Watch out, Gary Gensler. Donald Trump wants to give you the sack.
The former president and current Republican presidential candidate told supporters at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville that he wants to bounce the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair.
“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler," Trump said, according to Axios, to much applause, prompting the star of The Apprentice to say it again to even greater applause.
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Trump, who once dismissed bitcoin as a “scam,” positioned himself as the pro-cryptocurrency candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, Reuters reported.
He said he would make the U.S. the world's cryptocurrency leader and embrace friendlier regulations than likely Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
“If we don't embrace crypto and bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will,” Trump said. “They'll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate. They are making too much progress as it is.”
Last week, Twitch, the Amazon (AMZN) -owned video live-streaming service, reinstated Trump's account, three years after the former president was suspended indefinitely by the platform following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, GeekWire reported on July 19.
“We believe there is value in hearing from presidential nominees directly, when possible,” Twitch said in the statement, a day after Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination for president.
Donald Trump's contentious Twitch relationship
The former president launched a Twitch channel in 2019 to stream rallies and other events. Less than a year later, in June 2020, it was temporarily suspended over what Twitch called “hateful conduct” in video streams.
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Twitch said it will continue to enforce its community guidelines “and take necessary enforcement action when we identify violations of our rules.”
The former president launched a Twitch channel in 2019 to stream rallies and other events. Less than a year later, in June 2020, it was temporarily suspended over what Twitch called “hateful conduct” in video streams.
Amazon purchased Twitch Interactive in 2014 for $970 million, and the platform is reportedly unprofitable despite periods of significant popularity, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited current and former employees who are knowledgeable about its finances,
Twitch’s highest-paying users are spending less, and third-party data shows slowed growth in new users and engagement, the Journal reported.
In January, Twitch announced laying off 35% of its staff, with CEO Dan Clancy writing in a blog post that the company has cut over 500 people because "it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”
The move came after Twitch announced in March last year that it had laid off over 400 employees due to “the current macroeconomic environment” and “user and revenue growth” not keeping pace with the company’s expectations.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Amazon earnings to highlight Prime Day, AI efforts
The e-commerce and entertainment giant will report second-quarter results on August 1.
Evercore ISI said on July 29 that it is removing Amazon from the firm “Tactical Underperform” list ahead of earnings as the firm said that it sees “a modest beat & bracket quarter as the most likely outcome” for the company's second-quarter earnings report.
The firm said that it believes revenue and operating income upside is likely for Q2 but also sees limited upside--but not downside risk--to third-quarter revenue and operating income estimates.
Evercore has an outperform rating and a $225 price target on Amazon shares.
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In the first quarter, Amazon earned 98 cents a share, more than triple the 31 cents of the year-earlier period, beating the FactSet analyst consensus of 84 cents.
Revenue totaled $143.3 billion, up from $127.4 billion a year earlier and coming in ahead of FactSet's call for $142.6 billion.
"We remain focused on driving better experiences for our customers while also delivering efficiency improvements," CEO Andy Jassy told analysts during the company's April 30 earnings call. "Our financial results are an encouraging reminder of the progress we're making."
Last week, BMO Capital raised Amazon's price target to $230 from $220 and kept an outperform rating on the shares.
Based on Google (GOOGL) Cloud's growth acceleration, Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing platform, is on a path for durable revenue growth through at least 2025, the firm said.
On July 25, GE HealthCare (GEHC) , a medical technology company that was spun off from General Electric last year, and AWS announced a strategic collaboration to develop purpose-built foundation models and generative artificial intelligence applications designed to help clinicians improve medical diagnostics and patient care
GE HealthCare picked AWS as its strategic cloud provider and plans to use its healthcare and generative AI services “to build and implement new, versatile foundation models to transform the future of healthcare,” the companies said in a statement.
BMO said that same-day and next-day growth of 14% should also result in greater frequency and higher incremental retail margins despite the ongoing growth of Temu, an online marketplace operated by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holding.
AWS reported first-quarter revenue of $25 billion, up 17% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s estimates of $24.5 billion.
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