Alistair Berg CME Group ( CME ) Wednesday announced that its international average daily volume reached a record 11.4M contracts in Q1 2026, up 30% over Q1 2025. Reflecting all trading reported outside the United States , this strong performance was driven by a record interest rate ADV of 5.7M contracts, up 30% year-over-year. For the first time ever, quarterly international ADV for interest rates...
Alistair Berg CME Group ( CME ) Wednesday announced that its international average daily volume reached a record 11.4M contracts in Q1 2026, up 30% over Q1 2025. Reflecting all trading reported outside the United States , this strong performance was driven by a record interest rate ADV of 5.7M contracts, up 30% year-over-year. For the first time ever, quarterly international ADV for interest rates, metals, energy, agricultural products, equity indexes, and FX all reached record levels. "This surge in trading activity demonstrates how our global client base is turning to CME Group to manage risk in real time, through our benchmark products and on a regulated marketplace," said Julie Winkler , senior managing director and chief commercial officer, CME Group ( CME ). In Q1 2026, EMEA ADV hit a record 8.4 million contracts, up 29% from Q1 2025. The region saw ADV records across all asset classes, with metals up 75%, energy up 53%, interest rates up 31%, equity indexes up 17%, agricultural products up 13%, and FX up 1%. More on CME CME Group Inc. (CME) Presents at 47th Annual Raymond James Institutional Investor Conference Prepared Remarks Transcript CME Group's Strength Is Clear, But The Stock Looks Fully Valued CME Group: Quality Shines Through, But It Doesn't Mean To Buy CME plans to launch Avalanche, Sui futures on May 4 Insider trades: Marvell Technology, Taiwan Semiconductor among notable names
PashaIgnatov/iStock via Getty Images The iShares Investment Grade Corporate Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF ( LQDW ) is a derivative income-focused ETF. Every month, LQDW will sell a covered call over LQD, collecting option premium as income. The premium gets distributed to shareholders alongside the coupons of the underlying bonds, which boosts the headline yield above what LQD alone would pay, but al...
PashaIgnatov/iStock via Getty Images The iShares Investment Grade Corporate Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF ( LQDW ) is a derivative income-focused ETF. Every month, LQDW will sell a covered call over LQD, collecting option premium as income. The premium gets distributed to shareholders alongside the coupons of the underlying bonds, which boosts the headline yield above what LQD alone would pay, but also caps any price appreciation in LQDW above that month’s strike price. This ETF is really meant for specific regimes but is marketed as an ETF for all market conditions. The mismatch between what LQDW is and how it is shown to retail investors causes most of the confusion in this fixed income space. Understanding a regime map and where this type of ETF excels is the entire thesis. With correct use, this ETF is a good buy, but in the wrong environment, an investor is systematically selling bond rallies for option premiums that will not compensate for the difference. For this reason, I am initiating LQDW as a buy on Seeking Alpha. For the current rate environment, I believe LQDW is favorable, but I will be somewhat cautious as we head into the end of this year. We are currently in the only rate environment where LQDW’s structure delivers favorably, which is a range-bound rate environment. There is now only one rate cut priced for late 2026, at the earliest, which is down from around 3 heading into 2026. Additionally, due to elevated inflation uncertainty and geopolitical fronts, the Fed is in a deliberate pause at this time. The March 2026 FOMC held the fed funds rate at 3.50%-3.75% , revised core PCE expectations upward to 2.7%, and acknowledged the Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict, citing energy shocks of some size and duration. Additionally, the futures market also implies a 48% chance that there is no rate cut at all in 2026, which is up from 30% (before the conflict continued to escalate). In addition, the CME FedWatch tool also prices one small 25 bps cut likely in late Q3 or...
In this article BABA 728-HK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Samuel Boivin | Nurphoto | Getty Images Alibaba and China Telecom are launching a data center in southern China powered by the e-commerce giant's own chips, as the country ramps up its focus on homegrown AI infrastructure. The facility, announced on Tuesday, will feature 10,000 of Alibaba's Zhenwu semiconductors which are ...
