Usually, a teacher who grades students on a curve is boosting the efforts of those who didn’t perform well on the test. In the case of cloud companies, however, it’s the other way around. As of Q1 2021, startups in this sector have median Series A rounds around $8 million, reports PitchBook. With $100+ million Series D rounds becoming more common, company valuations are regularly boosted into the billions. Andy Stinnes, a general partner at Cloud Apps Capital Partners, says founders… Source link

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the American Rescue Plan in the State Dining Room of the White House on May 5, 2021. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) A surge in Medicaid enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic is pushing the United States near a momentous tipping point: More people getting health care coverage through a government plan than through the private sector. Here’s the math. A record 80.5 million Americans now get health… Source link

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economic recovery still needs support, despite messaging from the central bank last week that it could pare back its easy money policies sooner than expected. “We have a long way to go,” Powell told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Tuesday. The Fed chief committed the central bank to doing “everything we can to support the economy for as long as it takes.” Powell highlighted that the labor market is… Source link

The top U.S. intelligence official said in an interview with Yahoo News on Monday that the true origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed 600,000 Americans and almost 4 million people worldwide, may never be known. Last month, President Biden directed the intelligence community to conduct a 90-day review of what he described as the two plausible theories for how the pandemic originated. In one scenario, the virus emerged from human contact with an animal. In the other, it leaked out… Source link

Tech giants that could be broken up under a series of new antitrust bills are speaking out against the measures as lawmakers are set to debate them on Wednesday. Amazon and Google released statements on Tuesday opposing the bills. Apple and Facebook, which were also targets of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into digital markets, have yet to put out their own statements. But industry groups backed by the tech firms have also pushed back on the legislation, arguing it would… Source link

European Union regulators took aim at the heart of Google’s business model on Tuesday, announcing that the Silicon Valley giant is the subject of a new antitrust investigation for potentially abusing its dominance in the online advertising market to stifle competition. The investigation is part of a broader push by the European authorities to clamp down on the world’s largest technology companies. Amazon, Apple and Facebook are also the subject of antitrust actions by the 27-nation bloc,… Source link

Quality is on sale in the stock market.  Higher quality stocks are trading at their largest valuation discount to the broad market since the dot com bubble of the early 2000s (see chart below), BlackRock CIO of U.S. fundamental equities Tony DeSpirito said in a new research note.  DeSpirito defines high quality stocks as those of companies that generate profits and sport pricing power (so obviously, this excludes Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs). The companies manage their… Source link

Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown was accused of hitting a woman during an argument in a Los Angeles home on Friday, authorities said. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told NBC News Tuesday that officers responded to a report of an argument at a residence in the 19600 block of Citrus Ridge Drive in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. The incident is being investigated as a battery and will be referred to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, according to the… Source link

Mongolia promised its people a “COVID-free summer.” Bahrain said there would be a “return to normal life.” The tiny island nation of the Seychelles aimed to jump-start its economy. All three put their faith, at least in part, in easily accessible Chinese-made vaccines, which would allow them to roll out ambitious inoculation programs at a time when much of the world was going without. But instead of freedom from the coronavirus, all three countries are now battling a surge in… Source link

Regulators in China taking a tougher stance on cryptocurrencies could partially explain the most recent rout in bitcoin prices. But some Wall Street watchers think the U.S. Federal Reserve’s new hawkish stance on interest rate policy and bond buying is also playing a key role.  “It is our belief that part of the momentous rally (an important part) has been helped by the Fed’s largess. Bitcoin and other cryptos should rally further on their own over the years, but we believe that they have… Source link