What’s Going On Here? Facebook reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue. What Does This Mean? With the world forced to stay home, there wasn’t much else to do but scroll through Facebook and watch Instagram Live’s quarantine concerts. That helped the tech giant clock 10% more monthly active users. Still, it hadn’t factored in just how much…
Category: Daily News
Ep 112: Working It From Home
What’s Going On Here? Microsoft’s reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit. What Does This Mean? Back in February, Microsoft warned investors its personal computing division (Windows, Surface laptops, and Xbox consoles, …) – would miss sales targets after Chinese factories shut down in response to coronavirus. But Microsoft’s cloud computing business grew revenue by a better-than-expected…
Ep 111: All Scrude Up
What’s Going On Here? The price of a barrel of oil crashed to its lowest price since 1986 – and the reason might well be found in the “futures” market. What Does This Mean? The 34-year low is partly down to: the same falling oil demand that’s caused issues for weeks: falling demand that…
Ep 110: Winner Takes All
What’s Going On Here? JPMorgan became the 1st investment bank to reveal its first-quarter results – and they seemed to like what they saw. What Does This Mean? While JPMorgan’s total revenue was slightly lower than investors had predicted, the bank did well where it mattered most. Its “net interest income” was higher than expected,…
Ep 109: Two Accounting Scandals in China in One Week Burn Investors
What’s going on here? China’s second accounting scandal in less than a week is underscoring concern over lax corporate governance at some of the country’s fastest-growing companies. TAL Education Group, a tutoring business, delivered the latest bombshell after a routine internal audit found an employee had inflated sales by forging contracts. Forgery is usually considered…
Ep 108: AirbnBillion
What’s Going On Here? Airbnb welcomed a new $1 billion investment this week as private investors helped the accommodation marketplace #stayhome and #stayalive during the coronavirus pandemic. What Does This Mean? Neither Airbnb nor its two new investors gave all the details, but they did reveal that the investment was a mixture of equity and debt,…
Ep 107: Climb And Punishment
What’s Going On Here? Take a long look at your dividends, because they could be your last for a while: Goldman Sachs reckons coronavirus support for large companies has put cash payouts at risk. What Does This Mean? In its analysis of major European companies’ dividends, Goldman concluded that since this year’s payouts are mostly paid…
Ep 106: Climb And Punishment
What’s Going On Here? As coronavirus fatalities in Europe and the US show signs of letting up, analysts at investment bank JPMorgan think they can see an end to stock markets’ steep decline. What Does This Mean? JPMorgan looked at the relationship between newly reported coronavirus cases and stock market volatility, and it found they’re positively correlated….
Ep 105: Cautious Optimism
What’s Going On Here? The price of oil had one of its best two-day climbs on record, as Russia and Saudi Arabia shuffled closer to elbow-shaking on an end to their price war. What Does This Mean? Both Russia and Saudi Arabia have been producing more oil than anyone needed, and with supply massively outweighing…
Ep 104: Feeling Faint
What’s Going On Here? The oil price suffered its biggest drop in almost 30 years, after Saudi Arabia unexpectedly flooded the market! What Does This Mean? Oil is caught in the middle of two at-odds countries right now. On one side, there’s Saudi Arabia – the biggest producer of the OPEC. And on the other, Russia…
with HT 