Tag Archives: pcln

Facebook’s Alleged Liberal News Bias Gets Comedy Treatment

Facebook ( FB ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with conservative news figures this week to address concerns that editors of the social network’s Trending Topics feature have been suppressing conservative viewpoints. That gave comedians and satirists a great opening to take some shots at Facebook for its alleged liberal bias. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert slammed Facebook for having misplaced priorities. “Apparently, Facebook censored popular stories about conservative topics from appearing on the trending news section. Folks, I think this is wrong,” Colbert said. “If Facebook is going to censor things, why not get rid of the stuff people really don’t want to see, like your ex’s tropical honeymoon? Or invitations to co-workers’ improv shows?” Satirical news website The Onion presented a fake response from Zuckerberg, who questioned why people are getting their news from Facebook to begin with. “Facebook is a great place to connect with friends and family, but frankly, if you’re on our site for 20 minutes or longer during the day and you’re reading the articles on here as your main connection to what’s actually happening in the world, then I’d say you’re a little mistaken about what this site is actually all about,” fake Zuckerberg said. “I’m happy to show anyone how to get to a regular news site if you need a little help.” Online comic The Joy of Tech also took a jab at the Facebook bias controversy. Plus, the story was material for political cartoonists including Jeff Darcy of Cleveland.com and Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle . Amazon, Tesla Also Come In For Some Zingers Facebook’s trending-news hullabaloo isn’t the only tech subject tickling funny bones lately. What follows are recent jokes from late-night comedians Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and James Corden. Their zingers were directed at Amazon.com ( AMZN ), CBS ( CBS ), Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google, Priceline ( PCLN ), Tesla Motors ( TSLA ), Twitter ( TWTR ) and Uber Technologies. Fallon: Tesla unveiled its new model 3 electric car. And I saw that fans were camping outside Tesla stores to reserve one. Camping out is actually great practice for when their cars run out of power 30 miles from the nearest outlets. Fallon: Amazon Prime just unveiled new buttons you can press to order Doritos, Red Bull, and Trojan condoms. Yeah, Doritos, Red Bull and condoms. Or as that’s called in New Jersey, “A gift basket.” Fallon: The CEO of Priceline just resigned after it was revealed that he had an affair with an employee. As you can imagine, his wife is pretty mad, but on the bright side, at least he knows where to find a good deal on hotels. Fallon: CBS announced that season 33 of “Survivor” will be called “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X.” It’ll start in September, and end 20 minutes later when both teams realize there’s no Wi-Fi. Conan: This week is the 43rd anniversary of the first cellphone call. Historians still don’t know which movie theater it took place in. Conan: Over the weekend, a man broke the world record for “Donkey Kong,” making it through the entire game using up just one life. That’s right — his own. Conan: Google has created several new emojis aimed at empowering women. So congratulations women, you asked for equal pay and you got five new emojis. Corden: The social media platform Twitter just signed a historic deal with the NFL to live stream Thursday Night Football games this coming season. Before this, the only thing Twitter ever live streamed was Kanye West’s meltdowns. Corden: The driverless car thing seems like it’s really catching on lately. In fact, the ride-sharing company Uber has begun testing driverless cars on the streets of Pittsburgh. Finally, Uber found a way to make out-of-work actors even more out of work. Corden: But don’t worry, for all of you who love Uber, the experience isn’t really going to change. To keep in line with Uber’s brand, their driverless cars will be programmed to smell like cologne and also make female passengers really uncomfortable.

Hedge Funds Dump Apple, Buy Facebook In Q1

Hedge funds fled equities in the first quarter, with Apple ( AAPL ) and PepsiCo ( PEP ) the most-sold stocks, S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a report Wednesday . The top 10 hedge funds managed about $141 billion in equity holdings in Q1, down more than $18 billion from Q4 2015. The funds decreased the total number of stock positions held from 427 to 408, the fewest stock positions held since S&P Global Market Intelligence began tracking such data in 2014. It was the second consecutive quarter of equity sell-off by the large funds. Consumer discretionary and information technology stocks led the sell-off, with Apple ranked seeing the most selling for an individual stock last quarter. The major hedge funds sold $5.4 billion worth of Apple stock in Q1. Other top sells included PepsiCo ($1.8 billion), Amazon.com ( AMZN ) ($1.4 billion), Priceline ( PCLN ) ($1 billion) and Walgreen Boots Alliance ( WBA ) ($1 billion). The highest volume of buying among the top hedge funds occurred in Facebook ( FB ) stock, with a total of $2.3 billion in buys in the first quarter, S&P said. Other top buys included Broadcom ( AVGO ) ($1.5 billion), Alphabet ( GOOGL ) ($945 million), Eli Lilly ( LLY ) ($892 million) and Willis Towers Watson ( WLTW ) ($884 million). RELATED: As Growth Investors Flee Apple, Warren Buffett Sees Value Startup Bubble Bursting, Valuations Due For Reset, Analyst Says .

Five Top Picks In The Internet Sector With Strongest Fundamentals

The companies with the best fundamentals among large-cap Internet stocks are Facebook ( FB ), Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Netflix ( NFLX ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Priceline ( PCLN ), says RBC Capital Markets. Internet trends for these top five in their respective sectors — online advertising, retail and travel — remain very consistent, with strong revenue growth year over year, RBC said in a research report. Online advertising seems to be flowing en mass to Google-owner Alphabet and Facebook, with the two now accounting for close to 55% of global online advertising revenue, up from 50% three years ago, says the report from RBC analyst Mark Mahaney. And Amazon continues to show dramatically greater-than-average growth in the online retail sector. “We believe online retail demand trends have remained solid, particularly highlighted by Amazon’s retail sales acceleration,” Mahaney wrote. But, he said, “there’s little ad oxygen for the likes of Yahoo ( YHOO ).” Online travel remains a duopoly of Priceline and Expedia ( EXPE ), while it’s increasingly hard to see anyone catching up to Netflix in terms of video-streaming subscribers, he wrote. Though shares of Netflix have continued to decline following Q1’s weak international sub guidance and domestic price change worries, “We view the fundamental global subscriber growth story as intact,” Mahaney said. Mahaney has a price target on Netflix of 140. Netflix stock was trading near 89, up nearly 2%, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . The stock is down 20% since reporting first-quarter earnings on April 18, and it’s on the IBD Swing Trader list as a potential short-sale opportunity. He has a price target on Priceline of 1,600, as growth and profitability trends remain intact. Priceline stock was up a fraction near 1,279 Monday afternoon. Priceline is down 6% since reporting Q1 earnings on May 4. On Alphabet, Mahaney’s price target is 1,000, as it remains one of the best portfolio plays on the biggest Internet trends. Alphabet stock was near 727, up a fraction, Monday afternoon. The stock is down 7% since reporting Q1 earnings on April 21. On Facebook, the price target is 165, with Mahaney saying the social media company is firing on all cylinders. Facebook stock was near 118, down 1%, but it’s up 8% since reporting Q1 earnings on April 27. The price target on Amazon is 800. Amazon stock was flat, near 709. Still, it’s up 16% since reporting Q1 earnings on April 28. It also is on Swing Trader, but as a long possibility.