Today we are watching…
1. Brown-Forman (#bfb)
The US-EU trade war has yet to pull down the entire market, but tariffs aren’t letting individual stocks off lightly. Brown-Forman’s whiskey exports to the European Union have fallen 27% as a result of retaliatory tariffs that have doubled their prices, and now President Trump is lining up for round two. Distillers are in for it, but positive discussions between both sides in Davos have given investors some hope, and now that Boris Johnson has got Brexit done, whiskey’s top market could soon find exemptions from Washington’s harsh border duties. Otherwise, investors will be drowning in their sorrows!
2. Roku (#roku)
One in three Smart TVs sold in the United States last year had the Roku operating system installed, proving that in spite of a hailstorm of competition from Comcast and Facebook, this company has its thumb on streaming hardware. Roku’s been on a tear since going public, the climbing hundreds of percent last year. Amazon has made an ominous streaming announcement of its own, however. It wants to bundle its own hardware with Prime Video, creating a direct challenge for Roku to confront! The company reports earnings today, hoping to avoid losses worse than 14 cents per share on rapidly growing revenues of $392 million.