Daily Updates to watch out for!

[ZakifromVested]

Here’s what you should watch out for today in the stock market:

Pfizer - Arena Pharmaceuticals shares were up by 92% after it was reported that the stock will be acquired by Pfizer is up ticking itself by 3%.

Qualcomm - is up by around 5% due to adding a member of Qualcomm(R) Authorized Design Center Program’s automotive program. Lantronix joined the program which is invitation only, which assists companies in accelerating innovation by connecting customers with an ecosystem of businesses that provide tools and deep expert design services.

“We are proud to be named a member of the Qualcomm Authorized Design Center’s Automotive Solutions Ecosystem Program, which will bring engineering and design expertise to our mutual customers while helping fast-track innovation,” said Paul Pickle, CEO of Lantronix. “With the program, Lantronix is positioned to accelerate the commercialization of automotive products, which will include customization, optimization and other design and integration services built around the 3(rd) Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms.”

NRG - NRG Energy Inc. has launched a $1 billion share buyback program after the company closed the sale of some of its fossil-generating assets to ArcLight Capital Partners LLC affiliate Generation Bridge.

The Houston-based energy company plans to buy back shares beginning in 2021 and throughout next year, the company said.

Harley Davidson - is up by around 17% after it said its electric-vehicle division plans to go public in a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. Harley-Davidson said its LiveWire electric-motorcycle arm would merge with AEA-Bridges Impact a SPAC, to make LiveWire publicly traded. The deal gives LiveWire an enterprise value of about $1.77 billion. The SPAC’s shares gained 3.5%.

Apple - a company nearing $3T in Market Cap, One of the underlying keys to Apple’s 2022 growth will be the launch of the budget-friendly 5G iPhone SE model, which could drive substantial upgrades from consumers and lure in Android users looking to upgrade to a 5G phone.

That’s all for now Folks!

[Vested]

Things you should know before the market opens

Inflation is accelerating at the highest rate in 39 years. It seems that the Fed’s decision to keep pushing labour market indicators back to pre-pandemic levels was too inflexible.

Crypto is making its stop in the sports industry Nike is taking a big leap into Metaverse by continuing its exploration of blockchain technologies which started in 2019 with its patent in tokenized shoes. Metaverse fashion is also a rapidly expanding sector. A rival NFT streetwear project, Cryptokickers, signed a first-ever digital shoe deal with former National Basketball Association star Wilson Chandler in April.

Nvidia slips by 2.28% or around $6.41 per share at the time of writing this, the reason is the Federal Trade Commission has sued to block the acquisition of ARM worth 40B.

Moderna dropped considerably as the flu data disappointed. “There is going to be a debate on whether it’s truly better than newer high-efficacy vaccines from [Sanofi]”

Some notable gainers were:

Arista Network: Named as a top pick for 2022 in JPMorgan Networking & Hardware note; maintained overweight rating. The company designs and sells multilayer network switches to deliver software-defined networking for large datacenter, cloud computing, high-performance computing, and high-frequency trading environments.

UserTesting: Analysts are positive about the company’s enterprise positioning and valuation, although they did note high competition. The price target was raised to $15.

Happy Investing

[ZakifromVested]

Vamos Amigos! Things you should know at the opening bell:

It was reported by The Verge that Google is staffing up to build an OS for an unknown AR device. Google was relatively quiet about its AR/VR ambition but it’s jumping into Metaverse. AR seems to be a competitive space and will be mostly dominated by Big Tech. The leader of the “OS team for Augmented Reality at Google” will be Mark Lucovsky, who previously spent four years as general manager for Operating Systems at Oculus VR/Facebook and had earlier stints at Google and Microsoft.

Metaverse is in the buzz, we’ve Intel revealing their plan - executives said that the firm is working on software that will help laptops tap into computing power from other devices which includes chips from its rivals.

Here are some notable gainers:

Gitlab was up due to acquiring Opstrace - an Open Source Observability Distribution - “Observability” is a software monitoring approach chiefly concerned with metrics, logs, and traces, and involves measuring the internal state of a system by analyzing the raw data outputs to understand what may be impacting an application’s performance. Gitlab was also up due to, Holder Iconiq Strategic Partners purchase of 640K shares, bringing its stake to 2.4M shares of common stock.

Axon - Resumed coverage at market outperform at JMP Securities, target $195.

Zscaler declined considerably as it was downgraded to underweight from neutral at JPMorgan, target to $320 from $362, part of its software industry note.

That’s all folks! Diversify with ease!

[ZakifromVested]

Adobe has released Creative Cloud Express, a free programme that allows users to rapidly create graphics, edit pictures, cut movies, and conduct other basic design modifications. It’s not surprising that Adobe is responding to Canva (now valued at $55 billion), which has exploded in the last few years due to its focus on non-professional designers, and this should help the OG Photoshop king cast a wider net to users like small businesses, students, and social media influencers. Adobe has always positioned itself as an enterprise-focused corporation with pricey tools, but Canva and the capabilities in applications like TikTok demonstrate that there is a great need for easily-accessible editing software, and Adobe must ensure that it does not fall behind.

Infinite Assets, commonly known as InfiniteWorld, will go public through a merger with SPAC Aries I Acquisition Corp. at a $700 million valuation. InfiniteWorld, which has already worked with over 75 artists and companies, assists brands in creating and monetizing digital assets and NFTs, as well as engaging with customers and fans. “With up to $15 trillion of wealth expected to flow into digital assets over the next 10 years, we are witnessing the birth of a new global asset class and economic system”, per Aries Chairman Thane Ritchie.

Intel thinks the metaverse will need a thousand-fold increase in computing capability .

C3.ai was up as it was authorized a $100M stock repurchase program over the next 18 months.

Samsara * opened at $24.90, above its initial IPO price of $23/share, on the NYSE.

Justin Kan, the co-founder of Twitch, is teaming up with other gaming industry entrepreneurs to launch Fractal, a Solana-based marketplace designed for gaming NFTs

Roblox declined as it reported November metrics and estimated average bookings per DAU were down 8-9% y/y; noted DAUs were up 35% y/y though bookings were only up 22-24% y/y.

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Reddit files for an IPO: The IPO to be: Reddit - The numbers - Investing & Markets - Vested Community

This year was the biggest IPO year, and here’s something to know if you love Nuclear technology; NuScale is to go public through a SPAC. We’re seeing an actual acceleration in the desire for carbon-free nuclear power Small Nuclear Developer NuScale to Go Public Through SPAC Deal - Bloomberg

Scrutiny of Big Tech continues, Meta’s acquisition of Supernatural, a VR based fitness app the deal is valued at $400M, Microsoft’s Nuance Deal worth $16M is also being scrutinised.

Toyota is investing $35B to shift to EVs, setting its goal for carbon neutrality. It has prospects of selling 3.5M EVs annually by 2030, having a lineup of 30 EV models, including sports cars and commercial vehicles. The target is up from 2M to 3.5M for 2030. The cash will be equally divided between car development and continuing investment in battery improvement.

Rivian announces that it is investing the IPO money into a $5B factory in Georgia and developing its battery technology. It will upgrade its Illinois factory from 150k to 200k EVs/year, and the new Georgia factory will make 400k vehicles a year and include a co-located battery cell production. Construction will begin in the summer of 2022 and production at the start of 2024.

Some Gainers:

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings was up by 16% as it announced positive news regarding two early-stage vaccine trials and is also focusing on mRNA medicines. The vaccine is being evaluated as a booster and a primary vaccine.

AT&T was up by 7% as it was upgraded to overweight from equal-weight at Morgan Stanley, though lowered price target; highlighted recent underperformance creating an attractive risk/reward opportunity and the close of the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger by mid-2022, which should start more focused Communications business.

Accenture was up by around 7% as it reported 1Q revenue, operating income, and EPS being above consensus. 2Q revenue guidance was ahead of consensus. Management raised FY22 GAAP EPS and FCF guidance.

