(RTTNews) - Silgan Holdings Inc. (SLGN) announced earnings for fourth quarter that Decreased from last year but beat the Street estimates. The company's bottom line totaled $18.2 million, or $0.17 per share. This compares with $45.1 million, or $0.42 per share, last year. Excluding items, Silgan Holdings Inc. reported adjusted earnings of $70.7 million or $0.67 per share for the period. Analysts on average had expected the company to earn $0.64 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company's revenue for the period rose 4.0% to $1.468 billion from $1.411 billion last year. Silgan Holdings Inc. earnings at a glance (GAAP) : -Earnings: $18.2 Mln. vs. $45.1 Mln. last year. -EPS: $0.17 vs. $0.42 last year. -Revenue: $1.468 Bln vs. $1.411 Bln last year. This increased fourth-quarter sales reflect the contractual pass-through of higher raw material costs in the current year quarter and favorable foreign currency translation. Looking ahead, for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, the company expects adjusted income of $0.70 to $0.80 per share, less than the $0.82 per share posted for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. For fiscal 2026, Silgan anticipates adjusted profit of $3.70 to $3.90 per share, compared with $3.72 in fiscal 2025. The company projects capital expenditure of around $310 million for fiscal 2026, higher than $307.1 million in fiscal 2025. This increased capital expenditure is anticipated to be used to support continued dispensing and pet food product growth. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

上交所公告，沃格光电及有关责任人收到上交所监管警示决定书。公司时任董事会秘书龚庆宇在上证E互动平台回复多个涉及CPI航天应用、微流控生物芯片等问题时，存在回复内容未能准确反映公司CPI产品、生物芯片相关玻璃基板产品的具体应用情况、发展阶段、销售规模及对公司整体经营情况的影响，也未就未来发展存在的不确定性等情况充分提示风险，可能对投资者决策产生误导的行为。

Leading US and Chinese artificial intelligence models are frustrating to use in real-world settings because they struggle to learn from context, Tencent Holdings said in a new technical paper – the first co-authored by Vinces Yao Shunyu since he took up the role of chief AI scientist at the firm AI developers need to place “context learning” at the centre of future model design if their products are to become genuinely useful outside controlled environments, according to researchers from Tencent and Fudan University’s Institute of Trustworthy Embodied AI. “Models often fail in subtle but consequential ways,” the researchers wrote in a paper published on Tuesday . “Until [context learning] improves, [models] will remain brittle precisely in the settings where we most want them to help: messy, dynamic, real-world environments.” Advertisement The research comes as Yao – a former star researcher at OpenAI – seeks to reinvigorate Tencent’s foundational model efforts after a series of internal restructurings. The Shenzhen-based conglomerate’s Hunyuan models trail domestic rivals such as DeepSeek while its flagship consumer AI app Yuanbao had roughly half the number of users of ByteDance’s market-leading Doubao as of January. Chinese tech giant Tencent poached Vinces Yao Shunyu from OpenAI in 2025. Photo: Handout To test levels of context learning ability among existing models, Tencent’s researchers developed a new benchmark called CL-bench, testing 19 leading models across 1,899 tasks designed to measure on-the-job learning.

BlackRock Inc. ’s Larry Fink says it’s vital for India’s population to invest alongside the country’s economic growth, a key reason the world’s largest asset manager is expanding its presence in the country. “If you believe in the era of India, we need to compel hundreds of millions of Indians to invest alongside that growth,” Fink said during a forum in Mumbai on Wednesday. He was joined on the panel by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani , chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd . Fink said that India’s rise will be fueled both by foreign investors, who believe in its potential, and by the strength of the domestic economy, underpinned by retirement savings.

As a fierce contest takes shape between Labour, Reform UK and the Greens, John Harris and John Domokos take the temperature in an area of Manchester that feels like a microcosm of Britain - and find voters split between two completely different views of their lives, and the future Continue reading...

