An initial public offering (IPO) is the first time a company offers its shares for sale to general investors. Once the IPO is done, the shares of the firm are listed and can be traded freely in the open market. Moving forward to 2021, there is a solid pipeline of companies preparing for capital raises through IPOs, with Airbnb expected to lead the headlines.
Some of the IPOs that were launched last year performed great during the initial days, but the lockdown announced damaged the share price significantly. …
Gold price surged more than 28% so far this year and hit a new all-time high of $2,074 in August. This year the gold price rally has been driven by a combination of rising coronavirus cases, weakness in the USD, lower interest rates, major geopolitical events such as the tensions between the US and other countries such as North Korea, China, and Iran, and the US election uncertainty.
With just a few days to go before the US presidential election, gold price trades slightly lower. The price dips from the top amid a slightly stronger dollar, as investors continued to follow developments around a fresh US fiscal stimulus. At the moment it appears that Democrats and Republicans are unlikely to agree on a stimulus deal before the November 3 election. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Governor, Lael Brainard, said that another stimulus is critical for the economy, as it might be forced into a slower and weaker recovery from the coronavirus, without more aid. …
Stocks and oil prices cheered the official confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory which means a more generous stimulus package to be deployed as soon as possible. The recent rally also supported by more upbeat news on the coronavirus vaccine. Meanwhile, at first Donald Trump rejected the outcome of the U.S. election, mounting legal action against vote-counting in states where he lost.
On Monday, the US General Services Administration acknowledged Joe Biden as the apparent winner of the presidential election. The Trump administration has officially commenced the transition process to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.
Few notable financial market movements after the US election…
The world’s largest burger chain McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results on Monday. The strong Q3 results boosted by the drive-thru and online sales as more customers using the drive-thru and delivery options.
- Earnings per share: $2.22 vs. $1.90 expected
- Revenue: $5.42 billion vs. $5.4 billion expected
The fast-food giant revealed a 2% decline in its global comparable-store sales during the last quarter while the same-store sales in the U.S. up 4.6% in Q3. On the other hand, the net income was $1.8 billion, up 10% year-over-year.
McDonald’s says it has shaved 30 seconds off of the average drive-thru time since 2018; its future plans hinge on reducing those times even further. Nearly 95 per cent of McDonald’s 14,000 US restaurants have a drive-thru. …
Cybersecurity firm McAfee returned to Wall Street on Thursday and it commenced trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “MCFE”. In this IPO transaction, McAfee sold 37 million shares and raised $740 million in funds. McAfee is an antivirus software provider that provides cybersecurity solutions for data centers and cloud services.
The stock opened at $18.60, below the $20 IPO price. It then fell further to below $18.50 and closed at 18.70 on Thursday. As per the closing, McAfee’s market value is approximately $8 billion.
McAfee, founded in 1987, was one of the pioneers in the development of antivirus software, and in 2011, the company was bought by Intel for $ 7.7 billion and in 2014 renamed Intel Security. But after Intel sold its majority stake to the private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG), the name was restored. …
With less than two months to go to voting day for the US presidential election held on 3 November 2020 and the race between Donald Trump and Democrat leader Joe Biden tightening, financial markets are starting to get the jitters.
During the last week, Federal Reserve finished the September meeting — the last one before Election Day. The US central bank held rates steady as expected. Fed announced that it will keep interest rates near zero for years until a recovery is firmly in place. …
European equities and Euro remained under pressure as several European countries reintroducing fresh lockdowns. The EUR/USD slips to a new monthly low of 1.1730 on Monday and German DAX30 witnessed the largest daily loss since June 11th. The new Coronavirus cases across Europe and the UK now reached the highest level since April.
The Czech Republic has reported growth in coronavirus confirmed cases at Europe’s second-fastest pace in recent weeks and on Monday Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech submitted his resignation following criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
On the other hand, England’s chief medical officer Whitty has warned the rate of COVID-19 infections in the UK is “heading in the wrong direction” and the country is in a “critical point” in the pandemic. UK PM Johnson’s office said Sunday that those in England who refuse an order to self-isolate could be fined as much as £10,000 (S$17,465). …
As per the recent update, the British biotech firm AstraZeneca (LON: AZN) would resume its trials for the experimental COVID-19 vaccine next week. On Tuesday, Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca suspended the late-stage trials after an illness in a study subject in Britain. The patient was reportedly suffering from neurological symptoms associated with a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis. The experimental vaccine being developed with the University of Oxford against the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot said today, “we should know before year-end whether the potential COVID-19 vaccine will protect people”. “Data from the sick and symptomatic volunteer will be sent to an independent safety and health committee and the company will either continue or complete the trials, depending on the outcome” he added. …
The Euro started last week with a positive note. On September 1, the EUR/USD reached to 1.2010 -level against the greenback for the first time since May 2018 but later the currency pair retreated from the top and closed below 1.1850 on Friday. The currency pair has come under pressure following comments from ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane and weaker-than-expected economic data including Eurozone retail sales and the German factory orders.
“If there are forces moving the euro-dollar rate around, that feeds into our global and European forecasts and that in turn does feed into our monetary policy setting.” …
Financial markets are volatile ahead of the biggest political event of the year, the US presidential election on November 3, which is held every four years and always on the first Tuesday in November.
Stock market reactions to US election
The stock markets usually widely fluctuate as soon as the election results are published. The main question here in case Democrat leader Joe Biden elected is how the financial markets will react. The market participants believe that it will be negative for the stock market mainly because Biden has said he will roll back Trump’s corporate tax cuts, which would hit corporate profit margins. …
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