6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:55PM EDT · Published Sep 6, 5:02AM EDT

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © courtesy of Nissan USA

Nissan launched an electric car with autonomous driving features. The new Leaf will be direct competition with General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Bolt and Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) new Model 3.

Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google has started to increase its Chinese employment base to develop its artificial intelligence business, according to The Wall Street Journal. Virtually every large tech company in the world has similar aspirations to add AI to its suites of products.

Customers of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) and Rockwell Collins Inc. (NYSE: COL) said they have objections to a marriage between the two companies, fearing a monopoly. Among those upset were Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Airbus, which are major customers of one or both of the public companies that plan to merge.

According to a report by Reuters, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) artificially increases the value of its advertising. The news service reports:

Facebook inflates the number of people who can see the advertisements on its platform, a Pivotal Research Group analyst said in a note.

Facebook’s Ads Manager claims a potential reach of 41 million 18- to 24-year olds and 60 million 25- to 34-year olds in the United States, whereas U.S. census data shows that last year there were a total of 31 million people between the ages of 18 and 24, and 45 million in the 25-34 age group, the analyst said.

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One of the most well-known Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) watchers on Wall Street, Gene Munster, says the company’s stock will dive after its releases its new iPhone. CNBC reports:

Apple’s next iPhone cycle is expected to be one of the biggest yet — but that doesn’t necessarily mean the stock will keep soaring, according to one of the company’s most well-known followers.

There could be a 10 percent pullback in Apple shares in the next one to three months, Gene Munster told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Tuesday.

“The trading history over the past four years is a little bit difficult to look at — just what happens when the product’s announced to three months after,” said Munster, who covered Apple for years as a Wall Street analyst before becoming a managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures.

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm, may hit Florida, affecting its economy and increasing the prices of commodities, like orange juice, that it produces.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.