Diamonds and Dogs

11/29/16

IT consultancy, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) is up 8% thanks to interests from private equity. Jesse Cohn, the 36-year old head of U.S. activism at hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed a $1.4 billion stake in the IT firm. The activist wants the IT firm to use their $4 billion in cash to initiate a 1.5% dividend and buyback $2.5 billion in stock by mid-2017. Management hasn't responded, but the stock is sure reacting.

So much for Cyber Monday. The Internet retailing giant, Amazon (AMZN) is down 1.5% on one of its busiest days of the year on news they are slashing prices on its Echo, Kindle and Fire TV stock, as well as other hardware, in an effort to attract shoppers. The company is expecting a record-breaking number of orders this year, but so far investors are not impressed.