Selasa, 30 April 2019

Apple stock falls ahead of earnings as Samsung, Google warn of smartphone issues - MarketWatch

Apple Inc. is about to give its take on smartphone demand, but not before its chief rivals painted a bleak picture of the current landscape.

Both Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -8.09% GOOG, -8.15%  and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 005930, -0.65% reported earnings late on Monday, alluding to continued slowdowns in their smartphone businesses.

“Hardware results reflect lower year-on-year sales of Pixel reflecting in part heavy promotional activity industry-wide given some of the recent pressures in the premium smartphone market,” Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said on the company’s conference call.

She later tried to soften the blow by maintaining that while smartphone sales were down, Google Home smart speakers and other home devices have been demonstrating “ongoing momentum.”

Opinion: Google sales growth is slowing, and it sure would be nice to know why

Samsung predicted a “likely stagnant smartphone market” in the second half of the year and described how it’s had to adjust to changing conditions. Robert Yi, the company’s head of investor relations, explained that “the process of revamping our mass-market lineup amid softer overall smartphone demand” prompted a drop in sales volume for Samsung in the latest quarter.

When Apple AAPL, -1.71%  reports earnings this afternoon, a key focus will be on the company’s performance in China, after challenges there prompted the company to report a disappointing holiday quarter. Apple has cut prices in China as a result, but Samsung’s commentary suggests that the issues in China aren’t product specific, with Vice President Sang-Hyun Lee informing investors that the first quarter marked the start of “weak seasonality” in the region.

Apple earnings: How much of its massive cash pile will go into investors’ pockets?

Analysts are divided on what Apple’s China numbers will show, as Credit Suisse’s Matthew Cabral predicts that the company won’t be able to show “meaningful improvement” until it launches 5G iPhones in 2019. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty is more upbeat, writing of her expectation that Apple saw “further iPhone stabilization in March.”

Apple shares were down 1.8% in afternoon trading Tuesday, while Alphabet shares were off 8.3%.

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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-stock-falls-ahead-of-earnings-as-samsung-google-warn-of-smartphone-issues-2019-04-30

2019-04-30 17:14:00Z
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Facebook F8 developer conference Day 1: How to watch live - CNET

The past three years haven't been easy for the world's largest social network. Facebook has been beset with scandals, largely caused by self-inflicted wounds and years of negligent behavior.

On Tuesday, the company will attempt to chart a path forward. It's expected to discuss new ideas around its messaging services, photo sharing, artificial intelligence and more. 

It's a good bet that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will headline the event, as he has for each of the company's previous conferences. Last year, he discussed new ideas around dating apps, using AI to take on harassment and a new "clear history" tool to increase people's privacy. This year, among other things, it's a safe bet the company will announce the launch date for its newest VR headsets, the Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest, both of which cost $399.

When it starts

Facebook's developer conference kicks off Tuesday, April 30 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). It'll continue Wednesday, May 1, with another keynote at the same time.

Where to watch

We'll be streaming the conference live, on this page.

What we can expect

It's a good bet you'll hear a mix of techno-optimism and some acknowledgment that, despite the "intense year" Facebook had before 2018's F8 conference, this one seems to have been even crazier.

Originally published April 29, 5 a.m. PT.
Update, 9:36 a.m.: Adds details.

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2019-04-30 16:36:00Z
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Elizabeth Warren rips Chase Bank over 'Monday motivation' tweet - Fox Business

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon doesn't see a recession coming

FoxNews.com columnist Liz Peek, former investment banker Carol Roth, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (D) and Kaltbaum Capital Management President Gary Kaltbaum on JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s claim that the U.S. won’t see a recession for the next few years.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., ripped Chase Bank after the financial institution tweeted a “Monday motivation” tip to customers with low bank account balances.

Continue Reading Below

Chase’s now-deleted post featured a fictional conversation between a person and their bank account, in which the person ignored money-saving tips like making their morning coffee at home instead of buying it at a store. The tweet drew immediate backlash on social media from many critics, including Warren, who saw it as a tone-deaf attack on lower-income Americans.

MORE ON THIS

Mimicking the format Chase used in its original tweet, Warren pointed out that the bank received a $25 billion taxpayer-funded bailout in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The 2020 presidential hopeful also reiterated her common assertion that leading employers don’t pay a living wage to their employees.

A frequent critic of corporate malpractice, Warren emerged as Wells Fargo's staunchest detractors after the bank was linked to a series of scandals related to its sales practices. Warren has identified a breakup of big tech companies such as Amazon and Google as one of her key platform issues for the 2020 election cycle, arguing that the firms have pursued anti-competitive mergers and business initiatives.

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Chase Bank's tweet came weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon faced tough questions from the House Financial Services Committee over its pay practices for entry-level employees. The institution addressed the criticism of its tweet in a second post.

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2019-04-30 15:32:16Z
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Alphabet had more than $70 billion in market cap wiped out, and it's blaming YouTube - CNBC

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube.

Michael Newberg | CNBC

Google has a YouTube problem, according to CFO Ruth Porat.

On Monday, after reporting that ad revenue grew 15% versus the 24% it saw a year ago, Google's parent company Alphabet saw its stock punished. It fell nearly 8% Tuesday morning.

According to Porat, YouTube was one of the culprits.

"While YouTube clicks continue to grow at a substantial pace in the first quarter, the rate of YouTube click growth rate decelerated versus a strong Q1 last year, reflecting changes that we made in early 2018, which we believe are overall additive to the user and advertiser experience," Porat said on the company's earnings call Monday.

Porat didn't expand on precisely what changes in YouTube led to the poor ad revenue growth, and Google isn't saying anything beyond her statements from Monday.

But if you wind the clock back a year, it's easy to see what happened.

In the first quarter of 2018, Google began making changes to YouTube's algorithms designed to stop harmful content from appearing in the feed of recommended videos you see on the side of a video page.

The goal was to make it harder to find videos full of conspiracy theories, fake news and all that other detritus that occasionally sent advertisers fleeing from the platform. Instead of YouTube directing you to a conspiracy theory about the latest school shooting, you were shown related videos from "authoritative" news sources the company considered worthy of bringing you accurate information.

On top of that, YouTube has removed millions of channels and videos that violated the company's harmful content policies, most notably Alex Jones.

But all of those garbage videos also kept engagement high. It kept YouTube users tuned in to their feeds beyond the video they came to watch, even if the company said they only made up less than 1% of all videos on the site.

