>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up

M&A related: PBY +6.3% (Pep Boys confirms receipt of revised, $18.50/share takeover offer from Icahn Enterprises, determines bid constitutes a superior proposal).

Select metals/mining stocks trading higher: GFI +2.6%, SBGL +2.6%, FCX +1.5% (modestly rebounding following yesterday's Chairman / co-founder news), GOLD +1.3%, AU +1.1%, GDX +0.6%.

Select oil/gas related names showing strength: SDRL +3.3%, PBR +3.2%, COG +3%, RIG +2.4%, UNG +2.4% (continued strength), WLL +2.2%, MRO +1.8%, CHK +1.7%, RDS.A +1%.
European names seeing strength (indices are trading broadly higher with Germany's DAX +1.5%, France's CAC +1.4%, and the U.K.'s FTSE +0.4%): NOK +1.7% and ALU +1.3%, UN +1.1%, BUD +0.9%, SAP +0.7%

European pharma names are trading higher: SHPG +2.3%, SNY +1.6%, NVS +1.4%, AZN +0.5%.
Other news: NURO +30.4% (reports the commercial launch of DPNCheck in Mexico), ASTI +30.1% (announced that it was issued the second of two US Patents, in December, pertaining to the company's solar manufacturing process), ZN +8.4% (City of Nazareth grants approval of their exploratory drilling request from Israel's Northern District committee), RMBS +7.7% (Rambus renews patent license agreement with Toshiba for three years), FXCM +7.3% (continued strength), CMRX +5.7% (modestly rebounding despite additional analyst downgrades), ATNM +4.6% (continued strength-new multi-month highs yesterday), ADPT +3.5% (will replace Ferroglobe in the S&P SmallCap 600), PN +3.4% (recouping losses from yesterday's pullback), WSH +2.6% (to join the S&P 500), TEX +2.2% (following yesterday's ~5% decline), VRX +1.3% (The WSJ's Heard on the Street column discusses the state of affairs at Valeant (VRX) after yesterday's announcement that CEO Pearson would take a medical leave), QCOM +1.3% (signs 3G/4G Chinese patent license agreements with Haier and Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co), TW +1.2% (following S&P index changes ahead of merger - Willis Group is merging with Towers Watson in a deal expected to be completed on or about that date pending final conditions), TSLA +1.2% (The WSJ highlights Tesla's hiring efforts amid increased competition. Separately, Fortune reports that Tesla will begin general production shipments of its Model X shortly), LOCK +0.6% (LifeLock discloses it entered into a Consumer Disclosure Agreement with Equifax), AMZN+0.5% (continued strength), MU +0.5% (insider purchase by CFO), AAPL +0.4% (Q4 iPhone shipments from production lines said to be 5-10% lower than originally expected, according to Digitimes), BA +0.4% (awarded a $357.8 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the Department of Defense), ADM +0.3% (Solazyme discloses warrant exchange agreement with Archer-Daniels-Midland).

Analyst comments: FANG +0.6% (remains Top Pick for 2016 at Sterne Agee CRT; Buy, $84 tgt)

(DigiTimes) iPhone shipments from production lines in 4Q15 to be 5-10% short of


iPhone shipments from production lines in 4Q15 to be 5-10% short of original expectations, say Taiwan makers
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 29 December 2015]

As demand for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus appear to have slowed down recently, shipments of iPhone devices from production lines in the fourth quarter of 2015 are likely to be 5-10% lower than originally expected, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

The lowered factory shipments are in line with the latest forecasts of iPhone shipments in the consumer-end market, said the sources, adding that most market research firms have lowered overall iPhone device shipment estimates for the fourth quarter of 2015 to 72-75 million units, compared to 76-78 million units predicted earlier, indicated the sources.

Furthermore, overall iPhone shipments for the first quarter of 2016 have also been lowered to 52-56 million units from the previous estimate of 58-60 million units. The revised figures also represent a decline of 12-15% as compared to a year earlier.

Facing declining demand, some makers in the iPhone supply chain have reduced overtime shifts since November and could move the Lunar New Year holidays ahead of schedule, indicated the sources.

Foxconn Electronics' iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, China has been indicated as one of the plants which are likely to shift their Lunar New Year holiday schedule, said the sources.

However, Foxconn said that operations at its Zhengzhou plant remain normal and it will implement the holiday schedule in accordance with related regulations as well as the willingness of its workers.

FT : Volvo gears up for its first bond issue

Volvo gears up for its first bond issue

Volvo is preparing to issue bonds for the first time as a standalone carmaker as the Swedish company enters the next phase of its turnround having recently developed a new manufacturing platform and launched upmarket models.
A move into the capital markets by the Gothenburg-based company, which has been owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding of China since 2010, could be a prelude to a stock market debut, say people close to the carmaker.
“What’s important for us is, I think, is that we have to improve the company and run it as if it was listed,” said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive. “That is very healthy for the company and that is what we are doing.”

