$PDD Holdings (PDD.US)$ delivered earnings of $1.33 billion on revenue of $4.7 billion for its most recent quarter. Both figures handily beat analyst estimates.
$Baidu (BIDU.US)$ had a net income of $543 million, $1.49/share under GAAP, on revenue of $4.4 billion. The stock is now up 2.45% on the year. Shares rose on the strength of Baidu’s cloud operations in what CEO Robin Li called “a...

Pushed out the same exact article about $Ocugen (OCGN.US)$ to stir fear. Now with $FuelCell Energy (FCEL.US)$ too. Tsk tsk...

$Sea (SE.US)$…. today will be green SEA but light green….

Global giant companies have started a massive war of share buybacks. Since the beginning of 2021, $Meta Platforms (FB.US)$ , $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ , $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ and $McDonald's (MCD.US)$ launched share buyback programs that breaks the record.
What is a stock buyback? Is it good or bad? Will it influence our investing decision？Let's take a closer look.
What is a stock buyback?
A stock buyback refers to a company's purchase of shares of its own stock from shareholders, reducing the number of shares on the market and increasing the value of remaining shares.
Why does a company buyback its shares?
Buying back shares is one of the easiest ways for a company to create value for its shareholders. Hereare some potential reasons for a company to buyback:
1. The stock is undervalued.
2. The company has too much cash on hand.
3. Management is confident about future operations.
4. A buyback is more tax-friendly than a cash dividend.
5. Limited opportunities to invest (other than itself).
6. Try to support the stock price (just try).
What are the effects of shares repurchase？
1. Reduce shares outstanding
When shares are repurchased by a company, these shares are no longer outstanding and the total number of shares outstanding in that company is reduced accordingly. Hence, if the company decides to cancel the repurchased shares, the ownership of each share will automatically increase.
According to Buffett, shareholders will benefit when the company's revenue continues to expand but the number of shares outstanding continues to decline.
2. Increase earnings per share (EPS)
Shares repurchase also has an effect on increasing earnings per share. Imagine, if a company buys back half of its shares and keeps total earnings the same, earnings per share will double. As we know:
3. Push up the stock price
Stock Price = PE * EPS. If a stock's PE ratio hold still and EPS goes up (due to repurchase), its stock price will go up eventually.
What are the risks involved?
Every coin has two sides, just as not every share buyback is perfect.
Although share buybacks will drive up some financial ratios (i.e. EPS, ROE, ROIC), the value is not created through organic growth (increasing output and enhancing sales internally). Relying too much on buybacks may not be a permanent arrangement.
In addition, if a company decides to buyback when the stock price is extremely overvalued, the buyback may harm shareholder's interest.
A real-world example: Apple
Apple is one of the biggest repurchase player in the human history. Since beginning to repurchase shares in 2013, Apple has spent $460 billion to buyback its shares.
The market cap of Apple is 2.43 trillion USD, about 4 times of that of 2016. However, the stock price of AAPL increases more than 500% during the same peroid. Without saying, the share buyback adds up the long-term value of the stock.
Besides the current stock price, the share buy back changes the financial statement of Apple. Since 2016, the time that Buffett starts buying, the EPS of Apple keeps a higher growth rate than its net income.
Apple's buyback program boosts the overall effectiveness of its operation. In the past 5 years, the return on equity (ROE) of Apple rockets massively, from 36.9% in 2016 to 73.69% in 2020, showing that it can pile inactive cash into shareholder's value at a record level.
What's your takeaway?
Will share buybacks influence our buying or selling decisions? Which stocks do you favor the most?
Rewards:
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$Pfizer (PFE.US)$ 48.48
good potential to grow.....

Dear moomooers 
I would like to welcome you to the third season of the US Stock Paper Trading Competition held by moomoo!
Moomoo would like to continuously provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your investment technique, strategy, and portfolio management in our monthly competition. You are more than welcome to communicate your investment experience during the competition with others and ever further in future investment on moomoo.
With given virtual cash, traders can build out the portfolio they always dreamed of, all experience levels investors were welcomed and top performers will be rewarded final prizes. 
Here we are excited to annouce our TOP5 traders of last week!
If you are one of our lucky winners, please drop us an email at clientmarketing@futusg.com with your full name, moomoo ID, Singapore residential address and contact number. We will mail your prize to you within 7 business days after we have received your email and completed the verification process.