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN) was once the upstart running ahead of Walmart with its revolutionary e-commerce business. It now finds itself betting on the kind of mega-store typically associated with its Bentonville, Arkansas, rival. Analysts ​expect Amazon's fourth-quarter physical store revenue, which includes Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go sales, to increase 5.4% ‌from a year ago to $5.9 billion when it reports results on Thursday, according to estimates from LSEG. Overall earnings are expected at $1.97 a share. The company's retail ‌operations are still a key part of the business, even as it sees fast growth from its technology division, Amazon Web Services, which accounts for 18% of its revenue. Its decision last month to close all of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations and convert them into Whole Foods Market stores was a signal of a changing strategy. Its newest bet is a 225,000-square-foot mega-store outside Chicago, its ⁠first ever, meant to compete with Walmart or ‌Costco. The planned store will sell produce, household essentials and general merchandise while also serving as a distribution center for same-day deliveries. "Amazon knows that it needs to win in grocery because shoppers that tend ‍to buy grocery and fast-moving consumer goods items tend to have the highest customer lifetime value," said Amazon seller consultant Martin Heubel, whose clients send merchandise directly to Amazon to be sold in stores and online. The company said its previous strategy failed to create a distinctive shopping experience ​that would allow for large-scale expansion. Amazon did not comment. "I think to go all-in on brick-and-mortar is probably not the ‌long-term strategy for Amazon," S&P Global analyst Bea Chiem said. "It's going to take some time for them to catch up." Walmart (WMT) lagged behind Amazon in e-commerce for years, but the introduction of its Walmart+ membership program in September 2020 turned the tide. The program had 26.5 millio...

Monthly trading volumes have gone from millions to billions in short order. Exploring what that could mean for investors. To say that prediction markets have taken the world by storm would be an understatement. A recent report estimated that trading volume on prediction markets increased from under $100 million per month in early 2024 to more than $13 billion by the end of 2025. Prediction markets allow people to trade contracts tied to the outcome of future events. That's a fancy way of describing betting on events, from politics to sports. The risks involved in prediction markets position it alongside cryptocurrency trading and help explain the industry's explosive growth. It has launched companies such as Polymarket to mainstream fame and unlocked growth opportunities for Robinhood Markets. But as exciting as prediction markets are, there are three warnings to keep in mind before trading in them or investing in the companies involved. 1. Like cryptocurrencies, trading in prediction markets is speculative While cryptocurrencies have various potential uses, many people trade them in hopes of making a quick profit. The appeal of a quick and easy payout has swayed people for centuries, if not longer. After all, people don't evolve nearly as quickly as technology does. Remember that trading in prediction markets is arguably equivalent to gambling. It's crucial to isolate any capital used in prediction markets to money you can afford to lose, and it should be a tiny amount compared to what you're investing. 2. The rules aren't clear yet You're not necessarily up against the house when you trade in prediction markets; this isn't quite a casino. That said, the rules of prediction markets aren't always concise. Suppose you buy a contract on a recession occurring this year. How does the platform define recession, and how does it apply to your contract? Additionally, there aren't clear guardrails for maintaining fair play in prediction markets. What if someone knows somethi...

AMD falls as dour forecast shows cracks in AI trade MSN

STORY: Nvidia’s H200 AI chip sales to China are in question due to a pending U.S. national security review. That’s according to the Financial Times Tuesday (February 3), citing sources. It comes almost two months after U.S. President Donald Trump approved the tech giant’s exports. Meanwhile, the report said, Chinese customers aren't placing orders for the powerful H200 chip with Nvidia. They’re waiting for clarity on whether they’ll be able to secure licenses - or the conditions that could be attached. Reuters couldn't immediately verify the report. Nvidia and the U.S. State Department didn't immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. In January, the Commerce Department eased export curbs on the H200 for China. But it required license applications to be reviewed by the U.S. departments of State, Defense and Energy. According to the FT, the Commerce Department has completed its analysis but the State Department was pushing for tougher restrictions... With its goal being to make it harder for China to use the H200 chips in ways that would undermine U.S. national security. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week his firm's license to sell the chip in the country is being finalized. Reuters reported last month that China had approved its first batch of H200 chips for import. It marks a shift for Beijing as it tries to balance its AI needs against pushing domestic development.

