Elon Musk officially closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on Thursday evening. Under the agreement, Musk is taking the social media giant private at $54.20 per share.
"The easy part for Musk was buying Twitter, the difficult part and Everest-like uphill battle looking ahead will be fixing this troubled asset," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. "The $44 billion price tag for Twitter will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street in our opinion."
Here is a FOX Business roundup of what Twitter's priorities may look like under Musk's ownership.
ENSURING FREE SPEECH
In April, Musk said that he believes free speech is "the bedrock of a functioning democracy" and that Twitter is "the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."
U.S. stocks turned in a strong rally to end the week with all three of the major benchmark averages rising over 2% as investors celebrated strong results from Apple. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered its best week since May rising 5.6%. In commodities, oil rose 3.3% to $87.90 per barrel.
Weekly Performance
DJIA: +5.6%
S&P 500: +3.9%
Nasdaq Composite: +2.2%
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| FOLD | $10.75 | 0.37 | 3.56 |
Amicus Therapeutics is lower in extended trading. The Food and Drug Administration has deferred action on the company’s biologics license application (BLA) for cipaglucosidase alfa, the biologic component of AT-GAA.
Due to restrictions on travel related to COVID-19, the FDA was unable to conduct the required inspection of the WuXi Biologics manufacturing site in China during the review cycle.
As a result, the FDA is deferring action on the application until the manufacturing site inspection is complete.
The company continues to expect the FDA to approve the two components of AT-GAA, including the BLA and New Drug Application (NDA) for miglustat, together.
Pompe disease is an inherited lysosomal disorder caused by deficiency of the enzyme acid alpha-glucosidase (GAA).
{{#rendered}}| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $155.72 | 10.92 | 7.54 |
| INTC | $28.89 | 2.62 | 9.95 |
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 800 points with less than a hour left in the trading day and week. Intel and Apple led the gains, with the maker of iPhones on pace for its best session since July 2020 following strong third-quarter results.
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBBY | $4.55 | -0.42 | -8.53 |
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc said on Friday a third party had this month improperly accessed its data through a phishing scam by accessing the hard drive and certain shared drives of one of its employees.
The big-box retailer said it was reviewing the data that was accessed so it can determine whether the drives contained any sensitive or personally identifiable information.
The home goods retailer added it has no reason to believe that any sensitive or personally identifiable information was accessed and this cybersecurity incident would likely not have a material impact on the company.
Additionally, the company filed to offer $150 million of common stock.
The potential net proceeds from the additional issuance and sale of shares are intended to be used for general corporate purposes, including to drive immediate strategic priorities such as rebalancing the retailer's assortment and inventory, and addressing the company's debt.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The Federal Reserve’s rapid pace of interest rate increases will likely lead to a recession, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Participants polled see the Fed Funds Rate reaching 5% by March 2023.
{{#rendered}}| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| XOM | $110.74 | 3.19 | 2.97 |
| CVX | $179.57 | 1.67 | 0.94 |
ExxonMobil and Chevron are higher in Friday trading after reporting record profit.
Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported third-quarter profit of $19.66 billion.
On a per-share basis, the Irving, Texas-based company said it had profit of $4.68. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $4.45 per share.
Chevron Corp. on Friday reported third-quarter net income of $11.23 billion.
The San Ramon, California-based company said it had profit of $5.78 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $5.56 per share.
Both companies exceeded Wall Street expectations.
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| COMP | $2.58 | -0.16 | -5.84 |
Compass has a new chief financial officer. The tech-enabled real estate brokerage announced that Kalani Reelitz will be the company’s CFO, effective Nov. 15.
Reelitz joins Compass after nearly 20 years of finance, business and operational experience across the real estate and retail industries, serving in several senior financial and business leadership roles at Cushman & Wakefield Americas including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
In May, the company announced changes to its executive structure. At that time, Compass said former CFO Kristen Ankerbrandt would leaving in September to pursue outside opportunities outside. Compass also promoted Chief Product Officer Greg Hart to Chief Operating Officer.
Compass reports third quarter results on Nov 10.
Pending home sales trailed off for the fourth consecutive month in September, according to the National Association of Realtors. All four major regions tracked by the group recorded month-over-month and year-over-year declines in transactions.
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, slumped 10.2% to 79.5 in September.
