TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1. #ALIBABA- Technology giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has facial recognition technology which can specifically pick out members of China's Uighur minority, surveillance industry researcher IPVM said in a report.
The report comes as human rights groups accuse China of forcing over 1 million Muslim Uighurs into labour camps, and call out firms suspected of complicity.
China has repeatedly denied forcing anyone into what it has called vocational training centres, and has also said the region of Xinjiang is under threat from Islamist militants.
Still, sensitivities have prompted caution among Chinese internet firms which often self-censor to avoid running afoul of a government which strictly controls online speech, and which last month published draft rules to police live streaming.
2. #TWITTER-Twitter Inc is reversing changes made to its retweet function intended to curb the spread of misinformation during the U.S. presidential election, the company said.
The microblogging site had in October made it difficult for users to retweet a tweet with misinformation and promoted the use of quote tweets, which included commentary from the user.
It had also imposed curbs including labeling and removal of tweets calling for people to interfere with the election process or implementation of results.
Twitter said it will no longer prompt quote tweets from the retweet icon. "Retweet functionality will be returning to the way it was before," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
3. #UBER-A group of British Uber drivers took their employer to court in the Netherlands on Wednesday in a bid to get access to data the company collects about them.
The drivers say Uber determines the allocation of available rides and their fares based on information about their performance, behaviour and other personal traits it gathers through the app they have to use to do their job.
They demand full access to this information and the working of Uber's algorithms, as they say it ultimately decides how much money they earn and how they could do better.
4. #IBM:- International Business Machines Corp said on Wednesday Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna would take over as chairman from Jan. 1, replacing Ginni Rometty, who stepped down as its long-time CEO earlier this year.
Rometty, who was the tech pioneer's first woman CEO, would occasionally be asked to act as an independent contractor after her retirement, IBM said.
Before assuming the role of CEO in April, Krishna was head of IBM's cloud business and has been with the company since 1990.
5. #GOOGLE:-Staff on Google's Ethical AI research team on Wednesday demanded the company sideline a vice president and commit to greater academic freedom, escalating a confrontation with management following this month's termination of scientist Timnit Gebru.
The personnel called on Vice President Megan Kacholia to be removed from the team's management chain after she allegedly excluded Gebru's boss from the decision to fire her, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.
Gebru had questioned Google's demand for her to retract a paper describing harms from Google-like technology, and the company answered by saying it accepted her resignation.
The document also demanded an explanation of the dismissal, transparency into reviews of staff papers, and an investigation into how Google handles employee complaints about working conditions, like those Gebru raised while at the company.
1. #ALIBABA- Technology giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has facial recognition technology which can specifically pick out members of China's Uighur minority, surveillance industry researcher IPVM said in a report.
The report comes as human rights groups accuse China of forcing over 1 million Muslim Uighurs into labour camps, and call out firms suspected of complicity.
China has repeatedly denied forcing anyone into what it has called vocational training centres, and has also said the region of Xinjiang is under threat from Islamist militants.
Still, sensitivities have prompted caution among Chinese internet firms which often self-censor to avoid running afoul of a government which strictly controls online speech, and which last month published draft rules to police live streaming.
2. #TWITTER-Twitter Inc is reversing changes made to its retweet function intended to curb the spread of misinformation during the U.S. presidential election, the company said.
The microblogging site had in October made it difficult for users to retweet a tweet with misinformation and promoted the use of quote tweets, which included commentary from the user.
It had also imposed curbs including labeling and removal of tweets calling for people to interfere with the election process or implementation of results.
Twitter said it will no longer prompt quote tweets from the retweet icon. "Retweet functionality will be returning to the way it was before," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
3. #UBER-A group of British Uber drivers took their employer to court in the Netherlands on Wednesday in a bid to get access to data the company collects about them.
The drivers say Uber determines the allocation of available rides and their fares based on information about their performance, behaviour and other personal traits it gathers through the app they have to use to do their job.
They demand full access to this information and the working of Uber's algorithms, as they say it ultimately decides how much money they earn and how they could do better.
4. #IBM:- International Business Machines Corp said on Wednesday Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna would take over as chairman from Jan. 1, replacing Ginni Rometty, who stepped down as its long-time CEO earlier this year.
Rometty, who was the tech pioneer's first woman CEO, would occasionally be asked to act as an independent contractor after her retirement, IBM said.
Before assuming the role of CEO in April, Krishna was head of IBM's cloud business and has been with the company since 1990.
5. #GOOGLE:-Staff on Google's Ethical AI research team on Wednesday demanded the company sideline a vice president and commit to greater academic freedom, escalating a confrontation with management following this month's termination of scientist Timnit Gebru.
The personnel called on Vice President Megan Kacholia to be removed from the team's management chain after she allegedly excluded Gebru's boss from the decision to fire her, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.
Gebru had questioned Google's demand for her to retract a paper describing harms from Google-like technology, and the company answered by saying it accepted her resignation.
The document also demanded an explanation of the dismissal, transparency into reviews of staff papers, and an investigation into how Google handles employee complaints about working conditions, like those Gebru raised while at the company.
TRADING IDEAS
#Google, #Facebook Agreed to Team Up on Antitrust Action
#Facebook Inc. and# Alphabet Inc.’s Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week.
The suit, as filed, cites internal company documents that were heavily redacted. The Wall Street Journal reviewed part of a recent draft version of the suit without redactions, which elaborated on findings and allegations in the court documents.
Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which #Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them.
#Google used language from “Star Wars” as a code name for the deal, according to the lawsuit, which redacted the actual name. The draft version of the suit says it was known as “Jedi Blue.”
The lawsuit itself said #Google and #Facebook were aware that their agreement could trigger antitrust investigations and discussed how to deal with them, in a passage that is followed by significant redactions.
On technical fronts, #Facebook Inc. RSI stood at 45.57and currently stock is trading below all moving averages. So, a SELL position can be taken with the following target and stop-loss:
TRADE SIGNAL - :#Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc. - SELL: 272.79, TARGET : 267.74, STOPLOSS : 278.81
On technical fronts, Alphabet Inc.’s #Google RSI stood at 46.8and currently stock is trading below 5 and 20 days MA and above 50 days MA. So, the BUY position can be taken with the following target and stop-loss:
TRADE SIGNAL - :#Alphabet Inc.’s Google- BUY: 1735.22, TARGET : 1748.91, STOPLOSS : 1700.00
#Google, #Facebook Agreed to Team Up on Antitrust Action
#Facebook Inc. and# Alphabet Inc.’s Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week.
The suit, as filed, cites internal company documents that were heavily redacted. The Wall Street Journal reviewed part of a recent draft version of the suit without redactions, which elaborated on findings and allegations in the court documents.
Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which #Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them.
#Google used language from “Star Wars” as a code name for the deal, according to the lawsuit, which redacted the actual name. The draft version of the suit says it was known as “Jedi Blue.”
The lawsuit itself said #Google and #Facebook were aware that their agreement could trigger antitrust investigations and discussed how to deal with them, in a passage that is followed by significant redactions.
On technical fronts, #Facebook Inc. RSI stood at 45.57and currently stock is trading below all moving averages. So, a SELL position can be taken with the following target and stop-loss:
TRADE SIGNAL - :#Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc. - SELL: 272.79, TARGET : 267.74, STOPLOSS : 278.81
On technical fronts, Alphabet Inc.’s #Google RSI stood at 46.8and currently stock is trading below 5 and 20 days MA and above 50 days MA. So, the BUY position can be taken with the following target and stop-loss:
TRADE SIGNAL - :#Alphabet Inc.’s Google- BUY: 1735.22, TARGET : 1748.91, STOPLOSS : 1700.00
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#ANT Group:- China's Ant Group on Thursday said it has received a meeting notice from regulators, and will strictly comply with all regulatory requirements.
China's financial watchdogs including the central bank and banking and insurance regulator said will conduct regulatory talks with Ant Group within the next few days, while the country's market regulator on Thursday said it has launched an investigation on the group for alleged monopoly conduct.
2. #SAP:- Survey-software seller Qualtrics International Inc, owned by business software group SAP, filed for a U.S. initial public offering of up to $100 million on Monday, with tech stocks largely outperforming the broader market this year.
Qualtrics, which SAP bought for $8 billion two years ago, will have two classes of common stock upon completion of the offering, with SAP America Inc set to own all 423.2 million Class B shares and remain the controlling shareholder.
The company also said it had applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "XM" and expects the IPO price to be between $20 and $24 apiece.