YouTube was literally incentivized to keep its algorithms pumping junk to the top of people's feeds so people would keep watching and the ad dollars would keep flowing. A devastating Bloomberg report earlier this month showed that for years YouTube executives ignored warnings from their own employees that the misinformation and nastiness on the site had gotten out of hand.

For a long time, they chose the money over managing the mayhem.

Today, YouTube says it's serious about cleaning up the issues that have plagued the site for years. But that clean-up appears to have come at the short-term cost of ad revenue growth. (Although it's possible that Porat was referring to other types of changes, or engaging in some selective disclosure to guide investors away from other reasons for the growth slowdown.)

Investors punished the company on Monday by vaporizing more than $70 billion from its market cap.

But if YouTube can fix its content problems and continue to grow beyond its nearly 2 billion users, it has a chance to benefit in the long term.

The new system is still far from perfect, as The New York Times' Kevin Roose pointed out in an interview with YouTube's Chief Product officer Neal Mohan. It's still possible to fall down a rabbit hole of horrible videos on YouTube. But, based on Porat's comments, the changes were effective enough to hurt YouTube engagement.

Still, analysts on Tuesday didn't sound too worried about YouTube's longer term prospects, and cautioned there are other factors playing into the ad growth deceleration.

"YouTube has increased its focus on responsibility and safety, and it adjusted its algorithm in 1Q to reduce recommendations of content that comes close to violating guidelines or is misinformed or harmful," J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a research note Tuesday morning. They added that, "we don't think there's a single clear answer for Google's [deceleration], but a number of factors are at work."

With billions in market cap gone and analysts already downgrading Alphabet's stock, the biggest question surrounding YouTube today is whether it will continue making improvements to curb the spread of toxic content or be shocked back into inaction for the benefit of its shareholders.

Correction: An earlier version of this story linked to the wrong YouTube blog post announcing changes to content moderation.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/youtube-algorithm-changes-negatively-impact-google-ad-revenue.html

2019-04-30 15:15:55Z
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Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to invest $10 billion in Occidental Petroleum for Anadarko takeover - CNBC

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Warren Buffett is getting involved in a rare bidding war unfolding in the energy industry.

Berkshire Hathaway has committed a $10 billion preferred stock investment in Occidental Petroleum contingent on the company completing its proposed takeover of Anadarko Petroleum. Last week, Occidental made a rival bid for the oil and gas driller, challenging Chevron's $33 billion buyout of Anadarko.

Shares of Occidental fell 2% on Tuesday, while Chevron's stock popped 3%. A company's stock price often falls when investors believe it is about to acquire a company. Anadarko's shares fell about half a percent.

The capital injection from Berkshire could make Occidental a more formidable suitor. In pursuing Anadarko, Occidental is going toe to toe with an oil major with a much bigger balance sheet and whose market capitalization is nearly five times its value.

Several analysts initially downgraded shares of Occidental following its bid, with many saying the buyout would carry more risks than Chevron's proposed takeover of Anadarko. Achieving the benefits of the deal depends in part on Occidental's successful divestment in $10 billion-$15 billion in assets and achieving $3.5 billion in savings from the tie-up.

Berkshire's involvement suggests the company believes Occidental is best positioned to wring value out of Anadarko's portfolio. Occidental is focused on Anadarko's acreage in the Permian Basin, the U.S. shale oil region stretching across western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub has pitched Occidental as a high-performing Permian driller that can enrich Anadarko shareholders by squeezing more oil and gas from the drillers' wells at lower costs.

"We are thrilled to have Berkshire Hathaway's financial support of this exciting opportunity," Hollub said in a press release.

Here's how the Berkshire deal is structured:

  • Berkshire will receive 100,000 shares of cumulative perpetual preferred stock with a value of $100,000 a share.
  • The conglomerate also gets a warrant to purchase up to 80 million shares of Occidental at an exercise price of $62.50 a share.
  • The preferred stock will accrue dividends at 8% annually.

The Oracle of Omaha is an active investor across the energy sector.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the top shareholders in oil refiner Phillips 66, and the firm took a new stake in Canadian oil and gas company Suncor earlier this year. Through Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Buffett has invested billions in natural gas power plants and pipelines, renewable energy and electric transmission and distribution.

Occidental has offered $76 a share for Anadarko, while Chevron's initial bid was $65 a share. On Monday, Anadarko restarted talks with Occidental after its board determined the offer could be superior to Chevron's bid.

"I think that in a psychological sense a seal of approval so to speak from Buffett may influence how Anadarko's board is thinking about it," said Pavel Molchanov, energy equity analyst at Raymond James.

"But financially, Occidental could have done this deal without this $10 billion dollars, so from a purely financial standpoint, it's not as credible. I still think that more likely than not Chevron will prevail in this bidding war," said Molchanov, who believes neither company should buy Anadarko.

The Berkshire investment helps Occidental with the cash component of the proposed acquisition, said Richard Tullis, energy equity analyst at Capitol One. Occidental's offer is structured as a 50-50 cash and stock deal.

However, Occidental's 8% annual payout to Berkshire is on the high end for an investment grade company, Tullis says. That could increase the combined company's forward debt metrics to a level above and beyond what investors had previously assumed.

"I think that's probably being reflected in the stock reaction today with the stock underperforming," he said.

The dividend payment is "a really sweet deal" for Buffett and a "very expensive piece of paper" for Occidental, said Michael Bradley, managing director for equity sales at investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt.

The market largely assumed that Chevron would put in a slightly higher bid this week and prevail in the battle for Anadarko, according to Bradley. However, the momentum now appears to be swinging in Occidental's favor, largely because Buffett's involvement allows the company to counter with an even higher offer, he said.

"Berkshire's behind them. [Buffett] has the brand name. He has the mystique, and I think that's probably what they need to bring them over the edge," Bradley said.

