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May 03, 2019

The week in investor relations: Uber IPO hits the road

This week’s IR-related stories from around the web

As Uber’s much-discussed IPO gets into gear, it is already oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg. Uber has met potential investors in London and New York and will also visit Boston and San Francisco. The IPO values the company at almost $84 bn, noted Bloomberg.

US stocks saw a fall on Thursday after comments by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell created a downward ripple effect in the market, reported CNBC. Powell said recent low-inflation pressures may just be ‘transitory’, indicating that a rate cut is unlikely in the near future, which created frustration in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a fall of 122.35 points or 0.46 percent. The S&P 500 also dropped 0.21 percent while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.16 percent.

Good news for the US: job growth grew in April and unemployment fell to a more than 49-year low of 3.6 percent, according to Department of Labor monthly employment statistics, reported Reuters. The numbers show some wage increases last month, in line with moderate inflation.

Metro Bank, which entered the UK high street in 2010, saw its shares plummet to an all-time low this week after a serious internal error contributed to a 50 percent drop in quarterly profits, according to The Guardian. The bank revealed in January that millions of pounds of commercial property loans had been inaccurately classified in terms of risk. UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has begun an investigation.

The ubiquitous Elon Musk announced that his company – Tesla – is seeking to raise near to $2 bn in the markets, according to The New York Times. Wall Street analysts are cited as noting that Tesla’s progress indicated the company would raise more capital from the public markets.

Sage of Omaha Warren Buffett, despite not being a fan of tech stocks, has been buying Amazon shares – though it wasn’t Buffett who made the purchases. It was a colleague at Buffett’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway, CNBC reported. ‘I’ve been a fan, and I’ve been an idiot for not buying,’ Buffett is cited as saying. 

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