Plus, Affirm is partnering with Amazon to offer its payment solution to Amazon shoppers spending over $50, Astra shares dropped after the company’s weekend launch attempt failed, and Reddit traders have a new meme stock in Support.com.
Stocks were higher at the open on Monday with the Dow adding 16 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose by nearly 0.1%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.2%.
Globalstar shares are up more than 44% at the time of writing following rumors that Apple’s iPhone 13 will have the ability to utilize satellite communications. TFI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note on Sunday that the Qualcomm X60 baseband chip that Apple is expected to be using in the next iPhone model will support low-earth orbit satellite communications, and considering Qualcomm’s work with Globalstar, the company is the most likely partner for the effort with its phone network of 24 satellites in low Earth orbit. “There are many potential scenarios for Apple’s business model cooperations with Globalstar,” Kuo wrote in the note. “The simplest scenario is that if the user’s operator has already teamed with Globalstar, the user can directly use Globalstar’s satellite communication service on the iPhone 13 through the operator’s service.” Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 13 this fall.
Affirm shares have also jumped more than 40% this morning after it announced that its payment solution will soon be available to Amazon customers. As part of the partnership, select Amazon customers will have the option to split the total cost of purchases above $50 into simple monthly payments by using Affirm. “By partnering with Amazon we’re bringing the transparency, predictability and affordability that Affirm provides today to the millions of people who shop on Amazon.com in the U.S.,” Eric Morse, Senior Vice President of Sales at Affirm, said in a press release announcing the partnership. “Offering Affirm’s alternative to credit cards also delivers more of the payment choice and flexibility consumers on Amazon want.”
Astra Space, on the other hand, is down more than 20% after the company’s launch attempt over the weekend failed following a problem at liftoff. Astra said in a press release that one of the five main engines of its LV0006 rocket shut down less than one second after liftoff, causing it to slide sideways just after getting off the ground in Alaska. The rocket didn’t crash and was able to recover from the issue before continuing to accelerate for more than two minutes. “We regret that we were unable to accomplish all mission objectives for the U.S. Space Force; however, we captured a tremendous amount of data from this test flight,” founder and CEO Chris Kemp said in a statement. “We will incorporate learnings from this test into future launch vehicles, including LV0007, which is currently in production.”
Support.com is up 45%, continuing its rise after a massive short squeeze rally that has seen it gain more than 244% over the last five sessions. The surge comes as Reddit traders flock to the heavily-shorted software small-cap, reminiscent of the epic GameStop short squeeze back in January. “Shares shorted were climbing earlier in the month, but we have seen short covering recently as the shorts are in the middle of a big squeeze,” S3 Partners’ Ihor Dusaniwsky said in a note from Friday. “This rally is a long buying rally in a stock with a thinly traded float (20 million shares) and tremendous long buying pressure. Gamma Squeeze + momentum buying + some short covering = monster rally.”
And Cuba said it will now recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for “reasons of socioeconomic interest.” Resolution 215 says the Cuban central bank will set new rules for how to deal with digital currencies, with commercial providers of related services now needing a license from the central bank to continue operations. “It’s historic that they are embracing it,” said Boaz Sobrado, a London-based fintech data analyst. “This is a conservative government still set in traditional Marxist ways. In fact, the communist Cuban central bank was founded by Che Guevara. The fact that they are cautiously regulating shows they are interested in what it can bring them.”
Stocks We’re Watching
IZEA Inc (NASDAQ: IZEA): Izea announced on Friday that it has surpassed $23.5 million in Managed Services Bookings Year to Date, making 2021 already the best year in the company’s history for bookings. “We started to see a material uptick in year over year bookings beginning in Q4 of 2020, and that trend has continued throughout 2021,” Ted Murphy, Founder and CEO of IZEA, said in a statement. “We have added three new Fortune 500 customers in the month of August alone, and Managed Services bookings for the third quarter so far are already up 50% compared to Q3 2020, with another month to go. SaaS customer count has broken its previous record thus far in the third quarter, led primarily by IZEAx Discovery and continued expansion of IZEAx Unity Suite among smaller brands and agencies.”