E-commerce leader Amazon.com (AMZN) now has 44 million U.S. subscribers to its Amazon Prime program, up 57% vs. a year ago, according to a new estimate by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. In June 2014, Amazon Prime had 28 million subscribers. Prime costs $99 a year and offers such benefits as free two-day shipping on millions of items, as well as streaming video and music services. In a report released Wednesday, CIRP estimates that 47% of
Google (GOOGL) is slated to post Q2 earnings after the close Thursday in line with Wall Street’s expectations as the company reins in its spending, its search share slips and a new CFO known for paring costs comes aboard. Google CFO Ruth Porat, who joined the search leader in May after cutting expenses and redirecting capital while CFO of Morgan Stanley (MS), is expected to make her first appearance as a Google exec during the company’s conference
The software sector continues to showcase relative strength and individual leaders. Financial, enterprise, specialty enterprise and gaming software groups all ranked in the top 40 industries Monday. In the financial group, SS&C Technologies (SSNC) is trading near a 65.10 cup-with-handle buy point. Shares broke out Monday, but volume was weak. SS&C provides cloud-based software to the financial services industry for information management, trading,