Democrats are launching an aggressive campaign to win back voters they lost, not to Donald Trump, but to the proverbial “couch,” as they look to regain support ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rolled out a new initiative called Local Listeners with the goal of targeting over one million “infrequent” voters in key battleground districts. Seeking to build on the party’s string of off-year election victories, which extended into 2026 with an upset in Texas last weekend, the DNC is betting that early, localized outreach will be crucial in winning back these voters’ trust – and their ballots – this time around. “If we want to keep earning back the trust and support of voters, we have to listen to them,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement, shared in advance with the Guardian. “This program modernizes the way we are talking to and hearing from the voters that we need to win elections now and for years to come. The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters – these conversations need to happen early and often.” The program marks the DNC’s most ambitious early voter outreach effort for a midterm cycle, according to the organization. More than 2,000 volunteers have already signed up to participate in what the groups says is a sign, of “renewed grassroots energy” for the party. Volunteers will undergo a seven-week training program on how to better engage these voters, including sessions on “active listening” and “having difficult conversations about politics”. The goal is to engage voters who cast ballots for Joe Biden in 2020 but sat out in 2024, with volunteers aiming to conduct at least 250,000 phone conversations and host more than 50 grassroots events in key congressional districts by the end of March. The Trump campaign employed a similar strategy in 2024, investing heavily in outreach to newly registered and “low propensity” voters – those who are registered but often don’t...

Portmanteau series’ latest instalment has nice touches with eerily jolly villains and haunted soda, but it could use a bit of an edit This horror bonanza, the eighth instalment in the V/H/S anthology series, is a mixed bag, with some very high highs and regrettably poor lows. This is essentially a collection of Halloween-themed shorts, and while they’re billed as “found footage” in keeping with the conceit of the original, the idea that you’re watching found footage has been more or less worn away to a nub at this point. The series would in all honesty be better off ditching that element, and simply leaning into the broader idea of a regular horror anthology of unsettling short films. Among the highlights is a riotous and disgusting chapter called Fun Size, made with grisly flair by Casper Kelly, whose viral masterpiece Too Many Cooks took the internet by storm in 2014 and whose feature film Buddy just premiered at Sundance. Fun Size sees a group of young adults stumble into what might best be described as a wrongness zone where they’re pitted against a villain who comes on like the vicious kid brother of the Ghostbusters Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Continue reading...

Striking Starbucks baristas are calling on customers of the world’s largest coffee chain to delete its popular mobile app in solidarity with their demands for a first union contract. Starbucks Workers United, which has been coordinating a strike for almost three months, is vowing to press ahead. “We baristas are still fighting for a fair contract, and this fight is active and ongoing,” said KC Ihekwaba, a barista at Starbucks in Lafayette, Colorado, on a solidarity union call earlier this week. “Our fire for change is still burning. Our spirits still strong. “What we’re asking for has not changed. We’re demanding livable wages, stable and predictable hours, and an end to union busting. Starbucks still has not delivered on any of that.” Since 13 November last year, Starbucks Workers United began an unfair labor practice strike. Since December 2021, workers won union elections at more than 600 Starbucks stores. With several stores hit by closures, Starbucks Workers United now represents about 11,000 baristas at 576 Starbucks stores in the US. A further 15 stores filed for a union election last month. At the end of December, the union scaled back the scope of the strike, with most stores giving a return to work notice to Starbucks, with the aim to keep several hundred to 1,000 workers on strike in a rotational basis given the financial burdens of long strikes for low-income employees, and to put energy into increasing the number of unionized Starbucks stores. About 1,000 baristas across nearly 50 stores are on strike. “We have definitely made it known that we deserve a fair contract and union busting has got to stop now,” said Christi Gomoljak, a Starbucks barista, during a solidarity call announcing the “Delete the App” campaign. Gomoljak and her co-workers recently organized a union at the Downtown Disney Starbucks in Anaheim, California, and walked out on strike in November 2025. “We are calling on Starbucks customers everywhere to delete the Starbucks mobile app of...

