China’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan ahead of Lunar New Year as the ongoing row over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan rumbles on. A statement issued on Monday said: “With the Lunar New Year approaching, the foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urge citizens to avoid travelling to Japan and advise those already there to stay ...
China’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan ahead of Lunar New Year as the ongoing row over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan rumbles on. A statement issued on Monday said: “With the Lunar New Year approaching, the foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urge citizens to avoid travelling to Japan and advise those already there to stay alert to crime and disaster warnings. “In recent weeks, public security in Japan has deteriorated, with crimes targeting Chinese nationals on the rise and a series of earthquakes causing injuries.” Advertisement This year’s Lunar New Year holiday in mainland China will run for nine days, starting on February 15. The warning marks a continuation of the diplomatic stalemate since Takaichi said in November that an attack on Taiwan would be a security threat that might prompt Japanese military intervention. Advertisement Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.
AMD introduced the RDNA 3.5 architecture with its Strix Point and Strix Halo lineup. The same iGPU architecture is powering the recently unveiled Gorgon Point series, and it will reportedly stay for a good while, existing alongside RDNA 5 until 2029. 4 Reviews ← exclude selected types The AMD RDNA 3.5 iGPUs made their debut with the Strix Point and Strix Halo lineups, and they power many capable d...
AMD introduced the RDNA 3.5 architecture with its Strix Point and Strix Halo lineup. The same iGPU architecture is powering the recently unveiled Gorgon Point series, and it will reportedly stay for a good while, existing alongside RDNA 5 until 2029. 4 Reviews ← exclude selected types The AMD RDNA 3.5 iGPUs made their debut with the Strix Point and Strix Halo lineups, and they power many capable dGPU-less systems, including gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and GPD Win 5. AMD's newly introduced Gorgon Point uses the same iGPU architecture, and it seems the company will continue to use it until 2029. A report from @Kepler_L2 on X, a notable tipster, suggests that AMD plans to continue using the RDNA 3.5 iGPU architecture for products that don't require high integrated GPU performance. That includes office laptops and systems that are already equipped with high-end dGPUs (RTX 5070 Ti-equipped Legion 7 Pro curr. $1,649 on Leneovo). Per the report, AMD has divided the iGPU roadmap into two, and @Kepler_L2 notes that the RDNA 3.5 iGPU will be available alongside the "premium" iGPU devices with the RDNA 5 architecture. It's worth noting that this whole debate started from a post shared by a known Weibo leaker, Golden Pig Upgrade. The Weibo tipster randomly shared an AI-generated roadmap, and some known tipsters, including HXL, began adding context. Kepler_L2, however, is known for sharing relatively accurate AMD leaks, and the somewhat detailed context from this tipster suggests that the roadmap wasn't fully random. Of course, Kepler_L2 didn't add anything to the "premium" RDNA 5 iGPU products being referred to, but these are likely the rumored Medusa "Halo/Premium" systems. For reference, Medusa lineups aren't expected to arrive until 2027, and this means that up until then, AMD will not offer proper updates to the RDNA 3.5 iGPUs.
Global energy demand is growing, and this GE spinoff is built to win. In this video, Motley Fool contributors Jason Hall and Tyler Crowe break down the investing case for GE Vernova (GEV 0.59%). *Stock prices used were from the afternoon of Jan. 22, 2026. The video was published on Jan 25, 2026.
Global energy demand is growing, and this GE spinoff is built to win. In this video, Motley Fool contributors Jason Hall and Tyler Crowe break down the investing case for GE Vernova (GEV 0.59%). *Stock prices used were from the afternoon of Jan. 22, 2026. The video was published on Jan 25, 2026.
Key Points ServiceTitan and BigBear.ai have both lost ground in recent months, even as the broader market has risen. While BigBear.ai's top line is falling, ServiceTitan's annual revenue run rate has climbed to about $1 billion. It appears unlikely that artificial intelligence will disrupt ServiceTitan's business model. 10 stocks we like better than ServiceTitan › Shares of BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI)...