Adobe declined by around 10% as its 4Q revenue was above consensus while EPS was in-line. Both 1Q/FY22 revenue and EPS guidance were below consensus. Management expects TAM to expand by 2024. The CTO is also departing.

Feds also announced an increase in bond buying and will announce three rate hikes next year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees that the return to physical offices is delayed indefinitely.

Here are the trends for this week:

That’s all for now folks!

[ZakifromVested]

Happy weekend folks!
Here’s the earnings update for Accenture and Adobe, note that Adobe traded down to as much as 10% today. Earnings - Analysis and Beyond - What’s Hot - Vested Community

Facebook is notifying nearly 50,000 users in more than 100 countries that they may have been targets of hacking attempts by surveillance companies. Facebook acts against 7 companies it says spy on users - The Washington Post

Zoom the stock zoomed up by 10% due to mixed sell-side moves this week with Morgan Stanley lowering its target price, but maintaining its overweight rating. Goldman Sachs initiated at neutral with a $200 target.

MoneyLion was up as it said it would acquire Even Financial Inc for up to $440M. The deal uses a convertible financing structure that values MoneyLion at its initial public listing price of $10 per share, digital financial platform MoneyLion said.
MoneyLion to Buy Even Financial for up to $440 Million - MarketWatch

Rivian was down by around 10% as the Q3 net income was below consensus; some market focus on shortfall in vehicle production but the company still has a strong demand for now.

Oracle announced that it will but Cerner for $30B Cerner was up by a considerable margin though Oracle was down by 6%

That’s all!

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NYT reported an explosive finding on how China manipulates Facebook and Twitter, The investigation “reveals in stark detail how Chinese officials tap private businesses to generate content on-demand, draw followers, track critics, and provide other services for information campaigns. Officials have relied on tech contractors to help them keep up with domestic social media and active shape public opinion via censorship and the dissemination of fake posts at home”. Now, officials and "the opinion management industry [have] turned their attention beyond China. Read more at How China Uses Contractors to Spread Propaganda on Facebook and Twitter - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Image Courtesy: NYT

Recall how 2-day shipping was revolutionary, guess what across India and the US people are now relying on instant grocery service, Grofers is now Blinkit sending groceries and essentials within 10 minutes, there’s also a US version of it gaining huge funding, Gopuff raised $1.5bn at a $40bn valuation, there are hopes that the company will go public by mid-2022.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Here’s a statistic that you should take note of VCs (Venture Capitalists) have poured $30B in funding to crypto “We’ve moved beyond just digital gold. We’ve got financial services, art, gaming as a subcategory of NFTs, Web 3.0, decentralized social media, play-to-earn — all of that made investors think, “We don’t have enough exposure”,” says Spencer Bogart, general partner at San Francisco-based Blockchain Capital LLC.

That’s all folks!

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There’s some disagreement between telecom and airline regulators as flight delays in snowstorms and low visibility could occur once the new 5G service rolls out in January Is 5G Safe for Flights? Airlines Amp Up Warnings on Wireless Signals - Bloomberg. Here’s what the competing parties have said in their defences, the telecom sector claims that 5G poses no threat to aeroplanes, although the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has expressed concern about cellular signal frequencies. Systems could possibly disrupt the cockpit systems that help planes land in poor weather, prevent crashes and avoid midair collisions Airlines Brace for Flight Restrictions in 5G Standoff - WSJ
Airline operators and manufacturers, caught in the middle, are both lobbying for tougher limitations on 5G networks. “If you were to ask us what our number one concern is in the near term, it is the deployment of 5G,” says Southwest Airlines Co-CEO Gary Kelly.

Ubisoft has seen many developers leave in the past 18 months, similar to Blizzard’s story. The reasons cited by employees were low pay an abundance of competitive opportunities and dissatisfaction with the creative outlook that the company was known for.
On a good note, Ubisoft was the first company to shift into Web3 and NFT/GameFi.

China is serious about the metaverse, and everyone from VCs to tech giants is showing it with investments, acquisitions, and trademark registrations. Chinese Investment Is Pouring Into the Metaverse - Decrypt

Braze was up by 18% as its Q3 earnings and revenue beat expectations. Management noted solid growth in overall and large customers and upsells; analysts are positive on revenue growth acceleration, sequential GM improvement, and possibly conservative Q4 guidance.

