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☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Nvidia, Zoom, Amazon, Bowlero, Lululemon & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bank of America reiterates Lululemon as buy Bank of America said it's standing by its buy rating on the stock heading into earnings next week. Bank of America adds Jazz Pharmaceuticals to the US1 list Bank of America added the pharmaceutical company to its top picks list. "We initiate coverage of The Madison Square Garden Entertainment Co. (MSGE) with a Buy rating and a 12-month price objective (PO) of $41, implying ~30% potential upside." Bank of America initiates Gulfport Energy as buy Bank of America said the energy company is undervalued. Stifel reiterates Bowlero as buy Stifel said it's standing by its buy rating on the bowling company.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Lululemon, LULU, Bernstein, Emerson, Raymond James, Apple, it's, Stifel, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, JEF Organizations: Bank of America, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc, UBS, GXO Logistics, Mobility, RBC, JPMorgan, Emerson, Mizuho, Edison, FOUR, Apple, Nvidia, AppLovin, Garden Entertainment, The, Garden Entertainment Co, Energy, Xcel Energy, Minnesota & Locations: China, The Madison, Minnesota, Minnesota & Colorado

☆ IPG Mediabrands 'privacy alert' says clients should 'consider' a pause on Google ads product
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

Google has disputed the Adalytics report, with a spokesperson describing it in a statement to Insider as "deeply flawed and misleading." An IPG Mediabrands spokeswoman said it was not accurate to say the agency was recommending a pause on any Google product. "What worries me about this Adalytics report is that Performance Max campaigns have allegedly been observed to run on made-for children inventory," Schreurs said. The article also refers to research undertaken by 3rd party (Adalytics) and the Adalytics report also mentions the following IPG/MB clients: 1. GAF For several of the above clients, the Adalytics report references that IPG/Matterkind placed the ad.

Persons: Max, IPG Mediabrands, Adalytics, wasn't, IPG, Ruben Schreurs, Schreurs, Edward J, Markey, Marsha Blackburn, Dyson, Matterkind, Biden's Organizations: Google, YouTube, The New York Times, Federal Trade Commission, COPPA, Republican, New York Times, Brand, Adalytics, NY Times, BMO, BMW, Nike, Intuit, Honda, FTC, United States, Association, MFK Locations: Massachusetts, Tennessee, United, MFK

☆ Morgan Stanley still likes these Chinese stocks despite a country downgrade
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Morgan Stanley has decided to take a break, downgrading MSCI China to equal weight while recommending a few consumer and industrial names. The Politburo meeting signaled policy easing, but outstanding issues — of debt, property, jobs and geopolitics — need significant improvement for sustainable inflows, the Morgan Stanley analysts said. Morgan Stanley has so far only changed it once this year: a cut in July to 5%. And despite their downgrade of Chinese stocks, the analysts added two mainland-traded A shares to their focus list. In its latest report, Morgan Stanley analysts also turned overweight on India.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Laura Wang, Fran Chen, Wood, Warren Buffett, behemoth BlackRock, Biden, Liqian Ren, Ren, Hang Seng, Jack Ma's Alibaba, Morgan Stanley's, Morgan, WisdomTree's Ren doesn't, Ren doesn't, Michael Bloom Organizations: U.S, Chinese Communist Party, China ETF, WisdomTree Trust, Owned Enterprises ETF, Wall, JPMorgan, Baidu, State, Owned Enterprise Fund, Ping An Insurance Locations: China, . U.S, WisdomTree, WisdomTree Trust China, Morgan, Morgan Stanley's China, Hong Kong, India

☆ USA Today-publisher Gannett raises profit targets as ad demand rebounds
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The corporate flags for the Gannett Co and its flagship newspaper, USA Today, fly outside their corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia, July 23, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File photo(Reuters) - USA Today-publisher Gannett Co boosted its annual earnings expectations on Thursday, as advertising demand recovers from post-pandemic lows. Gannett’s revenue from advertising and marketing services fell 8% to $353.3 million in the second quarter ended June 30 from a year earlier. Analysts on average expect 2023 profit of $8.2 million, according to Refinitiv data. The company reiterated annual revenue between $2.75 billion and $2.80 billion, above estimates of $2.74 billion.

