Key Points Costco last paid a special dividend in January 2023. The company has had a strong few years since, and typically pays special dividends every few years or so. Special dividend announcements can cause share prices to rise on the news. 10 stocks we like better than Costco Wholesale › Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) is serious about rewarding shareholders. Since 2004, the retail giant has raised its dividend by 1,200%, easily outstripping the 75% inflation in that period. It's also spent $12.5 billion in share buybacks since 2000, including $903 million in share repurchases over the last fiscal year. Share buybacks are shareholder-friendly because they boost earnings per share by lowering the share count, helping to push stock prices higher. The company typically announces dividend increases in the spring, so its 22nd payout hike is likely just weeks away. But Costco might have a much bigger treat in store for shareholders. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » Costco could pay a hefty special dividend this year Since 2013, Costco has paid five special dividends. These payouts are unpredictable, but have two things in common. First, they're huge. In January 2024, Costco paid out a special dividend of $15 per share, which was 1,370% larger than the regular dividend that shareholders also received a month later. To give this payout more context, Costco shares closed at $607.92 the day before this special dividend was announced. For shareholders who happened to buy just before the announcement, the special one-time dividend amounted to a one-time yield of 2.4%, or more than double what the average S&P 500 company pays out in two years. Costco's other special dividends have also been immense. In 2020, its special dividend was 1,328% greater than the regular quarterly dividend, while 2017's special dividend was 1,300% greater than th...

XRP might not be as useful as initially thought, which is hurting its value. The cryptocurrency industry is off to a brutal start to 2026. The total value of all coins in circulation has fallen to just $2.3 trillion, down 47% from last year's peak. XRP (XRP 3.44%), which is the world's fifth largest cryptocurrency, is faring even worse with a whopping 65% decline from its record high. XRP was created by a company called Ripple, which designed a unique payments system that allows banks to send money around the world instantly, with negligible fees. But although XRP is being swept up in the broader crypto crash right now, it also faces some unique structural issues that could place additional pressure on its value. XRP trades at $1.26 per token as I write this; here's why it might be on the way to $1 (and potentially even lower) in 2026. XRP's real-world utility might be fading Despite the digitization of the global banking system, it's still quite fragmented. Some banks use major networks like SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), whereas others don't, so transactions between them often require intermediaries, which is why they take days to settle and are quite expensive. Ripple Payments was designed for direct cross-border transactions between banks, no matter what existing infrastructure they use, which results in practically instant settlements. Ripple launched XRP to standardize each transaction and reduce costly foreign exchange fees. For example, an Italian bank can send XRP to a Korean bank instead of sending euros, typically for a total cost of just 0.00001 tokens (a fraction of one U.S. cent). Expand CRYPTO : XRP XRP Today's Change ( -3.44 %) $ -0.05 Current Price $ 1.40 Key Data Points Market Cap $85B Day's Range $ 1.40 - $ 1.45 52wk Range $ 1.14 - $ 3.65 Volume 2.5B XRP should, theoretically, increase in value as more banks use Ripple Payments, but there are a few structural problems. First, bridge currencies aren't designed ...

格隆汇2月11日｜危地马拉方面表示，将在2026年逐步撤出该国的古巴医生。

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks seesawed Tuesday . The market was solid for much of the session, with the S & P 500 posting steady gains. Shortly after 1 p.m. ET, however, the index began to slide and ultimately gave back all of those gains and then some. Financials were the worst-performing sector in the market on Tuesday. The pullback appears tied to concerns that new AI-driven products are coming for the wealth management industry after Altruist announced a new tax-planning offering. The selloff across the group appears knee-jerk in nature, but the potential impact of AI on the industry is something we'll need to monitor. It wasn't all bad news for the banks , with 2026 looking ripe for another great year of Wall Street dealmaking – a windfall for the dominant investment banking franchise at Goldman Sachs and the growing IB shop at Wells Fargo . That's the conclusion of remarks made by C-suite executives at both firms at a UBS conference Tuesday morning. Goldman CEO David Solomon described 2026 as a "constructive year" with "good tailwinds" for mergers and acquisitions (M & A). Solomon pointed to better macroeconomic conditions and continued regulatory leniency under President Donald Trump. Fewer blockades for deals means more business for Goldman, which is the top global M & A advisor by market share. "We feel good about the state of the franchise [and] feel good about the opportunities in front of us," he added. A rebound in M & A — and initial public offerings, for that matter — was at the core of our investment thesis when we started building our Goldman position shortly after the 2024 presidential election. Trump was expected to have a much more hands-off approach to regulating business combinations. A little over a year into his presidency, that has proved to be the case, affirming our original reason to own the ...

