What Happened? A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after traders positioned ahead of Nvidia's fiscal Q1 earnings. Nvidia accounted for a significant percentage of the S&P 500's gains heading into the announcement, making the print the binary catalyst for the entire AI-infrastructure complex — networking ASICs, connectivity silicon, memory, and packaging all move together on the read...
What Happened? A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after traders positioned ahead of Nvidia's fiscal Q1 earnings. Nvidia accounted for a significant percentage of the S&P 500's gains heading into the announcement, making the print the binary catalyst for the entire AI-infrastructure complex — networking ASICs, connectivity silicon, memory, and packaging all move together on the read-through. Falling oil prices also supported the bullish sentiment. Semis carry arguably the longest-dated cash flows in the equity market because most of their value sits in 2027–2030 AI capex, not in the current quarter. When Brent crude drops 5.21% (like it did during the session), expected inflation falls, the Fed gets more room to cut, and the discount rate applied to those distant cash flows compresses. A small rate move produces an outsized stock move, which is why a 5% oil decline can power 8%+ chip rallies on the same day. The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Among others, the following stocks were impacted: Zooming In On Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) Vishay Intertechnology’s shares are very volatile and have had 23 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 14 days ago when the stock gained 4.5% on the news that strong results from Advanced Micro Devices signaled robust and sustained demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. AMD reported a 38% year-on-year revenue increase, with its data center business surging 57% to $5.8 billion. This blowout report is seen by investors as confirmation that heavy spending on AI by major tech companies is creating a rising tide for the entire industry.
(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended modestly higher on Friday, giving up some early gains amid renewed optimism about U.S.-Iran talks. U.S. Treasury yields fell, oil headed for a weekly loss, and the rupee held ground after seeing its steepest gains in two weeks amid signs of progress in U.S.-Iran talks, with Pakistan playing a role in mediation efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Macro Rubio said there ...
(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended modestly higher on Friday, giving up some early gains amid renewed optimism about U.S.-Iran talks. U.S. Treasury yields fell, oil headed for a weekly loss, and the rupee held ground after seeing its steepest gains in two weeks amid signs of progress in U.S.-Iran talks, with Pakistan playing a role in mediation efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Macro Rubio said there were "some encouraging signs" but warned of "other options" if talks fail. Rubio criticized Iran's efforts to regulate vessel movement through the Strait of Hormuz after reports emerged that Iran is discussing a permanent toll arrangement with Oman for ships transiting the crucial waterway. Also, it was said that Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad. The benchmark BSE Sensex gave up some early gains to settle 231.99 points, or 0.31 percent, higher at 75,415.35, driven by firm cues from global markets. The NSE Nifty index edged up by 64.60 points, or 0.27 percent, to 23,719.30. While the BSE mid-cap index added 0.1 percent, the small-cap index slipped 0.3 percent. The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,214 shares rising while 1,972 shares fell and 177 shares closed unchanged. Among the top gainers, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj FinServ, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Trent rallied 1-3 percent. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, on Feb. 13, 2026 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Aubrey Gemignani | NASA | Getty Im...
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, on Feb. 13, 2026 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Aubrey Gemignani | NASA | Getty Images A flurry of initial public offerings from mega-cap companies this year could mark the top of the market, strategists said, drawing parallels with the late-1990s dot-com bubble. SpaceX's hotly anticipated IPO, confirmed in a regulatory filing on Thursday and expected on June 12 , could mark the largest float in history. Elon Musk's firm is targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic have also announced their intentions to go public later this year. All three companies are yet to generate an annual profit, though Anthropic is expected to post its first-ever profitable quarter in its upcoming earnings. But analysts regard each firm's business model as opaque in nature of their business models, leading some to urge caution from investors looking to buy at IPO. "I see it as a market top," John Blank, chief equity strategist at Zacks, told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe on Thursday. "Everybody knows the top is pretty close to being around and usually it is advertised by these giant IPOs. Back in 1999, we saw the same kind of thing where people were just rushing to get these IPOs out." Great expectations SpaceX recorded a net loss in the latest quarter of $4.28 billion after losing $4.94 billion in 2025. Its Starlink arm generated $3.26 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, accounting for 69% of the total. Its space business lost $619 million on an operating basis, while its AI unit lost $2.5 billion — meaning connectivity is the only profitable part of the company. Crucially, SpaceX wrote in its S-1 filing on Thursday that it has "a h...
