Tag: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

How To Profit From The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Before It Happens

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


The announcement that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) had made an offer to purchase Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) sent the grocery stocks plummeting. While some experts think Amazon's move into the grocery business is a great idea, others aren’t so sold on the idea.

Regardless of whether this move by Amazon is good or bad for Amazon, the grocery sector was punished by this news and I don’t think stocks like The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) deserved to fall nearly 10% on the news. Or even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) all losing billions in market capitalization just because Amazon is buying Whole Foods.

Really? Continue reading "How To Profit From The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Before It Happens" →

Time To Buy Twitter?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello MarketClub members everywhere, I thought that I would take a look at a stock that's been in the news and that everyone has heard of. The stock I will be looking at today is Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) which announced yesterday it would trim its workforce by up to 8% which meant they would be laying off 336 employees.

This once darling of the tech world has seen its stock price consistently move lower since its IPO when it traded a short time later up as high as $74.73 on December 26th, 2013. Since that time, Twitter has seen its influence and stock price steadily erode with the stock price hitting a low of $21 this past August. Continue reading "Time To Buy Twitter?" →

There's Going To Be A War

Posted on by The INO.com Team

And it is taking place right now in your neighborhood. No, I'm not talking about ISIS invading your neighborhood, what I'm talking about is credit card payments to merchants.

Earlier this month, Apple announced its mobile payment system called ApplePay. The Apple iPhone 6 uses a technology called Near Field Communication or NFC, which is built into their new iPhones to pay for a product in a store that supports this technology. This is similar to Google Wallet which uses the same technology.

On one side of battlefield you have Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), on the other side you have a consortium of merchants led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), , which includes CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD). That consortium whose name is MCX (The Merchants Exchange) want to use their own mobile system that they have been developing since 2012. That system is named CurrentC. What's that going to do for consumers? You only have to look at the MCX website to understand what their goal is.

From the MCX Web site: "Merchant Customer Exchange is the only merchant-owned mobile commerce network built to streamline the customer shopping experience across all major retail verticals."

From the press kit: "It will also offer innovative features and benefits, such as merchant loyalty programs and instant coupon savings, all stored on the phone and available right at the point-of-sale."

Sounds very similar to Google wallet and ApplePay, does it not? Mobile payment solutions such as Google wallet have not really caught on with Millennials or anyone else for that matter. It was only when Apple came along with their new payment system that the MCX realized they had to attack. The first part of the attack was putting pressure on CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) to turn off their NFC receivers on their cash registers so ApplePay would not work. What is strange is that Target, who is also a member of MCX, will accept ApplePay as it offers a more secure and superior method of payment over a regular credit card. Looking at some of the recent challenges that Target has had with credit card theft, it is understandable.

So today's poll question is:

Who do you think will win the mobile payment wars?

View Results

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If you have any comments you'd like to share with us about this post or about mobile payments in general, please feel free to leave them below this post.

Life is never boring, even in the mobile payments section.

Every success with MarketClub,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

Is This Index Predicting The Future?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Today I'm going to be looking into the Dow 30 Index. This index is home to some of the biggest and most valuable companies in the world.

Using our Trade Triangle technology, you can quickly see that out of the 30 stocks that make up this index, just three stocks remain in a bullish trend. Out of the remaining 27 stocks, 6 are in a trading range and 21 stocks are in downtrends.

With two-thirds of the stocks in this important index in downtrends, this index is casting a shadow over the general economy.

The 3 stocks that remain in uptrends are rather mundane companies that have been around a long time.

Here are the 3 stocks that are still bullish and I will be looking at in today's video: Continue reading "Is This Index Predicting The Future?" →

The Truth About Amazon

Posted on by The INO.com Team

When was the last time you bought something on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)? For me, I purchased a pair of cycling gloves last week. It seems that when Amazon reported a wider than expected loss, investors were surprised and shocked. What were they expecting?

The reality is that Amazon is a juggernaut in online commerce and is seeking world domination in selling you stuff. The strategy that Jeff Bezos is using for Amazon is not new, Sam Walton in the 60s did the exact same thing with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). Sam's idea was pretty simple, start with low prices so it puts your competitors out of business, then you can raise your prices afterwards. Amazon is doing the same thing, but online.

Just like Walmart, Amazon made it easy to buy something and return it if you don't like it, all with no hassles. Amazon is building something that is incredibly valuable - millions of consumers who want to buy products through them alone.

Just imagine, all Amazon has to do is raise prices just a little bit and they will be very profitable. Will consumers run the other way when this happens? No, as consumers we are so trained to buying at Amazon that a small price increase is not necessarily going to have buyers running.

Let's face it, we are all creatures of habit and I've gotten into the habit, like millions of other consumers, of just going to Amazon looking for an item and buying from them. Sure, if I searched around the web and spent a lot of time, I may save a dollar or two, but I would also be potentially doing business with companies I don't know. How reputable are they? Do I feel comfortable giving them my credit information and other private information? Continue reading "The Truth About Amazon" →