"ZoomInfo’s strong stock debut shows signs of life in once-stalled IPO market; Company with Mass. origins ends its first day of trading up 62 percent, has shown it can perform amid pandemic" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, June 4, 2020
That is what the Globe is Zooming in on, and it is enough to make you sick.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in full force and racial unrest sweeping the country, this might seem like a tough time for an initial public offering, but for the right company, it could be a great time. Just ask Henry Schuck, founder and chief executive of ZoomInfo Technologies. His company, whose subscription software feeds business leads to marketing and sales professionals, entered the public market this week by selling 44.5 million shares to investors at $21 apiece. That’s above its previous guidance of $19 to $20 a share. That means ZoomInfo could count on raking in nearly $900 million from investors before its stock started trading on the Nasdaq exchange Thursday in an IPO that valued the company at more than $8 billion.
Plenty of money out there if you know where to look!
That value would only increase: By the time the market closed on Thursday, the share price had risen 62 percent to $34. Like much of the economy, the IPO market has largely been closed during the pandemic — only biotechs, blank-check firms, and companies from China need apply. This week represents an important turning point: It’s the busiest week of the year for IPOs so far, according to Renaissance Capital, and ZoomInfo and Warner Music have brought two blockbusters to the market.
IPOs are basically pump-and-dump $chemes underwritten by Wall Street banks to keep the market up.
Craig Marcus, cohead of the capital markets group at Ropes & Gray, noted that June is typically a busy time in the IPO market in past years, as companies race to get deals done before summer vacations. Some of these would-be public firms were spooked by the stock market gyrations in March and April, but stocks have stabilized in recent weeks.
They have done more than stabilize!
“I think we’re starting to see the ice break a bit,” Marcus said. “There’s a big pipeline of deals ... waiting in line for the opportunity.”
UGH!
New World Order $hit, no doubt.
ZoomInfo, which is on track for more than $400 million in annual revenue based on its first-quarter performance, is not a household name yet — even though it’s now the biggest tech IPO of the year so far. Don’t confuse it with Zoom Video, the now-ubiquitous provider of streaming conference calls. Like Zoom Video, ZoomInfo has the potential to thrive during the pandemic: While business dinners and trade shows are all but verboten, many companies have no choice but to go all-digital to pitch their products and services to would-be buyers.
It also has an important local connection: The original ZoomInfo (formally and formerly called Zoom Information Inc.) started here in Waltham but was acquired by Shuck’s company, DiscoverOrg, in February 2019; about 500 people typically work in the old headquarters overlooking Route 128, out of a workforce of roughly 1,300.
Another local connection: Boston private equity firm TA Associates became a minority owner in DiscoverOrg in 2014, and remains a key investor.
Since renamed ZoomInfo and based in Vancouver, Wash., the company reported that it nearly doubled its new business, as measured by annual contract value, in April. One reason cited in the document: traditional sales channels (i.e. in-person meetings) were “less feasible” that month, to put it mildly.
Yeah, COVID has benefitted $o many!
It’s "not the backdrop anybody hopes for when they IPO,” Schuck said, “but we were excited about the opportunity to open the markets back up to technology IPOs in 2020.”
Matthew Kennedy, a senior equity strategist at Renaissance Capital, said ZoomInfo IPO could perform well even in a weak market because of its unusual combination of profitability and solid sales growth. Meanwhile, rising stock values since late March have helped encourage companies to wade into the public markets again, he noted, even though it might seem counterintuitive given the broader economic challenges facing the country, and companies are getting adept at doing their “road shows” — pre-IPO presentations to investors — virtually instead of in person.
“As long as volatility stays low and the market doesn’t collapse, I think the summer and fall are going to be a better time to go public than a lot of people thought even a few months ago,” Kennedy said. “It will still be difficult for companies that are negatively impacted by the coronavirus. Investors are not going to want to deal with those problems going forward, or are going to expect a severe valuation cut for taking on some of those risks.”
Markets are far from collap$ing!
Peter Cohan, a management lecturer at Babson College, said he expects the IPO market will in large part gauge the potential winners and losers during the pandemic. “Any company that has accelerated the way that people are working in the world of COVID-19 is a potential IPO,” said Cohan. With the overall stock market volatility dissipated for now, he said “people go from being afraid of losing all their money … to being afraid of missing out on an opportunity.”
