Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:
- HEAR +27.8% (guidance), LEN +0.5%
Other news:
- IDYA +117.9% (partners with GSK covering three IDEAYA Synthetic Lethality programs) IQ +34.8% (Tencent (TCEHY) wants to become largest shareholder of IQ, according to Reuters)
- WW +13.7% (provides update; Subs as of June 6 totaled 4.9 mln, up 7% yr/yr)
- NYMT +13.3% (resumes dividend)
- ERI +10% (stock offering; also to enter into a $400 mln mortgage)
- LLY +8.5% (receives FDA approval for Lyumjev; reports Verzenio in combination with standard adjuvant endocrine therapy met the primary endpoint)
- SWBI +6.8% (extends momentum)
- PLYA +6.5% (S&P downgrade)
- NKLA +6% (stock offering)
- IDEX +5.5% (to sell its Grapevine and related influencer platform)
- LMPX +5.5% (names new CFO)
- CLDX +5% (prices offering 13,377,926 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $9.75 per share)
- FHN +5% (receive regulatory approval for proposed merger)
- DSSI +4.8% (announces strategic product tanker partnership with NORDEN)
- STOR +4.2% (details comments made during call - through June 15, 2020, it had received cash payments representing approximately 76% of scheduled June rent and interest on its active contracts)
- FTI +4.2% (entered into Amendment No 1. to its $2.5 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility agreement and an Amendment and Restatement Agreement to its €500 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility agreement)
- CZR +3.9% (reports preliminary operating trends for Caesars' Properties that reopened in May and June 2020)
- TIF +1.6% (Tiffany & Co / LVMH (LVMUY) merger was cleared on June 12 by the Korea Fair Trade Commission of South Korea)
- KN +1.5% (announces workforce reduction)
- SNY +1.3% (invests to make France its center in vaccine research and production)
- UNVR +1.2% (reaches new distribution agreement with Biosynthetic Tech)
- ZM +1.1% (announces that the Zoom Phone added to Zoom for Govt)
Analyst comments:
- SUPN +7.7% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Sandler)
- QRVO +4.3% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
- LRCX +3.8% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
- CSCO +3.7% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill)
- LX +3.7% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at China Renaissance)
- QCOM +3.3% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
- ALC +2.2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim)
- AAPL +1.8% (target raised to $400 from $310 at Citigroup; raised to $425 at Wedbush)
- GATX +1.4% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Stephens)
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- IDYA +103.2%, HEAR +24.4%, LMPX +13.2%, WW +12.2%, INFN +11%, NYMT +10.4%, SWBI +5.6%, PLYA +4.4%, FTI +3.5%, STOR +3.2%, DSSI +2.8%, IDEX +2.7%, ERI +2.3%, ZM +2%, NKLA +1.7%, AAPL +1.5%, KN +1.5%, SNY +1.3%, UNVR +1.2%, LEN +1.2%, LLY +1.1%, CZR +0.9%
- Gapping down:
- CNST -6.7%, AAXN -3.8%, CLDX -3.8%, IRT -1.5%
Apple Faces Two EU Antitrust Probes Over Apps
EU opens probes into Apple Pay service, App Store
BRUSSELS—European Union antitrust authorities launched two probes into whether Apple Inc. AAPL 1.24% violated competition laws through its Apple Pay service and its App Store for software that runs on its mobile devices.
If found guilty, Apple could face a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue and be forced to adjust its business practices.
The probes follow complaints from Apple rivals including music-streaming service Spotify Technology SA, which last year filed an antitrust complaint with the EU against Apple over allegedly restrictive rules for developers that use its App Store.
Separately, the EU has fielded complaints that Apple has abused its control over the Apple Pay payments service to force app developers into using its system rather than those of rivals. In its announcement Tuesday, the EU said it would examine how Apple allows only its own Apple Pay service to use the no-contact payment system built into Apple devices.
Apple has defended its practice of taking a 30% cut of sales through the App Store. The company denied hurting rivals and said it wants apps that compete with its services to thrive.
Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services.
Apple: EU opens investigations into Apple's App Store rules
"The European Commission has opened formal antitrust investigations to assess whether Apple's rules for app developers on the distribution of apps via the App Store violate EU competition rules. The investigations concern in particular the mandatory use of Apple's own proprietary in-app purchase system and restrictions on the ability of developers to inform iPhone and iPad users of alternative cheaper purchasing possibilities outside of apps."