格隆汇2月11日｜当地时间10日，伊朗最高国家安全委员会秘书、最高领袖顾问拉里贾尼表示，前一阶段的美伊谈判进程逐步取得了进展。他指出，只要谈判具备现实可行性，伊朗愿意继续参与相关谈判。拉里贾尼称，伊朗在首轮谈判中的立场是积极的，并表示，下一阶段可能带来战略缓和的契机，或者至少能实现政治立场的重新调整，而这取决于对话的最终结果。在谈及这些谈判是否意味着伊美两国在处理分歧方式上出现实质性转变，还是仅停留在“危机管控”层面时，拉里贾尼表示，美方提出了诸多主张，如果核问题谈判取得成功，未来有可能将对话拓展至其他领域，但目前尚无法断言是否能够进入对其他分歧问题的讨论阶段。他强调，伊朗已明确表示并不寻求核武器。

JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Contrary to its strong Q4 earnings outperformance and robust 2026 outlook, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) shares plunged 17% immediately after the report last Wednesday (February 4), marking its largest intraday pullback since May 2017. The declines furthered into Thursday before a partial recovery on Friday (February 6) trading, driven largely by broader industry-led gains. Admittedly, the stock’s latest pullback reflects AMD’s exposure to intensifying execution challenges ahead. They include looming supply chain uncertainties, stiffening competition, elevated component cost inflationary pressures, and an evolving regulatory backdrop on chip exports to China. These collectively limit visibility into AMD’s AI returns outlook—a key focus area for investors amid the broader tech sector correction. However, AMD remains well-positioned for steady execution against the impending industry challenges. This is corroborated by the impending “inflection point,” as management calls it, when AMD ramps up its next-generation data center roadmap—spanning the Zen 6 EPYC “ Venice ” server CPU and the Instinct MI450 Series accelerators, which will be complemented by the chipmaker’s inaugural foray into rack-scale systems with the go-to-market of its first Helios platform in 2H26. In the following analysis, I will go over three immediate execution challenges facing AMD that have likely fueled the stock’s latest post-earnings selloff and discuss how the company remains in possession of idiosyncratic advantages in overcoming them. Taken together, it’s likely that AMD’s latest post-earnings pullback has overcorrected for the impending upside catalysts, underscoring further appreciation from current levels. 1. Supply Chain Uncertainties Context: During key rival and server CPU market leader Intel’s ( INTC ) latest earnings update , its management acknowledged the impact of supply chain constraints on the company’s Q4 data center segment s...

AMD: A De-Risked AI Compounder (NASDAQ:AMD) Seeking Alpha

Cathie Wood isn’t one to wait around for the tech debate to settle. Continuing her tech-buying spree, she dropped nearly $10 million on Roblox (RBLX) stock as the tech sector snaps back and the gaming platform impresses with a robust Q4 showing. In classic ARK Invest style, Wood has been shopping ...

Source: Bloomberg, 5:55

Flow credit trading One way to think about corporate finance is: There is a company that needs money. It goes to an investment bank to raise money. The bank is like “you can sell $1 billion of paper to investors, and then you will have money.” The company does this. It gets $1 billion of money, the investors get $1 billion of “paper” — that is, financial instruments, stocks or bonds or syndicated loans or hybrids or some other weirder thing — and the bank gets a fee. The company is happy because it has money; the investors are happy because they have put their money to work in a useful way for some promised return; the bank is happy because it gets a fee. Another way to think about corporate finance is: There is a casino for trading financial instruments, paper, stocks and bonds and whatever else you’ve got. Here is an Oren Cass essay at the New York Times about “financialization,” which perhaps inspired some of the tone of this model. Though also all the prediction-market and crypto stuff. The casino needs paper to trade: Some paper is always going away (maturing, getting cashed out in mergers, etc.), plus the casino always wants to expand, so there is constant need for more paper. The investment banks run the casino; they take a cut of every bet. The more bets there are, the more money they make. They want more paper. Sometimes a company comes to a bank because it needs money; sometimes a bank comes to a company because it wants paper. “You can get great financing for your AI data center right now, please, give us some paper,” the bank says, and the company is like “well we do need money for the AI data center so sure.” So the company issues paper to the bank, which sells it to investors; the company gets money and the investors get paper and the bank gets a fee; everything happens just as in the previous paragraph, but none of this is the point. The point is not the corporate financing transaction — company sells paper to investors for money — but rather what com...

