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Google's Android and TV leads chat Samsung, RCS and CES

Cherlynn Low
·Reviews Editor
·1 min read

There’s been an onslaught of news this week from CES 2021 and Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked, and even though Google didn’t have major news of its own to share, its presence was still felt. In addition to joining us on our virtual stage for a panel with Microsoft on accessibility in tech, Google was also mentioned in other launches this week. Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer made an appearance at Unpacked today, for example while Sony and TCL unveiled their first Google TV sets. Lockheimer and VP for Google TV Shalini Govil-Pai joined us today to discuss the news this week as well as the future of Android and Google TV. Get the details in the video above.

Latest Stories

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  • U.S. Stock Futures Decline After Biden’s Spending-Bill Proposal

    (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures fell, erasing early gains, as investors assessed the details of President-elect Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending-bill proposal that includes $350 billion in aid to states.Contracts on the S&P 500 Index were down 0.4% as of 11:36 a.m. in London, after rising as much as 0.2% earlier. The underlying index lost 0.4% in the cash session, with investors growing concerned about the path for Federal Reserve policy now that signs of faster inflation are emerging.In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index followed through, dropping as much as 0.7%, dragged lower by energy and mining shares. The health care sector outperformed and was the only industry group firmly in the green.The Fed’s largesse and prior federal spending packages worth almost $3 trillion have powered a 70% gain in U.S. stocks from the pandemic lows in March. Biden’s plan -- long telegraphed since his election in November -- is more than double the package approved in late December, and proposes sending $1,400 to qualified individuals. It also calls for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.U.S. stocks have pushed to record after record since the vaccine approvals and Biden’s election in November. His agenda, including ambitious aid and a follow-up plan to spend on projects such as infrastructure, got a boost Jan. 5 when Democrats won control of the Senate.Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote should help seal Democratic wins on issues that require a simple majority for passage in the evenly split upper house. However, Biden proposals including aid to states and money for health care are likely to require 60 votes, which would appear difficult to achieve.“Given the distaste Republicans have for state aid, Mr. Biden’s bipartisan hopes will be immediately tested,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst with Oanda Asia Pacific Pte., wrote in a note. “And that is before the remake America bills come through with the almost certain increases in taxes.”The record climbs in stocks have stretched valuations to levels not seen in two decades, prompting warnings of a bubble that will lead to a rapid selloff. Investors have tolerated them so far because of Biden’s pledge to amp up spending not only on direct aid, but also on fighting the virus and rolling vaccines. His bill sets aside $20 billion for a national vaccine program and $50 billion to expand testing capacity.Signs of froth abound, though. In a note titled “This Is Ludicrous,” Bespoke Investment Group summed up the recent action. It cited 59 U.S.-listed stocks that are trading at prices that are more than 10 times sales and have more than doubled in the past three months. Stocks currently in that category have risen 760% since March and have a combined market capitalization of $320 billion, according to George Pearkes, global macro strategist at the firm.“Stimulus is always going to be net positive for near-term growth and profits, but the question is always how much is already priced in,” said Dan Suzuki, deputy chief investment officer at Richard Bernstein Advisors. “There’s more room for stimulus to get priced in from here, but it only adds to the cyclical recovery that will likely take place regardless of whether stimulus gets passed.”(An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect the size of the plan in the first paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Value stocks are about to come out of their coma, says index fund powerhouse Vanguard

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  • Exxon Mobil's stock falls after WSJ report of SEC investigation

    Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. dropped 2.3% in premarket trading Friday, putting them on track for their first decline in 10 sessions, after The Wall Street Journal reported the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into allegations that an employee of the oil giant overstated the value of a key Permian Basin asset. Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ report said several people involved in valuing the asset complained that they were being forced to use unrealistic assumptions about how quickly the company could drill wells in the Permian Basin to arrive at a higher value. At least one employee how complained was fired last year, the WSJ report said. Exxon Mobil's stock had soared 22.1% amid a 9-day win streak, to close Thursday at a 7-month high. It has run up 46.0% over the past three months through Thursday, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has advanced 44.0% and the S&P 500 has gained 9.0%.

