市场有风险，投资需谨慎。本文不构成个人投资建议，也未考虑到个别用户特殊的投资目标、财务状况或需要。用户应考虑本文中的任何意见、观点或结论是否符合其特定状况。据此投资，责任自负。 美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特称，关于他与特朗普总统在美元问题上观点不一的说法是一个“虚假命题（False Choice）”。贝森特解释称，“强势美元政策”意味着通过税收、贸易、去监管和能源政策为美元创造强大的经济背景。 在美国总统特朗普对近期美元汇率下跌表示欢迎，而财政部长斯科特·贝森特却在宣扬“强势美元政策”后，贝森特驳斥了两人在美元问题上立场不一的观点。“这是一个虚假命题，”贝森特在CNBC节目中被问及他和特朗普最近的言论“到底哪句算数”时回答道。 贝森特周五表示：“强势美元政策是指，我们是否正在采取行动为美元创造一个强大的背景？”他列举了现任政府的税收、贸易、去监管和能源政策，以及“重新确立我们在关键矿产领域的主权”。 “我们是否正在将美国打造为全球资本的最佳目的地？我认为没有人比特朗普总统做得更好，”这位财政部长说道。 1月28日，在贝森特表示美国“始终推行强势美元政策”且当局并未干预以打压美元对日元汇率后，美元汇率走高。而就在前一天，当特朗普被问及是否担心美元贬值时，他回答道：“不，我觉得这很好（I think it’s great）”，随后美元汇率出现暴跌。 风险提示及免责条款 市场有风险，投资需谨慎。本文不构成个人投资建议，也未考虑到个别用户特殊的投资目标、财务状况或需要。用户应考虑本文中的任何意见、观点或结论是否符合其特定状况。据此投资，责任自负。

As Amazon 's shares tank on Friday, CNBC's " Halftime Report " traders see a buying opportunity. The ecommerce giant tumbled nearly 7% in afternoon trading after earnings per share narrowly missed expectations and big spending plans worried some investors. Amazon shares have dropped around 13% this week, on track for their biggest weekly drop since 2022. "I already loved the stock where it was, so it made perfect sense to me that I would want to add more shares," Malcolm Ethridge, managing partner at Capital Area Planning Group, said on CNBC's "Halftime Report" Friday. AMZN 1D mountain Amazon, 1-day Ethridge said Amazon's plan for $200 billion in capital expenditure makes sense given that they have to work through a backlog valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Amazon said much of that spending would be focused on artificial intelligence data centers . Ethridge said he wasn't surprised to see the stock fall sharply in overnight trading. With the rise of retail investor participation since the Covid pandemic, he said the market is more likely to have a reaction of selling first and then deciding how to actually play a stock later. "We have to accept that that really is just one of the dynamics of how the market is going to work," Ethridge said. Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner pointed out that Amazon joins a list of major technology firms announcing large-scale spending plans recently. He said he trusts executives helming Big Tech companies to ensure their investments bear results, or walk back their plans. To the credit of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy specifically, Gerstner pointed out that he grew the Web Services business to $140 billion. In its early days back in the late 2000s, many questioned why Amazon should be investing in it, Gerstner added. "I don't think this is a permanent new normal in the amount that's going to get built," he said of Big Tech's AI spending. "But I think for the next three years, this is like building the interstate highway system." Wa...

The second-largest transit system in the US is benefiting from municipal bond investors looking to put billions of dollars to work. The Chicago Transit Authority sold about $530 million in sales-tax-backed bonds on Thursday. Proceeds from the deal will finance projects such as the Red Line extension and refund old debt for savings. It comes as the Trump administration threatens to freeze or withdraw funding for transit systems and projects in Chicago and other major cities if they fail to comply with the administration’s policies. Read More: NY-NJ Hudson Tunnel to Be Halted After Trump Blocked Funding Inflows into the muni market, subdued supply and CTA’s higher rating with greater revenue made investors more “comfortable” and set the agency apart from other issuers in the region, said Dan Solender , head of municipal investments at Lord Abbett & Co. A “big slug” of money looking to be reinvested into the municipal market bolstered demand, said Sweta Singh , a portfolio manager at City Different Investments. Investors have about $46 billion in principal and interest payments available to funnel back into the market in February, one of the highest monthly amounts this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates . That demand has been outweighing supply so far this year. Read More: Munis Beating Treasuries in January as Supply Trails Demand While analysts on average have projected muni long-term issuance of about $600 billion this year, which would top last year’s record, volume so far has trailed 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far in 2026, state and local governments have sold $43.6 billion in long-term debt, 4.6% below the same period a year ago. Issuance “has been a little lighter than people had expected,” said Ryan Ciavarelli , senior vice president for credit research at Belle Haven Investments . Singh added that Moody’s Ratings’ recent credit upgrade of CTA also helped the bond sale. The company said in a December report that the rais...

