Aeva Co-founder on NYSE listing, Lidar tech growth opportunities
Lidar company Aeva made its stock debut this morning. Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi and Myles Udland speak with Aeva CTO, Co-founder, and President about outlook the company.
Stock investors don’t like tax increases, but they tend to get over it. Tax hikes on maximum capital gains—like the increase the Biden administration will reportedly propose—have knocked the air out of the US equity market about half of the time, according to Tax Foundation data going back to 1945. Are tax hikes on capital gains bad for the stock market?
(Bloomberg) -- Stocks snapped a two-day drop as dip buyers emerged, fueling a rally in companies that stand to benefit the most from an economic revival. The dollar fell, while Treasuries stabilized.Most major groups in the S&P 500 rose, with raw-material, energy and financial shares leading the charge. A gauge of small caps climbed more than 2%, outperforming major benchmarks. CSX Corp. paced gains in the Dow Jones Transportation Average after a strong revenue outlook. Netflix Inc. tumbled on disappointing subscriber figures. The Canadian dollar advanced as the nation’s central bank said it’ll pare back asset purchases and move up its expected timeline for potential rate hikes.Equities rebounded as traders sifted through corporate results for signs on whether an anticipated jump in profits would bring with it forecasts for stronger growth. Earlier losses were driven by concern over a flare-up in coronavirus cases around the world that could jeopardize an economic rebound, with stocks trading near their all-time highs.“Investors are trying to figure out what’s going to accelerate through the reopening based on earnings and guidance, while simultaneously keeping an eye on any reports of a coronavirus resurgence globally,” said Mike Loukas, chief executive officer at TrueMark Investments. “It’ll be a tug-of-war for direction on certain days.”Earnings season may be just the spark the Russell 2000 needs, with the index trailing major benchmarks this month. The gauge’s revenue is set to grow by 8.7%, beating the S&P 500’s by 226 basis points, wrote Bloomberg Intelligence’s Michael Casper and Gina Martin Adams. The small-cap measure’s cyclical sectors -- led by raw-material, financial and consumer-discretionary companies -- are expected to drive the sales growth, according to analysts’ consensus estimates.Here are some key events to watch this week:European Central Bank rate decision and President Christine Lagarde briefing on Thursday.U.S. releases new home sales data Friday.These are some of the main moves in markets:StocksThe S&P 500 climbed 0.9% at 4 p.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.7%.The MSCI All-Country World Index gained 0.4%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.2%.The euro was little changed at $1.2035.The Japanese yen was little changed at 108.08 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 1.56%.Germany’s 10-year yield was unchanged at -0.26%.Britain’s 10-year yield climbed one basis point to 0.74%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.6% to $61.05 a barrel.Gold gained 0.9% to $1,794.40 an ounce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Adding to the bearish sentiment was the progress on negotiations between Iran and world powers to resurrect the 2015 nuclear accord.
(Bloomberg) -- AMP Ltd. is splitting off its private markets business after Australia’s oldest wealth management firm ended talks about a possible sale to Ares Management Corp.The months-long discussions with Los Angeles-based Ares have now concluded, AMP said in a statement Friday. Instead, the demerged entity of AMP Capital’s infrastructure and real estate units will be listed on the Australian stock exchange. As part of the separation, Boe Pahari, who was demoted last year from his position atop the investment management unit after a sexual harassment scandal, will leave the business.The decision provides some clarity for investors after a tumultuous period for the firm left its shares trading near an all-time low. AMP Ltd., to be run by Alexis George from the third quarter of 2021, will retain a stake of up to 20% in the spun-off firm, that will continue to be led by David Atkin amid an international search for a new chief executive officer.“It’s a real chance to really start fresh,” Jessica Amir, a market analyst at Bell Direct, said by phone. “The funds management industry is completely different to financial advice. Two separate businesses, two separate futures, so it’s a real fork in the road and a real opportunity for change.”AMP shares all but erased an early 8% gain in Sydney trading Friday to close less than 1% higher. The stock has tumbled 27% this year.Ares earlier this year scrapped a A$6.4 billion ($4.9 billion) takeover offer for the entire company as the wealth unit continued to struggle and instead had offered to pay A$1.35 billion for a 60% stake in the private markets business.The spin off is expected to be completed in the first half of 2022. Having concluded the review of AMP’s portfolio, the board will start a share buy-back of up to A$200 million.