The Autonomous Car
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This basket consists of stocks expected to benefit from self-driving cars.
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- Yahoo Finance
'It's Tesla's world and everyone else is paying rent': analyst
Here's why Tesla's stock continues to be on fire.
- TechCrunch
Apple and Google block dozens of Chinese apps in India
Two days after India blocked 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, Google and Apple have started to comply with New Delhi's order and are preventing users in the world's second-largest internet market from accessing those apps. UC Browser, Shareit, and Club Factory and other apps that India has blocked are no longer listed on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store.
- Motley Fool
Why Pinterest Shot as Much as 5.5% Higher on Thursday
Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) rose as much as 5.5% on Thursday before settling down to close 3.6% higher. The online hobby-posting company continued to benefit from the news that social media behemoth Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) is shuttering Hobbi, its experimental Pinterest-like pinning app. Facebook rolled out Hobbi in February, promising users the ability to "capture and organize your creative process."
- Zacks
Nasdaq Soars into 4th of July Weekend at Fresh All-Time Highs
The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P were all up for the week. The Nasdaq closes the week at a new all-time high of 10,207.63.
- Motley Fool
Nasdaq Hits New Records as Tesla Delivers, Keeps Soaring
The Nasdaq exchange has had some of the most exciting companies in the stock market, and they've helped to make the Nasdaq the first major market benchmark to reach new highs. There are plenty of stocks listed on the Nasdaq that have seen impressive gains lately. Shares of Tesla finished the day up around 8%, adding to big gains throughout the week.
- Bloomberg
Elon Musk Taunts the SEC Amid Surge in Tesla Stock Price
(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk provoked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the course of taking a victory lap on Twitter over Tesla Inc.’s surging share price.The chief executive officer first taunted short sellers in a string of tweets, writing that the electric-car maker would “make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim.” That’s an apparent reference to jokes he’s repeatedly made about sending “short shorts” to investors who bet against Tesla’s shares, such as hedge fund manager David Einhorn.Musk, 49, then wrote Thursday that he would send shorts to the SEC, referring to the agency again as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission.” He first used that phrase in October 2018 after the regulator sued him for securities fraud.Musk then tweeted a cryptic but profane play on the agency’s initials, prompting Ross Gerber, a fund manager who regularly engages with him on Twitter, to write back: “Dangerous.” Musk responded: “But sooo satisfying.”Musk and the SEC have a combative history. The agency sued him in September 2018 over tweets he sent a month earlier claiming that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share. As part of a settlement agreement, Musk was required to pay a $20 million fine, step down as Tesla’s chairman for three years and have some of his tweets pre-approved by a company lawyer.The SEC took Musk back to court last year after he failed to clear a tweet about Tesla’s production with his in-house counsel. The two sides eventually agreed to amend the earlier settlement to add specific topics the billionaire can’t tweet about or otherwise communicate in writing without advance approval.Hours after a federal judge signed off on the amended deal in April 2019, then-SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson publicly criticized it, saying in a statement that Musk had not been sufficiently punished for failing to adhere to restrictions on his social media use.In December 2018, Musk told “60 Minutes” that he did not respect the SEC. A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment on his latest tweets.Tesla disclosed in February that the SEC sent the company a subpoena regarding “certain financial data and contracts” including “regular financing arrangements.” One analyst speculated the regulator may have been looking into how the company managed to build an assembly plant near Shanghai last year while spending just $1.3 billion on capital expenditures.A better-than-expected quarterly deliveries report sent Tesla’s shares surging 8% to a record close of $1,208.66 on Thursday. The stock has almost tripled this year.(Updates with additional tweets in the fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Why Tesla (TSLA) Shares Are Soaring Today (Again)
Tesla stock seems to be on an endless rally to the moon
- Motley Fool
Why Shares of Graf Industrial Are Soaring Today
Shares of Graf Industrial (NYSE: GRAF) gained 20% on Thursday after the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) announced plans to merge with a maker of sensors for self-driving vehicles. The deal would move its merger partner, Velodyne Lidar, onto public markets, joining a host of other companies to use SPACs to go public in recent months. Velodyne Lidar said Thursday it would combine with Graf Industrial to create a company with a pro forma market capitalization of $1.8 billion.