In the immortal words of Brenda from Bristol, not another one. Between 17 October 2021, the start of the tournament in the United Arab Emirates, and 8 March 2026, the date of this year’s final, four T20 World Cups will have been squeezed into four years, four months and 19 days. If they come along more regularly even than British general elections – to which Brenda produced her timeless reaction in 2017 – they at least have more interesting results: the past five have had five different winners and the past three six different finalists. What’s more, though not much time has passed since the last one ended with India beating South Africa in Barbados, it seems to have been long enough for the game to shift into a fresh and exhilarating new gear. It is too soon to be drawing conclusions about the state of the game in 2026, but in 21 T20 internationals in the first month of this year 6,960 runs were scored at 9.13 an over – a massively higher scoring rate than any previous year. England scored at 9.91 an over in 2025, their best figure, and of the Test-playing nations only Bangladesh, who are not at the tournament, Australia and West Indies did not either break their run-scoring record in 2025 or set themselves on course to do so this year. The record for batting strike rates in the Indian Premier League was broken in 2023, again in 2024 and again in 2025. The figure for this year’s Big Bash was down slightly on last year’s record, but still above every other year. The 2025 tournaments sit second in the rankings for Pakistan’s PSL and the Caribbean Premier League in the West Indies, and first in Bangladesh’s BPL and England’s Blast. Not counting 2005 and 2006, when hardly any were played, in the first six years of T20 internationals, three teams successfully chased more than 200 to win games. It has happened twice this year and in matches between Test-playing nations three times in 2025 (while a few rungs down the ladder Gibraltar and Bulgaria managed to do it three ti...

I didn’t know how to refuse the offer of a drink without causing offence – until I learned how to kindly demur Although honesty is the best policy in general, justice for Pinocchio, because it turns out sometimes lying is the only option. In certain situations, if you didn’t smash the glass and break out an emergency fib, you’d simply be cruel. The secret to pulling it off in a way you can live with, as I’ve just learned, is in the branding. I was faced with a delicate dilemma: an acquaintance I had unwittingly socialised with in a group messaged me, suggesting a drink one-on-one. There is no way of saying thanks but no thanks to that kind of invitation without causing offence. This person is perfectly nice, it’s not like an evening with them would be an ordeal, but I was pretty confident we had more than covered the totality of our common ground during the group hang. Life’s quite short, isn’t it. I really didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but I also really didn’t want to go. However, backed into a corner, I came to the conclusion I’d have to spend time, money and small talk doing it anyway, because of stupid old politeness. Continue reading...

ITV will screen in-game commercials for the first time during Thursday’s Six Nations Championship opener between France and Ireland at Stade de France. The broadcaster’s new rights deal includes the option to air two split-screen adverts before a scrum is set in each half of every match of the Six Nations, the Guardian has learned. ITV is understood to have agreed in-game advertising deals with two major brands, with the screen to be divided in two so viewers do not miss any commentary or live action. The commercials will fill the right half of the screen and last around 20 seconds, with live pictures continuing on the left. Split-screen in-game advertising has been used by TV networks in the United States for several years and is being trialled by RTE in the Irish national broadcaster’s racing coverage in Ireland. If the Six Nations experiment is a success , there is a possibility ITV could sell in-game commericals for its coverage of this summer’s World Cup, when there all matches will feature a three-minute water break in the middle of each half to help players cope with the extreme heat. ITV is starting a new four-year deal for the Six Nations in partnership with the BBC, which gives Britain’s free-to-air commercial network 10 of the competition’s 15 matches each year, including every England game. ITV is understood to be paying more than two-thirds of the £63million-a-year deal, with advertising revenue a crucial means of recouping its spending. It has also agreed to pay £80m-a-year for exclusive rights for every game of the Nations Championship, the new 12-team competition featuring the Six Nations and their major southern hemisphere rivals – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan – which begins this summer. View image in fullscreen Ireland and France will resume their Six Nations rivalry in the tournament opener on Thursday. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters ITV has also broadcast every men’s Rugby World Cup since 1991, but has yet...

