Weekly Market Updates: 4/15/19

Campbell’s Soup to Sell Bolthouse Farms Brand in Refocusing Effort ​

​Pitchbook data reveals that $43.6 billion in capital was spent on 27 M&A deals throughout last week, $28.4 billion more capital than the week before but on two fewer deals. Chevron (NYS: CVX) shelled out $33 billion to acquire Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum (NYS: APC) in the week’s largest deal.

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Uber Files for IPO, Citing Cash Set Aside for Driver’s to Purchase Shares

​According to the New York Stock Exchange, three companies listed with U.S. stock exchanges last week, all on the NYSE. The three firms – Tufin Software, PagerDuty and Jumia Technologies – raised total capital of $521.3 million, $1.1 billion less than the week before. Uber also officially filed for its long-awaited $1-billion IPO. In the filing, the firm revealed that it set aside up to $10 thousand per driver for common stock share purchases, with amounts based on the number of lifetime trips.

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Consumer Sentiment and Job Openings Decline as Fed Reconsiders Policy Change

Among economic news last week:
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• U.S. consumer sentiment, as recorded by the University of Michigan, fell to 96.9 from 98.4. Economists had been expecting a reading of 98.0. The survey cited that effects from the tax cut, which lasted for most of 2018, has run its course. A recent WSJ/NBC report found that of the two-thirds of households that received a tax cut, many are barely noticing a difference in their after-tax incomes. According to Oxford Economics, “Going forward, higher nominal incomes and lower inflation will be increasingly crucial drivers of sustained consumer confidence and, in turn, spending.”

 

• Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in March show that the Federal Reserve is leaving open the possibility for rate hikes yet this year should conditions improve. However, as of last Wednesday, “Futures markets were pricing in no chance of an increase and in fact a 55% chance that the Fed might choose to cut rates,” according to CNBC. Fed officials believe that, despite low growth predictions, GDP should “bounce back solidly” in the second quarter, as financial conditions have loosened. However, in the press conference following the meeting in March, the Fed indicated no further rate hikes were ahead this year, leaving room for much policy uncertainty.

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• The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, revealed that job openings decreased in February by the most since 2015 but still managed to outnumber the headcount of unemployed Americans. The number of positions available decreased by 538,000 to 7.09 million and all four geographic regions in the U.S. experienced a decline in openings. The “quits rate” held at 2.3%, which may indicate that Americans are confident in their ability to find new employment. Hiring eased to 5.7 million from 5.83 million in January.