Win McNamee/Getty Images News Fannie Mae ( FNMA ) and Freddie Mac ( FMCC ) shares extended Wednesday gains in midafternoon trading after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte discussed how much of the government's stake in the mortgage giants would be sold in the event of a potential initial public offering. Fannie ( FNMA ) shares gained 6.5%, while Freddie ( FMCC ) gapped up 7.4%, bo...
Win McNamee/Getty Images News Fannie Mae ( FNMA ) and Freddie Mac ( FMCC ) shares extended Wednesday gains in midafternoon trading after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte discussed how much of the government's stake in the mortgage giants would be sold in the event of a potential initial public offering. Fannie ( FNMA ) shares gained 6.5%, while Freddie ( FMCC ) gapped up 7.4%, both hovering around session highs at press time. Earlier, the stocks jolted after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at an eventual end to the conservatorship of the government-sponsored enterprises. "We’d sell anywhere between 2.5% to 5%” of Fannie ( FNMA ) and Freddie ( FMCC ) if they are brought public, Pulte said in an interview on Fox Business. He reiterated that such a decision, including the timing of a deal, would be up to President Donald Trump. Pulte has previously said that Trump was likely to decide in a month or two on whether to sell stakes in FNMA and FMCC through an IPO. More on Federal National Mortgage Association, Freddie Mac Trump Raid On Fannie & Freddie Piggy Bank Is Premature Buy This Undervalued Fannie And Freddie Potential Q1 IPO Setup Tracking Bill Ackman's Pershing Square 13F Portfolio - Q3 2025 Update Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac shares climb after Bessent remarks on release Freddie Mac mortgage portfolio climbs 6.5% in December
The AI data center buildout could be a boon for the IT solution provider. Shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI +14.09%) rallied on Wednesday after the computing infrastructure supplier announced strong artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled growth. As of 3:10 p.m. EST, Supermicro's stock price was up more than 15%. AI-driven revenue gains Supermicro's net sales soared 123% year over year to $12.7 bil...
The AI data center buildout could be a boon for the IT solution provider. Shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI +14.09%) rallied on Wednesday after the computing infrastructure supplier announced strong artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled growth. As of 3:10 p.m. EST, Supermicro's stock price was up more than 15%. AI-driven revenue gains Supermicro's net sales soared 123% year over year to $12.7 billion in its fiscal 2026 second quarter, which ended on Dec. 31. The computer hardware maker's new Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) are proving popular with AI-focused customers. These modular systems offer an integrated array of tools, including networking, storage, and cooling equipment; high-performance servers; software; and professional services. "With our leading AI server and storage technology foundation, strong customer engagements, and expanding global manufacturing footprint, we are scaling rapidly to support large AI and enterprise deployments," CEO Charles Liang said in a press release. Expand NASDAQ : SMCI Super Micro Computer Today's Change ( 14.09 %) $ 4.18 Current Price $ 33.85 Key Data Points Market Cap $18B Day's Range $ 31.70 - $ 34.94 52wk Range $ 27.60 - $ 66.44 Volume 4.1M Avg Vol 28M Gross Margin 10.08 % Yet as Supermicro sells more of its products to larger tech companies with pricing leverage, its profit margins are coming under pressure. Supermicro's adjusted gross margin declined to 6.4%, down from 11.9% in the year-ago quarter. All told, Supermicro's adjusted earnings per share increased 17% to $0.69. That bested Wall Street's expectations, which had called for per-share profits of $0.49. A bullish growth forecast Looking ahead, Supermicro projects net sales of $12.3 billion in its fiscal third quarter, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.60. For the full year, management sees sales of at least $40 billion, up from $22 billion in fiscal 2025. "Our DCBBS, Data Center Building Block Solutions, enable customers to scale faster, greene...
On today’s Big Take podcast: Sarah Frier and Sarah Holder break down why the pressure is building on tech companies to prove their AI investment will pay off — and soon bit. (Source: Bloomberg)
On today’s Big Take podcast: Sarah Frier and Sarah Holder break down why the pressure is building on tech companies to prove their AI investment will pay off — and soon bit. (Source: Bloomberg)
imagean/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images SAS weighs major widebody jet order as it expands long-haul ambitions SAS AB ( SASDQ ) ( SASBQ ) is in discussions with both Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus ( EADSF ) ( EADSY ) about a sizable purchase of widebody aircraft, as the Scandinavian carrier positions itself for growing demand on long-haul routes from its Copenhagen hub, Bloomberg News reported Wednesd...
