*By Michael Teich*
Amazon inked a new partnership with American Express, but don't expect the financial industry to be the next area the tech giant jumps into.
"The thing that people misunderstand is that tech companies don't want to manufacture financial products," said Lex Sokolin, Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research. "It's about making the ecosystem and the platform more powerful, and finance is just a feature inside of that."
American Express announced Tuesday it will launch a co-branded Amazon credit card for small businesses. The move accelerates Amazon's foray into financial products and strengthens its position as a lender. The goal, Sokolin said, is to enable small businesses to finance their activities, getting more products on Amazon's platform, and ultimately driving more commerce.
Plus, the opportunity costs of devoting itself to the financial industry are too high.
"Amazon has tremendous high-growth, super interesting, blue oceans to explore,” he said. "They could be investing in building a mortgage business, or they can build artificial intelligence business."
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/amazon-bolsters-financial-prowess-with-new-credit-card)
Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud, Section Manager for E-Mobility & Demonstrations for Electric Vehicles, Con Edison and
Joe Morreale, Section Manager of EV Demo Projects and Managed Charging & E-Mobility & Demonstrations, Con Edison, join Cheddar News' Ken Buffa from the New York Auto Show to discuss Con Edison's Clean Energy Commitment and the goal to power New York with 100% clean energy through initiatives like the 'SmartCharge' and 'PowerReady' Programs.
Arthur Madrid, CEO of The Sandbox, and Steven Kolb, CEO of CFDA, join Cheddar News to discuss their partnership focused around fashion in the metaverse.
Ever walk into a CVS to pick up some gum, maybe some Chapstick, only to get hit with a ridiculously long receipt? It’s no secret that most CVS purchases come with these comically long receipts. But what might surprise you is that these long receipts are part of a marketing plan that's paying off big time for CVS.
Johnson & Johnson reported a miss on its Q1 earnings just shy of analyst expectations. The pharmaceutical giant also noted that it has an excess of COVID-19 vaccines and that it will be lowering its end-of-year earnings outlook for 2022.
Garrett Nelson, a senior analyst and VP of equity research at CFRA Research, joined Cheddar News to give a preview of Tesla earnings amid its seventh straight record quarter in vehicle deliveries while it faces some headwinds with the ongoing Shanghai, China, lockdown due to pandemic. "We view Tesla as one of the market's best secular growth stories," he said. "It's one of our top picks, and their execution has been really stellar over the last several quarters. They've beat nine of the past 10 quarters, so that's a 90 percent beat rate."
Netflix is slated to give its Q1 report after the closing bell, and Jason Moser, a senior analyst at The Motley Fool, joined Cheddar News to give a preview of what to expect from the streaming giant's earnings. "I think Netflix, like many businesses out there the last couple of years, says it's pulled forward a lot of success just due to the pandemic, and that's not necessarily a bad thing," he said. "But it does alter the picture, the growth picture maybe, going forward." Moser also noted that the streaming space for Netflix is especially competitive now as opposed to about a decade ago.
