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Group: Canadian Blue-chip Industrial Forum
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Futures for Canada's main stock index weakened as oil prices dropped after higher U.S. gasoline stockpiles triggered demand worries
Nasdaq futures eked out gains as Tesla shares rose after it beat its profit target, while futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Dow struggled for direction awaiting more earnings reports amid a rocky economic backdrop
European shares were trading slightly higher as markets waited to see if the European Central Bank will deliver its first interest rate hike in 11 years
Japanese stocks closed up after the Bank of Japan retained its easy monetary policy stance as expected
The euro edged lower against the U.S. dollar, while gold prices fell
STOCKS IN THE NEWS Source: Thomson Reuters Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) & Meta Platforms Inc. (META):
Google has signed up to its new licensing rules for technology platforms, but warned that companies that had yet to register would be blocked in five working days
Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan of the communications ministry told a news conference that Amazon and Alibaba were among the companies that had yet to comply
The government had set a Wednesday deadline for companies to sign up and most had done so earlier this week
Separately, A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved on Wednesday a bill to create the first U.S. privacy law limiting personal information collected online by companies like Alphabet's Google and Meta's Facebook
Boeing Co. (BA):
The planemaker said on Wednesday it had agreed to invest $50 million in AEI HorizonX, expanding a partnership established with private equity firm AE Industrial Partners to invest in aerospace technology startups
The new funding will anchor AEI HorizonX's second venture fund (Fund II), which plans to raise $250 million "to support promising start-ups in future mobility, space, sustainability, digital enterprise applications, networks and security"
Marc Allen, Boeing's chief strategy officer, told Reuters the new fund would invest in technologies like mobility, sustainability, space and communications: "everything that goes into the new industrial technology to support aerospace"
Separately, Qatar Airways placed an order for 25 Boeing 737 MAX 10 after negotiations at the Farnborough Airshow, firming up a deal whose fate had been in the balance for months
Cargo airline Cargolux has also picked Boeing's 777-8 freighter to replace its fleet of the U.S. planemaker's 747-400 aircraft
Citigroup Inc. (C):
The Russian division of the bank, and Raiffeisen Bank International, have started looking for staff this month after Russian authorities moved to block them exiting the country, industry sources and a recruiting company said
Russia's move to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 prompted Western banks in Moscow to remove foreign nationals from senior positions and study ways to exit the Russian market
Citigroup, which disclosed an exposure of $8.4 billion to Russia as of the second quarter, has said it was exploring all options to exit its consumer and commercial banking business in the country
Citibank Russia, part of Citigroup, was looking for a credit manager with a monthly income of up to 200,000 roubles and a junior expert with a monthly salary starting from 85,000 roubles, based on online recruitment adverts
EARNINGS SPOTLIGHTS Source: Thomson Reuters AT&T Inc. (T):
The company raised its forecast for annual revenue growth at its wireless service business after reporting a jump in quarterly subscriber additions, as it bets on more people using its roaming services
AT&T has been focusing on making its 5G and fiber internet services widely available and has doubled down on promotional activities to gain subscribers
"As a result of our higher-than-forecasted customer growth, we're increasing our mobility service revenue guidance to 4.5%-5% growth for the full year," Chief Executive Officer John Stankey said
The company had earlier forecast wireless service revenue growth of 3% or more and the company added 813,000 net new monthly bill paying wireless phone subscribers in the second quarter
AT&T also added 316,000 new broadband customers in the second quarter and overall revenue for the second quarter was $29.6 billion, in-line with market estimates of $29.55 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv
Blackstone Inc. (BX):
The world's largest alternative asset manager, posted an 86% surge in its second-quarter distributable earnings on Thursday driven by strong asset sales despite a drop in the value of most of its funds amid a market downturn
Blackstone completed the sale of several, primarily real estate, assets during the quarter, including the divestment for $5.65 billion of luxury hotel and casino The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and the 21 billion euro ($23.81 billion) recapitalization of Mileway, the biggest operator of urban warehouses in Europe
Blackstone said its private equity portfolio depreciated by 6.7% during the quarter, while its opportunistic real estate funds fell 1%. Funds managed under its hedge fund unit were flat at 0.6% and bBy comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX was down 16.5% during the period
Assets under management hit a record $940.8 billion, up 3% from $915 billion in the prior quarter, driven by strong fundraising and unspent capital grew to a record $170.1 billion, up from $139.3 billion three month earlier
Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of $1.27 per share, up from 70 cents a year ago
Separately, the buyout giant has secured commitments worth $24.1 billion for its latest real estate fund, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday
Tesla Inc. (TSLA):
The electric-vehicle maker on Wednesday reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit, helped by a string of price increases for its cars, which Elon Musk later said were "embarrassingly high" and could hurt demand
Tesla also sold a majority of its bitcoin holdings, which led to smaller-than-expected impairment charges caused by a decline in the value of the cryptocurrency, analysts said
CEO Elon Musk flip-flopped on a post-earnings conference call, saying at first that macroeconomic uncertainty might have some impact on demand for its electric vehicles, but when pressed for details by an analyst, he said the company did not have a demand problem but a production problem
Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said Tesla was still pushing to reach 50% growth in deliveries this year, adding that while the target had become more difficult, "it remains possible with strong execution."Musk said new factories in Berlin and Texas aimed to produce 5,000 cars a week by the end of the year, adding that Berlin produced 1,000 cars a week in June
He had previously said the new factories were "gigantic money furnaces" and Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report after Tesla's earnings announcement that they see "near-term margin headwinds due to (new) challenges with ramping new production, particularly in Berlin
United Airlines Holdings Inc. (UAL):
The air carrier on Wednesday posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, its first without U.S. aid since the pandemic began, as booming travel demand failed to offset higher operating costs, sparking a sell-off in its shares
The Chicago-based company reported an adjusted profit of $1.43 per share for the quarter through June, below analysts' expectations for $1.95, according to Refinitiv
United reported one profitable pandemic quarter, through September 2021, with federal government aid. United said it expected to be profitable this year despite growing worries that higher air fares, persistently high inflation and rising interest rates could dent travel spending in the second half of the year
"While the company anticipates the economy will slow in the near to medium term, the continuing pandemic recovery is more than offsetting economic headwinds — leading to expected revenue and earnings acceleration in the third quarter," United said
It estimates total revenue per available seat mile to be up 24%-26% in the quarter through September from the same period in 2019, translating into an adjusted operating margin of 10%
THINGS TO KNOW Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Tesla Inc. has been going through “supply chain hell,” but Elon Musk believes the electric-car maker stands a chance of emerging from it in the second half of the year
There was some good news for Europe's energy-starved economy this morning when the Nord Stream 1 pipeline restarted gas deliveries on schedule
While European natural gas futures dropped in the wake of flows resuming, supply concerns remain
Mario Draghi resigned as Italy’s prime minister
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is set to announce its policy decision later today, likely raising interest rates for the first time in 11 years