Dow went up 22, decliners slightly ahead of advancers & NAZ rose 44. The MLP index was fractionally lower to 150 & the REIT index gained 4+ to the 392s. Junk bond funds drifted lower & Treasuries are being purchased. Oil climbed in the 48s & gold added 2 to 1840.
AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)
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Coca-Cola (KO), a Dow stock & Divided Aristocrat, forecast a return to organic reveue growth this year after a pandemic-hammered 2020 & beat estimate for quarterly profit on aggressive cost cutting. The health crisis has accelerated the soda maker's efforts to trim
hundreds of its underperforming brands & shift toward popular products
such as sparkling waters & zero-sugar sodas, while also influencing a
major restructuring that included thousands of job cuts. “The
progress we made in 2020, including the actions taken to accelerate the
transformation of our company, gives us confidence in returning to
growth in the year ahead,” CFO James Quincey said. For 2021, the company expects adjusted earnings to grow in the
high-single digits to low-double digits & organic revenue to rise in
the high-single digits. Organic
revenue declined 9% last year, as pandemic-related curbs closed the
doors of non-retail channels such as restaurants, cinemas & sporting
events that account for over a 3rd of the company sales. Meanwhile,
the company warned it expects a liability of about $12B related
to a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on how much it
charged foreign affiliates for the rights to make & sell KO
products abroad. Net revenue fell 5% to $8.6B in Q4, just short of expectations of $8.63B. On a per share basis, EPS was 47¢, 5¢ more than the estimate. The stock went up 15¢.
If you would like to learn more about KO, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/KO?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Coca-Cola expects sales growth to return in 2021
Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to announce Germany will extend its lockdown until Mar 14 amid concerns over new strains of the coronavirus. A draft document emerged today outlining plans between Merkel & state officials to maintain the lockdown & to urge that citizens maintain social-distancing rules, but to gradually lift some restrictions in the coming weeks. The re-opening of schools is a priority for the German leadership, although the country's federal system means that individual states are expected to be able to decide how to do this. The reopening of shops & hotels could begin next month in areas where the infection rate is low too. Restrictions were due to end on Feb 14. There are concerns in Germany over the spread of more contagious variants of the virus, particularly the mutation first discovered in the UK last fall. Yet Germany's daily number of new infections has been falling amid a continued lockdown of public life across the country. A public health body reported 8072 new coronavirus cases today & 813 deaths, bringing the total number of infections to date to around 2.3M & the death toll to 63K. Earlier today, one German lawmaker reportedly described the situation as “highly fragile.”
Germany set to extend lockdown on concerns over new coronavirus variants
US consumer borrowing grew at a slower pace in Dec, ending a year when the coronavirus pandemic kept spending in check. Total consumer credit increased $9.7B to $4.18T in Dec. That's a 2.8% annual growth rate & follows a revised 4% growth rate in the prior month, according to Federal Reserve data. The forecast expected a $12B gain. Revolving debt, mainly credit cards, fell 3.6% rate in Dec, the 9th decline in the past 10 months. Revolving credit decreased 11.2% for all of 2020. That's the first decline since 2012. Nonrevolving debt, typically auto & student loans, rose at a 4.8% rate after a 5.5% gain in the prior month. The nonrevolving category is less volatile & it rose at a 3.9% pace over 2020. The data don't include mortgage loans. Consumer credit is a clear example of how the pandemic has turned the economy on its head. Before the health crisis, credit-card debt generally increased at a steady pace. Economists don't expect much turnaround in the near-term as the weak labor market will likely weigh on consumer spending until vaccines are more widely available. In the final analysis, the economy won't return to full health until Americans are willing to mingle. Separate Fed data show banks eased standards on credit-card lending in Q4, reversing a trend from earlier in the year. In a new survey, the American Bankers Association said bank economists expect credit market conditions to remain soft over the next 6 months, but that pessimism has waned since the prior reading last Sep.
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