“We have had substantial and constructive discussions with Ares regarding a sale, however, we have not been able to reach an agreement that would deliver appropriate value for our shareholders,” AMP Chair Debra Hazelton said in the statement. “The board has therefore concluded a demerger provides investors with the strongest value outcome, creating two more focused entities, with the agility to pursue new growth opportunities in their respective markets.”Simple StructureThe private markets unit will put in place a new management equity plan in an attempt to attract and retain a high quality investment team, according to the statement. The demerger will simplify its structure and allow it to establish a new brand, the statement said.To be sure, there’s “a great deal of uncertainty” around AMP Capital given clients continue to pull cash, while the wealth management unit is facing profitably issues, UBS Group AG analysts led by Andrew Adams wrote in a note to clients. Shareholders will also have to pay the separation costs, pay down debt and likely another major cost cutting program, he wrote.“Further capital management, which was a big part of the positive AMP thesis, now looks unlikely,” according to the note. The spin-off is “a less than ideal outcome.”(Updates with closing shares in fifth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
NEED TO KNOW Avid readers of this column may have had a sense of déjà vu on Thursday. Last month, a Need to Know column explored what would pay for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending — and quoted a former Biden aide, Evercore ISI analyst Sarah Bianchi, who said it would “probably include nearly doubling capital-gains taxes on those with income over $1 million.
(Bloomberg) -- Gold fell amid rising bond yields after strong U.S. economic data refueled optimism of a global recovery.New-home sales in the U.S. rebounded sharply in March to the highest since 2006, suggesting that the housing market is back on track after winter storms impeded demand in February. Meanwhile, output at manufacturers and service providers reached a record high in April. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries is heading for the first gain in four days, making the non-interest bearing metal less attractive.Bullion also shrugged off news that President Joe Biden would propose almost doubling the capital gains tax for wealthy individuals, which hammered U.S. stocks on Thursday.Biden’s tax plan isn’t triggering investors to move money to gold “because the Venn diagram of people who actively trade stocks and trade gold only has modest overlap,” said Tai Wong, head of metals derivatives trading at BMO Capital Markets. “If anything, you’d park it in fixed income because the tax hike should slow investment and the economy.”After a record-breaking rally last year, gold has lost momentum amid optimism of economies reopening and vaccine rollouts, with the advancing dollar and rising bond yields denting demand for bullion.Spot gold fell as much as 0.8% to $1,770.04 an ounce after earlier advancing as much as 0.7%. Futures for June delivery on the Comex fell 0.2% to settle at $1,777.80 an ounce. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%.Renewed buying by top consumers China and India after a year on the sidelines is unlikely to send prices higher in the long term, for which gold relies on investment demand. Outflows from exchange-traded funds -- which were crucial to bullion’s rally to a record price in August -- have slowed but not stopped in recent weeks, while net-bullish bets on the metal by hedge funds on the Comex remain low.In other precious metals, spot silver fell and platinum advanced. Palladium added as much as 3.1% to a fresh record of $2,930.42 an ounce, before paring gains. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
“A huge collapse is coming,” warns longtime market prognosticator Harry Dent. Dent’s forecast seems to have struck some kind of chord: For about a week or longer the article was the most popular article at ThinkAdvisor.com. Just this week I got a note from Jonathan Ruffer, an eminent money manager in London, with this dire warning: “I take it pretty much for granted that the 40 year bull market is ending, and that it will be replaced by hard investment times.”
The IRS is sending out "plus-up" payments — see if you can expect one.
Investors are concerned about a more stringent tax regime under President Joe Biden. Increased corporate and capital-gains tax rates could be on the way. Government spending hasn’t been light in the past year, with trillions of dollars of fiscal stimulus and potentially $2 trillion more for infrastructure spending.
If it succeeds, Bitwise would join Grayscale as the only crypto fund issuers to register their products as a public reporting company.
Cryptocurrencies took a beating Friday as President Biden is expected to unveil a plan to raise capital-gains taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
The way you save now can help keep your taxes low in your later years.
Retirement is commonly known as the end of your career and the beginning of a new life of leisure. According to the Stanford University Center for Longevity, in less than a century, average life expectancy in the developed world has increased by nearly 30 years, with many of those years coming in what we traditionally thought of as retirement. It means that retirement planning, which has normally been focused on making sure that you don’t exhaust your financial resources, needs to be replaced with longevity planning, so you can design a plan to use all of this newfound extra time.
