Home BancShares reports on 2Q today
Conway-based Home BancShares will release its second-quarter earnings today before the market opens.
The company's executives will conduct a conference call to discuss the information beginning at 1 p.m.
Access to the conference is available by calling (877) 508-9586.
The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters projected that the bank will report earnings of 33 cents per share for the quarter.
-- David Smith
McCormick to acquire French's Mustard
LONDON -- McCormick & Co. will account for more space in U.S. cupboards after agreeing to buy French's Mustard and Frank's Red Hot sauce in a deal worth $4.2 billion.
The spice-maker, based in Sparks, Md., near Baltimore, will acquire the food business of Reckitt Benckiser, the British consumer-goods company, and intends to finance the deal through a combination of debt and equity. The business includes the French's, Frank's Red Hot and Cattlemen's brands.
The sale, announced late Tuesday, came after Reckitt Benckiser announced a strategic review in April of its food business.
The acquisition of Frank's Red Hot, French's mustard and "other beloved products enables McCormick to become a one-stop shop for condiment, spice and seasoning needs, providing our customers and consumers with an even more diverse and complete flavor product offering," Lawrence E. Kurzius, the McCormick chairman, president and chief executive, said in a news release.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of McCormick's fiscal year, which ends in November.
-- The Associated Press
Efforts futile, Wall Street still unpopular
Bad news for financial titans like JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd Blankfein: According to the latest Bloomberg National Poll, most Americans hold unfavorable views of Wall Street banks and corporate executives and distrust billionaires more than they admire them.
Despite efforts by Wall Street firms to regain trust since the 2008 financial crisis, fewer than a third of Americans view the industry positively -- unchanged from 2009.
Dimon, 61, and Blankfein, 62, each chief executive officers for more than a decade, have sought to influence the public policy debate on issues including infrastructure investment, regulation, education, immigration and revamping corporate taxes. Both were revealed as billionaires in 2015, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Yet the poll shows that Americans are much more likely to distrust billionaires than admire them, 53 percent to 31 percent. And just 31 percent look favorably on corporate executives and Wall Street.
The telephone poll of 1,001 American adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, higher among subgroups. It was conducted July 8-12 by Iowa-based Selzer & Co.
-- Bloomberg News
Housing starts rebound in June in U.S.
WASHINGTON -- Homebuilders ramped up construction in June to the fastest pace in four months, led by surges in the Northeast and Midwest.
Housing starts climbed 8.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The gain ended three-straight monthly declines and marked the strongest pace of building since February. Home construction has risen 3.9 percent year-to-date, but that slight increase hasn't made up for the decrease in previously owned homes being listed for sale.
The June housing figures point to healthy demand that new construction alone has been unable to satisfy. Fewer existing homes are being listed for sale, while purchase prices for newly built homes have surged at pace more than six times wage growth. As a result, more Americans are rushing to purchase homes but are struggling to do so because of a lack of supplies and higher costs.
Builders also face higher costs for land and materials, putting a limit on just how much construction can occur.
"Steady gains in construction are expected over the next year, supported by still-strong fundamental demand for housing," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "But acting as a bit of a roadblock are problems that the builders face: rising lumber costs, and shortages of labor and lots to build on, which will boost pricing."
-- Bloomberg News
Morgan Stanley tops Goldman in rerun
Morgan Stanley's bond traders are 2-0 this year against Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
For a second-straight quarter, Morgan Stanley posted more fixed-income revenue than its bigger competitor in one of Wall Street's most hotly contested arenas, reporting the smallest drop among top U.S. investment banks on Wednesday. Equities trading also outperformed Goldman Sachs, as did the firm's return on equity.
Morgan Stanley may have benefited from Chief Executive Officer James Gorman's strategy of scaling back in commodities, selling stakes in businesses after regulatory scrutiny and low returns. That helped during a quarter in which Goldman Sachs, which had topped Morgan Stanley in fixed-income trading for more than 20 consecutive quarters, said it generated the least commodities revenue since it went public 18 years ago. Gorman also overhauled the New York-based bank's fixed-income business in recent years by cutting 25 percent of the division's staff.
The firm's $1.24 billion in fixed-income revenue -- a 4.5 percent drop -- edged out the $1.16 billion that Goldman Sachs reported Tuesday and beat analysts' estimates. Equities trading also exceeded expectations, producing $2.16 billion in revenue, a figure that was almost unchanged from a year earlier.
Morgan Stanley's net income jumped 11 percent to $1.76 billion, or 87 cents a share, from $1.58 billion, or 75 cents, a year earlier. That compares with the 77-cent average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Wealth-management revenue advanced 9 percent to $4.15 billion as markets climbed, compared with the $4.12 billion prediction from Jason Goldberg of Barclays Plc. Investment-banking revenue rose 28 percent to $1.4 billion on higher volumes in equity and debt underwriting, compared with analysts' $1.18 billion estimate.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 07/20/2017