There are only four internet stocks worth owning and Google, er Alphabet just proved they are one of them. The company reported Q4 EPS $8.67 vs $8.10 estimates on $21.34 billion in sales.
During the conference call CEO Sundar Pichai said Gmail crossed 1B active users.
The earnings sent the NASDAQ ripping during settlement period but price ultimately settled out right about where we primarily expected it to in the morning report.
Risk appetite is already reaching cookie monster status as we enter February, a sentimental condition I was calling for yesterday. Stay sharp.
Mon Feb 1, 2016 1:50pm ESTComments Off on Tesla Bends The Knee, Applies for Michigan Dealer License
Everyone has to find a way to work around Governor Rick Snyder. When he’s not spending his time poisoning the people of Flint, he is busy pandering for the auto dealer vote via laws forbidding auto manufacturers from selling directly to consumers. Although Tesla’s business model does not include dealerships, The Detroit News is reporting the electric car company has applied for a Michigan dealer license.
Tesla applied for a “Class A” dealership license to sell new and used cars. Under the classification, it also must have a “repair facility as part of their business or have an established relationship with a licensed repair facility,” Woodham said in a Sunday email to The Detroit News.
The stock is up over 2.5% so far in February. No price reaction of note has occurred since this news dropped.
Mon Feb 1, 2016 12:46pm ESTComments Off on Wrist Slapped: Credit Suisse To Pay Pittance to SEC Over Dark Pool Shenanigans
Dark pools never affect me. In the futures market, transparency is high and spotting icebergs and other ‘dark’ orders is just a matter of having the right software. However, big banks like Credit Suisse and Barclays did enough harm with these devices to be considered unlawful.
No jail time will be served, instead a fine will be levved and the banks can go back to back-alley banking in no time.
WASHINGTON Jan 31 (Reuters) – Barclays and Credit Suisse are poised to settle federal and state charges that they misled investors in their dark pools, with Barclays admitting it broke the law and agreeing to pay $70 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The settlements between the banks and the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General, which are expected to be formally announced on Monday, will mark the two largest fines ever paid in connection with cases involving dark pools.
All together, the banks are expected to pay a combined total of $154.3 million, said the source, who spoke anonymously because the deal has not yet been finalized and made public.
Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:57pm ESTComments Off on Desert Rumor: Nevada Will Buy Rooftop Solar for 20 Years
This comes from Politico writer Esther Whieldon. Apparently Nevada Public Utilities Commission wants to allow about 15,000 rooftop solar customers the right to sell back power to the grid for 20 years.
Solar City is going bananas on the news, but is still down a whopping -30% year to date.
Police have confirmed shots were fired outside the facility. So far no word of shots inside the building.
Market Update: The indices have continued to rally as the news out of San Diego becomes available. The gun trade, $SWHC and $RGR initially catching a strong bid off the news.
Helicopter footage and emergency response teams on the ground:
Update: this is a huge facility with over 6,500 employees.
Update: The threat appears to be isolated and controlled. The situation outside is calm and directed by military and emergency personnel.
Update: Former FBI Assistant Director Ron Hosko on the shooting:
12:45 p.m. update: Navy spokesman says a report of three gunshots heard at Naval Medical Center San Diego came from a single witness.
1:35 p.m. update: Navy spokesperson N. Scott Sutherland said military police checked Building 26 and the initial inspection found no sign of a gunman or a shooting.
Like every other negative moment in the last two stagnant years at Twitter, internet people [me included] are again tussled into the great online pastime of debating how to make Twitter work. CNBC found a nice fella who thinks they need to focus more on video. There were other good talking points, but right now let’s talk about Periscope.
Live streaming video is not for everyone. If I don’t like a snap I don’t send it. I am not a news anchor. I have watched 100s of Periscopes and the energy level is low. The social media game is about who can get one billion active users. One billion people cannot generate quality live video streams. Nor does it seem like they want to watch them. Twitter is at a huge disadvantage in the video department.
Can a 10,000 character limit right the ship? This is a way to curb Twitter users being sent away via hyperlinks. Facebook does it with Instant Article. More characters could work if executed properly [small tweets that can be expanded, if desired]. However both Facebook and Twitter are chasing Snapchat’s tail when it comes to in-app news. Mobile content is brilliant and easily shared in the app. If you share a Snapchat news piece via text message it sends the write up as a long scrolling image. The words are shared as an image, sort of like how @Jack tweets.
Getting outpaced in active users by Instagram is a huge blow. IG has lured anti-establishment folks back onto social media. They tag each other on posts at rabid rates. Instagram, Facebook’s little side purchase, has 100 million more active users than Twitter. Yikes.
