South Africa is seeking private sector partners to ramp up its sale of government bonds to the retail market, potentially widening its investor base and lowering the cost of borrowing. “There’s a big opportunity,” National Treasury Director-General Duncan Pieterse told Bloomberg in an interview at its Johannesburg offices on Monday. South Africa’s existing retail-bond sale program raises about 3 b...
South Africa is seeking private sector partners to ramp up its sale of government bonds to the retail market, potentially widening its investor base and lowering the cost of borrowing. “There’s a big opportunity,” National Treasury Director-General Duncan Pieterse told Bloomberg in an interview at its Johannesburg offices on Monday. South Africa’s existing retail-bond sale program raises about 3 billion rand ($184 million) a year, for a total amount currently outstanding of just over 20 billion rand, according to the Treasury. Pieterse said that this fell short of the retail market’s potential and if sales could be durably increased — for example to as much as 30 billion rand — it could mean relying less on institutional investors and reducing the size of weekly bond auctions. Read More: South Africa Treasury Says It Can Weather Shocks Like Iran War “That obviously gives you an opportunity to take some of that supply that you are currently putting there from a fixed-rate bond and inflation-linked bond perspective out of the market, further compressing yields and decreasing interest rates,” he said. South Africa’s borrowing requirement is projected to decline to 380 billion rand in 2026-27 from 563 billion rand in the current fiscal year, before rising to 569 billion rand in 2027-28. The rand and benchmark government bonds have rallied sharply in recent months, buoyed in part by growing confidence that the Treasury will deliver on its promise to control public finances, as well as the adoption of a 3% inflation target by the central bank that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana explicitly endorsed in November. Pieterse expects a private-sector partner to be appointed by the time of next year’s budget in February, giving the Treasury a clearer sense of the baseline potential for retail issuance. He’s also optimistic about the prospects for further South African infrastructure bonds, after the country’s debut issue attracted strong demand last year, raising 11.8 billion ...
For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – March 3, 2026 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Broadcom AVGO, Cisco Systems CSCO, Arista Networks ANET and Marvell Technology MRVL. Here are highlights from...
For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – March 3, 2026 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Broadcom AVGO, Cisco Systems CSCO, Arista Networks ANET and Marvell Technology MRVL. Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog: Buy, Sell or Hold Broadcom Stock? Key Tips Ahead of Q1 Earnings Broadcom is set to report its first-quarter fiscal 2026 results on March 4. For first-quarter fiscal 2026, AVGO expects revenues of $19.1 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $19.27 billion, suggesting growth of 29.2% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure. The consensus mark for earnings has been unchanged at $2.03 per share over the past 30 days, indicating 27% growth from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Broadcom’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average earnings surprise being 3.35%. Broadcom Inc. price-eps-surprise | Broadcom Inc. Quote Let us see how things have shaped up for AVGO shares prior to this announcement. Factors to Note Prior to Broadcom’s Q1 Earnings Broadcom’s fiscal first-quarter performance is expected to have benefited from its expanding AI offerings. AI revenues are expected to double year over year to $8.2 billion, thanks to strong demand for custom AI accelerators (XPUs), which are a type of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) necessary to train Generative AI models. Broadcom’s current order backlog for AI switches exceeds $10 billion as AVGO’s latest 102-terabit per second Tomahawk 6 switch continues to gain traction. AVGO’s networking portfolio is gaining from strong demand for Tomahawk 6 products, as well as the Jericho 4 Ethernet fabric router. Moreover, Broadcom has a rich partner base that includes the likes of OpenAI, Walmart, NVIDIA, Canonical, Arist...
As Angela Rippon’s Let’s Dance campaign aims to get the nation moving this week, older dancers share how they overcame nerves to relish the benefits In retirement, Suzanne Tarlin heard herself saying: “I need to move.” The former solicitor, then 71, learned from a friend about senior ballet and contemporary dance classes at a community centre and decided to give it a try. “Terrifying,” the Londone...