克利夫兰联邦储备银行总裁哈玛克周二表示，在对经济活动前景“谨慎乐观”的情况下，美联储今年没有调整利率设定的紧迫性。 哈玛克在为俄亥俄银行家联盟准备的讲稿中称，鉴于可能的前景，就美联储指标利率区间而言，“我们可能在相当长的一段时间内将按兵不动”。 她表示，“我认为我们处于良好位置，能够将联邦基金利率维持在当前水平，看看形势如何演变，“货币政策最可能处于一个既不抑制也不刺激经济活动的设置。 “与其试图微调联邦基金利率，我更倾向于保持耐心，评估近期降息的影响并监测经济表现，”她补充道。“稳定的联邦基金利率将反映积极的经济态势。” 哈玛克今年在负责设定利率的联邦公开市场委员会（FOMC）中有投票权。 她称她支持美联储在1月底将指标利率区间维持在3.5%-3.75%的决定。 鉴于通胀动态，哈玛克一直对降息持怀疑态度。美联储官员虽已预测今年将降息，但在近期表态中并未透露具体时间表。 哈玛克在发言中指出，经济前景虽显乐观，但通胀水平仍“过高”，强调在通胀可能持续徘徊于3%的风险下，缓解价格压力至关重要。 她称：“今年经济增长将受益于金融环境放松、近期降息及财政支持等多重因素。” 就业方面，当前数据暗示情况在一定程度上趋稳。哈玛克表示：“官方数据和企业反馈均指向‘低招聘、低裁员’的就业环境，即企业招聘规模有限，但裁员也不多。” 责任编辑：李桐

Earnings Call Insights: Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (ACRE) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Bryan Donohoe described 2025 as “a year of transition for the commercial real estate market,” noting improved conditions in the second half as “the Fed began easing monetary policy leading to greater stability, a rebound in transaction volumes and stabilizing values.” He emphasized the company’s focus on reducing office and REO assets, and repositioning the balance sheet: “we made meaningful progress towards our goals of further positioning the balance sheet to address risk rated 4 and 5 loans, reducing office and REO assets, and we're actively investing to reshape the portfolio.” Donohoe highlighted the reduction in office loans by 30% since year-end 2024 to $447 million, with no new commitments planned for office properties. He pointed to the restructuring of two office loans and the exit of a life science property loan as significant progress toward risk reduction. The CEO outlined progress on five remaining risk rated 4 and 5 loans, specifying the largest—a Chicago office loan with a carrying value of $140 million—remains on nonaccrual but with stable fundamentals and above 90% occupancy. He added, “discussions with the borrower are ongoing and among the options the borrower is considering is the potential sale of the asset.” Donohoe reported closing 13 new loan commitments totaling $486 million in the second half, with more than half co-invested alongside other Ares vehicles, and over 50% collateralized by residential and industrial properties. “This strategy allows ACRE to benefit from the depth, breadth and extensive capabilities of the broader Ares real estate platform.” The CEO signaled confidence in future earnings, saying, “the board declared a regular cash dividend of $0.15 per common share for the first quarter of 2026. We believe that the execution of our business plan creates a path of earnings growth to meet the current dividend level.” CFO Jeffrey Gonz...

Earnings Call Insights: WESCO International (WCC) Q4 2025 Management View John Engel, Chairman, President & CEO, announced CFO Dave Schulz will retire in May 2026, and Neel Dev will be appointed as Executive Vice President and CFO, stating: "Neel is an excellent addition to our executive management team and will help us as we continue to accelerate our strategy, execute our growth initiatives, deliver our financial targets and create value for our stockholders." Engel highlighted record Q4 sales of $6.1 billion, up 10% year-over-year, with 9% organic growth and a record $1.2 billion in data center sales, which was up approximately 30% year-over-year. Engel detailed strong business unit performance, noting: "Communications & Security Solutions and Electrical and Electronic Solutions both delivered excellent results. This all occurred while Utility and Broadband Solutions results continue to reflect the ongoing sales and margin challenges with public power customers." Engel reported a record backlog, up 19% year-over-year, and affirmed WESCO is benefiting from secular growth trends, including digitalization, electrification, and supply chain resiliency. "We expect to continue to outperform the market and deliver mid- to high single-digit organic sales growth, strong operating leverage and margin expansion, double-digit EPS growth, and improved free cash flow generation." Engel announced a planned increase in the annual common stock dividend by over 10% to $2 per share. Engel described significant progress in digital transformation: "We advanced our technology and capability capabilities build, and we've deployed our new tech stack in pilot locations in each of our 3 business units." David Schulz, Executive VP & CFO, reported: "Sales in the fourth quarter were in line with our expectations, driven by strong performance in EES and CSS. Revenue was $6.1 billion, an increase of 10% year-over-year, with organic sales up 9%." Outlook WESCO projects reported sales growth of ...

Earnings Call Insights: Principal Financial Group (PFG) Q4 2025 Management View Deanna Strable, President, CEO & Chair of the Board, opened by highlighting "strong full year 2025 performance" with adjusted non-GAAP earnings per share growth of 12% and reported EPS growth of nearly 20%. Strable stated, "We expect to deliver another year of performance within our target ranges for EPS growth, free capital flow conversion and ROE." Strable emphasized broad-based retirement business momentum, noting total retirement transfer deposits of $35 billion, up 9% year-over-year, and recurring deposits in workplace savings and retirement solutions (WSRS) increasing 5%. Participant roll-ins reached $6.5 billion, a 15% increase, while pension risk transfer sales totaled $3 billion across 70 cases. In small and midsized business markets, WSRS recurring deposits grew 8%, transfer deposits rose 32%, and account value net cash flow was positive $1.5 billion. Group benefits customers averaged 3.13 products, up nearly 3%, and life business market premium and fees advanced 15%. Global asset management saw investment management gross sales reach $127 billion, up 16%, with private markets sales up 50%. ETF platform net cash flow was nearly $2 billion, and private markets AUM increased 12% to record levels. Strable announced the sale of the runoff annuities business in Chile, stating, "This action reflects the continued discipline we've applied over the last several years to strategically focus on higher growth, higher return and more capital-efficient businesses." CFO Joel Pitz reported, "Full year non-GAAP operating earnings, excluding significant variances, were $1.9 billion or $8.55 per diluted share. This represents a 12% increase in EPS over 2024 at the high end of our 9% to 12% EPS target." Outlook Pitz outlined 2026 enterprise financial targets: "9% to 12% growth in earnings per share, 75% to 85% free capital flow conversion and 15% to 17% return on equity. The ROE target has increa...

A California man has been sentenced to four years in prison for acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government while working as a campaign adviser for a local politician. Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, was sentenced on Monday in federal court in Los Angeles after pleading guilty last year in a deal with prosecutors. Under the agreement, Sun acknowledged acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the People’s Republic of China from 2022 to 2024 without notifying the US attorney general as required by law. Advertisement “When Americans vote for elected officials, they expect them to represent the interests of their constituents – not those of a foreign adversary like the Chinese government,” Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence and espionage division, said in a statement. Federal prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence for Sun. 02:41 Linda Sun, ex-aide to New York governor, charged with acting as undisclosed Chinese agent Linda Sun, ex-aide to New York governor, charged with acting as undisclosed Chinese agent Sun’s lawyer, Adam Olin, declined to comment. In court papers, Olin asked for Sun to be sentenced to time served after spending more than a year in custody, contending his client lived a law-abiding life in the United States since moving from China in 1996.

Aksana Kavaleuskaya/iStock via Getty Images "Performance within the Index was uneven, with meaningful dispersion among sectors as investor preferences shifted." Earnest Partners LLC Market in Review The Russell 2500® Value Index ("Index"), representing the U.S. small/mid-cap market, experienced uneven performance during the fourth quarter, with meaningful dispersion among sectors as investor preferences shifted. Health Care was the best-performing sector in the quarter, rising nearly 17% and outperforming Consumer Staples, the worst-performing sector. Health Care gains, however, were largely driven by biotechnology, an industry characterized by highly speculative, binary outcomes tied to clinical and regulatory events. Biotechnology's leadership in the period affirms that pockets of event-driven speculation remain, despite signals that a return to earnings discipline is occurring. Information Technology also contributed positively to Index returns, reflecting a rotation toward technology companies with stronger balance sheets and more established earnings profiles, in contrast to speculative, early growth technology companies. Materials performed well during the quarter as commodity-linked and industrial resource names benefited from sustained demand for base and precious metals, inflation concerns, and optimism surrounding infrastructure investment and energy transition spending. Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, and Real Estate were among the weakest-performing sectors, pressured by margin compression from elevated input costs, cautious consumer spending, and ongoing challenges within commercial real estate markets, respectively. Shares are bought and sold at market price not net asset value (NAV). A fund's NAV is the sum of all its assets less any liabilities, divided by the number of shares outstanding. Market price returns are based upon the closing composite market price and do not represent the returns you would receive if you traded shares at other t...

