Goodwin plc (LON: GDWN) have seen their shares crash on Thursday as the firm reported bruised figures for its interim profit update.

Goodwin PLC is a holding company. The Company operates through two segments: Mechanical Engineering, which is engaged in casting, machining and general engineering, and Refractory Engineering, which is engaged in powder manufacture and mineral processing.

Goodwin blamed political uncertainty as one of the main reasons for the fall in interim profit. Goodwin have not been the only firm in the UK business scene that have seen their results dampened by political complications.

Last week, MS International attributed their poor results to political and economic instability.

The firm showed that sales were down by little under £4.5 million, to £33.3 million, for the half year ended October 31st.

Additionally, big supermarket chain Asda who are owned by Walmart reported a quarterly slump.

“This quarter has afforded consumers little respite from political or economic uncertainty and this has shown in their spending,” said Chief Executive Roger Burnley.

Today, Goodwin have reported that pretax profit for the six months to October 31 slipped 5.1% to £7.4 million, despite revenue increasing by 3.8% to £70.1 million.

The company speculated on the second half of its financial year, and the firm expects profitability and trading figures to be similar to the first half.

“This is a feature of the disruption caused by the commotions in our parliamentary system over the past six months where the uncertainty has temporarily stalled projects,” said Chair Timothy Goodwin.

“With further clarity over Brexit, we will be looking to start capitalising from the tremendous success our group companies have had in winning large amounts of business from new market areas,” said Chair Goodwin.

“We have every reason to believe that the new financial year will allow our group companies to start increasing profit. We also expect to have further successes in winning significant new business due to the dedication and hard work of all who work within them,” he continued.

Increased demand for energy will drive the Mechanical Engineering unit, Goodwin noted however they remain skeptical by adding that the petrochemical market had not yet recovered.

The East Radar Systems business won its first overseas contract, the firm added however the ongoing feud between the US and China continued to hit demand.

Certainly both political and economic tensions continue to weigh down on British business, now that the election has been completed the cards fall into PM Johnson’s hand to decide on the next course of action to tackle Brexit.

Shares in Goodwin crashed 18.08% to 2,900p. 19/12/19 10:39BST.

The West Newton field is being operated in a joint partnership by both Reabold Resources PLC (LON: RBD) and Union Jack Oil PLC (LON: UJO).

Union Jack have been busy over the last few weeks, as the firm approaches the end of 2019. The firm has seen turbulence across the year, however this seems to be a good end to 2019 for the firm.

At the end of November, the firm expectedly saw its shares crash following an announcement of share placing plan.

The announcement made on November 27, told shareholders that the firm had raised £5 million through a share placing scheme.

The UK-focused oil exploration company had raised the new money via placing of 2.93 billion new shares at 0.15 pence each and subscription of 404.3 million shares at the same price.

Today, both firms have told the market that they are ready to commence operations at the West Newton field in the near future.

Reabold Resources PLC has a 39% stake in West Newton, via its 59% holding in operator and 67% shareholder Rathlin Energy UK Ltd. Union Jack Oil PLC holds a direct 17% stake in West Newton.

Both firms saw their operations suspended in August, to review the design of the well testing.

This review has now been completed and work is imminently pending subject to regulatory approval.

The design was reviewed following the discovery the Kirkham Abbey formation also contained liquid hydrocarbons, having previously been anticipated to be a “major” gas discovery.

Reabold co-Chief Executive Stephen Williams said: “Reabold is delighted with the progress that continues at the West Newton A-2 well to further our understanding of the discovery and welcomes the near-term resumption of the well test.

“Reabold’s recently increased interest in Rathlin provides us further exposure to what continues to develop into a very exciting, large-scale asset. Once the test is complete, we look forward to drilling the additional two wells to test the Kirkham Abbey formation and the potential of the Cadeby formation, which is considered a highly important and valued target.”

David Bramhill, executive chair of Union Jack, added: “We are pleased to report the progress that has been made to understand better the significance of the West Newton discoveries, to plan the resumption of the A-2 extended well test and design of the drilling programme for 2020 following extensive and painstaking technical work executed by both Rathlin and Union Jack’s technical teams.

“West Newton remains one of Union Jack’s flagship projects which will be evaluated in further detail during 2020.”

Shares in Union Jack trade at 0.16p dipping 4.55% on Wednesday. 18/12/19 18:36BST.

Shares in Reabold Resources PLC trade at 0.73p (-4.71%). 18/12/19 18:37BST.

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) have seen their shares drop as the firm updated the market on Wednesday with a timid outlook.

FedEx is the worlds largest packaging company, however the firm saw its shares dip today on what seemed to be a cautious speculation.

Shares of FedEx currently trade at $146, after seeing a 10.11% slump. 18/12/19 17:56BST.

The firm updated shareholders, entailing a profit warning although the company did remain optimistic that business will stabilize in the second half of its year.

Both FedEx and rival UPS (NYSE: UPS) have been under heavy pressure, as the logistics market has become competitive and more saturated.

Both firms have spent billions to upgrade their sorting centers, expanding their distribution network and improving services amid rising competition from multinationals such as Amazon and eBay.

Notably, the drop from FedEx was the biggest drop on the Dow Jones today and shareholders will be concerned about the update.

Fedex have made an ensured effort to try and turnaround business in what has been a relatively tough 2019.