Total revenue of Qualtrics, which gathers real-time feedback from customers to help analyse how a firm's products or services are performing, rose about 32% to $550 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30.
3. #IBM :- IBM Corp has agreed to pay $24.25 million to resolve a pair of investigations by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) over subsidies awarded to connect schools and libraries to broadband.
IBM payment will resolve two FCC investigations that have spanned nearly 15 years over its alleged violations of "E-Rate" program rules in connection with New York City and El Paso school districts. Under the agreement, IBM agreed to return $24.25 million to the Universal Service Fund that funds the E-Rate program, but did not admit wrongdoing.
The FCC said its investigations found IBM had not satisfied the competitive bidding rules in New York for 2005-2008 and provided ineligible equipment and services in El Paso for 2001.
4. #NOKIA:- Telecom Italia has decided to retain Nokia as a supplier and reduce Huawei's share of a planned purchase of equipment for building a 5G network, three sources close to the matter told Reuters, amid pressure to exclude the Chinese firm on security concerns.
The United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei's equipment alleging it could pose a security risk - a charge Huawei has rejected. Italy has so far declined to ban Huawei outright.
Former national phone company Telecom Italia (TIM) at the beginning of this year was considering dividing a supply contract for the radio access network (RAN) part of its 5G build-out between Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson.
5. #GOOGLE:- Alphabet Inc's Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists' papers by launching a "sensitive topics" review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work.
Google's new review procedure asks that researchers consult with legal, policy and public relations teams before pursuing topics such as face and sentiment analysis and categorizations of race, gender or political affiliation, according to internal webpages explaining the policy.
"Advances in technology and the growing complexity of our external environment are increasingly leading to situations where seemingly inoffensive projects raise ethical, reputational, regulatory or legal issues," one of the pages for research staff stated. Reuters could not determine the date of the post, though three current employees said the policy began in June.
1.#ANT Group:- China's Ant Group on Thursday said it has received a meeting notice from regulators, and will strictly comply with all regulatory requirements.
China's financial watchdogs including the central bank and banking and insurance regulator said will conduct regulatory talks with Ant Group within the next few days, while the country's market regulator on Thursday said it has launched an investigation on the group for alleged monopoly conduct.
2. #SAP:- Survey-software seller Qualtrics International Inc, owned by business software group SAP, filed for a U.S. initial public offering of up to $100 million on Monday, with tech stocks largely outperforming the broader market this year.
Qualtrics, which SAP bought for $8 billion two years ago, will have two classes of common stock upon completion of the offering, with SAP America Inc set to own all 423.2 million Class B shares and remain the controlling shareholder.
The company also said it had applied to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "XM" and expects the IPO price to be between $20 and $24 apiece.
Total revenue of Qualtrics, which gathers real-time feedback from customers to help analyse how a firm's products or services are performing, rose about 32% to $550 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30.
3. #IBM :- IBM Corp has agreed to pay $24.25 million to resolve a pair of investigations by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) over subsidies awarded to connect schools and libraries to broadband.
IBM payment will resolve two FCC investigations that have spanned nearly 15 years over its alleged violations of "E-Rate" program rules in connection with New York City and El Paso school districts. Under the agreement, IBM agreed to return $24.25 million to the Universal Service Fund that funds the E-Rate program, but did not admit wrongdoing.
The FCC said its investigations found IBM had not satisfied the competitive bidding rules in New York for 2005-2008 and provided ineligible equipment and services in El Paso for 2001.
4. #NOKIA:- Telecom Italia has decided to retain Nokia as a supplier and reduce Huawei's share of a planned purchase of equipment for building a 5G network, three sources close to the matter told Reuters, amid pressure to exclude the Chinese firm on security concerns.
The United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid using Huawei's equipment alleging it could pose a security risk - a charge Huawei has rejected. Italy has so far declined to ban Huawei outright.
Former national phone company Telecom Italia (TIM) at the beginning of this year was considering dividing a supply contract for the radio access network (RAN) part of its 5G build-out between Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson.
5. #GOOGLE:- Alphabet Inc's Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists' papers by launching a "sensitive topics" review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work.
Google's new review procedure asks that researchers consult with legal, policy and public relations teams before pursuing topics such as face and sentiment analysis and categorizations of race, gender or political affiliation, according to internal webpages explaining the policy.
"Advances in technology and the growing complexity of our external environment are increasingly leading to situations where seemingly inoffensive projects raise ethical, reputational, regulatory or legal issues," one of the pages for research staff stated. Reuters could not determine the date of the post, though three current employees said the policy began in June.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#INTEL:- The head of Intel Corp’s self-driving car subsidiary said on Tuesday the company wants to shift toward using its own radar-based technology and use a single lidar sensor per vehicle by 2025 in a bid to lower the cost of autonomous driving.
Mobileye Has taken a different strategy from many of its self-driving car competitors, with a current camera-based system that helps cars with adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance. Those systems are on the road today and are gathering data to help Mobileye map the roads in new cities.
For more advanced systems, the company plans to add both radar sensors, which use radio waves to detect distance from objects, and lidar, a laser-based system that helps self-driving vehicles gain a three-dimensional view of the road. For a planned fleet of so-called robotaxis, which are commercial vehicles meant to ferry around passengers, the company is tapping sensors from Luminar Technologies Inc.
In a presentation a the Consumer Electronics Show, Chief Executive Amnon Shashua said on Tuesday that Mobileye's robotaxis will use multiple Luminar units to gain 360-degree lidar, radar and camera coverage all around the vehicle. The robotaxis rolling out in at least eight cities starting in 2022 will each have four Luminar units, Shashua said in a subsequent question and answer session.
2. #HUAWEI :-Lawyers for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou argued in a court on Tuesday to let her leave home without the security detail that was a condition of her bail since she was released after her December 2018 arrest.
Meng's husband, Liu Xiaozong, gave an affidavit citing the negative impacts his wife's bail conditions have had on her and their family.
Meng, 48, was detained at the Vancouver International Airport two years ago by Canadian authorities acting on a U.S. arrest warrant. She faces charges in the United States of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC bank about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition.
"Allowing her to leave without her being in a vehicle or followed by Lionsgate Management (the security company) is the essence of our application," defense lawyer Bill Smart said.
Beijing detained two Canadians soon after Meng's arrest and has held them in prison for over two years, permitting them to see diplomatic representatives only rarely and subjecting them to interrogations.
Meng has been under house arrest after being released from jail on a C$10 million ($7.9 million) bail. She is permitted to leave home between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. and pays for a round-the-clock security detail and wears a GPS tracking anklet.
3.#GENERAL MOTORS:-General Motors on Tuesday unveiled its Cadillac flying car and electric shuttle concepts in a virtual presentation at the annual CES show.
Cadillac also is working on a battery-powered luxury two-seater, said GM design chief Mike Simcoe, as part of GM Chief Executive Mary Barra's keynote presentation.
A senior GM executive described the concept as "reimagining the future of personal transportation".
The single-passenger Cadillac - technically, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone - will be able to travel from urban rooftop to urban rooftop at speeds up to 55 miles per hour.
It is fully fully autonomous and all-electric, with a 90kW motor, a GM Ultium battery pack and an ultra-lightweight body with four pairs of rotors.
The flying Cadillac was presented in a video as part of a virtual keynote presentation by Chief Executive Mary Barra, along with a family-friendly Cadillac electric shuttle.
Barra last year revealed the automaker was exploring such alternative transportation modes as aerial taxis.
4. #GOOGLE :-Alphabet Inc's YouTube said on Tuesday it has suspended Donald Trump's channel as it violated policies for inciting violence after last week's assault on the U.S. Capitol by the president's supporters.
Online platforms and social media companies are distancing themselves from, and taking action aga
1.#INTEL:- The head of Intel Corp’s self-driving car subsidiary said on Tuesday the company wants to shift toward using its own radar-based technology and use a single lidar sensor per vehicle by 2025 in a bid to lower the cost of autonomous driving.
Mobileye Has taken a different strategy from many of its self-driving car competitors, with a current camera-based system that helps cars with adaptive cruise control and lane change assistance. Those systems are on the road today and are gathering data to help Mobileye map the roads in new cities.
For more advanced systems, the company plans to add both radar sensors, which use radio waves to detect distance from objects, and lidar, a laser-based system that helps self-driving vehicles gain a three-dimensional view of the road. For a planned fleet of so-called robotaxis, which are commercial vehicles meant to ferry around passengers, the company is tapping sensors from Luminar Technologies Inc.
