Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning.

Thanks so much for joining us on this Monday, August 18th. I'm Julie Morgan.

Billions lost in Chinese stocks, Google pays up, and Air Canada cabin crews stay grounded.

Investors lost billions of dollars on certain U.S. listed Chinese stocks that tanked soon

after being promoted on social media. The Financial Times has reported that this raises concerns

over potential pump and dump scams. The report mentioned seven stocks including Concord International,

Osten Technology, Top Kingwin, Skyline Builders, Everbright Digital, Park High Biological Technology,

and Feeton Holdings that fell more than 80% over a few recent trading sessions.

According to the report, there is no suggestion that these companies

were involved in the unusual stock moves, but analysts and investors say the moves appear to

resemble pump and dump scams. According to predictive analytics firm investor link, the stock

declines wiped out a combined $3.7 billion off their market value.

Notably, before their sudden declines, all seven stocks had surged after being promoted on social

media apps like WhatsApp. The FT also mentioned Regenzell Bioscience, who shares surge nearly

10,000 percent year-to-date. In June, seeking alpha

analyst Atticus analysis warned that Regensel would likely follow the boom and bus pattern of

other Chinese Hong Kong names. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted victim

complaints referencing ramp and dump stock

fraud increased 300% from a year ago.

Google has agreed to pay a fine of $35.8 million in Australia after the country's consumer

watchdog determined that it had harmed competition. According to the Australian Competition and

Consumer Commission, Google paid Telstra and Optus to pre-install. Google search on Android phones

...