- Bloomberg
Tesla Skeptic Marvels at $48 Billion Boost From One Data Point
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.’s cars may run on batteries, but its stock price is fueled by “the power of the narrative,” according to an analyst with a sell rating on the shares.In a report Thursday, Joe Spak of RBC Capital Markets marveled at how the electric-car maker has managed to add about $48 billion of market capitalization by ginning up excitement about its quarterly vehicle deliveries.On June 24, Tesla’s investor-relations team shared a collection of delivery estimates that found analysts on average were expecting the company to hand over about 70,300 vehicles to customers. The market recognized this as a low bar, triggering gains that were further supported by two bullish emails Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sent to employees that leaked to several media outlets.By the time Tesla reported 90,650 deliveries on Thursday, its shares had surged about 27% over the course of seven trading days, outpacing the S&P 500’s roughly 3% gain. The company added more market cap in that span than General Motors Co. or Ford Motor Co.’s entire valuations.“That, is remarkable,” Spak wrote. He estimates Tesla topped consensus delivery estimates by the equivalent of about $1 billion of revenue, meaning investors are valuing the beat at about 47.5 times sales.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Facebook Accused by Black Manager of Systemic Discrimination
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. was accused of systemic discrimination in hiring, compensation and promotion of Black people in a complaint to federal civil rights authorities.Thursday’s complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by a Washington-based operations program manager adds pressure on the social network, which is facing an advertising boycott over its failure to remove violent, divisive, racist and discriminatory posts. Along with other major tech companies, Facebook also has been criticized for its lack of diversity.Oscar Veneszee Jr., a decorated 23-year U.S. Navy veteran hired by the company in 2017 to recruit other workers retired from the armed services, said he filed the complaint after his objections to Facebook managers over treatment of African Americans went nowhere. It was filed as a class action to represent other Black people who’ve experienced discrimination inside the company, as well as those who claim they were unfairly denied jobs with the social network.“The only way to get contributions from Black experience is to have more Black employees at the company,” Veneszee said in an interview. “I think the desire is there, but I don’t think there’s an understanding of what’s required to transition to a company that’s more open, to being diverse, bold.”Facebook said “we take any allegations of discrimination seriously and investigate every case.””We believe it is essential to provide all employees with a respectful and safe working environment,” spokesperson Pamela Austin said in an email.Facebook, along with Google and Microsoft Corp., have renewed pledges to prioritize diversity in the wake of nationwide protests and calls to end systemic racism after the police killing of George Floyd. Veneszee said he was motivated to complain to the EEOC in part by recent protests.“We are really as a country talking about getting it right this time,” Veneszee said in the interview. “As I look at our response, I don’t think it has connected to the pain deep enough in order to develop solutions that are going to be better for us as a company.”A recent Bloomberg News analysis of diversity reports published by the world’s biggest tech companies shows little progress has been made transforming them from a predominantly white and male universe, with Black workers remaining mostly absent from management ranks and underrepresented in technical roles.Read More: Zuckerberg Agrees to Meet With Groups Behind Advertising BoycottDespite success at his job and positive feedback from managers, Veneszee said in the complaint, he was denied promotions, stalled by evaluations that said he merely “meets all expectations” as he ran into hostility and discrimination.Veneszee described his frustration as a Black employee of a company where, according to Facebook’s own figures, just 1.5% of employees in technical roles in the U.S. were Black in 2019, and 3.1% were Black among senior leadership. Those percentages have barely budged even as the company has added tens of thousands to a workforce that has grown by 400% over the last five years, according to the complaint.