The good news–Moments could be a hit. If it keeps having entertaining content it will catch on. ‘Flat earthers’…have you seen these bone heads? They use tidbits of science to ‘prove’ the earth is flat. On Moments today, Twitter put together a series of tweets where a rapping man from Atlanta named @Bobatl was schooled by pop scientist @neiltyson after he went on a flat earth tweet storm. Check it out here, it’s hilarious. I would have missed the exchange without Moments considering I follow neither of them. Even if I followed both their handles the scuffle would probably be washed away in my stream before I saw it.
I am an investor in Twitter but also a stakeholder. It was my coming of age news source and it has always earned my glowing endorsement. Now my revere is shifting–and I will dump the stock and cut ties entirely if need be, because a losers a loser. But for now my hope remains and I am not the only one offering up my best advice to the firm.
According to data released by Certify, about 40% of all business ground transportation receipts were linked to Uber or Lyft. Nearly half. Big number. The disruption of traditional car services is being attributed to the ease of queuing up a vehicle paired the the simplicity of logging the expense.
These companies are still private, and we the normal investor class can only expect to participate in the meteoric growth of ride-share technology once it has peaked. That is when we will be able to buy shares on the stock exchange.
This is why people pay millions of dollars to live in one-bedroom apartments in San Francisco.
I know most of you aren’t taking advantage of Snapchat, despite my insistence of its prowess. Therefore I am passing along the latest word from The White House. The President and his running crew were in Detroit today, sitting in copper colored Chevrolet subcompact cars and sipping micro-brews. They wanted us to know the auto industry is back, and I think the snap sends a distinct message.
The executive branch of our government does not care about cheap oil. During last Wednesday’s State of The Union address Obama took a victory lap on $2/gallon gas. The populous, overall, celebrates the dismantling of the oil industry. If your state is plunging into long-term recession due to loss of industry, guess what? It’s your turn. Detroit took one for the team last decade. A drive around town shows our economy is booming. Yes, some areas still look like war-torn Syria. But where you see danger, thinkers like me see deals and opportunity.
The White House thinks the auto industry is back. It does not matter if the stocked market is being derailed by a Federal Reserve hellbent on lifting interest rates. The dog and pony show down at Cobo Hall suggests business is booming for automotive. Last Friday’s Advance Retail Sales data concurred–autos were the only thing keeping the data in-line with expectations. Ex-autos, the numbers were a huge whiff. Also, the real USA aka Walmart, is shutting down shops in bulk. Yet auto is staying firm, interesting.
The President wants you to buy auto stocks. By the looks of GM, F, and TSLA right now is a decent time to do it. All three of them are sitting at areas of major support. It wouldn’t take much risk to find out if you’re wrong. You’re smart, you have eyes yes? Look at the charts, not bad.
So while the world crumbles, earning season will soon tell us if this Snapchat intelligence is right. Fords (it’s a Detroit thing, adding the ‘s’) reports on the Jan 28th, General Motors on Feb 3rd, and Tesla February 10th.
Note: Tesla is not presenting at the Detroit Auto Show this year. It is suspected their skip was due to Michigan and their stupid dealerships not allowing Tesla to operate their business model in the state. Due to their absence, I see no reason to attend the otherwise stale expo. Want a crash course in Snapchat? Follow me over there [VCali].
Join the club, Greenlight. 2015 was a tough year for the stock picker. In the firm’s letter to its partners they discussed having three large losses in a single year (CNX, MU, and SUNE) and the overall inability of all their other ideas to produce any fruit.
Meanwhile, as if trying to be wrong on purpose, they were short the top two performing stocks in the S&P 500 (Netflix and Amazon).
Listen, I am not poking fun at these guys. 2015 sucked. It changed me (Read: Raul Is Swearing Off Stock Trading). This was the right move. Shifting my focus to improving my NASDAQ trading has paid-off big to start the year, even while my investments get kicked down the elevator shaft every day.
Eventually (and it always does) this volatility will be gone, and Einhorn and the Greenlight team can go back to winning. For now, the non-systemic risk of owning individual stocks is through the roof.
Here’s the first few pages of a tough-to-read letter from the Greenlight Capital team:
This can’t have anything to do with an actual oil barrel costing twice as much as the tar mud it holds, right?
A general lack of interest for the news outlet in the United States is being cited as the cause for shutting down Al Jazeera America. Citizens of the United States are now forced to resume viewing their news from Fox and CNN. For a more frisky take on world events, they can tune into BBC America. Russia is holding strong with RT America, but after April you can kiss news with a Qatari kiss goodbye.
