Which Stock’s Are Investors Watching In February – CWEB.com

Stocks had their worst week in over a year last week. Investors pushed both the  Dow Jones Industrial Average  (DJINDICES: ^DJI)  and the  S&P 500  (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)  down by roughly 3%.

That drop cut markets’ year-to-date gain in half. But stocks are still up this year following 2017’s 20% rally.

Notable earnings reports:  Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW), Lions Gate (LGF.A,  LGF.B), Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) on Feb. 26; Booking Holdings [formely Priceline] (NASDAQ:PCLN), Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX), Workday (NYSE:WDAY), Square (NYSE:SQ), IMAX (NYSE:IMAX) and Macy’s (NYSE:M) on Feb. 27; (NYSE:CRM), 3D (NYSE:DDD), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX), Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) on Feb. 28; VMware (NYSE:VMW), Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Gap (NYSE:GPS), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) on March 1; J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP), Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) and JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) on March 2.

Macau:   Hike in transit visa fees in Zhuhai from   ($7.88) to   ($53.55).    While the total cost is still relatively low, any indications of a Beijing crackdown tend to rattle investors.

Gaming Companies are a little nervous.  JPMorgan expects 8% to 10% growth, while Nomura sees a 10% to 15% pop.    Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) has been watched closely by many investors.

Samsung Galaxy S9, 5G And A.I At The Mobile World Congress – CWEB.com

Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) will debut its new flagship phones, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, on February 25 at Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

Generally, the most  well-known businesses  that normally  participate  in the event are: LG, Samsung, Motorola, Huawei, Alcatel, Facebook, Google, Android, Nokia, Sony, ZTE, HTC, Wiko, Blackberry, Intel, Ericsson, Panasonic, Epson, BQ, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Paypal and Hisense7.

Many other finance, automotive and telephone companies participate too.

The iPhone X success proved there’s a big market for very pricey smartphones.

Worldwide spend on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is expected to hit $17.8 billion in 2018, a 95 percent rise from last year.

Google Assistant, Google Lens, RCS, Android Oreo (Go edition), and Android One will also be featured.

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Microsoft And Xiaomi Will Collaborate On Cloud And AI – CWEB.com

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Xiaomi (Private:XI) have signed a “memorandum of understanding” which signals their commitment to cooperate, moving forward, in the areas of cloud computing, AI and other software and services.

Xiaomi Senior Vice President Wang Xiang tweeted about the extension of the companies’ partnership on February 23.

Today’s deal isn’t the first agreement between Microsoft and Xiaomi. In 2016, Xiaomi bought and licensed 1,500 patents from Microsoft. The patents included in the agreement included wireless communications patents including video.

According to Wang Xiang, Xiaomi’s Global Senior Vice President and Head of International Business,  “By collaborating with Microsoft on multiple technology areas, Xiaomi will accelerate our pace to bring more exciting products and services to our users. At the same time, this partnership would allow Microsoft to reach more users around the world who are using Xiaomi products.”

Microsoft will gain presence in the mobile market after the abandonment of Windows Mobile and perhaps a wider acceptance of its Cortana voice assistant.

Microsoft shares are up 1.8% to $93.36.

CWEB Analyst’s have initiated a Buy Rating for  Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT  )  and a Price Target of $150 within 12 months.

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2 Bargain Stocks Groupon And Sears You Can Buy Right Now – CWEB.Com

Groupon (GRPN) is a great tool for consumers, often saving them 40%-50% on meals, afternoons with the kids, daily deals, or weekend trips.

Cash flow was another highlight for Groupon. A full-year operating cash flow was $270.3 million.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) is returning its focus to its Local segment.  Despite slight revenue downturns, Groupon’s focus on gross margin growth is succeeding.

The company repurchased 16,906,334 shares of common stock for about $60M in 2017, and has about $135M still available for share repurchases under the company’s share repurchase program as of December 31, 2017.

Among the other highlights for the quarter, North America active customers reached 32.7M in 2017, an increase of about 200,000.

Company is poised to seize emerging opportunity over the next 5 years.

Customer acquisitions appear to be on track as GRPN focuses on improving user experience and platform quality.

Remain bullish on the stock and continue to consider it to be a key beneficiary for the next Quarter.

Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) experts are betting that Sears will make it through 2018 without having to resort to a bankruptcy filing by continuing the measures it has used in the past several years, such as monetizing real estate and the new Shop Your Way introduced by hedge-fund-manager chief executive, Eddie Lampert that will compete with Amazon and Walmart.

Sears Holdings (SHLD) released preliminary numbers for Q4.

The company expects revenue of $4.4B during the quarter. EBITDA of -$10M to +$10M is anticipated and net income of $140M to $240M.

Sears reiterates that in order to remain a “viable competitor” in the face of a very challenging retail environment, it’s working to transform to a less asset-intensive business model, with a store footprint and digital capabilities meeting consumer needs and preferences.

Technology will the best performing group this year according also to many analyst.

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Stock Pics From Entertainment Box Office Movie News – CWEB.com

Disney’s (NYSE:DIS)  Black Panther  is expected to generate huge weekend numbers, with some estimates ranging as high as $180M. The Marvel film opened in over 4K theaters. Sony’s (NYSE:SNE)  Peter Rabbit  and Universal’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA)  Fifty Shades Freed  are also in the early part of their runs, while Sony’s  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle  is expected to rack up another $8M. Next week, Paramount’s (NYSE:VIA)  Annihilation, Orion Pictures’  Every Day  and Warner Bros. (NYSE:TWX)  Game Night  all debut. The U.S. box office is running about 4% behind last year’s pace for first eight weeks of the year, but has picked up recently. Across the industry, the impact of MoviePass (NASDAQ:HMNY) on admissions and concession revenue for AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), Regal Entertainment (NYSE:RGC), Reading International (NASDAQ:RDI), Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) and Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK) is still being gauged.

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Google Breaks Ground On $600 Million Tennessee Data Center And 9 More States – CWEB.com

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is investing money into 10 states across the country and hiring thousands of new employees, CEO Sundar Pichai will announce in Clarksville, Tennessee.

The Tennessee center is part of a $2.5 billion investment that includes new and expanding data centers in Alabama, Oregon, Virginia and Oklahoma.

CEO Sundar Pichai  described Alphabet’s plans to expand its footprint outside the Bay Area during the company’s Q4 earnings call, but today released new information as to where its new offices and data centers will be located.

The internet giant Google will invest $2.5 billion over the next few years to open or expand data centers in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma, and is constructing new offices or expanding existing ones in nine states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington.

The company estimates that about  2000 more jobs will be created due to this expansion.

Alphabet’s nearly $70bn in overseas cash will incur a likely tax bill of $10bn.

Google’s stock has increased 41% over the last year and 208% over the last five years, but there’s still room for growth.

CWEB Analyst have initiated a Buy rating (NASDAQ:GOOGL)  and a Price Target of $1800 within 12 months.

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