AK Steel’s stock jumps after $1.1 billion buyout deal with Cleveland-Cliffs - MarketWatch

Shares of AK Steel Holding Corp. rose Tuesday, after the steel maker agreed to be bought out by iron ore mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at $1.1 billion.

Gains were pared, however, as the tumble Cleveland-Cliffs’s stock effectively swung the value of the buyout bid to a discount from a premium.

Under terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2020, AK Steel shareholders will receive 0.40 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock for each AK Steel share they own.

Based on Monday’s stock closing prices of $2.89 for AK Steel and $8.41 for Cleveland-Cliffs, the deal values AK Steel shares at $3.36, or a 16% premium. That implies a market capitalization for AK Steel of about $1.06 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a market cap of $2.27 billion on Monday.

AK Steel shares AKS, +4.50%  advanced 3.1% in morning trading, paring earlier gains of as much as 4.8%, while Cleveland-Cliffs’ stock CLF, -12.96%  tumbled 14.3%.

At current premarket prices, the deal would value AK Steel stock at about $2.88, or a penny discount to Monday’s closing price.

Stock deals often cause the acquiring company’s shares to fall, as issuing new stock to fund the acquisition would dilute shareholder value.

The merger announcement comes a day after President Donald Trump gave a boost to shares of steel producers, by saying he was bringing back tariffs on steel imports from Brazil and Argentina, as retaliation for currency devaluations. AK Steel shares ran up 4.7% on Monday and Cleveland-Cliffs’ stock climbed 5.3%.

Don’t miss: Trump brings back tariffs on Brazil and Argentina as deadline for China levies approaches.

Cleveland-Cliffs shareholders will own 68% of the combined company, which will be led by current Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman and Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves. AK Steel Chief Executive Roger Newport will retire.

“For Cliffs, we expect to realize immediate growth and a long-desired objective of a more diverse customer base, as well as more predictable cash flow generation due to the contracted nature of AK Steel’s sales of high-end automotive steel,” Goncalves said in a statement.

The companies expect the combination to generate about $120 million in cost synergies per year, which are expected to be realized within the first 12 months after closing, primarily from consolidating corporate functions, eliminating duplicate overhead costs, energy cost savings and supply chain efficiencies.

“The combination of Cliffs’ iron ore pellet capabilities and our innovative, high-quality steel product development and production is strategically compelling,” AK Steel Chief Executive Roger Newport said. “Together, we expect to be able to take advantage of growth opportunities faster and more fully than either company could on its own.”

As the deal is completed, three existing members of AK Steel’s current board of directors will join Cleveland-Cliffs board, while two current Cleveland-Cliffs board members will step down. The combined company will be headquartered in Cleveland, but a “significant presence” will be maintained at AK Steel’s current headquarters in West Chester, Ohio.

AK Steel’s stock has soared 32.4% over the past three months, but has lost 8.6% over the past 12 months, while Cleveland-Cliffs shares have lost 25.0% the past year and the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.18%  has advanced 10.3% the past year.

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2019-12-03 13:33:00Z
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Cyber Monday totalled $9.2B in US online sales, smartphones accounted for a record $3B - TechCrunch

Cyber Monday — the final day of the extended Thanksgiving weekend that traditionally kicks off holiday season spend — broke another e-commerce record: US shoppers racked up a total of $9.2 billion in online sales, according to figures from Adobe.

To put that number into some perspective, at its peak, consumers were spending $11 billion per minute, this was the first day to see sales via smartphones break the $3 billion mark, and this was $1.3 billion more than shoppers spent on Cyber Monday a year ago (remember the days when breaking $1 billion was a big deal?). There has so far been just over $72 billion spent online since the beginning of November.

On the other hand, there is an undercurrent of more sluggish buying than had been anticipated. Following the pattern set during Thanksgiving and Black Friday — the total actually just fell short of what Adobe had expected for the day, which was $9.4 billion. Adobe expected an increase of nearly 19%; in the end it was more like 16.5%.

(And it should be noted that a forecast for sales Salesforce was even more conservative: it projected that Cyber Monday sales would total $8 billion in U.S. sales and $30 billion worldwide — representing 15% and 12% year-over-year growth, respectively.)

