Facebook Stock Jumped 2.9%; Trading Volume Doubled
Facebook reported its earning last night, on the outset the headline number missed the forecast but the silver lining is that the difference wasn’t much. Overall, the earning’s report was mixed, EPS surged thanks to the one off tax cuts but the revenue growth was disappointing. You could clearly see that there was a pressure on the margin in this earnings report and this is due to the improvement in security and support the growth initiatives. The encouraging sign in the earning’s report was that the profit was still solid as the major concerns were that higher cost and slowing growth may create more obstacles. Facebook showed that it still has tools in its bag which can help the firm to pump up the numbers for active user-
In terms of technical analysis, the price has bounced off from its support zone but still trading below all the important moving averages 50,100 & 200 as shown on the chart. This confirms that the overall trend is to the downside.
Standard Charted Bank Delivers On Its Cost Cutting
Standard Charted Bank kept its focus straight, getting more out of Asia. The bank’s competitive edge only comes when it is able to squeeze more growth from China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Operating cost is mostly the key concern for investors and the bank showed that it has tightened its belt on this aspect. Standard Charted bank hold a precvious position when it comes to trade finance, and if the trade war continues at its current pace, we do think that the bank would see more adverse results. Most importantly, we do not think that the bank has enough safety net to protect against this given that the it is one of the world’s biggest trade finance bank. The bank continues to deliver more by improving return on equity and controlling cost and this would help to dispel any investor concerns. As long as the bank the retrun on equity remains elevated, the bank may not need to think about deep cost cuts. So far, it is anticipated that the bank’s operating cost would be in line with the first half.
The daily time frame chart for Standard Charted shows that the price is trading in a downtrend. We may see some sort of retracement becuase the 50-day moving average is trading well away from the price. The RSI also confirms this arguement as it is trading near a over sold zone.