In this article BABA 728-HK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Samuel Boivin | Nurphoto | Getty Images Alibaba and China Telecom are launching a data center in southern China powered by the e-commerce giant's own chips, as the country ramps up its focus on homegrown AI infrastructure. The facility, announced on Tuesday, will feature 10,000 of Alibaba's Zhenwu semiconductors which are designed for AI training and inferencing along with the ability to support AI models the size of hundreds of billions of parameters. These are among some of the largest models out there and underscore how China's biggest tech players are advancing their own AI semiconductor technology as Beijing intensifies its push for self-sufficiency. Over the past few years, the U.S. has looked to restrict China's access to key semiconductor technology, including AI chips from Nvidia , which has accelerated the country's efforts to develop domestic alternatives. watch now VIDEO 3:12 03:12 China's biggest chip names report record revenue — here's what's driving them Europe Early Edition Alibaba, one of China's largest tech firms, has been designing its own chips through its T-head unit . The Hangzhou-headquartered company is also one of China's biggest cloud computing players. It designs chips, builds data centers, and develops its own AI models which it then sells through its cloud computing division. Cloud computing has been among its fastest-growing businesses in recent quarters. There is an increased focus on building large-scale data centers in China with domestic technology. Last month, a computing cluster built with Huawei's advanced Ascend 910C AI chips went online. While U.S. tech giants are expected to spend around $700 billion this year to fuel their AI build-outs, Chinese companies have taken a different approach. They are spending less and have focused their AI on industries they believe will drive revenue growth and return on their investments. China Telecom and Alibaba sai...
Space companies are growing increasingly popular amid the pending SpaceX IPO. *Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of April 5, 2026. The video was published on April 7, 2026. Continue reading
Space companies are growing increasingly popular amid the pending SpaceX IPO. *Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of April 5, 2026. The video was published on April 7, 2026. Continue reading
Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun blamed Japanese “imperialist forces” for dividing mainland China and Taiwan, as she paid tribute to Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen at his mausoleum in Nanjing on Wednesday. In a speech delivered after the Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman laid a floral wreath before a statue of the founder of modern China, Cheng said Taiwan became a Japanese colony at a time o...
Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun blamed Japanese “imperialist forces” for dividing mainland China and Taiwan, as she paid tribute to Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen at his mausoleum in Nanjing on Wednesday. In a speech delivered after the Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman laid a floral wreath before a statue of the founder of modern China, Cheng said Taiwan became a Japanese colony at a time of national weakness, following the 1895 defeat of China in the first Sino-Japanese war. She said...
The knock on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock in 2026 is self-explanatory: Capital expenditures (capex) are ballooning, Azure growth is moving a half-step slower than Wall Street demands, and an uncomfortable portion of the cloud backlog is tied to a single unprofitable partner, OpenAI. The stock has shed roughly a third of its value from all-time highs -- its worst drawdown since 2008 . On the surf...
The knock on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock in 2026 is self-explanatory: Capital expenditures (capex) are ballooning, Azure growth is moving a half-step slower than Wall Street demands, and an uncomfortable portion of the cloud backlog is tied to a single unprofitable partner, OpenAI. The stock has shed roughly a third of its value from all-time highs -- its worst drawdown since 2008 . On the surface, the panic seems fair. But smart investors are looking at things beyond rising infrastructure costs and quarterly cloud growth. Let's explore some themes that deserve closer inspection at Microsoft to help determine whether this sell-off is warranted or a once-in-a-decade opportunity to buy the dip. Continue reading
Tourists visit the Confucius Temple in Nanjing on April 6, 2026. Photo: VCG China’s domestic tourism during the Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday saw steady growth as an extended break for students fueled a surge in family trips and long-distance travel. During the three-day holiday from April 4 to April 6, domestic tourist trips rose 6.8% year-on-year to 135 million, while total tourism spending increase...
Tourists visit the Confucius Temple in Nanjing on April 6, 2026. Photo: VCG China’s domestic tourism during the Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday saw steady growth as an extended break for students fueled a surge in family trips and long-distance travel. During the three-day holiday from April 4 to April 6, domestic tourist trips rose 6.8% year-on-year to 135 million, while total tourism spending increased 6.6% to 61.4 billion yuan ($9 billion), according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Magdalena Wygralak GSK plc ( GSK ) Wednesday said that China has approved its drug Exdensur (depemokimab) as an additional treatment for adults with chronic sinus inflammation and nasal polyps who haven’t found relief from standard steroid treatments or surgery. The stock was up 1.3% in London. This comes after China recently approved Exdensur for severe asthma in adults and teens aged 12 and olde...
Magdalena Wygralak GSK plc ( GSK ) Wednesday said that China has approved its drug Exdensur (depemokimab) as an additional treatment for adults with chronic sinus inflammation and nasal polyps who haven’t found relief from standard steroid treatments or surgery. The stock was up 1.3% in London. This comes after China recently approved Exdensur for severe asthma in adults and teens aged 12 and older, further expanding GSK’s ( GSK ) presence in respiratory care in the Chinese market. The approval is based on ANCHOR trials showing clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in nasal polyp size and nasal obstruction. More on GSK GSK: Chinese Expansion And Fine Financials GSK plc (GSK) Presents at Goldman Sachs 9th Annual Biopharma Innovation Summit Transcript GSK Expanding Fast - Oncology, HIV, And Smart Acquisitions UK reaches agreement with US for British drugs to be tariff free Former CDC advisor says White House pulling back on vaccine policy