shares edged down 0.4% premarket. The New York private-equity firm agreed to buy U.K.-listed infrastructure investor and manager John Laing Group for $2.84 billion in cash.The British pound on Tuesday hit a new 52-week high against the U.S. dollar, when it gained 0.35% to trade at $1.4188.
Walmart shares gained almost 3% Tuesday morning, which was notable given that its share price had dropped after every earnings call in the previous four consecutive quarters. Yet Walmart stillat 0.7 times forward sales, compared with 0.9 times for Costco and 1.1 times for Target, according to FactSet.
On this day in 1568, one of the earliest known junk bonds was issued, as the Russia Co. borrowed 4,000 pounds, 8 shillings, and 10 pence from the British exchequer. The loan was priced to yield 13.5%, and the company had to repay it not with cash, but with hundreds of tons of cables and rope—making it one of the earliest “asset-backed” loans as well.