It is knocking on the door.
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Believe it or not, Ma$$achu$etts is in great $hape:
"State tax revenues continued to crater in May" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, June 3, 2020
Another month, another dip in state revenue.
The Department of Revenue reported Wednesday that it collected nearly $1.74 billion in taxes during May, more than 15 percent below what state officials had projected and 13 percent off from the $2 billion it collected in May 2019.
Tax receipts are now $2.25 billion below what the state had projected to have at this point in the fiscal year, which wraps up at the end of this month. Most categories of revenue the state relies upon were down, compared to a year earlier, further solidifying how COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed to slow its spread have undercut the state’s forecasting.
Tax revenues in April had already plummeted more than 50 percent, compared to a year earlier. Officials said the drop was driven by both the pandemic and the state’s decision to shift its tax-filing deadline to July 15.
The move, officials said, is probably diverting huge chunks of revenue they would otherwise collect to later in the year. May’s revenues are likely to have been “significantly affected,” as well.
Budget watchdogs are warning of more pain to come. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, in a report released last week, projected it could take five years for revenues to exceed prepandemic levels, and that the state could be looking at revenue that’s $6 billion less than what was expected.
Less money coming in means less money to spend, on everything from education to state parks, health care for the poor, and aid to cities and towns.
That's okay, though:
Still, some see hopeful signs in the numbers. Evan Horowitz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said a silver lining in the recession is that many “are still getting paid, just through the unemployment system.” More than 1.4 million people in Massachusetts have filed for unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
That's a HOPEFUL SIGN?
“The state actually collected more money than expected from income tax withholding, which speaks to the robustness of these replacement paychecks,” he said. “Where tax revenues continue to collapse is on the spending side, as folks just aren’t making the kind of purchases they normally would.”
What sickening piece of $hit is this guy!
He still has a job $pewing from his ivory tower, and thinks it great that YOUR UNEMPLOYMENT CHECK is being TAXED!
Can it get any wor$e?
That, Horowitz said, indicates the recovery could be stronger than some expect. “If people are still earning, but not spending, they’ll have money to burn when stores are safe,” he said.
OMFG!!
How out-of-touch can you be?
Like we will have money to burn in contract tracing centers where we will never feel free.
In the meantime, the state has opted to widely expand its ability to gobble up debt. The state treasurer opened a $1.75 billion line of credit last month the state could tap to help plug shortfalls.
You know who will be paying that off, right taxpayers of Ma$$achu$etts?
The Legislature also passed, and Governor Charlie Baker signed, a bill that gives Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg more flexibility to borrow more money in this fiscal year, ending June 30, but without having to pay it back until June 2021.
Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House budget chairman, said at the time the House debated the bill that the amount the state borrows could be “in the range of $3 billion,” depending on how its finances weather the pandemic.
The state’s crumbling revenues and uncertain path to for recovery have upended the budget process. Neither the House nor the Senate have released a formal spending proposal with just weeks left in the fiscal year, nor is it clear what baseline for tax receipts they’ll use in building one.
Emergency rules the House passed gives its budget committee until July 1 to report out its version of the budget, but that guidepost offers only a broad sketch of the potential timing.
See: Putting Together a State Budget
It's $loppy as $hit and behind clo$ed doors!
Still unclear is when the Senate could release its proposal, or whether the chambers will combine their efforts to debate a single piece of legislation. Depending on the path, the House and Senate could also have to reconcile any differences between what they pass, extending the timeline for sending something to Baker’s desk.
Even in flush economic times, the Legislature routinely blows past its deadlines. For each of the last nine years — and this year is likely to be the 10th — lawmakers had to pass a stopgap spending measure to keep state government running.
They didn’t close the books on fiscal year 2019 until nearly six months after it ended, because lawmakers took months to decide on how to spend a $1 billion surplus.
The blew the $urplus and now we need to be looted by lenders.
$ure looks CRIMINAL to ME!
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Now about that credit line:
"With state revenues crumbling, Massachusetts took out a $1.75 billion credit line" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, May 28, 2020
Drawing little public attention at the time, Massachusetts state officials opened a $1.75 billion line of credit this month to help plug budget gaps ripped open by the novel coronavirus, a grim fiscal reality that, one watchdog warned, could hang over the state for years.
