drugstore chain CVS Health's plans to acquire prescription insurer Aetna got the preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).CVS  wants to make the acquisition through $69 billion in cash and stock, as revealed by the company in December.

On Wednesday, Facebook-owned messenger-cum-video calling app WhatsApp revealed that it has fixed a bug that let hackers get access to users’ applications when they answered an incoming video call.This announcement comes after technology websites ZDnet and The Register  first wrote about the issue and mentioned that it was fixed by Facebook in early October. Acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion, WhatsApp is an immensely popular platform for people to connect with family, friends and business contacts.

Sears has had troubles meeting its debt obligations for a while, even as CEO Eddie Lampert drove several asset liquidations. Hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores were shuttered down in recent years, amid plunging sales.Sears has apparently failed to catch up with the e-commerce boom spearheaded by Amazon coupled with traditional player Walmart’s expansion.

The news pushed Starbucks stock price up by +2.5% on Tuesday, thereby reflecting investor optimism about the hedge fund’s investment in the company. In support of his investment decision, Ackman mentioned several factors, such as his belief that Starbucks could open more stores in the U.S, the coffee company’s high growth potential in China and the general positive outlook on the coffee industry. Ackman has also gone on to say that the company’s stock value could double over the next three years. Starbucks joins the list of food/restaurant companies, such as Chipotle and Restaurant Brands International, that Pershing has stakes in.

A Tuesday filing revealed that one of Tesla’s biggest investors has made a big bet on it. On Nio’s first day on the NYSE, September 12, the stock closed a little lower than it was initially priced.After peaking the next day with 75% gains, the car-maker’s stock shifted into neutral and gradually rolled downhill before finding a parking spot below it’s original closing price, at about $6.20. Now, just hours after the new disclosure, and hours after market close, the stock price is feeling out a new support level which may keep it over $7.80, which would be up 25% from it’s recent moving average.

After acquisition talks for game developer Zynga (ZNGA) were reported early Tuesday, a sudden 10+% spike in the stock caused a trading halt.The halt was lifted midday and trading resumed, and the share price closed the market Tuesday at $4.36, up +12.37%. Zynga, headquartered in San Francisco, is known for mobile-based games FarmVille, Words With Friends, CSR Racing, and more.

The Trump administrations withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, and its subsequent decision to re-impose sanctions, could very well have rippling effects on global oil markets.  A number of US companies have already stopped their imports despite the sanctions going into effect in early November 2018.A number of companies from countries like India, however, which are heavily oil dependent, are continuing to import Iranian oil -- defying the Trump administration’s call for countries to completely cut-off trade. A slow but steady increase in the US's rig count during the course of 2018 has helped investors remain optimistic.

Instagram is flexing its muscles against online bullies, to protect users' well-being. On Tuesday, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing website announced that it will apply a new machine learning tool that can proactively identify bullying in photos and captions and then feed them into the website’s Community Operations team for human review.The technology is expected to detect bullying gestures such as comparing and ranking images/captions (e.g., on a split-screen, a person being compared with an image in a negative or demeaning way could get flagged). Even earlier in the year, Instagram expressed its grave concerns about online bullying and harassment, and said that it will delete bullying posts/comments.  

By boosting its payout three times in less than two years, ConocoPhillips is all set to emerge as a viable income growth option for investors in the space.  Between 2001 to 2012, ConocoPhillips pushed its yield to well above 4%, which was more than double what the S&P 500 offered at that time.However, with the oil supply glut and the subsequent market downturn in 2016, the company aggressively slashed its payout to preserve cash. Today, with the markets improving with production cuts and increased signs of tighter balance between supply and demand, companies like ConocoPhillips and its peers are making it a priority to reward investors.

Is Google upping its game against other FAANG members?The search giant is rapidly proliferating its hardware business, as it is set to launch its latest gadgets – a smartphone, a smart speaker and a tablet computer. What’s  making the most noise among its new offerings is the Google Pixel 3, a premium Android-powered device, which is touted by some as a potential rival to the iPhoneXs. Pixel 3 is expected to come with Google's latest Android software Android 9 Pie, and with screens that expand till the edges of the phones. The Home Hub will be Google's new smart speaker, which might be a potential competitor to Amazon's own Echo Show device and the Facebook Portal home camera. The Pixel Slate is also slated to be be unveiled today its new tablet computer.

While exact motives remain unclear, the $8.3 billion hedge fund Pershing Square has recently established a $900 million long position in Starbucks (SBUX), the fund’s helmsman Bill Ackman announced today.His $1 billion short on Herbalife (HLF), which he believed was a pyramid scheme masquerading as a direct sales company, was the subject of a feature-length documentary called "Betting On Zero.