On Tuesday, Chevron reaffirmed its view that its "signed agreement with Anadarko provides the best value and the most certainty to Anadarko's shareholders." The energy giant would pocket a $1 billion breakup fee if Anadarko backs out of the agreement.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-to-invest-10-billion-in-occidental-petroleum-for-anadarko-takeover.html

2019-04-30 13:35:20Z
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GE burns through $1.2 billion but Wall Street is happy it wasn't worse - CNN

Shares of GE (GE) climbed 7% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company reported profit and revenue that exceeded forecasts. Wall Street is betting the company's recovery remains intact.
GE's struggles continue to be driven by its slumping power division. Profit tumbled 71% in that unit as orders nosedived.
Yet GE is standing by its 2019 guidance for industrial free cash flow to range between negative $2 billion and zero.
GE's subprime mortgage unit files for bankruptcy
"I am encouraged by the improvements we are making inside GE," CEO Larry Culp said in a statement. "This is one quarter in what will be a multi-year transformation, and 2019 remains a reset year for us."
That's despite the emergence of a new risk: the Boeing (BA) 737 Max crisis. A GE joint venture supplies the engines to the 737 Max, which has been grounded due to safety concerns. GE also owns 29 of the 737 Max aircraft through its airplane leasing business, GECAS.
GE said it is working closely with Boeing while conducting "proactive" maintenance on the engines.
"We are confident in the 737 Max aircraft," Culp told analysts during a conference call.

'Long way to go'

GE emphasized that its better-than-feared results were driven by timing. Orders and customer collections arrived earlier than anticipated and GE said this trend should "balance out" later in the year.
"This is a game of inches and we have a long way to go," Culp said.
Culp, who became GE's first outsider CEO last fall, has moved urgently to try to fix the iconic company after years of bad decisions broke its balance sheet. GE slashed its dividend to a penny, accelerated sales of long-held businesses and promised to rapidly pay down debt.
"GE started its 2019 'reset year' with nice momentum," RBC analyst Deane Dray wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. RBC Capital had been bracing for negative free cash flow of up to $4 billion.
During the first quarter, GE announced the sale of its BioPharma unit to Danaher (DHR), closed the spinoff of its century-old railroad division and cleaned up its financial arm. GE Capital reached a $1.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department to resolve allegations against its defunct subprime lender WMC Mortgage. Last week, WMC filed for bankruptcy.
"We continue to focus on reducing leverage and improving the underlying performance of our businesses," Culp said on Tuesday.

Aviation continues to shine

GE Power sales fell 14% decline as the fossil-fuels division continues to get hurt by the rise of renewables. However, GE said its power business performed better than expected, and it reported a 6% increase in its orders backlog. GE has moved to fix the power division by cutting jobs and closing plants.
Aviation continues to be a bright spot at GE. The jet engine division reported a 12% increase in revenue as orders rose 7% thanks to strong demand from manufacturers. GE shipped 424 LEAP engines during the first quarter, up from just 186 the year before.
GE continues to wind down GE Capital, the financial arm that nearly ruined the company during the 2008 crisis. GE Capital reported a profit of $171 million, up from a loss of $1.8 billion a year ago.
"GE remains focused on shrinking and de-risking GE Capital, including improving its leverage profile," the company said.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/investing/ge-earnings-stock/index.html

2019-04-30 13:02:00Z
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Home prices continued to grow at a slower rate in February: S&P Case-Shiller - CNBC

Prospective home owners tour a home in Jurupa Valley, California.

Nichola Groom | Reuters

National home prices rose 4% in February from a year earlier, according to the latest reading on the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index. That is down from a 4.2% annual gain in January.

The 10-City Composite rose 2.6% annually, down from 3.1% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 3% year-over-year gain, down from 3.5% in January.

Markets still gaining big: Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa, Florida, saw the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. Las Vegas prices were up 9.7%, followed by Phoenix with a 6.7% increase, and Tampa with a 5.4% increase.

Prices have been gaining since 2012, but in the past year those gains have been shrinking due to higher mortgage rates and a general overheating of values in most metropolitan markets, which hurt sales.

"Home sales drifted down over the last year except for a one-month pop in February 2019," said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Sales of new homes, housing starts, and residential investment had similar weak trajectories over the last year."

While it is unlikely that home values will go negative on a national level, the San Francisco Bay Area did see home prices fall annually in March for the first time since 2012, according to CoreLogic. Home prices there had overheated far beyond historical affordability levels, causing home sales to drop dramatically in the past eight months.

"Last year, the largest gain was 12.7% in Seattle. Regional patterns are shifting. The three California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego have the three slowest price increases over the last year," added Blitzer. "Chicago, New York and Cleveland saw only slightly larger prices increases than California. Prices generally rose faster in inland cities than on either the coasts or the Great Lakes."

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/home-prices-grew-at-slower-rate-in-february-sp-case-shiller.html

2019-04-30 13:00:44Z
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GM's truck sales finance push for self-driving cars; company shows $2.1 billion profit - Detroit Free Press

General Motors is all-in on electric and self-driving cars — but amid dampening enthusiasm for autonomous vehicles, GM's aggressive timeline to put them on public roads is pie in the sky, say some industry analysts. 

Still, the Detroit carmaker is not backing down from its promises. A GM spokesman said the company still plans to deploy a fleet of self-driving cars for ride-sharing in a major market this year, and referenced CEO Mary Barra's comments in February that GM continues "to make rapid progress with the technology." 

"I think we’re in a very strong position, if not a leading position," Barra said at the time. "I would say everything is moving forward in a very positive fashion."

To continue to pay for that progress, GM is relying on its core business. On Tuesday, that core business delivered, albeit with mixed results. Sales of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty crew cabs helped drive first-quarter profits.

GM reported a net profit of $2.1 billion for the first quarter, up from $1.1 billion in the year-ago period. But its earnings before interest and taxes were down 11.5 percent, its net revenue was down 3.4 percent and sales in China experienced a double-digit percentage dip.

The automaker's adjusted earnings per share of $1.41 beat Wall Street estimates. That included a benefit of 31 cents from GM's investment in Lyft and other revaluations. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected GM to report adjusted earnings of $1.10 per share. GM reported adjusted earnings of $1.43 per share in the first quarter of 2018. 

GM said it remains on track to save $2 billion to $2.5 billion this year as part of its restructuring. That includes idling five plants in North America and cutting some 14,000 jobs.

"GM's first-quarter operating results were in line with expectations we shared in January," said CEO Mary Barra in a statement. "My confidence in the year ahead remains strong, driven by our all-new full-size truck launch and our ongoing business transformation."

Long way out

Profit was driven by SUVs and pickups, which, as is the case with other automakers, must finance both the current business and development of the next generation of transportation.

Many analysts say it will be least five to 10 years out before fully autonomous cars can safely hit open public roads and offer a profitable business model.