Persons: Larry Downing Organizations: Gannett Co, USA, REUTERS, U.S . Federal Reserve, U.S ., Google, Gannett Locations: McLean , Virginia, U.S

For Yavuz and his counterparts, there's serious appeal in having another ad-supported app inside Meta's ad manager. Once Meta adds a check box to extend ads to Threads, ad buyers will check it. Facebook's ads, technology, and interfaces are much better than Twitter's," said Trevor Dudeck, CEO of ad agency Lemonade. "If it's just the same thing as Instagram, that's not going to be as enticing," said one executive at a major digital advertising agency. When Zuckerberg inevitably adds the Threads checkbox to Meta's ad platform, it'll be ominous for Twitter's flailing ad business.

Persons: Alex Kantrowitz, Kantrowitz, Meta hasn't, Mark Zuckerberg, Ahmet Yavuz, Yavuz, Carly London, Curly, it's, David Herrmann, Herrmann, They're, Carl Bivona, Trevor Dudeck, Josh Keller, Elon Musk's, that's, Zuckerberg, I've Organizations: Big Technology, Morning, Meta, ASY, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google, it's Meta, Herrmann Digital, Union Square Media, Wall Street Locations: Meta

☆ With the DOJ looming, a post-earnings move higher for this tech giant means 'we have to trim'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"Having Google win this ad tech case would reinforce the difficulty the government will have limiting tech platforms," Gallant said. Elsewhere, the European Commission is bringing a similar antitrust case against Google's ad tech business in the European Union. Bottom line At the Club, we're focused on the DOJ case because we have a significant position in Alphabet. Given the uncertainty around the antitrust case, if Alphabet stock moves higher post earnings Tuesday, we'll look to scale back our position in order to protect the broader portfolio. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

Persons: Jim Cramer, Jim, Jonathan Kanter, Paul Gallant, Cowen, Gallant, Biden, we're, Jim Cramer's, Tayfun Organizations: U.S . Department, Big Tech, Nvidia, Biden administration's, Department, Google, DOJ, CNBC, European, European Union, The, Anadolu Agency, Getty Locations: U.S, View , California, United States

☆ Buying anything but a Tesla makes no sense right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Several car companies say their EVs will be built with the Tesla charging standard starting in 2025. Otherwise, buying an EV other than Tesla now means its charging tech will soon be in the minority. It's supposed to be a huge advantage to non-Tesla car companies that they're switching to Tesla's charging tech. With automakers, charging providers, and more moving to Tesla's tech, CCS will be far less popular in the coming years. The EV buyers in five to 10 years will be buying tech that's more advanced and stabilized.

Persons: Tesla, Elon, Karl Brauer, Brauer, NACS, Loren McDonald, McDonald Organizations: Morning, Ford, GM, Volvo, CCS Locations: America

☆ Coinbase is a crypto conundrum, squared
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Shares in Coinbase got a major boost after money management behemoth BlackRock (BLK.N) applied to launch a bitcoin-backed exchange-traded fund this month with Coinbase as its custodian. Coinbase shares are up nearly 54% in July, handily beating the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC), which rose 4%. Price targets range widely: analysts polled by Refinitiv think Coinbase is worth anywhere from $8 billion to nearly $50 billion. Coinbase investors would therefore be unwise to count on a judge delivering Coinbase a win. Given bitcoin’s current $584 billion market capitalization, that suggests $74 billion of ETFs would not be much of a stretch.

Persons: Brian Armstrong, Coinbase, behemoth BlackRock, –, Gary Gensler, there’s, Goldman Sachs, Cowen, Refinitiv, Armstrong, Sam Bankman, Larry Fink, Charles Schwab, doubters, Ripple, John Foley, Streisand Neto Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Securities and Exchange, Nasdaq, SEC, Citigroup, Commodity Futures, BlackRock, Bank, New York Mellon, Interactive, Securities and Exchange Commission, Thomson Locations: Washington, United States, U.S

☆ Goldman Sachs says Yelp shares are worth buying, can rally more than 20%
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Goldman Sachs is optimistic on Yelp as investors weigh the outlook for the digital advertising industry in the second half of 2023. Analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded the stock to buy from neutral and raised his price target by $9 to $47. Sheridan's new target implies shares could rally 23.3% from Friday's close. And Yelp is one stock in the space with a risk-reward skew that has turned more positive, Sheridan said. Despite the stock's rally, he said shares are still considered cheap when comparing price and earnings.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Sheridan, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Yelp Locations: Friday's

☆ How the generative A.I. boom could forever change online advertising
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Meta, Alphabet and Amazon , the leaders in online advertising, are all betting generative AI will eventually be core to their businesses. In May, Meta announced its AI Sandbox testing suite for companies to more easily use generative AI software to create background images and experiment with different advertising copy. However, Shaked said he's "not sold on the creative piece yet," regarding Meta's nascent foray into providing generative AI tools for advertisers. Jay Pattisall, an analyst at Forrester, said several major hurdles prevent generative AI from having a major immediate impact on the online ad industry. Stacy Reed, an online advertising and Facebook ads consultant, is currently incorporating generative AI into her daily work.

Persons: Sebastien Bozon, ChatGPT, Shane Rasnak, Rasnak, Cristina Lawrence, Lawrence, Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Yarden Shaked, Shaked, Jay Pattisall, Forrester, Pattisall, Reddit, Scott McKelvey, OpenAI, McKelvey, that's, Meta, Stacy Reed, it's, Reed, they've, Ryan Reynolds Organizations: AFP, Getty, Facebook, Twitter, CNBC, Meta, Meta's, Georgetown University, Bloomberg News, Mint Mobile, Social Locations: Utah, San Francisco, Washington

☆ Drug discovery and 'techbio': What Europe's health startup investors are betting on in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

They named drug discovery and the emerging 'techbio' sector as areas of interest. COVID-19 fueled huge interest in health-tech startups, with VCs pouring a record $25.1 billion into health and biotech startups in 2021. Startups in the space are bringing new applications of tech to fields such as drug discovery, bioengineering, and patient care. VCs are still betting on drug discoveryEven though funding into drug discovery startups has significantly stalled this year, at just $126 million, startup valuations have picked up since 2022. Health-tech VCs won't splurge cashWhile COVID-19 did give healthtech startups a chance at the spotlight, they were still overshadowed by their counterparts in fintech and software-as-a-service.

Persons: techbio, healthtech Organizations: Morning, VCs, pharma, Big Pharma Locations: fintech, Munich, Germany, Europe

☆ Gannett sues Google over its alleged ad tech monopoly
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

USA Today publisher Gannett is suing Google for allegedly illegally monopolizing the advertising technology market, adding to an already extensive list of lawsuits against the company for alleged anticompetitive behavior. The publisher said that Google's broad control of the ad tech market has hurt news publishers, claiming that online readership has grown while online ad spending has decreased for publishers. That lawsuit similarly alleged Google illegally maintained a monopoly through its control of multiple parts of the ad selling and buying market. A group of attorneys general led by Texas also alleged anticompetitive practices over Google's ad tech products in a 2020 lawsuit. Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize – in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager," Taylor said.

Persons: Gannett, Michael Reed, Dan Taylor, Taylor Organizations: USA, Gannett, Google, of, Department of Justice, Publishers, CNBC, YouTube, Big Tech Locations: Southern, of New York, Texas

Gannett said this leaves Google with "exorbitant monopoly profits," and "dramatically less revenue" for publishers and its ad technology rivals. "Digital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy," Gannett Chief Executive Mike Reed said in an opinion published in USA Today. Like many newspaper publishers, McLean, Virginia-based Gannett has struggled with falling ad revenue as more Americans, estimated at 86%, get news online. Gannett said digital advertising is a $200 billion business, up nearly eightfold since 2009, but newspaper ad revenue fell nearly 70% over that time. The case is Gannett Co v Google LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