“There’s really no representation of diversity, of Black employees in mind, all the way across the company,” he said in the interview.Veneszee recalled being forced to apologize to a white recruiter after questioning a plan for interns that listed only one of the nation’s more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He was told the question drove the recruiter to tears. After being routinely told that he must use the right “tone,” he said he came to realize the company is tone deaf toward Blacks.“Me asking about HCBU shouldn’t make you feel attacked, it shouldn’t offend you if we’re talking about diversity,” Veneszee said. He said it made him feel as if “the way I say things fell on a different set of ears at Facebook.”An EEOC spokesman said the agency can’t confirm or deny when complaints are filed and said they are handled confidentially.Veneszee’s lawyer, Peter Romer-Friedman of the Gupta Wessler firm, said the alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the complaint should be viewed as an invitation to negotiate.The complaint seeks an independent monitor to determine if Facebook is making progress hiring more Blacks, or if stronger measures are required, he said.“We’re trying to extend an olive branch,” the lawyer said in an interview. “Oscar’s not trying to burn down the company from the inside or outside.”(Updates with company comment in fifth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool
Google's Latest Attempt to Fight Back Against Amazon
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been stealing away Google's most valuable searches over the last several years. More product searches begin on Amazon.com than the search engine owned by Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL). In order to combat the growing popularity of product searches on Amazon, Google's offering brands and retailers free listings on its main search results.
- FX Empire
Tesla Beats Q2 Vehicle Deliveries; Shares Soar 8%
Tesla Inc has exceeded analysts’ projection of vehicle deliveries in the second quarter, defying a trend of falling sales amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic lockdown, sending the shares of the electric carmaker up over 8%.
- Motley Fool
Disney Finds New Avenue for Revenue in Partnership With Ford
Entertainment giant Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) has been suffering for the past few months while its parks and experiences were closed, and only a few have recently reopened. Its main revenue driver during the COVID-19 pandemic has been its streaming services, and it's been finding innovative ways to make them more profitable, such as releasing new films straight to streaming. A new partnership with the Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is another path to bringing in much-needed cash.
- Bloomberg
Velodyne Lidar to Go Public In Merger With Blank-Check Firm Graf
(Bloomberg) -- Velodyne Lidar Inc., a maker of sensors for self-driving vehicles backed by Ford Motor Co., has agreed to merge with blank-check company Graf Industrial Corp., according to a statement Thursday.The market value of the combined company will be about $1.8 billion, according to the statement, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. New institutional investors and existing Graf Industrial shareholders have committed $150 million to fund the transaction.Velodyne backers including Ford, Baidu Inc., Nikon Corp. and Hyundai Mobis will retain an 80% stake in the combined company. The San Jose-based company will have about $200 million in cash on its balance sheet, and David Hall, Velodyne’s founder, will become executive chairman. Velodyne Chief Executive Officer Anand Gopalan will continue to lead the company.Velodyne creates radar-like systems for self-driving vehicles that use lasers to generate three-dimensional images of a surrounding environment. Its technology is used by carmakers including Mercedes-Benz AG and Ford, according to its website.Graf Industrial, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, raised $225 million in an initial public offering in 2018.Merging with a SPAC has become a popular way for companies to go public as the coronavirus pandemic roils the markets, as an alternative to an initial public offering or direct listing. Online gambling company DraftKings Inc., potato chip maker Utz Quality Foods and fitness company F45 Training Holdings Inc. also struck deals with SPACS in recent months.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool
Tesla Deliveries Beat Estimates On Strong Model Y, Model 3 Demand
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) said that it delivered 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter of 2020, well ahead of analysts' estimates, led by strong demand for its smaller Model 3 sedan and new Model Y crossover SUV. Combined deliveries of the Model 3 and Model Y totaled 80,050 in the quarter, Tesla said. Tesla's result was well ahead of Wall Street's coronavirus-adjusted consensus forecast of 72,000 vehicles delivered in the quarter.