In a presentation a the Consumer Electronics Show, Chief Executive Amnon Shashua said on Tuesday that Mobileye's robotaxis will use multiple Luminar units to gain 360-degree lidar, radar and camera coverage all around the vehicle. The robotaxis rolling out in at least eight cities starting in 2022 will each have four Luminar units, Shashua said in a subsequent question and answer session.
2. #HUAWEI :-Lawyers for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou argued in a court on Tuesday to let her leave home without the security detail that was a condition of her bail since she was released after her December 2018 arrest.
Meng's husband, Liu Xiaozong, gave an affidavit citing the negative impacts his wife's bail conditions have had on her and their family.
Meng, 48, was detained at the Vancouver International Airport two years ago by Canadian authorities acting on a U.S. arrest warrant. She faces charges in the United States of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC bank about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition.
"Allowing her to leave without her being in a vehicle or followed by Lionsgate Management (the security company) is the essence of our application," defense lawyer Bill Smart said.
Beijing detained two Canadians soon after Meng's arrest and has held them in prison for over two years, permitting them to see diplomatic representatives only rarely and subjecting them to interrogations.
Meng has been under house arrest after being released from jail on a C$10 million ($7.9 million) bail. She is permitted to leave home between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. and pays for a round-the-clock security detail and wears a GPS tracking anklet.
3.#GENERAL MOTORS:-General Motors on Tuesday unveiled its Cadillac flying car and electric shuttle concepts in a virtual presentation at the annual CES show.
Cadillac also is working on a battery-powered luxury two-seater, said GM design chief Mike Simcoe, as part of GM Chief Executive Mary Barra's keynote presentation.
A senior GM executive described the concept as "reimagining the future of personal transportation".
The single-passenger Cadillac - technically, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone - will be able to travel from urban rooftop to urban rooftop at speeds up to 55 miles per hour.
It is fully fully autonomous and all-electric, with a 90kW motor, a GM Ultium battery pack and an ultra-lightweight body with four pairs of rotors.
The flying Cadillac was presented in a video as part of a virtual keynote presentation by Chief Executive Mary Barra, along with a family-friendly Cadillac electric shuttle.
Barra last year revealed the automaker was exploring such alternative transportation modes as aerial taxis.
4. #GOOGLE :-Alphabet Inc's YouTube said on Tuesday it has suspended Donald Trump's channel as it violated policies for inciting violence after last week's assault on the U.S. Capitol by the president's supporters.
Online platforms and social media companies are distancing themselves from, and taking action aga
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#Airbnb:- Airbnb has been canceling home-sharing reservations in the Washington D.C. area for the week of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration after law enforcement warned of a threat from armed militias, the rental platform said on Wednesday.
Airbnb said it made the decision after consulting local and federal officials and after a number of hosts worried about potential attacks sought to cancel bookings.
"We are aware of reports emerging yesterday afternoon regarding armed militias and known hate groups that are attempting to travel and disrupt the Inauguration," Airbnb said.
The company did not comment on specific instances and said it did not see evidence on its platform of guests planning protests and attacks.
Critics of last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol have asked hotels to cancel bookings during inauguration week to prevent further attacks, but major hotel chains Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and Marriott International said they planned to uphold existing reservations.
2. #Google :Australia urged Google on Thursday to "focus on paying for original content, not blocking it" after the internet giant said it was running tests that limit access to domestic news content, deepening a rift between the tech giant and the government.
After the Alphabet Inc owned search engine provider said it was conducting experiments to determine the value of its service to Australian news outlets, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg accused it of "blocking" users when it should be paying for the content.
"The digital giants should focus on paying for original content, not blocking it," Frydenberg told reporters, referring to Google and social media behemoth Facebook Inc .
The companies should "pay traditional news media businesses a fair sum of money for those news media businesses generating original content", he added.
The spat shows the strong resistance by the so-called Big Tech firms to laws which will force them to negotiate with Australian news outlets over payment for the content which appears on their platforms.
3.#Amazon:- Parler, a social media outlet favored by some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, urged a court Wednesday to order Amazon.com Inc to put it back online.
Amazon had shut down Parler following the Jan. 6 riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol aimed at preventing Democrat Joe Biden from becoming president. Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Jan. 11, accusing it of making an illegal decision to shut it down to benefit Twitter Inc .In its filing, Parler argued that Amazon Web Services breached its contract by cutting it off. Amazon earlier had said it had warned Parler about ugly and threatening language on its site, citing posts with vile language used to describe former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as postings such as "the only good democrat is a dead one. Kill'em all."
4. #Paypal :-PayPal Holding Inc has become the first foreign operator with 100% control of a payment platform in China, according to Chinese government data, as the U.S. fintech giant eyes a bigger foothold in a booming market for online payments.
PayPal acquired the 30% stake it doesn't already own in China's GoPay, formally known as Guofubao Information Technology Co., on Dec. 31, 2020, according to shareholder data from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
Financial details weren't disclosed in the data. The stake purchase came a year after PayPal bought a 70% stake in GoPay for an undisclosed amount，then becoming the first foreign company licensed to provide online payment services in China.
1.#Airbnb:- Airbnb has been canceling home-sharing reservations in the Washington D.C. area for the week of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration after law enforcement warned of a threat from armed militias, the rental platform said on Wednesday.
Airbnb said it made the decision after consulting local and federal officials and after a number of hosts worried about potential attacks sought to cancel bookings.
"We are aware of reports emerging yesterday afternoon regarding armed militias and known hate groups that are attempting to travel and disrupt the Inauguration," Airbnb said.
The company did not comment on specific instances and said it did not see evidence on its platform of guests planning protests and attacks.
Critics of last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol have asked hotels to cancel bookings during inauguration week to prevent further attacks, but major hotel chains Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and Marriott International said they planned to uphold existing reservations.
2. #Google :Australia urged Google on Thursday to "focus on paying for original content, not blocking it" after the internet giant said it was running tests that limit access to domestic news content, deepening a rift between the tech giant and the government.
After the Alphabet Inc owned search engine provider said it was conducting experiments to determine the value of its service to Australian news outlets, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg accused it of "blocking" users when it should be paying for the content.
"The digital giants should focus on paying for original content, not blocking it," Frydenberg told reporters, referring to Google and social media behemoth Facebook Inc .
The companies should "pay traditional news media businesses a fair sum of money for those news media businesses generating original content", he added.
The spat shows the strong resistance by the so-called Big Tech firms to laws which will force them to negotiate with Australian news outlets over payment for the content which appears on their platforms.
3.#Amazon:- Parler, a social media outlet favored by some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, urged a court Wednesday to order Amazon.com Inc to put it back online.
Amazon had shut down Parler following the Jan. 6 riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol aimed at preventing Democrat Joe Biden from becoming president. Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Jan. 11, accusing it of making an illegal decision to shut it down to benefit Twitter Inc .In its filing, Parler argued that Amazon Web Services breached its contract by cutting it off. Amazon earlier had said it had warned Parler about ugly and threatening language on its site, citing posts with vile language used to describe former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as postings such as "the only good democrat is a dead one. Kill'em all."
4. #Paypal :-PayPal Holding Inc has become the first foreign operator with 100% control of a payment platform in China, according to Chinese government data, as the U.S. fintech giant eyes a bigger foothold in a booming market for online payments.
PayPal acquired the 30% stake it doesn't already own in China's GoPay, formally known as Guofubao Information Technology Co., on Dec. 31, 2020, according to shareholder data from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
Financial details weren't disclosed in the data. The stake purchase came a year after PayPal bought a 70% stake in GoPay for an undisclosed amount，then becoming the first foreign company licensed to provide online payment services in China.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#Amazon:- Amazon.com Inc was slapped with a class-action lawsuit on Thursday accusing the e-commerce giant of inflating the prices of ebooks in collusion with some publishers.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon and the five largest U.S. publishers, collectively called the 'Big Five', agreed to price restraints that cause consumers to overpay for eBooks purchased from them through a retail platform other than Amazon.com. (https://refini.tv/2MXXVqs)
The lawsuit comes a day after Connecticut said it was investigating Amazon for potential anti-competitive behavior in its business selling digital books.
Amazon declined to comment.
About 90% of eBooks are sold through Amazon, the largest U.S. eBooks seller, the lawsuit claimed.
Law firm Hagens Berman, bringing the case, in 2011 filed a similar lawsuit against Apple Inc and the 'Big Five' over ebook prices.
