Natural gas: Thursday, February 15: AEI natural gas storage report:
- previous: -119 bcf
- forecast: -179 bcf (private forecast)
- actual: -194
- compare: -120 Bcf last year and -154 Bcf for the five-year average (same link)
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Marathon Oil Beats Forecasts
Link here:
- better-than-expected quarterly profit (I thought all the naysayers said shale was not making money; Marathon must have missed the memo)
- investors response: shares up more than 2% in extended trading
- Marathon says it will raise spending slightly in 2018, while hewing closely to a strategy favoring shareholder returns
Comment: that's an interesting comment in the Marathon note above that the company is hewing closely to a strategy favoring shareholder returns. I'm seeing this "across the board" when looking at business stories the past few weeks. Companies are under pressure from shareholders right now. My hunch is that investors -- long-term horizon -- :
- want to see more than just high share prices; they want some tangible returns; not just paper profits, which can be quite ethereal
- will move to bonds if yields continue to increase which appears likely
- know that activist investors will step in if companies don't provide shareholder value
- want to see some tangible return on the huge corporate tax cut Trump gave these companies
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