- Zacks
Jobs Numbers Surprise to Upside, Unemployment Rate 11.1%
Strength in consumer demand -- along with a healthy dollop of Fed and congressional relief -- has borne out a quick relative recovery in the overall jobs market.
- Motley Fool
Why Tesla Stock Soared Higher on Thursday
The stock is hitting new highs following better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries. Here's what investors should know.
- Zacks
5 Low Leverage Stocks to Buy Amid Coronavirus-Led Debacle
Investors should know how much debt a company owns, because the higher the degree of financial leverage, higher is the interest payment for the capital borrowed.
- Motley Fool
Amazon's Twitch Sees Massive Surge in Engagement Amid COVID-19 Lockdowns
With many people stuck at home during the second quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak, engagement on all manner of streaming platforms has soared. That includes popular video-streaming services, as well as Amazon.
- Bloomberg
Tesla Delivery Beat Sends Shares Surging Toward Top Price Target
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. reported a sequential gain in quarterly deliveries that seemed improbable weeks ago, sending its stock surging toward Wall Street’s most bullish price target.The electric-car maker handed over 90,650 cars to customers in the three months ended in June, exceeding analysts’ average estimate for about 83,000 in a Bloomberg News survey. Tesla delivered about 88,400 vehicles in the first quarter.Tesla shares surged as much as 9.7% to $1,228 shortly after the open of regular trading, nearing the $1,250 target set Thursday by Wedbush Securities. The stock is on the verge of tripling this year.Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk overcame a roughly seven-week shutdown of Tesla’s California car plant by ramping up output at its new factory near Shanghai. Localizing production in China is helping reach more customers in the world’s largest electric vehicle market by lowering prices. The period also was the first full quarter of deliveries for the Model Y crossover, which Musk has predicted will become Tesla’s top seller.What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:Tesla’s Shanghai production has assumed the role of growth engine as the large addressable market of early adopters drives a surge in demand and makes China the company’s most important and voluminous market. Tesla pushed to keep its California factory open, and while demand is still virus-affected, the U.S. market is mature and no longer showing the growth that would move the company out of its niche.\-- Kevin Tynan, global autos analystClick here to read the researchWhile deliveries were down almost 5% from a year ago, that’s a strong showing relative to the declines other automakers sustained due to the global pandemic that decimated vehicle demand in key markets.“Tesla is winning because they have a product that is measurably better than both gas and electric competitors,” Gene Munster, a managing partner of venture capital firm Loup Ventures, wrote in a report. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to envision a scenario in which legacy automakers will find a way to meaningful expand the small share of EVs that they have today.”The next big question for Musk, 49, is whether the deliveries were enough to earn a quarterly profit. He suggested to employees earlier this week that avoiding a loss was possible.“Breaking even is looking super tight,” the CEO wrote to staff in an email seen by Bloomberg. “Really makes a difference for every car you build and deliver. Please go all out to ensure victory!”Musk has sent many end-of-quarter emails to rally employees and signal to investors, but Tesla hasn’t always followed through on his optimism. The then-record 97,000 deliveries Tesla reported for the three months that ended in September fell short of the 100,000 mark he floated in an email to workers.If Musk is on the mark this time, Tesla could qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index. To be eligible, the company needs to report positive quarterly earnings under generally accepted accounting principles. Beyond sales of cars, Tesla can recognize revenue related to its automated driving system, and it also sells emissions credits to other automakers.“With strong Q2 volumes, GAAP profitability is now in focus and appears achievable, which could lead to inclusion in the S&P 500,” Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird who rates Tesla the equivalent of a hold, wrote in a report.Analysts on average project Tesla will report a loss of about $1.80 a share on a GAAP basis for the quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. But higher-than-projected vehicle deliveries would make profitability a “less radical” idea, Dan Levy, a Credit Suisse analyst, wrote in a report Monday.