$Block(SQ.US)$ is changing its corporate name to Block as the company continues to focus on developing blockchain tech solutions.
Shares rise 1.1% in after-hours trading.
There will be no organizational changes as Square, Cash App, TIDAL and TBD54566975 will continue to maintain their respective brands.
As a result of the name change, Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the company dedicated to advancing Bitcoin, will also change its name to Spiral.
The legal name "Square, Inc." is expected to be officially changed to "Block, Inc." on or about Dec. 10 of this year, and the company's NYSE ticker symbol "SQ" will not change at this time, the company says.
"Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same," Square Co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey says.
Previously, (Nov. 29) Square's CEO Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO of Twitter.

$Grab Holdings(GRAB.US)$ $Altimeter Growth Corp(AGC.US)$ Grab's Q3 adjusted net sales stand at $429mn, 22% decline QoQ. Grab's Q3 revenue also declined 13% QoQ. This implies incentives to consumers declined 27% QoQ. It is a comfort to see that revenue is less sensitive to consumer incentives. A more worrying sign would be increasing adjusted net sales (or incentives) and declining revenue. Since incentives to consumers declined more than revenue, there isn't evidence suggesting an anomaly or discrepancy. Rather, the decline is more likely to stern from the business environment, which is what Grab has reminded investors about in Q2.
In Q2, Grab warned investors about potential severe COVID19-related mobility restrictions in Southeast Asia. During the period, Grab's full-year 2021 projection has considered the potential of partial and total lockdowns in various countries where the company operates as a consequence of COVID19's continued expansion. Grab's fear came true as COVID cases in SEA countries reached a new all-time high in Q3 due to the Delta variant. The Philippines reimposed lockdowns on Sept. 9, a day after announcing the lifting of stay-at-home orders for more than 13mn people. In August, Vietnam has also imposed a strict stay-at-home order in Ho Chi Minh City's southern suburbs and dispatched the army to assist quarantined citizens.
Therefore, it is no surprise that Grab attributed the decline in overall revenue to the lockdown, especially in Vietnam. This claim is accurate. By referring to Table 1, we can see that the decrease in revenue is mainly derived from its mobility segment. If we expand our analysis time period, we can observe that Grab's underperformance (drop in revenue) in 2021 is caused mainly by its mobility segment. Grab's Q2 mobility segment revenue, and total revenue dropped $27mn and $35mn QoQ, respectively. Grab's Q3 mobility segment revenue and total dropped $30mn and $23mn QoQ, respectively. The decline in the mobility segment coincides with increases in COVID19 cases across SEA (Figure 4). Therefore, Grab's claim that its decline in revenue is contributed by the lockdowns and travel restrictions across SEA.
Despite the drop in revenue, activities (GMV) on the company's platform actually increased 5% during the period. This may not seem like a big deal, but this statistic actually invalidated one of our previous hypotheses (maturing market). In Q2, Grab's GMV only increased 6.5% in spite of a 27% increase in incentives. This suggested that Grab's market is reaching maturity. However, Grab's GMV increased 4.1% (QoQ) in spite of a 27% (QoQ) decline in Q3. This means that Grab's GMV growth isn't fueled by incentives as much as initially thought.
Following Grab's narrative, monthly transacting users (MTU) also declined due to lockdowns. This is also expected. However, what was unexpected is GMV per MTU actually increased. This further proves that Grab indeed has a network effect where activities (GMV) of existing users increase. This is crucial to Grab's overall growth for several reasons:
It is unlikely for Grab to expand beyond SEA. This is because Grab, Uber, and DiDi (NYSE:DIDI) share equity with one another. Therefore, it is unlikely for them to compete with one another.
Due to the limited geographical expansion, it is clear that Grab has to upsell and cross-sell new products to the existing userbase to increase the revenue stream.
For these very reasons, Grab's increase in GMV and GMV per MTU is a positive takeaway. With UBER as comps, Grab has to grow at 35% CAGR on top of a fully recovered pre-pandemic mobility segment over the next five years. This feat is very challenging. Firstly, the majority of Grab's revenue is derived from its mobility segment. Based on the relationship between COVID19 cases and Grab's mobility segment (Figure 4 and Table 1), we expect Grab's Q4 mobility segment to be in between Q1's and Q2's, somewhere around $135mn. This figure only represents around 6.75% of the pre-pandemic level (approximately $2bn). Hence, there is still a very long way to go. Secondly, we don't expect food delivery to grow materially from here as we expect the need for food delivery to decrease when the economy reopens. Hence, food delivery is not expected to contribute to Grab's overall growth. Thirdly, financial service and enterprise & new initiatives' overall contribution to revenue is only marginal. Hence, it is difficult to justify Grab at its current $52bn valuation.
Moreover, investors will lose the $10 NAV safety net once the Grab-AGC merger is completed. This adds to investors' downside risks. In addition, the overall macroeconomy conditions add to the difficulty in investing in high-growth companies. High inflation erodes the value of future earnings, while any form of tapering or rate hikes will devalue Grab's intrinsic value.