(RTTNews) - McKesson Corp. (MCK) will host a conference call at 4:30 PM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q3 26 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://investor.mckesson.com/events-and-presentations/default.aspx The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - CME Group, Inc. (CME) will host a conference call at 8:30 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q4 25 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://www.cmegroup.com/investor-relations/events-and-presentations.html To listen to the call, dial 877-918-3040 (US) or +1 312-470-7282 (International), passcode 1944793. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - Fox Corporation (FOXA) will host a conference call at 8:30 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q2 26 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://investor.foxcorporation.com/news-and-events/events-and-presentations/ The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM) will host a conference call at 8:15 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q4 25 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://investors.yum.com/events-and-presentations To listen to the call, dial 646/844-6383 (US) or +1/646-844-6383 (International), Conference ID 936175. For a replay call, dial 929/458-6194 (US) or +1/866-813-9403 (International), Conference ID 981204. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - Boston Scientific Corp (BSX) will host a conference call at 8:00 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q4 25 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://investors.bostonscientific.com/events-and-presentations The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - Johnson Controls Inc (JCI) will host a conference call at 8:30 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q1 26 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to http://investors.johnsoncontrols.com/news-and-events/events-and-presentations To listen to the call, dial 855-979-6654 (US) or +1-646-233-4753 (International) with with passcode 927389.For a replay call, dial (US) or (International). The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

(RTTNews) - Eli Lilly And Co. (LLY) will host a conference call at 10:00 AM ET on February 4, 2026, to discuss Q4 25 earnings results. To access the live webcast, log on to https://investor.lilly.com/webcasts-and-presentations The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

What's better than two private companies run by Elon Musk? One even larger company on the edge of going public. That's the optimistic case for supercharging Musk's rocket firm SpaceX, with the acquisition of his AI startup xAI in a deal that values the private enterprise at $1.25 trillion. Supercharge is not the verb that everyone would use, however. Skeptical internal shareholders and outside observers might see the mega merger as another instance of Musk self-dealing. Using one profitable company with a compelling story to swallow an unprofitable one with ambiguous and expensive AI ambitions isn't so much a pitch as it is a corporate piggy bank. But buying into the Musk trade can be a lucrative strategy. And clinging to his far-fetched plans has worked before. Sign up for the Yahoo Finance Morning Brief By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Subscribe Months ahead of a widely expected IPO, SpaceX has spruced itself up, becoming an even more diversified and dynamic investment vehicle for the Musk trade. If you don't believe in Tesla's vehicles, invest in SpaceX. If you don't like X, put your hopes in orbital data centers. And if you're looking for any kind of way to get in on the AI startup trade, Musk will soon have you covered. In other words, the SpaceX merger is another big reason to get into the Musk business of dreaming big. And the timing is just right. This is like staging a home about to go on the market. Only, instead of a bustling open house, we'll soon get a historic IPO. Another angle to consider, which gets at the motivation behind the deal, is how OpenAI and Anthropic will view Musk's maneuver. There isn't a shortage of private investors trying to bet big on the success of AI. But there are levels to investment, and going public is the next one. In the same way that OpenAI gained an advantage by releasing ChatGPT before anyone else's chatbot, making a public debut before other pure AI players will benefit the first mover...

今天是二十四節氣的立春，有新界花農表示，近日天氣回暖令年花加速開花，花農指要想辦法減慢開花速度。 立春是二十四節氣之首，寓意著春季展開，立春過後天氣逐漸回暖。 本港大致天色良好，下午氣溫普遍較前一天高兩三度，不過天氣回暖就令花農擔心。 在大埔林村，各種年花已陸續開花，杜鵑、蘭花更已經綻放，擔心未到農曆年已經凋謝，要想辦法減慢開花。 花農潘小姐說︰「一暖的話陽光温暖就會百花齊放，唯有盡量開吊風扇或開冷氣機，盡量控制温度不要這麼暖，令它們開得慢一點。」 有氣象專家表示，立春後日照時間漸長，氣溫會持續回升。 氣象學會發言人梁榮武指︰「我們今天的日照大概是11個小時，如果明天好天氣，明天的日照會多一分鐘，後天多兩分鐘，因為太陽越來越高，現在在南邊，太陽走上赤度再上北半球時，我們的日照越來越長，氣溫就越來越上升，就開始回暖。」 天文台預測未來一兩日風勢微弱，日間溫暖，最高氣溫約25度，但一道冷鋒周六會橫過華南沿岸地區，氣溫再次顯著下降，周日最低氣溫約13度。