  • Sorrento Stock Could Hit $30, Says Analyst

    The major U.S. equity-indexes are hovering around all-time highs, and a question that frequently pops up these days, is whether some companies’ valuations might be overstretched. However, some operate at the opposite end of the spectrum, and could yet offer investors untapped opportunities. H.C. Wainwright analyst Ram Selvaraju points in the direction of Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE), as one such company. Selvaraju rates SRNE a Buy along with a $30 price target, which implies a 275% upside from current levels. (To watch Selvaraju’s track record, click here) So, what’s behind the optimistic outlook? Well, for starters, Sorrento has a stake in two cell-based immunotherapy companies that could “drive value in Sorrento shares over the coming months.” One is Celularity, a clinical-stage cell therapeutics company focused on cellular medicines for cancer, infectious diseases, and degenerative diseases. Celularity is expected to go public later this year via a SPAC merger with GX Acquisition Corp. The merged company’s equity value following the transaction’s closure will land at roughly $1.7 billion. Selvaraju estimates Sorrento's position should be worth in the $200 million region. The second company is NantKwest, which recently signed a deal to merge with ImmunityBio. The transaction is expected to close in 1H21. Sorrento owns roughly 8.2 million shares of the clinical-stage immunotherapy company. These are currently worth around $121 million, going by NantKwest’s recent share price. Additionally, the analyst highlights Sorrento’s “burgeoning portfolio of assets spanning three distinct therapeutic areas (non-opioid pain management, oncology and COVID-19).” In fact, on the Covid-19 front alone, Sorrento has taken a broad-based approach and has a long list of diagnostic, prophylactic and therapeutic offerings in the pipeline, with “updates likely to come fast and furious.” These include two rapid detection tests; COVI-STIX, for which the company filed for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the U.S. in December, and COVI-TRACE, which Selvaraju claims could come in handy at any mass gathering event. “We believe that the incentive to facilitate the large-scale and indeed ubiquitous deployment of the COVI-TRACE test is extremely high and governments worldwide may seek to implement this in their respective regions,” the 5-star analyst opined. Other Covid-19 candidates include COVIGUARD - a SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody, COVI-AMG - an affinity-matured version of the COVIGUARD neutralizing antibody, a neutralizing antibody cocktail named COVI-SHIELD and COVIDTRAP, an ACE2 receptor decoy, intended to imitate the mammalian ACE2 receptor that acts as the primary portal for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to penetrate human cells. It has been relatively quiet when it comes to other analyst activity. In the last three months, only 2 analysts have issued ratings. However, as they were both Buys, the word on the Street is that SRNE is a Moderate Buy. Based on the $25.50 average price target, shares could climb 219% higher in the next twelve months. (See SRNE stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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  • Wells Fargo’s $1.1 Billion in Charges Slows Cost Cutting

