Tag Archives: googl

Amazon, Alphabet Extend Breakouts Ahead Of Earnings

Two Internet bigwigs — Amazon ( AMZN ) and Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) — are extending their breakouts Friday ahead of both companies’ first-quarter earnings reports next week. Alphabet shares continued a slight ascent into the lower end of buy range following a breakout from a cup-with-handle base with 777.41 buy point, and remain well above their 50-day and 200-day lines. Alphabet rose 0.3% to 778 on the stock market today  in afternoon trade. The company will report Q1 results on April 21 after the close. IBD’s Take: How healthy are Alphabet and Amazon stocks — and how do they compare vs. rivals? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup Amazon edged higher Friday afternoon, remaining solidly in buy territory after clearing a 603.34 buy point from a double-bottom-with-handle base at the start of the week. The stock is 10% off its Dec. 29 high of 696.44. Expect the e-commerce giant to report Q1 earnings after market close on April 28. Both stocks are trading in below-average volume Friday. In other FANG news, Facebook ( FB ) is slipping toward its 50-day line as it droops out of a cup-with-handle base. Facebook fell 1.1% intraday. And Netflix ( NFLX ) shares aren’t budging much so far Friday, remaining above their 200-day level as they form a cup-shaped base. Netflix reports earnings on Monday. RELATED: Netflix, Amazon Are Into Indies Now — And That’s Good For Theaters Alphabet, Microsoft Join Amazon As Market Leaders; Breakout Soon? Apple, Facebook, Nike, Amazon Lead Morgan Stanley’s 3-Year Picks

Obama Backs Set-Top TV Change; Critics Say It’s Too Google-Friendly

Phone and cable TV companies slammed the White House after President Obama signaled his support for a regulatory proposal to open up the set-top box market to more competition, a move that critics say is too friendly for companies such as  Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google and  Apple ( AAPL ), benefiting them at the expense of pay-TV providers. AT&T ( T ), Comcast ( CMCSA ) and other pay-TV players have opposed the proposal. Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, says he plans to make it easier for consumers to switch from pay-TV companies’ set-top boxes leased monthly to new devices sold on a retail basis by consumer electronics or Internet companies. “Instead of spending nearly $1,000 over four years to lease a set of behind-the-times boxes, American families will have options to own a device for much less money that will integrate everything they want,” said the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a blog post . Obama is expected to file comments with the FCC supporting Wheeler’s proposal. “The Google proposal the White House endorsed today will box consumers into yesterday’s technology and impede the innovation consumers so desperately want,” said the Future of TV Coalition, a lobbying group formed by cable TV companies, programmers and others. The FCC has three Democratic and two Republican members. Walter McCormick, president of the USTelecom industry trade group, said in a statement: “The legitimacy of this rule-making proceeding has now been irreparably compromised.” Potential new suppliers such as Apple ,  Google or Amazon.com ( AMZN ) would likely provide their own programming guide to consumers, analysts say. One worry for pay-TV firms is losing the ability to collect viewership data, the key for targeted advertising . Google, critics say, aims to swap its own advertising for the local ads sold by cable TV companies. Under the new set-top rules, the FCC says that only pay-TV subscribers will gain access to programming, and that copyright protections will be preserved. The FCC could clear a path for Apple, which reportedly shelved plans for an Internet video service after negotiations with programmers stalled.

Twitter Banned, But Hires China Exec To Boost Advertising ‘Success’

Twitter ( TWTR ) has hired a new exec to head up its China division as it looks to court local businesses for advertising, even though the government has banned the social media service from operating on China’s mainland since 2009. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced the appointment of Managing Director for China Kathy Chen in a tweet late Thursday. “A big welcome to Twitter, @KathyChen2016! She joins us as our MD for China!” Jack Dorsey’s post said. In response Chen tweeted, “We have many ways to connect China to the world.” San Francisco-based Twitter opened an office in Hong Kong a year ago to court Chinese companies wanting to advertise their products and services to its millions of users around the globe. The microblogging service has seen 340% growth in its number of Chinese advertisers since then, according to a report in the South China Morning Post quoting Shailesh Rao, Twitter vice president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets. Major Chinese advertisers for Twitter include brands such as Lenovo Group and Huawei Technologies, as well as China media outlets like the state-owned Xinhua news agency and People’s Daily, the report said. “Because of the success we’ve seen, we want to expand the investment we’re making” in the region, said Rao. Twitter China Chief Worked At Microsoft, Cisco Chen is a veteran information technology executive who previously worked at Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Cisco Systems ( CSCO ). She will take over from Peter Greenberger, the former director of emerging markets, Greater China and Russia. Greenberger is now the Asia-Pacific head of global brands and agencies at Twitter, according to the report. Twitter got a price-target cut Thursday from investment bank Morgan Stanley , citing falling user engagement and shrinking user growth at the social media site. Morgan Stanley also trimmed its projections for Twitter’s user growth. Twitter will end this year with 307.1 million global users, the investment bank now says, down from its original projection of 310.6 million. The amount of time that each user spends on the site is also declining, said Morgan Stanley, with those lower engagement levels holding back revenue growth. In Q4, Twitter’s U.S. mobile users averaged just 2.7 minutes daily on the site, said Nowak, compared to 40.5 mobile minutes for music streaming service Pandora Media ( P ), 30.3 minutes for Facebook ( FB ) and eight minutes for YouTube, owned by Alphabet ( GOOGL ) subsidiary Google. The figures are based on research from ComScore and Morgan Stanley. Twitter will capture a 1.4% share of net digital ad spending this year, up marginally from a 1.3% share in 2014, according to a March survey from eMarketer. Google ranks first, with a 30.9% share of net digital ad spending; Facebook ranks second, with a 12.0% share of the total market, which eMarketer estimated will reach $186.8 billion market in 2016. Twitter stock was up 1% in midday trading on the stock market today , near 18. Alphabet stock was up a fraction, while Facebook stock was down a fraction.