Key Points Stellantis announced on Friday that it will take $26.5 billion in charges. Most of the charges relate to cancelled or downsized plans for electric vehicles. Shares were hit hard in Friday trading. 10 stocks we like better than Stellantis › Shares of Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), the global automotive giant that owns former Chrysler brands like Jeep and Ram, fell sharply on Friday after the company announced massive write-offs amid lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles. As of 1:15 p.m. ET, Stellantis's U.S.-traded shares were down about 24.5% from Thursday's closing price. 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 » Over $26 million to unwind an aggressive EV plan Stellantis announced a whopping 22.2 billion euros ($26.5 billion) of charges before the U.S. markets opened on Friday. Most are related to downsizing its ambitious EV plans; some address overall quality issues. The charges include: 14.7 billion euros related to product-plan changes. That includes write-offs for recent models that aren't selling as well as expected, charges for the work put into future products that have now been cancelled, and payments to suppliers that had geared up to make parts for models that now won't be made. 2.1 billion euros related to downsizing the company's plans for an EV supply chain, mostly related to planned investments in battery manufacturing. 5.4 billion euros in "other charges" including an increase in the amount the company sets aside for warranty work -- an acknowledgment that recent quality-improvement efforts haven't delivered results. Several rivals, including Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM), have announced similar EV resets amid flagging demand in the U.S. and Europe. But none have been as costly as Stellantis's changes, and neither Ford nor GM investors saw anything like the hit Stellantis's stock...

White House Says Trump Has No Plans To Deploy ICE At Polls, Won't Rule Out Federal Presence Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times, The White House said on Feb. 5 that President Donald Trump has not discussed any “formal plans” to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at polling locations during November’s midterm elections, while declining to guarantee that federal agents would not be present near voting sites. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the remarks during a press briefing in response to a question referencing a comment from former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. A reporter asked Leavitt for comment on Bannon’s recent remark that ICE agents would “surround the polls come November,” and whether the president was considering such action. Bannon made the remarks during an episode of his “War Room” podcast released Feb. 3. “That’s not something I’ve ever heard the president consider. No,” Leavitt replied. Pressed on whether she can “guarantee to the American public” that ICE will not have any presence near polling locations in the November mid-term election, the press secretary declined to offer such blanket assurances. “I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November. I mean, that’s frankly a very silly hypothetical question,” Leavitt said. “But what I can tell you is I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations. It’s a disingenuous question.” Earlier this week, Trump suggested that Republicans should assert greater control over elections in areas the president has claimed are affected by fraud. Speaking on Feb. 2, Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” and “take over” voting in at least 15 unspecified locations, repeating claims that U.S. elections suffer from widespread illegal voting. Trump has long argued that noncitizens vote illegally in U.S. elections. A 2014 academic study found evidence of noncitizen participation—“less than ...

March arabica coffee (KCH26) today is down -8.40 (-2.72%), and March ICE robusta coffee (RMH26) is down -98 (-2.56%). Coffee prices extended their week-long plunge today, with arabica falling to a 6-month low on Thursday and robusta dropping to a 5.75-month low. Coffee prices have been under pressure over the past week on signs of robust coffee supplies. Conab, Brazil's crop forecasting agency, said Thursday that Brazil's 2026 coffee production will climb +17.2% y/y to a record 66.2 million bags, with arabica production up +23.2% y/y to 44.1 million bags and robusta production up +6.3% y/y to 22.1 million bags. Don’t Miss a Day: Soaring coffee exports from Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, are bearish for robusta prices. Vietnam's National Statistics Office reported today that Vietnam's Jan coffee exports surged +38.3% y/y to 198,000 MT. Vietnam's 2025 coffee exports jumped by +17.5% y/y to 1.58 MMT. Above-average rainfall in Brazil has eased dryness concerns and is bearish for coffee prices. Somar Meteorologia reported on Monday that Brazil's largest arabica coffee-growing area, Minas Gerais, received 69.8 mm of rain during the week ended January 30, or 117% of the historical average. Increased Vietnamese coffee supplies are negative for prices. Vietnam's 2025/26 coffee production is projected to climb +6% y/y to 1.76 MMT, or 29.4 million bags, a 4-year high. The recovery in ICE coffee inventories is negative for prices. ICE-monitored arabica inventories fell to a 1.75-year low of 396,513 bags on November 18, but recovered to a 3.25-month high of 461,829 bags on January 7. Also, ICE robusta coffee inventories fell to a 13-month low of 4,012 lots on December 10 but recovered to a 2-month high of 4,662 lots last Monday. On the positive side for coffee, Brazil's Trade Ministry reported on Thursday that Brazil's Jan coffee exports fell -42.4% y/y to 141,000 MT. Signs of tighter global coffee supplies are supportive of prices, as the International Coffee Or...