    (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. posted worse-than-expected expenses in the fourth quarter and took charges of more than $1 billion for restructuring and addressing old account scandals as the bank struggles to cut costs in the midst of the pandemic.Non-interest expenses fell 5.2% to $14.8 billion, roughly half the decline analysts predicted, as firms across industries grapple with heightened costs tied to Covid-19. Wells Fargo said expenses this year are likely to total roughly $53 billion, excluding restructuring charges and business exits, down from $54 billion excluding customer-remediation and restructuring charges in 2020.In his first year atop the bank, Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf has repeatedly lamented Wells Fargo’s high costs, pledging to eventually shave $10 billion off annual expenses. As part of the expense trimming, he’s embarked on workforce reductions that could ultimately number in the tens of thousands. Wells Fargo cut its headcount by 6,400 in the fourth quarter.“Our results continued to be impacted by the unprecedented operating environment and the required work to put our substantial legacy issues behind us,” Scharf said in a statement Friday. “With a more consistent broad-based recovery and as we continue to press forward with our agenda, we expect you will see that this franchise is capable of much more.”Quarterly results were hurt by a $321 million charge related to customer remediation and $781 million of restructuring charges. Still, net income rose to $2.99 billion, better than the $2.9 billion analysts expected, as the bank released credit-loss reserves tied to the sale of its student-loan portfolio.Scharf joined Wells Fargo in late 2019 with a mission of moving the firm past a series of scandals that began with the 2016 revelation that employees opened millions of fake accounts. The lender remains under a Federal Reserve-imposed asset cap limiting it from expanding its balance sheet beyond $1.95 trillion, its end-of-2017 level. Friday also marks the bank’s first time reporting with restructured business lines after Scharf broke three units into five.Wells Fargo released $763 million of loan-loss reserves for the three months through Dec. 31. Scharf said last month that credit performance has been “far better than what we would have expected,” but cautioned that much remains uncertain. The firm now has $19.7 billion set aside for soured loans, 2.2% of its total loan book.Non-accrual loans jumped 8.8% from the third quarter due to increases in the bank’s commercial real estate, residential mortgage and lease-financing portfolios, countered by a decrease in commercial and industrial.The firm said it would restart stock buybacks after the Fed last month gave banks the green light to resume repurchasing shares following a second round of 2020 stress tests. Wells Fargo’s board approved a repurchase increase of 500 million shares, bringing the total authorized buyback amount to 667 million.Shares fell 4.9% to $33.06 at 9:41 a.m. in New York. The stock has dropped 32% in the past 12 months, compared with a 1.7% decline for the KBW Bank Index.NII SinksNet interest income, Wells Fargo’s largest source of revenue, sank to the lowest level in more than a decade as the impact of low rates continues to bite into the earnings. The firm earned $9.3 billion in net interest income for the quarter, compared with the $9.4 billion analysts expected. The bank said Friday that 2021 net interest income will be flat to down 4% from the annualized fourth-quarter level, which was $36.8 billion.Rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. also reported fourth-quarter results Friday, posting record profit after a surge in trading and investment-banking fees helped its Wall Street unit close out its most profitable year ever. JPMorgan also released loan-loss reserves for the second straight quarter.Also in Wells Fargo’s fourth-quarter results:Revenue fell 10% to $17.9 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $18.1 billion.The bank’s efficiency ratio, a measure of profitability, worsened to 83% from 81% in the third quarter.(Updates shares in 10th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Stock market news live updates: Stocks fall as investors eye $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal, retail sales disappoint

    Stocks dipped as traders considered details of President-elect Joe Biden’s newly unveiled stimulus proposal and weighed the likelihood of the package getting advanced quickly through Congress.

  • Looking Into BlackBerry's Return On Capital Employed

    During Q3, BlackBerry's (NYSE:BB) reported sales totaled $224.00 million. Despite a 700.0% in earnings, the company posted a loss of $32.00 million. BlackBerry collected $266.00 million in revenue during Q2, but reported earnings showed a $4.00 million loss.What Is ROCE? Return on Capital Employed is a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed by a business. Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in a company's ROCE. A higher ROCE is generally representative of successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. A low or negative ROCE suggests the opposite. In Q3, BlackBerry posted an ROCE of -0.02%.Keep in mind, while ROCE is a good measure of a company's recent performance, it is not a highly reliable predictor of a company's earnings or sales in the near future.View more earnings on BBROCE is an important metric for the comparison of similar companies. A relatively high ROCE shows BlackBerry is potentially operating at a higher level of efficiency than other companies in its industry. If the company is generating high profits with its current level of capital, some of that money can be reinvested in more capital which will generally lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth.In BlackBerry's case, the ROCE ratio shows the amount of assets may not be helping the company achieve higher returns. Investors may take this into account before making any long-term financial decisions.Q3 Earnings Recap BlackBerry reported Q3 earnings per share at $0.02/share, which beat analyst predictions of $-0.01/share.See more from Benzinga * Click here for options trades from Benzinga * Why Aurora Cannabis's Stock is Trading Higher Today * Analyzing The Price Action In Acacia Communications Stock Today(C) 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  • Trump's China tech war backfires on automakers as chips run short

    Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines because of a global shortage of semiconductors that in some cases has been exacerbated by the Trump administration's actions against key Chinese chip factories, industry officials said. The shortage, which caught much of the industry off-guard and could continue for many months, is now causing Ford Motor Co, Subaru Corp and Toyota Motor Corp to curtail production in the United States. Automakers affected in other markets include Volkswagen, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

  • Mosaic raises $18.5M Series A from GC to rebuild the CFO software stack

    While the CEO sets strategy, messages and builds culture, the CFO needs to know everything that it is going on in an organization. CMOs have gotten a whole new software stack to run marketing in the past decade, so why not CFOs? For three Palantir alums, the hope is that CFOs will turn to their new startup called Mosaic.