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.

Cloud software company Salesforce.com reported its third quarter earnings that surpassed analysts’ expectations.However, the company’s guidance was below expectations. Salesforce.com’s GAAP earnings of  $1.15 per share was a major improvement from the year-ago quarter’s loss of -12 cents per share a year ago.

S&P Global (SPGI) announced on November 30 that it would be acquiring IHS Markit (INFO) for $44 billion.The deal is one of the two largest mergers of 2020 and it has put the market data services industry in the spotlight. This particular merger was of major interest to me as I have S&P Global, MSCI (MSCI) and Factset Research (FDS) in my 20/2o Model Portfolio.

S&P Global (SPGI) announced on November 30 that it would be acquiring IHS Markit (INFO) for $44 billion.The deal is one of the two largest mergers of 2020 and it has put the market data services industry in the spotlight. This particular merger was of major interest to me as I have S&P Global, MSCI (MSCI) and Factset Research (FDS) in my 20/2o Model Portfolio.

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As the holiday season approaches, Amazon   would pay an additional $300 to full-time employees as part of a special recognition bonus.This is for employees who package and deliver the items. Part-time employees, working for the e-commerce behemoth from Dec. 1 to Dec. 30, will get paid $150 as an appreciation bonus. The special recognition bonus is a total more than $500 million for Amazon's front-line employees. According to Amazon,  it spent $2.5 billion on special bonuses in 2020 globally.  The company expects net sales to be between $120 billion and $121 billion for the holiday quarter,  vs. analysts’ forecast of $112.32 billion for the quarter. 

Entertainment giant Walt Disney  plans to cut 32,000 jobs by the end of March, According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday. The layoff figure is 4,000 more than the 28,000 job cuts announced in September. Most of the job cuts will take place in the company's theme parks. Around 37,000 Disney employees were on furlough as of Oct. 3, according to the filing. "Due to the current climate, including Covid-19 impacts, and changing environment in which we are operating, the company has generated efficiencies in its staffing, including limiting hiring to critical business roles, furloughs and reductions-in-force," Disney mentioned in the filing.

Every hint that the global economy is recovering has caused prices to rise. In the beginning of the rally, it seemed like prices were rising due to a decline in supply as production was halted or cut tremendously.The combination of supply cuts and demand increases has caused copper prices to jump nearly 75% from the March low. Unfortunately there are signs that the rally in copper and the industrial metal stocks may be set for a pullback.

The reasoning behind that belief is based on how demand for the products is pretty consistent and may even increase during stressful economic times. While browsing through charts recently I found two sin stocks that can’t seem to break out of the downward trends they have been in for the last four years or so.Altria (MO) and Molson Coors Brewing (TAP) have both seen their stocks trend lower in recent years, but the companies have decent fundamental indicators. If we look at the weekly chart for Altria we see that the stock has been trending lower since the second quarter of 2017 and from its peak through its low, the stock lost over half of its value.

Morgan analyst Matthew Boss said, "Looking forward, we see an embedded call option on Gap/Banana Republic with zero value attributed to the two brands today," adding, "despite a potential near-term catalyst path with the Kanye West 'YZY Gap' launch in fiscal 2021 as a brand accelerator for Gap and a rotation back to workwear in light of vaccine news, a catalyst at Banana Republic, consistent with our 3-wave retail 'recovery.'"  According to Boss, Gap has underperformed the S&P 500 by 50% over the past three years, thereby supporting  its upside potential. J.P.

The vehicles included some Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Sierra and GMC Yukon vehicles built over an eight-year period. GM has 30 days to give NHTSA a plan for informing vehicle owners to begin the recall.The recall will lead to an estimated cost of $1.2 billion to GM. "NHTSA concluded that the GM inflators in question are at risk of the same type of explosion after long-term exposure to high heat and humidity as other recalled Takata inflators,” the agency said.

With malls closed or operating with limited hours, many of the apparel retailers were hit particularly hard. Over the last four months the stocks of these companies have pretty strong bounces as investors believed the selling was overdone.Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), and Gap (GPS) are all set to report earnings on November 24. If we look at the stocks of these companies over the last four months, we see some incredible gains.