2. #Google : Alphabet Inc's Google has removed some lending apps aimed at consumers in India from Play Store in an attempt to safeguard users, it said in a blog post on Thursday.
"We have reviewed hundreds of personal loan apps in India, based on flags submitted by users and government agencies," Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy said in the post.
A recent investigation by Reuters found at least 10 lending apps on Play Store breached Google's rules on loan repayment lengths aimed at protecting vulnerable borrowers. It also found that a number of the lending apps also flouted central bank regulations designed to protect borrowers..
Google did not elaborate on the number of apps that had been taken down.
Google has contacted companies and asked them to clarify if they are compliant with the rules and regulations, failing which an app could be removed from the Play Store.
3.#GOLDMAN SACHS:-Goldman Sachs has partnered with card issuing startup Marqeta to build the U.S. bank's Marcus checking accounts set to launch this year, the companies said on Thursday.
The bank, an investor in California-based Marqeta, hopes that the partnership will enable it to create more personalized and feature-rich digital banking services for its customers, it said.
Launched in 2016, Marcus has allowed Goldman to diversify its revenue and funding sources by offering savings accounts and personal loans to retail customers. Until then, the bank had operated largely as an investment bank and trading house, relying on money from the wholesale market.
Goldman, which had amassed more than $96 billion in consumer deposits through Marcus as of September 2020, has been investing heavily in its retail business. It bought a personal finance app in 2018, launched a credit card with Apple Inc in 2019 and has been offering lucrative savings rates to draw in more customers.
It launched an app for Marcus a little over a year ago, finally meeting demand from frustrated smartphone users who had to view account information, make loan payments or balance transfers on the bank's website.
4. #NOKIA :- Nokia on Thursday partnered with Alphabet's Google Cloud unit to build 5G core network infrastructure and allow business customers to offer services such as smart retail and automated manufacturing.
Cloud computing units of big technology companies such as Microsoft and Amazon are also tying up with telecoms vendors ahead of deployment of 5G infrastructure to corner a share in new businesses the new technology might enable.
While Nokia will bring its 5G expertise, Google Cloud will serve as the platform for launching applications and assist customers in building an ecosystem of services.
"We will start to see some of these things in the live environment by the end of this year," Amol Phadke, Managing Director at Google Cloud.
1.#Amazon:- Amazon.com Inc was slapped with a class-action lawsuit on Thursday accusing the e-commerce giant of inflating the prices of ebooks in collusion with some publishers.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon and the five largest U.S. publishers, collectively called the 'Big Five', agreed to price restraints that cause consumers to overpay for eBooks purchased from them through a retail platform other than Amazon.com. (https://refini.tv/2MXXVqs)
The lawsuit comes a day after Connecticut said it was investigating Amazon for potential anti-competitive behavior in its business selling digital books.
Amazon declined to comment.
About 90% of eBooks are sold through Amazon, the largest U.S. eBooks seller, the lawsuit claimed.
Law firm Hagens Berman, bringing the case, in 2011 filed a similar lawsuit against Apple Inc and the 'Big Five' over ebook prices.
2. #Google : Alphabet Inc's Google has removed some lending apps aimed at consumers in India from Play Store in an attempt to safeguard users, it said in a blog post on Thursday.
"We have reviewed hundreds of personal loan apps in India, based on flags submitted by users and government agencies," Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy said in the post.
A recent investigation by Reuters found at least 10 lending apps on Play Store breached Google's rules on loan repayment lengths aimed at protecting vulnerable borrowers. It also found that a number of the lending apps also flouted central bank regulations designed to protect borrowers..
Google did not elaborate on the number of apps that had been taken down.
Google has contacted companies and asked them to clarify if they are compliant with the rules and regulations, failing which an app could be removed from the Play Store.
3.#GOLDMAN SACHS:-Goldman Sachs has partnered with card issuing startup Marqeta to build the U.S. bank's Marcus checking accounts set to launch this year, the companies said on Thursday.
The bank, an investor in California-based Marqeta, hopes that the partnership will enable it to create more personalized and feature-rich digital banking services for its customers, it said.
Launched in 2016, Marcus has allowed Goldman to diversify its revenue and funding sources by offering savings accounts and personal loans to retail customers. Until then, the bank had operated largely as an investment bank and trading house, relying on money from the wholesale market.
Goldman, which had amassed more than $96 billion in consumer deposits through Marcus as of September 2020, has been investing heavily in its retail business. It bought a personal finance app in 2018, launched a credit card with Apple Inc in 2019 and has been offering lucrative savings rates to draw in more customers.
It launched an app for Marcus a little over a year ago, finally meeting demand from frustrated smartphone users who had to view account information, make loan payments or balance transfers on the bank's website.
4. #NOKIA :- Nokia on Thursday partnered with Alphabet's Google Cloud unit to build 5G core network infrastructure and allow business customers to offer services such as smart retail and automated manufacturing.
Cloud computing units of big technology companies such as Microsoft and Amazon are also tying up with telecoms vendors ahead of deployment of 5G infrastructure to corner a share in new businesses the new technology might enable.
While Nokia will bring its 5G expertise, Google Cloud will serve as the platform for launching applications and assist customers in building an ecosystem of services.
"We will start to see some of these things in the live environment by the end of this year," Amol Phadke, Managing Director at Google Cloud.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#GOOGLE- EU antitrust regulators have sought information from advertisers regarding Google advertising technology practices, a European Commission document seen by Reuters shows.
Alphabet-owned Google, the world's largest online search engine, has been hit with fines totalling 8.25 billion euros ($10 billion) in the last three years for blocking rivals in online shopping, Android smartphones and online advertising.
It now faces two European Union investigations into its advertising practices, focused on technology and data.
Google and Facebook together capture over half of the internet ad sales market globally. Both companies are currently the target of a U.S. lawsuit over their 2018 deal which gives Facebook's advertiser clients the option to place ads within Google's network of publishing partners
2.#LG :-South Korea's LG Electronics said on Wednesday it was considering all options for its loss-making mobile division, which analysts said could include shutting its smartphone business or selling off parts of the unit.
LG said in a statement that 23 consecutive quarters of losses in its mobile business had totalled around 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) amid stiff competition.
Shares in LG closed up 12.8%, against a rise of 0.7% in the broader KOSPI index.
"In the global market, competition in the mobile business including smartphones has gotten fiercer," LG said in the clearest sign yet that it could be considering a winding down of the troubled business.
"LG Electronics believes we have reached the point where we need to make the best decision about our mobile phone business, considering current and future competitiveness."
Chief Executive Brian Kwon said the company planned to retain employees regardless of what happened to the mobile unit.
3.#AMAZON:- Amazon is suing EU antitrust regulators for allowing the Italian competition watchdog to pursue its own case against the U.S. online retail giant over the way it selects sellers, arguing that this should be wrapped into an EU investigation.
Amazon took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, on Tuesday, asking it to annul the EU's decision to exclude Italy from the wider investigation, a court filing shows.
The move came two months after the European Commission opened an investigation into the criteria the company uses to select winners of its "buy box", which allows customers to add items from a specific retailer directly into their shopping carts.
The probe will also examine whether the company gives preferential treatment to its own retail offers and marketplace sellers that use its logistics and delivery services.
The Italian case was launched in 2019 over the same issue but focuses on the Italian logistics markets.
Amazon said the EU should absorb the Italian case for the sake of consistency and efficiency.
4. #TWITTER:-Twitter has locked the account of China's U.S. embassy for a tweet that defended China's policies in the Xinjiang region, which the U.S. social media platform said violated the firm's policy against "dehumanization".
The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month that said that Uighur women were no longer "baby making machines," citing a study reported by state-backed newspaper China Daily.
The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label stating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually delete such posts. The Chinese embassy's account has not posted any new tweets since Jan. 9.
Twitter's suspension of the embassy's account came a day after the Trump administration, in its final hours, accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, a finding endorsed by the incoming Biden administration.
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Twitter's move.
1.#GOOGLE- EU antitrust regulators have sought information from advertisers regarding Google advertising technology practices, a European Commission document seen by Reuters shows.
Alphabet-owned Google, the world's largest online search engine, has been hit with fines totalling 8.25 billion euros ($10 billion) in the last three years for blocking rivals in online shopping, Android smartphones and online advertising.
It now faces two European Union investigations into its advertising practices, focused on technology and data.
