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Microsoft briefly surpassed Apple as world's most valuable company
Apple's reign as the world's most valuable company might be in jeopardy. Microsoft briefly claimed the title on November 26th after its market cap surpassed Apple's, climbing to $812.93 billion versus its erstwhile rival's $812.60 billion. The lead didn't last long (Apple was back on top with $822 billion as we wrote this), but it's no mean feat when Microsoft hasn't had such a lead since 2010.
Twitch’s Stock Stream gives you real money to invest
Ever since the start of Twitch Plays Pokemon, we've seen gamers collectively play everything from Dark Souls to a claw machine, beat every Pokemon generation and create modern art. And now with Stock Stream, Twitch viewers can play the stock market in the best way possible -- with someone else's money.
Snap Inc. officially files for IPO
Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. has officially filed for its initial public offering Thursday, giving a rare insight into what makes the ephemeral messaging service tick. Although Snap did not lay out the terms of the filing, the Wall Street Journal places the company's value between $20 billion and $25 billion. That would make Snap the biggest IPO since Alibaba hit the market in 2014 and well in excess of the $3 billion it reportedly turned down from Facebook in 2013.
Chinese hackers allegedly stole secrets from US law firms
Three Chinese hackers have been charged with insider trading after stealing secrets from American law firms. The Department of Justice has revealed that Lat Hong, Bo Zheng and Chin Hung installed malware on servers in order to access confidential data. The group was able to obtain documents relating to proposed mergers and acquisitions targets. Knowing what blockbuster deals were coming, the group bought shares in the target businesses. Through a series of deals, officials believe that the trio made upwards of $4 million in illegal profit.
Wall Street wants algorithms that trade based on Trump's tweets
President elect Donald Trump's ability to move the stock market with a tweet became readily apparent yesterday after an early morning tweet about Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program caused the company to lose $4 billion in market value. While that's a major loss for the company, it actually presents an opportunity for traders on Wall Street, some of whom have already started looking for ways to easily cash in on the volatility Trump brings to the market.
Trader pleads guilty to sparking stock market 'Flash Crash'
If you were trading on an American stock market on May 6th, 2010, you probably had a minor heart attack: the "Flash Crash" that day sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1,000 points (600 in the first 5 minutes) and recovered virtually all its value in the space of just 15 minutes. However, investigators eventually discovered that the crash was the result of intentional manipulation... and now, investors are getting some justice for that manufactured crisis. Navinder Sarao (above), a British trader extradited to the US, has pleaded guilty to charges of both wire fraud and spoofing that came from using automated trading software to make "at least" $12.8 million in illegal profit from the crash and beyond.
Twitter accounts for NY Post, UPI hacked to push fake WWIII alerts
No, the Pope has not announced the start of World War III (of course, if someone says something bad about his mother then all bets are off), but that news did go up in the last few minutes on Twitter from the New York Post and UPI. Both accounts have apparently been compromised and the hackers took advantage of the situation by posting fake news concerning not only military events, but also a supposed Federal Reserve emergency meeting and bank holiday.
Twitter submits plans for IPO: 140 characters of going public
Honestly, it shouldn't come as any shock: the microblogging service that made it perfectly acceptable to deliver huge, huge news in 140 characters or less has just done precisely that. Twitter has announced that it has "confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO," but details beyond that are being kept under wraps. What's it mean? Those with equity in the company are about to become mind-numbingly rich; Wall Street is about to lose its gourd about getting in early; and end-users like yourself should start worrying about ads, ads everywhere.
Icahn's AAPL buyback advice could benefit Apple quickly, significantly
An analysis by Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore shows a potential US$50 billion stock buyback would boost Apple's earnings per share by as much as $4.25 in 2014, AppleInsider reports. This comes in the wake of a meeting last week between Tim Cook and investor Carl Icahn where the possibility of expanding the company's share buyback program was discussed. Icahn made headlines last week when he reportedly invested over $1.5 billion in the Cupertino-based tech giant. This strong vote of confidence had a rather dramatic effect on AAPL, boosting it by over 20 points in less than a day. Of course, the most important factor in further pushing Apple's stock upwards is the continued announcement of innovative products, and with an iPhone event reportedly scheduled for September 10, we won't have to wait long on that front.
