Shares of data analytics company Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) jumped 4.6% in the afternoon session after an analyst at Mizuho upgraded the stock's rating and the company announced a strategic partnership with Rackspace Technology.
Shares of data analytics company Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) jumped 4.6% in the afternoon session after an analyst at Mizuho upgraded the stock's rating and the company announced a strategic partnership with Rackspace Technology.
Lucy Lambriex/DigitalVision via Getty Images Synopsis Fortune Brands Innovations ( FBIN ) quarterly results were mixed because of the subdued housing environment and margin pressures. While in my previous coverage , I gave it a hold rating due to a lack of margins of safety; the valuation now appears more compelling. Despite modest growth, FBIN continues to demonstrate operating stability and mark...
Lucy Lambriex/DigitalVision via Getty Images Synopsis Fortune Brands Innovations ( FBIN ) quarterly results were mixed because of the subdued housing environment and margin pressures. While in my previous coverage , I gave it a hold rating due to a lack of margins of safety; the valuation now appears more compelling. Despite modest growth, FBIN continues to demonstrate operating stability and market share gains. Coupled with earnings recovery potential, the improved risk-reward profile supports a Buy stance. Fourth Quarter Earnings Analysis FBIN’s results were mixed in Q4 2025 . Sales totaled $1.1 billion, down by 2% year-over-year, while sales excluding China remained flat. Operating income for the quarter came in at $158 million, down by 13% year-over-year, with operating margins contracting to 14.7%. The weaker performance is primarily as a result of softer volumes and an unfavorable product mix. Management saw significant pressure as customers took a cautious stance on inventory build. Despite softer demand conditions and margin pressure, management noted continued market outperformance, supported by resilience in higher-end offerings and growth in connected products such as Flow and Yale. Challenging Macro Environment Recent US housing trends largely support the firm’s cautious view. While homeowners are still spending on repairs and renovations, activity levels remain steady rather than showing strong demand. Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity [ LIRA ] is a good metric to track repair and remodel spending. It is projected that homeowner renovation and repair spending will grow but at a moderating pace, easing from 2.9% growth early in 2026 to 1.6% by year-end. It is showing deceleration in growth, showing demand is resilient but losing momentum. JCHS Harvard New residential construction, on the other hand, appears to be mixed, according to Census . While total building permits and housing starts are trending below prior-year levels, single-family housing...
Bussarin Rinchumrus/iStock via Getty Images Bank of America on Wednesday released a report analyzing performance metrics for social media platforms following the release of January Sensor Tower time spent data. Average Revenue Per User Growth BofA noted that Reddit ( RDDT ) saw the strongest ARPU growth in the U.S. for the fourth quarter at 53%, followed by Meta ( META ) at 22%, Snap ( SNAP ) at 1...
Bussarin Rinchumrus/iStock via Getty Images Bank of America on Wednesday released a report analyzing performance metrics for social media platforms following the release of January Sensor Tower time spent data. Average Revenue Per User Growth BofA noted that Reddit ( RDDT ) saw the strongest ARPU growth in the U.S. for the fourth quarter at 53%, followed by Meta ( META ) at 22%, Snap ( SNAP ) at 13%, YouTube ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) at 5%, and Pinterest ( PINS ) at 5%. In international markets, Reddit's ARPU growth was 39%, followed by Pinterest and Meta at 18% and YouTube and Snap at 9%. "Reddit is benefiting from improving ad performance, plus 4Q ad load growth, which is expected to moderate in 1Q. Meta continues to lead in AI-driven monetization gains. Subscriptions aided Snap, while Pinterest US growth trailed," the research firm said. Revenue Per Hour Growth Reddit had the highest Q4 RPH growth in the U.S. at 92%, followed by Snap at 19%, Meta at 10%, YouTube at 1%, and Pinterest at -14%. Internationally, Reddit's RPH growth was up 62%, followed by Pinterest at 29%, Snap at 21%, Meta at 17%, and YouTube at 13%. "Reddit’s RPH growth driven by higher ad loads and improved conversion, while Pinterest’s RPH decline reflects solid usage growth and lagging monetization (tariff pressures, small SMB share). Meta remains best-in-class in AI-driven monetization. YouTube RPH does not include subscription revs, which are incremental," the research firm said. Time Spent For the month of January, Instagram's daily average time spent per active user in the U.S. was up 12%, followed by Pinterest at 10%, TikTok ( BDNCE ) at 7%, Facebook at 4%, YouTube at 2%, X at 2%, and Yelp ( YELP ) with flat growth. Reddit had the largest decline at -9%, followed by Snap at -4%. Internationally, Yelp had the highest growth at 10%, followed by Instagram at 7%, Facebook at 3%, TikTok at 2%, and X at 1%. Snap had the largest decline at -7%, followed by Reddit at -6%, YouTube at -5%, and Pinterest at ...