The credit line, disclosed in a nearly 600-page financial statement released last week by state leaders, marks a rare step by state officials, both in its size and purpose. While the state regularly leans on tens of billions of dollars in borrowing to help fund projects, entering a line of credit to potentially help the state’s cash flow is more unusual.
The state entered the credit line on May 11 with a syndicate of commercial banks, including Bank of America, and it doesn’t expire until May 2021, according to the financial document.
What is there left to $ay as to whom our leaders $erve?
State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg’s office, which is responsible for issuing the state’s debt, said the state has not yet drawn on the credit line.
Btw, the lottery has been de$troyed, too.
The state regularly issues what are called revenue anticipation notes, or short-term debt, ranging from $1 billion to $1.5 billion each year, according to the treasurer’s office, but before recent legislation passed giving the state more flexibility, that debt had to be paid down in the same fiscal year.
“The times we are in are unprecedented and it requires being able to have access to funds,” the treasurer’s office said in an e-mail.
Goldberg referenced the line of credit in testimony to state budget writers in mid-April, saying her office was finalizing a “working capital borrowing facility." At the time, she described it as being “$1 billion-plus," according to her prepared remarks.
“This facility should be able to provide us with flexibility to draw down funds when we need them during this period of deferred tax revenues,” Goldberg said then.
We are so f**ked -- especially seeing as we are one of the last states in the country to reopen its economy.
Related:
"The state reported Thursday that the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts had risen by 50 and that the number of cases had climbed by 471. The numbers reflect both confirmed and probable cases. State officials announced this week that they would be adding probable cases to their reporting, in accordance with guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How bad will the death toll eventually be? A University of Massachusetts model that combines a number of models from different research groups estimates that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the state will reach 8,032 by June 27. The model only looks four weeks ahead....."
That page one material for months now was relegated to page B5, and they are still jacking up the numbers and operating off faulty models, making them goddamn criminals!!
Massachusetts isn’t alone in opening avenues to borrowing money amid the pandemic. Rhode Island lawmakers in March agreed to Governor Gina M. Raimondo’s request to borrow up to $300 million, and the budget New York lawmakers passed last month authorizes that state to borrow $11 billion, including a line of credit worth up to $3 billion that could help pay state expenses.
Looks like the reopen wasn't as smooth as she wanted, so clear the beaches until July.
The Legislature this month passed a bill that gives the treasurer more flexibility in borrowing this fiscal year, which ends next month, but to not have to pay it back until June 2021. State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House budget chairman, said at the time that the amount could be “in the range of $3 billion,” depending on how the state’s finances weather the pandemic.
According to one watchdog, the state budget won’t weather it well. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation projected in a report released Thursday that it could take five years for state revenues to exceed prepandemic levels.
Even that scenario comes with a caveat. For revenues to surpass prepandemic expectations by fiscal year 2025, tax receipts would need to grow at 6 percent annually, starting in fiscal year 2022 — a rate that would surpass average annual growth from the past decade.
Meaning it might take 10 YEARS, if EVER!
All for a pre-planned economic collapse.
CRIMINAL!
All these looting leaders should be in socially-distant jail cells!
At that pace, revenues would have still eroded by more than $11.9 billion in a five-year span, and should tax revenues fail to grow at those levels, it would take even longer to once again reach the $30.3 billion in tax receipts state officials had projected to collect this year.
“Despite the initial hopeful claims of MTF and others that both the economy and everyday life will recover on a faster track, current data, as well as recent history, suggest otherwise,” the report states, noting it took three years for revenues to recover after the recessions of 2002 and 2009.
“When the potential structural changes to key pillars of the economy are considered,” the report adds, “it could take considerably longer for the state to recoup tax revenues lost from this pandemic.”
The foundation cautions that there’s little certainty in predicting the economic tides during the health crisis. The business-backed budget watchdog has already downgraded its revenue forecast for next fiscal year, when it projects the state will lose $6 billion in revenue — far above the $4.4 billion it initially predicted.
Yeah, tell us about it!
So how do you think the Patriots will do this year?
