BWIB Finance Newsletter

3 min readApr 29, 2021

Wednesday, April 21 to Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Apple will be releasing its iOS 14.5 update next week

Sources: Vox, CNN

iPhone users will be able to unlock their phones with their face while wearing a mask, enjoy 217 new emojis, and have support for the new AirTag Bluetooth trackers.
Update will also include a feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which will require apps to get users’ permission to track their activity across the internet.
With this update, companies that use targeted advertising will lose a major source of data and revenue; Facebook calls this move an attack on small businesses who uses their ads to target potential customers.

Source: CNBC

Reports of Tesla’s first quarter earnings released on Monday, April 26th, with analysts expecting $10.29 billion in revenue and 79 cents per share; Tesla reported $10.39 billion in revenue, 93 cents per share, and a net income of $438 million.
Tesla delivered 184,800 Model 3 and Model Y cars, setting a record for the electric vehicle company.
In the Q4 2020 earnings update, Musk had said that the Model S Plaid would be delivered starting February 2021. However, as an update in this earnings call, the newer Model S sedans will be delivered to customers starting in May 2021.

Census numbers show that the US population grew at a slower rate than expected, and fewer people migrated to the South and West than projected.
New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will lose 1 house seat; Texas will gain 2 house seats, and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon will gain 1 seat each.
Democrats now hold a narrow majority in the House, with a margin of fewer than half a dozen seats.

Credit Suisse shareholders are targeting the Swiss bank’s board of directors appointments following its losses from Archegos and Greensill. Top shareholders like Harris Associates and Norges Bank Investment Management (Norway’s SWF) said they would vote against Andreas Gottschling’s (chairman of the risk committee) reappointment. (Source: WSJ)
Apple plans to build a new campus in North Carolina which will create at least 3,000 jobs in machine learning, AI, and software engineering. (Source: WSJ)

Google secured one of its largest cloud computing contracts with Spanish language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc. (Source: WSJ)
Lyft will be selling its self-driving car unit to a subset of Toyota, Woven Planet. It will be sold for $550 million in an all-cash payment. They will be working together to advance auto-driving technology safety. (Source: CNBC)

U.S. vaccination pace gradually declines, with the average daily cases dropping below 60,000. According to the CDC, the seven-day 2.7 million vaccine shot average is trending downward. (Source: CNBC)
CDC announced that people who are fully vaccinated are able to exercise outside, attend small gatherings with a mix of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and dine at a restaurant, without a mask. However, it is still recommended that fully vaccinated people wear a mask to reduce risk of COVID-19. (Source: CNBC)
EU is suing AstraZeneca for failing to provide vaccines according to their contract. (Source: WSJ)

Source: CNBC

The 93rd Oscars brought a spotlight on diverse talent and honored artists in cinema
Producers were expecting late actor Chadwick Boseman to win the Best Actor award, which would lead to a more meaningful ending. Instead, the Best Actor award went to Anthony Hopkins, ending on an anticlimactic note.
“Nomadland”, directed by Chloe Zhao, won the Best Picture award, and director Chloe Zhao won the Best Director award. Chloe Zhao is the second female and first woman of Asian descent to win in the Best Director category.

Written By:

Director: Jacquline Ruan

Managers: Vaibhavi Bamane, Melissa Chen, Stacy Kim