Key Points ServiceTitan and BigBear.ai have both lost ground in recent months, even as the broader market has risen. While BigBear.ai's top line is falling, ServiceTitan's annual revenue run rate has climbed to about $1 billion. It appears unlikely that artificial intelligence will disrupt ServiceTitan's business model. 10 stocks we like better than ServiceTitan › Shares of BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI) and ServiceTitan (NASDAQ: TTAN) have both been hit hard recently by shifting investor sentiment around artificial intelligence (AI), but for different reasons. In the past six months, while the broad-market S&P 500 index has gained 9.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 has risen by 10.6%, ServiceTitan has slumped by 23.6% and BigBear.ai is down 21.4%. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » BigBear.ai's software provides AI decision-intelligence tools, so under other circumstances, it could have been riding the AI wave upward. However, it's facing stiff competition in its narrow niche, and its revenues are sliding. ServiceTitan offers a business management platform for companies in the skilled trades, and its sales are growing, but it appears that investors are pessimistic about its outlook due to the expected impact of AI on software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies as a group. All that said, I think ServiceTitan could be a promising stock to buy now, and a much better investment than BigBear.ai for patient tech stock investors. ServiceTitan is growing -- BigBear.ai is not BigBear.ai's revenue slumped by 20% year over year in the third quarter, and its gross margin contracted by 3.5 percentage points to 22.4%. It has lost money for the past four years and has missed analysts' estimates for earnings per share in three out of its past four reported quarters. The stock's down by about 40% from where it traded when the company went public in December 2021. Meanwhile, ServiceTitan is growi...
uskarp The largest restaurant chain in the world in terms of number of locations is China-based Mixue Ice Cream & Tea ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ). The beverage and dessert chain was founded in 1997 by Zhang Hongchao in Zhengzhou as a small ice cream stall near a university campus that targeted students and budget‑conscious consumers with ultra‑low‑priced treats. Over time, Mixue ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) expand...
uskarp The largest restaurant chain in the world in terms of number of locations is China-based Mixue Ice Cream & Tea ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ). The beverage and dessert chain was founded in 1997 by Zhang Hongchao in Zhengzhou as a small ice cream stall near a university campus that targeted students and budget‑conscious consumers with ultra‑low‑priced treats. Over time, Mixue ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) expanded its menu to include bubble tea, fruit tea, milk tea, coffee, and other value‑oriented drinks. The chain rapidly expanded as it leaned on a franchise model that enabled rapid store proliferation. Recently, Mixue ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) has pursued aggressive overseas expansion, particularly across Southeast Asia, where it operates thousands of locations in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Growth plans now emphasize not just opening more stores but also strengthening its supply chain backbone, including new production facilities in Hainan and Henan and an international supply chain platform in Southeast Asia to support franchisees. In the U.S., Mixue ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) entered the market with its first store opening in Los Angeles in December, marking the brand’s formal debut in North America. The company followed up with two locations in New York. Mixue ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) went public in 2025 with an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that raised roughly HK$3.29 billion. The IPO funds could add to Mixue's ( MXUBY ) ( MXUGF ) expansion plans and cement its place as the chain with the most global locations, ahead of other large chains such as McDonald's ( MCD ), Starbucks ( SBUX ), Subway, KFC ( YUM ), Luckin Coffee ( LKNCY ), Domino's Pizza ( DPZ ), Burger King ( QSR ), Taco Bell ( YUM ), and Hunt Brothers Pizza. More on the restaurant sector McDonald's: The Risk Of A Fast-Food Pricing War Is Increasing Significantly McDonald's: A Sleeping Giant That Isn't Waking Up Yet The Ultimate Guide To The Restaurant Industry In 2026 Gen-AI...
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot feature, Grok. The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content. Grok has sparked internation...