Persons: Gannett, Mike Reed, Jonathan Stempel, Louise Heavens, Jonathan Oatis, Richard Chang Organizations: YORK, Gannett, U.S ., USA, Google, Alphabet Inc, European Union, U.S . Department of Justice, Gannett Co, Court, Southern District of, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, USA, View , California, U.S, Texas, McLean , Virginia, Southern District, Southern District of New York, New York

☆ EU officials accuse Google of antitrust violations in its ad tech business
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —Google’s advertising business should be broken up, European Union officials said Wednesday, alleging that the tech giant’s involvement in multiple parts of the digital advertising supply chain creates “inherent conflicts of interest” that risk harming competition. The formal accusations mark the latest antitrust challenge to Google over its sprawling ad tech business, following a lawsuit by the US Justice Department in January that also called for a breakup of the company. For example, the commission claims, advertisers who used Google’s ad buying tools frequently had their purchases routed to AdX instead of to rival ad exchanges. One proposed solution by the commission would spin off Google’s ad exchange and publisher tools from the ad-buying tools it provides to advertisers. Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector,” Taylor said.

Persons: ”, Margrethe Vestager, Dan Taylor, ” Taylor Organizations: Washington CNN, European Union, Google, US Justice Department, EU, —, CNN Locations: AdX

☆ EU charges Google with anti-competitive practices in ad tech business
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, reached a preliminary conclusion that Google is dominant in the European market for publisher ad servers and for programmatic ad-buying tools for the open web. The commission also said Google has abused this dominant position since at least 2014. "The Commission's preliminary view is therefore that only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns," EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "Our preliminary concern is that Google may have used its market position to favour its own intermediation services. If confirmed, Google's practices would be illegal under our competition rules,"Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Persons: Margrethe Vestager, Vestager Organizations: European Union, European Commission, EU, Google, CNBC Locations: Brussels, Belgium

☆ EU regulators may demand Google to sell part of ad-tech business - source
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 12 (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators may order Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google to sell a part of its advertising-technology business, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. However, frustration has been mounting after Google failed to address competition concerns, the source said. The Commission and Google did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Google is the most dominant digital advertising platform in the world with a 28% market share of global ad revenue, according to research firm Insider Intelligence. Google's dominance in online advertising has been increasingly questioned over the past few years.

Persons: Nilutpal Timsina, Akriti Sharma, Maju Samuel, Rashmi Organizations: Union, Google, Reuters, European Commission, Commission, Intelligence, United, Wall, Thomson Locations: United States

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Amazon, Broadcom, Bowlero, Microsoft, Rivian & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America reiterates Broadcom as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $950 per share from $800 after Broadcom's earnings report on Thursday. "Our new PO of $950 (from $800) represents 21x CY24E EV/FCF as AI accelerates company growth potential. Bank of America reiterates Five Below as buy Bank of America said the discount retailer has "recession resilience." Bank of America upgrades Surgery Partners to buy from neutral Bank of America said the health care company has " favorable long-term tailwinds." Bank of America reiterates Lululemon as buy Bank of America said Lululemon is a "best-in-class growth story."

Persons: it's, Riley FBR, Riley, Piper Sandler downgrades, Piper, Morgan Stanley, Apple, it's bullish, Wells, Stifel, Goldman Sachs, Goldman, 100bps, Frank Klein, Tim Fallon, Tim Bei, Derek Mulvey, RIVN, Lululemon Organizations: Bank of America, Broadcom, Warner Music, JPMorgan, Energy, Surgery Partners, of America, Partners, Amazon, Microsoft, ISI, Barclays, Strategic Finance, Citi, Frontier Citi, LaGuardia, Spirit Airlines, Watch Locations: Valvoline, Biopharma, Agriculture, Normal , IL

As several macro overhangs weigh on the markets, UBS named its most compelling plays for the rest of 2023. Meta shares have surged more than 117% year to date amid numerous cost-cutting measures, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg termed as the company's " year of efficiency ." Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is another stock UBS thinks can outperform during uncertain times. The bank added that, "Beyond Mounjaro, LLY has a robust pipeline including late-stage Alzheimer's asset donanemab and promising next-generation obesity/T2D assets." UBS thinks the company will continue to benefit from the liquified natural gas backlog, as European countries look for alternatives to Russian gas.