Volvo has been engaged in an ambitious and expensive overhaul that began when Ford sold the company to Geely in 2010.
Mr Samuelsson told the Financial Times: “We have to be ready to go out on the bond market . . . as part of [acting] as a listed company with all the transparency and reporting that is required. So I wouldn’t exclude that we would go out on the bond market [in 2016].”
The Swedish brand has built an $11bn platform for a new range of large cars, beginning with the XC90 sport utility vehicle that launched last year as the first car produced under Geely. It was followed this month by the newly unveiled S90 saloon.
By 2019, the XC90 will be the oldest car in the company’s revamped nine-model line-up and, at that stage, Volvo aims to be selling almost 800,000 cars a year — versus 466,000 in 2014.

To finance its growth ambitions, Volvo relies on cash flow and several loans from the China Development Bank, including an $800m loan sealed in 2013. Earlier this year it paid $260m to take control of three Chinese factories, which was funded by loans from the parent company.
Raising money on the bond market would mark a further step towards Volvo operating in effect as an independent entity. But the underlying profitability of the business remains weak, with first-half operating margins at 2.2 per cent.
Mr Samuelsson said the company had no issues with its existing financing and played down any suggestion that Volvo needed external sources of money to fund growth.
He also cautioned that any stock market flotation was a matter for the owner. Zhejiang Geely Holding said there were no “immediate” plans for Volvo to be listed or to access the bond markets.
But a person close to the company said: “The idea of a Chinese-owned premium player with high volumes and factories on three continents . . . that’s a compelling story. Why behave like a listed company if you don’t want to be a listed company?”
The last time the carmaker issued a bond was as part of Volvo AB, its former Swedish parent that makes trucks, buses and construction equipment.

Le Figaro : Les dix records d'œuvres d'art aux enchères en 2015

Les dix records d'œuvres d'art aux enchères en 2015

RÉTROSPECTIVE - Le site d'info sur le monde de la culture, Blouinartinfo.com, a publié le classement des pièces les plus chèrement acquises en ventes publiques ces douze derniers mois. Pablo Picasso est l'artiste roi de l'année, suivi d' Amedeo Modigliani et d'Alberto Giacometti.

Qui sont les artistes les plus chers du monde? Alors que le monde de l'art mondial sacrifie à la tradition de la trêve des confiseurs, et prépare ses rendez-vous de 2016, le site spécialisé sur le monde de l'art et de la culture,Blouinartinfo.com, a jeté un coup d'œil dans le rétro des douze derniers mois dans les salles de ventes.
Le résultat global des enchères internationales donne le vertige: 1,48 milliard de dollars. Ce sommet culmine à New York, où ont été réalisées les dix plus hautes ventes. Les deux rivales historiques anglo-saxonnes, Christie's et Sotheby's, se partagent les dix premières places, au bénéfice de l'anglaise.
Les dix suivantes, listées par Blouinartinfo, sont occupées par les maisons Phillips et Bonhams, pour des enchères frappées à New York, mais aussi Londres, Hongkong et Los Angeles. Quatorze peintres, sculpteurs se partagent l'affiche des vingt plus belles enchères. Tous les lauréats sont de type «mâle, caucasien» note Artinfo. Aucune femme, cette année, ne figure donc au palmarès. Et toutes les plus «belles» ventes ont été réalisées à New York.
1- Record absolu pour une vente aux enchères : Pablo Picasso, Femmes d'Alger, Version O, (1955), 179,36 millions de dollars chez Christie's, le 11 mai à New York. Cette toile faisait partie d'une série de quinze (avec chacune une lettre allant de A à O) réalisée par le maître espagnol en hommage à Henri Matisse, mort en novembre 1954. Picasso s'était inspiré du peintre français du XIXe siècle Eugène Delacroix.
2 - Record pour le peintre italien: Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Couché(1917-1918), 170, 40 millions de dollars (M$) chez Christie's, le 9 novembre à New York. Après neuf minutes enfiévrées d'enchères entre sept enchérisseurs, un chinois l'a emporté au téléphone.
3 - Alberto Giacometti, L'homme au doigt (1947), 141,28 M$ chez Christie's, le 11 mai à New York
4 - Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse (1964), 95,36 M$ chez Christie's le 9 novembre à New York.



Quelques minutes après Nu couché de Modigliani, le portrait de cette femme blonde semblant tout droit sortie d'une bande dessinée, réalisé en 1964, pulvérisait le précédent record pour le maître du Pop art américain.





5- Mark Rothko, No. 10 (1958), 81,92 M$, chez Christie's le 13 mai à New York
6- Cy Twombly, Untitled [New York City] (1968), 70,53 M$ chez Sotheby's, le 11 novembre à New York.
7- Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse (1901), 67,45 M$ chez Sotheby's, le 5 novembre à New York
8- Vincent Van Gogh, L'Allée des Alyscamps (1888), 66,33 M$ chez Sotheby's, le 5 mai à New York
9 - Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1905), 54, 01 M$ chez Sotheby's, le 5 mai à New York
10- Vincent Van Gogh, Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé (1889), 54,01 M$ chez Sotheby's le 5 novembre à New York.