Month: February 2017

PwC apologizes for its role in Best Picture drama at Oscars

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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UK accountancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has apologized for its role in Sunday night’s Academy Awards drama which saw Faye Dunaway mistakenly announce “La La Land” as the winner of the best picture Oscar rather than the actual winner, “Moonlight”.

“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” read PwC’s apology, hastily issued shortly after the fiasco unfolded.

“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation,” added the statement.

PwC has handled ballot-counting for the iconic awards ceremony for 83 years with its U.S. board chairman Brian Cullinan and tax partner Martha Ruiz personally leading the process for the past few years.

It fell to “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz to take control amid the chaos and step up to the microphone to explain to the audience that his film had in fact not won the coveted prize.

“I was ecstatic, it was amazing. I thought we won an Oscar,” Horowitz told The Hollywood Reporter. “Some guys in headsets started buzzing around. It became clear that was something wrong. They took the envelope I had. It said Emma Stone, La La Land on it.”

“It was clear that there was something wrong. We started looking for the best picture envelope. Nobody knew where it was. Then it appeared, they opened it next to me and it said ‘Moonlight.'”

Dunaway’s co-presenter, Warren Beatty, wasted no time in showing his team player credentials, taking to the mic to clarify that the mistake was not his fault.

“I want to tell you what happened. I opened the envelope and it said ‘Emma Stone La La Land’. That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny,” he explained, laughing awkwardly.

The victim count from the ceremony is likely to grow as the PwC investigation unfolds, with Jimmy Kimmel being the first to assume some blame, concluding the evening’s entertainment by pledging that his debut hosting of the Academy Awards would be his one and only.

This despite widespread comments that it was largely Kimmel’s quick-witted humor that salvaged – to the extent possible – the thoroughly cringe-inducing situation.

“Guys, this is very unfortunate what happened. Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this,” Kimmel said, referencing the moment Harvey fluffed the announcement of 2015’s Miss Universe pageant winner.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Thanks to demonetisation, India could lose growth crown

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India could lose its title as the world’s fastest expanding major economy when it reveals its growth figures for the October-December quarter on Tuesday.

The release follows a demonetisation-led cash crunch that hit India’s cash-heavy economy, but economists reckon that could be temporary.

Economists in a Reuters poll expected that India’s quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6.4 percent annually — well below the July-September quarter’s 7.3 percent pace. If the forecast is realized, India will also fall behind China, which grew 6.8 percent on-year in the October-December quarter.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

SoftBank set to invest more than $3 billion in WeWork

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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SoftBank is close to finalizing an investment in WeWork, a source close to the transaction tells CNBC. The deal is expected to be worth over USD 3 billion.

The investment being discussed is a USD 2 billion primary tranche of funding, followed by a secondary round worth more than USD 1 billion. SoftBank may increase the size of the secondary investment to nearly USD 2 billion, the source said, for a total investment of nearly USD 4 billion in the shared space real estate startup.

For WeWork insiders, there is a tender offer on the table at around USD 44.10 per internal share.

If the deal closes, WeWork would be valued at more than USD 20 billion. The most recent investment into WeWork valued the New York-based company at about USD 17 billion.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asia lower, Nikkei down 0.8%, Kospi off 0.1%, ASX down 0.2%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asian markets opened lower on Monday with the sterling tumbling about 0.5 percent to the dollar, while companies continue to report their earnings.

Sterling was last quoted down 0.40 percent against the dollar in early Asia trade, with the pound/dollar pair trading at USD 1.2415 at 8:18 a.m. HK/SIN, dropping from levels above USD 1.2500 in the previous session. Earlier, the pound fell a bit over 0.50%.

Experts pointed to a report from the Times newspaper that suggested Prime Minister Theresa May was preparing for the Scottish government to call a second independence referendum to coincide with the triggering of Article 50 in March.

“If that’s the case, I suspect there’s been a bit of an overreaction here,” Ray Attrill, global co-head of foreign exchange strategy at the National Australia Bank, told CNBC.

Attrill added, “If the market does seriously think there can be another independence referendum much sooner than that, then remembering how hard the pound fell in early September 2014 just in front of the prior referendum, then the memory of that makes Sterling a fairly easy sell here.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.78 percent, with exporters likely under pressure from a relatively stronger yen, which traded at 112.06 to the dollar at 8:13 a.m. HK/SIN, strengthening from levels above 112.80 last week.

Major exporters were mostly lower, with Toyota down 0.87 percent, Honda down 1.32 percent and Sony off by 0.89 percent.

Shares of troubled Japanese airbag maker Takata beat the generally downward trend to climb 2.19 percent, after report that it is setting up a compensation fund for victims of faulty air bags. The Wall Street Journal reported that Takata’s USD 125 million program will steer money to consumers harmed when the air bags ruptured and sprayed shrapnel.

Earlier this year, Takata agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and pay a total of USD 1 billion in criminal penalties stemming from its fraudulent conduct in relation to sales of defective airbag inflators.

Elsewhere, SoftBank shares fell 1.20 percent, despite news the internet and telecom giant is close to finalizing an investment in WeWork. A source told CNBC the deal is expected to be worth over USD 3 billion.