"I am sure the people in GM and elsewhere have realized the challenge of what they're trying to do for a long time," said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Navigant Research in Detroit. "I think the reason GM has been so bullish on it publicly is to rally the stock market behind it and get the support that technology companies get."

GM acknowledges that it is always looking at ways to create shareholder value and attract investors, given the cost to develop self-driving cars. It has partnered with Honda and Japan's SoftBank in the effort, with both investing more than $2 billion. 

GM leaders have promoted self-driving technology aggressively, too. Dan Ammann, CEO of GM Cruise, the company's AV unit, has said, “The total addressable market for AV is something that is measured in trillions, whether you measure it in miles or dollars. It is a known market. We can see the market that's there today.”

GM Cruise, GM's self-driving car unit, declined to make Ammann available for this story.

Wall Street may not be buying GM's pitch. The market's appreciation of autonomous cars "appears to have changed materially over the past year," Morgan Stanley Adam Jonas wrote in a March 26 investor note. "We believe 'peak AV' sentiment in the market may have occurred in late 2017/early 2018."

If GM Cruise cannot remove the human safety driver from AVs when they're on public roads, Jonas said, it "may prove challenging" to make any money with the cars.

Funding the future

Earlier this month, Ford CEO Jim Hackett said, "We overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles."

Ford's first self-driving car will still come to market in 2021, but, Hackett said, "Its applications will be narrow" and it will operate in a geofenced area.

Uber Technologies Inc. is also retreating. It said recently it will be a long time before self-driving cars are ready for wide-scale deployment, Reuters reported. 

Uber has spent more than $1 billion on self-driving technology to compete with Alphabet Inc., which owns Waymo, Apple Inc. and GM Cruise, Bloomberg reported. Last year, GM Cruise spent $728 million and said it would top $1 billion this year. Waymo does not disclose spending.

More: How General Motors is leading the race for self-driving cars

More: GM adds 400 jobs to Kentucky plant slated to build the next-generation Corvette

"The auto industry went through this period of, 'Oh, my God, we're losing our grip on the market. People aren't going to own cars and they're going to ride sharing,'" said Maryann Keller, principal of Maryann Keller & Associates in New York. "GM will bring something out, they've made the promise, so they'll have to show something. Whether it's a fully functional, driverless car ... my guess is probably not."

GM may follow the model of Aptiv, which partnered with Lyft, and in January 2018 launched a self-driving ride-hailing pilot program in Las Vegas, Abuelsamid said. GM owns a stake in Lyft, but is not actively partnering with it. 

Aptiv has given more than 35,000 rides in its autonomous fleet in the past year with no accidents and it has a 4.95 driver rating out of 5. But it operates with safety drivers.

For now, Ford and GM are still traditional car companies.

"We still pay attention to their quarterly sales figures and earnings because their profits are still coming from the car business," said Keller. "If they're not profitable there, I don't know how they fund their autonomous vehicle business."

First-quarter results

For now, GM's core car business had a choppy quarter, but shows signs of leveling out later this year, analysts say.

GM delivered 665,840 vehicles in the quarter in the United States, a year-over-year drop of 7% compared with the industry average of 2.5% dip in the quarter. GM's sales in China hit 814,000, down 17.5%. 

GM market share was also down by nearly 5% compared with the year-ago quarter, said Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' manager of industry analysis. Still, the carmaker lowered incentive spending by nearly 15% in the quarter while its crosstown rivals increased incentives, he said. 

But GM said its sales of the new 2019 Silverado and Sierra rose 20% and generated average transaction prices nearly $5,800 higher than the outgoing models they replaced. But total pickup sales took an 8% hit in the quarter compared to a year ago, Edmunds' Acevedo said.

"GM is dealing with transitional pains as it phases out some of its cars, and the slow ramp-up of the Silverado is taking a bite out of the company's pickup truck sales," Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' manager of industry analysis.

GM has done a better job of reining in incentives this quarter compared to last year, making its prospects for the remainder of the year brighter, said Acevedo.

"Once GM starts firing on all cylinders with the Silverado it should retake its place as the second best in large truck sales" after being passed by the Ram in the first quarter, Acevedo predicted. "The ongoing roll out of the (Chevrolet) Blazer (SUV), the addition of heavy duty trucks and the Cadillac CT6 (sedan) should also be a shot in the arm for the company this year."

The Detroit automaker's pretax profit of $2.3 billion was a decline from $2.6 billion a year ago. Overall revenue of $34.9 billion was down by 3.4% from the same period in 2018.

Pretax profits in North America were at $1.9 billion, down from $2.2 billion reported in the same period in 2018.

GM said it "remains committed" to making job opportunities available for the 2,800 U.S. hourly workers still impacted by its move to idle five plants in North America and has placed about 1,300 workers in jobs at other factories to support the growth in pickup and SUV sales. 

GM on course

GM is investing billions in GM Cruise and planning to hire 1,000 people over the next nine months at its operations in San Francisco.

That comes after the automaker cut 8,000 white-collar jobs and said it will idle five factories in North America this year and early next year, affecting another 6,200 jobs. The restructuring will save about $2.5 billion this year, GM said. 

Barra has said GM is open to more partnerships similar to what it has with Honda and SoftBank.

At an investor conference in January, Barra said the main hold-up to putting self-drivng cars on public roads is safety. The cars struggle to master the crowded and complex streets of San Francisco, where GM is mainly testing them, she said. The other roadblock is figuring out a profitable business model, said Barra.

"GM has to answer the question of what is the business model," said Keller. "They haven't answered that question. To put an AV in a geofenced area where there are no potholes and only straight streets, that can be done today."

Problems and profits

Real world issues such as fog, snow and ice or navigating complex turns or tricky intersections throw the cars off, Keller said. 

"This is pie in the sky," said Keller. "Increasingly there's skepticism among Wall Street as to when all of this is going to happen."

Main Street is just as skeptical as Wall Street. Less than one in 10 new car buyers said they "love" the idea of owning a full self-driving car, and three in 10 said they actually "hate" the idea, said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision in San Diego.

Strategic Vision's main focus is understanding consumer values and how they impact behavior. It surveyed about 80,000 current new vehicle owners in 2018 asking if consumers are ready for a fully AV fleet this year, Edwards said. 

"For the most part, the consumer is not ready for this technology to hit the market. Some could make comparisons to the '80s when we were told everyone would be going electric," said Edwards. "We are still waiting for consumer adoption to happen."