Dozens of economists wrote to Governor Charlie Baker and legislative leaders this week, urging them to raise taxes, and avoid cuts, to balance the financial picture, arguing that slashing services is more harmful than raising costs on taxpayers, but it’s unclear what appetite policy makers have for such a strategy, including Baker, a Republican who repeatedly pushed back against pursuing broad-based tax increases during healthier financial times.
That is the exact wrong pre$cription!
Increase taxes on 25-50% of revenues if lucky?
WTF is WRONG WITH YOU?
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Related:
"Stocks bubbled even higher on Wednesday, vaulting Wall Street back to where it was just one week after it set its all-time high earlier this year, as optimism builds that the economy can climb out of its current hole relatively quickly. The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent, its fourth straight gain, as lockdowns loosen around the world and raise hopes for a coming economic recovery. Treasury yields also strengthened in a sign of improved confidence after reports suggested that while the US economy is still getting pummeled, it may not be as bad as economists had feared. A survey from payroll processor ADP said that private employers cut nearly 2.8 million jobs last month, but that was much milder than the 9.3 million that economists told investors to expect. That raises optimism that Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report from the US government may also not be as bad as feared. Economists say it may show a loss of 8 million jobs, which would be a deceleration from April’s loss of 20.5 million jobs. Other reports showed an economy that remains in bad shape, but not quite as terrible as economists had forecast....."
Did you get that?
“It’s fairly clear to us that the economy clearly bottomed in late April and early May,” said James Ragan, director of wealth management research at D.A. Davidson. “At some point the concern will be on the pace of the recovery and not just the recovery itself.” Companies that would most benefit from a growing economy led the market Wednesday, continuing a recent trend as hopes rise that the economy and life in general can return closer to normal as business-shutdown orders lift. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 3.8 percent for one of the largest gains among the 11 sectors that make up the index. JPMorgan Chase rose 5.4 percent, and Wells Fargo added 5.2 percent. They recovered more of the losses sustained earlier this year on worries that the recession would mean waves of loan defaults for them. Smaller stocks were also among the market’s biggest winners, as they often are when expectations are rising for the economy’s strength. Stocks that had been stalwarts earlier when investors were building portfolios that could win in a stay-at-home economy, meanwhile, were lagging. Widespread protests around the country following the killing of George Floyd haven’t dented the rally, at least so far. One worry is that by bringing so many people together, the protests could also lead to more infections of the coronavirus. Many professional investors have been warning that the stock market’s rally may have been too much, too soon. The recovery for the economy is likely to be much slower than the sharp rebound the stock market has just undertaken, which could be setting investors up for disappointment. Concern is particularly high that stock prices have climbed much faster than expectations for coming corporate profits and other measures of financial health, which is pushing up what Wall Street calls “valuations” for stocks. Even though early data suggests people want to get back to restaurants and shops, the recovery may be slower than expected, said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capitol Advisors....."
It will never be "normal" again because of the greedy, psychopathic criminals that shut it down on purpose to destroy small business, and the last place you want to go is a restuarant!
No wonder they are ZOOMING, and I would NOT WORRY about the PROTESTS! Not after the $cienti$ts signed off on them!
"US businesses shed 2.8 million jobs in May, significantly less than the 9.3 million job losses that were expected. The payroll company ADP reported Wednesday that businesses have let go of a combined 22.6 million jobs since March, with the bulk of the layoffs occurring in April. The virus forced employers to shutter offices, factories, gyms, and schools, while demand for gasoline, clothing, airline tickets, hotel rooms, and restaurant meals quickly vanished. The damage was concentrated in two sectors. Manufacturers cut 719,000 jobs in May. The trade, transportation, and utilities sector let go of 826,000. Other sectors that suffered as part of April’s 19.6 million job losses saw their layoffs slow sharply. The leisure and hospitality industry — which includes hotels and restaurants — shed 105,000 jobs last month, down from a revised 7.7 million losses in April. The private industry report comes two days ahead of the official monthly job figures from the US Labor Department. Economists expect the Friday report will show 8 million job losses in May as the unemployment rate approaches 20 percent."
"Only" another 1.9 million Americans sought jobless aid as layoffs slowed, children!
Batter up!
Or out!