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot feature, Grok. The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content. Grok has sparked international outrage by allowing users to digitally strip women and children and put them into provocative poses. Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appeared to depict children, according to researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The commission said its new investigation would “assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks” stemming from Grok’s functionalities in the EU, including risks on the sharing of illegal content such as manipulated sexually explicit images and “content that may amount to” child sexual abuse material. The investigation is launched under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a relatively new piece of legislation that is intended to protect internet users from a wide range of harms. Speaking to reporters, an official said the commission had not been convinced by mitigating measures put in place by X to remedy the issue. EU officials are investigating whether X has systems to mitigate risks properly. Announcing the investigation, Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s top official for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: “Non-consensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation. With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens – including those of women and children – as collateral damage of its service.” Regina Doherty, an Irish MEP, said she welcomed the formal investigation. “When credible reports emerge of AI systems being ...
Life with and without water: from riding waves to disappearing lakes – in pictures The variety and scope of entries to the global Walk of Water photography contest reflect the intimate connection between water and humanity Florencio, Pablo, Cipriana and Félix Mauricio sit in a boat where Lake Poopó used to be – what was once Bolivia’s second largest lake is now a salt flat. Photograph: Gaston Zilb...
Life with and without water: from riding waves to disappearing lakes – in pictures The variety and scope of entries to the global Walk of Water photography contest reflect the intimate connection between water and humanity Florencio, Pablo, Cipriana and Félix Mauricio sit in a boat where Lake Poopó used to be – what was once Bolivia’s second largest lake is now a salt flat. Photograph: Gaston Zilberman
Northrim BanCorp ( NRIM ) declares $0.16/share quarterly dividend , in line with previous. Forward yield 2.53% Payable March 13; for shareholders of record March 5; ex-div March 5. See NRIM Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on Northrim BanCorp Northrim BanCorp Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving Northrim BanCorp Non-GAAP EPS of $0.54 Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Northrim Ban...
Northrim BanCorp ( NRIM ) declares $0.16/share quarterly dividend , in line with previous. Forward yield 2.53% Payable March 13; for shareholders of record March 5; ex-div March 5. See NRIM Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on Northrim BanCorp Northrim BanCorp Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving Northrim BanCorp Non-GAAP EPS of $0.54 Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Northrim BanCorp Historical earnings data for Northrim BanCorp Dividend scorecard for Northrim BanCorp
Oak Valley Bancorp ( OVLY ) declares $0.375/share semi-annual dividend , 25% increase from prior dividend of $0.300. Forward yield 2.33% Payable Feb. 13; for shareholders of record Feb. 2; ex-div Feb. 2. See OVLY Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on Oak Valley Bancorp Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Oak Valley Bancorp Dividend scorecard for Oak Valley Bancorp Financial infor...
Oak Valley Bancorp ( OVLY ) declares $0.375/share semi-annual dividend , 25% increase from prior dividend of $0.300. Forward yield 2.33% Payable Feb. 13; for shareholders of record Feb. 2; ex-div Feb. 2. See OVLY Dividend Scorecard, Yield Chart, & Dividend Growth. More on Oak Valley Bancorp Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Oak Valley Bancorp Dividend scorecard for Oak Valley Bancorp Financial information for Oak Valley Bancorp
Oselote/iStock via Getty Images By Mike Larson It happened, folks. Silver prices blew through $100 an ounce for the first time ever in Friday’s session. Meanwhile, gold got within twenty bucks of another big, round number - $5,000. So... what’s next? I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, check out the MoneyShow Chart of the Day - or technically, the table of the day. It shows spot prices for bo...
