Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. ET Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com Continue reading
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. ET Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com Continue reading
Blackstone Inc. -backed data center operator QTS is in talks with banks for about $2 billion to help procure electricity, intensifying the race for ever-more creative forms of financing in the industry. QTS is soliciting banks that will guarantee the fees it owes to utilities, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential negotiations. The com...
Blackstone Inc. -backed data center operator QTS is in talks with banks for about $2 billion to help procure electricity, intensifying the race for ever-more creative forms of financing in the industry. QTS is soliciting banks that will guarantee the fees it owes to utilities, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential negotiations. The company expects to have as many as a dozen banks on the deal and is discussing pricing with several firms, one of the people said. A representative for Blackstone declined to comment. Representatives for QTS didn’t respond to requests for comment. The talks underscore how the biggest data center operators are parlaying their access to Wall Street capital into expansion. Developers often pay electricity providers steep sums upfront to lock in power before their data center campuses can even connect to the grid. Many private equity-backed players are employing novel methods to demonstrate they can keep up with surging AI demand, while minimizing leverage on their balance sheets. In one arrangement known as a so-called performance letter of credit facility, banks offer to guarantee the payments if the data center companies fall short on fees to utilities. Debt is only drawn if they fail to meet the obligations, reducing the amount of leverage they have to take on. Increasingly, utilities are seeking proof of those arrangements to weed out serious players from casual speculators. Data center operators can spend years waiting for access to power in the most stretched markets, while local utilities build the necessary transmission lines and substations. Developers with these agreements in hand make clear to customers and utilities that there is a backstop behind them. QTS considered exploring such a deal just as Switch Inc. was rounding up $2.6 billion of bank pledges in a similar transaction. Switch, backed by DigitalBridge Group Inc. , last week announced an arrangement that it ca...
Earnings Call Insights: Northwest Bancshares (NWBI) Q1 2026 Management View "We delivered $51 million in net income for the first quarter, a record in the company's history" (President, CEO & Director Louis Torchio), while also citing "$191 million of average C&I loan growth" and noting that the bank’s nationwide commercial verticals "now represent approximately 23% of our commercial lending portf...
Earnings Call Insights: Northwest Bancshares (NWBI) Q1 2026 Management View "We delivered $51 million in net income for the first quarter, a record in the company's history" (President, CEO & Director Louis Torchio), while also citing "$191 million of average C&I loan growth" and noting that the bank’s nationwide commercial verticals "now represent approximately 23% of our commercial lending portfolio" (President, CEO & Director Torchio). "We recorded a net interest margin of 370 basis points" and "achieved our third consecutive quarter of lower deposit costs" (President, CEO & Director Torchio), alongside expense performance where "our efficiency ratio [was] 59.4% and our adjusted efficiency ratio of 57.8%" (President, CEO & Director Torchio). "Our GAAP EPS for the quarter was $0.34 per share. And on an adjusted basis, our EPS was $0.35 per share" (Chief Financial Officer Douglas Schosser), and "total revenue was $175.1 million for the first quarter" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser). Outlook "We are maintaining our previous outlook for the full year 2026" (Chief Financial Officer Douglas Schosser). "We're pretty comfortable with the forward look on low to mid-single-digit loan growth for the year" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser). "We would expect to have pretty stable margin performance in the low 370s" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser). Financial Results "Net interest income grew $300,000 or 0.2% quarter-over-quarter" (Chief Financial Officer Douglas Schosser) and "net interest margin improv[ed] to 370 basis points" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser), with management attributing drivers to "an increased securities portfolio yield and a decrease in our cost of deposits" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser). "Noninterest income decreased by $5.2 million quarter-over-quarter, driven by a higher BOLI benefit recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025" (Chief Financial Officer Schosser). "We achieved significant positive operating leverage of 560 basis points quarter-o...
On Sunday, Palmer Luckey drew attention to John Ternus' little-known early career in virtual reality following Apple Inc.'s CEO transition announcement. Luckey Points To Ternus' Early VR Roots Luckey, founder of Oculus and defense tech firm Anduril, took to X and said, "His [Ternus] only non-Apple job was four years in the late '90s at Virtual Research, a tiny Virtual Reality HMD outfit." "From wh...