"Wall Street paused on Thursday, and the S&P 500 fell for the first time in five days as stocks that had held steadiest through this year’s feverish swings gave back some of their gains. A report showed that the number of US workers filing for unemployment benefits eased for a ninth straight week, roughly in line with the market’s expectations, but economists saw pockets of disappointment after the total number of people getting benefits rose slightly. That number had dropped the prior week, which had raised hopes that some companies were rehiring workers. Many professional investors have been arguing that the stock market’s rally, which had reached nearly 40 percent since late March, was overdone and that a pullback was likely. Stocks began surging following massive aid for the economy from Washington. More recently, they’ve climbed on optimism that the recession created by the reaction to the coronavirus outbreak could end relatively quickly, but critics also pointed to risks in rising US-China tensions and the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections. The next big piece of economic data to bolster or weaken the market’s optimism about the economy’s prospects lands Friday, when the Labor Department releases its jobs report for May. Banks and industrial stocks were also strong amid hopes that a resumption in growth for the economy will limit loan losses and allow for better sales orders. Longer-term Treasury yields rose decisively. That area of the market had been one of the first to warn of the coming economic devastation from the coronavirus outbreak, and it’s been much more circumspect in recent weeks than the US stock market....."
The effect of the race riots was mi$$ing from the piece, and seems like a good time to go to war with China. Just save us from Moderna.
They are getting ready to fly high or plummet to the ground, readers.
Also see:
"Long-term mortgage rates increased slightly as the US economy showed signs that the worst of the coronavirus-fueled recession may have passed. The average interest charged on a 30-year mortgage was 3.18 percent this week, up from 3.15 percent a week ago, according to a report Thursday by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. That average is down from 3.82 percent a year ago. The average 15-year mortgage rate was unchanged from last week at 2.62 percent. This average has fallen from 3.28 percent a year ago."
Why don't you celebrate by making an online purcha$e?
"EBay raised its forecast for revenue and earnings in the current quarter as people flock to the online marketplace amid the covid-19 pandemic that has left most physical stores shuttered for more than two months. EBay said it now expects sales of as much as $2.8 billion in the second quarter, up from a previous forecast for as much as $2.48 billion. In a filing the company said it sees adjusted earnings per share of as much as $1.06, up from 80 cents previously. More people are being drawn to eBay’s marketplace across a wide variety of categories, from home and garden to electronics, fashion, and auto parts, eBay said."
Might want to check your portfolio:
"Charles Schwab Corp. won US antitrust approval to buy rival TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., a $26 billion deal that further consolidates the brokerage industry. Schwab said Thursday that the Justice Department approved the deal, which the company expects to close in the second half of the year. The tie-up tightens Schwab’s grip on an industry it pioneered. The deal, which was announced in November, came after Schwab cut its trading commissions to zero, in a move that roiled the entire sector."
Time to fly to India:
"Amazon is in preliminary talks to buy a stake in No. 2 Indian carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd. for at least $2 billion, Reuters reported, joining Facebook and other US giants in betting on one of the world’s fastest-growing internet arenas. Amazon is in early-stage discussions to buy about a 5 percent stake in the Indian wireless operator, Reuters said, citing anonymous sources. A deal will help Amazon access Bharti’s 300 million subscribers — a user base akin to the entire US population."
Related: Women in the War Zone
Told ya'!
Also see:
"In Bangladesh, natural disaster helped spread the disease. Cyclone Amphan, a deadly storm that tore through communities under lockdown there last month, helped drive cases up to 55,000. This week Bangladeshi authorities reported the first death from COVID-19 in a refugee camp, a 71-year-old Rohingya man from Myanmar — an ominous sign for wider worries about the plight of vulnerable people huddled in hundreds of such camps in the world’s most fragile countries."
I notice Palestinians rarely come up, and now they are saying even the WEATHER can bring COVID!
They just jumped the shark, but you gotta keep the faith:
"Fidelity Magellan echoes glory days by trouncing benchmark" by Michael McDonald Bloomberg News, June 4, 2020
The stock-pickers are shining again at Fidelity Investments.
Fidelity Magellan, the mutual fund made famous in the 1980s by Peter Lynch, is trouncing its benchmark and peer group this year.
So Kensho was a no show, and look who could really use a robot companion right about now.