pcess609/iStock via Getty Images After covering the upside-leveraged ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF ( TQQQ ) earlier this week , I turned my attention to its inverse-leveraged peer ETF, the ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF ( SQQQ ). The reason I didn't do a comparative analysis in the earlier article is that in spite of their similarities, SQQQ doesn't have the equity portion that TQQQ does. That makes sense when you look at their objectives. TQQQ benefits from an equity holding because it seeks upside, so it's only logical that holding the stocks that make up the target index, the Nasdaq-100 ( NDX ), will contribute positively to the leverage from the derivatives portion. Another point is cost; since the ETF owns some of the underlying stock, it's getting the initial 1x upside leverage for free - not counting any brokerage, but that goes without saying and is baked into the 0.95% expense ratio. That means the notional value on the swaps only needs to be based on 2x leverage, not 3x. That's for TQQQ. In SQQQ's case, it doesn't make sense to hold equity because the entire bet is on the NDX declining. You could shoot back at me saying an equity portion might help offset the days on which the derivatives lose money (equity goes up instead of down), but if you think about it, that's not going to help the ETF meet its overall objective because, on down days, the loss on these assets will negate the gain on the derivatives, making it harder for the fund to achieve its 3x daily leverage goal. It's a little difficult to get your head around that initially, but if you think about it, the only way an equity portion can help an inverse leveraged fund is if these stocks are shorted. Doing that would massively increase the complexity, the risk, and the cost of managing such a fund. Imagine tracking 100 short positions on a daily basis, and you'll immediately see why this isn't practical. There are also other differences I'd like to highlight as support for my not drawing more compar...

文章提及标的 芝加哥商品交易所 -- 芝加哥商品交易所（CME）(CME)表示，“我们已注意到金属结算数据发布出现延迟，技术支持团队已介入处理”。(财联社)

Volatility is expected in crypto, but these wild swings have not been seen since late 2022, when the FTX empire of notorious crypto conman Sam Bankman-Fried blew up. On Thursday evening, Bitcoin briefly dipped below $60,000, which represented a roughly 52% drop since its all-time high of $126,000 in October. By early afternoon on Friday, though, the original cryptocurrency surged up about 17% to its current price of roughly $70,000, according to Binance. The 24-hour rollercoaster ride for Bitcoin mirrors the behavior of the broader stock market amid resurfacing fears of an AI bubble. Stocks for major tech companies, especially software-based companies, dipped on Thursday after Anthropic released an AI plugin that could threaten some major firms’ business models. “[Bitcoin’s dip] did not happen in isolation and came alongside weakness in tech and other assets, pointing to a broader cross-asset deleveraging rather than a single crypto-specific trigger,” said Jasper De Maere, desk strategist at Wintermute. The skittishness with tech stocks subsided on Friday, with shares of Nvidia and Microsoft going up, as did the price of Bitcoin. Crypto’s overnight bounceback does not put a dent in the damage done over the past four months. In October, the crypto world was riding the wave of President Donald Trump’s favorable policies toward the sector, and Bitcoin’s price reached an all-time high of $126,000. Those gains have been erased and then some as investors are no longer viewing crypto as a safe haven asset. If there was one face representing this decline, it would be that of Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of Strategy. His company, often referred to as the first digital asset treasury, exists in order to buy and hoard Bitcoin. On Thursday, Strategy announced a $12.4 billion net loss in the most recent quarter. Saylor, a longtime Bitcoin believer, said that he was confident in a rebound thanks to Trump, who he called the ‘Bitcoin president.’ Bitcoin could be floating ...

Key Points Impinj reported fourth-quarter results that were mostly in line with estimates. Management called 2025 a tough year. Due to weak demand from apparel retailers, the company sees a slight decline in Q1 revenue. 10 stocks we like better than Impinj › Shares of Impinj (NASDAQ: PI) were taking a dive after the RAIN RFID (radio-frequency ID) specialist came up slightly short of fourth-quarter estimates slightly and its guidance for the first quarter missed the mark. As of 12:14 p.m. ET, the stock was down 21.4% on the news. 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 » What happened with Impinj Impinj's revenue in the fourth quarter was essentially flat, up 1.4% to $92.8 million, which matched the analyst consensus. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) ticked up from $15 million to $16.4 million, and adjusted earnings per share, which excludes $15.2 million in stock-based compensation, was $0.50, up from $0.48 a year ago, and slightly below the consensus at $0.51. On a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, the company reported a loss of $1.1 million, and it had a GAAP loss for the year, of $10.8 million. CEO Chris Diorio called 2025 "a transition year for Impinj," and said it was "a tough year for our industry," citing challenges related to tariffs, inventory reductions, and a declining trend in apparel imports and RFID adoption in general merchandise. What's next for Impinj Investors were also disappointed with Impinj's forecast for the first quarter as the Internet of Things company called for revenue of $71 million-$74 million, implying a 2% decline at the midpoint, which was well below the analyst consensus at $90.5 million as the company expects weak apparel retailer demand. It sees a GAAP net loss of $15.1 million to $16.6 million, and per-share profit ...