Edwards' research did show that most consumers are willing to try semi-autonomous driving features that enhance safety. When a vehicle parks itself or adjusts speed during cruise control, most respondents report loving the experience. 

If GM cannot deliver on its promise to launch autonomous cars this year, its stock price could suffer, said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book. But if GM delivers, even on a more limited basis, it will be significant. GM will have shown it can develop the self-driving technology and build the cars. Others, such as Waymo, cannot build cars, he said.

More: Waymo plans final assembly on self-driving cars in Detroit; will need 100-400 workers

Morgan Stanley's "Jonas has said, 'That's it, no more points for autonomous cars, that's baked in the price now,'" said Brauer. "If sometime this year, there is a fleet of 10 or less self-driving cars that GM launches and it is effective, I still think that counts."

That's because even if the race for AVs takes longer than the innovators had thought, Brauer said, "GM is still one of the leaders in that race, right up there with (Waymo). That's perception, and perception is what drives the stock price."

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.

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https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/04/30/gm-profit-2-billion-truck-sales-self-driving/3412164002/

2019-04-30 12:00:00Z
CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZyZWVwLmNvbS9zdG9yeS9tb25leS9jYXJzL2dlbmVyYWwtbW90b3JzLzIwMTkvMDQvMzAvZ20tcHJvZml0LTItYmlsbGlvbi10cnVjay1zYWxlcy1zZWxmLWRyaXZpbmcvMzQxMjE2NDAwMi_SASRodHRwczovL2FtcC5mcmVlcC5jb20vYW1wLzM0MTIxNjQwMDI

General Electric reports Q1 earnings - Yahoo Finance

The General Electric logo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchang. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

General Electric (GE) reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, sending its stock soaring as weakness in its beleaguered power unit was partly offset by strength in oil, gas and aviation.

The troubled industrial conglomerate posted adjusted earnings per share of 14 cents on revenue of $27.3 billion. That compared with expectations of 9 cents per share on revenue of $27.11 billion, according to a consensus forecast from Bloomberg.

On a continuing basis, GE’s profit in Q1 was 11 cents per share— more than tripling from the comparable year ago period, when it earned just 3 cents per share.

Those results were enough to send GE’s stock on a tear in pre-market action, rallying by more than 10% from Monday’s close. In early dealings, the company’s shares traded around $10.74, up by more than $1.

GE reported adjusted negative free cash flows—a metric of intense interest to Wall Street—of around $1.2 billion in the quarter. However, that figure narrowed substantially from negative $1.76 billion a year ago.

The company’s most closely-watched segments include its capital, aviation and health care segments. Yet GE is plagued by the underperformance of its power business, which GE expects to pare by about $400 million this year.

During the first quarter, orders in its power business plunged by 14% year-over-year—as expected—and revenue diving by 22%. However, gains in GE’s aviation, oil and gas and healthcare segments helped counteract the softness in power.

Aviation revenues surged 12% from a year ago, while oil and gas money saw a 4% jump year-over-year. Yet renewable energy revenues contracted by 3% from the first quarter of 2018, underscoring GE’s continued struggles in power generation.

Analysts at UBS recently declared that “the bottom is in sight” for GE Power, rating the stock as a buy with a target of $13.

In March, GE guided lower expectations for 2019’s earnings growth, as the company struggles to rein in debt and reform its beleaguered power business. CEO Larry Culp said that the segment — one of GE’s most closely watched segments —would improve but remain in the red.

In a statement, Culp reiterated March’s guidance for the company, saying that he was “encouraged by the improvements we are making inside GE. This is one quarter in what will be a multi-year transformation, and 2019 remains a reset year for us.”

GE’s stock, traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed up 1.7% on Monday at $9.73.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/general-electric-reports-q1-earnings-103846095.html

2019-04-30 11:51:00Z
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Alphabet's stock tanks with analysts asking, 'Hey Google, what happened to revenue growth?' - CNBC

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 11, 2018.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Wall Street analysts were largely caught off guard after Alphabet posted a rare revenue miss in its earnings report on Monday after the bell and they were still confused after the results. Analysts noted a slowdown in advertising revenue growth and repeated calls for the company to be more transparent in its earnings report.

Shares plunged more than 7% in premarket trading.

"This quarter will no doubt result in a reset to forward expectations, particularly for the ads business, as investors search for reasons for the fairly meaningful deceleration – we expect the stock to trade sideways while we all grapple with whether this quarter was simply a result of product change headaches or if ad budgets are shifting elsewhere," Nomura Instinet analyst Mark Kelley said.

"We side with the former and maintain our Buy rating, though calls for more disclosure to help us all with these questions were once again a main theme, and with good reason," the analyst added.

Google revenue increased 17%, slower than the 28% pace a year earlier. Advertising sales increased 15%, compared to a 24% growth rate a year ago. Alphabet executives said on the call that the slowdown was due to currency fluctuations and timing of product changes but analysts apparently wanted more.

The parade of transparency calls continued with analysts at J.P. Morgan. "Overall, we expect GOOGL shares to be under pressure in the near-term given sub-20% revenue growth & downward earnings revisions. As noted above, the exact drivers of GOOGL's slowing topline are unclear, & we believe frustration around GOOGL's lack of transparency will only increase," they said.

Revenue deceleration was enough for analysts at Stifel who downgraded the stock to hold from buy. "The unexpected degree of revenue deceleration and lower visibility into the near-term reacceleration / deceleration potential lead us to believe the multiple on shares may be challenged to move meaningfully higher over the next twelve months," wrote Stifel analyst Scott Devitt.

"Hey Google, What Happened To Revenue Growth?" asked RBC analyst Mark Mahaney in his earnings wrap note to clients.

Still, he said, "we're modest buyers on the 7% AM pullback; we'd be material buyers on a material pullback. We don't believe GOOGL is going through a material, sustained growth deceleration."

Here's what major analysts are saying about Alphabet:

Stifel- Downgraded to hold from buy

"We view shares as fairly-valued at current levels and believe the multiple is likely to remain range bound over the next twelve months as a potential deceleration digestion period lies ahead with lower visibility into near-term revenue growth rates. The upside to Street margin in 1Q would be an encouraging trend all else equal, though the topline deceleration path and questions regarding Alphabet's long-term revenue growth trajectory are likely more meaningful to intermediate-term stock performance in our view, while discretionary spending could also cause opex to tick up again in future quarters. At aftermarket prices, GOOGL shares trade at approximately 22x our 2020E GAAP EPS, matching the three-year historical average of 22x forward two-year EPS."