格隆汇2月11日｜汽车制造商斯泰兰蒂斯(STLA.N)正寻求退出其与韩国三星SDI共同成立的美国电池合资企业。此前，公司在逐步收缩电动车布局、力图保留现金之际，于上周宣布计提逾220亿欧元（约260亿美元）的资产减值。退出合资企业的成本可能较高，且过程漫长。斯泰兰蒂斯也可能将其所持股份出售给第三方。在特朗普采取削弱插电式汽车的政策举措后，电动车和电池项目给公司带来压力，CEO安东尼奥·菲洛萨正致力于遏制相关亏损。斯泰兰蒂斯与三星于2021年成立了印第安纳州合资企业，承诺投资25亿美元，并在科科莫市创造1400个新就业岗位。该工厂是三星在美国唯一的电池工厂，于2024年投产，并已开始生产部分用于储能的电池单元。

X and Tesla face federal patent infringement lawsuit over voice control technology Yahoo Finance

Taiwan Semiconductor budgeting appears skewed towards front-end, facility: BofA (TSM:NYSE) Seeking Alpha

SweetBunFactory Taiwan Semiconductor's ( TSM ) board-approved budgeting appears to be skewed towards front-end technology and its facilities, Bank of America said. “On the capital appropriations, we would note the mix this time is skewed toward advanced front-end manufacturing and facility/clean room,” Bank of America analyst Haas Liu wrote in a note to clients. “While the approved figure on a quarterly basis could be lumpy, the accumulated number saw a meaningful jump in YoY growth, the 1st time since 1H24 when it prepared for meaningful CoWoS expansion and further 3nm capacity ramp following ’23 downturn. This is consistent with its aggressive capex guide for ’26 for 3nm addition, 2nm ramp, A16 readiness and advanced packaging capacity expansion and roadmap advancement. We would monitor if the trend sustains, supplemented with supply chain feedback, as a read for its capex spending outlook.” Liu has a Buy rating and $2,360TWD price target on Taiwan Semiconductor shares. On Tuesday, Taiwan Semiconductor approved its quarterly dividend of NT$6.0 per share and appropriated $45B for fab construction, capacity installation and upgrade for advanced front-end and specialty and mature technology and advanced packaging. The company also distributed NT$1.2B to its Arizona subsidiary. Separately, on Tuesday, Taiwan Semiconductor reported revenue rose 37% year-over-year during the month of January. More on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Steven Cress' Top 10 AI Stocks (Recap & Update) Taiwan Semiconductor: Winner Of The AI Boom As The Critical Foundry Supplier The Future Of AI Stocks? TSMC Commentary Suggests AI Megatrend Taiwan Semiconductor rises after January sales surge 37% Y/Y US plans big tech chip tariff carve-outs linked to TSMC investment, FT reports

格隆汇2月11日｜据外媒报道，在多名资深议员同意在本月表决前对协议作出若干修改后，欧洲议会正接近批准一项与美国达成的贸易协议。欧洲议会贸易委员会成员周二确认，将于2月24日就该协议进行表决。他们还同意在协议中加入一项“日落条款”——除非延长，否则协议将于2028年3月到期——并给予美国六个月时间，将目前对含钢铁和铝产品征收的50%关税下调。如果美方未能将相关产品的关税降至15%，欧盟将考虑恢复对美国工业品以及部分农食品的关税。知情人士称，包括中右翼的欧洲人民党以及社会党与民主党在内的主要政治团体支持这些修正案。

Get a jump start on the US trading day with Matt Miller and Dani Burger on "Bloomberg Open Interest." Global AI spending is surging as Alphabet raises billions in a massive bond deal. And new retail data shows US consumers are starting to pull back. Meanwhile, investors are navigating a flood of earnings, from Coca-Cola’s challenges to Ferrari’s red-hot demand. Plus, how AI could dramatically speed up drug trials — and what extreme winter weather means for the durability of America’s power grid. We talk to Harry Sideris, the CEO of Duke Energy. (Source: Bloomberg)

A MoffettNathanson analyst thinks AI could be a benefit to Shopify’s business, rather than a hinderance.