After closing 3% higher than when it had finished last Friday's trading session, shares of Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) are climbing even higher today. While the company didn't report any positive news, investors are bidding shares higher after an analyst shared a bullish view on the stock yesterday. As of 12:22 p.m. ET, shares of Intuitive Machines are up 7.5%, pulling back slightly from an ...
After closing 3% higher than when it had finished last Friday's trading session, shares of Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR) are climbing even higher today. While the company didn't report any positive news, investors are bidding shares higher after an analyst shared a bullish view on the stock yesterday. As of 12:22 p.m. ET, shares of Intuitive Machines are up 7.5%, pulling back slightly from an earlier rise of 10.7%. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
mustafaU/iStock via Getty Images By Kevin Flanagan Last week, I weighed in on Kevin Warsh being nominated to be the next Fed Chair and provided some background and perspective about where he might take the U.S. central bank under his leadership. This week, I wanted to go a little deeper in the analysis, specifically the notion that Warsh would like to reduce the Fed's 'footprint.' As you may recal...
mustafaU/iStock via Getty Images By Kevin Flanagan Last week, I weighed in on Kevin Warsh being nominated to be the next Fed Chair and provided some background and perspective about where he might take the U.S. central bank under his leadership. This week, I wanted to go a little deeper in the analysis, specifically the notion that Warsh would like to reduce the Fed's 'footprint.' As you may recall, the Fed's 'footprint' really consists of two dynamics: the balance sheet and forward guidance. This blog will focus on the Fed’s balance sheet - specifically its holdings of Treasury securities (USTs) and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) . For the record, the actual Fed balance sheet consists of many other line items besides its UST and MBS holdings (known as the System Open Market Account, or SOMA), but this is typically where the lion's share of attention resides. It has been no secret that Warsh is not a fan of Quantitative Easing (QE), both while he was a Fed governor and more recently in comments and writings. That being said, in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession, he did not dissent when the Bernanke-led Fed initially decided to pursue QE. Source: St. Louis Fed, as of February 13, 2026 However, let's fast-forward and assume Warsh is confirmed as the next Fed Chair. What can he do about that balance sheet in reality? Well, the first thing he would have to do is to get the remaining Fed governors and regional bank presidents on board with a plan on how to shrink the Fed's UST and MBS securities holdings. Then comes the size of SOMA and that's where reality sinks in. Total Fed holdings of Treasuries and MBS at present come in at $6.3 trillion, with a breakdown of $4.3 trillion in USTs and $2.0 trillion in MBS. In the post–Financial Crisis period, the peak total was $4.25 trillion combined! Let's offer some perspective. At its peak in 2022, SOMA was at $8.5 trillion, consisting of roughly $5.8 trillion in Treasuries and $2.7 trillion in MBS. In o...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting ...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting with us, check out the Odd Lots Discord , where you can hang out and talk with us and with other listeners 24/7. Here’s what Tracy’s thinking about It’s not every day that you see fund managers complain about companies spending *too* much money on capex. In the long catalogue of corporate sins, plowing too much money into the future usually ranks as one of the lesser ones. Yet, that perception seems to be shifting fast. Bank of America’s latest survey of fund managers shows a record percentage now say that companies are overinvesting . That’s a remarkable turn in sentiment, and one that hasn’t really happened in recent memory. (For years, in fact, the prevailing criticism of Corporate America was underinvestment in productive capacity via excessive share buybacks and the like). The proximate source of this new capex concern isn’t hard to find. Lower down in the survey, BoA also asks fund managers about the likeliest cause of a credit event. A blow-up in private credit wins as the top risk, flagged by 43% of respondents, but “AI hyperscaler capex” comes in as second with 30%. The AI/data center investment boom is so big now that it’s coursing through the macro and the market. Its fingerprints are everywhere. Mentions of “data center” on S&P 500 earnings calls have hit record highs. Durable goods data out this morning shows orders for computers and electronics up 3% month-on-month and 7% year-on-year, while machinery orders jumped over 12% from a year ago. As Peter Boockvar puts it, “data center capex is all over this data.” There are plenty of historical technological revolu...
gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Aurora Innovation, Inc. ( AUR ) continues to make progress on advancing autonomous trucking, but the company is still moving too slowly. The business enters 2026 with limited commercial opportunities due to a plan to ramp up the business too slowly. My investment thesis remains Neutral on the stock despite trading at the all-time lows below $5, though a double b...
gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Aurora Innovation, Inc. ( AUR ) continues to make progress on advancing autonomous trucking, but the company is still moving too slowly. The business enters 2026 with limited commercial opportunities due to a plan to ramp up the business too slowly. My investment thesis remains Neutral on the stock despite trading at the all-time lows below $5, though a double bottom potential exists here. Source: Finviz Still Crawling Aurora Innovation has achieved incredible milestones, running autonomous trucks over 250,000 miles without an accident. The company has successfully run the Dallas to Houston trucking lane since launching service last May after extensive testing, but the scaling plans only involve 200 trucks by the end of 2026. The company ended 2025 with only 10 autonomous trucks on the roads as the company opened up the Phoenix to Ft. Worth lane. The Q4 revenues were just $1 million, and the guidance for 2026 is a major ramp-up not until Q4’26. Aurora Innovation spent a big part of the earnings report discussing the opening of future trucking lanes in the Sun Belt when the opening of a 1,000-mile lane from Phoenix to Ft. Worth should’ve placed the company in full production mode. The company is still focused on the opening of additional trucking lanes, including an expansion from Dallas to Laredo. Management did appear to shift some of the focus to take advantage of current demand with a fracking sand customer and open up the route to Laredo in Q1'26 with a new customer. Unfortunately, Aurora Innovation is flat-footed with the launch of the 2nd generation truck not until Q2'26, leaving the ability to reach scale until 2027/28. Source: Aurora Innovation Q4'25 presentation The main issue is that Aurora has fast-approaching competition with Kodiak AI ( KDK ) going public and taking a different approach of upfitting existing trucks. Kodiak had 10 driverless trucks in production last year and has plans to reach 100 trucks in production...
watch now VIDEO 5:09 05:09 Eric Trump: I've never been more bullish on bitcoin in my life Squawk on the Street Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday called traditional banking a "Ponzi scheme" that effectively forced the Trump family to start its crypto venture World Liberty Financial after banks closed the family company's accounts in early 2021. "You know, we didn't get into crypto because we were on th...
watch now VIDEO 5:09 05:09 Eric Trump: I've never been more bullish on bitcoin in my life Squawk on the Street Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday called traditional banking a "Ponzi scheme" that effectively forced the Trump family to start its crypto venture World Liberty Financial after banks closed the family company's accounts in early 2021. "You know, we didn't get into crypto because we were on the leading edge," Trump Jr. told CNBC's Sara Eisen on "Squawk on the Street" during an interview Wednesday at the World Liberty Forum . "We got into it out of necessity," Trump Jr. said at the event that is being held at the Mar-a-Lago club owned by his father, President Donald Trump , in Palm Beach, Fla. "They basically forced us into it." Donald Trump Jr. (L) and Eric Trump speaking on Squawk on the Street on Feb. 18th, 2026. CNBC He and his younger brother Eric Trump blamed traditional banks for booting the Trump Organization's hundreds of bank accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, during which supporters of his father stormed the U.S. Capitol while claiming the 2020 election results were invalid. The brothers said banks also had "debanked" other, smaller clients because of their conservative politics. "We're trying to modernize finance," Eric Trump said. "We're the most cancelled people in the world in 2020, 2021," Eric Trump said. Read more CNBC politics coverage Billionaire Les Wexner's congressional deposition over Jeffrey Epstein ties is underway Trump administration sued for Stonewall Pride flag removal in New York Potomac River sewage spill: Trump says Democrats need to ask for his help Stephen Colbert says CBS blocked James Talarico interview from air "And it's really great to almost have this retribution, where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda, our agenda is to modernize finance to [make sure] that can never, ever happen to anybody again," he said. The Trump family's involvement in a crypto venture has drawn criticism, given the presence of th...
mohd izzuan Insulet ( PODD ) shares spiked on Wednesday after the insulin pump maker beat Street forecasts with its Q4 2025 results and issued an outlook that, according to Leerink Partners, exceeded consensus at the midpoint. Its Q4 revenue jumped ~29% YoY on a constant currency basis to $783.8M, exceeding the consensus by $15.1M, as its revenue from its Omnipod insulin pump rose ~28% YoY and ~42...