Key Points Bitcoin's price is falling, leading Strategy to report huge losses on its Bitcoin treasury investments. The company has raised tons of money, but now trades at a discount to its Bitcoin holdings. If you want to get long Bitcoin, just buy the actual cryptocurrency instead. 10 stocks we like better than Strategy › Shares of Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) -- the company formerly known as MicroStrategy -- fell as much as 25.5% this week, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Bitcoin treasury company is trading up and down wildly along with the price of Bitcoin. Its holdings now trade below their cost basis. As of this writing on Friday, February 6th, at 1:00 PM EST, Strategy stock is down 11.2% this week and 71% from all-time highs. Here's why, and whether the stock is a buy today. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Falling Bitcoin prices, liquidity concerns Strategy runs a simple business: it raises money and buys Bitcoin. That's it. It is a leveraged operation that uses capital markets to acquire as much of the cryptocurrency as possible. In 2025 alone, it raised $25 billion, or 8% of total U.S. equity issuance last year. It now holds 713,000 Bitcoin, or more than 3% of the 21 million coins that will ever exist. However, its cost basis on all these coins is $76,000, which is below the current price of approximately $70,000. This puts the entire investment strategy of the business into question. Today, Strategy actually trades below the net asset value (NAV) of its Bitcoin holdings. However, it does have debt to service on its balance sheet, alongside dividend and interest income payment obligations. Investors are worried that if Bitcoin falls to a low enough price, Strategy will have to start unwinding its positions at a loss. This could trigger further selling ...

Key Points Nio said it expects to report an "adjusted operating profit" for the fourth quarter of 2025. It would be the company's first-ever profit on that basis. Nio's sales were up significantly in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. 10 stocks we like better than Nio › Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker Nio (NYSE: NIO) were trading higher on Friday after the company announced that it expects to report an adjusted operating profit for the fourth quarter -- its first-ever profit on that basis. As of 1:00 p.m. ET, Nio's American depositary shares were up about 7.3% from Thursday's closing price. 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 » Nio issued the good kind of "profit alert" Nio said in a statement that it expects to post an adjusted operating profit of between 700 million Chinese yuan (about $100 million) and 1.2 billion yuan (about $172 million) for the fourth quarter. That would mark the first time that the EV maker has posted a quarterly operating profit on that basis. "Adjusted" can mean a number of different things when talking about profits and losses. In Nio's case, the meaning is straightforward: Like many other companies, Nio excludes the costs of share-based employee compensation from its "adjusted" number to give investors a clearer basis when comparing quarters, or when comparing Nio's results to those of other companies. Nio reported an adjusted operating loss of 5.54 billion yuan (about $799 million) in the fourth quarter of 2024. Nio's deliveries appear to have crossed its break-even point Nio's statement didn't explain precisely how it had turned an adjusted operating profit in the fourth quarter. But the company said last month that it delivered 124,807 electric vehicles in the quarter, up almost 72% from the same period in 2024. It's likely that total was enough to cross the company's break-even point -- a si...

These relatively small companies are going after multitrillion-dollar opportunities. Finding companies with a long growth runway is how you identify stocks that can make you a fortune. But the market won't give you these returns for free. Volatility is the price you pay for monster returns over time, and this will undoubtedly be the case for two companies we'll look at below. That said, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT +14.77%) and language-training platform Duolingo (DUOL +2.27%) are experiencing robust growth that, if sustained, could deliver wealth-building returns over the next decade and beyond that have the potential to make you a millionaire. 1. Hut 8 After several years of volatility for shareholders, Hut 8 saw its stock price more than double over the past year. This comes amid its pivot to meet the demand for data centers. Morgan Stanley estimates that corporate spending on artificial intelligence (AI) could hit $10 trillion over time. Savvy investors know that chip stocks are not the only way to profit from AI -- data centers are in short supply, prompting several Bitcoin miners to leverage their infrastructure to address this need. Hut 8 has a pipeline of over 9 gigawatts worth of data center capacity that it can monetize to drive significant growth for shareholders. It signed a $7 billion deal in December to supply 245 megawatts for Anthropic, the developer of the AI large language model (LLM) Claude. The value of this deal could reach $17.7 billion if all contract options are exercised. Expand NASDAQ : HUT Hut 8 Today's Change ( 14.77 %) $ 6.57 Current Price $ 51.05 Key Data Points Market Cap $4.8B Day's Range $ 46.78 - $ 51.56 52wk Range $ 10.04 - $ 66.07 Volume 168K Avg Vol 6.7M Gross Margin 4.92 % The main risks for Hut 8 are construction delays on its data center buildout. However, Hut 8 wouldn't have been able to gain financial partnerships with Google, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs if it couldn't demonstrate its ability to execute on the Anthropic deal. An...