☆ NRO director says commercial space industry helps fuel the spy satellite agency’s ambitious goals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Morgan Brennan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office plans to quadruple the number of satellites on orbit over the next decade. It will need commercial space companies to help do it. "It's helped us improve our reliability so that we can achieve more with more capability at a lower cost," he said. The ambitious game plan speaks to the growing role of commercial space companies in national security work. NRO partners closely with both the U.S. Space Command and the Space Force.

☆ Big tech is still the hope in a sideways stock market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

With the S & P 500 down 1% this month, and essentially flat for the quarter, the best you can say is that the overall trend has moved from down in 2022 to mostly sideways in 2023. Lowry, the nation's oldest technical analysis service, has taken to calling the rally in tech "the mega-cap mirage." Lowry noted over the weekend that "core indicators of market health have demonstrated significant deterioration from the early February market high through recent days." Even as the S & P 500 was near a new rally high for the year recently, the S & P Midcap 400 and S & P Smallcap 600 were 12% and 17% below their February 2nd highs last week. Only 46% of S & P 500 stocks are above their 200-day moving averages, hardly a sign of broad market strength.

☆ Corporate defaults are at their highest level in years, and it's poised to get even worse. Here are the 5 biggest players who went broke in March.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Corporate default rates are at the highest level in years, according to a bankruptcy report released on April 14 by ratings agency Moody's. In the first quarter of the year, 33 companies rated by Moody's were unable to pay their debts. That's the highest number since the last quarter of 2020, when 47 companies defaulted on their debt, the agency said in the report. The ratings giant expects junk bond defaults could rise to 4.9% by March 2024, thanks to higher interest rates and slower economic growth. This list has been curated to highlight the biggest companies — by impact — that went broke and were unable to honor their debt obligations.

☆ Google Cloud boss Kurian's rocky path to profit: 'We were not in a very good situation'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, right, arrives on stage as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai exits during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco on April 9, 2019. Earlier this week, Alphabet said Google's cloud unit generated $191 million in operating profit, after losing a total of $4 billion in 2021 and 2022. Under Kurian's predecessor, VMware co-founder Diane Greene, critics said Google's cloud business hadn't matured enough to handle enterprises even as it was investing heavily to do so. The cloud division includes the Google Cloud Platform, which competes with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and the Google Workspace productivity software bundle that goes head-to-head with Microsoft Office. Google Cloud technology chief Will Grannis said Kurian's commitment to improving the division's offerings was evident right away.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Friday denied Google's motion to dismiss a Department of Justice antitrust case focused on advertising technology. "I'm going to deny the defendant's motion to dismiss," Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a federal court in Virginia. It also said that the government's estimate of Google's ad exchange as having "more than 50%" of the market fell short of the 70% needed to allege market power. Google's motion is the company's latest effort to end costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits. It also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss claims in a 2020 lawsuit filed by the government.

☆ 2023 layoff tracker: The latest on which companies have announced job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +20 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed, Lyft, Whole Foods and Deloitte all recently announced layoffs affecting thousands of US workers. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and the 10,000 announced in March, Meta’s headcount will fall to around 66,000 — a total reduction of about 25%. The company announced in January that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. IndeedJob listing website Indeed.com announced cuts of approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company said in March. The cuts come after the company announced several rounds of job cuts throughout the pandemic due to falling demand, followed by rapid hiring last year.

☆ The layoffs are here for those who chose to 'learn to code'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

But for those who chose to "learn to code," Vox reported the wave of layoffs in 2023 is challenging that notion. "If we look at 2023 layoffs, it's software engineers who have overtaken recruiters in layoffs," Ayas told Insider. This shift also signals a change in focus for company layoffs, Ayas said. Since then, Revelio's new data suggests that nearly 5% of tech company layoffs impacted recruiters — the position that saw the most layoffs after software engineers. What started as a wave of layoffs in the tech industry has now rippled to the finance and media industries as well.

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