see.
What to watch today
Economy
9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI, April preliminary (58.0 expected, 58.8 in March)
9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Services PMI, April preliminary (58.0 expected, 58.0 in March)
9:45 a.m. ET: S&P Global U.S. Composite PMI, April preliminary (57.9 in March)
Earnings
Pre-market
7:00 a.m. ET: Verizon (VZ) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $33.59 billion
7:00 a.m. ET: American Express (AXP) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $2.39 per share on revenue of $11.63 billion
7:30 a.m. ET: Schlumberger (SLB) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $0.33 per share on revenue of $5.94 billion
7:30 a.m. ET: Kimberly-Clark (KMB) is expected to report adjusted earnings of $1.24 per share on revenue of $4.91 billion
Post-market
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Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
CNN+ shoppers “will receive prorated refunds of subscription costs,” the company stated.
The selection was manufactured by new management after CNN’s former father or mother organization, WarnerMedia, merged with Discovery to sort Warner Bros. Discovery previously this month.
The prior administration team’s vision for CNN+ operates counter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s system to dwelling all of the company’s brands under a person streaming support. Some CNN+ programming may ultimately live on via that provider. Other programming will change to CNN’s primary television community.
“In a sophisticated streaming industry, people want simplicity and an all-in services which supplies a much better expertise and additional benefit than stand-by itself offerings, and, for the firm, a far more sustainable business enterprise product to travel our long run investments in terrific journalism and storytelling,” Discovery’s streaming boss J.B. Perrette stated in a assertion.
“We have extremely thrilling alternatives in advance in the streaming space and CNN, a person of the world’s premier reputational belongings, will play an essential part there,” Perrette included.
Perrette and incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht notified staffers of the final decision in a assembly on Thursday afternoon. Licht bluntly explained to personnel it was a “uniquely shitty condition.”
Hundreds of CNN+ staffers may possibly shed their jobs. Licht reported in an interior memo that “all CNN+ staff members will continue on to be paid and obtain added benefits for the subsequent 90 days to explore prospects at CNN, CNN Digital and elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Discovery spouse and children.”
Staffers who are not absorbed elsewhere in the firm will get a bare minimum of six months of severance, he added.
An agent for a single CNN+ host, who was set to anchor a weekly clearly show on the streaming support, explained their client’s plan at the network as going through an uncertain future. “It is all TBD,” the individual said.
But the agent extra that the community has gone out of its way to make obvious that it is committed to finding roles for CNN+ hosts.
Licht mentioned in a city corridor style meeting with staffers that “this was an very profitable launch” but simply just incompatible with the freshly merged firm’s plans.
“It is not your fault that you experienced the rug pulled out from underneath you,” he explained as he vowed to reduce the impacts to team.
One particular CNN+ staffer at the town corridor described the sentiment as “whole and utter shock” that morphed into despair.
“At first individuals have been really freaking out,” spelled out the person, who asked for anonymity to candidly describe the condition. “And then, towards the end of the meeting, it just turned to unhappiness. Each individual group was just huddling with every other.”
For the duration of the town corridor, Perrette expressed some aggravation with the “prior leadership” of CNN, which was led by Jeff Zucker right up until February, and WarnerMedia, which was led by Jason Kilar right until early April.
“Some of this was avoidable,” he said, but “prior management resolved to just keep going” with the planned March start of CNN+ in spite of the impending merger, he explained.
The streaming company ended up launching just two months prior to the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger done, substantially to the exasperation of Discovery leadership, which experienced a unique strategy but could not lawfully connect with CNN executives ahead of the offer was formal.
Warner Bros. Discovery has billions in credit card debt, a lot of which is a outcome of the deal to mix the company, and executives are beneath tension to locate $3 billion in cost savings that Wall Avenue is anticipating from them.
The government vice president in charge of CNN+ and all of CNN’s digital companies, Andrew Morse, who labored closely with Kilar and Zucker, will depart the firm soon after a transition time period.
In a be aware to workforce, Morse explained his nine many years at CNN as an “remarkable experience” and stated, “As the company enters an interesting period of time of change, it can be crystal clear that the vision the new leadership has for the future is distinctive than the just one we have experienced. That’s Ok. That’s all section of transform.”
Licht reported in the town corridor that he wished Morse to remain, but highly regarded the conclusion.
Alex MacCallum, the head of products and general supervisor of CNN+, will operate CNN Digital and perform with Licht “to decide a leadership approach going forward,” the corporation stated in a press launch.
