David Hogg Takes On Trump Toady Mike Lindell With New Pillow Company

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg is starting a pillow company with software entrepreneur William LeGate to compete with right-wing election denier Mike Lindell’s MyPillow.

“This pillow fight just got very real,” Hogg, who has become a prominent gun control activist, declared on Twitter Thursday.

Their venture — which Hogg and LeGate insist is not a hoax — aims to be a progressive alternative to bedding produced by the Donald Trump-promoting Lindell.

Hogg and LeGate revealed their plans for the business via multiple tweets.

“It’s going to take a couple of months though because we’re not going to sacrifice quality for time,” wrote Hogg. The company’s website will be live soon,  he added.

“I never have been so excited about a pillow in my life,” Hogg said. “This kinda feels like a fever dream.”

Lindell, who continues to promote the baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, appeared unfazed by the challenge.

“Good for them. … nothing wrong with competition that does not infringe on someone’s patent,” he told Axios.

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Illinois Tool Works Sees FY21 Profit In Line With View

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) said that it expects earnings per share for fiscal year 2021 to be in a range of $7.60 to $8.00 per share, an increase of 15 to 21 percent. It projects annual organic growth to be in the range of seven to ten percent. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $7.68 per share for fiscal year 2021. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Annual revenue is expected to grow in the range of nine to twelve percent as foreign currency translation at current exchange rates is projected to increase revenues by approximately two percent.

The company plans to repurchase approximately $1 billion of its shares in 2021.

Brown Bidco To Acquire Signature Aviation – Quick Facts

The boards of Brown Bidco Limited and Signature Aviation plc have reached agreement on the terms and conditions of a recommended cash acquisition by Brown Bidco of the entire issued, and to be issued, ordinary share capital of Signature, other than signature shares owned or controlled by Cascade and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. Brown Bidco Limited is a newly formed company to be indirectly owned by joint offerors: Blackstone Infrastructure and Blackstone Core Equity, Global Infrastructure Partners and Cascade. The acquisition values Signature’s ordinary share capital at approximately 3.46 billion pounds. Each Scheme shareholder will be entitled to receive: for each Scheme share: 411 pence.

The Signature directors have withdrawn their recommendation of the offer by GIP IV Hancock Bidco, L.P. a partnership controlled by Global Infrastructure Partners.

Crude Oil Futures Settle Higher For 4th Straight Day

Crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday, extending gains to a fourth straight session, on continued optimism that crude oil supplies will drop thanks to OPEC and its allies’ commitment to reduce output to stabilize the oil market.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.54 or about 1% at $56.23 a barrel, recovering well after drifting down to $55.30 a barrel around late morning.

Brent crude futures were up $0.12 or 0.2% at $58.81 a barrel a little while ago.

OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, extended their current oil output policy at a meeting on Wednesday. Amid uncertain prospects for the global economy, there wasn’t any recommendation about changing the production levels of the alliance.

Ministers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia struck a note of cautious optimism about global oil markets and “stressed the importance of accelerating market re-balancing without delay.”

The oil market continued to benefit from data showing a drop in crude inventories last week. The Energy Information Administration’s report on Wednesday showed U.S. crude inventories dropped by 994,000 barrels last week to 475.7 million barrels, their lowest since March.

Gasoline inventories were up by 4.466 million barrels, more than 4 times the expected increase, while distillate stockpiles fell 9,000 barrels in the week, more than twice the expected drop.

Gold Edges Higher After Steep Fall

Gold prices edged higher on Friday after hitting over two-month lows in the previous session amid continued strength in the U.S. dollar.

Spot gold edged up 0.7 percent to $1,806.93 per ounce, after having fallen more than 2 percent to its lowest since Dec. 1 on Thursday. U.S. gold futures were up 0.9 percent at $1,808.10. There is some technical rebound as investors think Thursday’s drop was overdone.

The dollar headed for its best weekly gain in three months amid signs of resilience in the U.S. labor market. As the pace of vaccination distribution picks up, there is growing confidence that the U.S. economic recovery will outpace its global peers.

The U.S. Labor Department will release its closely-watched report on the employment situation in the month of January later in the day.

Economists expect employment to rise by 50,000 jobs in January after a decline of 140,000 jobs in December.

Markets have ramped bets on stimulus and Covid-19 vaccines to fuel a swift economic rebound.

European Economics Preview: Germany Factory Orders Data Due

Factory orders from Germany and Halifax house prices from the UK are due on Friday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is slated to issue Germany’s factory orders for December. Economists forecast orders to fall 1 percent on month, reversing a 2.3 percent rise in November.

In the meantime, industrial production data is due from Statistics Norway.

At 2.45 am ET, current account and foreign trade reports are due from France.

At 3.00 am ET, retail sales from the Czech Republic and industrial production from Hungary are due. Hungary’s industrial output is forecast to climb 2.0 percent annually in December, following a 3.5 percent rise in November.

Half an hour later, UK Halifax house price report is due. Monthly house price growth is seen at 0.3 percent in January versus +0.2 percent in December.

Also, Statistics Sweden publishes industrial production and orders at 3.30 am.

At 4.00 am ET, Italy’s Istat releases retail sales data for December. Sales had dropped 6.9 percent on month in November.