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☆ IRS says many 2022 special state payments are not subject to federal tax
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —The Internal Revenue Service has good news for millions of taxpayers in 17 states who received a one-time special state payment last year to offset inflation and other negative economic impacts: Those payments won’t be subject to federal income tax. Prior to the conclusion of its review of state special payments, the agency had suggested recipients hold off on filing their 2022 returns until it made its determination. The IRS decision regarding the federal taxability of special state payments for residents of other states is a little more nuanced. On your 2021 federal tax return, you either claimed the standard deduction, or you itemized. So the amounts that potentially are subject to federal income tax may not be large.

☆ Will the stock market rally last? Analysts share their predictions — and strategies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

But is this just a bear market rally or the start of a bull market ? The rally has some way to go, said Trivariate Research analysts, led by founder Adam Parker, in a Feb. 5 note. "It means there is further upside potential to this rally," Parker wrote. But markets could go through some range-bound trading before a "big rally," Hatfield told CNBC Pro. In light of the volatile market, Niles said investors should continue staying invested in cash — his "favorite investment" for this year.

☆ Where to Get Your Taxes Done for Free
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

Some don’t offer free filing if you have to record retirement income or self-employment income, for example, and other specific deductions and credits are sometimes excluded from free tax filing. What’s included:Wage and salary incomeLimited interest and dividend incomeEITCChild creditStudent loan interest deductionState returnFree File through the IRSIf you are a middle-income earner, even if you have relatively complicated taxes, you should qualify to file your taxes for free through the IRS’s Free File program. Eligibility for free state tax filing through Free File depends on your state and the Free File provider you choose. However, Free File is a separate program and distinct from these company’s free online offerings, such as the ones detailed above. You have to access Free File through the IRS.gov Free File portal and create an account through the program.

☆ Latest Microsoft results show the tech giant is still a buy despite near-term pressures, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft may be facing some near-term pressures, but most analysts think the stock remains a buy at current levels. Radke has a buy rating on the stock, and raised his target price slightly to $282 from $280. His $300 price target represents more than 23% upside from Tuesday's closing price for the stock. Davidson's Gil Luria was especially bullish on Microsoft, saying that the tech giant "deserves a premium valuation relative to the market and its Pac4 comparables." He lowered his price target to $265 from $267.

☆ Bank of America says top pick ServiceNow could see 'best-in-class growth'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Buy ServiceNow as the IT company outperforms peers, according to Bank of America. Analyst Brad Sills maintained a buy rating on ServiceNow, and called it a top pick, following checks with nearly a dozen of the software company's partners that suggested "healthy, sustained demand." ServiceNow shares are up more than 7% this year, after falling roughly 40% the year prior. ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott made positive comments Wednesday on CNBC, saying there's "not a chance" for a recession in IT spending. Meanwhile, the analyst said he expects ServiceNow will lead the digital transformation for back office workflow automation, as it grows in the next several years.

☆ Bernstein's Mark Moerdler on Microsoft: Its future is in software and the cloud
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBernstein's Mark Moerdler on Microsoft: Its future is in software and the cloudMark Moerdler of Bernstein joins 'TechCheck' to discuss Microsoft long term as well as his top software picks.

☆ Indian shares set to open higher; inflation slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Indian shares are set to open higher on Friday after data showed domestic and U.S. inflation eased last month, boosting expectations that central banks could slow the pace of interest rate hikes. In other Asian equities, the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was up 0.8% at a seven-month high. STOCKS TO WATCH** Wipro Ltd (WIPR.NS): Co set to report quarterly results later in the day. ** Infosys (INFY.NS): Co raises annual revenue outlook after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit in third quarter. ($1 = 81.1100 Indian rupees)Reporting by Rama Venkat and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru;Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A woman who claimed she was wrongly dismissed was ordered to repay her former employer about $2,000 for misrepresenting her working hours
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Karlee Besse was ordered to compensate her former employer after claiming wrongful dismissal. But instead of winning compensation, she was ordered to repay the company just over $2,000 for misrepresenting her working hours. The TimeCamp software tracks employees' online activities. Reach said that TimeCamp data identified "irregularities" between Besse's timesheets and her software usage. She ordered Besse to compensate her former employer for a 50-hour discrepancy between her timesheets and TimeCamp's records.

☆ BlackRock's mighty tech unit is a silver lining in an awful market. But competition and a recession could test its momentum.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In a tumultuous year for BlackRock, its powerful Aladdin business won record new mandates. "2022 was a good litmus test for the BlackRock model vis-a-vis Aladdin," said Cathy Seifert, a senior equity analyst at CFRA Research. Now Sudhir Nair, the longtime BlackRock executive who runs the Aladdin business globally, and his sprawling business face a test: Keeping that momentum. "To get new business, Aladdin may have to sharpen their pencils, despite the fact that I do think they still retain a best-in-class position," Seifert said. Influential rival money managers like Two Sigma, Pimco, State Street, and Amundi have been putting resources behind their own proprietary tech platforms.

