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By Swissquote Analysts
Morning News

Snap, Twitter Show Where the Party Is

Social media made a splash on Thursday as its second-quarter earnings kicked off. Both Twitter Inc. and Snap, Inc. reported better-than-expected quarters, beating Wall Street’s estimates on both their top and bottom lines. Twitter’s sales growth shows it might be gaining more traction incrementally, at least among advertisers, but Snap’s record usage and revenue growth show its Snapchat platform remains the life of the party. Taken together, the reports shed a positive light on what investors can expect next week from Facebook and Pinterest, which are set to report earnings on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Johnson & Johnson Posts Higher Quarterly Profit

Greater demand for medical devices, drugs and consumer-health products helped boost sales and profit for Johnson & Johnson in the latest quarter, a sign people are returning for healthcare services they deferred earlier in the pandemic. Sales of J&J's medical devices climbed 63% year over year, the company said Wednesday. Higher sales of the company's skin-care and beauty products helped lift J&J's consumer-health revenue by 13% compared with a year earlier.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

UBS Profit Jumps on Wealth Management Boom

The booming business of managing rich people's money boosted results for UBS Group AG, raising hopes that the Swiss banking giant will return more money to shareholders. Switzerland's biggest bank said net profit jumped to $2 billion from $1.23 billion a year earlier, outpacing analyst expectations of $1.34 billion.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Robinhood Expects IPO to Value Trading App at About $33 Billion

Trading app Robinhood Markets Inc. expects its coming initial public offering to give it a market value of about $33 billion, lower than the level previously anticipated. The Menlo Park, Calif., company plans to sell about 52.4 million shares in the offering, and other stockholders would sell about 2.6 million, at a price between $38 and $42 each. At the midpoint of the offering range, Robinhood would raise about $2 billion.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Zoom to Buy Five9 in All-Stock Deal Valued at $14.7 Billion

Zoom Video Communications Inc., the videoconferencing service that became a household name globally during the pandemic, plans to parlay some of the resulting rise in its share price into a $14.7 billion acquisition to secure growth. The all-stock deal for Five9 Inc., a provider of cloud-based customer-service software, will help Zoom expand its potential offerings for business and enterprise clients.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Daimler Exceeds Market Expectations in Second Quarter

Daimler AG said that results in the second quarter of the year were above market expectations despite negative effects from the shortage of semiconductor components. According to preliminary figures, the German car maker’s group earnings before interest and taxes came in at 5.19 billion euros ($6.14 billion). This compared with consensus estimates provided by the company of EUR4.12 billion and a prior-year loss before interest and taxes of EUR1.68 billion. On an adjusted basis, EBIT for the group came in at EUR5.42 billion, compared with a loss of EUR708 million in the same period 2020 and consensus expectations of EUR4.29 billion.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Wells Fargo Posts Profit as Economy Grows

Wells Fargo & Co. said Wednesday that it earned $6.04 billion in the second quarter, its fortunes reviving along with the U.S. economy. The San Francisco-based lender's profit is a reversal from a year earlier, when it posted its first quarterly loss in a decade.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Goldman Sachs Profit, Revenue Jump

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s profit shot higher in the second quarter, as accelerating economic growth and market gains lifted many of the Wall Street firm’s business lines. Goldman reported quarterly profit of $5.49 billion, or $15.02 a share, on revenue of $15.39 billion.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Atos lowers 2021 targets after disappointing first half

IT services group Atos lowered all of its targets for the current financial year, after a disappointing first-half performance. Atos now expects revenue at constant exchange rates to be "stable" for the whole of 2021, compared with growth of 3.5% to 4.5% previously expected.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Philip Morris Announces Firm Offer to Acquire Vectura Group

Philip Morris International Inc. announced it has agreed with the board of Vectura Group plc on the terms of an all-cash, recommended offer to acquire Vectura for an enterprise value of GBP 852 million.

By
Nadine PEREIRA