Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) was slammed by some customers for appearing to increase the prices of basic goods like water ahead of the approach of Hurricane Florence in the Southeastern United States, a report by Business Insider said.
Many local customers in the path of the hurricane found that water cases cost over US$20, far more than their usual cost. Amazon said it is taking steps to correct the problem.
"We do not engage in surge pricing, and product prices do not fluctuate by region or delivery location," an Amazon spokesperson said in the report.
Amazon shares were up 0.3% to US1,995.96 by midsession on Wednesday, briefly trading at US$2,008.76, the high for the day.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the social media conglomerate is in better shape to fight election meddling in the US ahead of the November mid-term elections in the country, a report by Cnet said.
Zuckerberg said that fake accounts will be identified and removed from the platform while the spread of "viral misinformation" will either be contained or taken down.
He added that Facebook will make information about ads and their advertisers more transparent to users to improve accountability, while anyone running "political or issue ads" in the US will now be required to verify their identity and location.
Shares of Facebook eased 0.27% to US$161.56.
READ: Apple introduces three new super-powered iPhones and upgraded Apple Watch in Hollywood-style show
Goldman Sachs Inc (NYSE:GS) cut its earnings forecast for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) after the iPhone giant released its new lineup of pricey smartphones, a report by CNBC said.
The investment bank lowered its fiscal 2019 earnings per share estimate to US$13.77 from US$14.53 and reiterated its Neutral rating for Apple's stock.
"Apple rolled out new iPhones as expected but the new LCD 'XR' model was priced lower than we had thought likely. This effectively obsoletes two iPhone 8/8+ SKUs in our opinion and drives us to reduce our ASP [average selling price] and earnings estimates, offset slightly by a higher unit forecast," analyst Rod Hall said in a note to clients.
Apple shares were up almost 3% to US$227.47, having hit a session top of US$228.35.
The most cost-effective country to watch shows of Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) is Japan, which has 6,000 movies and TV shows, the most of 24 countries in a study by technology research company Comparitech, a report by Business Insider said.
The cheapest country to use Netflix is in Turkey, where the monthly cost is US$3.27. The most expensive is Norway, which only has 3,000 titles and the monthly cost is US$10.95. The US has the second largest library of movies and television shows, the report said.
Netflix stock was 0.8% higher at US$372.96.
FAANG Report: Google challenges EU on right to be forgotten; Facebook execs grilled on data breaches
European lawmakers approved an overhaul of copyright law which could force tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to install filers to prevent copyright-protected content from being uploaded, a report by CNBC said.
Critics said the law would normalize censorship and restrict internet freedom, preventing users from being able to post content ranging from memes to links to articles from news outlets.
The controversy mainly surrounds two sections of the law, Articles 11 and 13.
Article 11 would grant press publications copyright over the sharing of their content online, meaning they would be able to charge services like Google News for aggregating their stories. Critics have dubbed this as an effective "link tax," but proponents say hyperlinks will be exempt.
Article 13 calls for "effective content recognition" technology to filter out copyright-protected content. This part of the law could threaten social media users' ability to share anything from internet memes to snippets of music and film.
Google shares rose by 0.9% to US$1,173.27.