Once Upon A Farm ( OFRM ) shot up more than 20% after the company's IPO was launched on Friday. After the organic children's nutrition company priced its IPO at $18 per share on Thursday, the stock rose to as high as $21.73. Once Upon a Farm ( OFRM ) raised $197.9M at a valuation of $724M with the public debut. Once Upon a Farm was founded in 2015 by Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz, inspired by Curtis’s desire to create wholesome, convenient baby food that matched the quality she prepared at home for her child. The freshly made, cold-pressed recipes quickly attracted attention, leading to a partnership with John Foraker, former CEO of Annie’s, and actress Jennifer Garner, who boosted the company’s public profile and supported its mission. To support aggressive growth across retail and direct-to-consumer platforms, strategic investments have been crucial to the company. A notable event occurred in 2021, when Once Upon a Farm acquired Raised Real, incorporating frozen organic meals into its offerings and further diversifying its reach. In 2022, Once Upon a Farm ( OFRM ) closed a $52 million Series D funding round led by CAVU Venture Partners, with S2G Ventures, Cambridge, and Beechwood among continuing investors. In 2024 and 2025, Once Upon a Farm ( OFRM ) entered the dairy category with A2/A2 milk-based shakes and smoothies and launched refrigerated protein bars and a new suite of toddler snacks, including Smart Wheels, Belly Blends, and Smoothie Melts. Looking ahead, Once Upon a Farm ( OFRM ) indicated that one of the most exciting opportunities ahead for it is the opportunity to broaden its cooler installations and presence in the baby aisle, which is traditionally home to only shelf-stable products. Growth plans include broadening product offerings into new categories such as dairy-free smoothies and oat-based meals to address evolving consumer preferences and increase household reach. The company has also indicated that it is deepening direct-to-consumer engagement,...

The entry-level AirPods are about $100. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you know where to look, you can often score deals on Apple’s ever-expanding AirPods lineup. Both the AirPods Max and AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) now consistently receive discounts, as do the newer AirPods Pro 3 . And while recent shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday delivered some of the steepest discounts we’ve seen, there are still good deals to be found on every model in January. Below, we’ve rounded up the best deals currently available on each set of AirPods, including both iterations of the AirPods 4, the third-gen AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max. The best AirPods 4 deals Apple AirPods 4 Where to Buy: $129 $99 at Amazon $129.99 $99.99 at Walmart $129.99 $99.99 at Best Buy AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation Where to Buy: $179 $139.99 at Amazon $179 $139.99 at Walmart $179.99 $139.99 at Best Buy At the end of 2024, Apple introduced the AirPods 4, a pair of wireless earbuds available in two variations: a $129 standard model and a $179 noise-canceling model. Both versions represent significant upgrades over the third-gen AirPods, with a more comfortable design and improved audio performance. They’re also better for taking calls thanks to Apple’s Voice Isolation feature, which focuses the mics on your voice so you can be heard more clearly in noisy environments. The $179 AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation offer a surprisingly effective noise-canceling mode, a helpful transparency mode, and several other Pro-level features. The latest AirPods Pro do a better job of tuning out noise, but the AirPods 4 with ANC still do a good job of reducing sound. They also feature other perks formerly reserved for Apple’s top-of-the-line earbuds, including wireless charging and a case with a built-in speaker that allows you to easily track it down via Apple’s Find My app. Given they’ve been out for over a year, we consistently see discounts for both iterations of the AirPod...

Frederic Doucet/iStock via Getty Images Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve have definitely turned the corner. Since the beginning of December 2025, the Federal Reserve has moved into a monetary policy of quantitative easing. Look at the chart. Securities Held Outright (Federal Reserve) In the latest banking week, the Federal Reserve added $15.1 billion to its securities portfolio. Since November 26, 2025, the Federal Reserve has added $59.9, almost $60.0 billion, to its securities portfolio. The above chart definitely shows the movement from "quantitative tightening" to "quantitative easing." So, is this the path of the Federal Reserve for the remaining time of the Powell tenure? The Federal Reserve has reduced its policy rate of interest once during this time period. Federal Funds Effective Rate (Federal Reserve) This is the sixth reduction in this last round of reductions, going back to the late summer of 2023. Federal Funds Effective Rate (Federal Reserve) So, the Federal Reserve oversaw a reduction in its policy rate of interest while it was engaged in quantitative tightening. This fact just reflects the earlier situation where the Fed had pumped so many reserves into the banking system that even when the Fed was conducting a policy of quantitative tightening...there was sufficient liquidity in the banking system so that the effective Federal Funds rate could fall. Now, the Fed has moved to quantitative easing...the effective Federal Funds rate should continue to decline. But we will just have to see what follows. What about the growth of the money stock? Here we see what has happened to the M2 money stock over the past year. This chart is from January 6, 2025, to January 5, 2026. M2 Money Stock (Federal Reserve) The rate of growth for the M2 money stock in 2025 was 4.9 percent. This is much lower than the compound rate of growth since January 2020, which is around 6.8 percent. This extra growth is what the Federal Reserve has to worry about taking care of. M...

