What We're Reading

When EBAY was blow torched this week after AAPL unveiled Apple Pay at their investor event on September 7th, I saw the knee-jerk fear that Apple Pay would take down PayPal as one to raise an eyebrow, however considering the possible number of iphone6 and Apple watch sales (because it won't be available on current Apple products) versus worldwide usage of PayPal, this would not something that would immediately destroy the EBAY name.  On Wednesday I jumped in on EBAY calls (cheap at that point) feeling the reaction was over done.

Booyah!  Was I glad today that I did.  Dumb luck is definitely better than no luck at all.

Not only are other market participants now beginning to question the depth of impact from Apple Pay (again only available on the new iPhone6 or Apple Watch), but it's overall security in a day and age of endless hackers when it comes to one's digital wallet replacing their plastic card and cash.

Then today the news hit when EBAY announced they are set to launch an

When Jack Ma founded the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba in 1999, one of his stated goals was to build a company that will last for at least 102 years so that it would span from the 20th to the 22nd centuries. Now with products, technology and marketing -- what Alibaba has done is a great combination of all three.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba ($BABA) is expected to begin an eagerly awaited roadshow for what could be the largest ever IPO early in the week of September 8, and its shares could list as soon as September 18 or 19, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Expected to raise about $20bn when it lists on the NYSE rivaling the Agricultural Bank of China’s $22.1bn IPO from July 2010, currently the largest on record.

Alibaba’s ability to make a transition to mobile has been a focus of analysts and investors as China’s tech groups square off for customers glued to smartphones. Last week, the company announced a surge in mobile revenues for the second quarter.

A tenf

• Amazon ($AMZN) is developing plans to roll out it's own payment solutions program to compete with PayPal ($EBAY) but sorry guys.........no Bitcoin is not part of their master plan. Note Amazong already has over 200 million credit cards already in their registered accounts.  This after plans came out the Facebook ($FB) is planning the same.  We have been accumulating EBAY for months but all of this is not good news for the online name.
• People's Bank of China disclosed it withdrew 172B yuan ($28B) through repurchase agreements. China's money supply grew at its weakest pace in over a decade during March. Shares of banks and brokerage firms in China stumbled on concerns of capital outflow. 
• Many will be watching for a follow through up day in the indexes today as the Nasdaq bounced off of February support.  If this is the case, watch for precious metals to take a beating.
• Investor confidence in Germany fell for a 4th straight month which has a depressing effect on sentiment because German

Step aside Sears and Roebuck catalog.  As if brick and mortar wasn't already struggling against online shopping, EBay Inc is launching virtual stores called "shoppable windows" this month that the e-commerce company hopes will help retailers generate more sales from their existing physical store networks.

The screens, which have been Beta tested in San Jose the last few months, will now be expanded to four locations in NYC according to an eBay blog.

The new screens measure about 9 feet across and 2 feet (0.6 meter) high and will appear on the front windows of closed stores. Shoppers will be able to touch the screens to order and have products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Payment will be accepted by the couriers through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by eBay.  Read more........