Key Points The cyclical tide is finally turning back in farm machinery maker Deere & Company’s favor. The stronger the economy and the greater the industrial activity, the more waste is produced. Illinois Tool Works’ longer-term strategy is why it consistently outperforms the overall market. 10 stocks we like better than Deere & Company › After posting solid Q1 earnings reports, artificial intelli...
Key Points The cyclical tide is finally turning back in farm machinery maker Deere & Company’s favor. The stronger the economy and the greater the industrial activity, the more waste is produced. Illinois Tool Works’ longer-term strategy is why it consistently outperforms the overall market. 10 stocks we like better than Deere & Company › After posting solid Q1 earnings reports, artificial intelligence (AI) stocks remain the market's must-have darlings. There's something else happening, however, that too many investors are overlooking. That's a ramp-up of the nation's industrial activity. Seemingly against the odds, the Federal Reserve's measure of domestic industrial production hit a six-year high in April, while the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing activity index remains in the positive territory it entered at the beginning of this year. Like it or not, the United States' factories are revving their engines, with at least some of the domestic output that had been lost of late rematerializing. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » This is likely only the beginning of a prolonged secular shift, though, giving American companies greater control over their production and leaving them less subject to geopolitical turmoil. With that as the backdrop, here's a rundown of three industrial sector stocks you might want to step into sooner than later, before any more capital is invested in the business, spurring economic growth that workers/consumers currently feel may never be coming. Deere & Company It seems a little counterintuitive (at first). But, farms don't invest aggressively in their own output when times are hard, and profits are thin. They hunker down. The industry actually spends the most when commodity prices are high and profit margins are wide, in an effort to squeeze ...
Cutty Sark, London The Monteverdi Choir’s account of Purcell’s opera was delivered with devastating clarity, but it was somewhat smothered beneath a 200ft ship’s hull We know that Aeneas is going to sail away. We know it before he arrives, before he declares his love to Dido, and certainly before the Sorceress and her witchy acolytes get all eye-of-newt about it. But when your opera house is the g...
Cutty Sark, London The Monteverdi Choir’s account of Purcell’s opera was delivered with devastating clarity, but it was somewhat smothered beneath a 200ft ship’s hull We know that Aeneas is going to sail away. We know it before he arrives, before he declares his love to Dido, and certainly before the Sorceress and her witchy acolytes get all eye-of-newt about it. But when your opera house is the great hall under the Cutty Sark, and the clipper’s 200ft copper hull is rearing up over your head, it’s impossible to forget the tragedy that Purcell’s compact drama has in store. So you have to wonder why Andrew Staples, director of the Monteverdi Choir’s semi-staging, felt the need to work quite so hard? The space is the staging. You can try to ignore it (no mean feat when the museum’s collection of antique figureheads flanks the stage in a surreal guard of honour: Florence Nightingale rubbing painted wooden shoulders with Disraeli, Sir Lancelot and a selection of buxom lovelies), but you can’t work against it; you simply won’t win. Continue reading...
Primer leadership team. (Left to right). Top row: Pierre-Edouard Jumel (CFO), Gabriel Le Roux (Co-Founder and CEO), Sam Elgar (VP Merchant Experience) and Theo Spyrides (VP Product). Bottom row: Caitriona Staunton (VP People), Alex Mallet (CTO), Jade Maitland (VP Marketing) and Mikael Minvielle (COO). Credit: Primer/ Businesswire. Primer, a digital payment orchestrator, has raised $100m in a Serie...