imagean/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images SAS weighs major widebody jet order as it expands long-haul ambitions SAS AB ( SASDQ ) ( SASBQ ) is in discussions with both Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus ( EADSF ) ( EADSY ) about a sizable purchase of widebody aircraft, as the Scandinavian carrier positions itself for growing demand on long-haul routes from its Copenhagen hub, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Chief Executive Anko van der Werff said the airline is evaluating Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and 777X alongside Airbus’s A350 and A330neo families. SAS currently flies an all-Airbus widebody fleet, made up of A350s and older A330 aircraft. Van der Werff declined to disclose how many jets the airline may order, saying only that the potential deal would be large enough to attract strong interest across the aerospace supply chain, including airframe and engine makers. SAS has been reshaping its network strategy after the closure of Russian airspace disrupted its traditional model of linking North America with Asia via Scandinavia. The carrier has shifted toward expanding its own transatlantic flying while adding long-haul leisure and business destinations such as Dubai and Thailand’s Phuket and Krabi. The CEO said the airline continues to see solid demand for premium cabins and that its hub structure is helping draw connecting passengers, despite some isolated pockets of softer demand. He also played down concerns that political tensions between Denmark and the United States related to Greenland could weigh on traffic or complicate a potential Boeing order. SAS plans to increase capacity on several long-haul routes, including adding 70% more seats to Boston, 20% to San Francisco and 10% to Chicago, while also boosting service to Seoul, Tokyo Haneda and Bangkok, the airline said in a statement late last month. The discussions come as Air France-KLM moves toward taking majority control of SAS. The group announced last year that it plans to raise its stake to 60.5% by buying out...
Earnings Call Insights: Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Jason Gottlieb stated that the firm "generated significant absolute returns for our clients, delivered strong results for our shareholders and continue to expand our multi-asset class platform." Firm-wide asset-weighted investment returns exceeded 20% net of fees, with over $33 billion in returns gene...
Earnings Call Insights: Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Jason Gottlieb stated that the firm "generated significant absolute returns for our clients, delivered strong results for our shareholders and continue to expand our multi-asset class platform." Firm-wide asset-weighted investment returns exceeded 20% net of fees, with over $33 billion in returns generated for clients during 2025. Gottlieb highlighted that compared to 2024, Artisan Partners grew revenue by 8%, operating income and adjusted operating income by 9% and 12%, respectively, and assets under management by nearly 12%. Gottlieb highlighted strong investment performance, noting, "79% of our AUM outperforming benchmarks for the 3-year period, 74% for the 5-year period and 92% for the 10-year period gross of fees." He called out six equity strategies with over 500 basis points of outperformance, and particularly strong results in credit and alternatives. The Global Equity, Global Value and Select Equity Strategies outperformed their benchmarks by 2,422, 1,188 and 1,175 basis points, respectively. The CEO announced the acquisition of Grandview Property Partners, Artisan's 12th autonomous investment franchise, stating, "The acquisition of Grandview advances our strategic expansion into alternative investments, establishes a foundation in private real estate and creates new pathways for growth." Grandview manages approximately $880 million in institutional assets, with plans to prioritize marketing its next fund in 2026. CFO Charles Daley reported, "Assets under management as of December 31, 2025, were $180 billion, up 12% from year-end 2024. Revenues in the December quarter reached a new all-time high of $336 million, up 11% compared to the September quarter and up 13% compared to the prior year fourth quarter." Daley added, "Adjusted operating income increased 23% compared to both the prior quarter and the same quarter last year. Adjusted operating margin for the qu...
Doublethink is a core theme in George Orwell’s “1984”—believing two contradictory ideas at the same time. Investors are transitioning from the megacap tech giants amid concerns over the pace of artificial-intelligence spending, while buying stocks of companies that rely on the input costs of soaring commodity prices to maintain their profit margins. For Bank of America’s Vivek Arya, the software s...
Doublethink is a core theme in George Orwell’s “1984”—believing two contradictory ideas at the same time. Investors are transitioning from the megacap tech giants amid concerns over the pace of artificial-intelligence spending, while buying stocks of companies that rely on the input costs of soaring commodity prices to maintain their profit margins. For Bank of America’s Vivek Arya, the software selloff has a whiff of the stock market’s DeepSeek meltdown a year ago, when the launch of a cut-priced AI chatbot spooked investors who had piled into U.S. tech stocks.
Potential disruption in the artificial intelligence sector has investors running from tech stocks. Nvidia (NVDA 3.23%) has been the artificial intelligence (AI) leader in hardware. Its software and AI architecture platforms have also kept it ahead of its peers. A potential disruptor has now raised concerns about the investment thesis. That caused Nvidia stock to plunge as much as 5% today, and it ...
