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Bloomberg
Facebook Co-Founder Heads $10 Million 'Anti-Monopoly' Fund
Oct.18 -- Chris Hughes, co-founder at Facebook, and Thomas Perriello, executive director at Open Society-US, discuss efforts to break up and regulate Facebook and other big tech firms. They speak on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas."
Bloomberg
J&J Recalls Lot of Baby Powder After Asbestos Trace Found
(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson is recalling one lot of its Johnson’s Baby Powder after tiny amounts of asbestos contamination were found in samples from a single bottle purchased online.J&J is voluntarily recalling the lot, 22318RB, and encouraging people who bought the product to discontinue use. The company said that it is working with the Food and Drug Administration, which tested the bottle, and has started an investigation into how and when the product was contaminated.J&J shares fell 4.5% to $130.01 at 11:57 a.m. in New York. The stock has been under pressure as investors try to ascertain the company’s potential liabilities in a series of lawsuits related to talc and other products.“Thousands of tests over the past 40 years repeatedly confirm that our consumer talc products do not contain asbestos,” J&J said in a statement on Friday.J&J is looking into whether cross-contamination of the sample caused a false positive, whether the product was appropriately sealed and maintained in a controlled environment, and whether the product was a counterfeit.During a brief call with investors on Friday, J&J global supply chain and women’s health executives said they had received the product’s test results the previous day and acted promptly to inform the public. The investigation could take 30 days or more, they said. The executives didn’t take questions from participants on the call.Legal ImplicationsChief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said on a Tuesday conference call with investors that the company wouldn’t set aside any legal reserves for the more than 100,000 lawsuits it faces across its portfolio of drugs, consumer products and medical devices, saying it expects to fight and win many of the claims.“The management team here will look at what a reasonable outcome could be for all stakeholders involved,” Wolk said. “When products are safe, when they’re effective, we’re going to look to make sure that those products aren’t subject to what’s become unfortunately a big business model for plaintiff’s attorneys.”J&J has already settled some of the lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim they were given cancer by the talc-based personal care products, but 15,500 suits remain, according to a July filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.Company spokesman Ernie Knewitz declined to comment on the contamination beyond the news release and said he wouldn’t speculate on what the development means for the litigation.Baby Powder-related liabilities could eventually cost the company as much as $5 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Though the product accounts for only a small fraction of J&J’s annual revenue, it’s been a core brand for the company for more than a century.Longstanding ClaimsLawyers for women who blame their cancers on asbestos-tainted talc powder contend internal J&J documents indicated officials knew since the 1970s that powder mined in places such as Vermont and Italy contained trace amounts of asbestos, but failed to alert consumers or regulators. Asbestos is often found intertwined with talc.“Had J&J acted responsibly and removed Johnson’s Baby Powder from the market in the 1970s, they would have saved the lives of thousands of women who have died needlessly of ovarian cancer,” Leigh O’Dell, an Alabama lawyer who is leading the plaintiffs’ cases that have been consolidated before a federal judge in New Jersey for pretrial information exchanges, said on Friday.Mark Lanier, who persuaded a St. Louis jury last year to hit J&J with a $4.7 billion verdict on behalf of more than 20 women who said they developed ovarian cancer through long-term use of the company’s talc-based products, said he doesn’t expect this to be the last time that its talc will be found to contain asbestos.“This confirms thousands of tests” over the years that have uncovered asbestos in J&J’s Baby Powder, he said.Given that J&J’s lawyers made public statements this month that the company’s talc-based products were free of asbestos, the recall couldn’t come at worse time, said Nora Engstrom, a Stanford University law professor. The company has vowed for years that extensive testing showed no traces of asbestos, she noted.“The wisdom of J&J’s broad defense strategy for these talc cases clearly is now in doubt,” Engstrom said.J&J has refuted and, in many cases, appealed verdicts against it, citing conflicting evidence on whether talcum powder can cause cancer. In a statement provided to TIME after the new study’s publication, the company maintained that Baby Powder is safe.“We sympathize with anyone suffering from cancer, and we understand patients and their families are seeking answers. The facts are clear — Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos nor does it cause cancer, as reflected in more than 40 years of scientific evidence,” the statement reads.J&J said in February that it had received subpoenas and inquiries related to its iconic baby-powder products from the U.S. Justice Department, the SEC and the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Knewitz, the J&J spokesman, said at the time the company would cooperate with the inquiries.Bloomberg News reported in July that the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation into whether J&J lied to the public about the possible cancer risks of its talc powder.(Updates with additional information from J&J conference call in sixth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Riley Griffin in New York at rgriffin42@bloomberg.net;Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at jfeeley@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark SchoifetFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo Finance
Stock market news: October 18, 2019
U.S. stock futures turned lower Friday as investors considered mixed company earnings and new reports of sluggish growth in the Chinese economy.
