Select a category

Shares of Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) dropped nearly 9% after the manufacturer of artificial joint replacements and other orthopedic products warned the implementation of a new enterprise resources planning (ERP) system would hit sales and profits in 2024.

In a presentation Thursday at the Wells Fargo 2024 Healthcare Conference, Zimmer executives said the company switched from a legacy ERP platform to one from SAP, a transition that has run into complications. Zimmer's management team expects the issue to cause a 1% drag on revenue this year, with the headwinds mostly abating by the end of the fourth quarter.

ERP software aims to integrate business processes — from inventory tracking and sales to human resources and beyond. Zimmer's ERP transition is reportedly causing production issues and impeding shipments, especially in its sports, extremities, and trauma segments.

Analysts at Stifel predicted a potential 210-basis-point impact on third-quarter sales from the ERP transition, exacerbating what is already a difficult market environment. Meanwhile, Evercore ISI analysts said the issue could reduce earnings per share (EPS) by 15 cents.

Zimmer Biomet shares had been trending higher since Aug. 7, when the company released its second-quarter results and announced an agreement to acquire OrthoGrid Systems, which specializes in artificial intelligence guidance systems for hip replacement surgery.

Thursday's losses reversed those post-earnings gains. Zimmer Biomet stock is down about 14% year to date.

Read more on Investopedia

Hiring likely bounced back in August if forecasters are correct about a government report on the labor market set for Friday.Friday’s report on jobs by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to show employers added 161,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate falling a tenth of a percentage point to 4.2% from July, according to a survey of economists by and.

On Thursday, a number of other reports on the job market by non-government entities potentially set the stage, signaling that the job market is slowing down. Private employers added the fewest jobs in more than three years, more people filed for unemployment last week than expected, and layoffs in August were nearly triple those in July. However, economists and analysts often view these reports as less comprehensive than the BLS's numbers.

The BLS numbers are projected to recover from the 114,000 jobs added in July in a signal that July’s downshift was at least partially a fluke. But the report could have significant implications for the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision later this month and at future meetings if it reinforces the idea from recent data that cracks are forming in the labor market. 

Higher unemployment, or less job growth than forecast, could convince Fed officials that they need to take aggressive action to stop the jobless rate from rising. This could spur central bankers to cut the influential Fed funds rate by 50 basis points rather than the 25-point cut that financial markets widely anticipate for the Fed’s next meeting in September. 

The Fed is set to meet three more times this year. As of Tuesday afternoon, markets were pricing in a 73% chance that at least one of those meetings will result in a 50-basis-point rate cut, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. 

“If we do see a couple months of weaker numbers, that could move the needle toward a 50-point cut in either November or December,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide, in an interview. 

The unemployment rate has risen for each of the past four months, stoking concerns that the Fed’s high interest rates — intended to slow the economy and counteract high inflation — are hurting the labor market, which until recently was an economic bright spot.

Fed officials have signaled the central bank is on the verge of cutting its influential Fed funds rate from its highest level since 2001 after holding it there for more than a year. That would put downward pressure on interest rates for mortgages, car loans, and other borrowing and would be the first rate cut since the pandemic hit in 2020.

The Fed has been balancing its dual missions of stabilizing consumer prices while preventing unemployment from spiking, trying to set its interest rate at a level that would keep a lid on inflation without dragging down the economy so much that it causes mass layoffs.While unemployment rates aren’t high by historical standards, last month’s jobs report showed a sharp hiring slowdown in July, with the unemployment rate rising fast enough to set off a historically reliable indicator that a recession is imminent.

However, several economists said that data could have been distorted by the temporary impact of Hurricane Beryl rather than worrisome long-term trends in the job market—and expect Friday’s report to show a resurgence of hiring.

Read more on Investopedia

Conservative news outlet Newsmax announced it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) to be held by the end of this year or early 2025.

The media company said it seeks to raise $75 million in the IPO under Regulation A+, which it said was "the largest offering of its kind to date on a national securities exchange." 