In this article CMCSA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Super Bowl LX sign is seen at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. Stephen Lam | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images The Super Bowl is prime real estate every year for advertisers eager to get their brands in front of millions of consumers at once. It's also costly. That's why a small subset of ad space for streaming-only commercials is gaining traction and granting smaller brands time during TV's biggest night of the year. Comcast's NBC broadcast network will air Super Bowl 60 this year, with the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots facing off from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. NBC's streaming service, Peacock, will simulcast the event. While streaming has generally become the overwhelmingly popular way to consume content, the Super Bowl is still primarily watched via the broadcast network. The streaming simulcast — gaining viewers each year — features certain ad spots earmarked only for that audience. Streaming-only spots make up about 10% of the full ad inventory during the Super Bowl and cost about half of what a traditional TV commercial goes for, said Mark Marshall , NBC's chairman of global advertising and partnerships. "So cheaper, but still not cheap," said Marshall. "And part of it is also you don't have many of these spots, right? So I think people caught on to this trick over the past couple years, and it's done really well in streaming. And as a result, a lot of people are lining up and wanting to do that." Each year the cost of the national ads for the Super Bowl breaks a record. NBC sold out of ad inventory for the Super Bowl, averaging $8 million per 30-second commercial, with between five and 10 ads selling for more than $10 million each, CNBC previously reported. watch now VIDEO 5:20 05:20 How the NFL makes money from the Super Bowl CNBC Sport The streaming-only ads, which still appear nationally, fill the slots th...

designer491/iStock via Getty Images Motio Research reports their initial estimate of U.S. median household income for December 2025 is $86,820, a $340 (or 0.4%) decrease from their initial November 2025 estimate of $87,160 . The change is the first decline Motio's household income index has seen in the last several months, which we've described as appearing to "run hot" with respect to the estimates we develop using our alternate methodology . One interpretation of that outcome is that Motio Research's use of survey-based data has picked up on a new trend that isn't yet making its presence felt in the aggregate wage and salary data we use to develop our estimates of median household income. That's a real possibility for October and November 2025's data; we found we had some really uncanny accuracy in predicting what our "official" estimates would be after the aggregate wage and salary data along with population data for both months became available in late January 2026. Our accuracy suggests the BEA is using similar methods to project their own estimates, which means it's fully independent of the survey-based data Motio Research utilizes in determining their estimates. Another possibility is the sampling used by the Census Bureau in collecting income data through its monthly Current Population Survey. If that sample has been skewed to the high side compared to the general population in recent months, it could well produce estimates that are higher than those we project using the BEA's aggregate income data. Given the various survey and analytical methodologies involved, that state of affairs could last for several months until the survey population fully rolls over and the resulting income data undergoes what statisticians refer to as a reversion to the mean . If this second possibility holds, we should see Motio Research's estimates move back toward our projections over the next several months. But if it stays elevated, then the argument for the first possibility b...

Trump grants tariff breaks to 'politically connected' companies, Senate Dems say toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Two top-ranking Democrats are blasting the Trump administration for playing favorites with tariffs — by giving trade relief to the big companies whose CEOs are cozying up to the president. In a letter to the White House made public Wednesday morning, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., criticized the administration for relaxing some tariffs "through an opaque process that appears to favor the politically connected" and that "has opened the door to corruption and economic harm." Sponsor Message Wyden is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee; Van Hollen sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and is the top-ranking Democrat on its commerce subcommittee. Now they're raising "significant concerns that the Trump Administration appears to have created a closed-door tariff exclusion process allowing relief largely for those with political connections," according to the letter addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The tariff exemption process "has lacked transparency and procedural fairness for American stakeholders, especially small businesses and family farms," Wyden and Van Hollen added in the letter. An advance copy of the letter was seen by NPR. The letter comes at a time when President Trump is visibly favoring some companies and investors, some of whom have publicly courted him with personal gifts — like the gold-plated desk clock recently presented by Rolex's CEO — and donations to his controversial plans to build a White House ballroom. This blurring of the lines between business and government has led political commentators and business leaders across the political spectrum to warn that the United States is tipping into "crony capitalism." A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the administration ha...

