Tag: amazon

Facebook, Amazon buoy Wall Street as trade concerns cool

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Facebook, Amazon and industrial stocks helped Wall Street extend its recovery on Thursday as fears over a trade war between the United States and China eased.

Technology stocks, which have taken a beating in the past three weeks, were higher.

Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Netflix — collectively known as the “FANG” group — were up between 0.8% and 2.6 %.

Shares of Boeing, Caterpillar — hit the most on Wednesday after China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on US goods such as soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft — also rose more than 1%.

In the opening hour, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.57% at 24,403.74. The S&P 500 rose 0.37%  to 2,654.55 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.55% to 7,080.71.

The Dow bounced back from a 500 point drop on Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a “negotiation” with China rather than a trade war.

“The bounce on Wednesday was really quite impressive, especially as there was not much of a catalyst for the turnaround given that neither the US or China is backing down on tariffs and negotiations were always going to take place in the background,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda said in a note.

Investors also took comfort from the fact that the effective date of China’s move depended on when the US action took effect, providing room for maneuver.

Economic data on Thursday showed that the US trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply.

While exports to China were unchanged in February, imports from the country declined 14.7%.

Facebook shares were up about 3% after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen “any meaningful impact” on usage or ad sales since the data privacy scandal.

Wells Fargo rose 1% and Citigroup gained 1.5% following upgrades by UBS.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 3.4% after Stifel upgraded to “buy”, while Micron Technology fell 3.7% after UBS started with a “sell” rating.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 2.25-to-1 ratio and for a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon likely to submit an offer to buy Flipkart

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc may submit an offer to buy Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, which is currently in talks with Walmart Inc for a stake sale, local daily Mint reported, citing sources.

A deal with Walmart is more likely to go through, according to people with knowledge of the matter, the report added. Amazon declined to comment while Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Walmart is in talks to buy a stake of over 40 percent in Flipkart, a direct challenge to Amazon in Asia’s third-largest economy. The U.S. retailer will buy a majority stake through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases in a deal that could value Flipkart at $21 billion, the Mint report said.

The deal with Walmart is expected to aid Flipkart in its fight against Amazon, which has committed to investing $5 billion in India as it expands aggressively, including into online grocery deliveries, which analysts tip as the next big battleground for the country’s e-commerce sector.

Flipkart, founded by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, controls nearly 40% of India’s online retail, ahead of Amazon, according to estimates by research firm Forrester.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple hires Google’s Artificial Intelligence chief

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a bid to catch up with its rival’s artificial intelligence technology Apple has hired Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, reports New York Times.

“Giannandrea will run Apple’s machine learning and AI strategy, and become one of 16 executives who report directly to its chief executive, Tim Cook,” the report added.

The hire is considered as a victory for Apple, as the Cupertino giant lagging its peers in artificial intelligence.

“Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear,” Cook quoted as saying by the daily. “John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal.”

Apple is lagging behind many in the AI technology and iPhone’s digital assistant, Siri, is less effective than its counterparts at Google and Amazon.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon launches business-to-business global selling for Indian exporters

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Global e-commerce giant Amazon said it has launched B2B (business-to-business) selling for Indian exporters under its “Global Selling programme” to reach business customers across its international marketplaces.

“Amazon Business today announced the expansion of its Global Selling programme by launching B2B selling for Indian exporters,” the company said in a statement.

“Through this launch, B2B sellers, manufacturers and exporters will be able to reach thousands of business customers across Amazon’s international marketplaces,” it said.

The company said the programme — which started as a pilot late last year — has received a positive response with over 2,000 exporters registered for B2B global selling at present.

The company’s B2B Global Selling program is present in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Japan and India.

According to the e-commerce giant, once the sellers register for the individual marketplaces, they will then be able to export to these Amazon global marketplaces.

“Ranging from sole proprietors to the largest of Fortune 500 enterprises, Indian exporters registered with Amazon Business Global Selling program are able to directly reach out to Amazon’s global business customer base and thus get an opportunity to venture into newer market segments,” it said.

The company said the program enables features such as business-only pricing and back-end integration that helps exporters manage competitive pricing internationally and assists in managing and fulfilling bulk orders from business customers.

“Amazon Business’s Global Selling program will get the sellers in front of decisions makers of Fortune 500 companies as well as medium and small corporations across the world,” said Peeyush Nahar, Vice President B2B Marketplace Business, Amazon.

“To support tapping this excellent market of business customers for Indian goods globally, the program offers benefits to the Indian sellers such as discounted referral fees for bulk orders, business price and quantity discounts targeted for business customers, single selling account etc,” he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon launches Kindle Lite app for Android in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Claiming that it is the lightest reading app, Amazon on Wednesday launched Kindle Lite for Android in India.

The Kindle Lite app is available for download on Play Store.

An India first product, the Kindle Lite App is less than 2MB and provides Kindle features, including personalised recommendations, Whispersync (synching your eBooks across devices) as well as free eBook samples and titles in English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam languages.

“As part of our continued focus on India, we are always working to improve the reading experience for our customers. Apps constantly compete for space on a mobile phone and Kindle Lite solves this problem for our readers,” Rajiv Mehta, Country Manager, Kindle, said in a statement.

Kindle Lite consumes less memory on a customer’s phone while providing a great reading experience — even over slow internet connections and patchy networks.

“Kindle Lite is less than 2MB and built to provide a great reading experience even on 2G/3G networks,” Mehta said.

During the first month after the launch, the customers would also get 80 per cent cashback on their first eBook purchased on Kindle Lite through Amazon Pay.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The Future of Taxation: Experts decode India’s approach to taxing digital companies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The digital economy has become increasingly entwined with our physical world. It is influencing social interactions, payments, entertainment, and even trading and investing. The Indian digital economy is expected to be worth about USD 35 billion and it is growing at a pace of 24-25 percent a year.

Given the huge disruption that digital has brought about and its blistering growth rate, a key question arises — how should the digital ecosystem be taxed, how can governments earn revenue from services that span borders, as some of the world’s most valuable enterprises like Google, Facebook, and Amazon spread their reach in emerging markets like India, what share of their revenue can the Indian government look at taxing?

In a special show, The Future of Taxation, a panel of experts decode India’s approach to taxing digital companies.

For entire discussion, watch accompanying videos…

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon brings change in seller-fee structure, makes it cheaper to ship locally

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

E-Commerce major Amazon is looking to motivate its sellers to focus on local markers to deliver products cheaper and quicker to its customers, reports the Economic Times.

According to the report, the company is also looking into pushing certain categories.

To achieve the objective, the local unit of the firm brought several changes to its seller fee structure. The structure shows that the firm has made it cheaper for sellers to ship locally, so that there is faster delivery to locals. The firm has, in turn, increased costs for regional and national shipping.

The firm has reduced the fees for selling on the platform by up to 70% in categories such as daily essentials and apparel, but increased 50% for items like shoes, home improvement accessories, power banks and charges, stated the report.

In total, the fees will increase for 24 categories, fall for 32 and no change will be made in 48 categories. The 48 unchanged categories include mobiles, laptops, books and small appliances.

For a healthy grocery push, the seller fees in the category have been reduced to 3% from 7%, as the company takes on Alibaba-backed Big-Basket and Flipkart.

The online major is also evidently giving a push to its fashion category, where it lags behind Flipkart. The firm reduced its seller fees in apparel to 17% from 19.5%.

According to the report, the firm said that the new rates will apply to all sellers in the marketplace. However, they did not comment on Cloudtail and Appario, two sellers in which Amazon has a stake.

Sellers told the daily that both Flipkart and Amazon had been changing fee structures over the past few years to keep their rates on par. This was so that they do not lose merchants to the other.

Flipkart in November lowered commissions by 5% for items priced below Rs 300 in many categories, in a bid to encourage sellers to offer their products at lower prices.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow