3 Stocks to Watch on Monday: Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) and Twitter Inc (TWTR)

While the U.S. economy has been on a tear in recent months, some experts believe that it could crash in 2019 — including Joerg Angele, a senior economist for Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, who was named as the winner of the February Forecaster of the Month award by MarketWatch. Angele says the economy may be bound to overheat and crash.

The weekend included news from several tech companies, including Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).

Here’s what went down:

Alphabet Inc (GOOG,GOOGL)

Alphabet may revamp the Google search bar.

The search engine parent company is trying out a new user interface with its search bar through limited server-side tests. The new search bar appears to be more rounded than the previous one.

The new Alphabet feature mimics the search interface on the Pixel Launcher on Google’s mobile site. A number of other changes may be coming to the search bar, including a colorful “G” logo on the left.

Additionally, the sub-categories below the search bar will no longer be boxed in with the rest of the bar.

GOOG stock is up 10.9% year-to-date (YTD) and GOOGL stock is up 10.2% YTD.

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Microsoft announced new updates for the Xbox One coming later this year.

The company announced that its console may now be compatible with TVs that have a game mode, which disables image processing in order to reduce lag time. The tech giant said you may soon be able to play on Auto Low Latency Mode.

This would mean that some TVs — including some Samsung models — will be able to recognize your Xbox and switch over to a low-lag mode. After you finish playing, your TV’s processing power will come back automatically.

This update is coming later in 2018, along with other changes such as improved variable refresh rates for Xbox One S and One X systems that are linked up to PC monitors which support AMD Freesync, allowing you to play at your computer desk.

The Edge browser will also support downloads and uploads, while Twitter sharing will display media in-line.

MSFT stock has gained 12.9% YTD.

Twitter Inc (TWTR)

Twitter suspended some accounts that were stealing tweets.

The social media site halted activity from accounts such as @dory, @GirlPosts and @SoDamnTrue due to the fact that these Twitter accounts were stealing tweets from other users on the site.

Additionally, these accounts were “tweetdecking,” which refers to an activity that some Twitter users engage in where they sell retweets within secret Tweetdeck groups, referring to them as “decks.” An 18-year-old Twitter user named Kendrik said that he made between $3,000 and $5,000 a month by running a deck of his own, noting “it’s the simplest thing ever.”

The site says that tweetdecking is a violation of Twitter’s spam policy, which states that its users cannot “sell, purchase, or attempt to artificially inflate account interactions.”

TWTR stock has soared 47.2% in 2018.

As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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