HUZHOU, CHINA - JANUARY 27: An employee works on the beverage production line to meet the Spring Festival market demand at Leyuan Health Technology (Huzhou) Co., Ltd. on January 27, 2026 in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. Wang Shucheng | Visual China Group | Getty Images A year after U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs spooked exporters and customers, Chinese factories and ports are buzzing ...
HUZHOU, CHINA - JANUARY 27: An employee works on the beverage production line to meet the Spring Festival market demand at Leyuan Health Technology (Huzhou) Co., Ltd. on January 27, 2026 in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. Wang Shucheng | Visual China Group | Getty Images A year after U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs spooked exporters and customers, Chinese factories and ports are buzzing with activity ahead of the Lunar New Year — even pushing freight rates higher. Chinese factory activity typically surges at the start of the year with manufacturers racing to fulfil orders and ship out goods before the country enters an extended holiday for the Chinese New Year. This year's pre-holiday rush appears as busy as ever despite Trump tariffs. Renaud Anjoran, founder and CEO of Agilian Technology, a Guangdong-based electronics manufacturer, said his factory was operating at nearly full capacity after a year of stop-start tariff threats: "We are very busy." "It's back to the situation where it's like tariffs don't exist. American customers are not thinking of [buying from] other places," Anjoran said, adding that some clients had to pay additional costs to have goods made and shipped out before the holiday. His plant in the city of Dongguan ships more than half its products to the U.S., maintaining exports at levels seen before Trump's imposition of tariffs last year. "Factories saw orders, production and earnings jump ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays," according to China Beige Book that tracks economic data from the world's second largest economy. The research firm estimates that in January, industrial output jumped compared to a year ago, with both domestic and export orders "accelerating sharply on-year and on-month." The official reading on output for January and February will be out in March. Major ports in China handled 40% more containers during the week ended Feb. 1 from a year earlier, according to a team of transport and logistics analysts at HSBC B...
Earnings Call Insights: Fastly (FSLY) Q4 2025 Management View Kip Compton, CEO, highlighted that "our exceptional Q4 results reflect this reality as we exceeded expectations across the board. We delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of revenue acceleration, closing out the year with record revenue of $173 million in the fourth quarter." Compton stated that annual growth reached 23%, the highest...
Earnings Call Insights: Fastly (FSLY) Q4 2025 Management View Kip Compton, CEO, highlighted that "our exceptional Q4 results reflect this reality as we exceeded expectations across the board. We delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of revenue acceleration, closing out the year with record revenue of $173 million in the fourth quarter." Compton stated that annual growth reached 23%, the highest in over three years, and emphasized record gross margins of 64% and positive free cash flow for a fourth straight quarter. The CEO detailed that network services grew 19% year-over-year, attributing the growth to stronger event performance and customers prioritizing stability and resilience. He noted, "security revenue growth accelerated to 32% year-over-year, up from 30% in the third quarter and notching another record high." Compton shared examples of customer wins, such as a Fortune 500 restaurant chain and a home retailer, both of whom adopted Fastly's platform for security and performance reasons, as well as a print-on-demand marketplace expanding its use of Fastly products. The CEO underscored investments in security and AI, saying, "we also launched AI Assistant in Beta, this context-aware in-console agentic feature accelerates Fastly platform adoption by enterprise software engineering teams." Richard Wong, CFO, stated, "We continue to accelerate our revenue growth momentum while demonstrating strong incremental revenue flow-through to drive profitability. This is driven by our strong focus on our go-to-market execution, our broader product portfolio, especially in security and our fiscal discipline. In addition, we've recapitalized our balance sheet to significantly improve our liquidity and prepare us for our next phase of growth." Outlook First quarter 2026 revenue is guided to $168 million to $174 million, representing 18% annual growth at the midpoint. Gross margin guidance for Q1 2026 is 64%, plus or minus 50 basis points. Non-GAAP operating profit guidance f...
FTC Probing Pediatrician Group, Non-Profit Over Gender Dysphoria Treatments For Kids Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is examining statements from several organizations that have promoted drugs and surgeries for minors who believe they are a different gender, according to documents made public on Feb. 10. FTC officials sent civil demands for docum...
FTC Probing Pediatrician Group, Non-Profit Over Gender Dysphoria Treatments For Kids Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is examining statements from several organizations that have promoted drugs and surgeries for minors who believe they are a different gender, according to documents made public on Feb. 10. FTC officials sent civil demands for documents to the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Professional Association of Transgender Health, documents posted online by the FTC show. In the demands, dated Jan. 15, the FTC said officials are probing whether groups have “made, or assisted others in making, false or unsubstantiated representations or engaged in unfair practices in connection with the marketing and advertising of Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Treatment” in violation of federal law that bars people from engaging in deceptive practices affecting commerce and disseminating false advertisements. Officials asked for each type of pediatric gender dysphoria treatment that the organizations advertised or promoted and information on financial relationships between the organizations and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, or doctors involved in treating gender dysphoria. They also want to know about the process for how the American Academy of Pediatrics developed its 2018 statement outlining its position on care for youth labeled as “transgender,” and how the World Professional Association of Transgender Health came up with its Standards of Care Version 8, which contains guidance for doctors contemplating giving children puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, or performing surgeries on children questioning their gender. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in 2025 the agency would investigate whether the gender transition procedures were being offered under unfair or false claims. The inquiry is looking into whether people, particularly children, were harmed by false or unsubstantiated claims about “gender-affirmin...
(RTTNews) - The Australian market is doubling its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 9,050 level, boosted
(RTTNews) - The Australian market is doubling its early gains in mid-market moves on Thursday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, despite the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is moving well above the 9,050 level, boosted
It's not as good an idea as it sounds. Given that home prices today remain elevated and mortgage rates are high as well, buying a place of your own could be an extremely difficult prospect. And if you have money sitting in an IRA, you may be tempted to raid that account to make a home purchase possible. Normally, IRA withdrawals taken before age 59 1/2 incur a 10% early withdrawal penalty. But tha...
It's not as good an idea as it sounds. Given that home prices today remain elevated and mortgage rates are high as well, buying a place of your own could be an extremely difficult prospect. And if you have money sitting in an IRA, you may be tempted to raid that account to make a home purchase possible. Normally, IRA withdrawals taken before age 59 1/2 incur a 10% early withdrawal penalty. But that penalty is waived if you withdraw up to $10,000 to purchase a first-time home. Hitting up your IRA might seem like a good bet if you're struggling to make a down payment on a house today. But in today's market, it doesn't make sense. The median existing-home sale price in December was $405,400, per the National Association of Realtors. If you're trying to make a 20% down payment to avoid private mortgage insurance, you need to come up with roughly $81,000 for a typical home today. Even if you're aiming for a 5% down payment, you'll need around $20,000. If you and a spouse each have an IRA, you could get $20,000 penalty-free out of those accounts. But then you'll be left with a huge mortgage you might struggle to keep up with. You might also risk ending up underwater on your mortgage if home prices plummet. Plus, every dollar you take out of your IRA is a dollar you can't invest. And that could leave you with a huge savings shortfall once you actually retire. It's incredibly frustrating to feel like you need to keep putting off homeownership. But you're much better off waiting until you can cover your down payment without having to raid your retirement savings. And doing so may not even solve the problem of affordability, even if you're technically able to eke out a down payment.