#7 Beating expectations

We were still in the midst of the earnings season this week. And a pretty spectacular one at that. So far, 80% of the companies in the S&P 500 have been beating analysts' expectations, Bloomberg Business reports on Monday. Whether this is the result of the recent US tax reform or simply poor analyst forecasting is unclear but does that really matter? 


#6 Finally a T-Mobile Sprint deal

It finally happened, T-Mobile and Sprint announced their $26 billion all-stock deal, Reuters reported on Sunday. It took a while - no less than four years - but it seems that the two telecom businesses have now set the terms for the creation of a company with 126 million customers, according to the same Reuters article. 


#5 Sainsbury shares up 20%

There was more big merger news on Monday, this time coming from the UK. Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s - the second largest chain of supermarkets in the UK with a market share of 16.9% - agreed to a takeover of Asda (owned by Walmart). As a result, Sainsbury shares went up 20%.


#4 WhatsApp co-founder leaves

The fallout from the Facebook data scandal continues. WhatsApp co-founder and Facebook board of directors member Jan Koum announced in a post on Facebook that he was leaving the company.

Although he didn’t give a reason for his departure, the New York Times reports in an article on Monday that a company executive told them Koum had grown increasingly concerned about Facebook’s position on user data. 


#3 Low Saudi non-oil growth

Despite a higher oil price and more government spending, Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector activity in April was the lowest in nine years, Bloomberg Business reports on Thursday. The low activity was due to a weak domestic demand and exports but companies remain optimistic about the growth pace picking up again, according to the same Bloomberg article.


#2 Drone offers a helping claw

Even though strictly speaking it’s no financial news if you’ve regularly followed our weekly recaps you know we love to share some drone-related news every now and then (think of the drones on the catwalk and the pollination drones).

On Friday, Business Insider shared a video of a drone helping with manual tasks like carrying chairs and jerrycans of water, showing us yet another potential use of drones.


#1 European banking stocks a bargain?

Despite the rising yields, European banking stocks have lagged the market, Bloomberg Markets reports on Friday. The financials are starting to look like a bargain which, according to the Bloomberg article, could be just what the European stock markets need to close in on the gap with the US. 


Voila, that’s the first week of May captured in Tweets. As always, we’ll continue to track Twitter and bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you back here next week.

Source:
www.scoopnest.com