In its bid to break into the U.S. market, Alibaba Group (BABA) appears to have made an early stumble. The China e-commerce giant said that it is selling 11 Main, a U.S.-based consumer e-commerce website that it launched last June, initially as a beta test site. 11 Main sells a range of goods from specialty shops and boutiques, including jewelry, beauty products, sporting goods, toys and tech products. Alibaba sold the site and two related
Synaptics (SYNA) stock has been hammered by reports that Apple (AAPL) is internally developing an integrated touch controller/display driver (TDDI) chip for use in future iPhones. Synaptics, a leader in touch interface technology, has been pushing TDDI integrated circuits as a key growth driver. Renesas SP Drivers, recently acquired by Synaptics, has been a longtime iPhone supplier. Apple’s homegrown TDDI chip also will have an integrated fingerprint sensor, DigiTimes reported Monday. Synaptics has been working on an integrated fingerprint-TDDI system since it acquired Validity Sensors in November 2013. By using one chip with touch controller, display driver and fingerprint sensor technology, Apple could make an iPhone without a physical home button, DigiTimes said. The first iPhone without a home button likely is more than two years away, a source told AppleInsider. The elimination of the home button would be a radical redesign to the iPhone,…
A key IBD tenet is to focus on leading stocks in leading industry groups. It’s a good rule to live by, but sometimes rules have a little wiggle room. Out of 197 industry groups ranked by IBD based on six-month price performance, the top 40 are shown Monday through Thursday in the print edition (today on B4). It’s OK to venture outside the top 40 groups for ideas so long as there is more than one top-performing stock in the group. As of Monday’s