Financial Mindset

EBay Inc. jumped more than 13% in after-hours trading on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported that video-game retailer GameStop Corp. is preparing a bid for the company. GameStop, led by e-commerce entrepreneur Ryan Cohen, has been building a position in the online auctioneer and plans to make an offer for the business this month.  Spokespeople for eBay and GameStop didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Shares in GameStop also rose. Cohen, the founder of pets supplies e-tailer Chewy , plans to turn the combined companies into a retail juggernaut, the newspaper reported. GameStop had a market value of $11.8 billion before the news broke, while eBay’s is much larger at around $46 billion. Both companies have struggled to adapt to changing consumer preferences. GameStop has shut stores and emphasized collectible toys and trading cards as more video games are purchased online. EBay has been pushing collectibles and used goods on its marketp...

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods predicted that crude oil and fuel prices will continue to surge higher in the weeks ahead if the Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded . Both Exxon and Chevron are projecting big profit gains in the ongoing second quarter because of higher prices, even with some of their Middle Eastern operations remaining disrupted. Exxon and Chevron reported first-quarter profits May 1 that beat market expectations, but they both saw their net incomes dip precipitously year-over-year because of lower oil prices early in the year, poorly timed financial hedges, and operational woes in the Middle East and beyond. Chevron, for instance, had to recover from a major fire in January at its massive Kazakhstan operations. Woods said oil prices—even above $100 per barrel—don’t come close to matching the “historically unprecedented disruption” of almost 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows through the Strait of Hormuz from the ongoing war in Iran. ...