Stocks were only moderately lower until a report that President Joe Biden was considering raising capital-gains taxes. The three major U.S. stock indexes ended materially lower.
Gold is 0.2% higher this morning, as it is retracing some of yesterday’s decline. What about the other precious metals?
"While the shock may be sustained in stock markets, the nature of cryptocurrency will see straight through this dip," Landsberg-Sadie told CoinDesk.
(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the institution isn’t discussing the phasing out of its emergency bond buying even as it sees signs that the economy is starting to shake off the coronavirus pandemic.While noting that medium-term risks for growth are balanced, she pushed back against any suggestion the ECB is thinking about scaling back stimulus, describing the idea as “premature.”“Incoming economic data, surveys and high-frequency indicators suggest that economic activity may have contracted again in the first quarter of this year, but point to a resumption of growth in the second quarter,” Lagarde said Thursday after the institution kept its stimulus program in place. “Any phasing out was not discussed and it is just premature.”The Governing Council confirmed that its 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.23 trillion) bond-buying program will run at an elevated pace in the current quarter. Officials also held the deposit rate at -0.5% and pledged to continue long-term loans to banks to keep credit flowing to businesses and households.“Overall, while the risks surrounding the euro area growth outlook over the near term continue to be on the downside, medium-term risks remain more balanced,” Lagarde said. Italian bond yields were little changed at 0.76% at 2:27 p.m. London time, having risen to as high as 0.79% after President Christine Lagarde began the press conference.What Bloomberg Economics Says...“Bloomberg Economics expects the pace of purchases to be scaled back in June, barring any renewed upward pressure on interest rates from abroad.”-David Powell. Read the ECB REACT.The ECB significantly stepped up asset purchases last month to contain the fallout of a government-bond sell-off that was driven a speedy U.S. economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Such market moves pose a risk to euro-zone activity, as sovereign yields are used as a reference for the cost of bank loans to companies and households.Officials have spent an average net 17 billion euros per week under their pandemic program since then, up from about 14 billion per week in the first weeks of 2021. The aim is to keep borrowing costs for companies, households and governments across the euro area favorable during the pandemic. Net purchases are currently set to last until the end of March 2022.The intensity of purchases under the emergency program doesn’t depend on a specific date, but rather on the state of financing conditions as well as the inflation outlook, Lagarde said.“We conduct a joint assessment of those financing conditions throughout the whole spectrum and the inflation outlook,” she said. “It’s on the basis of these two elements -- which are quite complicated in their own respect, each of them -- that we determine the pace of purchases.”The ECB is set to produce new economic forecasts when it next meets in June. “If the economy recovers from the Covid-19 recession and underlying inflation picks up gradually, the ECB will eventually have to address the question as to when and how it should scale back its asset purchases in the future,” said Holger Schmieding, an economist at Berenberg.The European Union has significantly sped up its vaccination campaign in recent weeks, smoothing the path for an economic pickup later this year. For now, wide parts of the bloc are still facing severe restrictions to fight an elevated level of infections.“The progress with vaccination campaigns, which should allow for a gradual relaxation of containment measures, should pave the way for a firm rebound in economic activity in the course of 2021,” Lagarde said.The ECB will also continue to monitor the euro’s exchange rate and its implications for the inflation outlook, the President said. A strong currency can pose a headache for the central bank as it dampens import prices and makes exports from the euro area less competitive.(Updates with additional Lagarde comment in 10th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
After posting record sales and profits in its latest fiscal year, Apple Inc. will show how much of its financial success gets delivered right back to shareholders.
Some who filed 2020 income tax returns may qualify for more stimulus money now and the IRS is making those adjustments.