Citrix was up by 13.6% as Bloomberg reported Elliott Management and Vista Equity are considering a joint bid. The company has been considering strategic options since September, including a potential sale.

Micron was up by 11% as FQ1 earnings and margins beat expectations with earnings largely in-line. Management highlighted datacenter demand and expects a strong SSD ramp next Q. Next quarter’s guidance was ahead of Street estimates.

Alibaba was up by 7% as its target was raised to $185 from $140 by Atlantic Equities.

Europe’s biggest telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, has a digital innovation subsidiary called T-Systems Multimedia Solutions (MMS) that is heavily involved in the crypto space.

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Amazon cloud computing unit suffered another outage, supposedly the third this month. Many companies were disrupted due to outages - Cloud has a firm reliance. Disruptions are common in Cloud Technology, but the wide adaption has made it noticeable though things should improve.

In 2021, Everyone’s ear might have heard the about Clubhouse, which was the star of the year! The idea was so mainstream that Twitter adopted it as Spaces, Spotify as Greenroom, and you already know about Discord. Let’s hope Clubhouse should become something like Snapchat and be a leader in the industry of its idea.

Two startups are creating new concepts like Fable - social reading to improve mental health. Honeycomb - private social app for families.

Someone’s beating Google as the most popular domain: TikTok TikTok surpassed Google as the most popular site in 2021 - Axios

Some gainers were:

Tesla: CEO Elon Musk said in an interview that he had sold enough to reach his goal of selling 10% of his shares

MagnaChip Semiconductor: The board authorized a $75M stock repurchase program. The stock was up by 7%

Paychex was up by 5% as * 2Q results were above consensus on revenue and EPS, and FY22 guidance was raised on revenue, EPS growth, EBITDA margin, and operating margin.

Some Notable decliners were:

CalAmp plunged itself by 26% as its 3Q revenue and EPS were both below consensus. Management did not provide 4Q guidance. It was downgraded to hold from buy at Craig-Hallum Capital, target to $10 from $14.

Alibaba by down by 5% as its Cloud Computing partnership with China’s MIIT was reportedly suspended due to accusations that it failed to report and address a security vulnerability.

Also, I’ll be posting about Elon Musk and Dorsey’s heat up about Web3 on the TSLA thread!

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GoDaddy - jumped 3.9% as WSJ reported that Starboard Value, an activist investor, had acquired a 6.5% stake in the company.

Apple - continues to face scrutiny now in the Netherlands, as changes were ordered to Apple’s App Store payment policies, the reason cited was breaking competition laws.

Moderna - The pharmaceutical company is resisting a shareholder request to offer vaccine technology to impoverished nations. Moderna must explain why its prices are so exorbitant in light of the government’s financial support, according to the financial support it has received.

Many Airline stocks and Cruise Line stocks declined owing to the surge in weekend cancellations and COVID-19 outbreaks in the ships respectively. The likes of United Airlines, American Airlines and Carnival, Royal Caribbean fell around 2%.

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Tesla delivered almost 1M cars this year, around 936K to be precise. That figure is almost up by 87% from 2020. While the company faces tough competition from various competitors like Mercedes-Benz’s vision for the future is an ultra-efficient, luxury EV with a 620-mile range. The blot on Tesla’s record was the recall of 475K+ vehicles for faulty rearview cameras.
With competitors like GM and Volkswagen building out their battery supply chains, there’s a lot of building Tesla has to do.

Verizon and AT&T have agreed with the Department of Transportation to postpone their plans to upgrade their 5G wireless services for another two weeks in an unusual turn of events.

Big Tech recorded revenues of $1.4T in 2021. With Facebook’s oh, Meta’s latest acquisition, the Oculus VR app became the most popular app in the App Store on Christmas Day. Owning hardware has been a vital missing element in Meta’s history, and it appears that the Oculus acquisition will pay off in the same way that Instagram did.