Wirecard is facing its day of reckoning. Investors in the 12.4 billion euro German payments group that has tried to bat away accusations of financial impropriety for 18 months are hoping for a resolution when it publishes delayed 2019 annual results on Thursday. Yet even if auditor EY gives its seal of approval to the company’s accounts, Chief Executive Markus Braun’s job will be at risk.
The Bavaria-based company, which processes electronic payments for businesses and customers, is due to publish its audited financial statements after several delays. Braun’s company said in May that EY needed more time. A special investigation into older accounts by KPMG concluded in April that Wirecard and its business partners had not provided sufficient documentation to address all allegations of accounting irregularities made by the Financial Times.
There are three possible outcomes this week. First, EY could refuse to sign off on Wirecard’s 2019 accounts due to material misstatements. That would destroy any remaining faith investors have in the company’s numbers and make Braun’s position untenable. Alternatively, the auditors could give a “qualified opinion”, meaning they had found serious but non-pervasive problems. That too would damage Braun, since Wirecard has always denied the accusations and said only last month it was expecting an unqualified opinion – accounting jargon for a clean bill of health.
The third scenario, where EY gives Wirecard’s numbers the thumbs up, would therefore be a vindication. However, it would not change the findings of KPMG’s earlier investigation, which was unable to rebuff a key FT accusation that a substantial proportion of Wirecard’s revenue between 2016 and 2018 was booked through three obscure third-party businesses. The auditor said it was not able to conclude whether all of this revenue did or did not exist, largely because the third parties didn’t cooperate with its investigation. Wirecard said the figures had been verified in its audited accounts, and that information for the period may not have been available to KPMG due to data-protection regulations.
Even if the 2019 results get the auditor’s seal of approval, Chairman Thomas Eichelmann would therefore still face pressure to let Braun’s contract lapse when it ends in December. Top-10 shareholder Deka Investment has already called for the CEO’s removal.
Doubts about the company’s results are reflected in its share price. Wirecard is now valued at just 14 times 2020 EBITDA, using Refinitiv data, compared with 23 times for slower-growing peer Worldline. Whatever happens on Thursday, shareholders may conclude that any turnaround starts with demanding Braun’s head.
+266%
Dating Apps Exposed 845 GB of Explicit Photos, Chats, and More - https://bit.ly/2UP048Z
3somes, Gay Daddy Bear, and Herpes Dating are among the nine services that leaked the data of hundreds of thousands of users.
IT'S PAINFULLY COMMON for data to be exposed online. But just because it happens so often that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Especially when that data comes from a slew of dating apps that cater to specific groups and interests.
Security researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar were scanning the open internet on May 24 when they stumbled upon a collection of publicly accessible Amazon Web Services "buckets." Each contained a trove of data from a different specialized dating app, including 3somes, Cougary, Gay Daddy Bear, Xpal, BBW Dating, Casualx, SugarD, Herpes Dating, and GHunt. In all, the researchers found 845 gigabytes and close to 2.5 million records, likely representing data from hundreds of thousands of users. They are publishing their findings today with vpnMentor.
The information was particularly sensitive and included sexually explicit photos and audio recordings. The researchers also found screenshots of private chats from other platforms and receipts for payments, sent between users within the app as part of the relationships they were building. And though the exposed data included limited "personally identifying information," like real names, birthdays, or email addresses, the researchers warn that a motivated hacker could have used the photos and other miscellaneous information available to identify many users. The data may not have actually been breached, but the potential was there.
"We were amazed by the size and how sensitive the data was," Locar says. "The risk of doxing that exists with this kind of thing is very real—extortion, psychological abuse. As a user of one of these apps you don’t expect that others outside the app would be able to see and download the data."
As the researchers traced the exposed S3 buckets they realized that all of the apps seemed to come from the same source. Their infrastructure was fairly uniform, the websites for the apps all had the same layout, and many of the apps listed "Cheng Du New Tech Zone" as the developer on Google Play. On May 26, two days after the initial finding, the researchers contacted 3somes. The next day, they got a brief response, and all of the buckets were locked down simultaneously.
WIRED reached out to 3somes and Herpes Dating and attempted to reach Cheng Du New Tech Zone, but did not receive a reply.