Goldman Sachs- Buy rating and price target to $1,350 from $1,400

"Despite upside to GAAP EPS excluding the EU fine, Alphabet shares will likely be under pressure as Sites revenue growth on a constant currency basis came in below 20% for the first time since 1Q15. While a bigger FX headwind was clearly a key reason for the shortfall, management cited the timing of ad product changes as another factor that in some quarters are cited as tailwinds but this quarter was cited as hurting revenue growth. The focus will now turn to 2Q19 results and whether or not net ad growth will reaccelerate."

Barclays- Overweight rating and price target to $1,315 from $1,350

"Google missed every revenue line by 1.5%-4% for 1Q, and we were below consensus. We have to imagine that some of the deceleration is deliberate around product changes, and some is Google resetting the bar. Network trends are likely to get worse as Yahoo and AOL drop out of AFS going forward."

J.P. Morgan - Overweight rating and price target to $1,310 from $1,250

"Overall, we expect GOOGL shares to be under pressure in the near-term given sub-20% revenue growth & downward earnings revisions. As noted above, the exact drivers of GOOGL's slowing topline are unclear, & we believe frustration around GOOGL's lack of transparency will only increase. That being said, GOOGL has maintained 20%+ growth for a very long time—off a large base—and now represents roughly 1/3 of the global online ad market. It also faces increased advertising competition from AMZN, at least on the margin. Our 2019/2020 revenue & GAAP EPS all come down about 2% as improved Other Bets losses partly offset slower Google Segment revenue growth. We maintain our Overweight rating, but prefer other FANG names Facebook, Amazon, & Netflix to Google."

Nomura Instinet- Buy rating and price target to $1,300 from $1,310

"This quarter will no doubt result in a reset to forward expectations, particularly for the ads business, as investors search for reasons for the fairly meaningful deceleration – we expect the stock to trade sideways while we all grapple with whether this quarter was simply a result of product change headaches or if ad budgets are shifting elsewhere. We side with the former and maintain our Buy rating, though calls for more disclosure to help us all with these questions were once again a main theme, and with good reason. We're slightly lowering our forward outlook and our target price moves to $1,300."

Morgan Stanley- Overweight rating and price target to $1,425 from $1,500

"GOOGL's 1Q ex FX Websites revenue came in 1% lower than our estimate…growing 19% Y/Y, the first time GOOGL has grown ex FX less than 20% in 17 quarters (Q3:14). GOOGL pointed to "the timing of product changes in ads" as one of the factors that drove the growth deceleration…but didn't provide any more clarity around what the changes were, whether the impact will be linear by quarter, or whether there will be more changes to come. The fact is we aren't sure what changes GOOGL made in the quarter that drove the deceleration and this is something the Street must figure out. While EBIT, EBITDA, and FCF were all stronger than expected, the forward growth trajectory of Websites revenue (given the scale and leverage in this ~$100bn annualized business) is likely to remain top of mind to determining long-term valuation."

RBC- Outperform rating

"We're modest buyers on the 7% AM pullback; we'd be material buyers on a material pullback. We don't believe GOOGL is going through a material, sustained growth deceleration. 1) The TAM remains $1T+ in global advertising/marketing spend. 2) Based on our extensive survey work, we don't see evidence of changes in Marketers' view of Google – budget allocations, future spend intentions, or perceived ROI (absolute or relative). And 3) We believe GOOGL's investments in Cloud, Internet-connected Homes & Autonomous Vehicles help set the company up for more years of premium growth & profits. And valuation remains reasonable, in our view, at ~20x Core Google '19E GAAP EPS, adjusting for cash."

Bank of America- Buy rating

"Revenue decelerated more than expected, while several peers exceeded expectations (though FB ad growth decelerated 220 bps q/q, much like Google ads) and we would expect Google stock to give back some of the recent gains (stock has rallied from $1,200 in early April, vs S&P index up 4%). Looking forward, while tougher comps may continue to impact 2019 ad revenues, Google could also introduce improvements which could accelerate revenues. While we are disappointed by below-Street revenue (and Google could avoid some stock volatility with better disclosure), we continue to be optimistic on medium-term benefit from machine learning on ad targeting, revenue potential driven by new investments (Google cloud and Waymo) and relatively undemanding core Google valuation. We maintain our Buy rating. Potential catalysts from here include: 1) new products (hardware) at Google I/O on May 7th; 2) YouTube news from upfront; and 3) visibility on Google Cloud or Waymo."

Deutsche Bank- Buy rating and price target to $1,300 to $1,385

"We appreciate quarterly results can be volatile and acknowledge the company's long-term focus, but the magnitude of the deceleration on a constant-currency basis marked the largest sequential move down since 3Q12. Given the magnitude of the change here, particularly given the consistency of growth rates historically, we think Google did a poor job explaining the slow-down. While the CFO flagged timing uncertainty last quarter, the comments were so opaque as to render them meaningless to most investors rather than a proper warning that top line growth would slow. In addition to the sharp deceleration, with gross ad revenue approaching $154B at Google in 2020, combined Google + Face-book ad revs of $237B in 2020 is on track to cross 40% of the global ad market by our estimates. Given slowing growth and rising penetration, we see saturation fears coming back to the fore on Alphabet shares. We reduce our total sites revenue ex-FX in 2019 to 18% (from 20.7%) and reduce our target price to $1,300 (from $1,385 previously) reflecting lower estimates and slightly lower multiples."

UBS- Buy rating

"After a Q4 earnings call message of potential volatile ad revs due to product changes, GOOG's Q1 '19 earnings report reflected that message (our conservative modeling was not enough) US/Europe ad revs decelerated worse than expected (our initial take is that trend is driven by supply/clicks as opposed to demand). Mgmt framed tough YoY comps (we think referencing YouTube product strength from year ago as headwind to volumes) & emphasized that no one product change caused such a headwind. We take a more modest approach to ad revs growth in 2019 to conservatively frame tough comps and/or potential product changes as we attempt to correctly frame the headwind. Leaving aside the short term debate (as a stock overhang), we still see GOOG as a key long term holding and nothing in this quarter changes our view on the structural drivers of revenue growth and FCF generation (AI/machine learning, local advertising, media consumption, cloud computing, hardware & Other Bets) – especially at what we see as a reasonable absolute valuation when measured against growth."

