1.TENCENT : China’s market regulator on Saturday said it would bar Tencent Holdings Ltd from exclusive music copyright agreements and fined the company for unfair market practices in the online music market after its acquisition of China Music Corporation.
The Chinese government has been stepping up antitrust actions in recent months against the country’s large tech companies, including a record $2.75 billion fine on e-commerce giant Alibaba for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.
Tencent and Tencent Music Entertainment Group , the unit created from the acquisition, said they would abide by the decision and comply with all regulatory requirements.
The State Administration Of Market Regulation (SAMR) said it had investigated Tencent’s activities in the online music broadcasting platform market in China, in which music copyright is the core asset, in a notice posted on its official website.
Reuters reported in mid-July that the antitrust regulator would order Tencent’s music streaming arm to give up exclusive rights to music labels that it has used to compete with smaller rivals, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Tencent held more than 80% of exclusive music library resources after its acquisitions, the regulator said, increasing its leverage over upstream copyright parties and allowing it to restrict new entrants, the regulator said.
2.AMAZON:- Amazon stock was trading higher in Monday’s premarket amid speculation that the Cloud and retail giant is exploring venturing into digital currencies.
It emerged last week that the U.S.’s biggest e-commerce company had advertised a vacancy for a digital currency product lead. It hasn’t given any other indication of its intentions toward crypto.
The rally on Wall Street faces a fresh test next week with a flood of earnings reports from major U.S. companies, including the tech and internet behemoths that have recently retaken leadership of the market.
More than one third of the S&P 500 is set to report quarterly results next week, headlined by Apple , Microsoft , Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet , the four largest U.S. companies by market value.
Those stocks have gained between 5-7% so far this month, as of Thursday’s close, while the S&P 500 had climbed just 1.6%. The S&P 500 equal-weight index, a barometer of the average stock, had fallen 0.2%.
“The expectation level for these names is quite a bit higher than it was a month ago given the stock performance, so I think they are going to have to deliver,” said Walter Todd, chief investment officer with Greenwood Capital in South Carolina.
3.TESLA:-Tesla Inc is likely to set up a factory in India if successful with imported vehicles, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Twitter, after the company wrote to Indian ministries seeking a big reduction in import duties on electric vehicles, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The electric-car maker’s pitch to lower duties, however, is likely to face resistance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration which has championed high import taxes for many industries in a bid to boost local manufacturing.
“We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country,” Musk said in reply to a tweet about launching the company’s cars in India.
“But we are hopeful that there will be at least a temporary tariff relief for electric vehicles,” Musk added.
Other luxury automakers in India have also lobbied the government in the past to lower taxes on imported cars but have had little success due to opposition from rivals with domestic operations.
Tesla, which aims to begin sales in India this year, said in a letter to ministries and the country’s leading think-tank Niti Aayog that slashing federal taxes on imports of fully assembled electric cars to 40% would be more appropriate, according to the sources.
That compares with current rates of 60% for cars priced below $40,000 and 100% for those above $40,000.
4.SNAP:– Snap stock soared more than 16% in Friday’s premarket trading following an upbeat second quarter and a guidance that indicated continued momentum at the social media outlet.
Thursday’s after-market trading had briefly catapulted the company to over $100 billion market cap.
The company’s efforts at attracting advertisers and users alike bore fruit as both revenue and daily active users recorded their highest growth in 4 years.
Snap’s second-quarter revenue jumped 116% year-on-year to $982 million, well above the expectation of $844.63 million.
The social media platform, known for its short-lived messages, expects its third-quarter revenue to rise 58%-60% year-over-year to clock between $1.07 billion and $1.08 billion.
Average revenue per user, a key indicator of how much the company managed to pocket from each user every month, jumped 76% to $3.35, going some way to address long-standing concerns that Snapchat doesn’t monetize its customer base effectively.
Daily active user numbers rose 23% to 293 million and analysts expect this to grow to 298.5 million by the end of the ongoing quarter, according to Reuters.
The company’s net loss more than halved to $152 million from $326 million from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue jumped 116% to $982 million
.5.AIR CANADA –Air Canada forecast increased bookings for domestic and U.S.-bound flights in the winter as travel restrictions ease after reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Friday.
Canada’s largest carrier predicted slower cash burn as travel comes back, although bookings overall remain below pre-pandemic levels.
“We are seeing steadily increasing bookings for the domestic, trans-border and Atlantic markets and to sun destinations for the coming winter,” Chief Executive Michael Rousseau told analysts. “In fact, for the next winter sun travel, future bookings during some weeks in June were ahead of the same period in 2019.”
Canada will allow fully vaccinated U.S. tourists to enter the country from Aug. 9, after the pandemic forced an unprecedented 16-month ban.
Air Canada reported a net cash burn of about C$8 million ($6.36 million) per day during the second quarter, lower than earlier projections. It expects that number to improve to between C$3 million and C$5 million per day in the third quarter.
Carriers are adding flights, putting pressure on fares in some markets.
While domestic pricing is more challenging, on international routes “the environment is quite stable,” Chief Commercial Officer Lucie Guillemette said while predicting a fall return in corporate travel.
Cargo flights, added during the pandemic, will be a more important part of the carrier’s future, the airline said.
In April, Air Canada reached an aid deal with the country’s federal government that would allow it to access up to C$5.9 billion in funds.
Rousseau said the airline would decide later this year whether to opt out of the government’s financing facilities.