Google and Facebook together capture over half of the internet ad sales market globally. Both companies are currently the target of a U.S. lawsuit over their 2018 deal which gives Facebook's advertiser clients the option to place ads within Google's network of publishing partners
2.#LG :-South Korea's LG Electronics said on Wednesday it was considering all options for its loss-making mobile division, which analysts said could include shutting its smartphone business or selling off parts of the unit.
LG said in a statement that 23 consecutive quarters of losses in its mobile business had totalled around 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) amid stiff competition.
Shares in LG closed up 12.8%, against a rise of 0.7% in the broader KOSPI index.
"In the global market, competition in the mobile business including smartphones has gotten fiercer," LG said in the clearest sign yet that it could be considering a winding down of the troubled business.
"LG Electronics believes we have reached the point where we need to make the best decision about our mobile phone business, considering current and future competitiveness."
Chief Executive Brian Kwon said the company planned to retain employees regardless of what happened to the mobile unit.
3.#AMAZON:- Amazon is suing EU antitrust regulators for allowing the Italian competition watchdog to pursue its own case against the U.S. online retail giant over the way it selects sellers, arguing that this should be wrapped into an EU investigation.
Amazon took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, on Tuesday, asking it to annul the EU's decision to exclude Italy from the wider investigation, a court filing shows.
The move came two months after the European Commission opened an investigation into the criteria the company uses to select winners of its "buy box", which allows customers to add items from a specific retailer directly into their shopping carts.
The probe will also examine whether the company gives preferential treatment to its own retail offers and marketplace sellers that use its logistics and delivery services.
The Italian case was launched in 2019 over the same issue but focuses on the Italian logistics markets.
Amazon said the EU should absorb the Italian case for the sake of consistency and efficiency.
4. #TWITTER:-Twitter has locked the account of China's U.S. embassy for a tweet that defended China's policies in the Xinjiang region, which the U.S. social media platform said violated the firm's policy against "dehumanization".
The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month that said that Uighur women were no longer "baby making machines," citing a study reported by state-backed newspaper China Daily.
The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label stating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually delete such posts. The Chinese embassy's account has not posted any new tweets since Jan. 9.
Twitter's suspension of the embassy's account came a day after the Trump administration, in its final hours, accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, a finding endorsed by the incoming Biden administration.
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Twitter's move.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#GOOGLE- Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying on Thursday that it was not commercially viable.
Founded in 2011, Loon aimed to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building cell towers is too expensive or treacherous by using balloons the length of tennis courts to float solar-powered networking gear high above the Earth. But the wireless carriers that Loon saw as buyers of its technology have questioned its technical and political viability.
"While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business," Loon Chief Executive Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post.
Rich DeVaul, a founder of the project who is no longer with Alphabet, added that surging demand for mobile connectivity made towers cost-effective in more of the world than he had estimated a decade ago, diminishing the need for Loon.
2.#TESLA :-Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the "best" technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air.
The International Energy Agency said late last year that a sharp rise in the deployment of carbon capture technology was needed if countries are to meet net-zero emissions targets.
"Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology," Musk wrote in a tweet, followed by a second tweet that promised "Details next week."
Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.
Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal Holdings Inc , now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.
Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.
3.#AMAZON:- Amazon Inc said on Thursday it will open a pop-up clinic in its Seattle headquarters on Jan. 24 with an aim to vaccinate 2,000 eligible members of the public against COVID-19 on the first day.
Amazon Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs Jay Carney, who announced the plan in a news conference with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, said a company executive will be working with Washington State's Vaccine Command Center.
The clinic will be hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
The move came a day after Reuters reported that Amazon had offered to help with the United States' efforts involving the COVID-19 vaccine, citing a letter addressed to President Joe Biden.
The State currently allows people aged 65 and older and people 50 and older living in a multi-generational household to get vaccinated. It has yet to grant doses for the vaccination of warehouse employees, such as Amazon's.
The company employs more than 800,000 people in the country and more than 19,000 U.S. workers at Amazon had contracted the virus as of September, underscoring the vaccine's importance in keeping its staff safe and warehouses operational.
4. #INTEL:-Intel Corp 's financially sensitive information was stolen by a hacker from its corporate website that prompted the company to release its earnings statement ahead of schedule, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, quoting the chief financial officer.
CFO George Davis did not provide more details, but said that the leak was the result of an illicit action that had not involved any unintentional disclosure by the company itself, according to the report.
1.#GOOGLE- Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying on Thursday that it was not commercially viable.
Founded in 2011, Loon aimed to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building cell towers is too expensive or treacherous by using balloons the length of tennis courts to float solar-powered networking gear high above the Earth. But the wireless carriers that Loon saw as buyers of its technology have questioned its technical and political viability.
"While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business," Loon Chief Executive Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post.
Rich DeVaul, a founder of the project who is no longer with Alphabet, added that surging demand for mobile connectivity made towers cost-effective in more of the world than he had estimated a decade ago, diminishing the need for Loon.
2.#TESLA :-Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the "best" technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air.
The International Energy Agency said late last year that a sharp rise in the deployment of carbon capture technology was needed if countries are to meet net-zero emissions targets.
"Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology," Musk wrote in a tweet, followed by a second tweet that promised "Details next week."
Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.
Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal Holdings Inc , now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.
Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.
3.#AMAZON:- Amazon Inc said on Thursday it will open a pop-up clinic in its Seattle headquarters on Jan. 24 with an aim to vaccinate 2,000 eligible members of the public against COVID-19 on the first day.
Amazon Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs Jay Carney, who announced the plan in a news conference with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, said a company executive will be working with Washington State's Vaccine Command Center.
The clinic will be hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
The move came a day after Reuters reported that Amazon had offered to help with the United States' efforts involving the COVID-19 vaccine, citing a letter addressed to President Joe Biden.
The State currently allows people aged 65 and older and people 50 and older living in a multi-generational household to get vaccinated. It has yet to grant doses for the vaccination of warehouse employees, such as Amazon's.
The company employs more than 800,000 people in the country and more than 19,000 U.S. workers at Amazon had contracted the virus as of September, underscoring the vaccine's importance in keeping its staff safe and warehouses operational.
4. #INTEL:-Intel Corp 's financially sensitive information was stolen by a hacker from its corporate website that prompted the company to release its earnings statement ahead of schedule, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, quoting the chief financial officer.
CFO George Davis did not provide more details, but said that the leak was the result of an illicit action that had not involved any unintentional disclosure by the company itself, according to the report.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT (22-01-2021):-
1.GOOGLE- Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying on Thursday that it was not commercially viable.
#Google #Tesla #Amazon #Intel #Ford #StockAnalysis #TradeAnalysis #TechnicalAnalysis #FundamentalAnalysis #CapitalStreetFx
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watchout-22-01-2021/
1.GOOGLE- Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying on Thursday that it was not commercially viable.
#Google #Tesla #Amazon #Intel #Ford #StockAnalysis #TradeAnalysis #TechnicalAnalysis #FundamentalAnalysis #CapitalStreetFx
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watchout-22-01-2021/
Capital Street FX
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT (22-01-2021):- Capital Street FX
1.GOOGLE- Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying on Thursday that it was not commercially viable. Founded in 2011, Loon aimed to bring connectivity…
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY 25 JANUARY 2021
#VOLKSWAGEN #TIKTOK #SEQUOIA #GOOGLE #TOSHIBA
#FundamentalAnalysis #TradeAnalysis #TechnicalAnalysis #StockAnalysis #DailyMarketReport #CapitalStreetFx
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watch-out-today-25-january-2021/
#VOLKSWAGEN #TIKTOK #SEQUOIA #GOOGLE #TOSHIBA
#FundamentalAnalysis #TradeAnalysis #TechnicalAnalysis #StockAnalysis #DailyMarketReport #CapitalStreetFx
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watch-out-today-25-january-2021/
Capital Street FX
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY 25 JANUARY 2021 - Capital Street FX
1.VOLKSWAGEN:– German car manufacturer Volkswagen is in talks with its main suppliers about possible claims for damages due to a shortage of semiconductors, a company spokesman said on Sunday. Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines due to…
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT
1.#TWITTER- Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it would not fully comply with orders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to take down some accounts as it does not believe the orders are consistent with Indian law.
It has permanently suspended some accounts but for others, it has only restricted access within India and the tweets can still be read outside the country.
The U.S. social media giant has found itself in a heated no-win row with Modi's administration, which wants it to take down more than 1,100 accounts and posts that the government argues are spreading misinformation about months-long farmers' protests against new agricultural laws.
