Sydney Trading Session Heads Up Thursday, June 29, 2017

Dear Steemians! For your attention Sydney opening news digest.

Fox News: What U.K. media regulator Ofcom said about its scandals
However, Ofcom also concluded there was no evidence that senior Fox managers knew anything about the alleged misconduct until July, 2016. Ofcom published a report on Thursday that included an examination of recent high-profile scandals at Fox News. On O'Reilly: "Fox responded more slowly to allegations against Bill O'Reilly. Fox has said that no executive director was aware of any allegations of sexual and racial harassment at Fox News prior to July 2016. The General Counsel told us that Fox investigated Mr Ailes immediately and fired him shortly thereafter with a public apology from Fox and a settlement made to the woman who had complained. (cnn.com)

Blue Apron serves up lukewarm IPO
Blue Apron priced its IPO at $10 a share on Wednesday night, down from its previously planned range of $15-$17. And if Blue Apron's IPO ends up being a flash in the pan? Just days after Blue Apron filed for an IPO, Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) shook up the food industry with its blockbuster deal to buy Whole Foods (WFM). Blue Apron (APRN), a meal kit delivery service, barely budged above its IPO price in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. At least some of this can be chalked up to investor concerns that the competition may eat Blue Apron's lunch. (cnn.com)

Ethernity Networks' Oversubscribed Placing Puts $58M Market Cap On Tech 'Game Changer'
As a technology solutions provider, Ethernity develops data network processing technology that are utilized in high-end carrier ethernet applications across the telecom, mobile, security and data centre markets. Both the NFV/SDN market are markets in which Ethernity has developed solutions to assist operators to improve network efficiency and data transfer. According to IHS Markit the global NFV market - including hardware and software - will be worth $15bn by 2020, with software comprising 80% of that figure. This issue is exacerbated by the need to support the emerging Software Defined Network (SDN) market specifications, which require flexibility and most importantly programmability. Die size is a combination of the size of the code and the internal memory required to operate the solution. (forbes.com)

A Closer Look At Johnson Controls' Focus On China
Johnson Controls formed a joint venture with Binzhou Bohai Piston Co., an auto parts affiliate of Beijing Automotive Industry Group Co. (BAIC Group), to build its fourth automotive battery plant in China. The production in this facility is expected to begin in 2018, with a capacity of six million automotive batteries. It entered the Chinese automotive battery supply market in 2005 and set up two manufacturing plants in Chongqing and Changxing. The plant in Chongqing city reflects an investment of $154 million and produces 6 million automotive batteries a year. Its third battery manufacturing facility is in the city of Shenyang, with an investment agreement of a $200 million plant. (forbes.com)

Why I Sold Micron Technology Before Earnings
After the close on May 5, my review of the Viper Hot Stocks scan favored Micron Technology (MU) which had closed at $28.20. I have held stocks through earnings but often will sell part of the position to reduce the overall risk. In the past few years, double digit moves have become more common in a reaction to earnings. That was the case for Autodesk (ADSK), as longs as it traded up over 14% in reaction to its earnings as longs from $89.26 were sold at $109.80. It is often a tough decision on whether you should sell a stock you are holding before it releases earnings. (forbes.com)

BNY Mellon Gets Fed Approval To Return Over $4 Billion To Shareholders
BNY Mellon has had little difficulty clearing the stress tests over the years thanks to its business model focusing on custody banking and asset management. Following the 2014 stress tests, BNY Mellon boosted quarterly dividends to $0.17 a share in Q2 2014, and maintained it at that level until Q2 2016. We include dividend payouts and share repurchases in our analysis of BNY Mellon in the form of an adjusted dividend payout rate as shown in the chart below. Taken together with $1.55 billion in expected purchases for the rest of the year (half of the total potential buybacks of $3.1 billion), this points to total share repurchases of almost $3 billion in 2017. As for the share buyback program, assuming BNY Mellon successfully issues the required preferred stock over coming months, total buybacks should be $3.1 billion over the next four quarters. (forbes.com)

How Netflix Can Benefit From Interactive Shows
The company’s research for interactive shows saw positive feedback, but the company hopes to collect more feedback via this pilot launch. As the streaming industry gets increasingly competitive, better content will continue to be a key differentiator and driver of subscriber growth. Netflix recently launched its first interactive show “Puss In Book,” where its viewers can choose what happens next in the story. As many children prefer to be in “control” of their characters, Netflix believes that an interactive show will keep them engaged. As content remains the key differentiating factor in the highly competitive streaming media segment, engaging interactive programs could help Netflix better engage viewers, which can improve loyalty. (forbes.com)

Bank of America Will Return Nearly $17 Billion To Shareholders Over The Next Four Quarters
Given the bank’s roughly 9.95 billion outstanding shares, the 2017 capital plan entails a payout of almost $17 billion to investors over Q3 2017 – Q2 2018. Notably, this payout is well below the $17.3 billion the bank returned to shareholders on average between 2005 and 2007. Dividends and share repurchases both crossed the $2 billion mark in 2015 – helping the total payout jump 52% that year. Also, share repurchases are likely to be $7.3 billion – $1.3 billion from the existing share repurchase program, and $6 billion being half of the newly announced plan. This is more than double the $8 billion figure announced by Bank of America as a part of its 2016 capital plan. (forbes.com)

Have a nice trading!

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