On Sunday, Palmer Luckey drew attention to John Ternus' little-known early career in virtual reality following Apple Inc.'s CEO transition announcement. Luckey Points To Ternus' Early VR Roots Luckey, founder of Oculus and defense tech firm Anduril, took to X and said, "His [Ternus] only non-Apple job was four years in the late '90s at Virtual Research, a tiny Virtual Reality HMD outfit." "From what I can tell, he was the lead mechanical engineer on the V8 I obtained when I was 16," Luckey wrote
Shares of Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) were up by 6.2% at 12:40 p.m. ET. The beverage giant reported first-quarter results early Tuesday morning, landing just ahead of Wall Street's consensus estimates across the board. Coke's net revenues rose 12% year over year to $12.47 billion. Adjusted earnings jumped from $0.73 to $0.86 per diluted share, which works out to an 18% increase. The average analyst would...
Shares of Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) were up by 6.2% at 12:40 p.m. ET. The beverage giant reported first-quarter results early Tuesday morning, landing just ahead of Wall Street's consensus estimates across the board. Coke's net revenues rose 12% year over year to $12.47 billion. Adjusted earnings jumped from $0.73 to $0.86 per diluted share, which works out to an 18% increase. The average analyst would have settled for earnings near $0.81 per share on top-line sales in the neighborhood of $12.27 billion. Sales and shipping volumes were up across all geographic regions. Operating profits also rose everywhere, except for a 17% drop in the Asia Pacific region. The company ran extensive discount programs in this region, while ingredient costs surged. That's a minor setback in a broadly successful quarter, though. Continue reading
⚽️ Champions League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽️ Live scoreboard Read today’s Football Daily | Mail Scott It’s been a slow crescendo – poco a poco – but the Champions League has been building up to this: a summit meeting between the best two teams in the competition. On the face of it, you’d have a good job confidently predicting the outcome of a tie between the outrageously talented holde...
⚽️ Champions League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽️ Live scoreboard Read today’s Football Daily | Mail Scott It’s been a slow crescendo – poco a poco – but the Champions League has been building up to this: a summit meeting between the best two teams in the competition. On the face of it, you’d have a good job confidently predicting the outcome of a tie between the outrageously talented holders and a side who have won 11 of their 12 games in the competition this season and simply don’t know when they’re beaten . But then Bayern have won the last five games between the clubs, and seven in the last eight, including the 2020 final, so apologies for clouding your mind. The Paris Match begins at 8pm BST. C’est parti! Continue reading...
The US Food and Drug Administration plans to cut the time it takes drug companies to test new medicines by getting more visibility into clinical trials as they’re underway. The proposal could shave off “months, if not years” off of drug development times, the agency’s Chief AI Officer Jeremy Walsh said on a call with reporters. Under the plan, the FDA will monitor high-level signals about whether ...
The US Food and Drug Administration plans to cut the time it takes drug companies to test new medicines by getting more visibility into clinical trials as they’re underway. The proposal could shave off “months, if not years” off of drug development times, the agency’s Chief AI Officer Jeremy Walsh said on a call with reporters. Under the plan, the FDA will monitor high-level signals about whether experimental drugs work and are safe in real time, though it won’t collect all patient-level data. The announcement is part of the agency’s broader agenda to make the US more competitive for drug research as companies have increasingly chosen to start trials in China and Australia, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said. The White House in its budget has signaled the FDA intends to provide new options to expedite early-stage trials, which would aid small biotech companies. The FDA also published a notice Tuesday seeking information about how to use artificial intelligence to speed up early clinical research, which it called “a critical bottleneck in drug development.” Makary said it normally takes 10 to 12 years for a drug to be developed, and that around 45% of that is “dead time” used for paperwork and data entry. Currently, drug companies get results reported from study sites, analyze the data, then send the data to the FDA. Giving regulators a view into the data as it’s collected could allow companies to move drugs on to the next phase of clinical trials more quickly, Walsh said. The idea is being tested in trials of two cancer drugs conducted by AstraZeneca Plc and Amgen Inc. The program was planned “in partnership with industry,” Walsh said. A broader pilot program is forthcoming. FDA leadership said the move isn’t intended to replace communication and meetings with companies developing drugs.