In South Korea, the Kospi traded down 0.11 percent. Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 traded down 0.21 percent.

Meanwhile, the dollar index traded at 101.20 at 7:42 a.m. HK/SIN, climbing from levels below 100.8 in the previous session.

Among other currency majors, the yen traded at 112.22 to the dollar, strengthening from levels above 112.80 last week, while the Australian dollar fetched USD 0.7665.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

What to watch for in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway letter

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Warren Buffett, widely considered one of the world’s best investors, is likely to tout the merits of passive investing this weekend to readers of his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

The letter, slated for release around 8 a.m. EST on Saturday, will probably focus on familiar themes for the 86-year-old Buffett, with many single-spaced pages reviewing Berkshire’s businesses and managers, Wall Street, the economy and perhaps even politics.

“The letters are written as much for sophisticated financial people as for people in high school,” said Andy Kilpatrick, author of “Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett.” “It’s a fun read, and when you get through it, you think, ‘Wow, I could be doing better with my life and my investing.'”

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Buffett believes most stock investors are better off with low-cost index funds than paying higher fees to managers who often underperform. He told Fortune magazine he expects to write “a lot” about passive investing.

Berkshire itself might seem anomalous, with shares of the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate having generated a roughly 2 million percent gain in Buffett’s nearly 52 years at the helm.

In 2016, Berkshire’s stock price rose about 23.4 percent, easily outpacing the market, though most investors who bought its stock in recent years have achieved closer to market-average returns.

Kilpatrick expects Buffett to discuss Precision Castparts, an aircraft parts maker that Berkshire bought last January for USD 32.1 billion, its biggest acquisition.

Buffett is likely to discuss other Berkshire businesses, such as insurance and the BNSF railroad, and shower praise on Berkshire managers, perhaps including investing deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

Combs alerted Buffett to Precision Castparts, and Buffett may discuss what drove Berkshire’s unexpected, multi-billion-dollar investments in Apple and the four biggest U.S. airlines.

Buffett may also focus on his desire to spend Berkshire’s huge cash pile after Kraft Heinz, which Berkshire partly owns, on Sunday scrapped a bid to buy food rival Unilever that Berkshire might have helped finance.

U.S. President Donald Trump may also be a focus for Buffett, who was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton.

Buffett alluded elliptically to Trump in last year’s letter, bemoaning the “negative drumbeat” from presidential candidates talking down US economic prospects.

Berkshire is also expected to report fourth-quarter results. Analysts expect operating profit of around USD 4.5 billion, or USD 2,717 per Class A share, down from USD 4.67 billion last year, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US turns into ‘oil nation’ with record exports

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The US exported a record amount of crude oil, topping a million barrels a day for a second week and filling the gap in world markets created by OPEC cutbacks.

Shale and other US producers sent 1.2 million barrels of crude oil onto world markets last week, up nearly 200,000 barrels a day from the week earlier and about 350,000 barrels above the four-week average, according to Energy Information Administration data. Until recently, the US was exporting about 500,000 barrels a day.

“OPEC’s got a competitor. No doubt about it,” said Kyle Cooper, a consultant with Ion Energy Group. “They certainly have to be concerned with US oil producers eating into their market share.”

US producers have also ramped up production to 9 million barrels a day last week, a level last seen in April 2016. The new production is increasing even as the U.S stockpiles continue to grow. According to EIA, oil supplies grew for a seventh week, adding a smaller than expected 564,000 barrels.

“OPEC is definitely looking over its shoulder at these rising numbers of exports, and it’s undermining their efforts on a daily basis,” said John Kilduff of Again Capital. “Some of it’s going to Asia. China is one of the more unusual buyers in there. The shale guys are filling the gap of the very cuts that were put in place by the market.”

The Oil Producing and Export Countries and non-OPEC producers, like Russia, agreed to cut about 1.8 million barrels a day from the world market in an effort to stabilize oil prices.

This is in contrast to a previous failed strategy to let the market set prices, which ended with oil collapsing into the $20s per barrel as producers flooded the world market. That earlier strategy was a direct response to the rise of US shale production in the last decade.

Oil has been holding above $50 per barrel since OPEC reached the output deal in December. The market has been giving the producers high marks for compliance with the deal, with a recent Bloomberg report quoting OPEC sources saying they have 90 percent compliance and non-OPEC 70 percent. OPEC removed about 890,000 barrels a day from the world market in January.

Kilduff said he’s skeptical of the compliance. “It looks like compliance is going to be well below 80 percent. Exports are on the upswing. We’re seeing the tanker data,” he said.

Cooper said some of OPEC’s compliance was easy to achieve due to planned maintenance in January.

“If you’re bullish, this should make you worry,” Cooper said of the US exports. “I think by late March, April, the market should be concerned about whether [OPEC] compliance is really compliance.”

Reuters reported this week that traders from North America, Britain and Brazil have tripled their shipments to Asia, taking advantage of the OPEC cuts. According to Thomson Reuters research, about 30 super tankers this month made their way to Asia from the Americas, the North Sea and Mediterranean.