The NFT market became at $27B market and 2022 seems like the year NFTs will become mainstream as trading volume soars on OpenSea Ethereum NFT Market Soars in First Days of 2022 After OpenSea Marks Another $3B Month - Decrypt. There’s more good news for NFT lovers as Samsung announced that its new Smart TVs would allow users to purchase, display and browse NFTs. Samsung’s 2022 Smart TVs to support cloud gaming, video chat and even NFTs | TechCrunch

Some Notable Gainers were:

Gilat Satellite Networks, a mobile network operator in Asia, is expected to deploy Gilat’s 4G cellular backhaul over satellite tech. It was up by 21%.

Tesla was up by 13.5%. Based on Model 3/Y sales, Q4 deliveries were 16 percent ahead of expectations; analysts observed improvements came despite supply chain difficulties; the increased run rate shows that the 2022 delivery consensus is too low.

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Ford’s stock hit the highest level since 2001 after the automaker announced that it would almost double its planned production of the F-150 Lightning Truck. The F-150 has been the best selling truck in the US for 45 years!

Tesla’s opening of a showroom in East Turkestan [Xinjiang] despite the humanitarian crisis had massive outrage on social media while the automaker was also hit with a recall.

Sony Sony shows off SUV, will explore building electric cars as ‘Sony Mobility Inc’ | TechCrunch and BMW showcased their 2023 ix M60

Credits: BMW
The car looks dope!

Amazon announced a partnership with Automaker Stellantis NV Amazon to buy Stellantis EV vans, provide digital cockpits (msn.com)

Good news for Vegans - KFC is adding new Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken to its menu!

Some Notable Gainers were:

Intel was up by 1.4% as Northland Capital Markets upgraded the stock to outperform from market performance, citing the company’s beginning to execute on a coherent strategy for the first time in years, with leveraged SIP capability, optimised fab resources, and the potential to close the performance gap with AMD in 2023 on 3nm.

AT&T was up by 2% as a positive Q4 preannouncement, including 1.3 million postpaid net adds; ended the year with an additional 2.6 million fibre customer locations, versus a prior expectation of 2.5 million; and ended the year with 73.8 million total global HBO Max and HBO subscribers, versus prior guidance for year-end subscribers in the 70-73 million range.

Some Notable Decliners were:

SGH Inc fell by 15.5% though 1Q results were above expectations on the top and bottom lines, and 2Q guidance was likewise above forecasts, but the stock was down on concerns of falling gross margins.

Adobe was down by 7% as it was downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS, target to $575 from $635.

Google was down by 5% due to some news from Germany.

That’s all for now folks!

[ZakifromVested]

A lot is happening in the tech world as CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2022 is happening, and here’s something that Google promised.

Google has stated that its Chromebook and Android devices will link seamlessly, have better integration, and be easier to set up. Despite the absence of a fixed timeframe, this sequence of feature upgrades will happen throughout 2022 and will empower Android and Chrome OS users with additional capabilities (some of which Apple and Samsung users have enjoyed for a while). Chromebooks and Android smartphones, for example, will be able to swap audio between devices in the coming months instantly.

If you’re someone who uses Instagram a lot, you may notice some changes in the following weeks. While Instagram has already said they want to bring back the chronological feed, this new information shows that three alternative feed choices will be accessible. Users will have two options for seeing posts in chronological order with the “Home,” “Favorites,” and “Following” feeds, or they may stick with the app’s existing method of cycling through information based on interest alone.

Meta has halted an effort to develop an operating system that would power its forthcoming VR/AR devices. Meta reportedly cancelled a 300-person VR / AR operating system project - The Verge

Nike sues Lulemon as the company was accused of patent infringement over the firm’s Mirror fitness device. “Mirror” is a wall-mounted gadget that leads users through a range of high-intensity cardio routines and classes. While Lululemon purchased Mirror in 2020, Nike says that Lululemon is infringing on many of its patents, including one for a cardio tracking gadget is designed in 1983.

