Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 04 October 2020

[Bulls n Bears]

 <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com> Bullszimbabwe.com
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=View%20and%20Comments> Views & Comments
<https://bullszimbabwe.com/category/blogs/bullish-thoughts/> Bullish
Thoughts        <http://www.twitter.com/BullsBears2010> Twitter
<https://www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe> Facebook
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bulls-n-bears-zimbabwe/57/577/72> LinkedIn
<https://chat.whatsapp.com/CF6wllAfScU9Wr6dXxoQnO> WhatsApp
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw?subject=Unsubscribe> Unsubscribe

 


 

 


Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 04 October 2020

 


 

 


 <http://www.zb.co.zw/> 

 


 

 


 

 

ü  Covid: NME owner says pandemic impact wasn't all negative

ü  Japan's Sony and Kioxia seeking U.S. approval to supply to Huawei -
Nikkei

ü  Not Even Trump’s Diagnosis Or Tech’s Tumble Could Erase Bezos’ And Musk’s
Big Gains This Week

ü  Oil Stocks Offer Big Dividends. Some Might Even Be Safe Enough to Buy

ü  Tesla Needs Lithium. These Are the Best Stocks to Play the EV Boom

ü  At 7.9%, U.S. jobless rate spells trouble for Trump

ü  Airbus executive says aviation outlook worse than expected

ü  Cineworld to close all UK, Ireland screens, Sunday Times says

ü  A Biden victory could weigh on stock market's winners

ü  Chevron Nigeria plans to cut 25% of staff after oil price drop

ü  Honda confirms 17th U.S. death in Takata air bag rupture

ü  Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs will testify before U.S. Senate committee

ü  Paytm, other Indian startups vow to fight 'big daddy' Google's clout:
sources

ü  Lufthansa's Swiss unit plans 1,000 job cuts over two years through
attrition

ü  Intel wins second phase of contract to help Pentagon develop chips

ü  Brussels Airlines to Increase Service to Africa

ü  Qatar Airways Restarts Service to South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 <http://www.finsec.co.zw/> 

 


 

Covid: NME owner says pandemic impact wasn't all negative

As an already reeling music industry is hit by the coronavirus, the owner of
UK publication NME says the pandemic has brought challenges and
opportunities.

 

Singapore-based BandLab also owns music brands ranging from guitar-making to
retail and digital platforms.

 

The virus came at a time of already seismic change for the industry as firms
seek new ways to make profits.

 

In recent years, the recording industry has been revolutionised, while
instrument and magazine sales fell.

 

The last two decades have seen the business model of traditional record
labels massively disrupted by digital downloads, while the market for
musical instruments and magazines has been hit by radical changes in
consumer behaviour.

 

As the coronavirus pandemic compounded this already hostile business
environment, many companies in the music industry have seen their businesses
hit hard.

 

BandLab's chief executive, Meng Ru Kuok, says that while parts of his
music-focused firm have faced coronavirus-related disruptions, other areas
of the business have thrived.

 

He says that during the pandemic, his music equipment retail business has
seen its best performance since he bought it in 2012, as social distancing
measures mean people have had more free time.

 

"We've seen a 300% rise in monthly sales at our South East Asia music
instrument retailer, Swee Lee," he said.

 

Print vs digital

Some of BandLab's most high-profile investments have been in music
journalism, an industry that has been turned upside down by internet-driven
changes in how people consume news.

 

Although the live entertainment and publishing industries have been hit hard
by the coronavirus, NME - which BandLab bought in 2019 - was launched in
South East Asia last month.

 

Media captionWhat could post-lockdown nights out look like?

That announcement came after NME entered the Australian market at the end of
last year.

 

Even as plummeting advertising revenues and circulation numbers force
increasing numbers of publications to abandon print, NME has recently
restarted physical publishing with a monthly magazine in Australia, its only
current regular print edition.

 

Mr Kuok says he has a sense of duty to protect the NME's legacy: "We feel
there is a responsibility not just to the brand, but also there is a
responsibility of being a credible brand."

 

And he hinted at new NME-related launches both in the UK and
internationally, with announcements expected later this year and in early
2021.

 

The company bought a 49% stake in US rock magazine Rolling Stone in 2016,
but sold that holding less three years later after failing to buy the rest
of the business.

 

Mark Mulligan from MIDiA Research sees potential for NME as a digital brand:
"When NME went fully digital, it was seen by many as the demise of the
brand. But of course, in the digital era, print can actually be a hindrance,
reducing your ability to reach truly global audiences.

 

"BandLab has an opportunity to entirely re-imagine the brand for a new
generation of music fans, with a global reach it previously lacked," he
added.

 

At the same time as BandLab is continuing to expand NME, it is also seeing
significant growth in users of its digital music production platform,
Cakewalk.

 

"Today we have more than 22 million people who are using our product around
the world. More than eight million songs are being recorded and released a
month on the platform," he said.

 

In another sign of how the music industry as a whole is having to adapt to
the new normal of social distancing, BandLab is this weekend holding a
virtual guitar show.

 

Guitar.com Live is a three-day event combining a trade show with interviews,
panels, workshops and performances by world-famous guitarists.

 

Jamie MacEwan from Enders Analysis said: "A music business like BandLab that
connects people with digital production tools and live streaming is well
placed to grow its user base under lockdown.

 

"Using the NME brand to reach enthusiasts around the world is a solid
strategy. My question would be, how does BandLab intend to monetise and
build on its business from here?"

 

Coronavirus disruptions

The pandemic has also caused significant disruptions in BandLab's group of
businesses.

 

Uncut, another UK-based music magazine owned by BandLab and the firm's only
newsstand-focused product, saw its sales take a hit as people stayed at home
because of Covid-19.