Now let's take a look at how did our leading participants perform in the previous week.
Market Recap
Stocks remain close to record highs on last Friday, but turned volatile in September after climbing for much of the summer. Money managers point to an array of factors behind choppiness. They include high valuations and the prospect that the Federal Reserve may soon start to unwind some of the stimulus it lavished on markets near the start of the coronavirus crisis.
The spread of the Delta variant has added to investor jitters by raising the prospect of a coronavirus-induced slowdown in the economy this fall, said Jane Foley, head of foreign-exchange strategy at Rabobank.
"There are good reasons to make investors a little bit nervous" she said.
Concerns about slowing economic growth and the delta variant have led to a recent outperformance in tech stocks, as investors have turned to companies they think will benefit if the broader economy slows. Shares of  $Meta Platforms (FB.US)$ and  $Netflix (NFLX.US)$  gained 0.2%.
"Looking at the index level is a little bit misleading" said Kari Montanus, a senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle. "We've just seen big swings back and forth" between different corners of the market.
Stock of The Week
Stock of the week goes to  $Rocket Lab (RKLB.US)$ . The company stock rose from $15 a share to over $20 a share in a week and turn downward a day after the company topped its new high.
The space economy is growing as news businesses with new ideas for space-based applications begin to take advantage of falling launch and satellite costs.
One of those businesses, California-based  $Rocket Lab (RKLB.US)$  , has landed a contract to launch 25 satellites on five missions exclusively for Kineis, a French company that is building a constellation of small satellites to deliver internet connectivity for industrial and logistics assets worldwide.The first launch is scheduled for Q2 2023, the company said. The multi-launch contract is subject to standard termination and launch rescheduling provisions, it added.
Performance Tracking
NO.1
Kirbyy leads the competition with a total return of 28.48% in the first week of season 3, leaving this user a great advantage in the rest of the season. This user has obtained an excellent return of 84% from the rally of Rocket Lab, which also is the larggest holding in his portfolio. The user prefers the finance sector. Let’s wait and see how he will perform in the rest of the season.
NO.2
Our runner-up of the second season goes to Ang YC, who achieved 27.83% in the first week. Less than 1% shy ofKirbyy’s return! Over the past week, ANG YC has seized a decent amount of return from Hippo Holdings, an American property insurance company based in California.In August, the home insurance group had raised its full-year outlook for the total generated premium to $560 million-570 million from $544 million expected earlier.The favorite sector of this winner is Healthcare.
NO.3
User 102140893ml came in third in the competition this week with a total return of 26.48% and a success rate of 100%. He has made several successful day trades on the new trendingWallStreetBets stock MMAT. Over the past week, investors in Meta Materials have seen impressive gains. Indeed, shares of MMAT stock are currently up more than 40% over the past five trading sessions, as volume and interest begins to build around this name. The favorite sector of our third-place winner of the week is industrial. His largest holding as of week 1 was FuelCell Energy.
NO.4
Yamihere achieved fourth place in the first week with a 25.25% of total P/L. All the leading participants have a rather similar return during the first week, which might lead to an even competitive season. The largest holding in her portfolio is Seagate Technology, an American data storage company that’s famous for its hard disk drive. Its CEO Dave Mosley just presents at Deutsche Bank 2021 technology conference last week. The company is down 20% from the top so far, there is certainly some room for a rebound.
NO.5
User 101786236 came in fifth this week with a total return of 24.69%. This participant is also a WallStreetsBets supporter. Over the past week, he has invested in several trending companies on the Reddit forum like MMAT, BBIG, HIPO, and FCEL. The Russell 2000 value index, designed to follow shares of small companies that are viewed as bargains relative to the rest of the market, is up 22% this year, pushed by the meme stocks like AMC and GameStop.His largest holding as of week 1 was Meta Materials.
If you have any questions or feedback, simply comment below or @ us! Don't forget to followour official account @PaperTradingOfficial, where you can learn everything there is to know about Paper Trading.

$GameStop (GME.US)$ To the moon