As Angela Rippon’s Let’s Dance campaign aims to get the nation moving this week, older dancers share how they overcame nerves to relish the benefits In retirement, Suzanne Tarlin heard herself saying: “I need to move.” The former solicitor, then 71, learned from a friend about senior ballet and contemporary dance classes at a community centre and decided to give it a try. “Terrifying,” the Londoner remembers, 10 years on. “But the teachers who do this stuff are incredibly patient and good-humoured. People come with all sorts of backgrounds and levels of expertise. The classes are clearly important because some people go week after week, sometimes twice a week.” Tarlin went on to do senior contemporary classes at Rambert , then added over-60s classes at the Place , home to London Contemporary Dance School, and sessions in German tanztheater at Morley College for adult education. She also signed up for creative workshops and performance groups, especially enjoying the intergenerational projects – even performing in a large-scale public event with dancers from Rambert and the Ballet National de Marseille at the Southbank Centre (she commandeered an industrial road cleaner in one scene and slid off the roof of a beat-up limousine at the finale). At the Place, she crawled around the stage in a costume made of cables. Growing old gracefully has clearly not been a dance goal. “I suppose the dreaded word is ‘wafting’,” she says. “You know, being a bit pretty, drifting around waving a scarf or something.” Continue reading...
Italy's prime minister, by contrast, is having to perform the most excruciating dance - between Italian voter opinion and what she believes is in her country's and her own best interest on the world stage. So far, Giorgia Meloni has kept a very low profile on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. She is one of the few leaders in Europe to have a truly warm relationship with Donald Trump.
Italy's prime minister, by contrast, is having to perform the most excruciating dance - between Italian voter opinion and what she believes is in her country's and her own best interest on the world stage. So far, Giorgia Meloni has kept a very low profile on the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. She is one of the few leaders in Europe to have a truly warm relationship with Donald Trump.
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is positioning robotics as its next major growth engine, with CEO Cristiano Amon signaling the business could scale meaningfully within two years. Beyond Smartphones: Qualcomm Bets On Robotics Amon said robotics will become a "larger opportunity" for the company within the next two years as it expands beyond smartphones. In January, Qualcomm introduced a robotics proces...
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is positioning robotics as its next major growth engine, with CEO Cristiano Amon signaling the business could scale meaningfully within two years. Beyond Smartphones: Qualcomm Bets On Robotics Amon said robotics will become a "larger opportunity" for the company within the next two years as it expands beyond smartphones. In January, Qualcomm introduced a robotics processor under its Dragonwing brand, aiming to develop a chipset that can run across multiple robotics platforms—an approach similar to how its Snapdragon processors power a wide range of smartphones. "I think robotics will start to get scale within the next two years," Amon told CNBC on Monday when asked when the segment could become meaningful for Qualcomm. "I think it's going to become like a larger opportunity within two years," he added at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. AI Advances Drive Robotics Growth Analysts have projected significant long-term growth for the sector. McKinsey estimates the general-purpose robotics market could reach $370 billion by 2040, while RBC Capital Markets forecasts a $9 trillion total addressable market for humanoid robots by 2050. Robots rely on advanced processors and complex engineering, and recent advances in AI models—often described as physical AI—have made them more capable. "People have said just robotics alone could be a trillion-dollar opportunity in terms of market size … the reality is, we see now, because of physical AI, robots have become a lot more useful," Amon said. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also identified robotics as a major future growth area for his company. QCOM Price Action Qualcomm shares were down 2.15% at $138.00 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Negative sentiment is driven by Qualcomm's warning that booming AI data center memory demand is diverting supply away from consumer electronics, intensifying an already tight memory market, and deepening shortages. Image via Shutterstoc...
北京时间2026年3月2日晚间19点49分，Anthropic的AI助手Claude在全球范围内突然陷入大面积服务中断。claude.ai网页端、开发者控制台、AI编程工具Claude Code以及移动端应用几乎同时亮起红灯，数千名用户涌入Downdetector报告故障，高峰期报障数量数千条。用户在尝试登录时看到的是HTTP 500和529错误码，或者一句简短的提示：“Claude will r...