Big Tech AI spending has reached new heights. During earnings calls this week, tech firms raised their capital expenditure projections. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said on Wednesday it plans to double capex spending in 2026 to nearly $185 billion. Amazon said Thursday it plans to spend a towering $200 billion in capex, well ahead of Wall Street estimates. Last week, Meta said full-year capex will rise to as much as $135 billion. Those firms’ spending, along with Microsoft’s growing projections, totals more than a staggering $630 billion. And Big Tech is putting all of its eggs in one basket: Not only are the dollars dramatically higher, but the spend is more concentrated in a single purpose—scaling AI compute—rather than in a mix of strategic bets. The amount companies are spending on AI infrastructure now rivals that of some of the largest economies in the world and is comparable to the annual GDP of countries like Sweden and Israel. Capital expenditure, or capex, is the funding behind big-ticket infrastructure items like data centers, servers, and power systems that fuel the AI buildout race. Those centers—some expected to be the size of a football field, or even four times the size of Central Park in Manhattan—require massive resources and energy to build, maintain, and operate. “We’ve never invested this much in anything before,” Gil Luria, managing director and head of technology research at financial services firm D.A. Davidson, told Fortune. “But we’ve also never had a technology this promising before.” Data centers in your shopping mall As firms invest in physical data center infrastructure, some experts say the next round of buildouts could reach your town. “I firmly believe that the ‘Stranger Things’ mall where they battle the creature will be converted to a data center,” Brent Thill, an analyst at investment banking firm Jefferies, told Fortune. The magnitude of the current AI buildout is unlike any other investment in history. However, Luria said ...

Waymo using Genie 3 to create hard-to-predict driving scenarios (GOOG:NASDAQ) Seeking Alpha

Michael Vi To make autonomous driving safer and more reliable, Waymo ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) is using DeepMind’s Genie 3 AI model to create realistic digital worlds to help its autonomous vehicles handle hard-to-predict situations and expedite the global rollout of its robotaxis. The Waymo World Model, built on Genie 3, generates photorealistic and interactive 3D environments and “adapts for the rigors of the driving domain.” By using Genie’s “immense” world knowledge, Waymo ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) can be trained to react to situations such as extreme weather conditions and natural disasters. “Genie 3’s strong world knowledge, gained from its pre-training on an extremely large and diverse set to videos, allows us to explore situations that were never directly observed by our fleet,” Waymo said in a blog post . Waymo ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) is then incorporating that data into its 3D lidar outputs that are unique to its hardware suite. This allows for more comprehensive visual details that incorporate depth, the behavior of other uses of the road, as well as custom mutations. “The Waymo World Model can generate virtually any scene – from regular, day-to-day driving to rare, long-tail scenarios—across multiple senor modalities,” the company said. More on Alphabet Why Alphabet Will Likely Leapfrog Nvidia To Become World's Most Valuable Company Alphabet: The Earnings Pullback Isn't A Buy Signal (Rating Downgrade) Alphabet Q4 Results: Shares A Hold As AI Spending Reigns Supreme AMZN’s free cash flow will go negative, GOOGL will not – analyst Türkiye inches closer towards curbing social media access to minors - Reuters

