*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)
Rapper and fashion mogul Ye's high-end clothing company Yeezy agreed Monday to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by four California district attorneys over slow shipping to customers.
Robinhood said Monday that it suffered a security breach last week where hackers accessed some personal information for roughly 7 million users and demanded a ransom payment.
Stocks ended moderately lower on Tuesday, ending an eight-day winning streak for the market that had been fueled by strong company earnings and economic data.
The U.S. has fully reopened its borders with Mexico and Canada and lifted restrictions on travel that covered most of Europe.
Tesla shares slumped more than 4% in premarket trading on Monday after its CEO Elon Musk said he would sell 10% of his holdings in the electric car maker based on the results of a poll he conducted on Twitter over the weekend.
Stocks notched some modest gains on Wall Street Monday, enough to mark more record highs for major U.S. indexes.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
WarnerMedia posted solid quarterly results with revenue surpassing $8 billion as its entertainment business continues to boom. The media and entertainment giant saw wild success with its HBO Max division, which reached nearly 70 million subscribers globally. To discuss the company's strategy for success, Cheddar senior reporter Michelle Castillo spoke to WarnerMedia CFO Jennifer Biry.
America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession may be overcoming a virus-induced slowdown.
U.S. stocks pushed further into record heights on Friday following an encouraging report on hiring across the country.
