Alibaba Dealing With Counterfeit Issues Before Earnings Call

Alibaba is scheduled to release its earnings for this quarter in the coming week however it has been hit with the counterfeit goods issue yet again

Alibaba Group Holding is the Chinese tech giant which owns and operates several online marketplaces. A few of them are Alibaba.com which is the largest business to business platform and Taobao Marketplace which is a huge online marketplace for online shopping for consumers. The company has been named and accused many times for counterfeiting goods this year and every time it has tried to clear its name to sustain reputation in the market. The American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), a US Trade Group, has been urging the government lately to put the company on the black list.

However, the founder and the chairman of the company Jack Ma stated that this issue will not only damage the reputation of the company but the economy of the country as well. The company has changed the checking criteria and also introduced strict background checks of sellers and all the products that go on the platforms.

But the company has been attacked with the accusations of counterfeiting goods on its platform yet again and it is all set to announce its earnings in the next week for the second quarter. The AAFA wants the government to list Alibaba Group in the list of ‘notorious markets’ and place it on the United States Trade Representative’s blacklist. Know that the company recent cleared off its name as its two platforms, Alibaba.com and Taobao, were blocked from 2008 till 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Regardless of all this, it is believed that the Alibaba stocks have started to gain momentum prior to its earnings release for the second quarter of 2015 fiscal year. It is not a massive increase in the stocks however it rose by 0.86 percent and is now trading at $72.61. The market capitalization of the company is valued at $180.87 billion.

It is believed that the earnings might fall down slightly due to the slow economic growth in China. Shareholders, investors, and analysts have said to be looking very closely at the earnings report this time. The online retailer is expected to post an Earnings per Share (EPS) of $0.54 in this quarter however it is slightly less than that of the previous quarter which was $0.59. But the year on year growth is expected to increase by 178.1 percent.

Qualcomm And SpaceX Intend To Offer In-Flight Internet Access

The American chipmaker aims to provide in-flight internet facility in collaboration with SpaceX.

The American chip manufacturer, Qualcomm, has collaborated with the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. Both organizations have signed a contract, which would help the industry to reach closer to the vision of allowing every traveller on aircrafts to watch streaming videos, including live news. This was one of the objectives of engineering experts at the Qualcomm enterprise when they decided to offer the technology that would enable speedy broadband on aeroplanes.

In a session before the Federal Communication Commission, Inmarasat, Gogo Wireless, Qualcomm, and others are urging the regulator to offer 500-meghertz in the 14-gigahertz band for ATG wireless facilities for air company’s customers. 

Companies are claiming that in flight, broadband facilities do not threaten airline’s customers and staff, and a newly introduced ATG facility would support existing satellite-based platforms for offering internet to passengers while they are travelling in aircrafts.

Qualcomm news today reported that nevertheless, Space X raised objectives last year. The space company aims to offer a non-geo stationary orbit-fixed satellite facility that would employ, among other rates, the 14.0 to 14.5 gigahertz group that has been offered for the new ATG facility. SpaceX was anxious about the capacity for the newly introduced ATG facility to hinder its 14.0 to 14.5 gigahertz band processes.

The enterprise had earlier said that the offered air-to-ground platform would contribute to less than 1% of the rise over thermal (ROT) for NGSO FSS systems. When the space firm replaced its beam, gain and G/T numbers for the numbers that had been presumed by the semi-conductor firm, it was able to find out that ATG system would actually contribute to greater than 6% for SpaceX’s NGSO FSS platform.

Qualcomm Breaking News exclaimed that an official at the chipmaker, Dean Brenner, was delighted that they succeeded in reaching a scheme that has satisfied SpaceX, which might or might not turn into a competitor of the OneWeb satellite strategy, which the chipmaker is supporting, along with the Branson’s Virgin Group.

 "We don't know that SpaceX and OneWeb are actually going to compete", Mr. Brenner informed FierceWirelesstech. They may be employing very different commercial models and provide different facilities.

"We're just looking at the technologies and systems that are on the drawing board," Brenner added. "It does show that people of good faith, when working together on technical issues, even from different companies that have different business objectives, can work together and reach a consensus."

Qualcomm believes that the commission would make the offer in a timely manner. It could be said that the cooperation between the two organizations would improve their respective images.

Walmart Stores Receive A Downgrade From Merrill Lynch Analysts

The analysts at Merrill Lynch have downgraded the stock of the retail giant following a bearish guidance report for the next three years

Wal-Mart Stores has been presented with a downgrade rating from the analysts at the Wall Street Journal, which has hurt investor sentiment on a huge level. At first the WSJ analysts were alone in suggesting a dip in the rating, but recently it was seen that equity giant Merrill Lynch also gave a downward guidance for the stock of the retail giant and ended up giving it a ‘neutral’ rating to the stock. In the past, the price target that the giant received from the same analysts came around at $85, whereas the most recent target has now been recorded at $65, which is a change that has made the investors quite over to the bearish side towards the stock.

