Social networking giant Facebook  faced lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states  and territories on charges of anticompetitive behavior. Both suits allege that Facebook attempted to maintain a monopoly through anticompetitive acquisitions that target potential rivals, in order to maintain a monopoly position in personal social networking.The lawsuits could require Facebook to divest Instagram and Whatsapp.  Facebook pushed back against the lawsuits.“The most important fact in this case, which the Commission does not mention in its 53-page complaint, is that it cleared these acquisitions years ago,” Facebook’s chief counsel Jennifer Newstead mentioned in a statement.

Trade Signals and Outlook Analysis of tickers in the Gold Theme

Shares of the video game and consumer electronics company, GameStop, got crushed today after the company released sales figures that missed analysts’ expectations.The pandemic was largely seen as a tailwind for the consumer electronics and video gaming industry, as more people stay home and spend more time with TV and videogames. Perhaps for that reason, analyst expectations for GameStop revenues were too inflated, and the street did not take well to the CEOs comments about the pandemic straining sales.

In our opinion, technical factors tend to have a greater influence over the short term while fundamentals are more important over the long run. Sometimes we see stocks with good fundamentals that enter a downward trend and have a hard time breaking out of it.NetApp peaked up near $82 back in September ’18—the prices on the chart below are adjusted for dividend payments.

Everyone probably knows at least one person who tried to make sourdough bread from scratch. The surge in home cooking boosted companies from grocery retailers to food staple companies, like Campbell Soup.Campbell saw a surge in sales, with a 40+% jump in Q2.  The issue today is that consumer patience with the pandemic is waning, as may be the enthusiasm for cooking at home.

The pandemic has accelerated many consumer spending trends, and most of them involve ditching brick and mortar stores for online/e-commerce platforms.It's a highly personalized shopping service, all conducted at home and online -- ideal for a pandemic.  Stitch Fix recently reported earnings, showing double-digit year over year revenue growth and its highest net additions of new clients in the company's history.

“We are currently experiencing the strongest housing market I have seen in my 30 years at Toll Brothers, and we continue to increase prices in nearly all of our communities.”  --Douglas Yearley, CEO of Toll Brothers The pandemic and all of its associated restrictions have produced an unlikely boom in housing.In many cases, that has meant migrating out of major U.S. cities and relocating into more rural areas, where people can afford homes with office space.  According to Toll Brothers last earnings report, the number of contracts for new homes increased 68% to 3,407 units from last year, and the contract value rose 63% to $2.74 billion.

Tesla   said it would sell around $5 billion worth of shares, ahead of its debut on the S&P 500 month. The electric carmaker mentioned the 'at-the-market' offering and that the share will be sold “from time to time” in a filing with Securities and Exchange Commission.Tesla’s  market capitalization is $598 billion – so, the new offering represents less than 1% of the company’s value.  Tesla plans to spend $2.5 billion in 2021 and 2022, especially on new factories and expansion, including battery cell manufacturing. Data from the China Passenger Car Association showed Tesla sold 21,604 China-made vehicles last month in China, nearly double the October total and well ahead of the 11,329 sold in September.

The report comes ahead of its Thursday assessment of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) request filed by Pfizer last month. According to the FDA, individuals infected with COVID 19 could benefit from the Pfizer vaccine. .It has not noted any specific concerns from the late-stage trials. Last month, Pfizer said that the vaccine, called BNT162b2, had a 95% efficacy rate across all age and race demographics.

Homebuilding stocks have rallied sharply over the last eight months and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) has more than doubled.The fund fell below the $25 level in March and is now trading over $55. LGI Homes (LGIH) took part in the rally, rallying almost an exact $100 from its low of $33 to a high of $132.98.

A federal agency found no wrongdoing on the part of Eastman Kodak relating to a loan to make drug ingredients , The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Shares of Kodak jumped nearly +60% in premarket trading Monday on the report. The inspector general for the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC), which was administering the loan, told Democratic lawmakers he found no evidence that agency officials had any conflicts of interest in the plan. In July, Kodak announced that it would receive a $765 million loan to help produce pharmaceutical ingredients for potential Covid-19 treatments.The process was halted after Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns about a possible insider trading around the time the announcement was made. Now, it is still unclear whether the agency will process the loan.

