BWIB Finance Newsletter

3 min readMay 6, 2021

Wednesday, April 28 to Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Amazon Q1 Earnings

Source: CNBC

Amazon’s stock price increased by more than 3.5% on Thursday, April 29th after company earnings beat the estimates of analysts.
Analysts estimated an earnings per share of $9.54 per share and revenue of $104.5B. Amazon reported an earnings per share of $15.79 per share and revenue of $108.5B.
Amazon reported that Prime Day will take place in June this year, which will help compare second-quarter earnings.Their cloud-computing and Amazon Prime services have also been growing drastically.

Source: WSJ

Apollo agreed to pay roughly $5 billion to acquire Yahoo and AOL from Verizon.
Verizon, whose main operations are focused within the telecommunications space, had looked to venture into the media space with its acquisition of Yahoo and AOL.
Verizon’s purchase of AOL and Yahoo in 2015 and 2017 turned out to be ill-fated for the company, who wrote down half of the value of the media brands it acquired in 2018.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Under a travel proposal the European Commission released, fully vaccinated travelers from countries with low infection rates and proof of vaccination would be allowed to visit 27 EU nations this summer if approved.
Those eligible to travel must wait at least 14 days after their last dose of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, or Moderna vaccines.
To help governments more easily verify a completed vaccination, the EU is creating a Digital Green Certificate so travelers could prove their vaccination status.

President Biden proposed the American Families Plan to raise $1.5 trillion by collecting more taxes from Americans who earn more than $400,000 a year. He hopes to expand education, paid leave, and child care services with the tax revenue. (Source: CNBC)
The FDA decided to move forward with a ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars. 85% of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, but the FDA says the enforcement of the ban will only address manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and importers, and not individual consumers. (Source: NBC News)
The US Economy grew at 6.4% annual rate. Federal stimulus money helped create a surge in consumer discretionary spending, and ultra-low interest rates have also spurred Americans to buy homes, revamping the housing market. (Source: WSJ)

Warren Buffet said in his annual shareholder meeting last weekend that he would most likely choose Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman of non-insurance businesses, to be his successor. Buffet is currently 90 years old, while Abel is 58. (Source: Bloomberg)
Apple and Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, have started their trial on 5/3/21. Epic Games sued Apple after the company pulled its app from the App Store when Epic tried to bypass the 30% cut that Apple makes from app-generated revenue. (Source: WSJ)
Krispy Kreme filed paperwork for an IPO on May 4th. They first went public in 2000, but filed for bankruptcy and went private after being acquired by JAB Holding Co in 2016. (Source: CNBC)

COVID-19

Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed an executive order that suspends all COVID-19 restrictions, saying that “we are no longer in a state of emergency”. (Source: CNBC)
Drug stores such as Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS are increasing the accessibility to COVID-19 vaccines by allowing same-day appointment scheduling and walk-ins. This is aimed to increase the vaccination momentum that has been experiencing a decline in the past two weeks. (Source: CNBC)

Written By:

Director: Jacquline Ruan

Managers: Vaibhavi Bamane, Melissa Chen, Stacy Kim