That’s despite very aggressive pricing on the part of online sellers. “Retailers unlocked sales earlier to combat a shorter shopping season, while continuing to drive up promotion of the big branded days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” said John Copeland, head of Marketing and Consumer Insights at Adobe, in a statement. “Consumers capitalized on deals and ramped up spending, especially on smartphones, where activity increased on days when shoppers were snowed or rained in.”

Top items sold on the day included Frozen 2 Toys, L.O.L Surprise Dolls, NERF products, Madden 20, Nintendo Switch, Jedi Fallen Order, Samsung TVs, Fire TV, Airpods and Air Fryers. One report claims Apple may have sold as many as 3 million pairs of AirPods from Black Friday until Cyber Monday. (RIP my bank account.) The best deals on the day were for TVs (19% savings on average).

The final figures for the day might have a slight shift as Adobe finishes all of its tallies. It follows a morning total of $473 million, and sales passing the $5 billion mark at 5pm Pacific time — a sign of just how much shopping online — more than $4 billion — happens in the evening hours (indeed, some refer to them as the “golden hours” of retail).

(Adobe’s forecasts and reports are based on over 1 trillion visits to U.S. online retail sites and 55 million SKUs. And its Adobe Analytics service is able to measure transactions from 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers.)

While Black Friday’s online shopping has seen brick-and-mortar stores competing for the same shoppers, and Thanksgiving still has a seam of tradition underpinning it that keeps some people away from consumerism, Cyber Monday is the day of sales and shopping perhaps most dedicated to the pursuit of product procurement via the web. Folks are back at work, and less likely to go into physical stores, but they’re still shopping for holiday bargains.

The $3 billion of products purchased via smartphones accounted for about one-third of all sales. In itself, this is huge, as smartphone growth was up 46%: in other words, smartphone growth is outpacing and very much driving overall growth of online sales.

Browsing continues to also be popular but is growing less fast: smartphones drove 54% of all site visits, up 19% on a year ago. This makes sense since people might casually look for deals while on the go, but when it comes to sitting down and doing all the fiddly parts of entering card numbers and addresses, people opt for more comfortable keyboards and larger screens.

Some of the trends that Adobe picked up in the days leading up to Cyber Monday are continuing to be played out. These include the fact that the big are getting bigger. That is to say, larger e-commerce giants, with sales of over $1 billion annually, continue to make the most during these huge promotional periods.

Their sales have gone up 71% this year, compared to smaller retailers’ share going up by just 32%. They saw a 71% boost in revenue so far, while the smaller online retailers saw a 32% boost.

Part of the reason for this is because larger retailers can give bigger discounts; because they simply have larger ranges of items; and lastly because they have a more flexible range of choices when it comes to delivery. Adobe noted that the trend of “buy online, pickup in-store/curbside” services was up 43% over last year. 

Through this weekend, consumers spent $7.4 billion, including “Small Business Saturday” and “Super Sunday,” which are newer terms for the big shopping days after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

In addition to the usual factors that influence Cyber Monday sales, this year’s shopping period may get a boost from the bad weather, too (storms are currently swirling around different regions of the US). When extreme weather arrives, shoppers tend to stay indoors and shop at home. On Black Friday, for example, states that recorded more than two inches of snow saw a 7% bump in online sales.

“Online shopping received some unexpected boosts this holiday season. Retailer fears of a shorter season meant that deals came much sooner than usual, and consumers took notice. In some areas of the country, adverse weather in the form of snow and heavy rain meant that many opted to stay home instead and grabbed the best deals online. Just look at Black Friday, which brought in $7.4 billion online and is just below last year’s Cyber Monday at $7.9 billion,” said Taylor Schreiner, principal analyst and head of Adobe Digital Insights.

“Consumers are reimagining what it means to shop during the holidays, with smartphones having a breakout season as well. We expect that consumers will spend $14 billion more this holiday season via their phones,” Schreiner added.

Last but not least, another trend Adobe is tracking points to why the biggest online retailers like Amazon are getting increasingly involved in the advertising business. Adobe notes that paid search accounted for 24.4% of sales (up 5.2% on last year), more than three percentage points more than actual direct traffic (21.2% and declining). “Natural” search accounted for 18.8% of sales, while email accounted 16.8% (up 8.9% YoY). Social media, as a category, has “minimal impact” when it comes to driving online sales (just 2.6%) but — true to form — it’s proving to be a big influencer, driving some 8% of visits and up 17.5% over a year ago.