Samsung has created a Metaverse replica of its iconic New York “837” physical shop in collaboration with Decentraland, an Ethereum-based virtual world platform. Even though the experience will only be accessible for a limited time, Samsung’s decision demonstrates the company’s commitment to the digital asset market. Samsung has already stated that it intends to expand the virtual reality experience to other platforms in the future. The firm just revealed that users would be able to purchase and trade NFTs with certain smart TVs earlier this week. Samsung’s virtual shop is one of Decentraland’s most significant brand takeovers, and the business is enthusiastic about the Metaverse’s capacity to “transcend physical and geographic limitations.”

There was some issue pushing out today’s update bear with me for the time lag

[ZakifromVested]

Google and Facebook were fined by France for pushing tracking cookies on users. The companies were $170M and $68M respectively as they made it confusing for users to reject cookies. A deadline of 3 months was given to the companies so as to change their ways of working.

• For Facebook, French users first have to click on a button labelled “ Accept cookies” (emphasis ours). Such labelling “necessarily generates confusion,” says CNIL, leading users to believe they have no choice in the matter. CNIL is a watchdog.

• With Google, the problem is one of asymmetry rather than mislabeling. CNIL notes that the company’s websites (including YouTube) allow users to accept all cookies with a single click. But, to reject them, they have to click through several different menu items. Clearly, users are being steered in a particular direction that just so happens to benefit Google.

Goldman Sachs analyst Zach Pandl said that Bitcoin will take market share away from gold in 2022 as digital assets become more widely accepted. Read more here: Goldman Sachs says bitcoin will compete with gold as “store of value” - What’s Hot - Vested Community

Some Notable Gainers were:
Discovery by 19% as Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy from neutral; the analyst believes the merger with WarnerMedia will create the most dynamic global media company; also highlighted the potential for larger cost synergies than expected and incremental revenue opportunities in the areas of advertising, distribution, and the combination of streaming services.

Global Payments was up by 11% as Deutsche Bank boosted its target price, Susquehanna raised projections, and BofA made constructive remarks.

That’s all for now folks!

[ZakifromVested]

Zynga the maker of Farmville is being acquired by Take-Two Interactive (the company behind the Grand Theft Auto) has announced the deal which will be worth $11.04B in a cash-and-stock deal. You should have a look since this is the largest deal ever in the gaming sector. The deal would take the market cap to $30B. The deal will be closed in the first half of the year. While some industry insiders expected Take-Two to make a big move into mobile gaming and close the gap between EA. Who knows these may come up to do something in the Metaverse.

Meanwhile, for the Crypto lovers BTCS Inc., a blockchain technology startup has announced the first-ever Bitcoin dividend paid by a Nasdaq-listed business. The “Bividend” is the result of BTCS’ intention to “promote financial independence” and demonstrate “the disruptive impact of blockchain technology.” BTCS has even acquired the name www.bividend.com, which contains instructions on how to join Bividend. To be honest, I’m not shocked by this action because BTCS has a long history of “firsts”; after all, BTCS was the first pure-play cryptocurrency and blockchain public business in the United States. BTCS is trading at $4.56 a share with a $0.05 dividend.

Some Notable Gainers were:

Zynga well the first story above is the reason for the uptick that too by 40%.

Dell was up by 3.3% as the stock was upgraded to outperform by Bernstein.

F5 was upgraded to outperform in line at Evercore ISI, target to $275 from $240.

Taiwan Semiconductor was up by a percent as it reportedly received an advance payment for reserving production capacity from AMD and others.

Some Notable decliners were:

Comm by 7.5% as it was downgraded to in-line from outperform at Evercore ISI, $12 target.

Airbnb was downgraded to neutral from overweight at Piper Sandler, target to $169, from $215, it slipped by 3.2%.

PixelWorks was down by 16.5% as CFO Elias Nade resigned. Haley Aman, VP of Finance, was appointed to serve as CFO.

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Disney enters the Metaverse. It recently filed a patent with the US Patent Office for a virtual world simulator. What’s the concept? A computing platform with software code and a tracking system links to the computing platform while coupling with a projection device. It’s pretty haywire, but Disney CEO says that it aligns with its focus on storytelling. The technique would not require the use of headgear, instead will focus on customising individual experiences through user tracking and 3D picture projection.