Meredith Whitney, the CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, breaks down the illusion of a strong US consumer, revealing a widening gap between wealthy spenders and struggling households. She explains how government stimulus is temporarily masking deeper cracks, and why the economy could face a sharp reality check after the election. (Source: Bloomberg)
Meredith Whitney, the CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, breaks down the illusion of a strong US consumer, revealing a widening gap between wealthy spenders and struggling households. She explains how government stimulus is temporarily masking deeper cracks, and why the economy could face a sharp reality check after the election. (Source: Bloomberg)
(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market's benchmark SMI ended marginally down on Tuesday after languishing in negative territory right through the day's session with investors refraining from making significant moves, looking ahead to monetary policy announcements from several t
(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market's benchmark SMI ended marginally down on Tuesday after languishing in negative territory right through the day's session with investors refraining from making significant moves, looking ahead to monetary policy announcements from several t
Anton Zacon/iStock via Getty Images Fast Facts First Trust Vest S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income ETF ( KNG ) was launched on 3/26/2018 and tracks the Cboe S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income Index Monthly Series. KNG magnifies income from dividend stocks by selling covered call options on these stocks. The fund has 138 holdings, a trailing 12-month yield of 8.58%, a 30-day SEC yie...
Anton Zacon/iStock via Getty Images Fast Facts First Trust Vest S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income ETF ( KNG ) was launched on 3/26/2018 and tracks the Cboe S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income Index Monthly Series. KNG magnifies income from dividend stocks by selling covered call options on these stocks. The fund has 138 holdings, a trailing 12-month yield of 8.58%, a 30-day SEC yield of 1.92%, and a total expense ratio of 0.74%. It is a large and liquid ETF, with $3.3 billion of AUM (assets under management) and an average daily dollar volume of $19 million. The sponsor, First Trust, is a financial services company based in Wheaton, Illinois, with over $300 billion in AUM. First Trust was one of the first asset management firms to offer smart beta and thematic ETFs. Strategy As described by First Trust , the underlying index is rules-based, with a primary objective to generate income approximately 8% over the dividend yield of the S&P 500 Index and a secondary objective of capital appreciation. For that purpose, the index includes an equal-weighted portfolio of the stocks contained in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index with options traded on a U.S. exchange and monthly-rolled at-the-money short call options on each of these stocks. The portion of each stock position to be covered by a call option is dynamically adjusted to attain the income target. Such a covered call strategy enhances income with an option premium and also limits the gains from the stock portfolio. The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index generally includes companies in the S&P 500 Index that have increased dividend payments each year for at least 25 consecutive years and meet certain market capitalization and liquidity requirements. The equity index is rebalanced quarterly and reconstituted annually. The portfolio turnover rate was 152% in the most recent fiscal year and 92% in the previous year. This article will use as a benchmark the S&P 500 Index, represented by State Street ...
Investors are watching Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) ahead of Q1 2026 results due tomorrow after the close. With a $200 billion AI capex plan on the line and AWS posting its fastest growth in 13 quarters, this report could reset the AI infrastructure narrative. AWS Reaccelerated. Now It Has to Stick. Last quarter, AWS revenue grew ... Amazon’s AI Engine Is About to Explode Higher Tomorrow
Investors are watching Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) ahead of Q1 2026 results due tomorrow after the close. With a $200 billion AI capex plan on the line and AWS posting its fastest growth in 13 quarters, this report could reset the AI infrastructure narrative. AWS Reaccelerated. Now It Has to Stick. Last quarter, AWS revenue grew ... Amazon’s AI Engine Is About to Explode Higher Tomorrow
Vote goes PM’s way but he faces anger from his own MPs who accuse him of creating perception of ‘cover-up’ UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer saw off an opposition bid to refer him to a standards committee over Peter Mandelson’s appointment after Downing Street deployed its full weight to force Labour MPs to shore up the prime minister. However, the Labour leader bore the brunt of ange...
Vote goes PM’s way but he faces anger from his own MPs who accuse him of creating perception of ‘cover-up’ UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer saw off an opposition bid to refer him to a standards committee over Peter Mandelson’s appointment after Downing Street deployed its full weight to force Labour MPs to shore up the prime minister. However, the Labour leader bore the brunt of anger from some of his own backbenchers who accused him of creating a situation where they would be perceieved as being complicit in “a cover-up.” Continue reading...
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) secures a spot on our list of the best memory stocks to buy according to analysts. As of April 20, 2026, Wall Street remains bullish on Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), with 92% of analysts covering the stock assigning “Buy” ratings. The highest price target on the Street stands at $1,000, implying […]
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) secures a spot on our list of the best memory stocks to buy according to analysts. As of April 20, 2026, Wall Street remains bullish on Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), with 92% of analysts covering the stock assigning “Buy” ratings. The highest price target on the Street stands at $1,000, implying […]