Magellan returned 6 percent through Wednesday while the S&P 500 index lost 2.5 percent with dividends reinvested. The $19 billion fund was beating 95 percent of its competition as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The market’s wild swings in February and March gave many active managers a rare respite after a decadelong battle against the rise of passive investing. Almost half of large-cap mutual funds are outperforming benchmarks in 2020, a sharp improvement from recent years, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“Hopefully this is the beginning of another time period where Magellan can be synonymous with making money for investors,” said Sammy Simnegar, a Fidelity veteran of more than 20 years who took over running the fund in 2019 as Jeff Feingold retired. “It’s not enough to beat your peers — you have to beat your benchmark. Then there’s a very credible case to get back into active.”
Magellan benefited from remaining mostly cautious during the market swings, for instance staying overweight big tech stocks, said Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.
“It is being rewarded for not trying to get cute during the selloff,” Balchunas said.
Still, he said, Magellan and other active funds may face a tough slog in an environment where they can see outflows even when they outperform.
People will be taking money out because they need it.
Fidelity’s Magellan is almost entirely invested in US equities, according to company data, with 34 percent of its portfolio as of April 30 allocated to technology stocks such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., followed by health care at 14 percent.
Uh-oh.
Part of its outperformance comes from avoiding value stocks more broadly, as well as banks and energy companies, said Robby Greengold, a Morningstar Inc. analyst who tracks Fidelity funds.
“The two things that really drive the fund are quality and momentum,” said Simnegar, 47. The portfolio manager said this year he bought graphics-processing chipmaker Nvidia Corp. after meeting Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft officials in Seattle in February who raved about the company. He also sold airline and hotel companies he believes will suffer from less business travel.
Airline $tocks $oared yesterday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index is up almost 8 percent this year.
While Magellan is on a hot streak, it’s still a shadow of its former self. Assets exceeded $100 billion at the fund’s peak two decades ago when it still bore the imprint of former star portfolio manager Lynch, who racked up 29 percent annualized gains while running it from 1977 to 1990. His successors included Jeff Vinik, who left Fidelity in 1996 to start a hedge fund.
Fidelity in recent years has gone head to head with rivals such as Vanguard Group in slashing costs on index vehicles. The firm’s largest fund now is Fidelity 500 Index, with $224 billion of assets as of May 31.
Meanwhile, Fidelity has launched three exchange-traded funds that will partially conceal their holdings.
???????
The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF, Fidelity Blue Chip Value ETF, and Fidelity New Millennium ETF began trading Thursday. The three equity-focused funds will be actively managed and reveal their holdings once a quarter — unlike traditional ETFs, which do so daily.
Fidelity, whose ETFs hold $17 billion in assets, is the largest issuer to offer non-transparent funds, which are appealing for managers seeking to shield their strategies from front-running or replication from rivals. The new products will have the same management and research teams as Fidelity’s similarly named mutual funds.
“These three active equity ETFs complement our existing mutual fund and ETF offerings and will meet a specific need in the marketplace,” said Greg Friedman, head of ETF management and strategy at Fidelity.
All three ETFs will have expense ratios of 0.59 percent.
American Century launched the first hidden-asset ETFs in April, followed by Legg Mason last week. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. are among the asset managers who have also filed plans.....
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They are rather hostile to women, but the firm is run by one(?)!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Lower-left corner (above and then below):
"The Labor Department report for May was supposed to be a foregone conclusion: millions more jobs lost, and unemployment, already the worst since the Great Depression, climbing still higher, but when the latest data were released Friday morning at 8:30, traders, economists, policy analysts, and everyone else who sits in front of their computer waiting for the news each month were blown away. The jobless rate dropped and employers were hiring again. There was an issue with the data that skewed the numbers somewhat. Moreover, the unemployment rate worsened for Black Americans. And economists cautioned the job market suffered such a devastating blow — 21 million people are still out of work — that a full recovery could be years away. Still, for a country coping with the coronavirus, an economic meltdown, and social unrest, the news was a welcome surprise. Here are the key takeaways......"
Oh, a MOREOVER (as a further matter; besides.) now, to go along with the stills, coulds, maybes, even ifs, buts, yets, neverthelesses, to be sure, and such!