In addition, Newsmax noted that ahead of the planned IPO it has begun a private placement offering to accredited investors, with the hope of raising another $150 million. That offering would be for Series B 7% Convertible Preferred Stock and give the company the ability to generate up to $75 million above the initial $150 million.

Newsmax noted in a private placement memorandum that between its TV and digital divisions, the company's revenue shot up to $135.3 million in 2023 from $41.8 million in 2019.

Newsmax explained that it expects to apply to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "NMAX."

Read more on Investopedia

Vice President Kashim Shettima has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, to address the recent hike in pump price of petrol.

The meeting, held on behalf of President Bola Tinubu, who is currently on an official visit to China, also included the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

The Vice President is meeting with the trio in his office at the State House, Abuja today, Thursday, September 5.

NNPCL on Tuesday increased the pump price of petrol from ₦568 to ₦855, ₦897 (depending on the location per litre) amid lingering fuel scarcity and the country’s crisis.

#Instablog9jaNews #Information #Awareness #StayUpdated

Continue reading on Instablog

Stellantis (STLA) temporarily stopped making its top-selling Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee sports-utility vehicles in the past week, as dealers complain about excess inventory.

The Big Three automaker paused production at two Detroit plants that reportedly make the Grand Cherokee, and another factory in Toledo, Ohio, where the Wrangler is made.

Stellantis said it will resume production at the plants Thursday, as it "continues to take the necessary actions to improve operations in the U.S. market. This included making production adjustments at the Toledo North, Jefferson and Mack plants."

The automaker added it "will continue to monitor the situation to assess whether further action is required."

Stellantis' high inventory levels have been attributed by dealers and Wall Street analysts in part to higher prices and the company offering fewer promotions than competitors, according to

The automaker in July posted a 48% year-over-year drop in net profit for the first half of the year, as it struggled with bloated inventories.

Shares of Stellantis were 0.8% lower at $15.95 in early trading Thursday. They've lost about 31% of their value since the start of the year.

Read more on Investopedia

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares fell in premarket trading Thursday, even as the storage and server maker's fiscal third-quarter earnings topped analysts' estimates. The company, while lifting its annual profit guidance, left its full-year revenue forecast unchanged, possibly disappointing investors amid lofty expectations for artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled sales growth.

The enterprise technology giant’s stock has gained about 10% since the start of the year through Wednesday’s close, benefiting from strong growth in its AI server business as companies ramp up spending on infrastructure to run generative AI and machine learning applications.

Below, we take a closer look at the technicals on the HP Enterprise weekly chart and point out important post-earnings price levels to watch out for. The stock was down 3.3% at $18.15 about two hours before Thursday's opening bell.

HP Enterprise shares broke out from an ascending triangle in June on the largest weekly trading volume since early November 2015, only to retrace the move throughout most of July, However, the stock found buying interest last month on a retest of the pattern’s top trendline and rising 50-day moving average (MA), potentially flipping the initial breakout area from prior resistance into future support.

Amid the possibility for post-earnings price swings, investors should keep a close eye on the following chart levels.

Firstly, results-driven selling could see another retest of the breakout area around $17.50, where buyers would likely look to place bids near the ascending triangle’s top trendline, which also forms part of a multi-year trendline extending back to May 2018.

A failure to hold this level could trigger a decline to the $16.50 level, a location currently just above the upward sloping 200-day MA where investors may look for buying opportunities near the descending triangle’s lower trendline.

An initial overhead level to focus on sits around $21.60, where the stock may run into resistance near a range of similar trading levels positioned near its record close in July.

Investors can also forecast a price target using the measuring principle, sometimes referred to the measuring move technique. To do this, we calculate the distance between the ascending triangle’s two trendline towards the start of the pattern and add that amount to the initial breakout point. In this case, the technique projects an upside target of $23 ($5.50 + $17.50), just above the stock's all-time high (ATH) at $22.82.

Read more on Investopedia