Potential disruption in the artificial intelligence sector has investors running from tech stocks. Nvidia (NVDA 3.23%) has been the artificial intelligence (AI) leader in hardware. Its software and AI architecture platforms have also kept it ahead of its peers. A potential disruptor has now raised concerns about the investment thesis. That caused Nvidia stock to plunge as much as 5% today, and it remained lower by 2.8% as of 2:41 p.m. ET. But CEO Jensen Huang says investors should reconsider dumping AI-related stocks. Is the new AI tool an existential threat? A downturn in tech stocks was sparked when privately held AI company Anthropic introduced a new tool for its Claude large language model (LLM). The plugin tool is intended to handle tasks in data analysis applications and in legal, sales, and marketing use cases. Shares in software stocks plunged as investors feared much of that industry could be replaced by AI tools that companies didn't need to pay extra for. The tumble began taking down tech giants like Nvidia today as well. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang responded, though, by dismissing much of that thinking. Huang spoke at an AI conference in San Francisco and said it was "illogical" to think that AI will replace software tools. Expand NASDAQ : NVDA Nvidia Today's Change ( -3.23 %) $ -5.83 Current Price $ 174.51 Key Data Points Market Cap $4.4T Day's Range $ 171.91 - $ 179.57 52wk Range $ 86.62 - $ 212.19 Volume 5.9M Avg Vol 182M Gross Margin 70.05 % Dividend Yield 0.02 % Huang said the latest breakthroughs in AI are all about utilizing tools. He stated, "There's this notion that the tool in the software industry is in decline, and will be replaced by AI." He added that in time, investors will find that not to be true. Investors who believe in Nvidia and Jensen Huang might find today's sell-off a good opportunity to buy shares.
Key Points A new AI developer tool has investors questioning the Nvidia investment thesis. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the fears were unfounded today. Huang explained his thinking at an AI conference. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been the artificial intelligence (AI) leader in hardware. Its software and AI architecture platforms have also kept it ahead of its p...
Key Points A new AI developer tool has investors questioning the Nvidia investment thesis. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the fears were unfounded today. Huang explained his thinking at an AI conference. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been the artificial intelligence (AI) leader in hardware. Its software and AI architecture platforms have also kept it ahead of its peers. A potential disruptor has now raised concerns about the investment thesis. That caused Nvidia stock to plunge as much as 5% today, and it remained lower by 2.8% as of 2:41 p.m. ET. But CEO Jensen Huang says investors should reconsider dumping AI-related stocks. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Is the new AI tool an existential threat? A downturn in tech stocks was sparked when privately held AI company Anthropic introduced a new tool for its Claude large language model (LLM). The plugin tool is intended to handle tasks in data analysis applications and in legal, sales, and marketing use cases. Shares in software stocks plunged as investors feared much of that industry could be replaced by AI tools that companies didn't need to pay extra for. The tumble began taking down tech giants like Nvidia today as well. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang responded, though, by dismissing much of that thinking. Huang spoke at an AI conference in San Francisco and said it was "illogical" to think that AI will replace software tools. Huang said the latest breakthroughs in AI are all about utilizing tools. He stated, "There's this notion that the tool in the software industry is in decline, and will be replaced by AI." He added that in time, investors will find that not to be true. Investors who believe in Nvidia and Jensen Huang might find today's sell-off a good opportunity to buy shares. Should you buy stock in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool S...
Concerns about demand for the microchips grip Wall Street as traders mounted a firesale of software shares - AP Photo/Richard Drew Tech stocks have plunged as fears about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and concerns about demand for microchips grip Wall Street. As much as $800bn (£586bn) was wiped off the tech-heavy Nasdaq index in New York on Tuesday, which was down almost 2.5pc at its...
