The week ahead | Calamatta Cuschieri

The Nasdaq index erased a sharp gain on Friday as technology stocks gave back rolled over while Amazon slipped from a record high set earlier in the session.

The tech-heavy index closed flat at 7,119.80 as Apple, Netflix and Alphabet all pulled back. The Dow Jones Index closed lower at 24,311.

Beyond worries about the direction of the market, the week ahead will be stacked with important events, including more earnings updates from key companies, the Federal Open Market Committee policy statement, readings on inflation, and on Friday a report on April jobs.

DocuSign starts trading on Nasdaq after raising $629 million in IPO

Obtaining signatures for business documents may not seem like much of a business, but highly valued startup DocuSign Inc. believes it represents a $25 billion market.

Shares of DocuSign were up more than 30% on Friday morning after the stock began trading on the Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol "DOCU."

DocuSign which enables companies to provide forms to customers and obtain their legally binding electronic signatures on the documents, priced its initial public offering at $29 a share Thursday evening, and trading opened at $38.00. The pricing was $1 higher than its expected range, which had already been elevated from expectations of $24 to $26 a share to $26 to $28.

CEO Dan Springer announced that the IPO money will be spent on doing the same things the company has done thus far, including investment in infrastructure and security, and in making the company "the best place to work" to attract top talent.

One area that DocuSign wants to enhance is its management of corporate documents. Right now, Singer explained, companies might have all their documents in the same place on DocuSign’s platform, but they may not draw conclusions between all of their forms and contracts.

The company believes that facilitating electronic contracts is about more than just obtaining signatures, as its solution can interface with various legal and human-resources systems that firms already use.

DocuSign is the eighth cloud or enterprise software as a service company that has sought to go public this year.

“The enterprise software industry is in a really good place right now because businesses need to digitalize and their employees expect the absolute latest tools and technology,” said an independent director on DocuSign’s board.

Amazon earnings drive up share price towards records higher

Amazon Inc’s massive growth just grew even more massive in the first quarter, as the e-commerce giant reported that profit more than doubled and sales continued to accelerate, and the company announced an increase in Prime subscription prices that should add even more. The company reported net income of $1.6 billion, up from $724 million a year ago. Revenue jumped 43% from last year higher than expectations.

Amazon profit increased 221% year-over-year and the 43% gain in revenue puts the company on track for another increase in revenue growth this year. The company’s subscription services segment, which includes Prime as well as other subscriptions, such as an e-books offering and Amazon Music, grew 60% year-over-year. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky announced that Amazon will increase the annual price for Prime subscriptions to $119 from $99 on 11 May.

If 100 million subscribers paid an additional $20 a year for Prime, it would add $2 billion to Amazon’s revenue, though Amazon has not broken down how many subscribers are in the U.S. nor if prices will increase in other countries.

On Friday the company closed with 4% gain at $1,517.96, shares jumped more than 7% in after-hours trading, hitting prices that would top Amazon’s record intraday high if they were reached during regular trading. Amazon shares have already gained 29.8% so far this year.

Disclaimer: This article was issued by Linda De Luca, Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.