Inside Investor morning report – April 21st

Oil worthless

In an unprecedented move, the oil price fell below $0 to negative $35; yes you read that right, sellers must now pay buyers of oil. Importantly, this only applies to oil for May delivery, and has been driven by the huge Russian and Saudi supply increases.

That being said June and July deliveries remain near all-time lows at $21 and $32 respectively suggesting the COVID-19 shutdown should be run and done by then. The result was a heavy fall in energy stocks with Exxon (-4.5%) and Marathon Oil (-4.7%).

Netflix reports

The S&P 500 matched the ASX 200’s (-2.5%) weakness on Monday, falling 2.5%, big tech gains not sufficient to offset the huge oil price fall. Netflix reported strongly, a prime beneficiary of the combination of millions working from home and many out of jobs.

The businesses constant flow of news shows including this week’s Michael Jordan documentary ‘The Last Dance’ has meant the share price is now up 36% for the year.

Virgin out?

In Australia, it looks like Virgin Australia Airlines (ASX: VAH) will be heading into voluntary administration with both the Federal Government and its many global shareholders unwilling to assist in recapitalising the company with the $1.4bn it needs.

The company may well come out of this, but it will require the white knight in the form of private equity capital or an additional fundraising. NAB was the first of the banks to increase write-downs (by around $500m) but management made no comments around their dividend policy.

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Drew Meredith

Drew is publisher of the Inside Network's mastheads and a principal adviser at Wattle Partners.