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/alphabet-stock-slammed-as-analysts-cite-lack-of-revenue-growth-and-transparency.html

2019-04-30 11:21:40Z
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GE +7.3% as profit triples, confirms guidance - Seeking Alpha

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  1. GE +7.3% as profit triples, confirms guidance  Seeking Alpha
  2. GE shares pop 8% after earnings beat expectations, CEO Culp reaffirms 2019 forecast  CNBC
  3. GE posts strong 1Q on improved aviation-related revenue  Fox Business
  4. GE stock surges 10% after Q1 earnings beat Wall Street  Yahoo Finance
  5. General Electric quarterly profit more than triples  Reuters
  6. View full coverage on Google News

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3455996-ge-plus-7_3-percent-profit-triples-confirms-guidance

2019-04-30 11:23:00Z
52780281587221

GE burns through $1.2 billion but Wall Street is happy it wasn't worse - CNN

Shares of GE (GE) climbed 6% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company reported profit and revenue that exceeded forecasts. Wall Street is betting the company's recovery remains intact.
GE's struggles continue to be driven by its slumping power division. Profit tumbled 71% in that unit as orders nosedived.
Yet GE is standing by its 2019 guidance for industrial free cash flow to range between negative $2 billion and zero.
GE's subprime mortgage unit files for bankruptcy
"I am encouraged by the improvements we are making inside GE," CEO Larry Culp said in a statement. "This is one quarter in what will be a multi-year transformation, and 2019 remains a reset year for us."
That's despite the emergence of a new risk: the Boeing (BA) 737 Max crisis. A GE joint venture supplies the engines to the 737 Max, which has been grounded due to safety concerns.
"GE is also working arm in arm with Boeing while actively monitoring the grounding of the 737 MAX fleet," the company said.
Culp, who became GE's first outsider CEO last fall, has moved urgently to try to fix the iconic company after years of bad decisions broke its balance sheet. GE slashed its dividend to a penny, accelerated sales of long-held businesses and promised to rapidly pay down debt.
During the first quarter, GE announced the sale of its BioPharma unit to Danaher (DHR), closed the spinoff of its century-old railroad division and cleaned up its financial arm. GE Capital reached a $1.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department to resolve allegations against its defunct subprime lender WMC Mortgage. Last week, WMC filed for bankruptcy.
"We continue to focus on reducing leverage and improving the underlying performance of our businesses," Culp said on Tuesday.
GE Power sales fell 14% decline as the fossil-fuels division continues to get hurt by the rise of renewables. However, GE said its power business performed better than expected, and it reported a 6% increase in its orders backlog. GE has moved to fix the power division by cutting jobs and closing plants.
Aviation continues to be a bright spot at GE. The jet engine division reported a 12% increase in revenue as orders rose 7% thanks to strong demand from manufacturers. GE shipped 424 LEAP engines during the first quarter, up from just 186 the year before.
GE continues to wind down GE Capital, the financial arm that nearly ruined the company during the 2008 crisis. GE Capital reported a profit of $171 million, up from a loss of $1.8 billion a year ago.
"GE remains focused on shrinking and de-risking GE Capital, including improving its leverage profile," the company said.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/investing/ge-earnings-stock/index.html

2019-04-30 10:59:00Z
52780281611582

‘Hidden backdoors’ were found in Huawei equipment, reports Bloomberg - The Verge

Vodafone Italy discovered “hidden backdoors” in Huawei equipment that would have allowed the Chinese company to access users’ home networks as well as Vodafone’s Italian fixed-line network, reports Bloomberg. The vulnerabilities were discovered between 2009 and 2011 in Huawei’s home internet routers, as well as its equipment used in parts of Vodafone’s network infrastructure. There was no evidence of data being compromised.

Bloomberg reports that both the router and network vulnerabilities continued to exist beyond 2012, and also existed in the company’s networks in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Sources say that Vodafone continued to use the equipment because it was cheaper than the competition and the cost to remove it was prohibitive.

In a statement given to Bloomberg, Vodafone acknowledged the vulnerabilities but contested the timeline, saying they were resolved in 2011 and 2012. Huawei says it was informed of the vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012, and that they were fixed at the time.

The revelations come as Huawei’s role in future 5G networks is under intense scrutiny worldwide over fears that its equipment could be exploited to aid in China’s intelligence efforts. Multiple countries are currently scrutinising Huawei’s security practices, as governments decide which parts of their 5G networks to allocate to the Chinese giant. The US is moving to ban the use of Huawei equipment, and is lobbying its allies to do the same. Meanwhile, the UK has reportedly made a preliminary decision to allow the use of Huawei’s equipment in non-core parts of its networks, but is under pressure from US officials to ban it completely.

Along with issues affecting its networking equipment, Vodafone Italy also identified issues with Huawei’s home internet routers, which Vodafone believed would give Huawei backdoor access to both local machines and wide-area networks. Huawei was reportedly reluctant to disable the Telnet feature that was creating the vulnerability, claiming it relied on it to configure the devices remotely.

Huawei characterized the vulnerabilities as “mistakes” rather than deliberate inclusions in the equipment. “These were technical mistakes in our equipment, which were identified and corrected,” the company told ZDNet, “The accepted definition of ‘backdoors’ is deliberately built-in vulnerabilities that can be exploited — these were not such. They were mistakes which were put right.”

A computer security professor quoted in the report, Stefano Zanero, said that there’s no obvious way to know if a vulnerability is an accidental bug or an intentional backdoor. However, he added that “the vulnerabilities described in the Vodafone reports from 2009 and 2011 have all the characteristics of backdoors: deniability, access and a tendency to be placed again in subsequent versions of the code.”

In January this year, Vodafone paused the use of Huawei’s equipment in its core infrastructure across Europe, citing the ongoing debates around the security of the equipment. More recently, Vodafone has warned that a total ban could impact the rollout of its 5G networks, and argued that there was no evidence that Huawei’s equipment posed a security risk. The revelations about these historical vulnerabilities, and Huawei’s approach to patching them, continues to raise questions about how safe its equipment is to use.

Last month, a UK cybersecurity watchdog raised concerns over the Chinese company’s “basic engineering competence and cyber security hygiene.” The same day, The Register reported lapses with how Huawei had patched a vulnerability in its routers in 2013 which later allowed them to be used as part of a botnet.

