Month: August 2020

(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s quarterly revenue grew a better than expected 34%, signaling that Chinese consumer sentiment is recovering at a rapid clip from its Covid-19 trough.China’s most valuable corporation reported sales of 153.8 billion yuan ($22.2 billion) and net income of 47.6 billion yuan in the June quarter, both surpassing projections. Ant Group, Alibaba’s 33%-owned financial affiliate, grew profit roughly six-fold to $1.3 billion in the March quarter, offering a glimpse into its books in the run-up to a mega initial public offering in Hong Kong and mainland China.Alibaba’s online marketplaces and logistics network is bouncing back …read more […]

Cosmetics makers, including Estee Lauder, that rake in millions from sales at duty-free stores at airports, cruises and downtown locations have seen sales plummeting in its travel retail channel, as tourist spending has dried up due to restrictions on overseas travel and COVID-19 flare-ups in some tourist attractions. Estee Lauder projected first-quarter adjusted profit per share to be between 80 and 85 cents. Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $1.22 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. …read more […]

Do you have a backup plan?
If so, is it really any good?
Earlier this week, a friend asked about our time flying around in old floatplanes in Alaska. She wanted to know our most harrowing tale.
Easy… the time we got stuck in a downdraft.
Cool air came rushing down the face of a mountain. No matter how much power we gave it, it’s as if we were stuck in a balloon that was falling to the ground.
We couldn’t climb fast enough to get out of it.
For our soul’s sake, our pilot (and roommate) had a backup plan. Without hesitation, he read the …read more […]

Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Dan Barouch, joins ‘Influencers with Andy Serwer’ to discuss his experience with the coronavirus and his progress in the search for a vaccine. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Banks and other lenders have found a way to potentially make billions of dollars from the coronavirus-fueled upheaval in the U.S. mortgage market — yet it risks burning bond investors in the process.The earnings would come from an unanticipated side-effect of Congress’ decision in March to allow homeowners affected by the pandemic to delay loan payments for as long as a year, combined with arcane regulations governing mortgage-backed securities.The net result is that lenders would get the chance to buy tens of billions of dollars in mortgages out of bonds for less than their current market value — …read more […]

Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, August 20, 2020. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Asia technology shares slumped Thursday as investors reacted to a series of negative events from the simmering Sino-U.S. trade tensions to stretched valuations in the sector.The MSCI Asia Pacific Information Technology Index slipped as much as 3.3%, the most intraday since March 23. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has the biggest weighting on the index, slid as much as 6.2%, while Samsung Electronics Co., another heavyweight, ended 4.2% lower after Nvidia Corp. suggested the growth of its data center business will slow.There’s been “a euphoric demand” for tech stocks so far amid the spread of the coronavirus but …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Adyen NV said it poached new merchants from embattled German payments firm Wirecard AG, as the Dutch company reported a 27% rise in revenue for the first half of the year.The scandal that plagued competitor Wirecard proved to be a boost in Adyen’s favor. Retail merchants looked for payment processing alternatives following the German company’s spectacular collapse in June, when Wirecard filed for insolvency after admitting that almost 2 billion euros ($2.37 billion) previously reported as cash didn’t exist.“We certainly got some inbound from merchants that wanted to work with us,” Adyen Chief Financial Officer Ingo Uytdehaage said …read more […]

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio Inc has launched a battery leasing service that will allow drivers to buy an EV without owning the battery pack – one of the most expensive EV components – thereby lowering the starting price of its cars. The cheapest Nio car after subsidies is now an ES6 sport-utility vehicle (SUV) priced 273,600 yuan ($39,553) without ownership of the battery pack, versus 343,600 yuan including the pack. “We believe with BaaS, more customers of gasoline cars will consider electric vehicles,” Nio’s chief executive William Li told reporters. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — U.S. and European equity futures declined along with Asian stocks Thursday after Federal Reserve minutes signaled tempered optimism about second-half growth and as Sino-American tensions simmered. The dollar extended its rebound.Shares in South Korea and Taiwan saw the bulk of losses, with China, Hong Kong and Japan also lower. A drop in S&P 500 futures signaled Wednesday’s weakness may continue after the Fed noted the health crisis would “weigh heavily” on economic activity and repeated its view that the recovery path depends on virus containment. The greenback built on gains that came after a five-day selloff. Gold pared …read more […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation as more people are working from home and even education has moved online. The new normal has been favorable for many tech companies as the demand for PCs, laptops and other peripheral accessories has increased.Chip companies like Micron Technology, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, AMD and Intel are experiencing higher demand from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like personal computer manufacturers and gaming console makers. They are also seeing robust sales of chips to data centers.Using the TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool, we will place Intel and AMD alongside each other to see which stock offers the most …read more […]

Spot gold was up 0.9% at $1,946.09 per ounce by 0307 GMT, after declining more than 3.5% to a near one-week low on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures fell 0.9% to $1,952.90. The Fed on Wednesday warned the economic downturn triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic faces a highly uncertain path and reiterated the need for additional fiscal stimulus. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to slap TikTok-style sanctions on more Chinese companies. But for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the largest of them all, the bigger challenge is coming from its own backyard for now.Landing in the White House’s cross-hairs could endanger a roughly $695 billion empire spanning online retail, food delivery and internet computing, but growing competition at home is the most immediate challenge. Alibaba’s long-standing dominance in China’s e-commerce sphere is under steady erosion from JD.com Inc. and Pinduoduo Inc., while in social retail channels Tencent Holdings Ltd. and TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd. are vying for …read more […]

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) shares jumped in the after-hours session Wednesday as the company said it was entering into accelerated share repurchase agreements to buy a total of $10 billion of the company’s common stock.What Happened Upon the completion of the agreements, the chipmaker will have purchased nearly $17.6 billion in shares as a part of its share buyback plan announced in October 2019, the company said in a statement.The Santa Clara, California-based company said it would purchase 166 million shares under one such agreement, which is set to be completed by the end of this year.”While the macro-economic environment …read more […]

The company, with a market cap that has eclipsed Intel Corp, also beat Wall Street expectations for the second quarter. Before the market close on Wednesday, Nvidia’s shares had gained more than 185% over the past year and with a valuation of about 53 times expected earnings over the next 12 months. Nvidia said it expects third-quarter revenue of $4.40 billion, plus or minus 2%, compared with analysts’ estimates of $3.97 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. …read more […]