Good Evening. US equities extended this week’s downturn Wednesday, closing with losses in a turbulent session as the possibility of persistent rising rates and weakening GDP weighed on investor mood.
The S&P 500 fell 0.19%, finishing the day down for the fifth day in a row, while Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.51%. The Dow Jones finished the trading session flat at 0.00%.
BANKRUPTCY FEARS
Carvana (CVNA) stock dropped sharply after Bloomberg News reported, citing individuals familiar with the situation, that a group of Carvana’s ten largest lenders, who hold around $4 billion of the company’s unsecured debt, had agreed to work together in the event of a restructuring as the firm inches closer to bankruptcy.
However, upon the announcement of the deal, Wedbush analyst Seth Basham downgraded the stock to Underperform and lowered his price objective to $1 from $9, citing growing bankruptcy risk for the firm.
How has CVNA been holding up this year? Carvana’s stock price fell below $4 on Wednesday, marking the first time the company’s stock price has dipped below $5 since it went public in 2017. Carvana’s stock has dropped by more than 98% year to date.
INDEPENDENT REFINERS IGNORE PRICE CAP
It seems that Chinese refiners are continuing to import Russian oil despite the price restriction set by Western nations. However, due to sluggish demand, China’s independent refiners are facing the deepest discounts in months for Russia’s ESPO crude, traders told Reuters.
The EU, G7, and Australia set a price restriction on Russian crude oil on Monday, but China has not joined the so-called Price Cap Coalition, which prohibits ocean transportation services for Russian crude oil unless the commodity is sold at or below $60 per barrel.
Why do Chinese independent refiners still continue? At the end of the day, Chinese independent refiners are analyzing the numbers to determine whether the supplied pricing is profitable.
While China has not joined the Price Cap Coalition, analysts say that the existence of a price cap gives the world’s top crude oil importer, as well as other buyers of Russian crude such as India, more bargaining power to negotiate steep discounts for Russian crude even if the price cap mechanism is not in place.