TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1. #FACEBOOK-Facebook has taken down content that spread lies in Israel against coronavirus vaccinations as the government seeks to drum up support for the programme, the Justice Ministry said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday became the first person to be vaccinated in Israel. Opinion polls show some two-thirds of the public want to follow suit.
The Justice Ministry said that, at its request, Facebook took down four groups at the weekend that had disseminated texts, photographs and videos with "deliberately mendacious content designed to mislead about coronavirus vaccines".
2. #HUAWEI-Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou's alleged actions had "no genuine connection" to the United States, her lawyers have argued in their latest bid to end her extradition from Canada, according to court documents released on Friday.
Meng, 48, was arrested two years ago at the Vancouver airport by Canadian police on an arrest warrant from the United States, where she is charged with bank and wire fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Tech Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran.
She has claimed innocence and is fighting the extradition while under house arrest in Vancouver. Witness testimony wrapped up earlier this week in her case.
Her lawyers have fought to add an additional allegation of abuse of process to the case, claiming that the United States misrepresented Meng's actions to Canada in its request for her extradition, and that her actions did not cause HSBC to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.
3.#SOFT BANK :- The U.S. unit of SoftBank-backed robotics startup CloudMinds has changed its name to distance itself from the blacklisted China-based firm, two people with knowledge of the matter said, and is selling face-scanning temperature monitors through T-Mobile US.
The unit is selling its cloud-connected products under the new name at a time of heightened concern in the United States about the national security risk of Chinese firms collecting and using the personal data of U.S. citizens.
Documents filed in California showed the unit became Wright Robotics in August, after the United States in May added CloudMinds to its so-called Entity List citing the risk of the firm procuring items and technology for China's military.
The United States can restrict sales to blacklisted firms of goods made domestically as well as goods made abroad containing U.S. technology.
It expanded the definition of military end-use in April to include any firm that supported the maintenance or production of military items even if they primarily did commercial business.
4. #TESLA :-Tesla Inc and Wall Street made 2020 the year that the U.S. auto industry decided to go electric.
Tesla's market capitalization surged above $600 billion, making the once wobbly startup founded by billionaire Elon Musk worth more than the five top-selling global vehicle making groups combined. The exclamation point came on Friday when Tesla rose to a record high in frantic trading ahead of the stock's much-anticipated entrance into the benchmark S&P 500 INDEX..
For 2021, all signs point toward the industry accelerating its shift toward electrification, a turning point as historically momentous as the launch of Ford Motor Co's moving assembly line for the Model T or General Motors 2009 bankruptcy.
5. #AMAZON:-The New Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed India's Future Retail's plea that sought to restrain its partner Amazon.com Inc from interfering in its $3.4 billion asset sale deal with Reliance Industries.
Amazon is locked in a bitter legal dispute with Future Group, which in August sold its retail assets to Mukesh Ambani-led #Reliance Industries. The deal breaches agreements made in 2019 by Future, according to the U.S. online retailer.
In October, Amazon had won an injunction to halt Future's deal with Reliance from a Singapore arbitrator both sides had agreed to use in case of disputes.
Future later said the order was not binding, prompting Amazon to lodge a complaint with India's market regulator
1. #FACEBOOK-Facebook has taken down content that spread lies in Israel against coronavirus vaccinations as the government seeks to drum up support for the programme, the Justice Ministry said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday became the first person to be vaccinated in Israel. Opinion polls show some two-thirds of the public want to follow suit.
The Justice Ministry said that, at its request, Facebook took down four groups at the weekend that had disseminated texts, photographs and videos with "deliberately mendacious content designed to mislead about coronavirus vaccines".
2. #HUAWEI-Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou's alleged actions had "no genuine connection" to the United States, her lawyers have argued in their latest bid to end her extradition from Canada, according to court documents released on Friday.
Meng, 48, was arrested two years ago at the Vancouver airport by Canadian police on an arrest warrant from the United States, where she is charged with bank and wire fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Tech Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran.
She has claimed innocence and is fighting the extradition while under house arrest in Vancouver. Witness testimony wrapped up earlier this week in her case.
Her lawyers have fought to add an additional allegation of abuse of process to the case, claiming that the United States misrepresented Meng's actions to Canada in its request for her extradition, and that her actions did not cause HSBC to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.
3.#SOFT BANK :- The U.S. unit of SoftBank-backed robotics startup CloudMinds has changed its name to distance itself from the blacklisted China-based firm, two people with knowledge of the matter said, and is selling face-scanning temperature monitors through T-Mobile US.
The unit is selling its cloud-connected products under the new name at a time of heightened concern in the United States about the national security risk of Chinese firms collecting and using the personal data of U.S. citizens.
