The creator of the hit comedy "Black-ish", Kenya Barris, is hopeful a move to Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) will allow him to put the controversy behind the shelving of an episode on the show that was critical of US President Donald Trump, a report on the Hollywood Reporter said.
At the urging of Disney-owned ABC (NYSE:DIS) to make cuts to an episode entitled "Please, Baby, Please" which was critical of Trump, the episode was eventually scrapped. By mid-August, Barris had left ABC Studios and signed up to Netflix.
"If I was going to step out, I wanted to do something where I could take off all the straps and really hang out of the plane," he said in the report. "I want to be Netflix with attitude — loud, bold and unapologetic."
Netflix stock was up 0.24% at US$356.79.
On another front where Trump is having an impact, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) said the administration's proposed tariffs will make a bevy of Apple products more expensive, a report by CBS News said.
The list, which the company recently released in a public letter to the US Trade Representative, includes AirPods, the company's wireless earbuds; the Apple Watch; the Mac Mini and various chargers and cables.
The list also includes components that can be found in Apple computers, such as electrical connectors, circuit boards, graphics cards and laptop trackpads. Trump told Apple to build their products in the US.
Apple shares were lower by 1.6% at US$220.23.
READ: Netflix is winning the popularity contest versus YouTube among younger viewers, says Forbes
Alphabet Inc's Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) could be facing a huge fine for tracking users' location even if they have told the company they don’t want to be tracked, a report by Fortune said.
While it previously claimed that “with Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored,” Google now says the setting “does not affect other location services on your device, like Google Location Services and Find My Device. Some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps,” the report said.
If the investigation leads to a full-blown consumer protection case under Arizona state law, Google could be hit with fines of up to US$10,000 per violation.
Google stock fell by almost 1.4% at US$1,161.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is looking at a new era where the social media giant will see more regulation, slower growth and compressed margins, an analyst on Seeking Alpha said.
Analyst Jeff Cai said in a report that Facebook still has a strong economic moat and is a great business to own despite recent headwinds. The company still has a strong presence selling advertising on its platform, the report said.
Facebook shares declined nearly 2.2% to US$162.34.
READ: Google, Facebook trigger jump in global ad-spending forecast, per report
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is no longer a looming threat for sellers of factory-floor basics, lab equipment and office products. It is now a full-blown competitor, a report by Bloomberg said.
After reporting that Amazon Business had reported annualized sales of US$10bn, W.W. Grainger, the largest US industrial distributor, had about US$10.4bn in sales last year.
The report said it is not a perfect comparison, but it is striking how neck-and-neck Amazon has become with incumbents in the industry after only a few years.
Amazon stock was off 0.9% to US$1,968.91.