ARNC : CNBC's Faber: Leveraged buyout still seen as likely
Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:
- SPB -6%, JD -4.1%
Other news:
- AQST -9.9% (receives Complete Response Letter from FDA for Tadalafil Oral Film)
- PCG -4.7% (updates on restoration progress in Butte County, provides second electric incident report to CPUC)
- QEP -3.2% (to sell natural gas and oil producing properties, undeveloped acreage and associated gas gathering and treating systems in the Haynesville/Cotton Valley for $735 mln)
- CRSP -3.1% (critical FT opinion piece)
- MU -1.7% (China has accused various chipmakers of antitrust violations (MU, SSNLF))
- AAPL -1.6% (cut production orders for all three new iPhones it launched in September, according to WSJ)
Analyst comments:
- RHI -2.6% (downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Barclays)
- JBLU -1.6% (initiated with a Underperform at Credit Suisse)
- SCHW -1% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS)
- AMH -0.6% (downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James)
Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:
- N/A
M&A news:
- REN +8.1% (to be acquired by Cimarex (XEC) in a cash and stock transaction valued at $35/share)
Select EU financial related names showing strength:
- PSO +2.2%, LYG +2.2%, ING +0.8%, BCS +0.7%, RBS +0.5%
Other news:
- GOGO +4.8% (prices offering of $215 mln aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2022)
- AIMT +4.7% (publication of full results of landmark phase 3 PALISADE clinical trial of AR101 in New England Journal of Medicine)
- BB +2.3% (continued strength)
- TSRO +2.1% (continued strength)
- GSK +1% (ViiV Healthcare receives CHMP Positive Opinion for Tivicay EU label update with GEMINI study data for the 2-drug regimen of Tivicay + lamivudine)
- KL +0.9% (announces series of management changes, names David Soares CFO)
Analyst comments:
- VKTX +7.3% (upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James)
- ICPT +2.3% (upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer)
- PBYI +2.2% (upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman)
- BIG +1.5% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray)
- DAR +0.7% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
Early premarket gappersGapping up:
- IMGN +10.5%, TSRO +8.4%, REN +8.2%, VKTX +5.2%, TK +4%, TWLO +3.8%, SEDG +3.6%, NVO +2.8%, PSO +2.2%, LYG +2.2%, AU +2%, BB +2%, ARGX +1.7%, RIG +1.5%, VOD +1.2%, BCS +1.2%, SBGL +1.1%, STM +1.1%, NTES +1.1%, GSK +1%, SAN +0.8%, ING +0.8%, KGC +0.8%, PAAS +0.8%, RBS +0.7%
Gapping down:
- JD -3.5%, MU -2.4%, AUDC -1.7%, PBR -1.6%, EURN -1.6%, LPSN -1.5%, TS -1.5%, CS -0.7%, DB -0.5%
Nissan's Ghosn to be arrested in Japan for alleged financial violations-Asahi - Reuters News
19-Nov-2018 10:05:46
Renault shares slide more than 5 pct
Ghosn suspected of understating income - Asahi
Ghosn to speak voluntarily with prosecutors - Asahi
Adds background on Ghosn, Renault share reaction
TOKYO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman 7201.T Carlos Ghosn is to be arrested by Tokyo prosecutors for alleged financial violations in Japan, the Asahi newspaper reported on Monday.
The newspaper reported on its website that Ghosn, who is also chairman and chief executive of France's Renault RENA.PA, was suspected of having understated his own income on financial statements and had agreed to voluntarily speak to prosecutors.
A Nissan spokesman said the company was making checks on the report. Spokesmen for Renault and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance did not immediately return calls and messages seeking comment.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that Ghosn was being questioned for suspected financial violations.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office declined to comment.
Renault shares fell sharply in Paris, and were down 5.5 percent in early session trading, among the worst performing stocks in Europe .STOXX.
Ghosn, a rare foreign top executive in Japan, is well regarded for having turned Nissan around from near bankruptcy.
Brazilian-born, of Lebanese descent and a French citizen, he began his career at Michelin in France, moving on to Renault. He joined Nissan in 1999 after Renault bought a controlling stake and became its CEO in 2001.
DJ Apple Suppliers Suffer as It Struggles to Forecast iPhone Demand
By Yoko Kubota in Beijing, Takashi Mochizuki in Tokyo and Tripp Mickle in San Francisco
Lower-than-expected demand for Apple Inc.'s new iPhones and the company's decision to offer more models have created turmoil along its supply chain and made it harder to predict the number of components and handsets it needs, people familiar with the situation say.