Documents filed in California showed the unit became Wright Robotics in August, after the United States in May added CloudMinds to its so-called Entity List citing the risk of the firm procuring items and technology for China's military.
The United States can restrict sales to blacklisted firms of goods made domestically as well as goods made abroad containing U.S. technology.
It expanded the definition of military end-use in April to include any firm that supported the maintenance or production of military items even if they primarily did commercial business.
4. #TESLA :-Tesla Inc and Wall Street made 2020 the year that the U.S. auto industry decided to go electric.
Tesla's market capitalization surged above $600 billion, making the once wobbly startup founded by billionaire Elon Musk worth more than the five top-selling global vehicle making groups combined. The exclamation point came on Friday when Tesla rose to a record high in frantic trading ahead of the stock's much-anticipated entrance into the benchmark S&P 500 INDEX..
For 2021, all signs point toward the industry accelerating its shift toward electrification, a turning point as historically momentous as the launch of Ford Motor Co's moving assembly line for the Model T or General Motors 2009 bankruptcy.
5. #AMAZON:-The New Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed India's Future Retail's plea that sought to restrain its partner Amazon.com Inc from interfering in its $3.4 billion asset sale deal with Reliance Industries.
Amazon is locked in a bitter legal dispute with Future Group, which in August sold its retail assets to Mukesh Ambani-led #Reliance Industries. The deal breaches agreements made in 2019 by Future, according to the U.S. online retailer.
In October, Amazon had won an injunction to halt Future's deal with Reliance from a Singapore arbitrator both sides had agreed to use in case of disputes.
Future later said the order was not binding, prompting Amazon to lodge a complaint with India's market regulator
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#TWITTER- India has asked Twitter Inc to take down 1,178 accounts the country says are backed by arch rival Pakistan or operated by sympathizers of a separatist Sikh group, two technology ministry sources said on Monday.
Many of these accounts were sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative content on the ongoing farmers protests, one of the sources said, declining to be named as the order is not public.
Twitter has yet to comply with the government order, which was issued on Feb. 4, the sources said.
2.#SOFT BANK :- SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund unit posted an 844 billion yen ($8 billion) third quarter profit on Monday as Chief Executive Masayoshi Son hailed the bounce back of his investment portfolio.
The profit marks a sea change from a year earlier when high-profile misses such as the flopped IPO of office sharing firm WeWork and the COVID-19 pandemic forced Son to sell assets to stabilise his investing empire.
"Our vision never changed," Son told a news conference in Tokyo after his company announced its latest results.
But with interest rates at rock bottom, an ebullient market is now driving tech stock gains and a turnaround at the Vision Fund unit.
Son returned to a favoured analogy – that SoftBank is a goose that lays golden eggs by backing fast-growing companies such as Alibaba
3.#HYUNDAI:-South Korean's Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors Corp. saw their Shares plunge, after saying that they are not in talks with Apple Inc. in the latest round of a did-they-or-didn't-they game between the three companies.
Shares in Hyundai fell 5.01% to KRW237,000 ($211.91) by 11:59 PM ET (4:59 AM GMT) and Kia shares slumped 13.40% to KRW87,900 after both companies said earlier in the day in separate regulatory filings that “we are not having talks with Apple on developing autonomous vehicles.”
Both Korean companies saw their shares surge in early January, after Hyundai released a statement that said, “Apple and Hyundai are in discussion, but as it is at early stage, nothing has been decided." A local media report first broke the news of the collaboration, with the report also saying that the companies were ere in discussions to develop self-driving electric vehicles by 2027 and develop batteries at U.S. factories operated by either Hyundai or Kia.
However, Hyundai released a statement later in the day that backtracked on the earlier one, which erased all mentions of Apple but added that the company was “getting requests for cooperation on joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies.” These “various companies” were not identified.
4. #AMAZON:- Amazon.com Inc has ordered hundreds of trucks that run on compressed Natural gas as it tests ways to shift its U.S. fleet away from heavier polluting trucks, the company told Reuters on Friday.
The coronavirus pandemic caused delivery activity to surge in 2020, with truck volumes exceeding 2019 levels on average while passenger car traffic fell. But that increase in road activity means more pollution, as heavier-duty trucks emit higher levels of greenhouse gases than passenger vehicles.
Transportation companies are building their stable of electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Much of the nation's freight is delivered via medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which account for more than 20% of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions even though they make up less than 5% of the road fleet, according to U.S. federal data.
"Amazon is excited about introducing new sustainable solutions for freight transportation and is working on testing a number of new vehicle types including electric, CNG and others," the company said in a statement.
Amazon has ordered more than 700 compressed natural gas class 6 and class 8 trucks so far, according to the company.
The online retailer's sales rose 38% in 2020; it plans to run a carbon neutral business by 2040.
1.#TWITTER- India has asked Twitter Inc to take down 1,178 accounts the country says are backed by arch rival Pakistan or operated by sympathizers of a separatist Sikh group, two technology ministry sources said on Monday.
Many of these accounts were sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative content on the ongoing farmers protests, one of the sources said, declining to be named as the order is not public.
Twitter has yet to comply with the government order, which was issued on Feb. 4, the sources said.
2.#SOFT BANK :- SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund unit posted an 844 billion yen ($8 billion) third quarter profit on Monday as Chief Executive Masayoshi Son hailed the bounce back of his investment portfolio.
The profit marks a sea change from a year earlier when high-profile misses such as the flopped IPO of office sharing firm WeWork and the COVID-19 pandemic forced Son to sell assets to stabilise his investing empire.
"Our vision never changed," Son told a news conference in Tokyo after his company announced its latest results.
But with interest rates at rock bottom, an ebullient market is now driving tech stock gains and a turnaround at the Vision Fund unit.
Son returned to a favoured analogy – that SoftBank is a goose that lays golden eggs by backing fast-growing companies such as Alibaba
3.#HYUNDAI:-South Korean's Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors Corp. saw their Shares plunge, after saying that they are not in talks with Apple Inc. in the latest round of a did-they-or-didn't-they game between the three companies.
Shares in Hyundai fell 5.01% to KRW237,000 ($211.91) by 11:59 PM ET (4:59 AM GMT) and Kia shares slumped 13.40% to KRW87,900 after both companies said earlier in the day in separate regulatory filings that “we are not having talks with Apple on developing autonomous vehicles.”
Both Korean companies saw their shares surge in early January, after Hyundai released a statement that said, “Apple and Hyundai are in discussion, but as it is at early stage, nothing has been decided." A local media report first broke the news of the collaboration, with the report also saying that the companies were ere in discussions to develop self-driving electric vehicles by 2027 and develop batteries at U.S. factories operated by either Hyundai or Kia.
However, Hyundai released a statement later in the day that backtracked on the earlier one, which erased all mentions of Apple but added that the company was “getting requests for cooperation on joint development of autonomous electric vehicles from various companies.” These “various companies” were not identified.
4. #AMAZON:- Amazon.com Inc has ordered hundreds of trucks that run on compressed Natural gas as it tests ways to shift its U.S. fleet away from heavier polluting trucks, the company told Reuters on Friday.
The coronavirus pandemic caused delivery activity to surge in 2020, with truck volumes exceeding 2019 levels on average while passenger car traffic fell. But that increase in road activity means more pollution, as heavier-duty trucks emit higher levels of greenhouse gases than passenger vehicles.
Transportation companies are building their stable of electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Much of the nation's freight is delivered via medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which account for more than 20% of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions even though they make up less than 5% of the road fleet, according to U.S. federal data.
"Amazon is excited about introducing new sustainable solutions for freight transportation and is working on testing a number of new vehicle types including electric, CNG and others," the company said in a statement.
Amazon has ordered more than 700 compressed natural gas class 6 and class 8 trucks so far, according to the company.
The online retailer's sales rose 38% in 2020; it plans to run a carbon neutral business by 2040.
4.#SOFT BANK:- SoftBank Group Corp shares closed at a record high on Tuesday, surpassing a peak reached at the height of the dot-com bubble, as online backers celebrated the recovery in the value of the firm's tech portfolio.
Shares in SoftBank, a heavily weighted component of the Nikkei 225 Index which is trading at 30-year highs, closed up 4% at 10,420 yen, above the record 10,111 yen reached in February 2000.
Underpinned by buybacks and with retail investors buying its shares and baseball-themed junk bonds, SoftBank's shares have been supported by a growing number of portfolio companies listing in ebullient markets.
The Japanese conglomerate's comeback, during which its shares have climbed almost 300% from lows hit last March as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled its portfolio, have led to celebration among its online backers.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, SoftBank haters, don't know what to do," wrote one prominent supporter on Twitter recently posting under the name "Masa Capital".
"SoftBank will reach 11,000 yen by April," wrote another on Tuesday. The group's shares hit an intraday high of 11,000 yen in February 2000 before crashing.
Chief Executive Masayoshi Son's own social media posts are centred on aphorisms, favouring quarterly presentations over Twitter to transmit his message, in contrast to the memes that have made Tesla CEO Elon Musk a retail investor favourite.