Year-over-year, pending transactions slid by 31.0%. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.
"Persistent inflation has proven quite harmful to the housing market," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "The Federal Reserve has had to drastically raise interest rates to quell inflation, which has resulted in far fewer buyers and even fewer sellers."
{{#rendered}}| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELUXY | $25.16 | 1.42 | 5.98 |
Electrolux is higher in Friday trading. Europe's biggest home appliances maker plans to trim its workforce by up to 3,500-4,000 positions as part of a cost reduction and North America turnaround program.
Electrolux has invested heavily in its North American plants in recent years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and component shortages have delayed the ramp-up of local production.
"Market demand in both Europe and North America for the full-year of 2023 is expected to further deteriorate, i.e. be negative year-over-year," Chief Executive Jonas Samuelson said.
The turnaround program is for the full-year of 2023 expected to result in a positive year-over-year earnings contribution of 4-5 billion Swedish krona ($367-$458 million) from both Cost efficiency and reduced Investments in innovation and marketing.
One area is to eliminate cost inefficiencies in supply chain and production. Another is to leverage the organizational changes.
The group made an operating loss of 385 million Swedish krona in the third quarter, against a year-earlier profit of 1.64 billion. The North America division reported a loss of 1.2 billion krona.
Reuters contributed to this report.
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABBV | $146.29 | -7.21 | -4.70 |
AbbVie Inc on Friday missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly sales, hurt by weaker-than-expected revenue from its popular facial filler Juvederm and blockbuster anti-wrinkle injection Botox.
The drugmaker said it was seeing an impact from "temporary economic headwinds" to its portfolio of cosmetic treatments, including Botox and Juvederm, which it gained through its $63 billion deal for Allergan.
Wall Street analysts have been looking out for the impact of inflation and fears of a recession to its aesthetics business, which is more exposed to macroeconomic pressures than AbbVie's other therapies.
Sales of Botox for cosmetic uses came in at $637 million, below estimates of $640.17 million, while sales of Juvederm were $352 million, also missing estimates of $360 million, according to Refinitiv data.
Net revenue rose 3.3% to $14.81 billion but missed estimates of $14.91 billion.
However, AbbVie earned $3.66 per share, excluding one-off items, beating estimates of $3.57 per share.
Sales of newer psoriasis treatment Skyrizi also exceeded analysts' estimates.
AbbVie has been hoping Skyrizi and arthritis drug Rinvoq can eventually replace sales of its blockbuster drug Humira, which is expected to face competition in the United States next year.
{{#rendered}}| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| PINS | $24.96 | 3.07 | 14.02 |
Pinterest Inc beat estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday, making it a rare bright spot in an otherwise downbeat social media sector and sending the image-sharing platform's shares 15% higher in after-hours trading.
A decline in advertising budgets because of decades-high inflation has roiled earnings of online players from Alphabet Inc to Meta Platforms Inc and Snap Inc.
But Pinterest's results show its ads business stayed resilient amid the wider industry downturn and people were still engaging with its image-sharing platform for inspiration to take up activities such as home renovation and recipe-based cooking.
Pinterest returned to user growth in the July-September period after three straight quarters of decline, with its global monthly active users rising 2.8% sequentially to 445 million, above Factset estimates of 437.4 million.Part of the growth was fueled by an update to Apple Inc's iOS 16 in September, finance chief Todd Morgenfeld said on a call with analysts.
He added the resilience in ad sales was driven by the fact that a large portion of Pinterest's ad sales come from e-commerce and consumer goods.
Pinterest's third-quarter revenue rose 8% to $684.6 million. While the pace of growth was its slowest in nearly two years, the figure came in well above analysts' average estimate of $666.7 million, according to Refinitiv.
The company's global average revenue per user jumped 11% to $1.56. It earned an adjusted profit of $0.11 per share, above analyst estimates of $0.06 per share.
The world's richest man Elon Musk got right to work after closing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Members of the Federal Reserve keep close watch on their favorite inflation gauge and it continues to run hot.
{{#rendered}}U.S. stocks rallied across the board as investors loaded up on shares of Apple post a strong quarter. ExxonMobil, Chevron also rallied after strong results tied to higher oil prices. In commodities, oil drifted down to the $88 per barrel level.