In recent weeks, Apple slashed production orders for all three iPhone models that it unveiled in September, these people said, frustrating executives at Apple suppliers as well as workers who assemble the handsets and their components.
Forecasts have been especially problematic in the case of the iPhone XR. Around late October, Apple slashed its production plan by up to a third of the approximately 70 million units it had asked some suppliers to produce between September and February, people familiar with the matter said.
And in the past week, Apple told several suppliers that it cut its production plan again for the iPhone XR, some of the people said Monday, as Apple battles a maturing smartphone market and stiff competition from Chinese producers.
Apple declined to comment.
During an interview earlier this year with The Wall Street Journal, Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said that trying to determine demand for its devices based on reports by its suppliers can be misleading because the suppliers also make products for competitors.
The fallout has ripped through Apple's supply chain.
Last week, major iPhone suppliers including Qorvo Inc., Lumentum Holdings Inc. and Japan Display Inc. cut quarterly profit estimates, citing a reduction in previously-placed orders from a large customer.
Apple wasn't named, but the iPhone maker accounts for a third to half of revenue for these companies, according to filings and estimates.
Investors reacted by sending shares of the three companies sharply lower. Apple's stock is down more than 10% since before it reported earnings on Nov. 1.
At Foxconn Technology Co., Apple's largest assembler of iPhones in China, thousands of workers have voluntarily left earlier than they intended to after Foxconn cut overtime hours that are typically available during peak production periods, people familiar with the matter said. Many workers have come to rely on overtime as a key source of income. Foxconn declined to comment.
The iPhone production cuts have reignited frustration among suppliers and raised worries about Apple's ability to forecast demand since it started releasing three flagship models instead of two last year, according to executives at Apple suppliers.
The suppliers' ability to gauge demand will also be hurt by Apple's recent decision to stop reporting unit sales, one supplier said.
The addition of new iPhones at higher prices--the devices now cost $749 to $1,000, up from $649 to $769 in 2016--have made predicting demand more difficult, analysts and forecasting experts say.
Apple is also selling some older models in its stores, complicating forecasting further.
"The more choice you introduce, the harder it is to pinpoint who will buy what," said Steven Haines, chief executive of Sequent Learning Networks, which has advised companies such as FedEx Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. on product management.
In the past, Apple thrived on "the beauty of simplicity," said an executive at an Apple supplier. "It was very few models at massive volumes."
The company's suppliers have been rattled before. The iPhone 6, introduced in 2014, sold better than Apple's expectations and suppliers scrambled to meet increased orders. The following year, demand for the iPhone 6s fell short of forecasts, leaving suppliers to grapple with excess inventories and underused production capacity.
Last year, many suppliers were hurt by Apple's excessively optimistic initial production forecast for the iPhone X, which it then slashed by some 20 million units for the first three months of 2018.
"Doing business with Apple is very risky as it often reverses what it has promised," said an executive with a supplier.
Supplier frustrations have been compounded by the lack of growth in iPhone unit sales in recent years. Since peaking in fiscal 2015, the number of iPhones sold annually has fallen 6% to 217.7 million units.
While making components for 200-million plus iPhones is still tremendous business for suppliers, most relied on the growth in iPhones sold to increase their profits. Apple tightly controls margins and asks many suppliers to make big investments in specialized machinery to make its products, suppliers say.
"Growth fixes a lot of sins," the executive at an Apple supplier said. "When it slows, rocks start to show up in the bottom of the ocean."
Apple has offset slowing growth by raising iPhone prices and focusing more on software and services. The strategy helped the company report its best-ever year of revenue and profit for the fiscal year ended in September; for the current quarter, it projects revenue of $89 billion to $93 billion. Its growing services business has also offset the company's contracting hardware margins, industry analysts say.
But while Apple has been enjoying record revenue and profit for the past year, the same can't be said for many of its suppliers. That is because unlike Apple, they can't benefit from services and software and they rely heavily on handset volumes, suppliers and analysts say.
"The freeway of Apple suppliers is littered with roadkill," said Timothy Arcuri, an analyst with the investment bank UBS who tracks the iPhone supply chain. "That's one thing when units are growing and another when units aren't going to grow. There's an argument to be made now: Why take the risk?"