Some accounts, the government said, are backed by arch-rival Pakistan or are operated by supporters of a separatist Sikh movement.
The government has played hardball, sending Twitter a notice of non-compliance last week that threatens its executives with jail terms of up to seven years and the company with fines if it does not block the content.
Twitter said it had suspended more than 500 accounts that were engaging in clear examples of platform manipulation and spam, and had also taken actions on hundreds of others that breached its rules relating to the inciting of violence and abuse.
Others were geo-blocked, although Twitter did not go into detail on how it made decisions on which accounts to restrict.
"These accounts continue to be available outside of India," Twitter said. "Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law."
2.#TESLA :Electric-vehicle startup Rivian, which is backed by Amazon.com Inc and Ford Motor Co, is looking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of about $50 billion or more, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
Rivian has been in talks with bankers about its plans, but the company's timeline for an initial public offering isn't final and a listing could happen later in the year or next year, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company declined to comment.
Rivian, which aims to put an electric pickup and SUV in production this year, announced last month a $2.65-billion investment round led by T. Rowe Price. The startup has said it has raised $8 billion since the start of 2019.
The company's deliveries of pickups would start in June, while those of SUVs would begin in August. Launch editions of the vehicles are priced at $75,000 and $77,500, respectively, with a 300-mile (480 km) driving range for both.
In 2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vans from Rivian. The first Amazon vehicles went into production at Rivian's factory in Normal, Illinois in late 2021, with all deliveries to be completed by 2024.
3.#APPLE:-Apple Inc has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to develop micro OLED displays, which it plans to use in its upcoming augmented reality (AR) devices, Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday.
Apple is collaborating with TSMC, the sole supplier of iPhone processors, as micro OLED displays are far thinner, smaller and use less power, making them more suitable for use in wearable AR devices, the report said.
The displays under development are less than 1 inch in size, Nikkei added.
Bloomberg News in January reported that Apple was still working on underlying technologies for its AR glasses, codenamed N421. It said the product was several years away, citing sources, but added that Apple has previously targeted as early as 2023 to unveil it. The micro OLED project with TSMC is currently at the trial production stage and will take several years to achieve mass production, according to Nikkei.
4. #GOOGLE:- Alphabet Inc's YouTube said on Tuesday it has become the first digital platform to receive an accreditation from the Media Rating Council, signifying the streaming video service effectively protects its advertisers from appearing on content deemed inappropriate for paid ads.
1.#TWITTER- Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it would not fully comply with orders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to take down some accounts as it does not believe the orders are consistent with Indian law.
It has permanently suspended some accounts but for others, it has only restricted access within India and the tweets can still be read outside the country.
The U.S. social media giant has found itself in a heated no-win row with Modi's administration, which wants it to take down more than 1,100 accounts and posts that the government argues are spreading misinformation about months-long farmers' protests against new agricultural laws.
Some accounts, the government said, are backed by arch-rival Pakistan or are operated by supporters of a separatist Sikh movement.
The government has played hardball, sending Twitter a notice of non-compliance last week that threatens its executives with jail terms of up to seven years and the company with fines if it does not block the content.
Twitter said it had suspended more than 500 accounts that were engaging in clear examples of platform manipulation and spam, and had also taken actions on hundreds of others that breached its rules relating to the inciting of violence and abuse.
Others were geo-blocked, although Twitter did not go into detail on how it made decisions on which accounts to restrict.
"These accounts continue to be available outside of India," Twitter said. "Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law."
2.#TESLA :Electric-vehicle startup Rivian, which is backed by Amazon.com Inc and Ford Motor Co, is looking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of about $50 billion or more, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
Rivian has been in talks with bankers about its plans, but the company's timeline for an initial public offering isn't final and a listing could happen later in the year or next year, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company declined to comment.
Rivian, which aims to put an electric pickup and SUV in production this year, announced last month a $2.65-billion investment round led by T. Rowe Price. The startup has said it has raised $8 billion since the start of 2019.
The company's deliveries of pickups would start in June, while those of SUVs would begin in August. Launch editions of the vehicles are priced at $75,000 and $77,500, respectively, with a 300-mile (480 km) driving range for both.
In 2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vans from Rivian. The first Amazon vehicles went into production at Rivian's factory in Normal, Illinois in late 2021, with all deliveries to be completed by 2024.
3.#APPLE:-Apple Inc has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to develop micro OLED displays, which it plans to use in its upcoming augmented reality (AR) devices, Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday.
Apple is collaborating with TSMC, the sole supplier of iPhone processors, as micro OLED displays are far thinner, smaller and use less power, making them more suitable for use in wearable AR devices, the report said.
The displays under development are less than 1 inch in size, Nikkei added.
Bloomberg News in January reported that Apple was still working on underlying technologies for its AR glasses, codenamed N421. It said the product was several years away, citing sources, but added that Apple has previously targeted as early as 2023 to unveil it. The micro OLED project with TSMC is currently at the trial production stage and will take several years to achieve mass production, according to Nikkei.
4. #GOOGLE:- Alphabet Inc's YouTube said on Tuesday it has become the first digital platform to receive an accreditation from the Media Rating Council, signifying the streaming video service effectively protects its advertisers from appearing on content deemed inappropriate for paid ads.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#Volkswagen - Volkswagen said bad planning on the part of its suppliers has compounded a computer chip shortage blighting the global auto industry, claiming it gave ample notice that the coronavirus' hit to car production would be limited.
VW was in December the first carmaker to warn of a chip supply crunch that has hit global automakers, forcing them to cut or halt production as the semiconductor industry struggles to keep up with a recovery in the car sector.
The German company told its suppliers in April last year - when much of global car production was idled due to the coronavirus pandemic - that it expected a strong recovery in the second half of 2020, a VW executive, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Volkswagen, the world's second-largest carmaker, says it was made aware of the chip shortage by one of its suppliers at the end of November, but that that warning came too late.
"We have communicated our demand early on. We have passed on our forecasts which have confirmed that demand," said the executive.
"If suppliers do not trust our numbers and consult their own forecasts, we should have been informed straight away. This has not happened."
As well as identifying potential weaknesses in the automotive supply chain, the question over who is responsible for the shortages could play a decisive role in any legal disputes down the line.
The current shortages are seen as stemming from a combination of factors, as auto manufacturers compete against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies.
The executive said differing demand forecasts could explain the current problem, which has led VW to warn that chip supply will remain strained during the first half of 2021.
"This has caused a lot of trouble. If the supplier didn't have a chip problem in its own supply chain, we would get our control units," the executive said.
2. #TWITTER :The Bank of Italy said on Monday a set of experimental indicators it created from the content of millions of tweets accurately tracked consumer mood on price, offering scope for a powerful new monetary policy tool.
The effort comes as economists and policy-makers around the world increasingly turn to social media and other unconventional sources to measure consumer behaviour and as inflation continues to defy targets set by many leading central banks.
Researchers found their indicators, based on millions of tweets, not only tallied with final inflation read-outs and existing measures of price expectations by Italy's national statistics office, financial markets and other forecasters but were also in real-time and provided more granular detail.
"The results suggest that Twitter can be a new timely source for devising a method to elicit beliefs," the authors of the 107-page study said, adding they believed the Italy-focused research could be replicated elsewhere.
Twitter has roughly 200 million monthly active users worldwide and had around 10 million active users in Italy in 2019, the authors said.
The analysis started by collecting 11.1 million tweets posted in Italian between June 2013 and December 2019 containing at least one of a set of previously selected words related to inflation, prices and price dynamics.
"The rationale for focusing on pure raw tweets count is the intuitive notion that the more people talk about something, the larger is the probability it reflects their opinion and that their view can influence other people's expectations," it said.
Then the dataset was "cleaned" to remove advertisements or tweets that use the word inflation in an unrelated context.
3. #GOOGLE :- Google Ireland and Google France have agreed to pay a 1.1 million euros ($1.34 million) fine after a probe found that Google's hotel rankings could be misleading for consumers, France's finance ministry and fraud watchdog said on Monday.
The ministry and watchdog also said in a statement that Google has amended its hotel rankings practices since September 2019.
1.#Volkswagen - Volkswagen said bad planning on the part of its suppliers has compounded a computer chip shortage blighting the global auto industry, claiming it gave ample notice that the coronavirus' hit to car production would be limited.
VW was in December the first carmaker to warn of a chip supply crunch that has hit global automakers, forcing them to cut or halt production as the semiconductor industry struggles to keep up with a recovery in the car sector.