To fix an iPhone that is not receiving texts from Android phones, try toggling Airplane mode on and off. Restarting your iPhone, updating it, and resetting your network settings can also fix the problem. Even so, you should generally be able to exchange texts between iPhone and Android seamlessly — iPhones can receive SMS messages just as easily as Android. If you have trouble getting texts from Android devices on your iPhone, here are nine ways to troubleshoot the problem. Tap Messages.

☆ Nitro rejects Potentia's alternative offer, seeks nod for KKR-backed firm's bid
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 28 (Reuters) - Australia's Nitro Software (NTO.AX) rejected an alternative takeover offer from private-equity (PE) firm Potentia Capital, which gave Nitro shareholders the choice of an all-cash, stock, or a combination of both, at the same offer price. The company also said on Wednesday it would recommend shareholders to vote for KKR Inc-backed (KKR.N) Alludo's all-cash, sweetened takeover offer of A$526.9 million ($354.55 million) and an off-market takeover. read moreAlludo's proposal of A$2.15 per share outbids top shareholder Potentia's A$2 per share for the PDF and e-signature software signing company. Alludo's offer is alongside a simultaneous off-market takeover offer for the software company. Alludo's offer requires 75% support from Nitro shareholders, while the off-market takeover offer needs a nod from 50.1% investors.

☆ Here are Morgan Stanley's top software stock picks for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The difficult outlook for software stocks should continue into 2023, but companies offering growth at a reasonable price stand to gain and come out on top, according to Morgan Stanley. Software stocks suffered a dismal 2022 as rising interest rates brought down stocks with sky high price-to-earnings ratios. Despite ServiceNow's decline of more than 39% this year, Morgan Stanley's $612 price target implies more than 55% upside from Friday's close. Along with its top picks, Morgan Stanley named a host of stocks poised to benefit in any recovery. Morgan Stanley also included Toast and Datadog as stocks to build positions in as interest rates subside and growth improves.

☆ Markets looking for the next catalyst might latch on to worries about 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Markets could be volatile and in search of a catalyst in the week ahead, as investors consider year-end trades in the lull before the Federal Reserve's December 13-14 policy meeting. Stocks were higher in the past week, with the year's worst performing sectors, communications services and consumer discretionary companies, leading the gains. On the geopolitical front, Arone said investors will watch the Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia's senate race . Week ahead calendar Monday Earnings: Sumo Logic , Gitlab 9:45 a.m. Services PMI 10:00 a.m. ISM services 10:00 a.m. Initial jobless claims 10:00 a.m. Quarterly services survey Friday 8:30 a.m. PPI 10:00 a.m. Consumer sentiment 10:00 a.m. Wholesale trade

☆ China's sophisticated censorship engine is being pushed to 'its max' as it struggles to keep protest videos off the internet, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

China is struggling to censor videos of protests against the country's zero-COVID policy, experts say. The country's censorship apparatus has been overwhelmed by the high volume of protest content. Experts told the Times that the high volume of videos has overwhelmed China's censorship software and teams of human censors. Protesters in Chengdu were seen shouting "Step down, Xi Jinping"and "Opposition to dictatorship," according to videos reviewed by CNN. Some internet users are reportedly evading content censorship by flipping videos on their side, adding filters, and recording videos of videos to confuse the censorship algorithms, reported the Times.

☆ Exclusive: Sentry, recently valued at over $3 billion, has acquired Codecov, a maker of software development tools
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Application monitoring service Sentry has acquired development tool maker Codecov. Sentry recently raised $90 million in Series E funding, which valued the company at more than $3 billion. Sentry, a startup that makes an application performance monitoring platform, said it has acquired Codecov, a startup that makes software development tools. The company, which has raised over $200 million to date from Accel, NEA, Bond and others, was recently valued at more than $3 billion. Combining the two services will allow Sentry to monitor for errors at every stage of the development process, Sentry CEO Milin Desai tells Insider.

☆ DIY retailer Kingfisher partners with Google Cloud to boost e-commerce
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - European home improvement retailer Kingfisher (KGF.L) has agreed a five-year partnership with Google Cloud , a move it said should provide customers with faster and more intuitive searches, and better tailor product ranges. The company, which owns DIY brands B&Q and Castorama, and trade-focused Screwfix and TradePoint, increased online sales during the pandemic when stores were closed and customers spent more on home improvements. E-commerce sales were up 138% over three years in its third quarter, it said this month. Kingfisher, a long-time user of SAP software, had started moving its legacy data to Google Cloud, where it could be used to test new online concepts and improve the efficiency of deliveries such as its less-than-one-hour Screwfix 'Sprint' service. Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said its technology was helping customers identify product using image search, or by answering questions posed in imprecise terms.

