TOP 5 STOCKS TO WATCHOUT:-
1.Ferrari:Ferrari has turned to technology industry leader Benedetto Vigna to navigate the luxury sports car maker known for its roaring, high-octane engines through a new era of silent, electric powertrains.
Vigna, a 52-year-old Italian national, currently runs the biggest division of chip maker STMicroelectronics (ST), where he has worked since 1995 and helped pioneer screen technology used in early Apple iPhones.
His appointment fills a six-month vacancy at the helm of the luxury carmaker after former Chief Executive Louis Camilleri retired nearly two and a half years into the job in December citing personal reasons.
Chairman John Elkann, the scion of Agnelli family which controls Ferrari through its investment firm Exor , said in a statement that the company was delighted to welcome a technology industry leader aboard.
“His deep understanding of the technologies driving much of the change in our industry, and his proven innovation, business-building and leadership skills, will further strengthen Ferrari and its unique story of passion and performance,” he said.
Ferrari, which already offers hybrid models, has promised to deliver its first electric car by 2025.
Pietro Solidro, an analyst at Bestinver said Vigna’s appointment should reduce market concerns about Ferrari’s future and its path towards its first electric vehicle.
2.HUAWEI –U.S. bank JPMorgan said it will exclude Huawei’s dollar bonds from some its most influential investment indices from the end of next month, following the latest ratcheting up of U.S. sanctions on Chinese technology firms.
“Huawei USD-denominated bonds will be excluded from J.P. Morgan fixed income indices (including the CEMBI and JACI families) since the issuing entities for these securities (Proven Glory Capital Ltd. and Proven Honour Capital Ltd.) are explicitly named and in scope of the Amended Order,” JPMorgan said in a note to index users late on Tuesday.
The U.S. investment bank estimates the CEMBI and JACI index groups have more than $140 billion and $80 billion in assets benchmarked to them respectively – money which relates to the global investment funds that use these kind of indices as a shopping list of what to buy.
Huawei, which is China’s leading telecommunications equipment maker, was first put on a U.S. trade blacklist in May 2019 due to national security concerns. Huawei has repeatedly denied it is a risk.
The ban put Huawei’s handset business under immense pressure. Once the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Huawei is now ranked sixth, with a 4% market share in the first quarter.
3. SOFT BANK:U.S. food delivery firm DoorDash Inc, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp, announced the launch of services in Japan on Wednesday, joining an increasingly crowded market that has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Services will be initially limited to the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture, the money losing delivery firm told reporters, in a step that follows its expansion to Canada and Australia.
“Our strategy has always been to empower local economies, especially in the suburban markets that are historically underserved, yet the appetite for connectivity between merchants and customers is high,” Chief Executive Tony Xu said in a statement.
SoftBank already backs some of the largest delivery services in Japan, such as Uber Eats from Uber Technologies Inc and Demae-can Co Ltd.
Last month, DoorDash raised its forecast for annual gross order value, as stimulus checks helped keep food delivery demand resilient in the first quarter, even as vaccinations and an easing of curbs encouraged dining-out again.
DoorDash, which has also branched out into delivery from grocery and convenience stores last year, reported a near three-fold jump in quarterly revenue to $1.08 billion.
The company has seen a surge in order volumes during the pandemic as consumers hesitant to step out order essential items by telephone.
4.Amazon:-E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc is fielding bids to replace U.S. lender JPMorgan Chase & Co as the issuer on its co-branded credit card portfolio, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Amazon has sent out a ‘request for proposal’ for the portfolio, the person said, asking not to be identified as the matter was not public yet.
JPMorgan could fetch a 15% premium if it is replaced as partner in the portfolio, which contains more than $15 billion in credit card lending, Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday.
American Express Co and Synchrony Financial were among those bidding on the portfolio, the Bloomberg report added. The financial firms didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amazon and JPMorgan first issued a joint card in 2002 and their offerings have long operated on the Visa Inc network.
JPMorgan declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Bloomberg said the lender was willing to part with the Amazon portfolio.
5. GOOGLE – Google has bowed to pressure from rivals and will let them compete for free to be the default search engines on Android devices in Europe, widening a pledge to EU antitrust regulators two years ago.
The move by the world’s most popular internet search engine comes as the 27-country bloc considers rules that could be introduced next year to force Google , Amazon , Apple and Facebook to ensure a level playing field for competitors.
Google’s Android mobile operating system runs on about four-fifths of the world’s smartphones. The U.S. tech giant said in 2019 that rivals would have to pay via an auction for appearing on a choice screen on new Android devices in Europe from which users select their preferred search engine.
Google’s change of heart followed a 4.24 billion euro ($5.16 billion) fine handed out by the European Commission, the EU antitrust authority, in 2018 for unfairly using Android to cement the dominance of its search engine.
“We are now making some final changes to the Choice Screen including making participation free for eligible search providers. We will also be increasing the number of search providers shown on the screen,” Google director Oliver Bethell wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
