Heavy rain failed to put a dampener on the hopes of punters trying their luck on Hong Kong’s Mark Six lottery on Saturday, with the estimated first prize of HK$80 million in an Easter snowball draw. According to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, as Saturday night’s draw will carry a snowball of HK$63 million (US$8 million), the estimated first division prize fund is HK$80 million. Domestic helpers Gigi a...
Heavy rain failed to put a dampener on the hopes of punters trying their luck on Hong Kong’s Mark Six lottery on Saturday, with the estimated first prize of HK$80 million in an Easter snowball draw. According to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, as Saturday night’s draw will carry a snowball of HK$63 million (US$8 million), the estimated first division prize fund is HK$80 million. Domestic helpers Gigi and Leila were among dozens placing bets at the Stanley Street betting outlet in Central. They...
As online betting has grown in popularity, a new report from the New York Federal Reserve builds on the troubling link between legal sports wagering and financial health. (Image credit: Charlie Riedel)
As online betting has grown in popularity, a new report from the New York Federal Reserve builds on the troubling link between legal sports wagering and financial health. (Image credit: Charlie Riedel)
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images At first glance, based on the fact that Microsoft ' s ( MSFT ) fundamentals still look like a textbook high-quality name ( and show no clear deterioration in recent quarters ), a pullback may look like an obvious opportunity. But I’m not convinced the story is that straightforward. Since I wrote my last article on MSFT in October last year, the stock...
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images At first glance, based on the fact that Microsoft ' s ( MSFT ) fundamentals still look like a textbook high-quality name ( and show no clear deterioration in recent quarters ), a pullback may look like an obvious opportunity. But I’m not convinced the story is that straightforward. Since I wrote my last article on MSFT in October last year, the stock has plummeted by about 29%. Data by YCharts But at that moment, prior to FQ1, I had outlined the following bear case: Bearish case: Azure slowing to below 35%, below guidance, slower AI monetization, and excessive CapEx (15% increase QoQ) pressuring margins to ~42% or less. Copilot and E5 are stagnant, and Q2 guidance is conservative. EPS rising below ~11% YoY. The consequence would be forward earnings in the ~30x range, close to the floor, and a potential downside of 15%. In short, the bear case did not materialize in either FQ1 or FQ2, but it came close in spirit. The growth of Azure falling below 35%, or the sharp drop in EPS, was not what actually materialized. In fact, the headline numbers remained quite strong. But there was relative frustration vs. high expectations. The problem was more subtle than I anticipated. Instead, the market received a set of results that added more complexity than clarity—especially in terms of capital allocation. The contribution of AI within Azure and the timing of the accelerating CapEx cycle have also been detrimental to the MSFT trajectory in recent months. So I would say that the question to be answered in FQ3 is not only whether AI will drive Microsoft, but when, and how clear that will show up in the numbers. The Two-Act AI Story Essentially, I would say that the performance of Microsoft stock today basically revolves around two key factors: (1) monetization of the AI infrastructure (including Azure and CapEx efficiency); and (2) monetization of AI at the application layer (including Copilot and pricing power Dynamics). To make it ...
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images At first glance, based on the fact that Microsoft ' s ( MSFT ) fundamentals still look like a textbook high-quality name ( and show no clear deterioration in recent quarters ), a pullback may look like an obvious opportunity. But I’m not convinced the story is that straightforward. Since I wrote my last article on MSFT in October last year, the stock...
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images At first glance, based on the fact that Microsoft ' s ( MSFT ) fundamentals still look like a textbook high-quality name ( and show no clear deterioration in recent quarters ), a pullback may look like an obvious opportunity. But I’m not convinced the story is that straightforward. Since I wrote my last article on MSFT in October last year, the stock has plummeted by about 29%. Data by YCharts But at that moment, prior to FQ1, I had outlined the following bear case: Bearish case: Azure slowing to below 35%, below guidance, slower AI monetization, and excessive CapEx (15% increase QoQ) pressuring margins to ~42% or less. Copilot and E5 are stagnant, and Q2 guidance is conservative. EPS rising below ~11% YoY. The consequence would be forward earnings in the ~30x range, close to the floor, and a potential downside of 15%. In short, the bear case did not materialize in either FQ1 or FQ2, but it came close in spirit. The growth of Azure falling below 35%, or the sharp drop in EPS, was not what actually materialized. In fact, the headline numbers remained quite strong. But there was relative frustration vs. high expectations. The problem was more subtle than I anticipated. Instead, the market received a set of results that added more complexity than clarity—especially in terms of capital allocation. The contribution of AI within Azure and the timing of the accelerating CapEx cycle have also been detrimental to the MSFT trajectory in recent months. So I would say that the question to be answered in FQ3 is not only whether AI will drive Microsoft, but when, and how clear that will show up in the numbers. The Two-Act AI Story Essentially, I would say that the performance of Microsoft stock today basically revolves around two key factors: (1) monetization of the AI infrastructure (including Azure and CapEx efficiency); and (2) monetization of AI at the application layer (including Copilot and pricing power Dynamics). To make it ...