Concerns about demand for the microchips grip Wall Street as traders mounted a firesale of software shares - AP Photo/Richard Drew Tech stocks have plunged as fears about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and concerns about demand for microchips grip Wall Street. As much as $800bn (£586bn) was wiped off the tech-heavy Nasdaq index in New York on Tuesday, which was down almost 2.5pc at its worst point. Traders mounted a firesale of software shares on mounting concerns that AI could cannibalise the work of traditional providers and professional services firms. Chip stocks also plunged after a key supplier to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI warned of a slowdown in demand. Investors are on edge Some of the world’s biggest technology businesses suffered double-digit percentage falls. Palantir, the software giant co-founded by Peter Thiel, dropped more than 13pc despite reporting strong revenue growth in the fourth quarter. AppLovin, which helps companies develop and publish their mobile apps, slumped 15pc, while Larry Ellison’s Oracle and cybersecurity group CrowdStrike also extended losses. AMD, which has a major deal to supply chips to OpenAI, meanwhile crashed 17pc after it forecast a slowdown in revenues in the current quarter, disappointing lofty expectations. Rival chip maker Micron Technology dropped 13pc, while Broadcom and ASML also racked up significant declines. Investors have been on edge since the start of the week after Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, unveiled a new service that allows users to automate tasks in sectors ranging from finance and law to marketing and data analysis. It has sparked fears that existing programmes and business models could become redundant and triggered what Nay Soe Naing, a technology analyst at Berenberg, called an “on-going ‘let’s get out of software as much as we can’ trade’”. He said: “I personally think it is far too early to conclude, with any conviction, whether AI will ultimately be a friend or a foe t...
New York, Feb 4, 2026, 15:10 EST — Regular session Qualcomm shares climbed roughly 3% in afternoon trading as investors awaited results due after the close The stock held up well despite a slump in the chip sector, where the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped over 3% Traders await fresh guidance on handset demand and profit margins Qualcomm Incorporated’s shares climbed 2.8% to $151.33 in Wednesday...
New York, Feb 4, 2026, 15:10 EST — Regular session Qualcomm shares climbed roughly 3% in afternoon trading as investors awaited results due after the close The stock held up well despite a slump in the chip sector, where the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped over 3% Traders await fresh guidance on handset demand and profit margins Qualcomm Incorporated’s shares climbed 2.8% to $151.33 in Wednesday afternoon trading, ahead of the chipmaker’s quarterly earnings release after the market close. The San Diego-based firm plans to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings after the market closes, with a conference call set for 4:45 p.m. ET. (Nasdaq) Wall Street is forecasting about $12.13 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $3.39 for Qualcomm’s December quarter, Barron’s reported. Analysts are also eyeing $11.11 billion in revenue and $2.90 per share for the current quarter. Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon noted Qualcomm has “remained out of favor amid [a] general distaste of smartphones,” yet he maintains an Outperform rating and a $200 price target, highlighting the company’s valuation and what he calls an “objectively strong product portfolio.” (Barron’s) The move bucked the wider chip sector, where the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped roughly 3.6%. Nvidia slipped 2.6%, and Broadcom tumbled around 4.1% as of the latest update. Qualcomm slipped 3.6% on Tuesday to close at $147.18, remaining about 29% shy of its 52-week peak of $205.95 reached in late October, according to MarketWatch. Trading volume also surged above its 50-day average. (MarketWatch) Qualcomm sells chips for smartphones and other gadgets, while also collecting royalties from its wireless patents. The report serves as a barometer for handset demand, where even minor changes in unit sales and pricing can significantly impact the results. Investors will dig into the company’s guidance — management’s forecast — for the March quarter and beyond. They’ll also tune in for shifts in tone on licensing trends and the ...
Labour MPs have warned that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffery Epstein. The government was on the brink of a defeat in the Commons until a mid-debate amendment brokered by Meg Hillier and Angela Rayner to force the release of documents about Mandelson’s appointment and t...
Labour MPs have warned that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffery Epstein. The government was on the brink of a defeat in the Commons until a mid-debate amendment brokered by Meg Hillier and Angela Rayner to force the release of documents about Mandelson’s appointment and the depth of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender. MPs said the eventual release of the documents – which may be delayed by a police investigation into Mandelson – could trigger a leadership challenge. “We need all the poison to come out,” one MP said. One former minister said: “We’ve had a lot of bad days recently, but this is the worst yet, I think,” while another MP warned: “Trust is finite. I’m personally not sure I could trust myself to back the prime minister in a confidence vote.” “The most terminal mood is among the super-loyal,” an MP from the 2024 intake noted. MPs said that Starmer’s admission at prime minister’s questions that he had known about Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein before his appointment was a clarifying moment. “You could feel the atmosphere change; it was dark,” one MP who had previously been close to Starmer said. No 10 said afterwards that the prime minister was only aware of what was already in the public domain. “It’s just indefensible,” said one backbencher. “They knew all about Peter’s relationship with Epstein but gave him the job anyway. “It’s like Chris Pincher on steroids,” they added, referring to the scandal that eventually brought down Boris Johnson. “The moment Keir admitted it then that was it – it’s over.” Another former minister said: “We were meant to be the ones who didn’t do this stuff. It’s time for a fresh start, the sooner the better.” Several MPs said the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney – who had been close to Mandelson, should take responsibility for the failures and resign. “The gover...