On Thursday afternoon, CNN+ staff members housed on the 16th ground of Hudson Yards, the network’s New York headquarters, broke out whiskey and wine to commiserate.
The decision to shut down CNN+ just months after it launched marked a gorgeous finish to the streaming news service. Executives had touted the application as the most sizeable launch since Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980.
CNN had poured hundreds of thousands and thousands of dollars into the new streaming app and lured major talent from other networks for it, including Kasie Hunt from NBC and Chris Wallace from Fox Information.
The streaming service highlighted hours of day by day live programming and weekly displays.
That programming will carry on to stream by the end of the month.
U.S. stocks were mostly lower Friday as investors assessed more corporate earnings and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that hinted a half-point rate hike was likely next month.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.3{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}, on pace to round out a third straight week of losses, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 170 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed slightly, up 0.2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}. Meanwhile, Treasury yields continued their march forward, with the 10-year U.S. benchmark yielding 2.9{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}, the highest level since December 2018.
Speaking at a panel hosted by the International Monetary Fund Thursday, Powell said a 50-basis point rate increase was “on the table” for May when the U.S. central bank holds its next policy-setting meeting. The Fed chair also reiterated that policymakers were committed to “front-end loading” inflation-fighting efforts.
“We really are committed to using our tools to get 2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} inflation back,” Powell said in remarks before European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and other officials, referring to the Fed’s target for annual price increases.
“We’re definitely in the cards for a 50 basis point rate hike in the May meeting,” Capital2Market President Keith Bliss said on Yahoo Finance Live on Thursday (video above). “The market is pretty good at dictating, if not indicating, where this is going to go.”
With the headline Consumer Price Index at its highest level in four decades, the U.S. Federal Reserve has recently signaled aggressive monetary tightening is underway to rein in rising price levels despite warnings from experts that moving too quickly could result in an economic contraction.
“The big question is whether the earnings can really sustain this kind of a macro backdrop of slower growth and Fed policy,” Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Chief Investment Officer Deepak Puri said on Yahoo Finance Live earlier this week. “It seems certain companies can — historically that’s been the case. What’s different this time is really the trifecta, which is higher costs of capital, quantitative tightening, plus a lack of … a big fiscal stimulus.”
Despite worries from Wall Street over the next policy moves and the risks posed to traders, a readout of the Federal Reserve’s recently published Beige Book suggests Main Street sentiment remains positive overall.
Strategists at LPL Research said the Beige Book Barometer may provide a more accurate picture of the economic outlook than current consumer sentiment, which has been weak in the face of soaring inflation. Despite an economic slowdown in the first quarter, data out of Washington has come in better than consensus expectations in recent weeks.
“Looking at the Fed’s most recent Beige Book, local U.S. businesses remain resilient despite elevated uncertainty,” LPL Financial Asset Allocation Strategist Barry Gilbert said. “Inflation, COVID, and the conflict in Ukraine will keep uncertainty elevated in the near term, but if we can navigate these challenges we believe there are solid prospects of a pick-up in growth in the second half of the year.”
Elsewhere in markets, shares of American Express (AXP) fell 1.5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} despite a beat on its quarterly earnings in results out Friday morning. Shares of Verizon (VZ), which also reported before the opening bell, tumbled 6{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} after the telecommunications giant said it lost 36,000 monthly phone subscribers during the first quarter.
Investors continued to watch Snap Inc. (SNAP) after the company projected a strong outlook for user growth on Thursday despite warning supply-chain disruptions and inflation could continue to hurt advertising demand. Shares of Snap were up about 0.3{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in early trading.
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10:03 a.m. ET: U.S. business activity decelerates in April
Business activity across the U.S. eased in April, with inflationary pressures putting a dent in service sector output as rising prices weighed on spending.
S&P Global’s Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, which serves as a measure of overall economic health, fell to a reading of 55.1 this month from 57.7 in March. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a reading of 57.9. Any reading above 50 indicates growth in the private sector.
“Many businesses continue to report a tailwind of pent up demand from the pandemic, but companies are also facing mounting challenges from rising inflation and the cost of living squeeze, as well as persistent supply chain delays and labor constraints,” S&P Global chief business economist Chris Williamson said in a statement.
“These headwinds, plus increased concerns over the economic outlook and tightening monetary policy, meant business confidence about the outlook slipped sharply lower in April. However, with the overall pace of economic growth and hiring remaining relatively solid, for now the focus from a policy perspective is likely to remain firmly on the need to rein in the record high inflationary pressures signaled by the survey.”