Primer leadership team. (Left to right). Top row: Pierre-Edouard Jumel (CFO), Gabriel Le Roux (Co-Founder and CEO), Sam Elgar (VP Merchant Experience) and Theo Spyrides (VP Product). Bottom row: Caitriona Staunton (VP People), Alex Mallet (CTO), Jade Maitland (VP Marketing) and Mikael Minvielle (COO). Credit: Primer/ Businesswire. Primer, a digital payment orchestrator, has raised $100m in a Series C funding round to continue developing its AI-enabled operating layer for payments and finance teams. The round was led by Sofina, with participation from Peak XV Partners. Existing investors also joined the financing, including Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest. In a statement, Primer said the Series C round was oversubscribed. When approached by Electronic Payments International, the company declined to disclose its post-money valuation. “We’re not disclosing the valuation, investment breakdowns, or specific growth plans beyond what’s been shared in the release at this stage,” Primer said. Following the funding, Primer said it will invest in expanding its AI capabilities, including further development of its AI agent, Primer Companion. The company launched Primer Companion last year. It is used by merchants to answer payments-related questions and provide contextual insights. Primer said it intends to add functions that will allow the agent to run experiments, optimise performance and operate autonomously within parameters defined by merchants. Primer also said it plans to accelerate growth in the US. The company said the region currently represents around a fifth of its revenue. It aims to increase that share to more than a third of total revenue by 2028. The digital payment orchestrator also plans to hire up to 50 roles in the US to support the expansion. Primer co-founder and CEO Gabriel Le Roux said: “In the next few years, every payment decision in a large business will be initiated, optimised or audited by AI. That shift is already underway. “The ...
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters NATO will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in the coming years, its Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged thousands of new troops to its...
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters NATO will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in the coming years, its Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged thousands of new troops to its eastern flank. Speaking to reporters ahead of a NATO meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Friday, Rutte said "the money is really coming in," with allies "committing more and more." Last year, NATO member states agreed to raise their defense spending target from 2% of gross domestic product to 5%, with a view to reaching those levels by 2035. Rutte said Friday that many of the alliance's 32 members were accelerating the path to the 5% spending commitment. "This literally means over the years hundreds of billions [of dollars] of extra defense spending," he told journalists. NATO's newest member, Sweden — which announced a $4 billion defense investment this week — was on track to reach the 5% target by 2030, Rutte said. "The money is great, but we also need to spend it … of course on the men and women in uniform, but also to make sure they have what they need to deter and defend, and that is the defense industrial output," he added. "There is an intense debate going on with the defense industry, with the financial sector to make sure they do what is needed to ramp up production, not increasing prices but producing more. Good news is coming in, we make progress, but still lots needs to be done." Rutte's comments on Friday came after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to deploy 5,000 new troops to Poland, reversing course a week after the Pentagon canceled plans to send 4,000 military personnel to the country, which borders Ukraine. "Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am p...
Ceri Breeze/iStock via Getty Images The AI optical infrastructure layer has been a beneficiary of the narrow leadership that has emerged within the AI infrastructure surge seen in the past few months - one of the few pockets of sustained momentum in an AI market that has broadly cooled in the past 6 months or so. I had recently written about Lumentum versus Applied Optoelectronics and highlighted ...
Ceri Breeze/iStock via Getty Images The AI optical infrastructure layer has been a beneficiary of the narrow leadership that has emerged within the AI infrastructure surge seen in the past few months - one of the few pockets of sustained momentum in an AI market that has broadly cooled in the past 6 months or so. I had recently written about Lumentum versus Applied Optoelectronics and highlighted how the optical infrastructure theme has benefitted from hyperscaler deployment ramps, rising optical intensity per GPU cluster and supply shortages. I did show some concerns around extrapolating long duration growth into valuations for business that are yet to break out of the cyclical infrastructure mold fully (need some data to emerge when hyperscaler capex slows). That caution around the very real possibility of multiples compressing far ahead of peak fundamentals if risk sentiment weakens or if the market begins to reassess the durability of the current AI optical spending cycle extends to Ciena ( CIEN ) as well. Ciena, looking at the returns clocked in the past year, looks the least heated optical infrastructure play compared to Lumentum or Applied Optoelectronics. However, Ciena's case is materially different too - unlike AAOI or LITE, Ciena is not primarily a component scarcity beneficiary. The exposure here comes from AI-driven networking complexity (coherent transport, DCI scaling, etc.). So, the thesis is less about scarcity and short term exponential upside (as seen in its less overheated position) and more about duration and higher troughs. Lower overheating is not a sufficient criteria on its own to identify an opportunity in Ciena. What we need is proof of AI contributions and signals of persistence and valuations that reflect this differentiated positioning versus peer scarcity trades. Data by YCharts A deeper dive into numbers reported across the past few quarters reveals a visible shift to non-telco revenues and a rise in cloud provider exposure. However, ...