 

Meanwhile, the firm's US-based guitar manufacturers, Heritage and Harmony,
were forced to suspend production for eight weeks owing to lockdown
measures.

 

Production has now restarted and the company says it has seen a surge in
orders, which it is now working to meet.

 

As the son of Kuok Khoon Hong, the chairman and chief executive of Asia's
leading agricultural production group Wilmar International, he is often
asked about his billionaire father.

 

While the younger Mr Kuok is quick to point out that his company is separate
from the family business, he is also keen to highlight the debt he owes for
the guidance he has received over the years.

 

A key piece of advice he says he always keeps in mind is: "When things are
going well, don't be too happy. When things are going badly, don't be too
sad."

 

>From Muse to the blues

So which artists does a music entrepreneur like Mr Kuok listen to when he's
not working?

 

He nods to his parents encouraging him to learn the violin and piano as a
child, but credits his time at one of Britain's top public schools,
Winchester College, and then Cambridge University for his love of guitar
music.

 

Growing up listening to British indie bands such as Radiohead and the
Libertines, he says his favourite band in his youth was alternative rock
group Muse.

 

But now his tastes have matured to include one of the great American
bluesmen: "My favourite artist is BB King."

 

"He is someone who has a personality, had trouble in his life and he played
to his very last day. Incredibly hard working and had the respect of the
entire industry."--BBC

 

 

 

Japan's Sony and Kioxia seeking U.S. approval to supply to Huawei - Nikkei

(Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp and memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp have
applied for U.S. approval to continue supplying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd ,
Nikkei reported on Sunday.

 

If confirmed, the move follows other tech companies such as Intel Corp that
recently received licences from U.S. authorities.

 

With U.S.-China ties at their worst in decades, Washington has been pushing
governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei, arguing that the telecoms
giant would transfer data to the Chinese government for espionage.

 

Huawei is one of the top customers for Sony's image sensors for smartphones.
Kioxia Holdings Corp is the world's No. 2 maker of flash memory chips and a
Huawei supplier.

 

Nikkei
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Huawei-crackdown/Sony-and-Kioxia-seek-US-a
pproval-to-bypass-Huawei-ban said without U.S. licenses, Sony and Kioxia
would face risk to their earnings.

 

Kioxia warned that U.S. curbs on Huawei could trigger memory chip oversupply
and lower prices. It recently shelved a plan for a multi-billion dollar
listing as U.S-China tensions cloud the global chip market.

 

A Sony spokeswoman said the company was in compliance with all regulations,
but could not comment on particular clients.

 

A Kioxia spokesman also declined to comment.-yahoofinance

 

 

 

Not Even Trump’s Diagnosis Or Tech’s Tumble Could Erase Bezos’ And Musk’s
Big Gains This Week

The week started strong for big tech companies and the billionaires behind
them. Between market close on Friday, September 25 and Thursday, October 1,
stock prices rose 10% for Tesla, 5% for Facebook and 4% for Amazon.

 

Then came President Donald Trump’s announcement early Friday morning that he
and First Lady Melania Trump both tested positive for Covid-19. The news
sent the stock market on a chaotic ride.

 

After falling as much as 1.4% Friday morning, stocks mostly recovered. The
Dow Jones Industrial Index ended the day down about half a percent while the
S&P 500 ended down nearly 1%. Tech companies took the brunt of the fall on
Friday. Tesla shares fell 7%, wiping $6.2 billion off of Elon Musk’s net
worth. Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott were down $5.2 billion and
$1.8 billion, respectively, as Amazon tumbled 3%. Mark Zuckerberg’s net
worth dropped by $2.4 billion as Facebook fell 2.5%.

 

But the drop on Friday was not enough to totally wipe out the earlier gains.
All four tech tycoons ended the week richer than the one before. Between
Friday, September 25 and Friday, October 2, Bezos’s net worth rose by $1.7
billion, Zuckerberg was up by $1.9 billion and Musk added $1.4 billion to
his net worth. Scott ended the week $600 million richer. Bezos is still the
world’s richest person, worth $184 billion late Friday, according to Forbes
Real-Time Billionaire list.

 

 

The mogul whose fortune rose the most in the past week was Hui Ka Yan,
chairman of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande Group, whose shares soared
a whopping 43% in five days. The company had previously lost nearly a third
of its market value since the beginning of the year, in part because of
concerns about its high level of debt. Reportedly under pressure from the
Chinese government, Evergrande cut a deal with investors on Tuesday to avoid
a liquidity crisis. Hui Ka Yan ended the week with a net worth of $33.2
billion, up $7.8 billion from Friday September 25.-Forbes

 

 

 

 

Oil Stocks Offer Big Dividends. Some Might Even Be Safe Enough to Buy.

The energy stocks in the S&P 500 have lost about half their value this year.
The sector is littered with dividend cuts and suspensions, as companies have
moved to shore up cash positions amid the pandemic and weaker oil prices.
This isn’t the ideal scenario for income investors.

 

And yet.

 

“There are selective opportunities across the energy sector to find
sustainable and attractive income,” Devin McDermott, head of North American
oil and gas research at Morgan Stanley, tells Barron’s.

 

Among the dividend-paying energy companies that McDermott favors are Chevron
(ticker: CVX) and an assortment of midstream operations, which typically
focus on infrastructure, such as pipelines to transport oil and gas. Those
include Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP) and Enterprise Products Partners
(EPD), both of which are master-limited partnerships—popular income
vehicles, at times. Those two MLPs were recently yielding 11.8% and 11%,
respectively.

 

 

McDermott also likes the dividend outlook for Williams Cos. (WMB), whose
assets include pipelines for transporting oil and gas. It recently yielded
7.9%.