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Do You Really Want Google to Have Your Personal Fitness Data?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- If you’re concerned about the pervasive role in daily life of technology companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, then its planned $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit Inc. is a worry.Google already owns the biggest search engine, the most popular video-streaming site (YouTube), the biggest mobile operating system (Android) and the dominant e-mail service (Gmail). All of these feed a digital-advertising business that generated $135 billion of sales last year. Do we really want to add Fitbit’s fitness tracking to its armory?A coalition of 20 organizations on Thursday urged antitrust authorities in the European Union, the U.S. and five other jurisdictions to scrutinize the takeover more closely. The EU plans to rule on the deal by July 20, although it may extend the probe if needed.The problem is that Google’s dominance in one market — digital advertising — isn’t necessarily enough, from an antitrust perspective, to block a deal in another sector. Google doesn’t currently make a health tracker or smartwatch. As such, it doesn’t compete with Fitbit. It isn’t trying to consolidate the market or cut the number of rivals. Indeed, a better capitalized Fitbit might improve competition in a smartwatch market dominated by Apple Inc.But this deal isn’t really about hardware sales: Fitbit’s $1 billion in expected 2020 revenue would represent just 0.7% of Alphabet’s total. The value from the acquisition is in the data that Fitbit is accumulating on all of its users. Knowing how far, how often and where people walk, run, cycle or swim every day could help advertisers, health insurers, city planners and plenty more besides. While Google is unlikely to sell that information directly to advertisers, it would help it build more complete advertising profiles of its users. In that sense, the fitness tracker market isn’t discrete from Google’s dominant ad-tech business. It could feed it, extending its dominance.With that in mind, regulators could impose restrictions while still clearing the deal. Aitor Ortiz, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, expects behavioral remedies will be imposed. That could mean Google promising not to merge Fitbit data with other user info without explicit consent. The tech giant takes a similar approach with Nest, a home automation company it acquired in 2014. Last year, it started encouraging users to merge their Nest data with their Google accounts.For those alarmed about Alphabet hoarding even more of our personal data, these promises probably won’t be enough. A stronger remedy would be to prohibit Google from ever extracting fitness information from a user’s devices. That’s how Apple treats fitness data from its Watch. Google insists that it wants Fitbit anyway, even without being able to farm its data. If that’s true, then it shouldn’t have any complaint about such a restriction. The purchase would still give it an entree to the smartwatch market, which will grow to $96 billion by 2027, according to Allied Market Research.Fitbit’s products also need to keep working with Apple’s mobile operating system as well as with Android. Otherwise, they would become a tool to force people to buy Android devices.This is an important test case that will be hard for regulators to get right. Past attempts at imposing behavioral remedies on the tech giants have failed: Facebook Inc. told Brussels back in 2014 that it wasn’t technically possible to merge its data with those of WhatsApp, but then it went ahead and did it anyway, accepting a paltry 110 million-euro ($124 million) fine from the European Commission for breaking its agreement. Google tends to be better behaved than Facebook, but its deep pockets give it a lot of power.Given the risks, the easiest solution might just be to block the Fitbit deal outright. But that would be legally harder to justify.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
Ford Posts Best Retail Share In Five Years – Driven by Ford’s ‘Built for America’ Program And Strong Share Gains Coming From Pickups, Vans, Explorer and Mustang
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) today reported its second quarter 2020 U.S. sales results. Click here or visit media.ford.com to view the news release.
- Zacks
Amdocs (DOX) to Support Three's Enterprise Business in UK
Amdocs' (DOX) managed transformation services will help Three UK to expand its B2B services in the United Kingdom.
- Investor's Business Daily
Dow Jones Futures: Coronavirus Stock Market Rally Fades, But Four New Breakouts; What's Next For Tesla?
The coronavirus stock market rally had a strong week despite Thursday's fade. Teladoc lead new breakouts. What's next for Tesla after a blowout week?