It's a bear vs. a hound in today's battle royale! Reasonably priced artificial intelligence (AI) growth stocks are rare breeds these days, as share prices of AI stocks have skyrocketed. However, two niche AI companies haven't seen the explosive growth of these heavy hitters ... at least, not yet. Shares of AI voice recognition specialist SoundHound AI (SOUN +0.12%) are trading up just 14.7% over t...
It's a bear vs. a hound in today's battle royale! Reasonably priced artificial intelligence (AI) growth stocks are rare breeds these days, as share prices of AI stocks have skyrocketed. However, two niche AI companies haven't seen the explosive growth of these heavy hitters ... at least, not yet. Shares of AI voice recognition specialist SoundHound AI (SOUN +0.12%) are trading up just 14.7% over the last five years, while defense and security-focused BigBear.ai's (BBAI +3.54%) stock is down 62%. But only one of these niche AI players is likely to make you rich. The battle SoundHound has developed a voice AI chatbot that's primarily used for placing restaurant orders by phone or at a drive-thru window, and in cars as a hands-free voice assistant. However, the company is trying to branch out into other industries, particularly finance and insurance. Expand NASDAQ : SOUN SoundHound AI Today's Change ( 0.12 %) $ 0.01 Current Price $ 8.61 Key Data Points Market Cap $3.6B Day's Range $ 7.78 - $ 8.64 52wk Range $ 6.52 - $ 22.17 Volume 2.5K Avg Vol 25M Gross Margin 33.07 % Meanwhile, BigBear.ai has been very successful in the niche markets where it operates. Its TrueFace AI-powered facial recognition platform is in use at security screening checkpoints at numerous U.S. airports, including O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, one of the busiest in the country. The Department of Defense uses its ConductorOS edge computing platform to ensure secure communications in remote locations. The problem for BigBear.ai -- and one likely reason its revenue has been falling in recent quarters -- is that these defense-focused applications aren't really useful to a wider market. SoundHound's AI-powered voice chatbot, on the other hand, has the chance to be adopted by nearly any business that could benefit from a no-wait customer service help line. That's why, even though SoundHound's technology faces a lot of potential competition, it's the winner of this battle.
Key Points SoundHound AI has developed an agentic AI voice chatbot for voice interactions. BigBear.ai is focused on security and defense. 10 stocks we like better than SoundHound AI › It's a bear vs. a hound in today's battle royale! Reasonably priced artificial intelligence (AI) growth stocks are rare breeds these days, as share prices of AI stocks have skyrocketed. However, two niche AI companie...
Key Points SoundHound AI has developed an agentic AI voice chatbot for voice interactions. BigBear.ai is focused on security and defense. 10 stocks we like better than SoundHound AI › It's a bear vs. a hound in today's battle royale! Reasonably priced artificial intelligence (AI) growth stocks are rare breeds these days, as share prices of AI stocks have skyrocketed. However, two niche AI companies haven't seen the explosive growth of these heavy hitters ... at least, not yet. 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 » Shares of AI voice recognition specialist SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) are trading up just 14.7% over the last five years, while defense and security-focused BigBear.ai's (NYSE: BBAI) stock is down 62%. But only one of these niche AI players is likely to make you rich. The battle SoundHound has developed a voice AI chatbot that's primarily used for placing restaurant orders by phone or at a drive-thru window, and in cars as a hands-free voice assistant. However, the company is trying to branch out into other industries, particularly finance and insurance. Meanwhile, BigBear.ai has been very successful in the niche markets where it operates. Its TrueFace AI-powered facial recognition platform is in use at security screening checkpoints at numerous U.S. airports, including O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, one of the busiest in the country. The Department of Defense uses its ConductorOS edge computing platform to ensure secure communications in remote locations. The problem for BigBear.ai -- and one likely reason its revenue has been falling in recent quarters -- is that these defense-focused applications aren't really useful to a wider market. SoundHound's AI-powered voice chatbot, on the other hand, has the chance to be adopted by nearly any business that could benefit f...