The firm reported net income of $660 million for the three months ending November 30, down nearly 40% from the same period a year earlier. Revenue also fell to $17.3 billion from $17.8 billion over that time.

“We are at the bottom,” CEO of FedEx Ground Henry Maier said in a call with Wall Street analysts Tuesday, referring to the Ground division. “Our adjusted operating profit decline year-over-year is horrific … It’s going to improve in Q3 and it’s going to improve substantially in Q4, versus the prior year … We’re going to come up off the mat and improve through the rest of this year and into the next.”

It is also important to note that revenue was further bruised by the later than usual Thanksgiving holiday, which pushed Cyber Week shopping out of the quarterly update.

CEO Frederick Smith said the company has seen an “unbelievable response” from customers to the growth of six- and seven-day shipping services.

Analyst comments

“Industry fundamentals have yet to bottom … But recent progress on US-China trade agreements were viewed positively,” Baird Equity Research analyst Benjamin Hartford said in a note reported by Reuters.

“The bottom line, we think this could be a good stock as we head into 2020. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if shares didn’t close down all that much on Wednesday,” Oppenheimer analyst Scott Schneeberger said.

“We did not expect operational performance to have improved significantly after a weak Q1, as the group faced tougher comps and a greater Amazon volume headwind,” Berenberg analyst William Howard said.

“Given the steady performance from UPS and DHL, we think that the problems must at least be in part self-inflicted.”

Resolute Mining (ASX: RSG) have updated the market on Wednesday on a deal involving a power supply agreement.

On Monday, Resolute Mining told the market that they had appointed a new Chief Financial Officer in the figure of Stuart Gale. The appointment will become active from January 20, 2020.

Gale will be joining from Australian iron ore company Fortescue Metals Group (Ltd ASX: FMG) where he was group manager for Corporate Finance for nine years since 2010.

Today, the firm has given another update to shareholders that it has signed a power supply agreement for a new power station at the Syama gold mine in Mali.

The agreement was made with FTSE 250 listed Aggreko PLC (LON: AGK), and in this deal it seems that Resolute have backing off a serious firm in their industry.

Resolute announced the plans at the end of November, when it saw announced heads of terms being signed with Aggreko.

The plans come into action following an ensured effort to lower operating costs for Resolute, and the new plans will help reduce power costs by around 40%.

Resolute Chief Executive John Welborn said: “Aggreko is the right partner to support our power ambitions at Syama. I am delighted work has commenced and that we will deliver the power cost savings we have promised at Syama.

“A key component of our cost reduction strategies at Syama is the provision of lower cost power. We can now look forward to significantly lower energy costs, in line with our life-of-mine feasibility study expectations, as we focus on maximising the efficiencies of our new automated underground mine. Together, these initiatives, will allow us to deliver lower unit costs as well as providing an environmentally friendly, capital efficient expandable power solution for Syama.”

The initial phase of the power station is expected to be worked on and completed in 2020.

Stage two is dependent on when existing tailing storage facilities at Syama is decommissioned which could take up to three or four years.

Shares in Resolute Mining trade at AUD1.12 (-0.44%). 18/12/19 17:48BST.

United Oil & Gas PLC (LON: UOG) have given the market an update on their potential move to acquire Rockhopper Egypt Ltd from Rockhopper Exploration PLC (LON: RKH).

United Oil & Gas are a relatively young company, having only been trading since 2015.

The firm does have solid backing, as United is a former Tullow Oil team, with a strategy to acquire assets where the management team’s experience can drive near-term activity to unlock previously untapped value.

Last week, United updated the market by saying that they had conditionally raised $6.3 million to part fund their purchase.

United Oil and Gas undertook a conditional equity offer, raising $6.3 million gross through the issue of 159.0 million new shares at 3 pence per share.

Additionally, 150.6 million were conditionally places by brokers Optiva Securities and Cenkos Securities PLC.

The funding package includes prepayment financing of up to $8 million from BP Group PLC (LON: BP) with which United Oil & Gas has entered an off take agreement for United’s future production.

In todays update, Rockhopper updated the market by announcing the success of one well and the failure of another in Egypt.

At ASH-2, on the Abu Sennan concession, Rockhopper found 50 metres of net oil pay following the drilling of a hole 4,030 metres deep into the Alam El Bueib formation.

Rockhopper completed the well, perforated, and tested it, with “encouraging” results.

Total production at Abu Sennan is approbated at 5,100 barrels of oil per day, with 1,120 barrels of that net to Rockhopper given its stake.

The Rockhopper announcement was noted by United Oil & Gas PLC, which in July announced the $16 million purchase of Rockhopper’s Egyptian assets.

Shares in United Oil & Gas rose on the announcement by 1.59% to 3p. 18/12/19 17:36BST.

“Today’s announcement is further proof of the quality of the assets that United has agreed to acquire. Abu Sennan has a historic drilling success rate of over 80% and rising. Over the last year production at the licence has gone from just over 800 barrels to 1,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day net as a result of the successful four well development drilling campaign,” said UOG Chief Executive Brian Larkin.

“While we will wait to see the sustainable production levels on the ASH-2 well over the coming weeks, these initial results are excellent and we are confident this well will further increase production.”

“There is already a work programme in place for 2020, which will deliver a further four wells, significantly increasing newsflow from the company. We expect the transaction to complete in January 2020 following satisfaction of final conditions precedent,” Larkin continued.