Boeing  shares got a rating upgrade by UBS analyst.  Myles Walton boosted his rating on the airline’s shares to buy from neutral. Walton doubled his share-price target to $300. This follows Boeing’s 737 MAX return to service, after a two-year grounding. The analyst mentioned that he expects advances coming back faster, with 50-plus-per month on the 737 in 2025 coupled with cost actions across the enterprise more than offsetting lower wide-body production (i.e., another 787 rate cut just announced).

While the gains have been impressive, the rallies could be coming to an end or seeing a pause at the very least. Three companies in particular jumped out at me because all three have seen pullbacks in the current week.All three have seen big gains in their stock prices since March, but Plug Power stands out among the three. Plug bottomed at a price of $2.53 in March and it recently peaked at $28.70.

E-signature company DocuSign  reported its fiscal third quarter earnings that surpassed analysts’ expectations. The company’s quarterly earnings came in at   22 cents a share, beating the Street estimate of 13 cents a share. Revenue surged +53% year-over-year to $382.9 million, also exceeding analysts’ expectations of $361.2 million. The earnings results were followed by upgrades from several analysts. Citi analyst Walter Pritchard hiked his price target on DocuSign shares to $282 from $257, while maintaining  his buy rating on the shares citing "higher growth for longer" potential amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s role in propelling businesses to digital signing permanently. Needham analyst Scott Berg, who initiated coverage of DocuSign in mid-November with a buy rating and a $240 price target, lifted his one-year target to $275. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called DocuSign’s results “stellar” . JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens boosted his pri

Zscaler ‘s fiscal first quarter earnings surpassed expectations.Analyst polled by FactSet is forecasting earnings of 7 cents a share and revenue of $140.2 million. Looking further ahead, the company is projecting earnings of 37 cents to 38 cents a share for fiscal 2021.

Software company Splunk  reported a fiscal-third-quarter loss. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Splunk’s loss widened to -$1.26 a share, from the year-ago quarter’s -38 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, Splunk had a loss of -7 cents a share, compared to analysts’ expectations of loss of -9 cents  share. Looking ahead, the company is expecting fiscal-fourth-quarter revenue in the range of $650 million to $700 million.Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $777.9 million.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) has gained over 80% in the last two years while the S&P 500 is up a far more modest 31%. There are three companies in the packaged software arena that are set to release earnings over the next week and two of those three have experienced extremely strong moves.The gains for the two, as impressive as they have been, highlight how the stocks have performed well despite the fundamentals not being as strong as the technical picture. Looking at the Tickeron Fundamental Screener, each of the three companies only has one area where it gets a positive reading.

Zoom Video Communications  reported its fiscal third quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ expectations. The company’s quarterly earnings came in at 99 cents per share, handily beating analysts’ estimate of  76 cents per share.  Revenue of $777.2 million also surpassed the $693.95 million expected by analysts. "Strong demand and execution led to revenue growth of 367% year-over-year with solid growth in non-GAAP operating income and cash flow in our third fiscal quarter.", said founder and CEO Eric Yuan in a statement. Looking ahead, the company expects revenue in the range of $806 million to $811 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, with earnings between 77 cents and 79 cents per share. Analysts have predicted revenue of $730.11 million and earnings of 66 cents per share.     

Ride-hailing company Uber   closed its acquisition of food-delivery service Postmates. According to Uber, Postmates would add $350 million to $400 million to gross bookings for delivery and increase adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by $7 million to $12 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Uber said that next year it will also begin a regional listening process for merchants across the country, with Uber Eats and Postmates coming together. “I'm confident that alongside Uber Eats we will create even more opportunities for our customers, continue to drive growth for our merchants, and deliver unique earning opportunities" for its delivery workers, Postmates Co-Founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann said.    

On Tuesday, Salesforce.com, Inc. announced that  it is buying messaging platform Slack Technologies, Inc.   in a deal valued at $27.7 billion. The announcement follows last week’s reports of  talks between the companies .As part of the deal, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share. Calling the acquisition a “match made in heaven” Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce said, "Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.