Apple Inc’s (AAPL) shares rose 3.08 percent to $122.72 on Tuesday. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon group will also use its cloud infrastructure software to manage Apple’s operating system, enabling it to provide on-demand services to developers on Mac OS.
The U.S. health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) rose 1.44 percent to $341.19, after raising its forecasts. The group forecasts that Covid-19’s expenses would reduce its growth for 2021, but expects adjusted income to rise by almost 9 percent and revenue close to $280 billion. The group expects adjusted earnings to be close to $16.75 per share for fiscal 2020, compared with a $16.50 to $16.75 range advanced in October. After adjustments, EPS for 2021 is anticipated to range from $17.75 to $18.25, with revenue between $277 billion and $280 billion expected. It is anticipated that expenditure on the virus will affect income by $1.8 per share.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) was up 0.97 percent to $38.50 in the session. The U.S. energy giant announced that it would write down a $17 billion to $20 billion record impairment loss on its natural gas reserves. The company also plans to lower its capital expenditure to its lowest level in 15 years next year. The decision is intended to protect the $15 billion annual shareholder payout, even though many economists, in the absence of higher oil costs, consider such a payment unsustainable.
Salesforce.com Inc (CRM) plunged -1.81 percent to $241.35 at ring of the bell. The drop was expected after the close, partly because of its quarterly results, but in particular for the official announcement of its acquisition of Slack Technologies Inc (WORK) (+2.2%), which the American press has been talking about since last Friday. The deal is likely to be half in cash and half in shares, according to ‘CNBC’. A premium will be offered, even on Slack’s existing rates, which currently weights $24.8 billion on NYSE compared to CRM giant Salesforce’s approximately $220 billion.
