I think it is safe to say that the entire world has caught Olympic fever as we all remain glued to our televisions, or for real-time results, glued to our bootlegged internet streams, sorry NBC. And yesterday was an especially exciting day for Team USA, as one of our own made Olympic history. I am obviously talking about Michael Phelps, who anchored the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, aiding his team in a gold medal victory. This win marks the 19th medal for Phelps, making him the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. Although he did not sweep gold as we have seen him do in past years, he will still go down in history as one of the greatest Olympians, in
the world, but he’s not done yet, Phelps still has 3 more events in London before he officially retires. The American Ladies however were not to be out done by Phelps, as the Fab Five took home the first Olympic Gymnastics Gold since 1996. With a score that beat out the Russian team by 5 points, many have begun to refer to the 2012 team as the best US Gymnastics team our country has ever seen, and after a 16 year wait for gold, I think we can all agree that the Fab Five was worth the hype.
As if their loss to the US women wasn’t disappointing enough, Europe suffers more disappointing news, as two of Europe’s biggest financial institutions, Deutsche Bank of Germany and UBS of Switzerland, reported that profits plunged in the second quarter
as the banking industry continues to struggle with the European debt crisis. Both banks experienced drops in trading activity, which negatively impacted the firms’ investment banking units. During the second quarter, Deutsche Bank’s net income dropped 46 percent, while UBS’s profit, which also reflects its loss on the Facebook offering, fell 58
percent. UBS accused NASDAQ of trading errors that erased a large portion of
the banks second-quarter profit. The bank said it will begin legal proceedings to recoup the 356 million dollar losses related to the glitches. The amount UBS is seeking is well beyond the 62 million dollars Nasdaq has allotted to cover losses associated with Facebook’s deal. On a side note, Facebook shares dropped to $21.61 during Tuesday’s
trading session — marking a new low only two months after the company’s initial public offering. That means Facebook shares are now 43% below IPO price when it hit the market. I hope Priscilla Chan made Zuckerburg sign a pre-nup because she may
quickly become the sole breadwinner in this family.
Twitter is now making it a little easier for users to keep up with stock updates from Corporateprofile.com. Building on the popular hashtag, the company quietly unveiled a new feature that many are unofficially referring to as the “cashtag”. The company rolled out the announcement early on Monday, where else, but on their twitter page. When composing tweets about a company stock, twitter users can now simply add a dollar sign in front of Ticker symbols to create a hyperlink, sending users to an aggregated list of twitter search results for that particular stock. Many users have noted that the new search feature is very similar to the existing Twitter platform, StockTwits. The CEO of StockTwits Howard Lindzon, noticed the similarities as well, and has reportedly accused the real-time social media platform of “hijacking” the idea. According to StockTwits CEO Twitter previously rejected his cashtag like proposal. Although, StockTwits was disappointed by the copycat feature, the company is not concerned about losing business, Lindzon was quoted saying “You can hijack a plane but it does not mean you know how to fly it.”
I think it is safe to say that the entire world has caught Olympic fever as we all remain glued to our televisions, or for real-time results, glued to our bootlegged internet streams, sorry NBC. And yesterday was an especially exciting day for Team USA, as one of our own made Olympic history. I am obviously talking about Michael Phelps, who anchored the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, aiding his team in a gold medal victory. This win marks the 19th medal for Phelps, making him the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. Although he did not sweep gold as we have seen him do in past years, he will still go down in history as one of the greatest Olympians, in
the world, but he’s not done yet, Phelps still has 3 more events in London before he officially retires. The American Ladies however were not to be out done by Phelps, as the Fab Five took home the first Olympic Gymnastics Gold since 1996. With a score that beat out the Russian team by 5 points, many have begun to refer to the 2012 team as the best US Gymnastics team our country has ever seen, and after a 16 year wait for gold, I think we can all agree that the Fab Five was worth the hype.
As if their loss to the US women wasn’t disappointing enough, Europe suffers more disappointing news, as two of Europe’s biggest financial institutions, Deutsche Bank of Germany and UBS of Switzerland, reported that profits plunged in the second quarter
as the banking industry continues to struggle with the European debt crisis. Both banks experienced drops in trading activity, which negatively impacted the firms’ investment banking units. During the second quarter, Deutsche Bank’s net income dropped 46 percent, while UBS’s profit, which also reflects its loss on the Facebook offering, fell 58
percent. UBS accused NASDAQ of trading errors that erased a large portion of
the banks second-quarter profit. The bank said it will begin legal proceedings to recoup the 356 million dollar losses related to the glitches. The amount UBS is seeking is well beyond the 62 million dollars Nasdaq has allotted to cover losses associated with Facebook’s deal. On a side note, Facebook shares dropped to $21.61 during Tuesday’s
trading session — marking a new low only two months after the company’s initial public offering. That means Facebook shares are now 43% below IPO price when it hit the market. I hope Priscilla Chan made Zuckerburg sign a pre-nup because she may
quickly become the sole breadwinner in this family.
Twitter is now making it a little easier for users to keep up with stock updates from Corporateprofile.com. Building on the popular hashtag, the company quietly unveiled a new feature that many are unofficially referring to as the “cashtag”. The company rolled out the announcement early on Monday, where else, but on their twitter page. When composing tweets about a company stock, twitter users can now simply add a dollar sign in front of Ticker symbols to create a hyperlink, sending users to an aggregated list of twitter search results for that particular stock. Many users have noted that the new search feature is very similar to the existing Twitter platform, StockTwits. The CEO of StockTwits Howard Lindzon, noticed the similarities as well, and has reportedly accused the real-time social media platform of “hijacking” the idea. According to StockTwits CEO Twitter previously rejected his cashtag like proposal. Although, StockTwits was disappointed by the copycat feature, the company is not concerned about losing business, Lindzon was quoted saying “You can hijack a plane but it does not mean you know how to fly it.”