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https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/30/18523701/huawei-vodafone-italy-security-backdoors-vulnerabilities-routers-core-network-wide-area-local

2019-04-30 09:42:53Z
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Vodafone found security flaws in Huawei equipment in 2011, 2012 - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: The Logo of Huawei is seen at its showroom in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Telecoms group Vodafone found security flaws in equipment supplied by China’s Huawei to its Italian business in 2011 and 2012, the two companies said on Tuesday.

Vodafone, Europe’s biggest telecoms group, said it had found security vulnerabilities in two products and that both incidents had been resolved quickly. Bloomberg reported the news first.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

Britain last week sought to navigate its way through the bitter dispute between the two countries, deciding to block Huawei from all core parts of its 5G network and restrict access to non-core parts.

Huawei said it was made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and that they had been addressed at the time.

“Software vulnerabilities are an industry-wide challenge,” it said. “Like every Information and Communications Technology vendor we have a well-established public notification and patching process, and when a vulnerability is identified we work closely with our partners to take the appropriate corrective action.”

Reporting by Kate Holton and Jack Stubbs, editing by Louise Heavens

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-security-vodafone/vodafone-found-security-flaws-in-huawei-equipment-in-2011-2012-idUSKCN1S60N0

2019-04-30 08:37:00Z
CBMiiAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5yZXV0ZXJzLmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlL3VzLWh1YXdlaS1zZWN1cml0eS12b2RhZm9uZS92b2RhZm9uZS1mb3VuZC1zZWN1cml0eS1mbGF3cy1pbi1odWF3ZWktZXF1aXBtZW50LWluLTIwMTEtMjAxMi1pZFVTS0NOMVM2ME4w0gE0aHR0cHM6Ly9tb2JpbGUucmV1dGVycy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS9hbXAvaWRVU0tDTjFTNjBOMA

Senin, 29 April 2019

Wall St. gains as soft inflation data supports accommodative Fed - Investing.com

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York © Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York

By Shreyashi Sanyal and Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the and the Nasdaq hitting record highs, as consumer spending rose in March and benign inflation data underscored the Federal Reserve's accommodative stance on interest rates.

Hopes of a trade resolution, upbeat earnings and a dovish Fed have been powering a rally in the benchmark index this year. The index crossed its record high of 2,940.91 hit on Sept. 21 for the first time this year, restoring investors' faith in the decade-long bull run.

A Commerce Department report showed U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in more than 9-1/2 years in March, but price pressures remained muted, with a key inflation measure posting its smallest annual gain in 14 months.

Tame inflation may lead the central bank to cut interest rates, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in a television interview on Monday.

"We're in a sweet spot where the rates are low and the economy is strong and there is no possibility of rates rising, and that is an environment that markets like," said Paul Brigandi, managing director and head of trading at Direxion in New York.

"The strength of the consumer and the overall economy doing well leads to strength in banks as a strong consumer leads to more lending activity."

Financial companies rose 1.41%, leading gains among the 11 major S&P sectors, while the banking sector gained 2.12%.

The Federal Reserve starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday, at the end of which a decision on interest rates will be announced.

In yet another busy week of earnings, about 160 S&P 500 companies, including Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), are set to report their quarterly results.

Analysts now expect profits of S&P 500 companies to fall just 0.2%, a sharp improvement from a 2% fall estimated at the beginning of the month, according to Refinitiv data.

As trade talks enter their last leg, U.S. negotiators head to China on Tuesday to try to hammer out details to end the protracted tariff spat between the two countries.

At 13:04 p.m. ET the was up 34.32 points, or 0.13%, at 26,577.65. The S&P 500 was up 7.45 points, or 0.25%, at 2,947.33 and the was up 21.29 points, or 0.26%, at 8,167.69.

The defensive utilities and real estate, led the declines among the seven major S&P sectors trading in the red.

Among stocks, Ingersoll-Rand jumped 5.93%, the most among S&P companies, after the Wall Street Journal reported Gardner Denver Holdings Inc is nearing a deal to acquire a unit of the air conditioner maker.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.83-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 36 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 69 new highs and 19 new lows.

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https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/stock-futures-edge-lower-ahead-of-inflation-data-1849226

2019-04-29 16:26:00Z
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Burger King plans to roll out Impossible Whopper across the United States - CNN

On April 1, Burger King started testing the vegetarian burger, using a plant-based patty from Impossible Foods. The test took place in St. Louis and "went exceedingly well," a spokesperson for Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Burger King's parent company, said. The spokesperson added that the sales of the Impossible Whopper are complementary to the regular Whopper.
That's exactly what Burger King wants.
With the Impossible Whopper, Burger King is primarily targeting meat eaters who seek more balance in their diet. The new product is designed to "give somebody who wants to eat a burger every day, but doesn't necessarily want to eat beef everyday, permission to come into the restaurants more frequently," Chris Finazzo, president of Burger King North America, told CNN Business when discussing the initial test.
Burger King started testing out the Impossible Whopper in St. Louis.
The Impossible Whopper is supposed to taste just like Burger King's regular Whopper. Unlike veggie burgers, Impossible burger patties are designed to mimic the look and texture of meat when cooked. The plant protein startup recently revealed a new recipe, designed to look and taste even more like meat. That version is being used in Burger King's Impossible Whoppers.
The company plans to expand to more markets "in the very near future" before making the sandwich available nationally by the end of the year. Burger King had about 7,300 US locations at the close of last year.
There's public interest in plant-based protein because of concerns about animal welfare and the environmental impact of factory farming, and because some consumers are interested in reducing their consumption of meat for health reasons.
Soylent was a tech company that sold food. Now it wants to go mainstream
And the interest appears to be growing. The global market for meat substitutes is forecast to grow from an estimated $4.6 billion in 2018 to $6.4 billion by 2023, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets.
Beyond Meat, Impossible Food's primary competitor, thinks that the potential is bigger. In an SEC filing detailing plans for the 10-year-old company's IPO, Beyond Meat projected that over time the plant based-meat market could reach $35 billion in the United States. Beyond Meat plans to start trading in early May.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/business/burger-king-impossible-rollout/index.html

2019-04-29 15:33:00Z
CAIiEHMt4i1Wtq0Y1MvIQPYP7-MqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowocv1CjCSptoCMPrTpgU