The German company told its suppliers in April last year - when much of global car production was idled due to the coronavirus pandemic - that it expected a strong recovery in the second half of 2020, a VW executive, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Volkswagen, the world's second-largest carmaker, says it was made aware of the chip shortage by one of its suppliers at the end of November, but that that warning came too late.
"We have communicated our demand early on. We have passed on our forecasts which have confirmed that demand," said the executive.
"If suppliers do not trust our numbers and consult their own forecasts, we should have been informed straight away. This has not happened."
As well as identifying potential weaknesses in the automotive supply chain, the question over who is responsible for the shortages could play a decisive role in any legal disputes down the line.
The current shortages are seen as stemming from a combination of factors, as auto manufacturers compete against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies.
The executive said differing demand forecasts could explain the current problem, which has led VW to warn that chip supply will remain strained during the first half of 2021.
"This has caused a lot of trouble. If the supplier didn't have a chip problem in its own supply chain, we would get our control units," the executive said.
2. #TWITTER :The Bank of Italy said on Monday a set of experimental indicators it created from the content of millions of tweets accurately tracked consumer mood on price, offering scope for a powerful new monetary policy tool.
The effort comes as economists and policy-makers around the world increasingly turn to social media and other unconventional sources to measure consumer behaviour and as inflation continues to defy targets set by many leading central banks.
Researchers found their indicators, based on millions of tweets, not only tallied with final inflation read-outs and existing measures of price expectations by Italy's national statistics office, financial markets and other forecasters but were also in real-time and provided more granular detail.
"The results suggest that Twitter can be a new timely source for devising a method to elicit beliefs," the authors of the 107-page study said, adding they believed the Italy-focused research could be replicated elsewhere.
Twitter has roughly 200 million monthly active users worldwide and had around 10 million active users in Italy in 2019, the authors said.
The analysis started by collecting 11.1 million tweets posted in Italian between June 2013 and December 2019 containing at least one of a set of previously selected words related to inflation, prices and price dynamics.
"The rationale for focusing on pure raw tweets count is the intuitive notion that the more people talk about something, the larger is the probability it reflects their opinion and that their view can influence other people's expectations," it said.
Then the dataset was "cleaned" to remove advertisements or tweets that use the word inflation in an unrelated context.
3. #GOOGLE :- Google Ireland and Google France have agreed to pay a 1.1 million euros ($1.34 million) fine after a probe found that Google's hotel rankings could be misleading for consumers, France's finance ministry and fraud watchdog said on Monday.
The ministry and watchdog also said in a statement that Google has amended its hotel rankings practices since September 2019.
3. #GOOGLE :- Australia on Wednesday said promised laws forcing tech giants to pay media outlets for content had already succeeded after reports that publisher and broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd agreed on a licensing deal with Google.
The Alphabet Inc owned company agreed to pay Nine more than A$30 million ($23.25 million) a year for its content, two of Nine's newspapers reported, citing unidentified industry sources. The deal would be formally signed in the next two weeks, the newspapers said.
A Nine spokeswoman declined to comment to Reuters. A Google spokesman also declined to comment.
Nine would be the second major Australian media company to reach an agreement with Google just as the country's parliament prepares to pass laws giving the government power to set Google's content fees.
On Monday, Nine rival Seven West Media Ltd said it had reached a deal that local media reported would also involve the U.S. company paying it A$30 million a year.
"None of these deals would be happening if we didn't have the legislation before the Parliament," Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters.
"This legislation, this world-leading mandatory code, is bringing the parties to the table. We have held the line and held it strongly."
4.#FACEBOOK:- The Australian federal government has said it still plans to put the laws - which effectively force Google and social media giant Facebook Inc to strike deals with media companies or have fees set for them - to a vote in the coming weeks.
Last year, seven smaller media companies, specialist websites and a regional newspaper, signed deals to have their content appear on Google's News Showcase platform, but the country's main metro outlets failed to reach agreements.
Several large domestic media players, including the local arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - which owns two-thirds of Australian newspapers - have yet to announce Google deals. A News Corp spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Media outlets around the world are trying to find a way to compensate for a slump in advertising revenue, traditionally their main source of income, which has resulted in widespread closures.
5.#AMAZON:-Amazon.com Inc will start making its TV streaming device in India this year via a unit of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, the U.S. online retail giant said on Tuesday.
The Fire TV Stick will be made by Foxconn subsidiary Cloud Network Technology in the southern city of Chennai, marking the first time one of Amazon's devices will be manufactured in India.
Amazon said hundreds of thousands of Fire TV Sticks would be produced annually, helping it to meet demand from Indian customers.
"Amazon will continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional marketplaces/cities depending on the domestic demand," the company said in a blog post.
The launch of conglomerate Reliance's telecoms venture Jio in 2016 began an era of cheap data tariffs in India, aiding the growth of video and audio streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon's Prime Video.
That in turn created a market for streaming devices such as the Fire stick.
The Alphabet Inc owned company agreed to pay Nine more than A$30 million ($23.25 million) a year for its content, two of Nine's newspapers reported, citing unidentified industry sources. The deal would be formally signed in the next two weeks, the newspapers said.
A Nine spokeswoman declined to comment to Reuters. A Google spokesman also declined to comment.
Nine would be the second major Australian media company to reach an agreement with Google just as the country's parliament prepares to pass laws giving the government power to set Google's content fees.
On Monday, Nine rival Seven West Media Ltd said it had reached a deal that local media reported would also involve the U.S. company paying it A$30 million a year.
"None of these deals would be happening if we didn't have the legislation before the Parliament," Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters.
"This legislation, this world-leading mandatory code, is bringing the parties to the table. We have held the line and held it strongly."
4.#FACEBOOK:- The Australian federal government has said it still plans to put the laws - which effectively force Google and social media giant Facebook Inc to strike deals with media companies or have fees set for them - to a vote in the coming weeks.
Last year, seven smaller media companies, specialist websites and a regional newspaper, signed deals to have their content appear on Google's News Showcase platform, but the country's main metro outlets failed to reach agreements.
Several large domestic media players, including the local arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - which owns two-thirds of Australian newspapers - have yet to announce Google deals. A News Corp spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Media outlets around the world are trying to find a way to compensate for a slump in advertising revenue, traditionally their main source of income, which has resulted in widespread closures.
5.#AMAZON:-Amazon.com Inc will start making its TV streaming device in India this year via a unit of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, the U.S. online retail giant said on Tuesday.
The Fire TV Stick will be made by Foxconn subsidiary Cloud Network Technology in the southern city of Chennai, marking the first time one of Amazon's devices will be manufactured in India.
Amazon said hundreds of thousands of Fire TV Sticks would be produced annually, helping it to meet demand from Indian customers.
"Amazon will continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional marketplaces/cities depending on the domestic demand," the company said in a blog post.
The launch of conglomerate Reliance's telecoms venture Jio in 2016 began an era of cheap data tariffs in India, aiding the growth of video and audio streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon's Prime Video.
That in turn created a market for streaming devices such as the Fire stick.
Top 5 Stocks to Watchout today as on 18th February 2021
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watchout-today-18-february-2021/
#Facebook #Twitter #Google #Shopify #Amazon
https://www.capitalstreetfx.com/en/top-5-stocks-to-watchout-today-18-february-2021/
#Facebook #Twitter #Google #Shopify #Amazon
Capital Street FX
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT TODAY 18 FEBRUARY 2021 - Capital Street FX
1.Facebook – Australians woke to empty news feeds on their Facebook Inc pages on Thursday after the social media giant blocked all media content in a surprise and dramatic escalation of a dispute with the government over paying for content. The move was swiftly…
In a one and half hour livestream featuring singing by Justin Bieber, Spotify released a host of new features for artists and tools for advertisers for better targeting its millions of users across music and podcasts.
4.#GOOGLE:-Alphabet's Google is negotiating individual licensing deals with a divided Spanish news industry that could allow the U.S. tech giant's news service to resume in the country, three sources close to the matter told Reuters.
Google News, which links to third party content, closed in Spain in late 2014 in response to legislation which meant it had to pay a mandatory collective licensing fee to re-publish headlines or snippets of news.
Now the thorny issue is back on the table as Spain prepares to implement the 2019 European Union copyright directive by June. While that requires Google, Facebook and others to share revenue with publishers, the government could allow the companies to negotiate individual deals with content providers.