Zacks
Zacks Value Trader Highlights: MasTec, Macy's, Kansas City Southern, Allstate and Tesla
Zacks Value Trader Highlights: MasTec, Macy's, Kansas City Southern, Allstate and Tesla
Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, Pfizer, Qualcomm and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, Pfizer, Qualcomm and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Amazon, Walmart, Macy's, Gap and Target
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Amazon, Walmart, Macy's, Gap and Target
Zacks
What's in the Offing for PayPal's (PYPL) Earnings in Q3?
PayPal (PYPL) third-quarter 2019 results are anticipated to reflect portfolio strength. However, losses from investments in MercadoLibre and Uber have weighed on the results.
Zacks
3 Medical Product Stocks Likely to Beat This Earnings Season
Here we discuss three medical product stocks that are due to report soon and are likely to beat estimates on earnings, riding on a host of factors.
Zacks
Alphabet, ArcBest, Workday, ServiceNow and Splunk highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
Alphabet, ArcBest, Workday, ServiceNow and Splunk highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
Zacks
Tesla Gets Clearance to Begin Production in China Gigafactory
Tesla (TSLA) intends to produce at least 1000 Model 3 units per week in the Gigafactory to strengthen sales in China.
Zacks
Microsoft (MSFT) to Report Q1 Earnings: What to Expect?
Microsoft's (MSFT) first-quarter results are anticipated to reflect enterprise strength, robust Office 365 & Azure adoption.
Yahoo Finance
Why the stock market hasn't crashed yet because of China's slowing economy
What China economic slowdown?
Market Realist
Coca-Cola Earnings: Increased Sales Drove Its Stock
Coca-Cola had an impressive sales performance in the third quarter. The company’s third-quarter revenues benefited from higher organic sales.
Zacks
Coca-Cola (KO) Q3 Earnings In Line, Revenues Beat Estimates
Coca-Cola's (KO) top line in third-quarter 2019 gains from robust volume and pricing on strong demand for Zero Sugar drinks, juices, and tea and coffee. Currency headwinds hurt the bottom line.
Zacks
Pharma Stock Roundup: JNJ's Q3 Earnings, RHHBY's Sales, FDA Nod to Lilly's Reyvow
FDA approves Lilly's (LLY) lasmiditan oral tablets to treat acute migraine. J&J (JNJ) beats earnings and sales estimates in Q3
Bloomberg
Zuckerberg Hearing May Be the Start of Next Phase of Tech Battle
(Bloomberg) -- A House hearing scheduled for Wednesday with Mark Zuckerberg as the sole witness will kick off the “next phase” in the battle between big tech companies and the U.S. government, according to Wedbush.“The drum-roll has started” for the Financial Services committee hearing, with Zuckerberg set to defend the Libra cryptocurrency effort, which still faces a “massive regulatory spotlight,” analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note. The hearing is titled “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors.”“We fully expect politicians to use this forum as another major shot across the bow on broader antitrust concerns for FAANG names,” Ives said. He sees a regulatory and legal focus on Facebook’s WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions, with “the convergence of Facebook’s messaging platforms likely a hot button issue.”Ives described Facebook’s Libra as a bid to “further penetrate its customer base with a financial currency that enables the company to become more entrenched in the purchasing cycle of its 2 billion-plus users.”Other tech companies are making similar efforts, he said, flagging Apple Inc.’s Apple Card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and an “enhanced” Apple Pay tool. On Tuesday, Goldman CEO David Solomon said the Apple credit card was the most successful card launch ever.Several payments companies left Facebook’s cryptocurrency project earlier this month. Analysts said the departures would likely delay the coin’s launch and shift Congress’s attention to other matters. That might give Zuckerberg some breathing room, they said.On Thursday, David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading Libra, said China’s progress toward a digital payments system with global reach could pose a threat to U.S. influence. Marcus had earlier this month said that payments companies exiting Libra was in a way “liberating.”Facebook’s shares declined as much as 1.4% on Friday.To contact the reporter on this story: Felice Maranz in New York at fmaranz@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Debarati RoyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Zacks
Amphenol (APH) to Report Q3 Earnings: What's in the Cards?
Amphenol's (APH) third-quarter 2019 results are likely to reflect lower demand across communications equipment and automotive end markets.
Zacks
Stock Market News for Oct 18, 2019
Major U.S. market indexes moved moderately north on Thursday, owing to a newly proposed Brexit deal and impressive third-quarter earnings results.