☆ Goldman Sachs says the S&P 500 will remain flat through 2023. Here's their 5-step playbook for finding returns — and avoiding crippling losses — next year.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Third, long-duration stocks that are unprofitable — typically these are growth stocks found in the tech sector — should be avoided, Kostin said. Fourth, Kostin likes stocks that have growing profit margins despite the tightening economic conditions. He shared a list of stocks with the most resilient profit margins over the last few year, and which are expected to grow margins next year. And finally, Kostin recommended avoiding stocks whose profit margin growth in recent years may have been due to a decrease in expenses as opposed to an increase in sales. Rising or normalizing expenses for these companies could chip away at profit margins.

☆ Popular tax prep software sent financial information to Meta, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Popular tax prep software including TaxAct , TaxSlayer and H&R Block sent sensitive financial information to Facebook parent company Meta through its widespread code, known as a pixel, that helps developers track user activity on their sites, an investigation by The Markup found. In a report published with The Verge on Tuesday, the outlet found the software sent information like names, email addresses, income information and refund amounts to Meta. "Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools," a Meta spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect." Meta considers potentially sensitive information to include information about income, loan amounts and debt status.

☆ Volkswagen's $2 bln Trinity electric vehicle plant in doubt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jan Schwartz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Volkswagen, the world's second-biggest carmaker, had planned to officially start production of its flagship electric sedan at the new factory in 2026. Manager Magazine reported that Blume wanted to delay this until 2030. The SSP model platform planned for the whole group will probably no longer be launched with the Trinity plant as originally planned, the magazine reported. It was too early for concrete statements as Volkswagen wants to decide on its revised investment plans in February, the source told Reuters. Volkwagen's supervisory board in March approved 2 billion euros ($2.07 billion) for the new Trinity factory, with construction due to start in spring 2023.

☆ Microsoft brings casual games Minesweeper and Solitaire to Teams to spruce up virtual meetings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Next time you're bored on a Microsoft Teams call, try joining your colleagues in a game of Minesweeper. Microsoft on Wednesday added a collection of casual games to its Teams chat and calling service as the company tries to get people to spend more time in the app. Teams is now available on most popular devices, and desktop software developers including Adobe and SAP have developed Teams integrations. By adding games, Microsoft is trying to sprinkle some fun into the equation and perhaps even strengthen bonds at work. The classic Klondike game, for example, is part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection app for Windows.

☆ Lucid owners are reporting glitches like bricking and cars driving the wrong way — just as the EV startup gets production under control
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Lucid hasn't yet publicly addressed the latest issues, which include reports of cars bricking or driving the wrong way. "It's critical that we maintain our competitive advantages by delivering a unique combination of hardware and software," Rawlinson told investors on a February earnings call. Insider spoke with 19 Lucid owners for this story — all of whom reported some software or hardware problems — as well as seven current former and Lucid software engineers. "If the car sits in the sun for the afternoon, DreamDrive won't read speed-limit signs," an owner in Arizona told Insider. But while Lucid has worked to service individual cars, owners told Insider, it hasn't publicly addressed these issues.

☆ Workato: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

CEO Vijay Tella built Workato to close a big gap his team saw in the modern enterprise. While business apps became simpler, faster and cheaper, the integration across these apps remained complex and expensive. Workato transforms automation across enterprises with a single platform for data, apps and processes, allowing them to evolve from complex and fragmented architectures of the past. The company differentiates its service by pitching easy-to-use, patented machine learning technology that can be used by both business and IT departments. The 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise list is powered and inspired by the members of CNBC's Technology Executive Council (TEC).

☆ Startups Look to Scoop Up Laid-Off Tech Workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Flush with investor capital, technology startups plan to scoop up software developers, engineers and marketers flooding the labor market following job cuts at Twitter Inc., Lyft Inc. and other large tech employers. Kathy Zhu said she is lining up candidates for engineering, customer service and other roles at Streamline AI, the two-year-old tech startup she co-founded. They include prospects from “two or three companies that just had big layoffs,” she said.

☆ This tech stock is an underrated 'instrumental play' that can jump nearly 20%, Wells Fargo says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Keysight Technologies is underrated and ready to grow within more technology spaces than the market has given it credit for, Wells Fargo said Thursday. Aaron Rakers initiated Keysight with an overweight rating, calling it an "instrumental play on digital transformation." Rakers said the company has the potential to increase margin by bringing up software mix. It was spun out from Agilent Technologies, which Rakers said did not invest in the company enough for it to reach its potential. To be sure, the company faces the risk of not being able to gain further market growth or increase margins.

☆ Investment has been pouring into technology in the agriculture space. How to play it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Carmen Reinicke | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, the agriculture industry was dealing with a number of headwinds, from hurricanes and poor planning disrupting crop growth cycles to the impact of retaliatory tariffs slashing exports. These issues have highlighted an immense need for investment in agriculture and specifically technology to improve the efficiency of the industry. Last year, Deere also purchased Bear Flag Robotics, a Silicon Valley agriculture technology startup that develops autonomous farm equipment, for $250 million. AGCO , an agricultural machinery manufacturer, has also made several investments or acquisitions in the last few years in new technology in the space. The agriculture company in September bought Symborg, a Spanish microbiological technologies firm that makes biostimulants and biofertilizers for many kinds of crops and agriculture systems that boost results.

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