Oselote/iStock via Getty Images By Mike Larson It happened, folks. Silver prices blew through $100 an ounce for the first time ever in Friday’s session. Meanwhile, gold got within twenty bucks of another big, round number - $5,000. So... what’s next? I’ll get to that in a minute. But first, check out the MoneyShow Chart of the Day - or technically, the table of the day. It shows spot prices for both of those metals, plus platinum, palladium, and rhodium, as of Friday afternoon. You can see the rally wasn’t just in silver and gold. Everything was moving! Spot Precious Metals Prices (Source: Kitco.com) What’s driving the action? Well, I’ve shared my reasons for being bullish many times since I first got on board the precious metals train in H2 2018. Several of our expert contributors have done so, too - including Brien Lundin of Gold Newsletter , Omar Ayales of Gold Charts R Us , and Albert Lu of Luma Financial. It boils down to the fact investors want protection from currency debasement, rising government debt loads resulting from aggressive borrow-and-spend policies, increasing geopolitical uncertainty in multiple corners of the globe, and elevated equity market volatility. Meanwhile, central banks continue to buy gold as a reserve asset - after previously selling it for years. We’re going almost parabolic in the short term, which increases the risk of a painful correction out of the blue. Traders should keep that in mind. But for long-term investors , the forces driving the move look durable to me. If you’re looking for ways to play it, consider the mining stocks you’ll find in our MoneyShow 2026 Top Picks Report here . Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
Three Lessons From Venezuela's Economic Collapse Authored by Matthew Mitchell via TheDailyEconomy.org, President Trump has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado. Unlike Machado, however, he does not accept the central lessons that can be gleaned from five decades of Venezuelan misrule. There are three. Lesson 1: Past prosperity is no...
Three Lessons From Venezuela's Economic Collapse Authored by Matthew Mitchell via TheDailyEconomy.org, President Trump has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado. Unlike Machado, however, he does not accept the central lessons that can be gleaned from five decades of Venezuelan misrule. There are three. Lesson 1: Past prosperity is no guarantee of future prosperity. In 1970, Venezuela was the wealthiest country in Latin America. Sitting atop the world’s largest proven oil reserve, it churned out more than 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. Using GDP per person as a metric, its citizens earned 2.7 times as much as the rest of Latin America — about the same as the average Finnish, Japanese, and Italian citizen. This prosperity bought Venezuelans better health, longer life, and more creature comforts — especially fancy foreign cars that poured into the country as oil poured out. And it wasn’t just the wealthy that benefited. Venezuela’s poverty rate was about a third of what it was in the rest of Latin America. The zenith was around 1977. Thanks to the global oil crisis of a few years earlier, crude prices had quadrupled. Amidst the boom, President Carlos Andrés Pérez made the fateful decision to nationalize the country’s oil industry, hoping to use its wealth to fund economic development and poverty relief. Instead, by combining public and private interests, the decision proved a boon for corruption, eventually turning the country into a petrostate. Almost immediately, incomes began to fall. By 1999, average Venezuelans were earning less than 90 percent of what they had three decades earlier. But the worst was yet to come. Which brings us to the second lesson. Lesson 2: Policy matters. Oil was not the only explanation for Venezuela’s 1970s prosperity. The government spent and taxed modestly. It left most industry in private hands. Inflation was low. And international trade was almost entirely free of tarif...
Global Energy Transition Threatened By Critical Transformer Shortages By Haley Zaremba of Oilprice.com The global clean energy transition has passed a tipping point as renewable energies have simply become too cheap to fail . Worldwide, nations both rich and poor are rushing to install more and more wind and solar capacity to keep up with rising energy demand rates driven by global economic develo...
Global Energy Transition Threatened By Critical Transformer Shortages By Haley Zaremba of Oilprice.com The global clean energy transition has passed a tipping point as renewable energies have simply become too cheap to fail . Worldwide, nations both rich and poor are rushing to install more and more wind and solar capacity to keep up with rising energy demand rates driven by global economic development and the age of AI. But while countries have been investing heavily into increased production capacity, investments in critical grid infrastructure have not kept pace, leading to a major energy transition bottleneck and a potential threat to energy security for an increasing number of countries. The United States and Europe are both facing critical transformer shortages and aging and inadequate grid infrastructure, and the threat that this shortage poses to energy security is already being felt through historic blackouts such as last year’s cascading grid failure in Spain and Portugal. While these setbacks have raised the profile of infrastructure investing in European policy spheres, “ambition is not yet being matched by action from governments, policy-makers, investors and businesses,” according to a recent report from the World Economic Forum. In the United States, specialists foresee a yearslong transformer crunch, with little to no relief forthcoming. While companies have rushed to ramp up production of power transformers and distribution transformers, keeping up with skyrocketing demand is an impossibly tall order. Wood Mackenzie estimates that, since 2019, U.S. demand for power transformers has jumped by 116 percent , while demand for distribution transformers has shot up 41 percent. "This surging transformer demand has created a significant supply deficit, with domestic manufacturing capacity unable to keep pace," Wood Mackenzie Senior Analyst Ben Boucher. "Utilities are routinely turning to the import market to meet project timelines. In 2025, imports will acc...
RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images One company that I have been bullish about for a while now is Verizon Communications ( VZ ). The telecommunications giant is, in my opinion, one of the most attractive prospects on the market right now. I know this may seem odd considering it's not exactly a high-growth name. In fact, the growth the company is experiencing could only be desc...
RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images One company that I have been bullish about for a while now is Verizon Communications ( VZ ). The telecommunications giant is, in my opinion, one of the most attractive prospects on the market right now. I know this may seem odd considering it's not exactly a high-growth name. In fact, the growth the company is experiencing could only be described as sluggish. After all, it is a large player in a very mature industry. Having said that, financial performance on the bottom line has been impressive, and shares are trading at incredibly low levels. Relative to other comparable companies, the stock is trading on the cheap, and the overall debt picture of the business remains top tier. When you add all of this together, it's difficult to view this as anything other than a 'strong buy'. That is what I have had the company rated at for quite some time now. I reaffirmed that in my last article about it, published in October of last year when news broke that it was collaborating with AST SpaceMobile ( ASTS ) in order to provide space-based cellular broadband across the continental US. Fast forward to today, and the company is underperforming the market. However, it remains a compelling opportunity from a valuation standpoint and based solely on fundamentals. So even though the market is currently disagreeing with me, I feel confident in my 'strong buy' rating of the business. As a value investor, I am committed to adjusting my opinion as the data sees fit. It just so happens that new data will soon be released. Before the market opens on January 30th, the management team at Verizon Communications will be reporting financial results covering the final quarter of the company's 2025 fiscal year. Leading up to that point, analysts actually seem a bit mixed in their expectations , with revenue forecasted to rise while profitability takes a hit. But absent something big and unexpected occurring, that's not enough for me to cha...
In recent weeks, Amazon has moved ahead with what could become its largest corporate workforce reduction, aiming to cut around 30,000 white-collar roles across AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources while emphasizing greater use of AI and automation. Management is presenting these layoffs as part of a broader effort to strip out management layers and concentrate investment on artificial int...
In recent weeks, Amazon has moved ahead with what could become its largest corporate workforce reduction, aiming to cut around 30,000 white-collar roles across AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources while emphasizing greater use of AI and automation. Management is presenting these layoffs as part of a broader effort to strip out management layers and concentrate investment on artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and other high-priority initiatives rather than as a response to acute financial stress. We’ll explore how this large-scale workforce reduction and pivot toward AI and automation could reshape Amazon’s long-term investment narrative. We've found . See the full list for free. Advertisement What Is Amazon.com's Investment Narrative? To own Amazon today, you really have to believe that its mix of retail, cloud, AI and advertising can keep compounding from a much leaner base. The planned 30,000-role corporate reduction sits alongside heavy AI and data center spending, and the new AWS European Sovereign Cloud underlines that this is not just cost cutting but a refocusing on high‑priority infrastructure where regulation and data residency matter. Short term, the key catalyst still looks like AWS performance and proof that AI investment is translating into customer demand, not just higher capital expenditure. The sovereign cloud launch could support that narrative in Europe, but it is unlikely by itself to move the needle near term compared with upcoming earnings and commentary around AI-driven capex, retail margins under tariff pressure, and the looming FTC antitrust trial. Exploring Other Perspectives AMZN 1-Year Stock Price Chart However, one emerging concern is how far rising AI infrastructure spending could squeeze Amazon’s free cash flow. Amazon.com's shares have been on the rise but are still potentially undervalued by 42%. .The Simply Wall St Community’s 120 fair value estimates for Amazon span roughly US$208 to US$450 per share, with many ...