Spain's Culture Ministry said the government was working on a draft bill, but declined to give further details.
Google News will only be back in Spain if publishers have the right to sign individual agreements under a new law, a Google Spain spokeswoman said, adding that a paid licence should not be mandatory.
5.#HYUNDAI MOTORS:- Hyundai Motor Co launched its Ioniq 5 midsize crossover on Tuesday, the first in a planned family of electric vehicles (EV) that it hopes will propel it into the third rank of global EV makers by 2025.
The company says the model is based on a new electric vehicle-only platform that uses its own battery module technology and requires fewer components than Hyundai's existing electric cars, enabling faster production at lower cost.
The launch of Ioniq 5 is the linchpin of Hyundai's long-term goal to capture 10% of global EV sales by 2025, up from a combined market share of 7.2% for Hyundai and Kia together during the January-September period in 2020, according to industry tracker SNE Research. Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Corp together aim to sell 1 million EVs in 2025.
"We expect this year's (global) EV demand will increase more than 30% versus last year," Hyundai Motor President Chang Jae-hoon told a news conference.
The Ioniq 5 will have a maximum driving range of about 480 kms (298 miles), up nearly 20% from the Kona EV, which previously had the longest range among Hyundai's EV lineup.
It will offer two battery pack options - 58-kilowatt-hour (kWh) or 72.6 kWh - and will be available in selected regions starting in the first half of 2021, Hyundai said in a statement.
The South Korean automaker did not disclose the price of the Ioniq 5, but Hyundai Motor Europe President Michael Cole said in Europe it would start at about 42,000 euros ($51,100) before government incentives.
4.#GOOGLE:-Alphabet's Google is negotiating individual licensing deals with a divided Spanish news industry that could allow the U.S. tech giant's news service to resume in the country, three sources close to the matter told Reuters.
Google News, which links to third party content, closed in Spain in late 2014 in response to legislation which meant it had to pay a mandatory collective licensing fee to re-publish headlines or snippets of news.
Now the thorny issue is back on the table as Spain prepares to implement the 2019 European Union copyright directive by June. While that requires Google, Facebook and others to share revenue with publishers, the government could allow the companies to negotiate individual deals with content providers.
Spain's Culture Ministry said the government was working on a draft bill, but declined to give further details.
Google News will only be back in Spain if publishers have the right to sign individual agreements under a new law, a Google Spain spokeswoman said, adding that a paid licence should not be mandatory.
5.#HYUNDAI MOTORS:- Hyundai Motor Co launched its Ioniq 5 midsize crossover on Tuesday, the first in a planned family of electric vehicles (EV) that it hopes will propel it into the third rank of global EV makers by 2025.
The company says the model is based on a new electric vehicle-only platform that uses its own battery module technology and requires fewer components than Hyundai's existing electric cars, enabling faster production at lower cost.
The launch of Ioniq 5 is the linchpin of Hyundai's long-term goal to capture 10% of global EV sales by 2025, up from a combined market share of 7.2% for Hyundai and Kia together during the January-September period in 2020, according to industry tracker SNE Research. Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Corp together aim to sell 1 million EVs in 2025.
"We expect this year's (global) EV demand will increase more than 30% versus last year," Hyundai Motor President Chang Jae-hoon told a news conference.
The Ioniq 5 will have a maximum driving range of about 480 kms (298 miles), up nearly 20% from the Kona EV, which previously had the longest range among Hyundai's EV lineup.
It will offer two battery pack options - 58-kilowatt-hour (kWh) or 72.6 kWh - and will be available in selected regions starting in the first half of 2021, Hyundai said in a statement.
The South Korean automaker did not disclose the price of the Ioniq 5, but Hyundai Motor Europe President Michael Cole said in Europe it would start at about 42,000 euros ($51,100) before government incentives.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#ALI EXPRESS :- Online retailer AliExpress Russia on Wednesday said an initial public offering was a possible step for the company, which reported gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $3 billion for the 2020-21 financial year.
A joint venture launched in 2019 with China's Alibaba and Russian partners, AliExpress Russia operates domestic and cross-border sales.
The company said it now has 29.1 million monthly active users on its online marketplace.
AliExpress Russia did not give a comparison for total GMV, which stood at 229.3 billion roubles ($2.96 billion) for the year to March 31. GMV for its domestic business was up 151% year-on-year at 54.9 billion roubles, the company said.
The COVID-19 pandemic gave a boost to Russia's e-commerce sector as health restrictions kept consumers at home, but AliExpress Russia, which depends on cross-border transactions for more than three quarters of its business, was slower to see the benefit as supply chains adjusted to new travel restrictions.
The company said an IPO was a possible step, but that such a decision was one for its shareholders.
"There are no specific plans for the dates - it may be next year or later," AliExpress Russia said.
CEO Dmitry Sergeev said the company's cross-border business grew in line with Russia's total e-commerce market, which analysts from market research firm Euromonitor put at almost 40% in 2020, and that its domestic business was growing ahead of the market.
2.#GOOGLE- Google research manager Samy Bengio said on Tuesday he was resigning, according to an internal email seen by Reuters, in a blow to the Alphabet Inc unit after the firings of his colleagues who questioned paper review and diversity practices.
Though at least two Google engineers had earlier resigned to protest the dismissal of artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Timnit Gebru, Bengio is the highest-profile employee yet to depart.
Google confirmed Bengio's resignation and his email. Bengio did not respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.
A distinguished scientist at Google, Bengio spent about 14 years at the company and was among its first employees involved in a decade-old project known as Google Brain that advanced algorithms crucial to the functioning of various modern AI systems.
Andrew Ng, an early Brain member who now runs software startup Landing AI, said Bengio "has been instrumental to moving forward AI technology and ethics." Another founding member, Jeff Dean, now oversees Google's thousands of researchers.
Google Brain researcher Sara Hooker in a tweet described Bengio's departure as "a huge loss for Google."
In the internal email Bengio had sent, he said he decided to leave Google to pursue "other exciting opportunities" and that his last day would be April 28.
Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell in February after alleging she transferred electronic files out of the company. It fired fellow researcher Gebru in December after she threatened to quit rather than retract a paper.
1.#ALI EXPRESS :- Online retailer AliExpress Russia on Wednesday said an initial public offering was a possible step for the company, which reported gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $3 billion for the 2020-21 financial year.
A joint venture launched in 2019 with China's Alibaba and Russian partners, AliExpress Russia operates domestic and cross-border sales.
The company said it now has 29.1 million monthly active users on its online marketplace.
AliExpress Russia did not give a comparison for total GMV, which stood at 229.3 billion roubles ($2.96 billion) for the year to March 31. GMV for its domestic business was up 151% year-on-year at 54.9 billion roubles, the company said.
The COVID-19 pandemic gave a boost to Russia's e-commerce sector as health restrictions kept consumers at home, but AliExpress Russia, which depends on cross-border transactions for more than three quarters of its business, was slower to see the benefit as supply chains adjusted to new travel restrictions.
The company said an IPO was a possible step, but that such a decision was one for its shareholders.
"There are no specific plans for the dates - it may be next year or later," AliExpress Russia said.
CEO Dmitry Sergeev said the company's cross-border business grew in line with Russia's total e-commerce market, which analysts from market research firm Euromonitor put at almost 40% in 2020, and that its domestic business was growing ahead of the market.
2.#GOOGLE- Google research manager Samy Bengio said on Tuesday he was resigning, according to an internal email seen by Reuters, in a blow to the Alphabet Inc unit after the firings of his colleagues who questioned paper review and diversity practices.
Though at least two Google engineers had earlier resigned to protest the dismissal of artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Timnit Gebru, Bengio is the highest-profile employee yet to depart.
Google confirmed Bengio's resignation and his email. Bengio did not respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.
A distinguished scientist at Google, Bengio spent about 14 years at the company and was among its first employees involved in a decade-old project known as Google Brain that advanced algorithms crucial to the functioning of various modern AI systems.
Andrew Ng, an early Brain member who now runs software startup Landing AI, said Bengio "has been instrumental to moving forward AI technology and ethics." Another founding member, Jeff Dean, now oversees Google's thousands of researchers.
Google Brain researcher Sara Hooker in a tweet described Bengio's departure as "a huge loss for Google."
In the internal email Bengio had sent, he said he decided to leave Google to pursue "other exciting opportunities" and that his last day would be April 28.
Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell in February after alleging she transferred electronic files out of the company. It fired fellow researcher Gebru in December after she threatened to quit rather than retract a paper.