5.#Hyundai:-An electric bus manufactured by Hyundai Motor Co caught fire on Monday while in use in South Korea, a fire official said on Tuesday, months after similar fires in electric cars led to a recall to inspect batteries.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred as the empty bus was returning to the garage after an inspection, an official at the Fire Service Headquarters in the southeastern city of Changwon said.
The maker of the batteries in the bus has not been identified, the fire official said, but local media reports said the Elec City bus was powered by LG Chem's wholly owned battery division LG Energy Solutions batteries.
"Officials from Hyundai Motor, the transport ministry, Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute, National Fire Research Institute and Changwon Fire Service Headquarters are expected to have a meeting on Tuesday to discuss inspection," the fire official told Reuters.
Neither Hyundai Motor nor LG Energy Solution had an immediate comment.
In October, Hyundai recalled 25,564 Kona electric vehicles (EV) in South Korea over the risk of a short circuit possibly caused by faulty manufacturing of its high-voltage battery cells.
After a fire in a Kona EV that had been recalled and received a software update, South Korean authorities have launched a probe into the adequacy of the voluntary recall, under which only some vehicles get batteries replaced.
Shares in SoftBank, a heavily weighted component of the Nikkei 225 Index which is trading at 30-year highs, closed up 4% at 10,420 yen, above the record 10,111 yen reached in February 2000.
Underpinned by buybacks and with retail investors buying its shares and baseball-themed junk bonds, SoftBank's shares have been supported by a growing number of portfolio companies listing in ebullient markets.
The Japanese conglomerate's comeback, during which its shares have climbed almost 300% from lows hit last March as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled its portfolio, have led to celebration among its online backers.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, SoftBank haters, don't know what to do," wrote one prominent supporter on Twitter recently posting under the name "Masa Capital".
"SoftBank will reach 11,000 yen by April," wrote another on Tuesday. The group's shares hit an intraday high of 11,000 yen in February 2000 before crashing.
Chief Executive Masayoshi Son's own social media posts are centred on aphorisms, favouring quarterly presentations over Twitter to transmit his message, in contrast to the memes that have made Tesla CEO Elon Musk a retail investor favourite.
5.#Hyundai:-An electric bus manufactured by Hyundai Motor Co caught fire on Monday while in use in South Korea, a fire official said on Tuesday, months after similar fires in electric cars led to a recall to inspect batteries.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred as the empty bus was returning to the garage after an inspection, an official at the Fire Service Headquarters in the southeastern city of Changwon said.
The maker of the batteries in the bus has not been identified, the fire official said, but local media reports said the Elec City bus was powered by LG Chem's wholly owned battery division LG Energy Solutions batteries.
"Officials from Hyundai Motor, the transport ministry, Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute, National Fire Research Institute and Changwon Fire Service Headquarters are expected to have a meeting on Tuesday to discuss inspection," the fire official told Reuters.
Neither Hyundai Motor nor LG Energy Solution had an immediate comment.
In October, Hyundai recalled 25,564 Kona electric vehicles (EV) in South Korea over the risk of a short circuit possibly caused by faulty manufacturing of its high-voltage battery cells.
After a fire in a Kona EV that had been recalled and received a software update, South Korean authorities have launched a probe into the adequacy of the voluntary recall, under which only some vehicles get batteries replaced.
TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.#SOFT BANK - WeWork co-founder and former Chief Executive Adam Neumann is nearing a settlement with SoftBank Group Corp that could include a nearly $500 million cut in his payout from the office space-sharing company's new owner, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The settlement would put to rest a prolonged legal battle between Neumann and Softbank , which dates back to 2019 when WeWork's IPO plans fell apart.
SoftBank had agreed in October 2019 to purchase around $3 billion in WeWork stock belonging to Neumann as well as current and former WeWork employees. SoftBank later contested its obligation to purchase the shares.
Under the new proposed terms, SoftBank would purchase around half the shares it had originally agreed to buy, the source said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.
SoftBank declined to comment. WeWork was not immediately available for comment. The talks were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
SoftBank, which poured more than $13.5 billion into WeWork, was pulled into a legal dispute with directors at WeWork after backing out of a $3 billion tender offer agreed when it bailed out the office-sharing firm following a flopped IPO attempt.
2. #APPLE:- Apple Inc's customers may end up spending more on non-gaming mobile apps by 2024, data analytics firm SensorTower said on Monday, as lockdown lifestyles result in users looking beyond games to apps that help with more essential services.
Downloads of business, education, health and fitness apps have seen a sharp spike due to the stay-at-home measures during the health crisis.