Massive spending commitments by Amazon.com and Alphabet are lifting the AI infrastructure sector today. Due to its pivot toward test solutions for AI processors and the data center semiconductor markets, Aehr Test Systems (AEHR +14.39%) stock has almost become a proxy for how the market is feeling about AI infrastructure spending. Today, the market is feeling good, and that's why the stock rose by more than 13% at 1 p.m. today. Amazon and Alphabet are spending big It makes sense to focus on the larger players in the AI sector, and while OpenAI and Oracle have their issues, Alphabet and Amazon.com are highly cash-generative companies with strong balance sheets. Expand NASDAQ : AEHR Aehr Test Systems Today's Change ( 14.39 %) $ 3.31 Current Price $ 26.31 Key Data Points Market Cap $704M Day's Range $ 23.95 - $ 26.31 52wk Range $ 6.27 - $ 34.35 Volume 30K Avg Vol 888K Gross Margin 33.28 % Their recent spending commitments are nothing short of staggering. After capital spending of $91.5 billion in 2025, Alphabet plans to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026. The guidance from Amazon is no less remarkable. After spending $131 billion in 2025, Amazon plans to spend $200 billion in 2026, "but predominantly in AWS, because we have very high demand. Customers really want AWS for core and AI workloads," according to CEO Andy Jassy on the earnings call. AWS is Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud computing business. What it means to Aehr Systems Aehr Systems is a stock that's been flying recently in anticipation of bumper order growth in the second half of its financial year, driven by AI processor and semiconductor customers needing to ensure the reliability and quality of their chips. It's a key reason I highlighted Aehr as a chip-testing stock to buy for 2026 and beyond. As such, these mammoth spending commitments indicate that Aehr's total addressable market will grow significantly. Throw in a potential recovery, or at least stabilization, in EV spending (Aehr's previ...

Sundry Photography Exact Sciences ( EXAS ) edged higher by 0.5% amid reports the HSR waiting period for its planned sale to Abbott Laboratories ( ABT ) expired. The HSR waiting period for the deal was set to expire on Thursday. There was at least one report circulating that HSR had indeed expired, meaning that the $105 a share deal had cleared antitrust scrutiny, traders told Seeking Alpha on Friday. Exact Sciences ( EXAS ) and Abbott ( ABT ) didn't immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's email request for comment. Abbott ( ABT ) agreed to acquire cancer-screening company Exact Sciences ( EXAS ) in an all-cash deal valued at $21 billion in November. Shares of Abbott ticked higher by 0.5%. More on Exact Sciences, Abbott Laboratories Abbott: Long-Term Investment Opportunity For Dividend Growth Investors Abbott Laboratories: Double-Digit Earnings Growth Makes It A Buy Abbott Laboratories: The Market's Overreaction Is The Long-Term Investor's Opportunity Abbott glucose monitor sensor recall classified as most serious by FDA Insider trades: JNJ, Intel, IBM among notable names

Key Points Aehr Test Systems' pivot toward the AI market appears well timed Investors are expecting a huge jump in orders at Aehr, and in due course, too. 10 stocks we like better than Aehr Test Systems › Due to its pivot toward test solutions for AI processors and the data center semiconductor markets, Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR) stock has almost become a proxy for how the market is feeling about AI infrastructure spending. Today, the market is feeling good, and that's why the stock rose by more than 13% at 1 p.m. today. Amazon and Alphabet are spending big It makes sense to focus on the larger players in the AI sector, and while OpenAI and Oracle have their issues, Alphabet and Amazon.com are highly cash-generative companies with strong balance sheets. 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 » Their recent spending commitments are nothing short of staggering. After capital spending of $91.5 billion in 2025, Alphabet plans to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026. The guidance from Amazon is no less remarkable. After spending $131 billion in 2025, Amazon plans to spend $200 billion in 2026, "but predominantly in AWS, because we have very high demand. Customers really want AWS for core and AI workloads," according to CEO Andy Jassy on the earnings call. AWS is Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud computing business. What it means to Aehr Systems Aehr Systems is a stock that's been flying recently in anticipation of bumper order growth in the second half of its financial year, driven by AI processor and semiconductor customers needing to ensure the reliability and quality of their chips. It's a key reason I highlighted Aehr as a chip-testing stock to buy for 2026 and beyond. As such, these mammoth spending commitments indicate that Aehr's total addressable market will grow significantly. Throw in a potential recovery, or at least st...

Yesterday was not a good day for the markets. The S&P 500 lost 1.23% on Thursday, and the Dow lost 1.20%. Meanwhile, tech and Bitcoin-related stocks also had a bad day, with Qualcomm (QCOM) and Strategy (MSTR) down 8% and 17%, respectively. The good news for investors is that the index is up nearly 0.9% as I write this, an hour into Friday trading. The bad news is that the labor market is looking weaker by the day. The U.S. Labor Department’s latest data showed that the number of people filing for initial jobless claims increased by 22,000 in the past week to 231,000, the highest level in the past eight weeks, and 19,000 higher than expected. I don’t know whether this latest bout of volatility has legs. I guess we’ll see if today turns negative and the losses carry into next week. Among the 2,000 unusually active options that had Vol/OI (volume-to-open-interest) ratios of 2.71 or higher yesterday, volume of 500 contracts or higher, and expiring in seven days or more, 278 had Vol/OI ratios of 15 or higher. In today’s commentary, I’ll look at 3 stocks whose calls or puts were among the 278 and whose strike prices were within $1 of their share price, essentially, ATM (at-the-money), and what options strategies options investors might use for big profits. As for the big game on Sunday, I’m 100% behind the Seahawks and Sam Darnold. Have an excellent weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl! VF Corp (VFC) VF Corp (VFC) had the fifth-highest Vol/OI ratio at 97.08. Its shares are up 13.3% year to date. However, they’re down 75% over the past five years. The apparel and footwear manufacturer, whose three leading brands are The North Face, Vans, and Timberland, is in the midst of a turnaround that’s seen divestitures, job cuts, and other drastic measures to rightsize the business and prepare it for renewed growth. CEO Bracken Darrell was hired away from Logitech (LOGI) in June 2023 to oversee the turnaround. Analysts are on the fence about VFC stock. Of the 22 analysts that cover it,...