Updated with final figures from Adobe

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2019-12-03 12:45:00Z
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Stock futures turn lower as Trump says China deal could come after election - MarketWatch

U.S. stock futures promptly turned lower Tuesday as President Trump introduced doubt, at a London press conference, that a trade deal with China was imminent. "In some ways I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal," Trump said, according to a pool reporter's account. Stock futures ES00, -0.32% dropped, with Dow industrials futures YM00, -0.40% losing 118 points.

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2019-12-03 10:32:00Z
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Huawei plans to shift research center from US to Canada, founder Ren Zhengfei says - CNBC

The Huawei logo is seen on the side of the main building at the company's production campus on April 25, 2019 in Dongguan, near Shenzhen, China.

Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Huawei Technologies plans to shift its research center to Canada from the United States, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, said in an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail.

Ren's remarks came as Reuters reported on Friday that the U.S. is weighing expanding its power to stop more foreign shipments of products with U.S. technology to Huawei. The U.S. Commerce Department in May placed Huawei on a trade blacklist, citing national security concerns.

Huawei's "center for research and development will be moved out of the U.S. And that will be relocated to Canada," Ren told the Globe and Mail, adding that the company will also manufacture some mobile network equipment outside China.

The Huawei founder wants to build new factory capacity in Europe to make fifth-generation (5G) networking equipment there, hoping to assuage fears stemming from U.S. allegations that its product could be used by China for spying, the Globe and Mail reported.

Huawei was not immediately available to comment on Ren's interview when contacted by Reuters. The firm has previously denied it is a risk to U.S. national security.

The company spent $510 million on the operations of its U.S. research arm last year, according to the Globe and Mail report, which added that it has now trimmed the arm's work force by 600 to about 250.

Separately, Ren's daughter and Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested by Canadian police on a U.S. warrant late last year, is fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges of violating sanctions against Iran. She is currently out on bail.

Huawei has denied the charges and China has urged Canada to release her.

Commenting on her case, Ren said that it is an example of "obvious political interference from the U.S."

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2019-12-03 06:06:00Z
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Cyber Monday sets record with $9.2B in online sales - Fox Business

Boxed CEO Chieh Huang discusses online retail as shopping season kicks off, delivery services given poor weather conditions, the future of online retail, and his company remaining private.

Shoppers let their fingers fly across the keyboard to set a record for Cyber Monday sales.

Continue Reading Below

Preliminary data from Adobe projected sales of $9.2 billion by the end of Monday and remains the largest online shopping day in the U.S, growing 16.9 percent year-over-year as of 7:00 p.m. ET.

Women wearing red sweater shopping online and using credit card at home office

There is more to come as shoppers hit the “golden hours of retail”, which are the 4 hours between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. ET, will drive 30 percent of all Cyber Monday revenue at $2.8 billion, as shoppers hit buy before deals run out.

During the peak hour of 11:00 p.m. ET- 12 a.m. ET, consumers will be spending $11 million on average every minute.

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Smartphones were the device of choice hitting a new record, accounting for 33 percent of Cyber Monday sales at $3.0 billion, which represents 46 percent growth year-over-year.

“Retailers unlocked sales earlier to combat a shorter shopping season, while continuing to drive up promotion of the big branded days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday," said John Copeland, head of Marketing and Consumer Insights at Adobe. "Consumers capitalized on deals and ramped up spending, especially on smartphones, where activity increased on days when shoppers were snowed or rained in.”

Top sellers on Cyber Monday include Frozen 2 Toys, L.O.L Surprise Dolls, NERF products, Madden 20, Nintendo Switch, Jedi Fallen Order, Samsung TVs, Fire TV, Airpods and Air Fryers.

Other highlights include:

Cyber Monday had the best deals for televisions with average savings above 19 percent.

Shoppers that participated most in Black Friday online sales came from New Jersey, Connecticut, and Oklahoma.  Due to unusually high rainfall and snow, some consumers have opted to stay indoors and finish their shopping online.