This major setback which Wal-Mart stock has received from the analysts has been generated due to the negative guidance report which the giant has announced to its investors in a press conference convened in the start of the week. The retail company’s management was seen to announce in the conference that the earnings per share that it will be recorded in the next two years is to stay under constant pressure, mostly because of the ups and down in the investments being made in the company. One of the main reasons for the lower EPS estimations is to cover up the lack of investments being made, as well as in the change of people’s demand and prices of different goods. For the next financial year of 2016, the EPS has been predicted to be around $4.40 whereas for FY17, the EPS is to come around $4 as expected by the analysts on the whole.

According to the guidance report given by the Wal Mart stores, the giant is to experience a massive blow in earnings in the next two years, but there still are expectations of growth for 2018. Even though analysts in the market are of the opinion that a lot of improvements can be included on the whole, which can be driven from better sales of its products, while on the other hand, the giant’s management thinks differently. As per the report that was released recently, the retail firm reported that it has a lot of plans of growing its stores by opening up new franchises, which will automatically need new employees, which is why it is not expecting a lot of earnings growth for a couple of years now. The analysts maintain their neutral rating on the stock of the company. 

Netflix Intends To Cross 70 Million Paid Subscribers Mark

Netflix aims to serve more than 70,000,000 users to increase its user-base.

The American internet media streaming service provider, Netflix, has shared its plans. It is gambling to pass the 70,000,000 paid user mark by later this year as it intends to explore markets next year for earning more cash to sponsor its international and content growth.

In the year’s third quarter, the company informed that it had succeeded in increasing its paid users to 66,000,000 users and estimates to reach the figure 70.4 million by the end of 2015. Nevertheless, the streaming organization failed to live up to its local growth expectations.

Netflix news exclaimed that the streaming giant was unable to meet the expert’s expectations for local user growth with 880,000 paid subscribers added in the quarter, experts had anticipated 120,0000 to 432,00000. It forecasts to increase American paying users by 1,600,000 in 2015’s final quarter to 44,800,000.

CEO Reed Hastings told shareholders, "Our over-forecast in the US for Q3 was due to slightly higher-than-expected involuntary churn (inability to collect), which we believe was driven in part by the ongoing transition to chip-based credit and debit cards. In terms of US net additions, through the first nine months of 2015, we are slightly ahead of prior year, and we expect to finish 2015 at about 2014 levels. This would mark the fourth consecutive year we've added about 6 million members in the U.S.”

Netflix news today revealed that the media giant was able to increase its paid global subscriber base by 2,700,000 to 26,000,000 in the year’s third quarter, beating estimates, and prediction to increase to 29,500,000 by the end of the year. The company is known for not disclosing user figures of each country in the world.

The global division of Netflix, which has made losses for long, intends to breakeven next year and earn profits after that, as Mr. Hastings stated, continuing launches in various countries, including the EU member states, Portugal, Italy, and Spain in the coming week and Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong in the initial part of next year.

Netflix Breaking news reported that the streaming service was introduced in two states in 2015 – New Zealand and Australia. It has disclosed its target at a time when it has signed a deal with the American air company, Virgin America, to offer wi-fi internet service to its users, so that they could enjoy videos while travelling through airline service. This initiative might help Netflix to achieve its objective of increasing users.

JP Morgan Announced Third Quarter Earnings Miss

JPMorgan Chase reported financial results for 3QFY15, after the close of trading on Tuesday, missing analysts’ expectations

JP Morgan Chase & Co. just revealed its financial results for third quarter fiscal year 2015 after the bell rings yesterday. The bank posted $1.32 in earnings per share less than consensus forecast of $1.38. EPS also displays substantial weakness when compared to earnings of $1.62 in similar quarter last year.

The net revenue for the bank came in at $23.5 billion, less than consensus forecast of $24.04 billion and 6% less than prior year quarter. This was mainly because of lower revenue from CIB markets driven by less revenue and business simplification of Mortgage Banking.

Net Income for the bank stood at $6.8 billion representing 22% year over year growth. Non-interest expense for the period was $15.4 billion down almost 3% year over year basis, mainly because of less CIB expense which was slightly balanced by more legal cost. The earnings witnessed a $2.2 billion boost from write offs and tax benefits exclusive of one item; the bank earned $1.32 per share or $5.4 billion.

The net credit losses came in at $682 million for third quarter FY15 reflecting a decrease of 10% year over year because of minor net charge offs, which was offset mostly by less reserve releases. During the period consumer reserve were $595 million showing constant enhancement in delinquencies and home prices. However, it was mostly offset by a growth of $310 million in reserves in wholesale businesses.

