On Saturday, Android boss Hiroshi Lockheimer accused Apple of “using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products,” after a Wall Street Journal report revealed how US teens have turned Apple’s iMessage into a social status symbol that locks Android users out. Now, Lockheimer is taking a slightly less abrasive stance: the Google executive said Monday that “we’re not asking Apple to make iMessage available on Android. We’re asking Apple to support the industry standard… Source link

Contracts on Wall Street’s main indexes were subdued Monday evening after a choppy earlier session that saw stocks climb back from record intraday lows. The Nasdaq eked out an afternoon rally to close in the green, while the S&P 500 and Dow extended their losing streak — even after modest comebacks. Worries over sooner-than-expected interest rate hikes have tempered investors’ optimism heading into the new year, placing equity markets in a risk-off mood so far in 2022. Meanwhile,… Source link

In 2019, a group of workers who had recently been fired from Google (GOOGL GOOGLE) filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, claiming they had been fired for speaking out about the company’s practices, such as signing controversial government contracts, and for engaging in protected labor organizing. Google has maintained that the employees were let go for repeated violations of its policies. But in 2020, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging Google had violated labor laws with two of… Source link

Whether or not people will need to be perpetually boosting against the coronavirus and its seemingly never-ending stream of variants remains unknown, but vaccine manufacturers are already preparing for a possible need for additional boosters in the fall. “We have to be prepared for whatever evolution gives us,” said Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel. Bancel, as well as Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla, spoke to Yahoo Finance during the annual JPMorgan Health Care conference Monday. Both… Source link

One mystery of the labor shortage is the missing paycheck: How long can people choosing not to work last without an income? Nobody’s sure, but clues are emerging. The economy continues to recover from the COVID wipeout, and hiring remains strong. Yet Americans are beginning to report more difficulty paying routine bills, not less, and it’s probably related to the end of federal relief measures that kept millions above water during the last 20 months. In the Census Bureau’s “household… Source link

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will leave the central bank two weeks earlier than planned, following increased scrutiny into financial transactions he made in 2020 — while the Fed was taking action to save the U.S. economy. Clarida, who served as the central bank’s No. 2 official on monetary policy efforts through the pandemic, said he will step down from the Fed effective Jan. 14. He was appointed by the Trump administration in September to serve for a term that expired… Source link

Wall Street sees the rationale behind Take-Two’s $12.7 billion deal to buy Zynga, even if traders hate the transaction at first blush. “Take-Two is using its balance sheet and equity to opportunistically buy a good mobile asset in a depressed market,” said Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz.  The Grand Theft Automaker said it would pay a 64% premium to scoop up Words With Friends developer Zynga, using a mix of cash and stock. Zynga will continue to be led by CEO Frank Gibeau, get two seats on… Source link

Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, has paid $65 million for Enchanted Hill, a prized piece of undeveloped land in Beverly Hills that was owned by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, according to people familiar with the situation. The deal, which closed in December, marks the end of a more than three-year push to sell the roughly 120-acre property, which came on the market asking $150 million in 2018.  Source link

Tech and internet stocks came up for air on Monday afternoon amid a recent sell-off in high growth stocks. The declines came amid a rising 10-year treasury yield (^TNX).  Microsoft (MSFT) ended the session flat after being down earlier this morning. The stock is down more than 6% over the last five session.  Amazon ended .66% lower, recuperating much of the earlier morning losses. The stock had declined more than 3% on Monday, reaching intraday levels it hasn’t seen since May. Alphabet ( Source link

Stocks are in a risk-off mood six trading days into the New Year for a multitude of reasons, prompting one veteran strategist to issue a blunt warning to over-enthused investors.  “We have never seen equities priced quite this high. The adjusted price to earnings ratio is pushing up against 40 times. The last time we saw that was in 1999. But if you look at price to sales ratios, that’s over three times — that’s higher than what we saw in the dot com bubble,” said Tematica Research chief… Source link