$NASDAQ 100 Index(.NDX.US)$ From a technical analysis viewpoint, anybody seeing the daily nasdaq trend forming a clear "head and shoulders"?

$Apple(AAPL.US)$ I believe these will sell in greater numbers than in years past, as people come to terms with their decreased discretionary income resulting from inflation. The subsidized versions from prepaid carriers should sell very well. They are a relative bargain so long as Google can't manage to compel Android phone OEMs to continue security updates for 4-5 years as Apple pushes to its cheaper phones. Apple's able to differentiate its budget iPhone thanks to what appears to be either laziness or else an unwillingness on Google's part to enforce security standards on OEMs licensing its code. This is demonstrated by indie Android OS's like LineageOS providing security updates based on Google's open source AOSP code for old phones from 2014 like the Samsung Galaxy S3
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/s3ve3gds/
Apple has limited cannibalization of the more expensive Apple phones' sales by keeping the screen on the smaller end, although the processor and overall quality remains high relative to Androids priced at these levels.

$Microsoft(MSFT.US)$ I guess no one's bothered by the fact that the CEO of Microsoft just sold half of his shares. Usually they would be laddered in over time to capture any up and down swings. Selling half of your shares seems like an aggressive move and a vote of no confidence in the future.

Hot Latin American neobank $Nu Holdings(NU.US)$ scaled back its upcoming U.S.-Brazilian dual-listing IPO Tuesday, estimating the go-public deal will now value the $TENCENT(00700.HK)$- and Berkshire Hathaway $Berkshire Hathaway-A(BRK.A.US)$ $Berkshire Hathaway-B(BRK.B.US)$-backed firm at $47.1B − $3B less than originally expected.
NU wrote in a revised F-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it now expects the bank’s Class A shares will fetch $8 to $9 apiece, down from the $10-$11/share that the firm previously forecast.
And while NuBank reiterated plans to sell as many as roughly 289.2M Class A shares through the offering, the firm scaled back and modified terms of underwriters’ overallotment options.
Whereas certain of NU’s pre-IPO investors had previously planned to offer some 43.4M Class A shares for overallotments, the bank has instead granted underwriters the option to buy roughly 28.6M such shares directly from the NuBank itself.
The neobank also disclosed for the first time that a virtual who’s who of A-list investors have expressed non-binding interest in collectively buying $1.3B of its Class A IPO shares.
Purchasers include major pre-IPO backers Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management, along with entities affiliated with or managed by Baillie Gifford, Dragoneer, Invesco, Morgan Stanley, Sands Capital Management and SoftBank.
The company also plans to make some $32.2M of Brazilian Depositary Receipts (or "BDRs") available to employees and institutional investors, while also using some for a customer-loyalty program. The BDRs, which will trade on the Brazilian Stock Exchange, will be worth one-sixth of a Class A share apiece.
Additionally, NU reiterated plans to have Class B shares for company co-founders David Osorno, Cristina Zingaretti Junqueira and Adam Wible or their affiliates. Each Class B share will have 20 votes vs. one vote per Class A share, giving the founders some 86.9% of the company’s voting power − including 75% just for Osorno, who’s also the bank’s CEO.
All told, NuBank now expects to have some 4.6B Class A and B shares outstanding following the offering. That will value the company at about $36.9B to $47.1B on a non-diluted basis, depending on how many overallotment shares underwriters buy and where the IPO prices within its forecast range. By contrast, the IPO’s initial terms put NU’s non-diluted value at up to $50B.
Eight-year-old NuBank has been shaking up Latin America’s financial-services industry by running a digital-first operation that offers consumers credit cards, personal loans, life insurance and more. The popular bank has more than 48M customers in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
In addition to Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, NU’s other major pre-IPO backers include Tencent and DST, while Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested $500M in June.
NuBank wrote in its revised F-1 that it expects to net some $2.4B if the IPO prices at a midpoint $8.50 a share, rising to about $2.6B if underwriters fully exercise their overallotment options.
The bank said it plans to use the money for working capital, operating expenses, capital expenditures, possible acquisitions and other general corporate purposes.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweets that a lot has happened in the eight years since he sent an e-mail to employees on why he wants to keep the company private.
Of course, Musk has been able to fund $Tesla(TSLA.US)$'s growth through the public path.
If SpaceX were to go public, a few ETFs that might be a natural fit are the $Procure Space Etf(UFO.US)$, $Ishares Trust U.S. Aerospace & Defense Etf(ITA.US)$ and $ARK Innovation ETF(ARKK.US)$.
The last secondary sales by SpaceX were at $560 a share or a valuation of around $100.3B. Morgan Stanley has a bull case valuation on SpaceX of $200B.