Key Points Oil prices rallied last month. Energy Transfer announced a strong outlook for 2026. The company also continues to hike its high-yielding distribution. 10 stocks we like better than Energy Transfer › Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) burst out of the gate in early 2026, with its unit price surging 11.9% in January. That significantly outperformed the S&P 500, which gained 1.4% last month. The master limited partnership (MLP) got a boost from crude prices last month, which lifted the entire oil sector. However, that wasn't the only catalyst fueling the pipeline stock in January. 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 » An oil-fueled boost Oil prices rallied sharply last month. WTI, the main U.S. oil price benchmark, surged 14%. That was its first monthly gain in six months. Oil prices rallied due to potential supply issues in Venezuela and Iran. On the one hand, oil prices have less of an impact on Energy Transfer because fees underpin about 90% of its earnings. However, 5% to 10% of the midstream company's earnings have some commodity price exposure. As a result, higher oil prices will lift those earnings. Additionally, rising crude prices tend to incentivize energy companies to increase production, boosting the MLP's volumes and future growth prospects. Optimism about what's ahead Rising crude oil prices weren't the only factor fueling Energy Transfer's rally last month. The MLP also announced its 2026 outlook in early January. The company expects to generate adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of between $17.3 billion and $17.7 billion this year. That implies growth rates of 7.5% to 10% from last year's level of $16.1 billion, a meaningful acceleration from its less than 4% growth rate in 2025. The MLP expects to benefit from the ramp-up or completion of several expansion projects, includi...

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Reddit is gearing up for more M&A, the company told analysts on its fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Reddit CFO Andrew Vollero said the online forum site is looking for businesses that can either leverage Reddit’s scale — meaning their products become more impactful when deployed across Reddit’s massive user base — or help grow the company’s user base. “[We’re] looking to buy capabilities, technologies, and companies,” he said during the introductory remarks. Investors, obviously, wanted to know more — particularly about what the company had in mind when it came to scaled opportunities. In the Q&A portion of the call, Vollero clarified, “I probably wouldn’t overthink the scaled opportunities. I would just look at it as sort of a spectrum of opportunities.” He reiterated that the company was looking for capabilities and technologies that could add to its business, noting that it’s been successful doing this in the past. “It’s really been one of the secrets of our success,” he pointed out. Vollero explained that Reddit’s adtech team in particular had been adept at “tucking in” acquired technologies rather than building these things themselves. “Saves us six months to market, saves us twelve months to market, and you have a proven product,” the CFO remarked, crediting these deals with helping Reddit improve its monetization capabilities as an ad-supported business. Techcrunch event TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately Save up to $300 on your pass or save up to 30% with group tickets for teams of four or more. TechCrunch Founder Summit: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founde...

Renny Harlin’s thankless trio of movies, taking a simple story and extending it for no creative reason, is at least finally over If you’re wondering how this shrug-along horror series has got this far, Renny Harlin shot all three back-to-back in Bratislava in late 2022; reshoots followed the indifferent response to the first chapter in 2024, which didn’t much alleviate the even more indifferent response to last year’s second . We’re getting them whether we wanted them or not: the modest resources had been spent, and so we now arrive at the last knockings which comprise this year’s most dutiful carnage. The mistake is to expand a morally gloomy universe that was better off self-contained; the more light Harlin and collaborators let in, the more their set-up presents as generic runaround, hopelessly out of place amid the recent horror renaissance. We’re deep into Strangers lore now, but last girl standing Maya (Riverdale graduate Madelaine Petsch, who surely hoped this was her Neve Campbell moment) continues to scurry about a devout woodland community like a bloodied fieldmouse with resting iPhone face; the masked thrill-killers – previously three, now two – have now gained ulterior motives for pursuing her. Also present: tatted survivor Gregory (Gabriel Basso, who must have been hoping for more to do) and ever-shifty Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake), whose link to the killers is finally made explicit. New blood arrives in the form of Maya’s sister Debbie (Hollyoaks alumna and recent short-film Oscar-winner Rachel Shenton) who comes to town seeking answers, only to be drawn into another round of humdrum stalk-and-slash. Continue reading...