This was not a hack; it was sloppily stored data. The researchers don't know whether anyone else discovered the exposed trove before they did. That's always crux of the issue with data exposures: mistakenly making data accessible is at best an inconsequential mistake, but at worst can hand hackers a data breach on a silver platter. And in the case of this cadre of dating apps in particular, the information could have a real impact on user safety if it was stolen before the developer locked it down. So many breaches contain data like email addresses and passwords, which is bad enough. But when data leaks from sites like Ashley Madison, Grindr, or Cam4, it creates the potential for doxing, extortion, and other dire online abuse. In this case, Herpes Dating could even potentially reveal someone's health status.
"It's so difficult to navigate. How much trust are we putting into apps to feel comfortable putting up that sensitive data—STD information, videos," says Nina Alli, executive director of the Biohacking Village at Defcon and biomedical security researcher. "This is a detrimental way to out someone’s sexual health status. It's not something to be ashamed of, but there's stigma, because it's easier to yuck at someone else’s proclivities. When it comes to STD status the outing of this data would mean that other people won't want to get tested. That is a big peril of this situation."
AWS and other cloud providers have increasingly added mechanisms to repeatedly warn users if their buckets are configured to be publicly accessible. And the problem is well known across the security industry. But there are still countless mistakes that lead to exposures.
"This isn’t an Amazon problem," Locar says. "The organization that developed these apps messed up the configuration. And that's dangerous to users. Some kid in college shouldn't have to worry that someone outside the app will find their photos where they're wearing their college shirt and put it all together."
If you use one of the affected apps there's not a lot you can do to protect against the possibility that the data was stolen before the researchers found it. There wasn't a specific trove of passwords in the exposed data, so changing your password likely won't do much. It's still a good time to make sure you have a strong, unique password on your account, though. Hopefully the developer locked down the cloud infrastructure before anyone grabbed the information, but if your data starts leaking out try not to panic. And if you are doxed, here are a few ways to help manage the fallout.
>>> Up
* Bayer Raised to Buy at Commerzbank; PT 84 euros (+)
* Credit Suisse PT Raised to 8 Swiss francs at Credit Suisse
* Daimler Raised to Buy at BofA; PT 43 euros (+)
* Elior Group Raised to Buy at Citi
* Enersense Raised to Buy at Inderes; PT 2.50 euros (+)
* Expert System Raised to Buy at MainFirst; PT 3.70 euros
* Hapag-Lloyd Raised to Buy at Bankhaus Metzler; PT 69 euros
* RELX Raised to Hold at Investec; PT 1,850 pence (+)
* Rockwool Raised to Hold at Handelsbanken; PT 1,850 kroner
* Sampo Oyj Raised to Buy at Inderes (+)
* Team17 Raised to Hold at Jefferies; PT 537 pence
* Volvo Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 180 kronor
>>> Down
* Admiral Cut to Reduce at Peel Hunt; PT 2,120 pence
* Big Yellow Group Cut to Hold at Berenberg; PT 1,050 pence
* Porsche SE Cut to Neutral at BofA (+)
* Saipem PT Cut to 3.70 euros at Banca Akros (ESN) (+)
* Sbanken Cut to Hold at Arctic Securities; PT 66 kroner
* Sodexo Cut to Neutral at Citi
* SpareBank 1 Ringerike Hadeland Cut to Sell at Arctic Securities
* SpareBank 1 Nord Norge Cut to Hold at Arctic Securities
* Sparebanken More Cut to Hold at Arctic Securities
* VW Cut to Neutral at BofA (+)
>>> Initiation
* Eutelsat Reinstated Buy at Deutsche Bank; PT 14 euros
* JDE PEET'S Rated New Underperform at Jefferies; PT 31.25 euros
* SES GDRs Resumed Buy at Deutsche Bank; PT 11 euros
* Renault Reinstated Buy at BofA; PT 27 euros (+)
* SoftwareONE Rated New Overweight at Morgan Stanley
>>> Call
* Admiral Downgraded at Peel on Valuation, Recessionary Impact (+)
* European Satellites Still Offer Attractions, Deutsche Bank Says
* Hapag-Lloyd Double-Upgraded to Buy as Metzler Sees Positive 2Q (+)
* Sodexo Cut at Citi on Guidance, Covenants Worry; Elior Upgraded
* Teleperformance New Neutral at Citi Amid Potential Margin Risk (+)
* Team17 Sees Strong Sales Traction; Too Early to Assess FY Impact (+)
* Volkswagen, Porsche Cut at BofA on 2Q Outlook, Daimler Raised