mohd izzuan Insulet ( PODD ) shares spiked on Wednesday after the insulin pump maker beat Street forecasts with its Q4 2025 results and issued an outlook that, according to Leerink Partners, exceeded consensus at the midpoint. Its Q4 revenue jumped ~29% YoY on a constant currency basis to $783.8M, exceeding the consensus by $15.1M, as its revenue from its Omnipod insulin pump rose ~28% YoY and ~42% YoY in the U.S. and overseas markets to reach $567.8M and $214.0M, respectively. Meanwhile, Insulet’s ( PODD ) adjusted diluted earnings per share climbed ~35% YoY to $1.55, beating the consensus by $0.09 as the company recorded ~19% of adjusted operating margin, indicating a 30 bps rise from the prior year period. For 2025, PODD reported $4.97 of adjusted diluted EPS on $2.7B in revenue with ~54% YoY and ~30% YoY growth, respectively, with a 270 bps increase in adjusted operating margin. The Acton, Massachusetts-based MedTech indicated 25% YoY - 27% YoY and 20% YoY - 22% YoY in forex-adjusted revenue growth for Q1 and 2026, respectively, alongside an adjusted EPS growth of more than 25% backed by 100 bps growth in adjusted operating margin. “The FY26 guide will be viewed positively by investors, supported by strong underlying growth both in the US and OUS,” Leerink analyst Mike Kratky, who has an Outperform rating on PODD, wrote, according to Bloomberg. More on Insulet Insulet Corporation 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Insulet Corporation (PODD) Presents at 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Transcript Insulet Corporation (PODD) Presents at 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference - Slideshow FDA making use of real-world evidence in device applications easier Insulet drops on investor day as long-term outlook unveiled
ArtistGNDphotography/E+ via Getty Images Zeo Energy ( ZEO ) shares wobble between gains and losses on Wednesday after saying it signed a memorandum of understanding with Creekstone Energy to develop ~280 MW of power generation for a data center under construction in Millard County, Utah. Under the MoU, Zeo ( ZEO ) said it has begun a pre-feasibility study to determine the most energy-efficient and...
ArtistGNDphotography/E+ via Getty Images Zeo Energy ( ZEO ) shares wobble between gains and losses on Wednesday after saying it signed a memorandum of understanding with Creekstone Energy to develop ~280 MW of power generation for a data center under construction in Millard County, Utah. Under the MoU, Zeo ( ZEO ) said it has begun a pre-feasibility study to determine the most energy-efficient and cost-efficient solar power and energy storage solutions for Creekstone's gigasite. Zeo ( ZEO ) said its entrance into the data center market follows the company's acquisition last year of Heliogen that provided long-duration energy generation and storage expertise and capabilities. Zeo ( ZEO ) CEO Tim Bridgewater told Reuters the company plans to supply Creekstone's data center with a mix of solar power and battery storage, potentially meeting 60%-80% of the electricity needs. Bridgewater said Zeo ( ZEO ) is working on several other commercial long-duration energy storage projects that are in the planning and evaluation phase. More on Zeo Energy Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating on Zeo Energy Financial information for Zeo Energy
Isabel Schnabel said she’s committed to serving out her term on the European Central Bank ’s Executive Board. Her eight-year stint is up at the end of 2027 and the German indicated she’s not planning to follow President Christine Lagarde in considering an early departure. The Financial Times earlier Wednesday reported that Lagarde is expected to vacate her seat before it expires on October next ye...
Isabel Schnabel said she’s committed to serving out her term on the European Central Bank ’s Executive Board. Her eight-year stint is up at the end of 2027 and the German indicated she’s not planning to follow President Christine Lagarde in considering an early departure. The Financial Times earlier Wednesday reported that Lagarde is expected to vacate her seat before it expires on October next year. The ECB didn’t dismiss such an outcome, with a spokesperson saying the president “hasn’t taken a decision regarding the end of her term.” “I don’t see the need to step down early,” Schnabel told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Read More: Early Lagarde Exit Set to Narrow Field in Race to Lead ECB With three seats opening up on the ECB’s six-strong Executive Board over the course of 2027, speculation has mounted on whether they’ll all be filled at once in a package deal. In addition to Lagarde and Schnabel, Chief Economist Philip Lane will also see his term expire in May next year. The appointment process is complicated by presidential elections in France, with the far right riding high in polls and leaders currently in power attempting to limit their influence. Francois Villeroy de Galhau ’s decision last week to step down early as governor of the Bank of France — for personal reasons, he argues — presents President Emmanuel Macron with the opportunity to appoint his successor, rather than leaving the choice to whoever follows him into the Élysée.