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The holiday shopping season, from Nov. 1 through Dec. 1,  has generated $72.1 billion online to date, at 16.3 percent growth year-over-year, topping Adobe’s forecast of 14.1 percent.

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2019-12-03 04:33:10Z
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Trump to restore tariffs on steel from Brazil and Argentina - BBC News

US President Donald Trump has said he will restore tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Brazil and Argentina.

He justified the move saying those countries' weak currencies had made it harder for US food exports to compete.

"Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies, which is not good for our farmers," Mr Trump said.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said he would seek talks with Mr Trump.

"Their economy is not comparable with ours, it's many times bigger. I don't see this as retaliation," Mr Bolsonaro said in a radio interview with Brazil's Radio Itatiaia.

"I'm going to call him so that he doesn't penalise us. Our economy basically comes from commodities, it's what we've got," he said.

Key sector

Argentine production minister Dante Sica said he would also request a conversation with his US counterparts.

Despite Mr Trump's claims, both countries have taken steps over the past two years to try to bolster their currencies, which have dropped sharply amid domestic political turmoil and economic woes.

The plan to restore the tariffs, which Mr Trump announced on Twitter, came as a surprise.

While Mr Trump last year imposed 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium, citing national security grounds, he later granted some exceptions after outcry abroad and in the US, where many manufacturers rely on foreign metal imports.

• Farm troubles raise risk for Trump in trade talks

Argentina and Brazil, which agreed to limits on their metals exports, were among the countries to receive waivers.

The US is Brazil's biggest customer for steel and Brazil is the world's 10th biggest exporter of steel, according to the US Department of Commerce.

Steel accounts for 3.7% of the total goods Brazil exported in 2018.

For Mr Trump, farmers in rural states are an important block of voters, and they have had a difficult time in the past year.

Mr Trump's metals tariffs have sparked global retaliation, leading countries around the world to impose counter-tariffs on US goods, including farm exports.

The US also remains locked in a trade dispute with China over policies related to technology and government subsidies, prompting China to levy additional taxes on US farm exports, including soyabeans, cotton and dairy.

Across the country, farm bankruptcies surged 24% in the 12 months to October 2018, according to analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Meanwhile, Chinese buyers have looked to Brazil and Argentina as an alternative.

Analysis:

By Daniel Gallas, BBC South America business correspondent

Mr Trump accused Argentina and Brazil of "presiding over a massive devaluation" - with exports of both countries being now cheaper and more competitive due to the weak currency.

But Argentina and Brazil are not happy with the devaluation and both central banks have been intervening to prop up the sliding currencies.

Brazil's currency, the real, has reached an all-time low, as investors feel uncertain about sluggish economic recovery and the future reforms promised by the government.

In Argentina, investors are on the sidelines waiting for a new direction to the economy, which will be set by president-elect Alberto Fernandez when he takes office next week.

This crisis will be a test for Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, often called "Trump of the Tropics", who boasts a close relationship with his US counterpart.

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2019-12-02 17:14:40Z
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Best Buy Cyber Monday deals: Galaxy Note 10, Surface Laptop 3, Amazon Echo Dot, and more - The Verge

Best Buy is offering a long list of deals for Cyber Monday 2019 both online and in stores. You can save on products in every category, from laptops to smart home devices. And remember that Best Buy offers in-store pickup, which should at least help you avoid waiting in the main cashier line if you want to do some of your Cyber Monday shopping in person. Curbside pickup is also available for some products.

These deals are competitive with what you’ll find from Amazon, Target, and other retailers. So if you’ve got any Best Buy gift cards sitting around, Cyber Monday is a prime opportunity to finally put them to use.

Smartphones

• Samsung’s unlocked Galaxy Note 10 Plus is $400 off for a total price of just $699.99 if you’re willing to activate it on a carrier at purchase time. Otherwise, it’s $200 off for $899.99.

TVs

Laptops

Smart home

Gaming

Headphones and earbuds

Speakers

• The Sonos Playbase, Playbar, and Sub are all discounted by $140 and can each be had for $559.99. The Sonos Beam (with built-in Alexa and Google Assistant support) is $80 off and costs $319.99 for Cyber Monday.

Appliances

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2019-12-02 14:43:09Z
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