Apache Corp. Q2 adjusted earnings Beat Estimates

Below are the earnings highlights for Apache Corp. (APA):

-Earnings: -$397 million in Q2 vs. -$360 million in the same period last year.
-EPS: -$1.02 in Q2 vs. -$0.96 in the same period last year.
-Excluding items, Apache Corp. reported adjusted earnings of -$281 million or -$0.74 per share for the period.
-Analysts projected -$1.01 per share
-Revenue: $0.60 billion in Q2 vs. $1.62 billion in the same period last year.

Almost 30 Million in U.S. Didn’t Have Enough to Eat Last Week

Food insecurity for U.S. households last week reached its highest reported level since the Census Bureau started tracking the data in May, with almost 30 million Americans reporting that they’d not had enough to eat at some point in the seven days through July 21.

In the bureau’s weekly Household Pulse Survey, roughly 23.9 million of 249 million respondents indicated they had “sometimes not enough to eat” for the week ended July 21, while about 5.42 million indicated they had “often not enough to eat.” The survey, which began with the week ended May 5, was published Wednesday.

The number of respondents who sometimes had insufficient food was at its highest point in the survey’s 12 weeks. The number who often experienced food insufficiency was at its highest since the week ended May 26.

This follows deep recession resulting from the pandemic, which put millions of Americans out of work. Unemployed Americans have been receiving an extra $600 per week benefit, which is set to expire at the end of July as Congress debates a new relief package.

Other high-frequency data, including Household Pulse jobs numbers, indicate that the U.S. economic recovery may be stalling out at virus cases spike around the country and states roll back their reopening plans.

MKS Instruments Q2 Profit Rises

MKS Instruments, Inc. (MKSI), Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $73.7 million or $1.33 per share, up from $37.7 million or $0.69 per share last year.

Net revenues for the quarter rose to $544.3 million from $474.1 million last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.18 per share and revenues of $491.82 million. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company expects revenues of $535 million to $585 million and adjusted earnings of $1.55 to $1.95 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.13 per share on revenues of $474.05 million.

Amazon scraps live Reinvent conference in Las Vegas, will be all-virtual instead

• The Reinvent show dates to 2012.
• Last year the event drew 65,000 people.

Amazon's cloud unit will hold its Reinvent conference digitally, rather than in Las Vegas, in November and December, a spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday.

The continuing spread of the coronavirus caused other technology companies — including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft — to cancel in-person events this year. Amazon Web Services' Reinvent usually gives customers an opportunity to mingle with Amazon and third-party vendors, along with Amazon employees. As the annual gathering for the market-leading cloud provider, it has provided networking, marketing and sales opportunities for people in the world of enterprise software. 

The new version will be free and will run longer than the previously planned version. It will start on November 30 and end on December 18, according to the Reinvent website, rather than the original plan to run from November 30 to December 4.  AWS will provide more details on the digital event in the next few weeks, the spokesperson said.

Google's cloud business is currently running its Next virtual conference over a period of weeks. 

AWS has held the Reinvent conference in Las Vegas every year since 2012, announcing a slew of new products each time. Last year 65,000 people attended the event.

WATCH: Stephanie Link: You'll see operating leverage in AWS

United gives employees longer to decide on exit deals

July 29 (Reuters) – United Airlines on Wednesday extended a deadline for most employees to decide whether to take voluntary furlough deals to Aug. 10, as it waits to see if the U.S. Congress extends an airline bailout in the first week of August.

United announced the extension in a memo to employees seen by Reuters, adding that it was working with unions, which are lobbying U.S. lawmakers for an extension of the bailout that would prevent voluntary furloughs and delay impact on employees until 2021.

United confirmed the memo and declined to comment further. (Reporting By Tracy Rucinski, editing by Peter Henderson and Cynthia Osterman)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized For Non-Surgical Procedure

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being hospitalized after she underwent a non-surgical procedure.

The court’s press office said that the justice was resting comfortably and expected to be released by the end of the week.

“Justice Ginsburg underwent a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure today at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to revise a bile duct stent that was originally placed at Sloan Kettering in August 2019,” the court said. “According to her doctors, stent revisions are common occurrences and the procedure, performed using endoscopy and medical imaging guidance, was done to minimize the risk of future infection.”

Earlier this month, Ginsburg said that she was being treated for a recurrence of cancer but will remain on the court.

“A periodic scan in February followed by a biopsy revealed lesions on my liver,” she said in a statement, adding that a chemotherapy course was “yielding positive results.” She said that she will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy treatment, but is able to continue an “active daily routine.”

Ginsburg, 87, is the second longest serving justice on the court, after Clarence Thomas. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1993.

Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital earlier this month for the treatment of a possible infection. The court said that she underwent an endoscopic procedure to clean out the bile duct stent.