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images The office of U.S. tech giant Oracle in Dubai was damaged by falling debris, the city's media office said on Sunday, as Iran continued to fire projectiles at targets around the Middle East in retaliation against U.S. and Israeli strikes. "Authorities confirm that they responded to a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the f...
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images The office of U.S. tech giant Oracle in Dubai was damaged by falling debris, the city's media office said on Sunday, as Iran continued to fire projectiles at targets around the Middle East in retaliation against U.S. and Israeli strikes. "Authorities confirm that they responded to a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City," the Dubai Media Office said in a post on X. No one was injured in the incident, the media office said. Oracle didn't immediately respond to a request for comment emailed by CNBC. A CNBC journalist in Dubai reported hearing multiple interceptions overnight. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has threatened attacks on a swath of U.S. tech companies with operations in the Middle East, including Nvidia , Apple , Microsoft and Google . The Guard warned on Tuesday that 18 tech companies would be considered as "legitimate targets" in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. "From now on, for every assassination, an American company will be destroyed," they said in an Guard-affiliated Telegram channel. The list of companies also included Cisco , HP , Intel , IBM , Dell , Palantir , JPMorgan , Tesla , GE, Spire Solutions, Boeing and UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42. James Henderson, CEO of risk management firm Healix, said the rise in threats against tech companies is not a flash in the pan, but is a sustained pattern. "Tech assets are now treated as part of the conflict, not peripheral to it," Henderson told CNBC. "It also signals that future crises may target data centers and cloud platforms as much as traditional strategic sites," he added. Iran struck Amazon Web Services data centers in the Middle East in early March, causing outages in a number of apps and digital services in the United Arab Emirates. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business n...
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images NEW YORK (April 3) - The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported 186,000 new private sector jobs were created in March, according to the Establishment Survey, a collection of job creation data from businesses replying to the survey. The government reduced the number of jobs it provided by 8,000, so that total nonfarm jobs printed at 178,000 net new jobs. Jan...
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images NEW YORK (April 3) - The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported 186,000 new private sector jobs were created in March, according to the Establishment Survey, a collection of job creation data from businesses replying to the survey. The government reduced the number of jobs it provided by 8,000, so that total nonfarm jobs printed at 178,000 net new jobs. January and February revisions resulted in a net 7,000 jobs lost. For the three months from December 2025, average monthly jobs creation has been just 68,000 jobs per month, affirming our view in prior jobs and GDP reports that the economy is slowing. The BLS’s Household Survey , which polls the number of people taking jobs, and is viewed as eliminating workers holding more than one job, printed worse than the Establishment Survey, showing 64,000 jobs lost The unemployment rate and the U6 rate were 4.3% and 8.0%, respectively. The “U6” is the percentage of the population that is unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part-time for economic reasons, plus all people marginally attached to the labor force. Some 386,000 people left the civilian labor force. The Labor Force Participation Rate fell nonetheless, to just 61.9%, the lowest since November 2021. Let’s look at our exclusive schedule of February (in red) and March (in green) Jobs Creation by Average Weekly Wages: February and March Jobs Creation by Average Weekly Wages (The Stuyvesant Square Consultancy (from BLS Data)) In keeping with our habit for jobs reports of a month concluding a quarterly period, we present here the average real wages by occupation: Jobs by Average Weekly Real Wages and Occupation (The Stuyvesant Square Consultancy) The War Effect and the Economy The onset of the Iran War has significantly altered the outlook for the economy. Any war where the US is a combatant would, but a war in the Persian Gulf is to the global economy what open-heart surgery is t...
Honeywell, Vertiv, and One Stop Systems each target a different layer of the edge AI buildout, from industrial infrastructure to thermal management to defense-grade computing.
Honeywell, Vertiv, and One Stop Systems each target a different layer of the edge AI buildout, from industrial infrastructure to thermal management to defense-grade computing.
Amazon.com (NasdaqGS:AMZN) is reported to be in advanced talks to acquire satellite operator Globalstar. Apple, which holds a 20% ownership stake in Globalstar and uses its satellites for iPhone features, adds complexity to any potential deal. The transaction would be aimed at supporting Amazon's Project Kuiper and its push into low Earth orbit broadband connectivity. For investors tracking Amazon...
Amazon.com (NasdaqGS:AMZN) is reported to be in advanced talks to acquire satellite operator Globalstar. Apple, which holds a 20% ownership stake in Globalstar and uses its satellites for iPhone features, adds complexity to any potential deal. The transaction would be aimed at supporting Amazon's Project Kuiper and its push into low Earth orbit broadband connectivity. For investors tracking Amazon.com at a current share price of $209.77, this potential move sits alongside a mixed recent...