 

“Those [stocks] all have fairly compelling dividend yields that are
sustainable, even in this new normal, and they all have strong balance
sheets to give then flexibility through this cycle,” McDermott says,
referring in part to weak commodity prices and margins for potentially an
extended period.

 

But investors should use caution. Among energy companies in the S&P 500
alone, exploration-and-production firms Apache (APA), Occidental Petroleum
(OXY), and Noble Energy (NBL) have slashed their payouts this year. Another
E&P firm, Marathon Oil (MRO), suspended its dividend.

 

Global oil companies haven’t been immune to cuts, either. BP (BP.London)
said in August that it would halve its quarterly dividend to 5.25 cents a
share from 10.5 cents. And Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) in April slashed its
payout by about two-thirds, to 16 cents a share.

 

 

Energy Dividend Shortage

This sampling of energy firms in the S&P 500 shows the difficulty many of
these companies have had maintaining their dividends this year.

Company/Ticker    Recent Price 2020 Dividend Action      Dividend Yield
Quarterly Dividend Per Share     YTD Return         Sector

Exxon Mobil/XOM   $35.31        Maintained   10.2%         $0.87 -46.6%
Integrated Major

Chevron/CVX         73.93 Maintained   7.0     1.29   -36.1 Integrated Major

Apache/APA 10.27 Cut    1.1     0.025 -59.4 Exploration/Production

Occidental Petroleum/OXY         10.34 Cut    0.4     0.01   -73.3
Exploration/Production

Marathon Oil/MRO 4.29   Suspended  NA     NA     -68.3
Exploration/Production

Noble Energy/NBL 8.75   Cut    0.9     0.02   -64.4 Exploration/Production

National Oilwell Varco/NOV        9.80   Suspended  NA     NA     -60.7
Oilfield Services/Equipment

Schlumberger/SLB 16.45 Cut    3.0     0.125 -57.9 Oilfield
Services/Equipment

Helmerich & Payne/HP     14.86 Cut    7.0     0.25   -65.0 Contract Drilling

Prices as of the close on Sept. 28; yields as of Sept. 29.

 

Source: FactSet

 

The two integrated oil companies included in the table— Exxon Mobil (XOM)
and Chevron—have maintained their quarterly disbursements during the
pandemic, but their underlying stories are different.

 

For Exxon Mobil, which has been using debt to pay its dividend, there has
been much speculation about how safe the payout is. Exxon Mobil common stock
is yielding 10.2%. It’s down about 45% this year, dividends included.

 

“In a world where this is the new normal—lower for longer commodity prices
and weak margins across its downstream [businesses]—that dividend will not
stand over the longer term, and ultimately they will have to make a
decision,” McDermott warns.

 

 

Using debt to pay a dividend is an unsustainable long-term strategy, he
says. And oil prices remain depressed, with Brent crude a little below $42 a
barrel recently—versus the high $60s late last year.

 

 

Still, Exxon has been steadfast in keeping the dividends coming. In late
July, it declared a quarterly disbursement of 87 cents a share, in line with
earlier payouts.

 

The company has even kept its status as an S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat,
increasing its payout for 37 consecutive years, by virtue of maintaining its
dividend this year. Even if doesn’t raise its payout this year, it will
remain in the group because its total paid in 2020 would exceed last year’s
level, assuming there is no cut through year’s end.

 

Want Dividends From Small- and Mid-Caps? Consider These Four Funds.

Dividends Are Coming Back, at Least in Part, After a Rush of Cuts and
Suspensions

A company spokesman, asked for comment, referred Barron’s to remarks made by
Senior Vice President Neil Chapman during a second-quarter earnings call
with analysts on July 31. Exxon Mobil, he said, had cut short-term capital
spending by more than 30% and was on a pace to reduce cash operating
expenses by more than 15%.

 

“A large portion of our shareholder base has come to view that dividend as a
source of stability in their income, and we take that very seriously,”
Chapman said. “Our plans to maintain our debt at the current levels and
maintain our dividend include further reductions in operating expenses.”

 

 

Wells Fargo Securities analysts Roger Read and Lauren Hendrix, in a recent
research note, expressed optimism that the company could sustain its
payouts. “Contrary to some, we believe [Exxon Mobil] can maintain its
current dividend payout through 2023, absent another oil price collapse,”
Read and Hendrix wrote, adding that “to restore faith [Exxon Mobil] must
pursue real strategic changes and go beyond short-term capex cuts.”

 

Chevron, meanwhile, yields 7.2%—still high, but not to the level that
investors are doubting its ability to pay the dividend.

 

“In the current $40 oil world, the dividend is covered on a forward-looking
basis, and the balance sheet is in excellent shape,” McDermott says. “Of all
the global oil majors, Chevron has the best balance sheet and the lowest
leverage, and that gives them additional flexibility through this period of
uncertainty.”

 

McDermott calculates that Exxon Mobil, in contrast, will require an average
Brent price of $60 a barrel over the next five years to cover its dividend.
Unlike Chevron, Exxon Mobil was more aggressive in its capital spending to
spur growth “to position themselves better than peers in a commodity
recovery,” McDermott says.

 

Aware of its need for belt-tightening, Exxon Mobil is now on a pace for
about $19 billion a year in capital spending, down from around $30 billion
to $35 billion in previous years, McDermott observes.

 

“The company is doing the right things. They are managing what’s in their
control, but unfortunately this commodity price environment is out of their
control,” he adds.

 

And therein lies the wild card for income investors: Even the most stalwart
and disciplined dividend payers in the energy patch might be committed to
their payouts, but the pandemic could have other plans.--BBC

 

 

 

Tesla Needs Lithium. These Are the Best Stocks to Play the EV Boom.