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | $151.60 | 6.80 | 4.70 |
| INTC | $28.33 | 2.06 | 7.84 |
| CVX | $180.88 | 2.98 | 1.68 |
| XOM | $109.41 | 1.85 | 1.72 |
U.S. equity futures traded lower after a mixed session on Wall Street, where tech sector losses offset gains in other parts of the market.
The major futures indexes suggest a loss of more than 1% for the tech heavy Nasdaq as Amazon shares tumbled. The Dow is looking at a decline of 0.5%.
Oil prices traded lower on Friday after China widened its COVID-19 curbs.
The oil contracts were still poised for a weekly gain on supply concerns.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were around $87.00 a barrel.
Brent crude futures traded around $95.00 a barrel.
Amazon shares traded 13% lower in the premarket after the ecommerce giant reported weaker-than-expected revenue and disappointing projections for the current quarter.
The company did return to profitability over the summer after two consecutive quarters of losses.
Intel shares were trading more than 4% higher in the premarket after reporting full-year profit forecast cut and revenue forecast and has a cost cutting plan, according to Reuters.
Stronger-than-expected performance at its personal computers segment helped send shares higher.
Friday's economic reports include income & spending, pending home sales and consumer sentiment.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, was at 3.98%.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan lost 0.9%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 3.7% and China's Shanghai Composite index shed 2.2%.
Thursday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, closing at 3,807.30.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.6% to 10,792.67, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% to 32,033.28.
Shares of the ecommerce giant were down 13% in the premarket after the company reported weaker-than-expected revenue and disappointing projections for the current quarter.
The company did return to profitability over the summer after two consecutive quarters of losses.
Amazon reported revenue for the three months of $127.1 billion, helped by Amazon's annual Prime Day sales event.
That helped fuel Amazon's revenue growth of 15% over last year, an improvement from the prior two quarters when revenue grew by only 7% — the slowest in nearly two decades.
Still, those numbers came in short of forecasts by analysts surveyed by FactSet, who were expecting third-quarter revenue of $127.4 billion.
Amazon said it expects revenue for the fourth quarter to be between $140 billion and $148 billion.
The company said the guidance anticipates an unfavorable impact from fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. Analysts were expecting $155.1 billion in revenue.
{{#rendered}}The recent decline in gas prices came to a halt Friday. The average price of a gallon of gasoline stabilized at $3.761, according to AAA.
The price on Thursday was $3.760. One week ago, a gallon of gasoline cost $3.820.
Gas hit a high of $5.016 on June 14.
Diesel's price slipped to $5.308 per gallon.
Oil prices traded lower on Friday after China widened its COVID-19 curbs.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were around $87.00 a barrel.
Brent crude futures traded around $95.00 a barrel.
Still, both benchmark oil contracts were on course for a weekly rise, with Brent heading for a gain of more than 2% and WTI more than 3%.
Bitcoin was trading around $20,000, after snapping a two-day winning streak.
The cryptocurrency has a gained more than 6% in the past week.
Bitcoin has gained 5% this month, but is down more than 55% year-to-date.
Ethereum was trading around $1,500, after gaining more than 18% in the past week.
Dogecoin was trading at 7 cents, after gaining more than 30% in the past week.
{{#rendered}}President Biden said on Thursday that America isn't experiencing "record inflation anymore" amid an annualized 8.2% spike in prices.
Biden made the comments during an interview with NewsNation on Thursday night.
"You've referred to the midterm election as a choice, rather than a referendum. Given record inflation, why should voters chose Democrats?," Biden was asked.
"Because it's not record inflation anymore. I'm bringing it down. Look what we inherited. I inherited 6.5% unemployment, it's down to 3.5%. We lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. We've created over 700,000 manufacturing jobs. Things are moving," Biden said. "As that [GDP] report showed, you have people who are now in a position where the combination of pay raises and job security, they're now better off, even with inflation than they were before it."
When Biden took office in January 2021, the consumer price index, which measures prices of everyday items such as gasoline, groceries and rents, was climbing at a 1.4% annualized basis.
In September, prices climbed by 8.2% on an annual basis.
When compared to last year, core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose at by 6.6%, the fastest rate since 1982.
To read more on the story, click here: President Biden says America isn't experiencing 'record inflation anymore' amid 8.2% spike in prices
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