During the initial days of the pandemic, users spent more on mobile games in the App Store. But as lockdowns got extended, upending work life as well as the ways of communication, their attention shifted to photo and video-sharing, dating, video-conferencing and instant messaging apps.
Shares of companies such as Zoom Video Communications Inc and Match Group and other stay-at-home companies soared last year.
SensorTower said consumer spending on mobile apps will reach $270 billion in the next five years globally, a more than three-fold increase when compared with 2020.
Apple customers will outspend their Android counterparts with the App Store expected to generate $185 billion in global revenue, the data analytics firm said.
Games revenue will continue to take a relatively higher share on Google Play store than the App Store, with a projected 71% share from games in 2025 compared to 42% on the App Store, data showed.
The data analytics firm expects Europe to become a key market over the next five years, with revenue growth in the continent likely to outpace that in Asia and North America.
3. #SPOTIFY :- Spotify said on Monday it would nearly double its market presence by launching in 85 new markets in the next few days, making the music streaming service available to more than a billion people around the world.
The company's shares, which were down in early trading, reversed course to rise as much as 6% to a record high.
The Swedish company, which started its service more than a decade ago, is currently available in 93 countries and has 345 million monthly active users.
While Spotify is the leader in music streaming, entry in new countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America would significantly increase the gap with its rivals, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
"Together these markets represent more than a billion people, with nearly half of them already using the internet," said Chief Premium Business Officer Alex Norstrom. "Some of the places we're going like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria have the fastest growing internet populations in the world."
An earlier expansion drive in India, Russia and the Middle East has already brought in millions of subscribers.
While paid subscribers got a boost during the coronavirus pandemic as people locked in their homes opted for its premium service, the company is now looking to boost its advertisement revenue.
1.#SOFT BANK - WeWork co-founder and former Chief Executive Adam Neumann is nearing a settlement with SoftBank Group Corp that could include a nearly $500 million cut in his payout from the office space-sharing company's new owner, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The settlement would put to rest a prolonged legal battle between Neumann and Softbank , which dates back to 2019 when WeWork's IPO plans fell apart.
SoftBank had agreed in October 2019 to purchase around $3 billion in WeWork stock belonging to Neumann as well as current and former WeWork employees. SoftBank later contested its obligation to purchase the shares.
Under the new proposed terms, SoftBank would purchase around half the shares it had originally agreed to buy, the source said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.
SoftBank declined to comment. WeWork was not immediately available for comment. The talks were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
SoftBank, which poured more than $13.5 billion into WeWork, was pulled into a legal dispute with directors at WeWork after backing out of a $3 billion tender offer agreed when it bailed out the office-sharing firm following a flopped IPO attempt.
2. #APPLE:- Apple Inc's customers may end up spending more on non-gaming mobile apps by 2024, data analytics firm SensorTower said on Monday, as lockdown lifestyles result in users looking beyond games to apps that help with more essential services.
Downloads of business, education, health and fitness apps have seen a sharp spike due to the stay-at-home measures during the health crisis.
During the initial days of the pandemic, users spent more on mobile games in the App Store. But as lockdowns got extended, upending work life as well as the ways of communication, their attention shifted to photo and video-sharing, dating, video-conferencing and instant messaging apps.
Shares of companies such as Zoom Video Communications Inc and Match Group and other stay-at-home companies soared last year.
SensorTower said consumer spending on mobile apps will reach $270 billion in the next five years globally, a more than three-fold increase when compared with 2020.
Apple customers will outspend their Android counterparts with the App Store expected to generate $185 billion in global revenue, the data analytics firm said.
Games revenue will continue to take a relatively higher share on Google Play store than the App Store, with a projected 71% share from games in 2025 compared to 42% on the App Store, data showed.
The data analytics firm expects Europe to become a key market over the next five years, with revenue growth in the continent likely to outpace that in Asia and North America.
3. #SPOTIFY :- Spotify said on Monday it would nearly double its market presence by launching in 85 new markets in the next few days, making the music streaming service available to more than a billion people around the world.
The company's shares, which were down in early trading, reversed course to rise as much as 6% to a record high.
The Swedish company, which started its service more than a decade ago, is currently available in 93 countries and has 345 million monthly active users.
While Spotify is the leader in music streaming, entry in new countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America would significantly increase the gap with its rivals, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
"Together these markets represent more than a billion people, with nearly half of them already using the internet," said Chief Premium Business Officer Alex Norstrom. "Some of the places we're going like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria have the fastest growing internet populations in the world."
An earlier expansion drive in India, Russia and the Middle East has already brought in millions of subscribers.
While paid subscribers got a boost during the coronavirus pandemic as people locked in their homes opted for its premium service, the company is now looking to boost its advertisement revenue.