Diamonds and Dogs

4/30/18

The golden arches are shining brightly today. McDonald's (MCD) is jumping 5% to a multi-month high following better than expected earnings. Revenue did decline 10% to $5.15 billion, but did beat expectations. Global revenue fell 9.5% this quarter, but the company produced 11 consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales and the fifth consecutive quarter of positive guest counts. The company returned $2.5 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in the quarter.

Investors not so excited about a Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) merger deal. Sprint is down 13% while T-Mobile is down 4% as the two phone companies announced a $26 billion deal to merge to compete with AT&T and Verizon. Shareholders of Sprint, controlled by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, would get $6.62 per share for every share held. Deutsche Telekom AG, T-Mobile's majority owner, will own 42 percent and control the board of the combined company. SoftBank CEO rejected a deal with T-Mobile four months ago that was better for them than the current deal. The market is assuming that things must be pretty bleak at Sprint for them to return to the negotiating table after a mere four months to take a lower offer. Time will tell.