There’s only one thing standing between Tesla and world domination—the
global supply of lithium. And that’s good news for lithium producers.

 

When Tesla (ticker: TSLA) held its battery day on Sept. 22, CEO Elon Musk
laid out plans to build massive amounts of Tesla-owned battery
capacity—enough to make about 30 million electric vehicles by the end of the
decade, up from roughly 500,000 in 2020.

 

Such an enormous increase depends upon mass acceptance of electric vehicles
over traditional combustion-engine ones and the creation of the
infrastructure necessary to fuel that many EVs. But it will also require a
massive amount of lithium to make the batteries those cars will run on—a
massive challenge in its own right.

 

Right now, the world mines roughly 400,000 tons of lithium a year, enough to
power 2 million to 3 million electric vehicles, though only a third of that
goes to EVs right now. That number will have to increase perhaps as much as
tenfold to meet Musk’s goal, and that doesn’t take into account other auto
makers.

 

 

Tesla took one step to ensure part of its lithium needs by signing a sales
agreement with Piedmont Lithium (PLL) this past week. Piedmont stock more
than doubled after news of the sales agreement with Tesla broke—as well it
should have. The deal guarantees Tesla will buy about one-third of the
startup’s production for up to 10 years. Though Piedmont’s mine isn’t
operational yet, it expects to deliver product to Tesla by 2022 or 2023.

 

Miners like Albemarle (ALB), SQM (SQM), and Livent (LTHM) should be
considered among the potential winners of the coming EV boom.

 

Mining lithium isn’t easy—or easy to grasp. The supply chain is complicated.
Lithium producers, for the most part, don’t ship pure metal. Instead, they
sell products such as lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide to battery and
battery-cathode makers like LG Chem (051910.Korea).

 

Miners get the elemental lithium from salt brines left over from ancient
seas in places like Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, and
in hard rock minerals such as spodumene, found in Australia and elsewhere.
Tesla’s recent deal with Piedmont will provide it with 60,000 tons of
concentrated spodumene. That will be converted into lithium hydroxide and
turned into a battery cathode, which will be put into a battery cell as part
of a Model 3 battery pack.

 

That 60,000 tons is enough for roughly 150,000 to 200,000 batteries, far
short of the amount needed if Tesla gets anywhere near its target. Clearly,
there is plenty of growth for existing lithium players.

 

One wild card for producers is lithium product prices. Industry pricing is a
tightly guarded secret, and pricing indexes aren’t used for transactions.
Prices peaked around 2018 and traded, at some points, for more than $25,000
a ton. They later fell as new capacity came on line—capacity doubled from
2016 to 2019—and as the economy slipped into recession. Pricing has
flattened out over the past year at about $7,000 a ton.

 

“The direction of pricing should be up,” Piedmont CEO Keith Philips tells
Barron’s. “How high they go in the next cycle peak is anyone’s guess.”

 

Higher demand and higher pricing are good tailwinds for lithium stocks. So
which one should investors buy? Albermarle is the safe play. It isn’t just a
lithium stock—it also makes bromine products, used in flame retardants, and
catalysts used by refineries. It is expected to increase sales at a 10%
clip, off a base of about $3 billion, over the next three years. Trading at
just 13 times 2023 estimated earnings of $6.88 a share, it’s the cheapest
lithium stock, largely because it isn’t just a lithium stock.

 

 

SQM, which extracts lithium in Chile from salt brines, also makes fertilizer
for agricultural markets. It is expected to increase sales at an 18% annual
clip over the next three years off a base of $1.8 billion, leaving it with
earnings of about $1.70 a share. At that level, shares in SQM, which traded
recently at $32.51, are trading at about 19 times estimated 2023 earnings.
Shares are up about 22% in 2020.

 

We’re most excited by Livent, which operates assets around the world and
extracts its primary lithium in Argentina. Wall Street expects the company
to grow sales at about 15% a year on average between 2020 and 2023, from a
base of $284 million. Most of the growth comes from higher volumes. Earnings
per share are expected to grow from six cents in 2020 to 34 cents in 2023—a
78% average annual growth rate. The stock recently traded at about $9, or 28
times the 2023 earnings figure. The stock is more expensive than peers, but
has more to gain from a rising tide in the lithium industry.

 

It’s tempting to pick the cheapest stock, but if lithium prices start to
run, Livent looks like the best bet.--yahoofianance

 

 

 

 

At 7.9%, U.S. jobless rate spells trouble for Trump

(Reuters) - The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.9% in September, from 8.4%
in August, a big drop that in normal times would be welcome news for a
presidential incumbent seeking reelection in just over a month.

 

These are not normal times.

 

As the best-known summary statistic of the labor market, the U.S.
unemployment rate is a “a psychologically important number” for voters, said
Michael Brown, principal U.S. economist at Visa.

 

But President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he had tested
positive for the novel coronavirus pushes that number into the background:
Voters may be “weighing news related to the virus a bit more than the
economic data right now,” Brown said.

 

The drop in the September jobless rate, reported by the Labor Department on
Friday, extends a steep downward trend from the 14.7% registered in April,
which was the highest level since the Great Depression.

 

But other details in the report do not easily fit into Trump’s narrative of
an economy roaring back to life.

 

Monthly job gains slowed. Overall, of the 22 million jobs lost since
February, the economy has recouped about half.

 

Jobs fell off a cliff

 

“Regaining the other half is going to be a whole lot harder,” said Michael
Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors.

 

Notably, some 865,000 women left the labor force last month, the data shows,
about four times the number of men. Latinas accounted for more than a third
of that decline, the report showed.

 

Those populations are key to Trump’s reelection hopes as well as those of
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

 

The mass exit of women from their jobs coincided with the start of the U.S.
school year, with many children learning online and at home.