Bloomberg
Nationwide Protests Erupt in Lebanon as Economic Crisis Deepens
(Bloomberg) -- Thousands of protesters cut off roads and started fires around Lebanon as anger over plans to impose a levy on WhatsApp calls escalated into demands for the government to resign.Demonstrators carrying Lebanese flags thronged outside government headquarters in downtown Beirut on Friday, as some of the largest protests in years entered a second day.Chants of “the people want the fall of the regime” and “revolution” rang out and scuffles erupted with riot police as the crowds demanded the politicians currently debating a proposed austerity budget step down and hold early elections.The economic stakes have rarely been higher for Lebanon, a tiny country that straddles the geopolitical fault-lines of the Middle East, since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990. One of the most indebted countries in the world, it is struggling to find fresh sources of funding as the foreign inflows on which it has traditionally relied have dried up.The protests have increased pressure on Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who heads a fractious coalition government that has struggled to overcome sectarian and political differences to push through much-needed reforms.Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, has been traditionally backed by Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom has withheld support in recent years as the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia’s political influence over the government has grown.The crisis has catapulted Lebanon into a new and unpredictable phase. If Hariri and his allies resign, Lebanon could end up with a government dominated by Hezbollah, making it even harder to attract investment. Hezbollah’s ministers and parliamentarians have oppose higher taxes to spare their supporters further financial pressure as the U.S. seeks to choke off its funding through sanctions on its members and its patron, Iran.If the government survives, few observers expect it to overcome the divisions that have frustrated public demands for change.Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of the president and an opponent of Hariri, called for urgent measures to fight corruption and warned in a televised address that the collapse of the government would result in “chaos” and undermine the currency peg.Hariri, who canceled a cabinet session planned for Friday, is expected to deliver an address to the nation at 6 p.m. local time.Persistent instability in Lebanon has shaken investor confidence and made it harder to revive an economy already struggling to absorb more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled the crisis in neighboring Syria.The yield on Lebanon’s dollar bonds due in 2021 jumped more than two percentage points to 20.38% as of 10:44 a.m. in London, snapping six days of declines. The cost of insuring Lebanese debt against default climbed, with the nation’s five-year credit-default swaps rising 87 basis points to 1,262 -- the highest level on a closing basis since the start of the month.‘Revolution’Sporadic demonstrations have erupted for months in Lebanon as the economic crisis has led to shortages of dollars and threatened the pensions of retired soldiers.The government is under pressure to cut spending, raise taxes and fight corruption -- conditions required by international donors to unlock some $11 billion in pledges made at a Paris conference in early 2018. But the measures are proving deeply unpopular with the public, which widely blames institutional corruption, nepotism and profiteering by politicians for bankrupting the government.The latest unrest was sparked by plans to impose a fee of 20 U.S. cents on the first WhatsApp call that users make every day, causing outrage in a country where communications costs are among the least competitive in the region and people widely use internet voice applications to save money. WhatsApp, a free messaging and voice platform owned by Facebook Inc., has some 1.5 billion users worldwide.On Thursday, the government also discussed a proposal for a gradual increase to the value-added tax, currently at 11%, and new levies on gasoline. But Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil insisted there were no additional taxes planned for next year’s budget.As protests spread to the suburbs and provinces, Telecom Minister Mohamed Choucair called LBCI television on Thursday to say Hariri had ordered him to cancel the levy on Internet calls. But the reversal came too late to appease public opinion.Walls of burning tires and debris effectively severed the main thoroughfares at the northern and southern entrances of Beirut and crowds also headed toward the presidential palace in Baabda, footage aired on Lebanese television stations showed. In downtown Beirut, protesters threw bottles, petrol bombs, metal barriers and other projectiles at riot police and occasional scuffles broke out as they tried to break through the security cordon around the government headquarters.The International Monetary Fund projects Lebanon’s current-account deficit will reach almost 30% of gross domestic product by the end of this year. Amid the violence on Thursday, it issued a new report predicting that economic growth, stagnant at 0.3% in 2018, would continue to be weak amid political and economic uncertainty and a severe contraction in the real estate sector. Public debt is projected to increase to 155% of Gross Domestic Product by the end of 2019, it said.(Updates throughout, adds quotes from Basil.)\--With assistance from Alex Nicholson.To contact the reporters on this story: Lin Noueihed in Beirut at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net;Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Investor's Business Daily
How To Analyze Growth Stocks: Will This Earnings Measure Cool In 2019?
A snapshot of the IBD 50 shows that return on equity, a key earnings gauge, has risen sharply in recent years. But ROE alone should not be used in choosing stocks to buy.
Zacks
Mixed Q3 Earnings Pour In
Mixed Q3 Earnings Pour In
Yahoo Finance
IHG, SmileDirectClub, Wells Fargo, AT&T and AB InBev: Stocks to Watch
IHG, SmileDirectClub, Wells Fargo, AT&T and AB InBev are the stocks to watch
Zacks
AT&T's Xandr Acquires Clypd to Boost TV Advertising Business
The acquisition will facilitate Xandr to introduce personalized TV ads and augment its linear TV ad space to Xandr Community, leveraging the technological prowess of its parent firm AT&T (T).