The stock market pulled back from all-time highs this week, as investors paused to consider just what’s been goosing stocks – and what the future may hold. A flood of stimulus cash, unleashed by the Biden Administration’s big spending bills, is set to push GDP growth to 9% for 3Q21, but next year looks like it will slip back as the spending runs its course. Economists are predicting 5.5% GDP growth next year. This bodes poorly for cyclical stocks, which tend to reflect macro volatility. As Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategist Mike Wilson said, “Peak rate of change on economic data and earnings revisions... are all contributing to the deterioration in lower-quality, smaller-capitalization, and the more cyclical parts of the market.” Dividend stocks, however, are more stable than the cyclicals, and while their average returns are lower, they offer the advantage of a steady return regardless of economic conditions. B. Riley analyst Matthew Howlett has been looking into the real estate trust segment, a group of stocks long-known for dividends that are both high and reliable. Howlett pointed out two stocks, in particular, that are showing dividend yields in excess of 7% and deserve a 'buy' rating. Ladder Capital Corporation (LADR) We’ll take a step into the real estate investment trust (REIT) niche, with Ladder Capital, a specialist in commercial mortgages. Ladder has operations in 48 states, and 475 cities. The average loan size is $19 million, and the company has securitized or sold a cumulative total of $16.7 billion commercial loans. Operations are backed by company’s $5.9 billion in assets. Ladder Capital has seen a series of headwinds in the past year. The corona pandemic, of course, was the major crisis – but for a commercial mortgage lender, the problem was broader. Loan customers were taking their own hits, and finding themselves unable to meet payments. As a result, Ladder saw its quarterly results in 2020 show deep declines, and greater volatility, when compared to 2019. On the positive side, Ladder finished the year 2020 with $1.25 billion in cash and cash equivalents. The final quarter of 2020 saw top line revenues of $77.9 million, compared to $135.4 million in the prior year’s Q4. Distributable earnings, however, came in at $4.9 million – and the company declared a dividend of 20 cents per common share, which was paid out on April 15. This marked the fifth quarter in a row with the dividend at this level. The current payment annualizes to 80 cents per share, and gives a yield of 7%. Despite the challenging economic environment, LADR shares are up an impressive 79% over the past 12 months. B. Riley's Matt Howlett expects the momentum to continue, and sees Ladder with a firm foundation to move forward. “[The] company’s loan originator has been a top CMBS loan contributor since the 2008-2009 financial crisis and is well positioned to contribute to LADR’s earnings growth as the conduit market rebounds post-pandemic,” Howlett noted. Howlett especially likes the company’s cash position, noting that it “should allow the company to accelerate growth of its core investment portfolio." The analyst sees "upside potential to the dividend (forecasted to increase to $1.05 in 2022) as originations ramp steadily and legacy higher cost debt (Koch/legacy CLO) pays down.” Backing these comments with a Buy rating, Howlett sets a $14 price target to suggest room for 21% growth in the next 12 months. (To watch Howlett’s track record, click here) Overall, Ladder gets a Moderate Buy rating from Wall Street’s analysts, based on 6 recent reviews that include 5 Buys – but also a single Sell. LADR shares are currently priced at $11.58, with an average target of $12.58 pointing toward 9% upside potential this year. The real attraction for investors here is the strong dividend yield. (See LADR stock analysis on TipRanks) Cherry Hill Mortgage (CHMI) The second stock we’re looking at, Cherry Hill, is another REIT, this one with a focus on the residential markets. Cherry Hill’s portfolio includes mortgage servicing rights, mortgage backed securities, and other mortgage assets in the residential market. After a steep earnings drop in the first quarter last year, to a loss of $2.80 per share, Cherry Hill has seen sequential growth in the past three quarters. The fourth quarter of 2020 saw EPS return to positive values, with a print of 37 cents per share. Like most REITs, Cherry Hill pays out a reliable dividend. The company has been maintaining the payments since the fourth quarter of 2014, adjusting it when needed to keep it in line with income. For the most recent quarter, the dividend was declared at 27 cents per common share, or $1.08 annually. At this rate, the dividend yields an impressive 11.5%. CHMI's strong defensive characteristics and attractive dividend yield drew it to the attention of B. Riley’s Howlett. “[We] believe the portfolio is better insulated against basis risk and would perform better in a rising rate environment… We believe that CHMI's strong liquidity profile… puts it in strong position to deploy capital accretively during 1H21," Howlett opined. The analyst continued, "We expect: 1) slower prepayment speeds and 2) declining servicing costs in 2H21 to be key drivers of higher core ROEs going forward. Our 12.5% ROE forecast for 2022 should allow the company to increase its quarterly dividend to $0.30 based on our model.” In line with his upbeat outlook, Howlett rates Cherry Hill a Buy. His $11.50 price target implies that the stock has room to gain 21% in the next 12 months. CHMI has slipped under most analysts’ radar; the stock’s Moderate Buy consensus is based on just two recent ratings; Buy and Hold. With shares trading at $9.43, the $10.75 average price target suggests room for a 14% upside. (See CHMI stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.