 

“These numbers are really just what parents have been screaming for months,
but in the form of economic data,” said Michael Madowitz, an economist at
the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “I can’t imagine this is
going to help win voters over.”

 

Friday's report counted more than 12 million Americans among the unemployed,
a demographic less likely to show up at the polls than the employed, studies
here have consistently shown.

 

But in the current context, there’s a twist: voter turnout among those out
of work tends to rise when unemployment overall is high.

 

Amber Wichowsky, a political science professor at Marquette University in
Wisconsin, studied thousands of state and local elections and found that
higher unemployment is associated with higher turnout, and Republican
incumbents “are more likely (than Democrats) to be punished by bad
unemployment numbers.”

 

In the Nov. 3 election, she said, it could well be different: the public
health crisis could suppress voting if people are worried about casting
ballots in person.

 

Moreover, it’s hard to find a clear pattern linking unemployment rates to
turnout in presidential elections, or to the outcome.

 

Where was unemployment before past elections?

 

The jobless rate was nearly as high as it is now when voters picked Jimmy
Carter, a Democrat, over Republican President Gerald Ford in 1976, when
Carter lost to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan in 1980, and when
Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton ousted Republican President George
H.W. Bush in 1992.

 

It was also nearly as high when Americans reelected Democratic President
Barack Obama in 2012.

 

OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS

High-frequency data tracked by Reuters shows shifts worked at a variety of
industries increased this past week and were approaching 95% of the levels
at the start of the year. Estimates of retail traffic based on cellphone
data moved above their March 1 level, before a state of emergency was
declared, according to information from Safegraph here.

 

Consumer sentiment in September jumped sharply, though a final read here of
the University of Michigan's monthly survey on Friday suggested gains were
driven by Democrats, with only small improvements among independents and
Republicans.

 

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell for the
week ended Sept. 26 but remained high, the government reported on Thursday,
and personal income dropped in August, underscoring the importance of
another government rescue package that economists say is needed to keep the
recovery from flagging further.

 

Going into this week the number of new COVID-19 cases had risen for two
weeks in a row in 27 of the 50 U.S. states. The course of the virus, Federal
Reserve officials and others have repeatedly said, is paramount for the
economic outlook.

 

 

 

Airbus executive says aviation outlook worse than expected

BERLIN (Reuters) - The outlook for the aviation industry has deteriorated
again due to rising coronavirus infections and renewed travel restrictions,
Airbus chief operating officer Michael Schoellhorn was quoted as saying on
Saturday.

 

With air travel at a fraction of normal levels due to restrictions and
travellers’ fears related to the pandemic, airlines have slowed deliveries
of new aircraft.

 

Airbus has said it needs to shed 15,000 posts worldwide.

 

In an interview with the Handelsblatt business daily, Schoellhorn said the
situation in early autumn was worse than the company had expected in the
summer, adding that the planned 15,000 job cuts would be the minimum.

 

As some Airbus factories were already underutilized before the pandemic,
labour unions now fear that the management could decide to shut down entire
locations.

 

At least for Germany, Schoellhorn ruled out such a move.

 

“In terms of substance, I do not see any German locations at risk at the
moment,” he said.

 

Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said last month the planemaker would
do its best to cut costs without resorting to compulsory redundancies, but
it could not guarantee they won’t happen.

 

In a letter to staff in September, Faury warned that Airbus may have to
carry out compulsory layoffs after air travel failed to recover from the
pandemic as quickly as anticipated.

 

 

 

Cineworld to close all UK, Ireland screens, Sunday Times says

(Reuters) - Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest cinema operator, is set to
close all its screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland as soon as the
coming week, London’s Sunday Times reported on Saturday.

 

The Regal cinema owner write to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and
culture minister Oliver Dowden over the weekend to say the industry has
become “unviable” because of film studios’ decision to postpone big-budget
films, the newspaper said.

 

The new James Bond movie, “No Time To Die,” became the latest blockbuster to
be pushed into next year as the movie industry struggles to get back to
business amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Cineworld declined to comment on the Sunday Times report.

 

The company, which started reopening its sites from July, runs a total of
128 theatres and 1,180 screens in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

 

Cineworld is expected to announce its plan, which could put about 5,500 jobs
at risk, as soon as Monday, the report said.

 

“If Governments were to strengthen restrictions on social gathering, which
may therefore oblige us to close our estate again or further push back movie
releases, it would have a negative impact on our financial performance and
likely require the need to raise additional liquidity,” the company said
last month.

 

The release of “Black Widow” and “West Side Story” has also been delayed
until 2021.

 

Efforts to get audiences back into theaters have proved disappointing. While
bigger chains like AMC Entertainment, Cineworld and others have reopened
many locations, crowds have been thin. Small and mid-sized theatre companies
have said they may not survive the impact of the pandemic.

 

 

 

 

A Biden victory could weigh on stock market's winners

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors on Wall Street can add another layer of
uncertainty to a market already unnerved by last month’s sell-off, stalled
fiscal stimulus and President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, which
weighed on stocks on Friday.

 

A higher capital gains tax that could accompany a win by Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden is also emerging as a potential counterweight
to this year’s powerful rally in stocks.

 

Biden has proposed here taxing capital gains and dividends as ordinary
income, which would increase the tax rate from 20% to 39.6% for individuals
and couples earning over $1 million, the highest tax bracket.

 

That policy - which would likely be easier to enact if Democrats also win
the Senate and retain control of the House - may push some investors to lock
in gains ahead of December if Biden emerges the winner in the Nov. 3 vote,
fund managers said.

