Snap, the company behind the Snapchat messaging app, published results last night and gave the market something to cheer. Its shares have been under pressure since IPO, but with user numbers that beat expectations – and outstripped those of Facebook – it was perhaps no surprise that the company’s stock jumped 1.5% off the back of the news.
Solid numbers are out from the mining giant Rio Tinto this morning, with the announcement leading on the fact the company is paying out record dividends to shareholders this year of $5.2 billion – equivalent to $2.90 per share. That’s up 71% on last year’s figure and an added bonus was the fact that the company has also committed to buying back $1 billion worth of shares, meaning that 83% of underlying earnings will have been handed back to investors – certainly something worth cheering.
There’s a business update from chemicals company Johnson Matthey this morning, which includes news that an ongoing lawsuit has been settled. Resolution is going to cost the company £50 million, but the fact this issue is now finished can often be a signal for investors to rally behind a stock. Clearly there’s a lot of turbulence in markets this week so the positives may be overshadowed, but businesses are typically keen to get what at first pass may look like bad news out into the open.