"For weeks, critics said Wall Street’s big rally made no sense when the economy seemed set for only more despair. On Friday, it got a bit of validation. The S&P 500 jumped another 2.6% after a report said the U.S. job market surprisingly strengthened last month, bolstering hopes that the worst of the recession may have already passed. Employers added 2.5 million workers to their payrolls, when economists were expecting them instead to slash another 8 million jobs. While economists cautioned that it’s just one month of data and that many risks still loom on the long road to a full recovery, the report gives some credence to the optimism that’s been building among stock investors that the economy can climb out of its current hole faster than forecast. That hope has been a big reason for the S&P 500’s rally of more than 40% since late March. “It looks like the healing process is underway in the jobs market and it looks like it’s happening sooner than expected,” said Todd Lowenstein, equity strategy executive of The Private Bank at Union Bank. “It looks like the worst is behind us.”
Who is "u$?"
"President Trump on Friday declared it was “a great day” for George Floyd as he discussed a strong jobs report for the country and efforts to bring about racial equality. Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said Trump’s comments about Floyd were “despicable.” Trump’s comments about Floyd came as he shifted from discussing a drop in the unemployment rate to say everyone deserved “equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement, regardless of race, color, gender or creed.” He added: “This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.” Biden panned Trump’s comments during an economic speech in Delaware....."
I am getting a kind of Anti-christ vibe from the guy.
WTF?
Of cour$e, it was a great day for $ome:
"TJX faces criticism over big gap between CEO and median worker pay; Local investment firm pushes for changes in approach to setting executive compensation" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, June 5, 2020
A Boston investment firm with a history of corporate activism has set its sights on TJX in its campaign to narrow the huge disparity between what corporate bosses and rank-and-file workers are paid.
Trillium Asset Management is pushing a nonbinding shareholder proposal at TJX’s annual meeting scheduled for Tuesday that would prompt TJX board members to consider the pay levels for all classifications of employees when setting the chief executive’s compensation. Trillium, in its proposal, points out the wide gap between Ernie Herrman’s compensation and the median pay level among its roughly 270,000 employees in TJX’s 2019 fiscal year.
That ratio, 1,596 to 1, put the Framingham-based retail giant near the top of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 for this measure, according to a ranking by the AFL-CIO. Herrman’s total compensation that year, including stock and long-term incentive awards, reached nearly $19 million. His 2020 package, which became public after Trillium filed its proposal, was similar in value, also around $19 million. The median pay of TJX employees? $12,000.
They will $oon be out of bu$ine$$ and the employees out of jobs $o.....
Jonas Kron, a senior vice president at Trillium, said his firm’s proposal was crafted long before the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced TJX to temporarily close all its US stores, furlough shop employees, and cut pay of executives, but the pandemic has highlighted pay inequities in many industries, Kron said, underscoring the need for companies to take the rank-and-file into consideration when setting compensation at the top.
$ince when?
“As Americans are returning to work at TJX stores as they’re reopening, they’re going to be taking on additional risks,” Kron said. “This is an opportunity for TJX to show the workers that they understand the financial and economic challenges they are facing.”
Of Trillum’s $3.2 billion in assets under management, it holds about $28 million in TJX shares on behalf of its clients, Kron said, less than 1 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. Trillium has pushed for worker-pay proposals at TJX before, but this is the first one from Trillium that the Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed on the ballot for shareholders to consider.....
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Related:
Atlas Venture raises $400m for biotech startups
That is despite slumping economy, and they mu$t be on top of the world!
Can buy a new suit:
"In late March, Brooks Brothers was showered with praise after announcing it would use its three clothing factories in the United States to make personal protective equipment to help fight COVID-19. Now those factories may become casualties of the coronavirus, and the future of Brooks Brothers — not to mention its identity as the ultimate “Made in America” brand, one that has dressed presidents and former presidents dating to James Madison — is uncertain. Brooks Brothers plans to lay off nearly 700 employees this summer at the factories in Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina. In an interview, Claudio Del Vecchio, 63, the Italian industrialist who bought Brooks Brothers in 2001, spoke for the first time about the decision. “I feel very bad about this,” Del Vecchio said, but he added, “The factories never made money for us, and at this moment all resources need to be maintained and saved to make sure we can come out on the other side of the crisis.”
Go with those old rags then!
As we used to say, use it up, wear it out, make do, do without!
Of course, a stray cough in the wrong place could spark another outbreak that might send people back into their homes for weeks or months.