 

Tax-motivated selling would likely be most pronounced in technology and
other momentum stocks and could push the broad S&P 500 index lower between
November and the end of the year, said Eddie Perkin, chief equity investment
officer at Eaton Vance.

 

“If you have enough people looking to harvest gains, that has an impact on
the stocks that have led the market, and the big tech stocks could be where
people choose to sell at the end of the year,” he said.

 

On Friday, President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis triggered a sell-off in
stocks and oil as investors moved away from risk assets. But many tech and
momentum stocks are sporting healthy gains for the year despite a sell-off
that pushed the S&P 500 down 3.9% in September, its first monthly loss since
March.

 

Tesla Inc, for instance, is up 436% for the year through Friday, while Zoom
Video Communications Inc is up 610% and Amazon.com Inc is up 74%. The S&P
500 index as a whole is up 3.8% over the same time.

 

That kind of momentum may be difficult to slow, especially if it is aided by
seasonal trends. November and December tend to be among the best months for
stock performance, boasting an average gain of 1.34% and 1.57%,
respectively, for the S&P 500, according to research firm CFRA.

 

“The third quarter is usually weak, but when it is really strong, like it
was in 2020, this says the rally isn’t over yet,” explained LPL Financial
Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick.

 

Still, some believe a Biden victory would provide a strong incentive for
profit-taking.

 

SELLING ‘AHEAD OF SCHEDULE’

 

Chris Cordaro, chief investment officer of RegentAtlantic, believes a broad
Democratic victory will likely lead to more stock market volatility as soon
as the results of the election are known as investors start selling winners.

 

He has been counseling some clients to generate more income this year as
opposed to in 2021, by taking money out of retirement accounts, which would
add another layer of selling, he said.

 

“You’re going to see people selling things that they would be selling
anyway, but ahead of schedule,” he said.

 

Investors in the coming week will be keeping an eye on minutes from the
Federal Reserve’s most recent monetary policy meeting, due out Wednesday,
for insight on how the central bank views the nascent recovery in the United
States.

 

Higher taxes do not always lead to increased selling. Overall, the capital
gains tax rate could go as high as 40% before having widespread effects on
investor behavior and discouraging investment, according to a paper by
Princeton University economics professors Owen Zidar and Ole Agersnap.

 

Personal income tax rates are more likely to affect the market’s winners
this year, Cordaro said, while increased corporate taxes would most likely
lower valuations across the stock market over the next year.

 

By 2024, however, enactment of Biden’s proposed tax measures and other
policies would cut just 4% off of estimated earnings for the S&P 500
compared with baseline estimates, according to Goldman Sachs.

 

Increasing corporate taxes while the global economy is still trying to
recover from the coronavirus pandemic could dent the rally in the stock
market and cut into company plans to hire or invest in new projects by
eating into after-tax net income, said

 

hedge fund manager J. Daniel Plants, who runs Voce Capital Management.

 

“History teaches us that this is the worst possible moment to subject the
economy to the type of massive tax increases that Biden is proposing,
especially the changes that would impede capital formation and make domestic
job creation less attractive,” he said.

 

 

 

Chevron Nigeria plans to cut 25% of staff after oil price drop

ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian unit of oil major Chevron CVX.N plans to cut
its local workforce by 25% to reduce costs, it said on Saturday, due to weak
demand for oil in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The company, which operates a joint venture with Nigeria’s state-owned NNPC,
said it needed to make the adjustments to remain competitive in light of the
prevailing business climate. It did not say how many jobs would be affected
but said the cuts would affect workers across its operations.

 

It added in a statement there were no plans to move jobs abroad and it was
engaging with its workforce on the plan. Employees will retain their jobs
until the reorganisation is completed.

 

Prices of oil, Nigeria's main export, fell sharply early this year and in
April global benchmark Brent LCOc1 hit a 21-year low below $16 as the
coronavirus outbreak hit demand, though oil markets have recovered since
then.

 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its 2020 oil demand forecast
in September, citing caution about the pace of economic recovery from the
pandemic.

 

 

 

Honda confirms 17th U.S. death in Takata air bag rupture

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co 7267.T said on Saturday it has
confirmed a 17th U.S. death tied to a faulty Takata air bag inflator.

 

The Japanese automaker said that after a joint inspection with the U.S.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it confirmed a
faulty air bag inflator was to blame for the Aug. 20 crash of a 2002 Honda
Civic that led to the death of a driver in Mesa, Arizona.

 

The defect, which leads in rare instances to air bag inflators rupturing and
sending metal fragments flying, prompted the largest automotive recall in
U.S. history and is tied to 15 U.S. deaths in Honda vehicles and two in Ford
Motor Co F.N vehicles since 2009. More than 290 injuries are also tied to
faulty Takata inflators and at least 26 deaths worldwide.

 

Honda said the 2002 Civic had been under recall since December 2011 for
replacement of the driver’s frontal airbag inflator, while the passenger’s
frontal airbag inflator was recalled in 2014.

 

Honda sent more than 15 mailed recall notices over eight years to registered
owners of the vehicle before the crash and made other attempts to contact
owners. The driver killed was not the registered owner and Honda said it was
not certain if the driver was aware of the unrepaired recalls.

 

The most recent previous fatal confirmed U.S. incident was the June 2018
death of a driver after the crash of a 2002 Honda Civic in Buckeye, Arizona.

 

The Takata recalls cover about 100 million inflators among 19 major
automakers worldwide, including about 63 million inflators in the United
States.

 

NHTSA says the cause of inflator explosions that can emit deadly fragments
is propellant breaking down after long-term exposure to high temperature
fluctuations and humidity.

 

In August, Honda agreed to pay $85 million to settle an investigation by
most U.S. states into its use of defective Takata inflators.

 

 

 

Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs will testify before U.S. Senate committee

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief executives of Facebook <FB.O, Twitter
TWTR.N and Alphabet-owned Google GOOGL.O have agreed to voluntarily testify
at a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Oct. 28 about a key law
protecting internet companies.

 

Facebook and Twitter confirmed on Friday that their CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg
and Jack Dorsey, respectively, will appear, while a source said that
Google’s Sundar Pichai will appear. That came a day after the committee
unanimously voted to approve a plan to subpoena the three CEOs to appear
before the panel.

 

Twitter’s Dorsey tweeted on Friday that the hearing “must be constructive &
focused on what matters most to the American people: how we work together to
protect elections.”

 

The CEOs are to appear virtually.

 

In addition to discussions on reforming the law called Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act, which protects internet companies from liability
over content posted by users, the hearing will bring up issues about
consumer privacy and media consolidation.

 

Republican President Donald Trump has made holding tech companies
accountable for allegedly stifling conservative voices a theme of his
administration. As a result, calls for a reform of Section 230 have been
intensifying ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, but there is little chance of
approval by Congress this year.

 

Last week Trump met with nine Republican state attorneys general to discuss
the fate of Section 230 after the Justice Department unveiled a legislative
proposal aimed at reforming the law.

 

The chief executives of Google, Facebook, Apple Inc APPL.O and Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O recently testified before the House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee’s antitrust panel. The panel, which is investigating how the
companies’ practices hurt rivals, is expected to release its report as early
as next Monday.

 

 

 

Paytm, other Indian startups vow to fight 'big daddy' Google's clout:
sources

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Dozens of India’s technology startups, chafing at
Google’s local dominance of key apps, are banding together to consider ways
to challenge the U.S. tech giant, including by lodging complaints with the
government and courts, executives told Reuters.

 

Although Google, owned by Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O, has worked closely with
India's booming startup sector and is ramping up its investments, it has
recently angered many tech companies with what they say are unfair
practices.

 

Setting the stage for a potential showdown, entrepreneurs held two video
conferences this week to strategise, three executives told Reuters.

 

"It's definitely going to be a bitter fight," said Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of
e-commerce firm IndiaMART INMR.NS. "Google will lose this battle. It's just
a matter of time."

 

He said executives have discussed forming a new startup association aimed
chiefly at lodging protests with the Indian government and courts against
the Silicon Valley company.

 

Nearly 99% of the smartphones of India’s half a billion users run on
Google’s Android mobile operating system. Some Indian startups say that
allows Google to exert excessive control over the types of apps and other
services they can offer, an allegation the company denies.

 

The uproar began last month when Google removed popular payments app Paytm
from its Play Store, citing policy violations. This led to a sharp rebuke
from the Indian firm’s founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose app returned to
the Google platform a few hours later, after Paytm made certain changes.

 

In a video call on Tuesday, Sharma called Google the “big daddy” that
controls the “oxygen supply of (app) distribution” on Android phones,
according to an attendee. He urged the roughly 50 executives on the call to
join hands to “stop this tsunami.”

 

“If we together don’t do anything, then history will not be kind to us. We
have to control our digital destiny,” Sharma said.

 

One idea raised was to launch a local rival to Google’s app store, but
Sharma said this would not be immediately effective given Google’s
dominance, one source said.

 

Sharma and Paytm, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T, did
not respond to requests for comment.

 

Google declined to comment. It has previously said its policies aim to
protect Android users and that it applies and enforces them consistently on
developers.

 

STRAINING TIES

This week the U.S. company angered some Indian startups by deciding to
enforce a 30% commission it charges on payments made within apps on the
Android store.

 

Two dozen executives were on a call on Friday where many slammed that
decision. They discussed filing antitrust complaints and approaching
Google’s India head for discussions, said two sources with direct knowledge
of the call.

 

Participants included sports technology firm Dream Sports, backed by U.S.
hedge fund Tiger Global, social media company ShareChat and digital payments
firm PhonePe, the sources said. None of those companies responded to
requests for comment.

 

Google defends the policy, saying 97% of apps worldwide comply with it.

 

Google already faces an antitrust case related to its payments app in India
and a competition investigation into claims it abused Android’s dominant
position. The company says it complies with all laws.

 

These spats strain Google’s strong ties to Indian startups. It has invested
in some and helped hundreds with product development. In July, its
Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai committed $10 billion in new investments over
five to seven years.

 

The conflict “is counterproductive to what Google has been doing - it’s an
odd place for them to be,” said a senior tech executive familiar with
Google’s thinking. “It’s a reputation issue. It’s in the interest of Google
to resolve this issue.”

 

Google looms over every aspect of the industry.

 

Paytm on Saturday told several startup founders, in a communication seen by
Reuters, that it was collating input on challenges to Google Play Store and
its policies to submit to the authorities.

 

To craft their attack, they are using a shared Google document.

 

 

 

Lufthansa's Swiss unit plans 1,000 job cuts over two years through attrition

VIENNA (Reuters) - Lufthansa unit Swiss International Air Lines plans to cut
roughly 1,000 jobs over the next two years through voluntary measures rather
than layoffs, its outgoing Chief Executive Thomas Kluehr said in remarks
published on Saturday.

 

The Swiss government has granted the airline more than 1 billion euros
($1.17 billion) in loan guarantees to help it cope with the collapse in air
travel due to the pandemic. Like many of its peers it decided to shrink its
staff and fleet.

 

“We are initially relying on three socially acceptable measures: a hiring
freeze, part-time models with salary reductions, and early retirement,”
Kluehr told newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende, adding that based on staff
fluctuations in recent years it should be possible to cut 1,000 jobs without
layoffs.

 

Swiss and Edelweiss Air, a much smaller sister airline, have 10,475
employees, according to the Lufthansa Group's second-quarter financial
report here. Swiss has roughly 9,500 staff, Schweiz am Wochenende said.

 

Kluehr, whose successor has yet to be announced, said the airline industry’s
current crisis should last three to five years. In terms of job cuts much
would depend on how quickly the market recovers, he added.

 

“If, in the medium to long term, we expect Swiss’s business to shrink by 20%
- and that is what we expect at the moment - then the 1,000 jobs would
suffice, yes,” said Kluehr.

 

“If we see in the first quarter, looking towards the summer, that the
situation is not improving, particularly in long-haul, then the 1,000 jobs
will not be enough.”

 

 

 

Intel wins second phase of contract to help Pentagon develop chips

CHANDLER, Arizona - (Reuters) - Intel Corp on Friday said it has won a
second-phase contract in a project aimed at helping the U.S. military make
more advanced semiconductors within the United States.

 

Under the project, Intel will help the military develop prototypes of chips
using its semiconductor packaging technology at factories in Arizona and
Oregon. The packaging technology allows pieces of chips called “chiplets”
from different providers to be combined into one package, helping cram more
features into a smaller finished product while lowering its power
consumption.

 

“As more and more semiconductor manufacturing has moved offshore, the
(Department of Defense) is very interested in ensuring that they have
advanced microelectronics for national security manufactured here in the
U.S.,” Bob Swan, Intel’s chief executive, told Reuters in an interview as he
toured a recently completed $7 billion factory expansion in Arizona, where
Intel’s workforce totals 12,000.

 

“As a U.S.-based company, it’s important to us to be able to address some of
the fundamental concerns that the U.S. would have about access to these
critical technologies going forward,” he said.

 

Intel declined to disclose a dollar figure for its portion of the contract,
which is being overseen by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.
Intel won part of the first phase of the contract in 2019.

 

Intel’s work with the Defense Department comes as U.S. officials focus on
boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing in response to the rise of
China as a strategic competitor. About 75% of the world’s chipmaking
capacity is in Asia, with many of the most advanced plants in Taiwan and
Korea, within the reach of the Chinese and North Korean militaries.

 

“I think one of the areas where we can have the most impact on China broadly
is re-shoring microelectronics,” Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s chief weapons
buyer, told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing on
Thursday.

 

Intel is one of three companies in the world that can make highly advanced
computer chips. The other two - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd
and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd - have packaging technology similar to
Intel’s.

 

But Intel has been working on the technology longer and can perform the work
in the United States, which the other two cannot, said Dan Hutcheson, chief
executive officer of VLSI Research.

 

“There’s no one else with the mix of technology that they have in the United
States,” he said. “Packaging is a big win for them.”

 

With Washington’s relations with Beijing at their worst in decades, U.S.
officials have cracked down on suppliers to Chinese firms such as Huawei
Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], with new rules on Sept. 15 barring most U.S.
companies from selling to the Chinese telecommunications giant. Intel
confirmed last month that it has licenses to keep supplying some products.

 

Swan said that global market access was “very important” to helping Intel
generate the cash needed to build chip factories, called “fabs” in the
industry.

 

“We make money, we take that money, and we reinvest predominantly here, in
fabs in the U.S. and in research and development,” he said.

 

 

 

 

Brussels Airlines to Increase Service to Africa

Brussels Airlines will increase capacity to Africa over the next few months,
with 40 percent more flights to the continent by the beginning of 2021.

 

The carrier will begin to build up service to Africa on Oct. 25, increasing
capacity 12 percent, with the additional capacity coming online in December.
That will include increased frequencies from Brussels Airport to Banjul, The
Gambia; Bujumbura, Burundi; Dakar, Senegal; Douala and Yaoundé, Cameroon;
Entebbe, Uganda; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Kigali, Rwanda, and Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Brussels also will increase service to
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, to daily.

 

In February, Brussels plans to further expand its network with service
resuming to Luanda, Angola, as well as New York's John F. Kennedy
International Airport.

 

 

 

Qatar Airways Restarts Service to South Africa

Qatar Airways is resuming service to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban,
with 19 weekly flights to the three South African cities, the carrier
announced. The new flights are part of a network growth plan the carrier
plans to continue throughout the rest of this year. By the end of 2020, the
carrier expects to be flying to 124 total destinations—up from more than 90
now—including 21 in Africa, 10 in the Americas, 42 in Asia/Pacific, 38 in
Europe and 13 in the Middle East

 

 

 

 


 


 


Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 77 344 1674

Alt. Email:       <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw  

Website:         <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com> www.bullszimbabwe.com 

Blog:
<https://bullszimbabwe.com/category/blogs/bullish-thoughts/>
www.bullszimbabwe.com/blog

Twitter:         @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:       Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimba
bwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA>
www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

 


 

INVESTORS DIARY 2020

 


Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Companies under Cautionary

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


Bindura Nickel Corporation

 

 

 


Padenga Holdings

 

 

 


Delta Corporation

 

 

 


Meikles Limited

 

 

 


 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 


 

 


DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of
Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or
subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has
been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or
warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All
opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without
notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be
suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth
companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than
the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any
other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability
whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its
contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this
report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent
investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of
any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are
for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

 


 

 


(c) 2020 Web: <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com>  www.bullszimbabwe.com Email:
<mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel: +263 4 2927658 Cell: +263 77
344 1674

 


 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20201004/5c4115d4/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 26688 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20201004/5c4115d4/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 26611 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20201004/5c4115d4/attachment-0005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4846 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20201004/5c4115d4/attachment-0006.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 108363 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20201004/5c4115d4/attachment-0007.jpg>