General Electric Co. has landed a $700 million contract to supply turbine and generator units for Egypt’s first nuclear power project. GE will deliver four turbine units – reportedly one in each year from 2023 through 2026 - for Egypt’s planned 4,800 megawatt El Dabaa nuclear facility.The units will start operating at the rate of one per year from 2026 until 2029, said Michael Keroulle, chief commercial officer for GE’s Steam Power business, in a phone interview (according to Bloomberg). The contract has been awarded to AAEM (a joint venture between GE and Russia-based Atomenergomash), which will design and deliver the turbine system for the reactor, according to GE.

An analysis from Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests that Apple sales will gather steam, thanks to people wanting to upgrade to iPhones - according to the results of a recent global survey of smartphone users. Apple’s announcements of iPhoneXs and iPhone Xr  spurred people’s interest in upgrading to an iPhone in recent months, according to Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan’s note to clients Tuesday.The Bank of America analysis indicates growth opportunities for Apple in India and China markets. Mohan estimates that Apple’s fiscal 2019 earnings per share would be $14.41 versus the $13.62 Wall Street consensus.      

“"While we are working to support the US government with our cloud in many areas, we are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn't be assured that it would align with our AI Principles and second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications," Google's statement said. The company is however open to a bidding for a part of it if the DOD employs more cloud computing companies' services for the program.But the Pentagon suggests that splitting the contract among multiple providers might make the project too complex and adversely affect the data migration process. In the past, Google’s employees have been vocal about not supporting any contract with the U.S. government that might in any way contribute to warfare technology.

Although Square Capital has been extending credit to Square (SQ) customers since 2014, some analysts think their newest loan product is might be moving the business in an overly risky direction. BTIG, the privately-held investment banking firm, has published a report suggesting that Square is becoming too dependent on their loan revenue, and estimates that their stock is currently overpriced by about 75%.The BTIG report cited past examples of online lenders who failed to properly gauge the risks of lending, and suggested that the current subjects of inquiry are making similar mistakes. Square’s new loan product, called Square Installments, is offering lower-than-average interest rates for business clients making significant purchases, which can be repaid over three, six, or twelve month installment periods.

The private information of over 500,000 Google users was accessible to 438 application development companies, and Google chose not to tell anyone for over 6 months. The search giant, now a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), has decided phase out the consumer-level services of its floundering social networking platform Google+, which was the source of the breach, over the next several months.The company reports that the compromised information included birthdates, profile photos, email addresses, and gender, all of which was made accessible due to a bug in their software rather than a malicious attack. The long-avoided disclosure was made in a blog post by Google earlier today.

Tesla Inc.’s stock extended losses for a fifth straight session on Monday.The stock closed at its lowest level since March 2017, and lost more than $10 billion in market capitalization in one week. Even as the electric carmaker's  sales of Model 3 sedan are performing well in the U.S. and third quarter projections for it look healthy, the company's CEO Elon Musk’s tweets mocking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by calling it the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” might have diluted the positives and therefore potentially added to investor concerns.

However, speculations are rife that the move might have been spurred by a Wall Street Journal report that indicates that Google did not publicly disclose a bug infiltrating Google+ user accounts. According to the WSJ article, Google's legal and policy team told senior executives at the company that disclosing the security loophole could lead to "immediate regulatory interest."Google, on the other hand, said in a statement provided to CNN Business, "Every year, we send millions of notifications to users about privacy and security bugs and issues," and added, "Whenever user data may have been affected, we go beyond our legal requirements and apply several criteria focused on our users in determining whether to provide notice.”.  

Tech (XLK, VGT, QQQ) and other sectors are tanking along with the major indices (DIA, SPY) while international tensions mount, leaving investors wondering where they can turn. Many investors are being encouraged to buy the dip, regardless of the sector.Stocks such as J.P. Morgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Visa (V) are examples of companies which have performed well during months of rising-rates in the past. Currently regional banks are surging, with the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) serving as a catch-all, and individual banks such as SVB Financial Group (SIVB) attracting investors in recent days.

Its stock jumped +20% on the news. On Wednesday, the book store chain said that it has appointed a committee to review acquisition offers, including the one that came from chairman Len Riggio who currently owns 20% of the company’s equity.Also, an investor holding a 7% stake has reportedly expressed his interest in buying the company to Riggio . Barnes & Noble also suggested that an unidentified shareholder is apparently trying to aggressively increase their stake in the company.