Here’s all you need to know.
1. Bolt launches in Thailand
There’s a new ride hailing player in a crowded Thai town. Estonia based Bolt made its quiet debut a few days ago, coming straight for a slice of the market occupied by Grab and Line.
Bolt operates in over 35 countries across Europe and Africa, with the typical ride hailing services offerings such as cars, bikes, with food and package delivery.
Perhaps this would make Grab’s pricing become more competitive, from what we’ve seen, Bolt charges less for premium rides but Grab will dominate in its fleet size.
You can download Bolt from the Apple app store.
2. Big tech, Big Earnings
Big tech reported big earnings following the 5 hour anti-trust hearing, showing that the pandemic may have hurt the economy, but not the tech giants.
Despite store closures, Apple’s revenue surged 11% annually thanks to heightened demand for products & services. iPhone continues to be its weakest product.
Google parent Alphabet reported a 2% drop in sales due to falling ad revenue, but Youtube did well.
Alphabet is a slightly more complicated story, with the company actually shrinking on a year-over-year basis, though still besting expectations.
Amazon had a killer quarter, despite putting in billions for Covid-19 measures. The ecommerce giant still managed to see revenue up 40% to $88.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, and ahead of an expected result of $81.53 billion. Profits came in at $5.8 billion.
Facebook reported 11% jump in revenue to $18.7 billion, with 1.79 billion daily active users, despite the advertising boycott of July.
The takeaway? Big tech is big. The economy is in mid-pandemic tatters, but that hasn’t done anything to impact the tech titans’ bottom line.
3. Kodak’s volatile trading week
Kodak‘s shares rose almost 1,500% on Covid drug loan deal, then dropped by 26%.
The tricky thing? News & media sent shares surging before the official announcement. The early activity was suspicious to some traders.
Let’s put it into some context: President Donald Trump announced that the federal government has struck a deal with Eastman Kodak to manufacture ingredients used in generic drugs to battle Covid-19. The government awarded Kodak a $765 million loan under the Defense Production Act so it can begin producing drug ingredients.
In a statement, Kodak Executive Chairman Jim Continenza said they firm will leverage its “deep expertise in chemicals manufacturing” in making the transition. In the 1990s, the company produced nonprescription medications like aspirin, so perhaps it isn’t exactly a puzzling pivot as it may have initially seemed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to say if it was investigating the surge in trading activity.
4. Covid-19 update: cases still surging across the world
Coronavirus is going to remain with us for some time, at least that’s what Dr. Fauci said.
Tokyo reported a record high of 472 cases on Saturday, and nationwide infections reached 1,500.
In the US, daily deaths have passed 1,000 across the week. In July alone, it recorded over 1.9 million new infections.
In Germany, 955 new cases were reported on Saturday, as thousands protested over the weekend over the govt’s strict measures, as well as heckled people who were wearing masks.
