Tag Archives: technology

Apple Stock Retakes Critical Level As Market Surges

Loading the player… Apple ( AAPL ) made a critical move in the stock market today as the major indexes notched solid gains. The consumer tech giant is set to unveil new products at its March 21 spring media event. Some analysts speculate that Apple will roll out a small-screen iPhone and a smaller-screen iPad Pro. Shares jumped 4% to 100.53 in slightly below-average turnover, retaking the key 50-day moving average. Apple hasn’t traded above that level in nearly three months. The move also puts Apple back above the 100 price level. It’s a good sign for Apple to be coming off of its recent lows, but it’s also good to remember that its 50-day line is sloping downward as Apple’s overall performance over the last several months has trended lower. The stock is currently trading about 25% below its all-time high, reached last April. Apple is currently battling a federal order to assist the FBI in unlocking an encrypted iPhone connected to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Meanwhile, Facebook ( FB ) is continuing higher as it bounces back from a breach of its 50-day line about a month ago. The stock is now trading 6% below its high. Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ) was able to retake its 50-day line, rising 3.5% in above-average volume Tuesday. Alphabet is about 8% below its high. Microsoft ( MSFT ) tried to retake its 50-day line and closed the session right at that level. Other recent attempts to retake that level met resistance. Microsoft is 7% below its peak. Amazon ( AMZN ) is 16% below its high. The e-commerce giant was able to retake its 200-day line last week. Image provided by Shutterstock .

First Apple, Now Facebook Under Pressure To Turn Over User Data

Brazilian federal police arrested the head of Facebook ‘s ( FB ) Latin America operations early Tuesday for not complying with police requests to access WhatsApp messages linked to an organized-crime and drug-trafficking case, the Wall Street Journal reported. The arrest is expected to draw the attention of other U.S. tech companies watching the combat taking place between Apple ( AAPL ) and the U.S. government. The U.S. Justice Department recently requested that Apple unlock an iPhone that belonged to a terrorist involved in a mass shooting last year in San Bernardino, Calif. Apple has said that it won’t comply, seeking to safeguard product users’ privacy. In the WhatsApp case, Diego Dzodan was arrested on his way to work in São Paulo and is being held under “preventative arrest,” according to a police spokeswoman in the state of Sergipe, where a judge’s order was issued, the WSJ said. A Facebook spokesman said that the company is “disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure” of taking Dzodan into custody. The Facebook spokesman said that Dzodan was detained for questioning, not arrested. Facebook owns WhatsApp, but WhatsApp operates separately from Facebook. According to the court, Facebook was fined about $250,000 — more than BRL 1 million, the local currency — for not complying with three previous requests, said the WSJ. This is the second time in three months that Facebook has clashed with Brazilian authorities, the report said. In December, a different judge ordered the shutdown of WhatsApp throughout the entire country for 48 hours after the service didn’t comply with a criminal investigation. The ruling affected millions of users but was overturned the next day. WhatsApp is popular in Brazil, where half of the country’s 204 million residents rely on the free text- and voice-messaging service. Many poorer Brazilians depend on WhatsApp for their day-to-day communications, the WSJ said, since texting in Brazil is about 55 times more expensive than in the U.S., according to advisory firm Activate. WhatsApp says that it doesn’t store its users’ messages after they’ve been delivered and has also been rolling out end-to-end encryption so that it can’t intercept or compromise those messages, according to the WSJ. “This means police have arrested someone over data that doesn’t exist,” a WhatsApp spokesman said. “We cannot provide information we do not have.” Both the police and the court declined to provide additional information about the case. Facebook stock was up 2% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 71. Apple stock was up 3%, near 100. Apple executives and FBI officials are making their cases Tuesday at a House Judiciary Committee meeting.

Instant Gratification A Hit For Amazon.com With Prime Now

With the lofty goal of delivering vast swaths of his mighty e-commerce firm’s sprawling inventory within one hour, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) CEO Jeff Bezos has struck cybergold — shoppers have flocked to the latest iteration of his Amazon Prime loyalty program, Prime Now. Amazon executives have described rapid delivery as both difficult and expensive — and have acknowledged that customers love it. And Amazon loves its customers, so much that Bezos repeatedly has said the company will forego profits to please them. Cowen & Co. Tuesday released results of its survey of 1,200 Amazon Prime customers that it says shows one in four already have adopted Prime Now. It’s basically free. With order via a mobile app, Prime Now will deliver a large number of Amazon-bought goods within two hours in areas of the nation where the service is available. Customers can use the app for one-hour delivery as well, but there’s a $7.99 charge for that. Prime Now is one Amazon salvo in a multiyear campaign to snatch more of the household budget. Amazon.com stock was up more than 3.5%, near 573, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . The company carries an IBD Composite Rating of 78, where 99 is the highest. Cowen analyst John Blackledge, in the research report, says that Bezos’ approach with Prime Now complements Amazon’s same-day and two-day services, and adds more value to its grocery operations Pantry and Fresh. Wal-Mart Vs. Amazon Heating Up Wal-Mart ( WMT ) — by far the largest brick-and-mortar retailer — makes bank on its grocery business, which accounts for about half of its top line, according to ChannelAdvisor ( ECOM ) Executive Chairman Scot Wingo. But Amazon is encroaching on Wal-Mart’s business. “We view Prime Now as one of the pathways Amazon is using to gain share in the $1 trillion grocery market,” Blackledge wrote. “Our early survey work suggests the strategy is working.” The survey indicated that 70% of those responding bought goods via Prime Now multiple times a month — and about a third of shoppers bought groceries from a local store that elected to list its items on Prime Now. The service is available in 24 markets that account for nearly half of the U.S. gross domestic product, says Blackledge. Food delivery is available in seven markets. Prime Now’s success is also a blow to eBay ( EBAY ), which continues to struggle to maintain relevancy for shoppers. Plagued by problems such as a significant data breach and SEO challenges following a change in Alphabet ( GOOGL ) subsidiary Google’s search engine algorithm, eBay has been unable to match Amazon’s double-digital growth rate. Disagreeing with recent investor sentiment — eBay stock has had a choppy beginning to 2016 — Wells Fargo analyst Matt Nemer says that eBay has potential, albeit as a hedge against a potentially slowing global economy. And for its part, eBay has been making significant bets on restructuring the way it lists items. But as Amazon continues to innovate its way to riches, some say that its position as the dominant e-tailer is impenetrable . That hasn’t stopped rivals, however. Privately held Jet.com is making a stab, also offering two-day shipping, and Alibaba ( BABA )-backed ShopRunner is also taking aim at Amazon. ShopRunner executives have told IBD that the company plans to take on Amazon in categories where the Seattle-based company doesn’t have a strong foothold, such as fashion.