Today’s must-reads, curated by O’Neil Research Analysts. Trend Watch.

Every winning stock begins with what’s NEW or what’s NEXT

IPO Watch

Dropbox sets IPO range $16-18, valuing it below $10B, as Salesforce ponies up $100M. (techcrunch)

Spotify Plans New York Listing During Week of April 2 – Spotify will not issue any new shares in its IPO. Instead, existing stakeholders will offer their shares to investors. An active market for private stock sales over the past couple of years has helped the company establish a valuation higher than $20B. (Bloomberg)

Media/Entertainment

Cable companies are responding to record-breaking cord-cutting by shortening ad breaks. (bgr)

Facebook is getting ready to launch a news section for its Watch platform and it’s testing different video partnerships with roughly 10 publishers. (axios)

Here’s how to use Texture, the beautiful ‘Netflix for magazines’ app Apple just bought. (businessinsider)

Why ‘Super Smash Bros.’ on the Nintendo Switch is a big deal. (geekwire)

Retail

Costco’s Squeeze on Suppliers Signifies Pain for P&G, Nestle. (Bloomberg)

Dick’s Is Tumbling, and Its Woes Have Nothing to Do With Guns – The future had appeared bright after Sports Authority collapsed in 2016, leaving Dick’s as the last national chain of its kind. (Bloomberg)

Stitch Fix made a big addition to its business that won’t show up in its Q2 financial results. (recode)

Amazon’s move into banking could make online shopping possible for everyone. (cnbc)

Bit by Bit, Whole Foods Gets an Amazon Touch – The company has said that Prime will eventually become the Whole Foods customer rewards program. (nytimes)

Transportation/Autonomous Driving

Volkswagen bets big on electric with $25 billion battery bonanza – It plans to build 3 million electric cars a year by 2025. (arstechnica)

GM Plans to Launch Airbnb for Your Car – General Motors plans to start a pilot program this summer that will enable car owners to rent out their vehicles when they aren’t using them. (Bloomberg)

Uber’s self-driving trucks have been hired to deliver freight in Arizona. (recode)

Lyft says it passed $1 billion in revenue last year — and is growing faster than Uber. (recode)

Bringing Waymo self-driving technology to trucks – Starting next week, Waymo will launch a pilot in Atlanta where our self-driving trucks will carry freight bound for Google’s data centers. (medium)

Other/Miscellaneous

This $10,000 3D printed house can be built in 24 hours and is bigger than a studio apartment. (bgr)

The battle between Amazon and Google escalates, this time around Nest – There is an escalating war taking place over the lucrative smart home market. That’s a market where Amazon recently planted its flag in a big way, purchasing smart doorbell maker Ring for more than $1B. (geekwire)

“America is a country of innovators. It’s your job as a stock trader to find new innovative companies, charts in each cycle” – William O’Neil

Today’s must-reads, curated by O’Neil Research Analysts. Trend Watch.

Every winning stock begins with what’s NEW or what’s NEXT

IPO Watch

Spotify’s Unusual IPO Model Will Test The Company’s Strength. (npr)

Spotify’s Founders Aren’t Giving Up Control Any Time Soon – Spotify plans to list shares at the end of March or early April. (Bloomberg)

Media/Entertainment

Snapchat Opens A Store–And Takes Aim At A Trillion-Dollar Industry – Snapchat is looking at e-commerce as its next big revenue channel, and it’s starting with some brand-new Jordans. (fastco)

Google is replacing Facebook’s traffic to publishers. (recode)

New data shows Netflix’s number of movies has gone down by thousands of titles since 2010 — but its TV catalog size has soared. (businessinsider)

Newzoo: Esports could hit 380 million fans and $906 million in revenues in 2018. (venturebeat)

Esports Channel Twitch Draws More Viewers Than CNN. (ibd)

Retail

The Amazon-ification of Whole Foods continues – The Amazon Prime credit card will start giving 5% back on Whole Foods purchases. (recode)

Amazon is now worth more than 2.5 Walmarts – It was worth just two Walmarts last month. (recode)

Transportation/Autonomous Driving

The Car of the Future Will Sell Your Data – As smarter vehicles become troves of personal information, get ready for coupon offers at the next stoplight. (Bloomberg)

Nobody Wants to Let Google Win the War for Maps All Over Again – Self-driving cars need detailed data on every inch of street. Can automakers solve the problem without the reigning superpower of maps? (Bloomberg)

Apple in Talks to Buy Cobalt Directly From Miners – the rapid growth in battery demand for electric vehicles is threatening to create a shortage of the raw material. (bloomberg)

Other/Miscellaneous

‘No Cash’ Signs Everywhere Has Sweden Worried It’s Gone Too Far. (bloomberg)

“America is a country of innovators. It’s your job as a stock trader to find new innovative companies, charts in each cycle” – William O’Neil