Jamie Dimon, Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Chase & Company seemed content with the financial results for the quarter, as he said, “Our position of strength allows us to make significant investments to transform the businesses we operate, deliver better experiences to our customers and clients, gain share and be positioned to be a long-term winner.”

After the earnings announcement, shareholders seemed a bit disappointed as JP Morgan stock went down

JP Morgan stock news shows that the stock is down 1.9% at $60.40.

IBM Signs $700 Million Agreement With UAE's Etihad Airways

IBM Corporation has signed a contract with Etihad Airways to improve the airline's booking system, and provide better customer analytics and weather production software.

IBM has confirmed to serve an airline, Etihad Airways, on Tuesday, in an information technology agreement worth $700,000,000 over a time span of ten years that intends to enhance the airline’s reservation systems and decrease its network operating costs. The deal between the New York based company and the Middle Eastern flag carrier includes analytics of client data and the establishment of technology that could forecast weather conditions to organize the air company’s flights better at its base in Abu Dhabi.

IBM News revealed that around 100 Airline’s workers would be moved to the Big Blue, which would also be developing and building a new datacenter in UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. The contract is also covering Etihad’s eight partner airlines in which it has purchased minority shares. An official of Etihad Airways, Robert Webb, told the media, “We want to invest in innovation. We want technology to be pervasive throughout the business.”

IBM news today reported that the state-owned airline signed the agreement with the company following a set of similar contracts with suppliers, such as Panasonic Avionics, SAP SE, and Sabre Holdings, Mr. Rob stated. He further added that Etihad has discussed facilities and products for all the airlines in which it owns minority shares to reduce costs.

IBM Breaking News affirmed that Etihad Airways has disbursed investments recently by buying minority shares in other air companies and supporting their economic needs. Up till now, it has made non-controlling investments in eight carriers, including Jet Airways (India) limited, PLC, German Air Berlin, and Italian airline Alitalia.

IBM took on a similar contract with Deutsche Lufthansa AG in November 2014 worth €1,000,000,000 ($114, 000, 0000), which the European Airline stated would help it save costs worth €70,000,000,000 per annum. An official of IBM, Martin Jetter, stated, “This is a movement across the industry. You need an IT infrastructure that’s available around the world and the applications and technology that allow the airline to find out the preferences of their guests.”

In December, the technology giant stated that 2014 proved to be a successful year for its cloud operations and it is intending to increase the number of customer data across the world by 25%. Etihad carried 14,800,000 passengers in 2014. It is currently serving 113 passenger and cargo endpoints.

IBM’s initiative would improve its image in the competitive world but it also ties the company with more responsibilities. The deal would provide mutual benefit to both parties.

Goldman Sachs believes that he knows the reason behind Netflix's increased price on its two screen plan

Netflix Inc. is the biggest streaming service provider that offers its services to more than 65.6 million subscribers now. The company has managed to expand in almost 81 countries now and it has expansion plans that will see the company to start its operations in every country throughout the world by the end of next year.

However, Netflix recently increased its monthly subscription fees for the two screen plan package. When the company announced to do this, it raised concerned not only among the viewers but the tech experts and analysts as well. The company’s reason to increase the prices was because of providing better quality and services however Goldman Sachs thinks contrariwise. Goldman Sachs believes that he known the reason behind the raise in price of the online streaming service giant by $1 a month. Two screen plan was the most popular and chosen plan by the viewers on the platform.

Goldman Sachs believe that the sudden increase in two screen plan by $1 a month is because of the users who were sharing passwords with family and friends too much. The changes were effective from Thursday as the company upped the rates from $8.99 to $9.99. This particular plan allows viewers to watch either two standard streams or two HD streams at the same time on different devices. The increase in rates was applicable in the United States, Canada, few regions of Latin America, and in some parts of Europe as well.

Other plans of the company i.e. one screen plan and the four screen plan remained untouched hence Goldman Sachs believe that this might be the only reason for doing so. Goldman Sachs stated in a analyst note “Netflix's targeted price change was designed to reduce excessive password sharing by incentivizing users to switch to the one-screen plan, as well as encouraging households with multiple users to upgrade to the four-screen plan.”

The global multinational banking firm’s hypothesis is that Netflix realized that its viewers were sharing passwords with too many people and with time, it became a casual sharing activity where friend or family opted for a two screen option to run streams simultaneously on different devices.

Mostly, the viewers who shared passwords with their friends were not even paying a single penny to get access to it. Watching the best online video content was all free for them. However, pitching in half amounts for this plan by two friends would not have been an issue as well.  

Netflix stock was trading at $113.33 during pre-market session today.