Technology

Merrill Lynch Out With Huge Internet Catalysts for July and Beyond

Lee Jackson

Published: June 21, 2017 8:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 10:51 am

The first day of summer is here and it’s hard to believe that almost half the year is already over. With the third quarter less than 10 days away, many of the major firms on Wall Street that we cover here at 24/7 Wall St. are busy putting out reports on second-half activity and expectations. After a solid first half, it will be interesting to see how the market responds to not only earnings and guidance, but numerous other potential catalysts.

In a new Merrill Lynch report, Justin Post and his internet team feature what could prove to be a slew of potential catalysts in what they term as the “catalyst matrix.” While that sounds intriguing, the fact of the matter is they have as many as 56 potential internet catalysts on their radar for the second half of 2017. Here we focused in on the big catalysts for July and the third quarter.

1. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has its Prime Day. Prime Day is a one-day-only global shopping event exclusively for Prime members. With thousands of deals worldwide, members get exclusive access to the biggest discounts on things across nearly every product category.

2. The lock-up on shares of Snap Inc. (NASDAQ: SNAP) means a deluge of stock could hit the tape, and with current price back near the IPO level, things could get interesting.

3. The merger between Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) and IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC) Home Adviser. After two years of wooing, Angie’s List has finally agreed to be acquired by IAC. After the deal closes, Angie’s List will be combined with HomeAdvisor, IAC’s home services marketplace, into a new public company called ANGI Homeservices.

4. Destiny 2 is set to be one of the biggest video games of the year, building on the ideas and universe established in Bungie’s online console shooter that debuted back in 2014. The incredibly popular game returns to both PS4 and Xbox One, and it is making its series debut on PC. Many of the higher level details about the story, environments and a bevy of new and returning features are already known. However, there are a few things gamer’s don’t know quite yet, such as how the all-important end-game raid will play out. The start time for those who preorder is expected to be July 18.

5. Amazon will begin streaming NFL football games in 2017, and this could have a huge impact for the millennial generation, many of whom eschew cable or satellite programming and stream all their content.

6) Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) launches the Android O, which is the code name of an upcoming release of the Android mobile operating system. It was first released as an alpha quality developer preview on March 21, 2017. The second developer preview was released on May 17, 2017, and it is considered beta quality.

7) Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) launches new content, which will be closely tracked by Wall Street. Titles include “The Standups,” “Castlevania,” “Friends From College,” “To the Bone,” “Ari Shaffir: Double Negative (2 Specials)” and many more.

The bottom line is that the excitement around July will certainly be getting bigger as we get closer. The big reality is that the internet and the new applications, content and mergers and acquisitions still make it the most exciting and innovative place for investors with risk tolerance to look. More importantly, the top companies in the industry are just scratching the surface of what is to come.