Year: 2020

(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc.’s newest services have yet to generate meaningful revenue, making it harder for the largest technology company to expand beyond the iPhone and other hardware.Last year, the Cupertino, California-based company launched four new services: TV+, Arcade, News+ and the Apple Card. After a few quarters on the market, the offerings haven’t contributed much to Apple’s top line.When Apple reports results on July 30, investors will be looking for updates on these offerings. Services growth has been a bright spot in recent years as iPhone sales have slowed. For the fiscal third quarter, analysts forecast $13.1 billion in …read more […]

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) has launched a recruiting bonanza in Shanghai to hire designers at its China studio and about 1,000 factory workers, job posts seen by Reuters show.The move is part of the U.S. electric vehicle maker’s plan to ramp up manufacturing in the world’s biggest auto market. Back in January, Tesla announced plans to open a design and research centre in China to make “Chinese-style” cars.The posts on the Tesla human resources department’s official WeChat account mark the first time the California-based automaker has sought to hire designers in China. However, the posts did not reveal how many designers …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Gold has just smashed a record, and every major bank agrees that it’ll cross $2,000 an ounce. What happens next is where forecasts diverge.JPMorgan Chase & Co. says the rally that has already seen prices rise 28% in 2020 could start to lose steam later this year. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp aren’t ready to call it quits just yet, with the former expecting higher prices for longer and the latter seeing the metal soaring to as high as $3,000 an ounce.Gold has emerged as the safe haven of choice among investors as the pandemic upends …read more […]

Shares in Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (SPPI) jumped 71% in extended trading after announcing positive topline results from a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating its poziotinib in previously treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).The stock soared to $5.53 in Monday’s after-market trading. Spectrum said that it met the pre-specified primary endpoint in the poziotinib ZENITH20 Phase 2 clinical trial.Cohort 2 of the ZENITH20 clinical trial enrolled a total of 90 patients who received an oral, once daily dose of 16 mg of poziotinib. All the patients had failed at least one prior therapy with 60 patients (67%) having failed two or more …read more […]

Intel Corp. (INTC) is ordering its 6-nanometer (nm) chips to be manufactured by TSMC (TSM) for next year, according to a report from the Taiwan-based newspaper Commercial Times.The news is considered unprecedented for Intel, a prominent chip manufacturer, now using a third-party manufacturer to create its own product. On July 23, Intel announced that it would see significant delays until 2022 for its latest cutting-edge 7-nm chip. Intel CEO Bob Swan said on a Q2 earnings call that the company has “invested in contingency plans to hedge against further schedule uncertainty” and that it could involve “somebody else’s foundry.”The Commercial …read more […]

F5 Networks (FFIV) reported stronger-than-expected 3Q results fueled by increased demand for digital solutions. Its adjusted earnings of $2.18 per share surpassed analysts’ expectations of $2.04 and came in higher than its guidance of $1.91-$2.13 per share, the company said on July 27.Adjusted revenues in the third quarter increased 4% to $585.9 million year-over-year and beat Street estimates of $572.9 million.“Large enterprise customers are accelerating their digital transformations, increasing their digital engagement, and boosting capacity and security on customer-facing applications and on platforms that enable employee collaboration,” said F5 CEO François Locoh-Donou. “Demand for solutions to meet these immediate and …read more […]

Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya said on July 27 that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is the biggest beneficiary of Intel’s (INTC) 7-nanometer product delay. During its second-quarter earnings release on July 23, the chipmaker announced that the launch of its new processor chips would be postponed by a year.The five-star analyst reiterated his Buy rating on the stock and raised the price target to $77 (11.6% upside potential) from $65, saying that “he has higher confidence in AMD’s medium/longer-term prospects.”Arya pointed out that Intel’s product “delay could accelerate AMD market share gains back toward their historical peaks of 20% for …read more […]

Following Intel’s (INTC) disastrous 7nm product delay due to a process “defect mode”, the company has announced a major shakeup to its tech team – including the departure of Chief Engineering Officer Murthy Renduchintala on August 3 2020.According to Intel this will “accelerate product leadership and improve focus and accountability in process technology execution.”The Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) will be separated into five teams, with leaders reporting directly to CEO Bob Swan: 1. Technology Development – Run by Dr. Ann Kelleher & Dr. Mike Mayberry with the focus on 7nm and 5nm processes. 2. Manufacturing …read more […]

The coronavirus crisis may have triggered the long-anticipated tipping point in oil demand and it is focusing minds in OPEC. The pandemic drove down daily crude consumption by as much as a third earlier this year, at a time when the rise of electric vehicles and a shift to renewable energy sources were already prompting downward revisions in forecasts for long-term oil demand. It has prompted some officials in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil’s most powerful proponent since it was founded 60 years ago, to ask whether this year’s dramatic demand destruction heralds a permanent …read more […]

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Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX) have announced the start of a global (except for China) Phase 2/3 safety and efficacy clinical study to evaluate a single nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) candidate from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program against SARS-CoV-2.Shares in Pfizer rose 2% in Monday’s after-hours trading, while BioNTech was up 6%.After reviewing clinical data and consulting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other global regulators, the two companies have now chosen to continue their BNT162b2 vaccine candidate into the Phase 2/3 study, at a 30 µg dose level in a 2 dose regimen.BNT162b2, which recently …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. has offered to buy out and take private search engine Sogou Inc. in a $2.1 billion deal, adding to a slew of Chinese technology giants seeking to delist from U.S. bourses.Shares of the social media heavyweight climbed as much as 4.7% Tuesday, buoyed by speculation it will more closely integrate Sogou’s AI technology with its own services and devices to gain an edge on rivals like TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd.Tencent has in past years come under pressure from ByteDance and other up-and-coming rivals in the emergent short-video arena. Beijing-based Sogou — whose name translates as “search …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — With the euro surging to its highest level for six years, based on the European Central Bank’s trade-weighted index, the doom-mongers predicting the dollar’s demise as the world’s reserve currency of choice have started chorusing once more. As usual, they will be proved wrong.Traders who’ve been speculating that the common currency would benefit from the euro zone’s superior pandemic response, at least when compared with the U.S., have been rewarded for their faith. The euro is up by 4.3% against the dollar this year, and is at its strongest since 2014 versus a basket of the currencies …read more […]

By 0254 GMT, spot gold was up 1.4% at $1,969.76 per ounce after scaling a fresh peak of $1,980.57 in early Asian trade. U.S. gold futures climbed 1.7% to $1,963.30. One of the major factors for gold’s run is the weakening of the dollar ahead of the Fed meeting, which is expected to reiterate an “accommodative” stance, said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets. …read more […]

Hyundai Motor Co, an early backer of hydrogen cars, has watched the electric rise of Tesla, including on its home turf. The South Korean company plans to introduce two production lines dedicated to electrics vehicles (EVs), one next year and another in 2024, according to an internal union newsletter seen by Reuters. Euisun Chung, leader of the Hyundai Motor Group conglomerate that also includes Kia Motors, has also held a series of meetings since May with his counterparts at Samsung, LG and SK Group, which make batteries and electronic parts. …read more […]