I’m pretty surprised by the jump in companies investing in Metaverse, though Disney says it files various patents to explore developing technologies

While Meta names DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on its board, it’s the first change to its board after the rebranding, adding outside executive experience to the group. Xu brings in experience of running one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing companies.

Intel hires David Zinsner as CFO from Micron; he has more than 20 years of financial and operational experience in semiconductors and manufacturing.

Meanwhile, I love Machine Learning. Then I came across some Robotic Arms using ML to reach deeper into distribution; with the labour crisis, these arms are the automated picking systems to assist in the distribution within the warehouse.

Block’s (formerly Square) CEO Jack Dorsey has outspoken his support for Bitcoin and opposition to Weeb3. The recent job postings reveal the company’s plan to develop oper-source Bitcoin mining systems and hardware wallets in 2022. The first vacancy, for a custom digital design lead, confirms that Block is set to develop purpose-built ASICs for Bitcoin mining. Meanwhile, the second role, for the hardware wallet’s global fulfilment and logistics lead, shows that Block is aiming globally and seeks to distribute its hardware wallet to 100 countries. Dorsey has also popularised Bitcoin amongst NBA stars!

Some Notable Movers:

Impinj was up by % as the management expects 4Q revenue guidance to come in above consensus.

JD .com was up by % as it was initiated at overweight at Atlantic Equities at $100 target.

Rivian was down by 4% as the COO retired and vehicle production declined.

IBM declined by 1.6% as it was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS, target to $124 from $136

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Checkout.com raises $1B at $40B valuations A full-stack payments company that acts as a gateway, an acquirer, risk engine and a payment processor, in short letting you process payments directly on your site or on your app. Its customers are global enterprise merchants with a large volume of transactions such as Netflix, Pizza Hut and Fatfetch. The company has processed billions of dollars in payments in 2021 and has been profitable for years. The injection of funds will add to its long-term growth and ventures into Crypto and Metaverse.

Uber got some competition in Brazil, the government’s taxi app - Taxi.Rio. Apple’s alternative payment service in South Korea. Apple submits plans to allow alternative payment systems in S.Korea - regulator | Reuters

Some Notable Movers were:

Wipro declined by 8.5% as 3Q revenue was above consensus while EPS was below. Management guided 4Q revenue from IT Service.

Paypal was down by 2% as it was downgraded to hold from buy at Jefferies, and the target was $200.

Infosys was up by 3% as 4Q revenue and EPS were above consensus. Management provided FY22 revenue growth guidance.

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Some Notable Movers were:

Taiwan Semiconductor was up by 5.3% as 4Q revenue and EPS were both above consensus. 1Q revenue guidance was above consensus. Management provided FY22 and L-T outlook.

Proterra was up by 2.1% as it announced a multi-year partnership with Vicinity Motor to supply its battery systems for electric buses and commercial vehicles; Proterra battery systems will power at least 600 commercial EVs by 2024.

Mimecast was up by 1.5% as Proofpoint offered Mimecast a $ 92.50 per share offer, according to sources. But Mimecast refused to trade over antitrust concerns.

Virgin Galactic was down by 19% as the business said it expects to sell convertible senior notes to raise up to $500 million. Preliminary fourth-quarter free cash flow was reported.

Elastic was down by 12% as Shay Banon, the company’s creator will move from CEO to CTO, with chief product officer Kulkani taking over as CEO; the company also expects to surpass its Q3 projection; analysts are largely enthusiastic about the change, but admit the changeover poses challenges.

Snapchat was down by a whopping 11% as it was downgraded by Cowen from outperform to market perform, citing near-term worries about lingering iOS changes affecting Snap’s measurement, targeting, and attribution for direct response ad units; it noted challenging 1H-22 comparisons, and elevated valuation.