“The pressure on prices is going to stay in place and ultimately break us out of this range to the downside,” said Kilduff. “I’m not sure the Saudis don’t throw it down … but history says the shale guys will cut back.”

US shale has been more resilient than expecting, springing back in a big way after oil prices moved above $50 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate was trading in the $54 per barrel range Thursday. As US exports increased last week, US imports have also decreased, down to 7.3 million barrels a day, about 1 million barrels a day below the four-week average.

“We are an oil nation now. We are a petroleum state,” said Kilduff. “You have to see how far down our shale producers can drive down their costs. It’s hard to see them competitive with the likes of Saudi Arabia, but they are competitive with some other countries.”

The US exports alone totaled more than the production of a number of OPEC countries, like Algeria, Libya, Gabon, Qatar and Ecuador, according to Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

“Never underestimate US engineering with an economic incentive. What they’ve done across the US is phenomenal,” Cooper said. US drillers have harnessed new technologies and continue to lower costs and increase efficiency as they retrieve oil from areas once thought to be unproductive. “I really think it’s one of the most significant technological advances we’ve seen.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

HR McMaster to become new US national security advisor

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The White House announced Monday that Lieutenant General HR McMaster will become new National Security Adviser, replacing Michael Flynn, who was dismissed last week.

President Trump announced the pick at his Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, saying McMaster is “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”

The White House also said retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who had been his acting adviser, will now serve as the National Security Council chief of staff.

The New York Times reported that President Trump interviewed four candidates on Sunday, McMaster being one of them.

The Times described McMaster as “a highly decorated Army officer,” and “one of the military’s leading intellectuals.”

McMaster, 54, is a West Point graduate known as “HR,” with a PhD in US history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014, partly because of his willingness to buck the system.

A combat veteran, he gained renown in the first Gulf War – and was awarded a Silver Star – after he commanded a small troop of the US 2nd Army Cavalry Regiment that destroyed a much larger Iraqi Republican Guard force in 1991 in a place called 73 Easting, for its map coordinates, in what many consider the biggest tank battle since World War Two.

The national security adviser is an independent aide to the president and does not require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The role has varied from administration to administration, but the adviser attends National Security Council meetings along with the heads of the State Department, the Department of Defence and key security agencies.

Trump pushed out Flynn a week ago after revelations that the adviser had misled Pence about discussing sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the US during the presidential transition. Trump said in a news conference Thursday that he was disappointed by how Flynn had treated Pence, but did not believe Flynn had done anything wrong by having the conversations.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asia markets open lower, Nikkei down 0.57%, Kospi down 0.1%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asian markets opened mostly lower on Monday, as investors await further details from President Donald Trump on his economic policies, including tax reforms.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 0.57 percent as the yen strengthened against the dollar to trade at 112.94, climbing from levels below 114.4 in the previous week.

A stronger yen generally weighs on export-oriented stocks in Japan as it affects their overseas profit margins when funds are converted to the local currency.

Earlier, Japan said exports rose 1.3 percent in January from a year earlier, Reuters reported, showing a slowdown from the previous month due to a decline in US exports and the Chinese New Year holidays for a less than a 4.7 percent increase expected by economists.

The trade balance came to a deficit of 1.09 trillion yen (USD 9.66 billion), versus the median estimate for a 636.8 billion yen deficit.

Among exporters, Sony fell 0.73 percent, Honda was off 0.36 percent and Canon shed 0.70 percent.

Softbank shares added 2.82 percent after Reuters reported the company was willing to give up control of Sprint to T-Mobile US to secure a merger between the two telecoms.

Across the Korean Strait, South Korea’s Kospi index was down 0.09 percent.

Australia’s shares fell 0.33 percent, with the industrials subindex falling 1.70 percent, while the heavily weighted financials subindex was flat.

WorleyParsons shares dropped 11.26 percent after the company reported a fiscal first-half net loss of 2.4 million Australian dollars, compared with a profit of AUSD 23.1 million in the year-earlier period.

“President Trump promised a ‘phenomenal’ tax announcement in 2-3 weeks, so as the clock ticks down to some form of announcement, market inertia is set to reign,” said Ray Attrill, global co-head of foreign exchange strategy at the National Australia Bank, in a note.

Attrill explained that was the impression markets conveyed on Friday, but also acknowledged the absence of market-moving data. “U.S. equities recouped early session losses to end Friday slightly in the black and the U.S. dollar tracked equities higher despite a fall in U.S. yields.”

US markets are closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Mizuho Bank’s Vishnu Varathan said markets were grappling with what he called the “Donald Disconnect” — which he defined as “bets on economic rebound without accompanying reflations.”

The optimism in markets, Varathan said, was driven by expectations of tax reforms, deregulation and infrastructure capex, which fueled equity markets but did not invoke higher US yields and an accompanying surge in the dollar.

On Monday morning at 8:12 a.m. HK/SIN, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, traded at 100.84, up from levels around 100.62 from Friday afternoon Asia time.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar traded at USD 0.7661, while the euro was at USD 1.0619.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow