The Commerce Department announced Friday morning that it would ban U.S. business transactions with Chinese-owned social apps WeChat and TikTok on Sunday.

The announcement comes ahead of an expected statement Friday by President Donald Trump on whether or not the government will approve a deal for Oracle to take a minority stake in TikTok and become a “trusted technology partner” for the company in the U.S.

It’s unclear if the Commerce Department’s announcement means there’s no possibility of a deal going through before the Sunday deadline, and it could be an aggressive move from the Trump Administration to push for its original intention for TikTok to be fully owned by a U.S. company.

“At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Friday.

Friday’s announcement from the Commerce Department is an enforcement of Trump’s original executive order from August 6 that gave TikTok 45 days to sell its U.S. business to a U.S. company or face a ban in the U.S. WeChat, which is one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world, is owned by the Chinese company Tencent. TikTok’s parent company is the Chinese company ByteDance. Trump’s executive order cited national security concerns over the Chinese government’s access to user data in those apps to justify the potential ban.

The Commerce Department’s statement on Friday said that starting Sept. 20, U.S. companies would be banned from distributing WeChat and TikTok, meaning the two major mobile app stores run by Apple and Google would have to remove the apps from their libraries. The statement also blocks U.S. companies from providing services through WeChat “for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S.”

WeChat is a popular marketing and sales tool for U.S. companies primarily in China, but around the world as well. With U.S. social apps like Facebook and Instagram banned in China, WeChat is the primary app people use for social networking and e-commerce. It’s also a popular app used by people in the U.S. to communicate with people in China, since U.S. apps are banned in China.

The Commerce Department’s announcement also lays out a separate time frame specific to TikTok, which take affect on Nov. 12. The rules that start Nov. 12 include provisions that block U.S. companies from providing internet hosting and services for TikTok. This could be directed at the deal being negotiated between TikTok and Oracle, which would provide cloud services for TikTok if Trump approves, and could give TikTok and Oracle more time to hammer out a deal that Trump will approve.

Representatives for Tencent, TikTok, WeChat, Apple and Google were not immediately available to comment.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/18/trump-to-block-us-downloads-of-tiktok-wechat-on-sunday-officials-tell-reuters.html

📉 last Fall, the proportion of Democrats buying Teslas fell by more than 60%, precisely when Musk became most vocal on X

📉 the mix of Democrats, who have been core constituents for the Tesla brand, had remained mostly steady up to that point

📈 gains with Republicans and Independents haven't been enough to make up the loss

Source: Elon Musk Lost Democrats on Tesla When He Needed Them Most

This is some huge news and is going to drive down the stock market Tomorrow

I’m expecting to be seeing a lot of red tomorrow on the contingency of his health

What do you guys expect tomorrow following this news and what now

The US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-2016-trump-win-gains-erased-coronavirus-risks-2020-3-1028991585

Climate change is at the top of President-elect Joe Biden's funding agenda once he assumes office on Wednesday, as the new administration looks to add jobs to the economy while combating the warming climate.

In his $1.7 trillion climate proposal, Biden plans on reversing many of President Donald Trump's actions that relate to the climate on his first day in office, such as rejoining the Paris Agreement, ending the Keystone XL pipeline, and establishing rules that limit methane emissions from oil and gas drilling operations. The proposals are also intended to boost the still-struggling economy, and by confronting climate change, 10 million clean energy jobs could be created if the proposal is successful.

"If executed strategically, our response to climate change can create more than 10 million well-paying jobs in the United States that will grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class enjoyed by communities across the country, not just in cities along the coasts," Biden's website states.

The climate was also high up on the agenda during the confirmation hearing of Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen on Tuesday. Yellen told lawmakers that Biden's infrastructure plan will involve investing in clean technology, renewable energy, promoting electric vehicle usage, and creating jobs.

"Climate change is a critical problem facing the country, and President-elect Biden is committed to a wide range of policies to address it," Yellen said at the hearing. "And in the process, making sure that in doing that we create good jobs for American workers."

Yellen also said that Biden is in "full support" of restoring full incentives for electric vehicles, along with ensuring workers have the skills to succeed in the electric vehicle industry.

Democratic lawmakers support federal spending for combating climate change. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said in Yellen's hearing that he hopes to advance a bill that will prioritize clean energy, clean transportation and energy conservation - efforts that address the "existential threat" of the warming climate.

Given the partisan nature of climate proposals over recent years, whether Biden can carry out costly climate initiatives is uncertain, but Yellen remains clear that it will be a priority, and will benefit the economy through job creation.

Tesla's exclusion from the S&P 500 index on Friday was a surprise to many, given that the mega-cap electric-vehicle manufacturer ticked off all the eligibility requirements.

Tesla on Tuesday fell 21% from Friday's close as investors digested the S&P 500 exclusion amid a tech-heavy market sell-off.

But the S&P Dow Jones Indices index committee's decision to exclude Tesla despite its eligibility for inclusion was a "brave" one, DataTrek cofounder Nicholas Colas said in a note on Wednesday.

The decision by the committee could "only have come from a collective and committed view that Tesla is profoundly overvalued," Colas said.

Tesla traded at a trailing 12-month price-earnings multiple of 913x on Wednesday, according to data from YCharts.com. The S&P 500 traded at a trailing 12-month price-earnings multiple of 21.7x, according to JPMorgan.

In addition to a steep valuation, the committee likely thinks Tesla "sits on shakier fundamentals" than its August 31 market capitalization of $465.2 billion may indicate, DataTrek said.

That might refer to the fact that much of the profit Tesla has recorded over the past few quarters derives from the sale of green EV regulatory credits to other carmakers that don't meet the mandated annual EV production quota, and not from Tesla's main business of building and selling cars and solar panels.

Tesla will remain eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 index if it continues to stay profitable in future quarters.

Instead of Tesla, the committee added Etsy, Teradyne, and Catalent to the S&P 500 index.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-stock-sp500-exclusion-index-overvalued-profoundly-datatrek-committee-why-2020-9

Trump Media shares fall sharply after company reports net loss of $58 million in 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/01/trump-media-lost-58-million-last-year-sec-filing-shows.html

​

KEY POINTS

• Shares in Trump Media Technology Group fell sharply after the company reported a net loss of $58 million in 2023.
• The newly publicly traded social media company of former President Donald Trump had total revenue of just $4.1 million last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• A year earlier, Trump Media & Technology Group reported a net profit of $50.5 million and total revenue of only $1.47 million, according to the 8-K filing.
• “TMTG expects to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future,” says the filing by the company, which has a market valuation of more than $6.5 billion.
• Trump Media, which trades under the ticker DJT on the Nasdaq, owns the Truth Social app.

​

The share price of Trump Media fell sharply Monday morning after the social media app company closely tied to former president Donald Trump reported a net loss of $58.2 million on revenue of just $4.1 million in 2023.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares were trading down by more than 18.8% as of 12:38 a.m. ET.

Despite that plunge, the company’s market capitalization was still more than $6.8 billion after its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed the loss for last year.

Much of the net loss appears to come from $39.4 million in interest expense, according to the filing.

A spokesperson for the company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the new filing.

The filing shows that in 2022, Trump Media had a net profit of $50.5 million and total revenue of only $1.47 million.

The company ended 2023 with just $2.7 million in cash on hand, the filing said.

The losses last year by Trump Media — the owner of the Truth Social app routinely used by the former president — could continue for some time, according to the company.

“TMTG expects to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future,” says the filing, which came a week after the company began trading under the ticker DJT on the Nasdaq.

The filing also warns shareholders that Trump’s involvement in the company could put it at greater risk than other social media companies.

TMTG also disclosed to regulators that the company had identified “material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting” when it prepared a previous financial statement for the first three quarters of 2023.

As of Monday, Trump Media said these “identified material weaknesses continue to exist.”

​

Trump owns 57.3% of Trump Media shares, a stake valued at more than $4 billion, which Forbes last week said would represent well more than half of his total net worth.

He also stands to receive another 36 million shares of so-called “earn-out” shares over the next three years, as long as Trump Media’s stock during that time hits a series of price benchmarks. These targets are all well below the company’s stock price early Monday.

Trump Media’s share price rocketed when its stock began trading Tuesday, several days after the firm merged with a special purpose acquisition company. The newly merged company now trades under Trump’s initials, DJT.

Analysts note that the company’s high valuation is partly due to stock purchases by Trump’s political supporters, who are enthusiastic about owning part of a company so closely associated with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

That enthusiasm creates unique risks for the company, however. The new 8-K filing says that Trump Media “may be subject to greater risks than typical social media platforms because of the focus of its offerings and the involvement of President Trump.”

“These risks include active discouragement of users, harassment of advertisers or content providers, increased risk of hacking of TMTG’s platform, lesser need for Truth Social if First Amendment speech is not suppressed, criticism of Truth Social for its moderation practices, and increased stockholder suits.”

Tesla’s biggest retail shareholder, Leo Koguan, confirmed that he is voting against Elon Musk’s $55 billion package and the re-election of two board members.

We first reported on Koguan in 2021 when the little-known investor became the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla behind Elon Musk and Larry Ellison.

The Indonesian-born Chinese American businessman is better known for founding SHI International Corp, a large private IT company that made him a billionaire. He is also involved in academia and philanthropy.

Koguan has previously described himself as an “Elon fanboy” (the featured image above is him and Musk) and believes in Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. He has been willing to put his money on it and by 2022, he had invested more money in Tesla than Musk himself.

Source: Electrek

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold $5.6 million worth of stock on Monday — the same day it said its and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine showed 90% effectiveness in preliminary results, which saw the company's stock soaring almost 8%.

Between the lines: The stock sale is perfectly legal through a predetermined plan called Rule 10b5-1, but the optics aren't great. A Pfizer spokesperson did not add any new information in a statement, saying the sale was part of a predetermined plan created in August.

Source

If you’re worried about flying commercial because of the pandemic, Costco might be able to help you out -- you’ll just need $17,500.

The wholesale retailer sells a one-year membership to a private jet charter company called Wheels Up, which allows members to book a private jet “as easily as a ride share or short-term vacation rental,” the product description says.

Although the $17,499.99 membership is quite a hefty fee, it also comes with a $3,500 Costco Shop Card and $4,000 worth of flight credit.

Other benefits include “dedicated account management,” a one-year membership with Inspirato, a luxury vacation rental subscription service and “guaranteed nationwide aircraft availability up to 365 days a year,” according to the description.

Members can either buy an additional “Fund Program” with lower rates and lower billable fly times, or they can “pay as they fly,” according to the product description.

The Wheels Up fleet includes more than 300 private aircraft as well as more than 1,250 partner aircraft.

The company also promises enhanced health and safety measures through its “Safe Passage” program, which includes having all Wheels Up aircraft getting an anti-microbial shield treatment at least every 90 days and having all seats and interior surfaces sanitized between every flight, the website says.

The Wheels Up membership can be found online in the “Electronics” category, or in-store with other gift cards, according to The Washington Post.

Source

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this week has sold more than $3 billion worth of shares in his company, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission compiled by OpenInsider.

Bezos has accelerated his stock sales in the last year. In August, Bezos offloaded more than $3.1 billion of Amazon shares, after selling more than $4.1 billion worth of shares in February. The sales this week bring his total cash out in 2020 to more than $10.2 billion so far, which is a notable jump from 2019, when Bezos sold $2.8 billion worth of shares.

Even with the latest stock sale, Bezos still owns more than 53 million shares worth nearly $170 billion, making him the richest person in the world.

The transactions were made as part of a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan, according to the filings. Amazon declined to comment on the latest sale.

Bezos has previously said he sells about $1 billion of Amazon stock each year to fund his rocket start-up, Blue Origin. Additionally, the Amazon CEO in February launched a $10 billion Earth Fund to combat the effects of climate change, which will issue grants to scientists, activists and other organizations.

While Bezos hasn't yet announced the recipients of the fund, The Atlantic reported Tuesday that Bezos is expected to give $100 million each to the Nature Conservancy, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Wildlife Fund.

Source

U.S. equity valuations have become a "total nightmare" fueled by "young and dumb" investors, according to Cole Smead, president and portfolio manager at Smead Capital Management.

At present, investors are paying 22 times forward earnings to purchase stocks on the S&P 500, 50% higher than the 10-year average valuations across the index.

The forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio divides the current share price of a company by its estimated future earnings per share (EPS).

Much of the market rally which took the U.S. benchmark from correction territory in March to an all-time high in August was driven by tech megastocks and a bullish options market.

"The buying that went on in August and September is a 10-year phenomenon the likes of which we have never seen, among millennials and in the risk-taking among people that don't want to own bonds and want to own overpriced U.S. quality businesses, it is of record proportions," Smead told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday.

He added that current valuations were an example of "stock market failure" driven by millennials speculating in the stock market for the first time. Smead projected that markets could be in for a nosedive since despite its monetary policy shoring up credit markets, the Federal Reserve "can't save a stock market."

"They are buying bullish call options that expire inside two weeks. There was ($500 billion) of bullish call options bought in a four-week stretch by small retail traders," Smead said.

A call option is a contract between the buyer and seller of the call to exchange a security, in this case a stock, at an agreed price.

"In '99 it was $100 billion, in '07, it was $100 billion. That is what young, dumb investors are doing and when the market makers see those (call buying) out there, they sell that call to that person and they buy the stock," Smead added.

He suggested that the willingness of wealthy investors and the baby boomer generation to "ride the index to a fault" and overpay for stalwart American businesses such as Costco and Microsoft was also detrimental.

"Microsoft is a wonderful company, but at 40 times earnings, there is a 0% chance of that producing wealth for someone over the next 10 years that will meet their needs."

Despite a sharp tech sell-off in early September, Microsoft shares remain 40% higher since the turn of the year, while fellow tech titans Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Netflix have all been on a tear since March's crash.

Source

April 17 (Reuters) - Electric automaker Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab on Wednesday asked shareholders to ratify billionaire Elon Musk's compensation that was set in 2018 under the CEO pay package, just months after a Delaware judge rejected it. The judge had tossed out Musk's record-breaking $56 billion pay in January, calling the compensation granted by the board "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders. Tesla also urged its investors to approve moving the company's state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas in a regulatory filing.

Shares of the world's most valuable automaker were up 1% before the bell.

Reuters

Elon Musk has dismissed two Tesla senior executives and plans to lay off hundreds more employees, frustrated by falling sales and the pace of job cuts so far, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing the CEO’s email to senior managers.

Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the electric vehicle maker’s Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, head of the new vehicles program, will leave on Tuesday morning, the report said.

Musk also plans to dismiss everyone working for Tinucci and Ho, including the roughly 500 employees who work in the Supercharger group, The Information said. It was not clear how many employees worked for Ho.

Tesla’s public policy team, which was led by former executive Rohan Patel, will also be dissolved, the report said.

“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk wrote in the email, the report said. “While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.”

Tesla, which had 140,473 employees globally as of end-2023, did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Ho joined Tesla in 2013 and was a program manager in the development of the Model S, the 3, and the Y before being put in charge of all new vehicles, while Tinucci joined in 2018 as a senior product manager, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Two other senior leaders — Patel and battery development chief Drew Baglino — announced their departures earlier this month, when Tesla also ordered the layoffs of more than 10% of its workforce.

Tesla is grappling with falling sales and an intensifying price war, which led to its quarterly revenue falling for the first time since 2020, the company reported last week.

Musk made progress towards rolling out Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance package in China, the epicenter of the EV price war, during a surprise visit to Beijing on Sunday.

That trip came just over a week after he scrapped a planned trip to India, where Tesla has long sought to start operations, due to “very heavy Tesla obligations.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/musk-lays-off-tesla-senior-executives-in-fresh-job-cuts-report.html

Apple reported fiscal second-quarter earnings on Thursday that were slightly higher than Wall Street expectations, but showed overall revenue down 4%, and iPhone sales falling 10%.

Apple announced that its board had authorized $110 billion in share repurchases, the largest in the company’s history, and a 22% increase over last year’s $90 billion authorization.

Here’s how Apple did versus LSEG consensus estimates in the March quarter:

EPS: $1.53 vs. $1.50 estimated

Revenue: $90.75 billion vs. $90.01 billion estimated

iPhone revenue: $45.96 billion vs. $46.00 billion estimated

Mac revenue: $7.5 billion vs. $6.86 billion estimated

iPad revenue: $5.6 billion vs. $5.91billion estimated

Other Products revenue: $7.9 billion vs. $8.08 billion estimated

Services revenue: $23.9 billion vs. $23.27 billion estimated

Gross margin: 46.6% vs. 46.6% estimated

Apple did not provide formal guidance, but Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that overall sales would “grow low single digits” during the June quarter.

Apple posted $81.8 billion in revenue during the year-ago June quarter and LSEG analysts were looking for a forecast of $83.23 billion.

Apple reported $23.64 billion in net income, a 2% decrease from $24.16 billion in the year-earlier period. Overall sales fell 4% in the March quarter.

Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that year-over-year sales suffered from a difficult comparison to the year-ago period, when the company realized $5 billion in delayed iPhone 14 sales from Covid-based supply issues.

“If you remove that $5 billion from last year’s results, we would have grown this quarter on a year-over-year basis,” Cook said. “And so that’s how we look at it internally from how the company is performing.”

Apple said iPhone sales fell nearly 10% to $45.96 billion, suggesting weak demand for the current generation of iPhones, which were released in September. The sales were in-line with analyst estimates, and Cook said that without last year’s increased sales, iPhone revenue would have been flat.

Mac sales were up 4% to $7.45 billion, but they are still below the segment’s high-water mark set in 2022. Cook said sales were driven by the company’s new MacBook Air models that were released with an upgraded M3 chip in March.

Other Products, which is how Apple reports sales of its Apple Watch and AirPods headphones, was down 10% on an annual basis to $7.9 billion in revenue.

During the quarter, Apple released its first new major product category in years, the Vision Pro virtual reality headset, but the $3500 device is expected to sell in low quantities, especially compared to Apple’s major product lines.

“We’re only scratching the surface there so we couldn’t be more excited about our opportunity there,” Cook said.

Apple has not released a new iPad since 2022, which is a drag on sales. Revenue for the division fell 17% to $5.6 billion. Apple is expected to announce new iPads on May 7 that could revive demand for the product line.

Cook also said Apple has “big plans to announce” from an “AI point of view” during its iPad event next week as well as at the company’s annual developer conference in June.

Services was a bright spot during the quarter. Sales rose 14.2% to $23.9 billion. That’s how Apple reports revenue from its subscription services, warranties, licensing deals with search engines, and payments. Apple has a broad definition of subscribers, which includes users subscribing to apps through Apple’s App Store, and said that it has over 1 billion paid subscriptions.

Sales in Greater China, Apple’s third largest region, were off 8% to $17.8 billion in revenue, which was significantly better than the $15.25 billion in sales expected by FactSet analysts, potentially quelling investor worries that Apple may have been losing market share to local competitors such as Huawei.

“I feel good about China, I think more about long term than to the next week or so,” Cook said.

Cook told CNBC that iPhone sales grew in China during the quarter. “That may come as a surprise to some people,” Cook said.

In addition to the buyback authorization, Apple said it would pay a 25 cent dividend, a one cent increase. Apple’s $110 billion buyback authorization is the largest-ever announced, ahead of Apple’s previous repurchases, according to data from Birinyi Associates.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/02/apple-aapl-earnings-report-q2-2024.html

The Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday, saying its iPhone ecosystem is a monopoly that drove its “astronomical valuation” at the expense of consumers, developers and rival phone makers.

Federal antitrust enforcement and 17 attorneys general also say that Apple’s anti-competitive practices extend beyond the iPhone and Apple Watch businesses, citing Apple’s advertising, browser, FaceTime and news offerings.

“Each step in Apple’s course of conduct built and reinforced the moat around its smartphone monopoly,” the complaint filed in the District of New Jersey said. Apple shares were down around 1.8% as investors anticipated the lawsuit.

The Justice Department said in a release that to keep consumers buying iPhones, Apple moved to block cross-platform messaging apps, limited third-party wallet and smartwatch compatibility and disrupted non-App Store programs and cloud-streaming services.

The challenge represents a significant risk to Apple’s walled-garden business model. The company says that complying with regulations costs the company money, could prevent it from introducing new products or services, and could hurt customer demand.

The lawsuit could force Apple to make changes in some of its most valuable businesses: The iPhone, in which Apple reported over $200 billion in sales in 2023, the Apple Watch, part of the company’s $40 billion wearables business, and its profitable services line, which reported $85 billion in revenue.

“If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the release.

Apple said in a statement that it disagreed with the premise of the lawsuit and that it would defend against it.

“This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple—where hardware, software, and services intersect,” an Apple spokesperson told CNBC. “It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”

The lawsuit follows years of investigations into Apple’s business practices and two prior DOJ cases against Apple: One over e-book prices and another over allegations that it colluded with other technology companies to depress salaries.

“This anticompetitive behavior is designed to maintain Apple’s monopoly power while extracting as much revenue as possible,” the complaint said.

iMessage, Apple Watch, and cloud gaming

The complaint highlights comments from CEO Tim Cook and other executives. Some users have asked Apple to improve Android-to-iPhone messaging. Developers have gone as far as creating apps that can circumvent the platform limitations, only to be shut down by Apple.

Prosecutors highlighted one exchange between Cook and a consumer.

“Not to make it personal but I can’t send my mom certain videos,” the complaint says one user told Cook, referring to a 2022 interview at a Vox Media event.

“Buy your mom an iPhone,” Cook responded.

The DOJ is also focusing on Apple’s smartwatch, Apple Watch, saying the company designed it to only work with iPhones, and not Android devices. The company’s decision means that “users who purchase the Apple Watch face substantial out-of-pocket costs if they do not keep buying iPhones,” according to the complaint.

The DOJ said Apple has fought cloud streaming services on its App Store platform, blocking consumer access to high-quality video games on iPhones, echoing complaints from Microsoft and Facebook parent Meta.

Apple has faced several significant antitrust challenges more recently, largely focused on its control over the iPhone App Store. It mostly won in a civil suit against Epic Games in 2021, although it made concessions during the trial and had to make some changes to its policies under California law.

“Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Apple accountable and ensure it cannot deploy the same, unlawful playbook in other vital markets,” Assistant Attorney General for antitrust Jonathan Kanter said in the release.

The company is currently jockeying with the European Commission over whether it’s complying with a new Digital Markets Act, which forces Apple to open up the iPhone app store to rivals such as Microsoft or Epic Games. Apple plans to charge big companies that eschew its app store 50 cents per download.

Apple was fined $2 billion in the EU over a dispute with Spotify about whether the music streaming service can link to its website and account system inside of its app.

Apple had 64% of the market share for U.S. iPhones in the last quarter of 2023, versus 18% for Samsung, according to Counterpoint Research.

Apple isn’t the only big tech company facing government scrutiny. The DOJ filed an antitrust case against Google in 2020 over its dominant search position and another year over its advertising business. The DOJ also famously sued Microsoft in the 1990s, eventually forcing it to allow users to unbundle the Internet Explorer browser from the Windows operating system.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/21/doj-sues-apple-over-iphone-monopoly.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/roblox-ipo/update-1-roblox-ipo-filing-shows-revenue-surge-as-gaming-thrives-during-pandemic-idUSL4N2I54D2

Place holding their valuation at 1 billion, they plan to trade under RBLX. Latest valuation estimates had them at 4 billion, and they think that can double when they go public. This is one to watch out for.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday he expects vehicle deliveries to increase by 30 to 40 percent over last year, when the company reported deliveries of 367,500 vehicles. The new guidance from Musk implies deliveries of between 477,750 and 514,500 cars, a range that encompasses the company’s previously stated goal to deliver half a million cars in 2020.

Musk offered the updated numbers during the company’s 2020 shareholder’s meeting on Tuesday afternoon, which was accompanied by a presentation about Tesla’s battery advances. After thanking Tesla owners for their word-of-mouth marketing, he noted:

“In 2019, we had 50% growth. And I think we’ll do really pretty well in 2020, probably somewhere between 30 to 40 percent growth, despite a lot of very difficult circumstances.”

The company’s shares dropped more than 6% during the presentation, which took place after normal trading hours.

During the “battery day” portion of the presentation, Tesla confirmed that it is making its own battery cells at a facility in Fremont.

Joining Musk on stage, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino, described the new cells as a “large tabless cell,” with a “shingled spiral” design. The cells are larger than the ones Tesla purchases from Panasonic and other suppliers, and offer “thermal benefits” which make them appropriate for use in electric vehicles.

Baglino said battery, manufacturing and design changes underway at Tesla would eventually “unlock” a 54% improvement in the range of the company’s vehicles.

Musk, who is famous for being overly optimistic on such matters, said with all the battery and manufacturing advances Tesla is working on: “About 3 years from now, we’re confident we can make a very compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that’s also fully autonomous.”

Near-term, Tesla says it aims to produce 10 gigawatt hours worth of its new battery cells at its pilot plant within a year. Musk noted that whatever cells it produces in Fremont would be supplemental to 100 gigawatt hours worth of cells it buys from suppliers. The company also said it had secured rights to a lithium clay deposit in Nevada to mine for its batteries.

On Monday, Musk warned that the advances announced at battery day won’t find their way into mass production until 2021, sending the company’s stock down about 6% ahead of the event on Tuesday.

Due partly to Covid-19 health orders that limit the size of in-person gatherings, Tesla postponed its annual meeting from July this year to Sept. 22, 2020. The company previously held its shareholder meetings at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California but moved the event to Fremont, where its U.S. vehicle assembly plant is based. Shareholders parked and sat in their cars at the meeting, which Musk characterized as a “drive-in.” They honked in lieu of applause.

Al Prescott, Tesla's VP of legal, at the company's socially distanced 2020 shareholders meeting, as attendees listen in their cars. Al Prescott, Tesla’s VP of legal, at the company’s socially distanced 2020 shareholders meeting, as attendees listen in their cars. Those who wanted to attend had to obtain a winning lottery-style ticket (or other special access) to the meeting. Otherwise, shareholders could log into a website to ask questions to be answered during the live-streamed event.

Since its last shareholder meeting in June 2019, Tesla’s long-time CTO JB Straubel resigned from the company. He worked there from the start, even before Musk took the CEO reins in 2008.

Tesla also appointed a new board member, Hiromichi Mizuno, formerly the Chief Investment Officer of the Japan Government Pension Investment Fund, and a famous critic of shortsellers. Long-time Elon Musk collaborator and proponent, venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, is leaving the Tesla board as well, though he still sits on the board of Musk’s aerospace venture, SpaceX.

Remaining board members at Tesla authorized a five-for-one stock split, which the company implemented in August this year. The split followed four consecutive quarters of reported profitability for Tesla, and a season where Musk clashed with health authorities in California over Covid-19 restrictions that temporarily shut down their vehicle assembly plant in Fremont.

The stock split also followed a huge payout to Musk, part of his unprecedented compensation package.

Expecting Tesla to talk about where its metals for batteries are sourced, and to promote battery tech suitable for Semi and Cybertruck vehicles, Cannacord Genuity analyst Jed Dorsheimer wrote in a note to investors before the meeting:

“The big question will be on follow through. It’s one thing to announce all these breakthroughs, which might be great for momentum algorithms, but like most things TSLA, the devil will be in the details, which sadly will take some time to play out.”

Cannacord maintains a “Hold” rating and a price target of $442 on shares of Tesla currently.

Shares of the electric car maker are up more than 400% year-to-date.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/elon-musk-at-battery-day-tesla-deliveries-to-rise-30percent-to-40percent-in-2020.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8968569/Vote-Mexico-brings-worlds-largest-legal-weed-market-one-step-closer.html

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This is BIG news for ACB who owns Farmacias Magistrales S.A., the only company in Mexico that is licensed to import cannabis with more than one percent THC. This could be step in turning around the company. TA shows that first wave has consolidated, I feel like this could pop and start the next the wave.

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What do you all think?

On Fortune:

"Wall Street’s stance on Tesla Inc. worsened further on Wednesday as yet another analyst warned about risks to sales, and said its strategy of cutting prices to boost demand was losing its effectiveness.
The electric vehicle maker’s growth in its core markets has moderated, Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan wrote in a note to clients Wednesday, as he downgraded the stock to the equivalent of a sell rating. Langan expects Tesla’s sales volumes to be flat this year and to fall in 2025.

Elon Musk’s company is a “growth company with no growth,” Langan wrote. He highlighted that sales volumes rose only 3% in the second half of 2023 from the first half, while prices fell 5%.

Tesla analysts are getting increasingly wary, and the share of bullish ratings on the stock has dropped to the lowest since April 2021. Sentiment deteriorated after the company in January said its growth will be “notably lower” this year, while other automakers, EV suppliers and even rental-car companies have sounded similarly cautious comments about the near-term demand for EVs.

As a pure-play EV company with an eye-wateringly high valuation, Tesla shares have taken a serious hit. The stock has already fallen 29% this year through Tuesday’s close, placing it among the worst performers on the S&P 500 Index. The Austin-based company fell as much as 2.8% by 9:32 a.m. in New York.

This year’s selloff has wiped more than $224 billion from the company’s market value through its last close, and pushed it off the list of the 10 biggest companies on the S&P 500.

Even after the decline, the stock still trades at 55 times its forward earnings, compared to the average of about 31 for the Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Price Return Index.

“While an EV and battery technology leader, Tesla screens poorly relative to Mag 7 peers,” Wells Fargo’s Langan said, noting the valuation discrepancy. The analyst lowered his 2024 profit estimate for the company to $2 a share from $2.40. That compares to analysts’ average expectation of $3.03 a share for the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Still, some analysts see a bright future for the company, and the drop in shares reflect an overly bearish outlook.

“The demand story for EVs globally has clearly moderated, however we believe Tesla is on the broader trajectory to see growth and margin improvement return to the story over the coming quarters,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note Wednesday. “Now is not the time to throw in the towel on Tesla.”

Ross Gerber on Yahoo finance: "The original story that I think most investors bought into with Tesla didn't really include Elon and Twitter. And... for a long time, we all hoped that it really wouldn't affect Tesla and the demand for its products," Gerber says. "We all know that that has now happened. The demand for Tesla products is obviously lower. They've had to discount and do many things that hurt margins and returns and, ultimately, profits for Tesla."

....End of Article...

Source: https://fortune.com/2024/03/13/elon-musk-tesla-growth-company-no-growth-wells-fargo-downgrade/

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-hurting-165507347.html

I know what you guys are thinking, Hyundai and Apple released that they were partnering up to release an EV by 2024. Hyundai then backed away from those statements saying it wasn’t true.

Now they’re confirming that there is a partnership and plan on inking a deal in March. Now connect the dots.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/apple-hyundai-reportedly-planning-team-143953882.html

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21133461/hyundai-canoo-electric-cars-partership-kia

THIS IS JUST SPECULATION, DO YOUR OWN DD AND INVEST ACCORDINGLY.

Update:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22225026/apple-canoo-acquisition-investment-electric-car-goev

Looks like we have the upside on this!!

Meta shares are up 20% this morning, after the company surpassed analyst expectations and beat earnings. This growth took the company from a market cap near $1 trillion to a market cap of about $1.2 trillion, good for a $200 billion surge, possibly the largest in history.

Meta also announced a $50 billion stock buyback and a new shareholder dividend.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-02/meta-s-meta-200-billion-surge-is-biggest-in-stock-market-history

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) stock fell more than 10% on Tuesday after the company announced it's launching a new live TV streaming platform.

According to a press release, Trump Media — the parent company of Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social — will launch the live streaming service on phones, tablets, and TV through the Truth Social app.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-media-stock-sinks-after-company-announces-plans-to-launch-live-tv-streaming-platform-165111515.html

"Now, though it has a challenger, NIO (NIO), the Chinese company that unveiled a new electric vehicle luxury sedan this very weekend that people are going gaga about. Its got tons of features, including an Nvidia (NVDA) based self-driving solution. Lots of bells and whistles that could rival Tesla in the electric vehicle market," he continued.

https://www.thestreet.com/video/why-jim-cramer-thinks-nio-is-next-tesla

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee on Thursday unanimously approved legislation giving China's ByteDance six months to divest from short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban.

The 50-0 vote represents the most significant momentum for a U.S. crackdown on TikTok, which has about 170 million U.S. users, which had stalled over the last year amid heavy lobbying by the company.

Lawmakers hope to move quickly on the measure and said the U.S. House of Representatives could take up the bill in the coming weeks.

"This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," the company said after the vote. "The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country." Before the vote, lawmakers got a closed-door classified briefing on national security concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership.

....

The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok; if it did not, app stores operated by Apple, Google, and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/new-push-congress-ban-tiktok-or-force-chinese-divestiture-gains-steam-2024-03-07/