On Friday, the markets turned jittery as President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Moreover, concerns about the slow economic recovery were amplified as the 661,000 jobs added in the private sector during September was below August's level.
But, the IPO space has been hotter than ever. Colorado-based software firm Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) and task management app Asana Inc (NYSE:ASAN) went public, eliciting a lot of interest from the market community.
Proving its critics wrong yet again, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) said it achieved production and delivery goals for the third quarter, exceeding expectations. After a long lull due to COVID-19, M&A activity seems to be picking up, with Walmart, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) an agreement with Issa Brothers and TDR Capital to sell its UK unit Asda. According to Mint newspaper, Walmart is also advanced talks to invest up to $25 billion in India-based conglomerate Tata Group's "super app," which is set to December or January.
Media reports revealed that Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has agreed to acquire the credit card business of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) for $2.5 billion. GM has not finalized its deal with Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA) on September 30th in the light of allegations. The two companies have until December 3rd to finalize the deal.
Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) won its London battle, giving it an 18 months window to operate in the UK Capital as its progress will be closely monitored by regulatory authorities.
Bed Bath & Beyond (NYSE:BBBY) seems to have resurrected. Last week offered further signs that maybe its CEO Mark Tritton is succeeding in doing what so many of his peers have failed to do – to turn the business around as total quarterly sales that were up 6% YoY, marking the first increase since 2016, while digital sales soared by 89%. Moreover, Bed Bath & Beyond will be offering a same-day deliver to take full advantage of the holiday season as it is partnering with Instacart and Shipt, which is owned by Target, Inc. (NYSE:TGT).
SINA Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA) reported its second quarter financials and revealed it is exiting Wall Street. The owner of the Weibo platform announced it is going private in $2.6 billion deal. Many Chinese companies are opting out of U.S. stock exchanges, following rising tensions between the world's two largest economies, by considering go-private deals or returning to equity markets closer to home. This delisting could easily be a sign of further turbulence ahead if President Trump turns his threat to delist Chinese stocks into action.
Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ:WB) saw its share price soar 208% in the last half-decade, but it is also down 21% year to date. However, its share price jumped 10.4% on September 30th due to the company delivering better-than-expected second-quarter results.
United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE:UNFI) had somewhat of a mystery collapse as the stock plummeted despite Q4 results being much better than expected. It seems that a solid quarterly report wasn't enough to satisfy investors in one of the oldest natural food distributors. Despite better than expected earnings and revenue with net income more than triple from last year's quarter, shares were down 12.4% on Tuesday. Investors might have also reacted to the news that its CEO is retiring next year, or sooner or simply questioning the assumption that the positive trend of food-at-home-consumption will remain with the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) has beaten analyst estimates both for earnings and revenue. Moreover, the manufacturer and seller of processed and packaged foods showed progress towards its sustainability goals as it will be using plant-based fibers instead of plastic. With this switch, the company will reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing the bowls is by 50 to 70 percent across selected product lines. The goal is to achieve 100 percent of existing plastic packaging renewable, recyclable or compostable by 2025,
Novagold Resources (NYSE:NG) revealed Q3 results for the period that ended on August 31, 2020, reporting a loss of $12.7 million as due to COVID-19 the assay labs were understaffed and the drill results are coming in slower than expected.
Prolonged closures at The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) California-based theme parks and limited attendance at those that reopened have forced the company to lay off 28,000 employees across its parks, experiences and consumer products division, with about 67% of them being part-time employees. The impact of COVID-19 has been significantly amplified by California's unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen. Dow stock Disney fell nearly 2% in premarket trading as this will be a shot heard across the country with many cities living off the tourism brought in by Disney's entertainment centers.
Although last week was somewhat light when it comes to earnings as we are waiting for mid-October, it had many important events that could easily be the omen of what is to come. Uncertainty has become our everyday norm with further turbulence on the horizon.
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