Fidelity Market Monitor app brings stock alerts, news and fanciful financials to Google Glass
You know, it makes sense: an app for the one percent, tailor-made for a $1,500 headset. Fidelity's Market Monitor app for Google Glass might just be the most impressive program to debut for the device, particularly considering the class of individual who would take advantage. In the trading world, missing an alert or notification by even three seconds could be the difference between million and millions, with this app enabling Fidelity customers to request real-time stock quotes and receive alerts dealing with companies in their portfolio. In a concept video describing what's possible (embedded just after the break), we even see a wearer snap a photo of a Google logo, and the app translates the photo into a stock quote for GOOG. We're guessing that it's only a matter of time before every other financial institution follows suit, which will likely lead to each and every CNBC anchor wearing a set whilst on air. Also, we're hearing from a "reliable source" that both Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf will be joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Wall Street: Glass on Glass on Glass.
Tesla to join the Nasdaq 100 as Oracle departs for the NYSE
As of Monday, July 15th, Tesla Motors will be included in the Nasdaq 100, a list of the largest non-financial stocks on Nasdaq's index. A spot in that elite group opened up when Oracle announced that it would be moving to the New York Stock Exchange, making it inelegible for inclusion on Nasdaq. The news seemed to please shareholders, and at the time of this writing, Tesla's stock had surged ahead nearly 2 percent. The company's entry into the Nasdaq 100 is a sure sign that its forward trajectory is nigh unstoppable -- at least for now. With an overall stock gain of nearly 260 percent in 2013, Tesla Motors just keeps on truckin'.
Apple's $17 billion bond deal is the largest in history
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple made the largest corporate-bond deal in history on Tuesday, when it raised US$17 billion in bonds -- the first time the company has offered bonds in 20 years. In response, The New York Times asks, why would cash-rich Apple do this in the first place? Analysts tell the NYT that the debt actually can boost returns to shareholders, something Apple has already taken steps to do when it announced its dividend and share-repurchase program last week and in March 2012. In the process, Apple was using historically low rates to its advantage. The company can step around the taxes it would need to pay by repatriating some of its overseas cash stockpile, buying the company more time to lobby Congress to its advantage. We reported shortly before the deal took place that Apple was filing the required SEC paperwork. The company plans to return $100 billion to stockholders by the end of 2015. Its next dividend payout is May 16.
DCM Dealer software platform mines social media for stock sentiment, Wall Street licks its chops
In this episode of "What could possibly go wrong?!", allow us to introduce you to DCM Dealer. Billed as an "online trading platform," this here project was whipped up by the same London-based investment outfit (DCM Capital) that went belly-up after losing some $40 million in assets in just one month during the summer of 2011. Granted, that was a pretty tough time in the market, and it did manage to squeeze out a 1.9 percent gain in the period it was open, but it's still worth keeping in mind. Now, the firm is hoping to catch a second wind with a tool that mines Twitter, Facebook, and the whole of social media in order to pick up clues about the public's view on a stock. Reportedly, it'll spit out real-time ratings from 0 (negative) to 100 (positive), giving investors yet another "leading indicator" on what to invest in flip for a quick buck. Founder Paul Hawtin confesses: "This is not some kind of holy grail of buy-sell signals that's guaranteed to make you money. This is an additional layer of market information...markets are driven by greed and fear, so if you can understand fear and quantify it in real-time, you could use that to protect yourself." We'll leave it to the 99 percent to comment on the idea below.
Analyst expects Apple stock to drop to $270
Apple's stock price has had quite an interesting year. After hitting a record high of over $700 per share in September, the price has been hovering around the $500 mark for several weeks. But as Businessweek reports, that figure just isn't low enough for analyst Edward Zabitsky, who is banking on shares to dive as low as $270. Zabitsky cites several factors in his argument that Apple's stock is headed for a fall, including competition from the likes of Microsoft and Samsung, and what he sees as unrest in Apple's management. He predicts that the stock will reach the $270 mark within 12 months. Apple's stock price hasn't dipped as low as $270 since September 2010, so a dip that low within a year's time would certainly be a dramatic stumble.
Apple named top stock for 2013 by Barron's
Despite falling off significantly from its highest point of the year at over $700 a share, Apple's stock is still a hot topic amongst investment gurus. Financial magazine Barron's not only retains faith in Cupertino's value, but feels so strongly about the company's ability to once again reach a lofty value that is has placed Apple at the top of its Favorite Stocks for 2013 list. Helping boost Apple's standing in Barron's eyes is its current price-to-earnings ratio, which the publication notes is at its lowest point in half a decade. "None of the recent investor concerns -- lower margins, supply constraints, management changes, iPad competition and the iPhone 5 map fiasco -- are major," Barron's explains. "There's room for a higher dividend and a more aggressive share-repurchase program in 2013. Both could play well with investors." [Via: BGR]
Bloomberg's App Portal brings its financial market terminals into the app store age
Monitoring financial data and trading stocks in the big leagues often means using a locked down Bloomberg terminal pre-loaded with sanctioned software, but now the platform has caught the app store bug. Starting today, stock market buffs will be able to purchase apps on the Bloomberg App Portal, which underwent more than a year of testing and has software from over 40 developers. As for revenue, Bloomberg's taken a page from Apple's book and will keep 30 percent of earnings made from sales on its storefront. Since a single console sets customers back $20,000 each year according to the Financial Times, we imagine $0.99 apps will be few and far between. It's unlikely that Rovio is going to barge into this app marketplace, so day traders will probably be busy playing stocks instead of Angry Birds. [Image credit: Perpetualtourist2000, Flickr]
Robot stock traders lose $440,000,000 in 45 minutes, need someone to spell it out
Humans never learn and apparently neither do robots. Autonomous trading AIs went on a spending spree at Knight Capital Group in New Jersey this week, buying up shares in everything from RadioShack to Ford and American Airlines (ouch) in a 45-minute frenzy of disobedience. The company tried to offload the unwanted stock, but discovered it was already nearly half a billion dollars in the red -- enough to wipe out its entire profit from 2011 and "severely impact" its ability to conduct business. If only it had protected itself with one of these.
Could AAPL split in a move toward Dow? Bernstein analyst thinks it will
A week after Apple posted its third-quarter earnings for 2012, Bernstein Research analyst A.M. "Toni" Sacconaghi speculates that the time is right for Apple to split its stock if it wants a future spot as an indexed member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow is woefully underpopulated with technology companies, Sacconaghi argues, and IBM and Microsoft were added during a time when the PC market was far less mature than the smartphone market is now. But if Apple was to join the DJIA, the price of the stock would have to come down from the current $607 that it's trading at as of this morning. The Dow is a price-based index with few stocks selling more than $100 a share. Granted, this is speculation worthy of Chris Rawson's rumor roundups. Despite some headlines indicating that it's practically a done deal, Sacconaghi's scenario is just that -- a "what if" situation. As Barron's Tiernan Ray rightfully points out, Apple has not indicated that it has any current intention of splitting its shares -- although the company has done so three times before, most recently in 2005. The New York Times's DealBook blog is also considering Apple's fiscal future, pointing out a few possible big-game acquisition targets for the company's ample cash hoard. Writer Andrew Ross Sorkin saves the serious caveats for the end of the post (much of Apple's cash is overseas and cannot be repatriated without a tax hit, for example) after he speculates on some truly blue-sky options for Apple's shopping list. Twitter and Path? Nuance? Sprint? Research In Motion?!? Despite the reports of past talks between Apple and Twitter, none of these seem particularly likely. If we're throwing darts at the stock listings, though, perhaps Apple will fork over $68 billion and take over Comcast, which would gain it 51% of NBC Universal along with millions of paying cable customers. [via Reuters] #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Facebook allowed to triple size of its HQ, pays $10 million for the privilege
Swollen with cash following its IPO, Facebook is looking to expand its headquarters in Menlo Park. Its plan to triple its workforce there from 2,200 to 6,600 people was approved by local officials last night, removing the previous cap that allowed a maximum of 3,600 messy, resource-consuming humans. In lieu of the added burden on the city, Facebook will have to contribute $850,000 per year for ten years, plus a one-time payment of $1,000,000. The start of a surge towards greater products and profits, or the beginning of a complacent corporate decline? We'll let the stock market decide.
Daily Update for April 17, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