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Credit: The Verge

Walmart is jumping into cryptocurrency as the recent filings with US Patent and Trademark Office reveal that it may prepare its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFT’s. Walmart investigated a trial programme in 2021 in which customers could buy Bitcoin, but the company’s most recent submissions include the production of virtual items such as toys, recreational goods, and personal-care products. Of course, all of these applications reveal future ambitions, but the trademarks will not be registered until Walmart actually uses them. When that day comes, Walmart’s entry into the cryptocurrency industry might usher in a paradigm change.

Crypto is booming as most of the recent updates do revolve around crypto.

Coinbase partners with MasterCard for NFT marketplace purchases. Users of Coinbase’s new NFT marketplace will be able to purchase using their credit cards, according to Mastercard. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products, stated in a blog post on Tuesday that NFTs would be deemed “digital commodities” and could thus be purchased with a credit card. Mastercard’s cooperation with Coinbase, which aims to allow non-crypto users to acquire NFTs without utilising a wallet and purchasing tokens, will undoubtedly help facilitate increased traffic to the NFT marketplace. However, with over 1 million people on the waiting list, Coinbase’s NFT marketplace is already off to a rousing start. NFTs have been unexpectedly steady in the face of crypto’s volatility, and I expect them to grow in popularity in 2022.

Some Notable Movers were:

Activision by 20% due to the Microsoft Deal.

Blink Charging was up by 5% as it announced it will supply electric vehicle chargers to GM car dealerships across North America.

VTEX was by up 2% as at Goldman Sachs, the stock was upgraded to outperform from neutral due to attractive valuation, e-commerce leadership, and hard-currency exposure; at Piper Sandler, the stock was started at overweight due to good secular-growth potential and indications of expanding share gains.

[ZakifromVested]

Late today, but here we go!

It’s raining Crypto everywhere, Google moves into Crypto too, yeah it’s Google’s world according to Inc, and your business lives in it. How is Google making the transition? Google has hired former PayPal executive Arnold Goldberg as part of a bigger plan to provide a broader range of financial services, including cryptocurrency. Google has worked with firms such as Coinbase and BitPay to hold crypto assets on digital cards and recruit Goldberg to lead its payment division (with users paying in traditional currencies). The startup intends to focus on a “complete digital wallet,” which will contain digital tickets, airline passes, and vaccination passports. However, Google is still refusing to take cryptocurrency for payments.

Instagram Meta’s photo-sharing app is testing paid subscriptions. Abling US users to subscribe to a few creators to have spent only content. The fees will be around 99cents to $99.99 per month. Mark Zuckerberg said he is “excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’ hands soon.”

Former SpaceX Engineers build a Tesla for Freight Trains. Parallel Systems, a business created by three former SpaceX engineers, raised a $49.55 million Series A round. The firm intends to build self-driving, electric freight trains in response to the mounting issues posed by carbon emissions in freight, supply chain bottlenecks in trucking, and the limitations of traditional railway freight. Parallel Systems has the potential to dominate the market for greener freight. Parallel must secure cooperation with a legacy train firm to test its product for the time being.

Some Notable Movers were:

SoFi Technologies was up by around 14% as The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) accepted its application to become a bank holding company through the acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp; the move will allow it to lend at more competitive rates and offer upgraded financial products.

Morgan Stanley The bank’s stock rose 1.8 percent after the company reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profits due to robust equities trading income. Unlike its competitors, Morgan Stanley did not reveal skyrocketing pay expenditures for Wall Street staff during the quarter.

Procter & Gamble The consumer products company’s stock surged 3.4 percent after posting results that exceeded Wall Street expectations. Earnings per share were $1.66, a penny better than the Refinitiv average forecast. P&G also exceeded sales projections and boosted its outlook for 2022.

Sony - Microsoft announced a $68.7 billion deal to purchase video game producer Activision Blizzard on Tuesday, sending Sony’s stock down 5%. Sony’s PlayStation division would face more competition due to the deal.

Opendoor Technologies was down by 6% as BofA Securities initiated an underperform rating on buying, arguing that the dependence on centralised models and algorithms for pricing and selling properties makes it inherently hazardous and largely untested business model; apprehensive on inventory accumulation amid a declining housing market.