$Ford Motor(F.US)$ I think any projections of EV sales to 2030 is simply guessing, or at best, sales trend line projections. There will be all kinds of disruptions and infrastructure breakdowns (i.e. over-stressed electric grid, lack of charging stations, etc.) Also, I think the battery technology will go through a radical transformation over the next 9 years. I don't know which technologies will win out, but it looks like the LI-Ion battery will go the way of the Dodo bird.

Today's shortened trading day was supposed to be a calm one, given the typically low trading volumes seen on Black Friday, but fears of a new COVID-19 variant found in South Africa is shaking up sentiment. $E-mini Dow Futures(JUN4)(YMmain.US)$ plunged 758 points overnight, while contracts linked to the $E-mini S&P 500 Futures(JUN4)(ESmain.US)$ and $E-mini NASDAQ 100 Futures(JUN4)(NQmain.US)$ fell 1.7% and 1%, respectively, after stocks sold off in Europe and Asia. WTI $Crude Oil Futures(JUN4)(CLmain.US)$ also tumbled nearly 5% to under $75 as the U.K. imposed fresh travel restrictions and investors reacted to panic over future demand.
The new variant: Believed to have first emerged in Botswana, B.1.1.529 will be called as such until until a Greek letter is assigned to it by the World Health Organization. The variant carries an unusually large number of mutations associated with increased antibody resistance and is "clearly very different" from previous incarnations. South African scientists have already detected 30 mutations to the spike protein, which play a big role in how the virus enters the body.
The biggest concern is whether the virus could lead to more serious illness or decrease the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments. While we don't yet know whether it's more infectious or deadly than other variants, it's spreading across the globe. B.1.1.529 has been found in travelers arriving in Hong Kong, just as COVID cases surge around the world heading into the holiday season.
Go deeper: The World Health Organization has scheduled a special meeting for today to discuss whether to declare the new strain a "variant of concern." "For the moment it is understood that the number of cases is small, but due to the thin liquidity levels in Asia trading as a consequence of the U.S. holiday the reaction does appear to be outsized," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. Other variants of concern include the Delta variant, which is now dominant worldwide, as well as the Alpha variant, which triggered a deadly wave of infections across Europe and the U.S. last winter and spring.

$Sono Group(SEV.US)$ On Sono's website, it states only EUR500 required as deposit which can be refunded up till when the Co reverts with a formal order (ie when they have visibility on production schedule).... Not sure these pre-orders are much different vs other EV makers...ie they are all meaningless.