00:00 Speaker A Microsoft, Meta and and Apple put forth a mixed bag of results for investors, but Wall Street sending a strong message to tech giants that pressure is on to prove spending can power growth. Next up in the hot seat, we got Google, we got Amazon. Join me now to discuss all of it. City senior analyst, Ron Josie. Ron, it is good to see you. So, uh you cover Amazon and Alphabet, Ron. You also cover meta. They reported investors like what they had to say. Are there read throughs in that meta report on 00:41 Speaker A to Alphabet? 00:43 Ron You know, ye yes and no. Um, from an advertising perspective and a consumer and engagement perspective, I think the answer is absolutely yes. So, advertising was a big surprise, overall revenue growth was a big surprise for for meta, maybe not for 4Q. I think people were looking for that 24% growth, but the acceleration that the company reported for 1Q or expected to report for 1Q in their guidance up to 33 plus percent growth. I think that was a big surprise and 01:21 Ron underlying that, yes, Meta is doing some pretty fantastic things with their AI ranking recommendation models that is specific to Amazon, but underlying that is a broader overall what we call healthy online advertising market and I think Meta or Google, Amazon, others participate in that as well. So there are some rether's that rether's there and and we're we're incrementally positive on Google and Amazon and Reddit, uh uh post meta numbers. 01:54 Speaker A Uh just sticking with Google, Ron, interesting to get your thoughts and all things Gemini. Just what what the adoption curve and trends look like there, Ron? And also just how you kind of think about long-term the relationship and impact with search. 02:14 Ron I mean, Gemini is something that's impacting the entire organization and that's what's making Google so attractive or at least so interesting from our perspective. Google is amongst our top picks there and Gemini is powering Google search and w...

YouTube and its stable of creators appear to have won the battle for television viewers. The fight for big TV ad budgets is another story. People watch YouTube on televisions an average of 182 million hours a day, more time than Disney accumulates across its ABC broadcast network, its cable portfolio including ESPN and its streaming services combined, according to Nielsen.

Should investors listen to this famous short-seller? David Einhorn is one of the most influential hedge fund managers in the world. His investment strategy involves buying undervalued equities and simultaneously shorting overvalued stocks while maintaining exposure to major economic trends. That has enabled his fund, Greenlight Capital, to produce returns that look meaningfully different from the overall market in any given year. One of Einhorn's best-known trades is shorting Lehman Brothers in 2007. Unfortunately, the fund hasn't been nearly as successful since that short sale paid off. It has mostly underperformed the S&P 500 since then, with a lone standout performance coming amid the 2022 bear market. But modest performance in bull markets with strong outperformance amid bear markets has enabled Greenlight Capital to produce total average annual returns of 12.7% since its founding in 1996, outpacing the S&P 500's yearly average 10.2% return in that period. So, Einhorn is worth paying attention to, especially when he talks about a potential market downturn. In his most recent letter to investors, he issued a major warning that could lead his fund to another period of outperformance. Stocks are reaching dot-com bubble levels Einhorn has been warning of rising valuations in the market for a couple of years. His letter to investors ramps up that warning: We believe that the U.S. equity market is the most expensive we've seen since we began managing money, and arguably in the history of the United States. It isn't just our skepticism about AI stocks; speculative behavior among retail investors is palpable. ... From a long-term perspective, we still believe that this is not a great time to have a lot of equity exposure. Greenlight opened its doors in 1996 in the midst of the dot-com bubble. Many unprofitable stocks traded for billions of dollars at the time. The S&P 500 forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio climbed above 24, and the CAPE ratio, which is designed to ad...