No meaningful progress is being made in NAFTA trade talks between the United States, Canada and Mexico, increasing the odds that President Trump could withdraw from a critical 23-year old agreement.
After Round 5 of NAFTA talks ended Tuesday only two more are scheduled no progress has been made on divisive issues.
“While we have made progress on some of our efforts to modernize NAFTA, I remain concerned about the lack of headway,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
“We have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement.”
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. put forward “extreme proposals” that “we simply cannot agree to.”
“Some of the proposals that we have heard would not only be harmful for Canada but would be harmful for the U.S. as well,” Freeland added, citing concerns from U.S. and Canadian auto companies.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2018: ConocoPhillips(COP)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Benzinga News Desk]
Last year was brutal for hedge fund investors — but you wouldn’t know it from the fund managers’ paychecks: Link
ECONOMIC DATA
The MBA’s index of mortgage application activity for the latest week is schedule for release at 7:00 a.m. ET.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
ANALYST RATINGS
Jefferies Upgraded ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) from Hold to Buy
JPMorgan Upgraded Clovis Oncology (NASDAQ: CLVS) From Neutral to Overweight
Morgan Stanley Upgrades TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) From Equal-Weight to Overweight
Macquarie Downgraded Disney (NYSE: DIS) from Outperform to Neutral
Deutsche Bank Downgraded AvalonBay (NYSE: AVB) from Buy to Hold
Wells Fargo Downgrades Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR) From Outperform To Market Perform
This is a tool used by the Benzinga News Desk each trading day — it's a look at everything happening in the market, in five minutes. To get the full version of this note every morning, click here or email minutes@benzinga.com.
- [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]
The contract awards are for the jack-ups West Elara and West Linus with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (COP) for work in the Greater Ekofisk area. The total additional backlog for the new contract awards is estimated to be about $1.4 billion, excluding performance bonuses.
- [By Zacks]
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ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research - [By Matthew DiLallo]
Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) also abandoned its leases in the Chukchi Sea earlier this year. It paid $506 million for the 98 leases off Alaska’s northern coast in 2008 and had plans to drill its first exploratory well in 2014 but dropped those ambitions due to regulatory uncertainty. It has also since decided to exit deepwater exploration altogether after drilling a string of dry holes in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Angola, and the Canadian Atlantic, Instead, ConocoPhillips plans to focus its future development efforts on lower-risk onshore shale development.
- [By Dustin Parrett]
Big Oil stocks are the seven “oil supermajors” that do everything from oil drilling to refining to retail sales. This is a list of the Big Oil companies:
Big Oil CompanyShare PriceYTDMarket CapExxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM)$83.44-7.58%$353.13BChevron Co. (NYSE: CVX)$113.56-3.5%$217.62BConocoPhillips Co. (NYSE: COP)$48.21-3.78%$61.42BRoyal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE ADR: RDS.A)$52.35-3.82%$221.08BBP Plc. (NYSE ADR: BP)$34.12-8.71%$112.69BTotal SA (NYSE: TOT)$50.26-1.35%$124.6BEni SpA (NYSE: E)$31.51-2.3%$58.69B
Despite being huge global oil companies, shares of Big Oil stocks are all in the red this year. Those losses have all happened even as the Dow is smashing record highs and trading up 6.4% year to date.
- [By Chris Dier-Scalise]
Among the brands being sold were Alcoa Corporation (NYSE: AA) and Ford Motor Company(NYSE: F), which both paid out dividends in December. The financial and oil sectors also experienced a sell-off to finish 2016. Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) were net sold as each reached new year-to-date highs and investors unloaded ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) as their prices normalized with the rise in the price of oil.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2018: Silver Wheaton Corp(SLW)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Rich Duprey]
Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW), of course, is a streamer like Sandstorm and Franco, but it is the largest in the precious-metals industry, and arguably the best-known, because its business model came to define what streaming is. Although it is known primarily for its silver contracts, Silver Wheaton also has sizable gold production that makes it worth your attention.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2018: Credit Suisse Group(CS)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By David Zeiler]
The federal government’s largesse isn’t restricted to U.S.-based companies, either. Foreign companies, including foreign banks, are also welcome. Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE ADR: CS) got $225.1 billion, and UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS) got $249.1 billion.
- [By Wayne Duggan] Related DB Deutsche Bank In The Tank Mike Khouw Sees Unusual Options Activity In Deutsche Bank 33 Large Banks On The Federal Reserve's Radar In 2016 (Seeking Alpha)
Related CS Earnings Scheduled For February 4, 2016 Blockchain Moves Forward In The Financial Industry Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) Tidjane Thiam on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)
The latest credit default swap (CDS) data from BMO Capital Markets indicate a number of investors are growing increasingly concerned about the one-year outlook for capital markets. In a new report, analyst Mark Steele discussed the recent surge in one-year CDS activity, and what it means for the market.
- [By Diane Alter]
The head underwriters for the ZTO IPO are Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS). Also working on the deal are China Renaissance, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE ADR: CS), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).
- [By Money Morning News Team]
That’s why Krauth predicts the price of gold will hit $1,400 by the end of the year. Many analysts from banks likeCredit SuisseGroup AG (NYSE ADR: CS) even see gold going as high as $1,500.
- [By Paul R. La Monica]
European banks worse off than 2008? Lamensdorf is concerned about the exposure to bad loans (especially energy company debt) held by big banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Credit Suisse (CS) and Deutsche Bank (DB). He’s shorting all three.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2018: NRG Energy Inc.(NRG)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Rich Duprey]
I ran a screen to identify the best-performing stocks from the S&P 500 in January. The top three performers during the month were Alcoa (NYSE:AA), CSX (NASDAQ:CSX), and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG). Let’s see why they were the big standouts and whether they can keep it going.
- [By Lisa Levin]
In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell 0.25 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included NRG Energy Inc (NYSE: NRG), down 3 percent, and Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) down 1 percent.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Benzinga's newsdesk monitors options activity to notice unusual patterns. These large volume (and often out of the money) trades were initially published intraday in Benzinga Professional . These trades were placed during Thursday’s regular session.
Top 5 Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2018: NEW GOLD INC.(NGD)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Dan Caplinger]
The stock market lost ground on Monday, sending major market benchmarks lower by more than half a percentage point. The Dow lost its grip on the 20,000 mark in the wake of concerns about economic growth and new U.S. immigration policy, and some believe that the broader geopolitical climate could have a negative impact on global commerce that in turn could start affecting multinational corporations’ business prospects. In addition, bad news from some individual companies weighed on the markets, and Transocean (NYSE:RIG), Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD), and New Gold (NYSEMKT:NGD) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we’ll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.
