1.APPLE : Taiwan’s Foxconn reported a better-than expected quarterly profit on Thursday due to strong demand for technology products from clients, such as Apple Inc , as people continued to telecommute amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world’s largest contract electronics maker reported April-June net profit of T$29.779 billion ($1.07 billion), up 30% from a year earlier. That compared to a Refinitiv consensus estimate of T$25.98 billion drawn from 12 analysts.
Foxconn said the stronger-than-expected figures were driven by its key consumer products, mainly smartphones, as more people work and study from home globally due to the pandemic.
Formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, Foxconn had in May forecast a 15% rise in second-quarter revenue, buoyed by demand for consumer devices such as the iPhones that Foxconn assembles for Apple.
Its second-quarter revenue rose 20% from a year earlier to T$1.35 trillion.
In the third quarter, Foxconn expects overall revenue to gain by 3-15% and revenue from the consumer electronics division to rise more than 15% from a year earlier.
Foxconn’s shares have risen about 16% this year. They ended flat on Thursday, in line with the broader market.
2.EBAY:- EBay Inc on Wednesday forecast current quarter revenue below analysts’ estimates, signaling that reopening economies and vaccine rollouts could be putting an end to the pandemic-led shopping boom.
In the past year, customers turned to e-commerce platforms during the coronavirus pandemic as they were home-bound for months at a stretch, but vaccine rollouts are expected to lead a return to brick-and-mortar shopping as more people step out of their homes.
EBay said it expects third-quarter revenue in the range of $2.42 billion to $2.47 billion, while analysts were expecting $2.92 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Shares of the e-commerce firm fell 1% after the bell.
Jamie Iannone, eBay’’s chief executive, said an increase in people on the move in the spring had impacted sales, but the company’s playbook in areas such as collectibles, ads and payments was working.
“We feel like we’re coming out of the pandemic stronger than we came into it,” he said in an interview.
He said that excluding eBay’s deal to sell 80% of its Korea business to Shinsegae Group’s E-Mart Inc, the company met or exceeded forecasts.
3.Mc DONALD:- McDonald’s Corp will require its U.S.-based office workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and will delay a return of employees to its offices until at least October, the fast-food giant said on Wednesday.
The company joined New York Stock Exchange and NBCUniversal in adopting a vaccination policy on Wednesday as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States due to the Delta variant.
In recent weeks, major companies including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Uber Technologies Inc and Facebook Inc said all their U.S. employees must get vaccinated to step into offices after new guidance from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that requires fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks.
McDonald’s said in an internal note obtained by Reuters it was pushing back office reopening to Oct. 11 from Sept. 7 to allow employees time to get vaccinated.
The company said the vaccination requirement does not apply to employees of McDonald’s restaurants, whether corporate-owned and franchised.
4.GOOGLE:-A bipartisan trio of senators introduced a bill that would rein in app stores of companies they said exert too much market control, including Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar teamed up with Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn to sponsor the bill, which would bar big app stores from requiring app providers to use their payment system. It would also prohibit them from punishing apps that offer different prices or conditions through another app store or payment system.
“I found this predatory abuse of Apple and Google so deeply offensive on so many levels,” Blumenthal said in an interview Wednesday. “Their power has reached a point where they are impacting the whole economy in stifling and strangling innovation.”
Blumenthal said he expected companion legislation in the House of Representatives “very soon.”
The stakes are high for Apple, whose App Store anchors its $53.8 billion services business as the smartphone market has matured.
.5.ASTRA ZENECA – No new cases of a rare and severe blood clots following vaccination with AstraZeneca’s COVID shot have been reported in Britain in recent weeks after a decision to restrict its use in under-40s, British scientists said on Wednesday.
Vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) is a combination of blot clots and low platelet levels which has been labelled as a rare side effect of the viral vector COVID vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson .
A higher occurrence of the side-effect in younger people has led to many countries to put age restrictions on AstraZeneca’s shot.
Around 85% of those who suffered rare blood clots after vaccination with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot in Britain were under 60 even though more of the shots were given to the elderly, the study found, in one of the fullest characterisations of the syndrome so far.
It found that in those aged under 50, incidence was around 1 in 50,000, in line with previous estimates, and experts said the study reinforced prior understanding of risk-benefit calculation of vaccination.
