This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the ups and downs of AI, follow Stevie Bonifield . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Most people probably know Grammarly for its browser extension that suggests how to spruce up your emails, but over the past few years...
This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the ups and downs of AI, follow Stevie Bonifield . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Most people probably know Grammarly for its browser extension that suggests how to spruce up your emails, but over the past few years, it's been eyeing bigger ambitions. In October, the company formerly known as Grammarly made a public pivot to rebrand as an AI company called Superhuman . The new name was adopted from Superhuman Mail, an AI email platform that Grammarly acquired i … Read the full story at The Verge.
Chinese bonds may be reaching a historical turning point, with yields set to climb from record low levels as deflationary pressures ease and expectations for monetary loosening recede. The benchmark 10-year yield has the potential to finally break out of its recent narrow trading range and rise toward 2% or even higher this year from around 1.8% now, some analysts say. Meanwhile, the yield spread ...
Chinese bonds may be reaching a historical turning point, with yields set to climb from record low levels as deflationary pressures ease and expectations for monetary loosening recede. The benchmark 10-year yield has the potential to finally break out of its recent narrow trading range and rise toward 2% or even higher this year from around 1.8% now, some analysts say. Meanwhile, the yield spread between five-year and 30-year notes, a measure of inflation expectations and supply pressure, has reached its widest in about four years and the gap may increase. Sentiment in the largest emerging debt market has shifted after a slew of upbeat data, from a surprise growth rebound to slower factory-gate price declines, cast fresh doubts on a deflation-driven narrative that has dominated trading in recent years. As nations around the world adjust to the new reality of elevated oil prices caused by the war in Iran, some analysts even suggest the rise in Chinese yields may have repercussions across emerging bond markets. “The deflation trade has reached an inflection point,” said Lynn Song , chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank. “It is not a normal situation for an economy expected to grow around 4% for the next decade to have 10-year yields under 2%.” Some local brokerages are even more aggressive in calling for sharper gains in yields. Kaiyuan Securities Co., for one, sees the benchmark yield returning to a range of 2%-3% later this year as inflation gains momentum. Signs of repricing intensified last month, when the inflation-sensitive 30-year yield briefly hit the highest since September 2024, after data showed a consumer price uptick and moderating factory deflation, as well as an expanding export boom and stronger retail sales. China’s interest-rate swap market is also flashing signals of reduced expectations for further policy easing by the People’s Bank of China. The brighter outlook for the world’s No. 2 economy has prompted global banks including Goldman Sach...
jiefeng jiang/iStock via Getty Images By far, the most convincing argument in favor of a bullish outlook toward Intel Corporation ( INTC ) is that management has finally regained its execution discipline amid increasing structural demand for Intel chips amid the rise of AI applications and the opportunity of foundry optionality. Provided that 18A is successfully scaled up and external customers st...
jiefeng jiang/iStock via Getty Images By far, the most convincing argument in favor of a bullish outlook toward Intel Corporation ( INTC ) is that management has finally regained its execution discipline amid increasing structural demand for Intel chips amid the rise of AI applications and the opportunity of foundry optionality. Provided that 18A is successfully scaled up and external customers start converting orders, Intel will become not just a recovering semiconductor vendor but a strategic Western manufacturing platform with superior operating leverage and a profitability growth profile relative to the current consensus estimate. Intel’s Problem Was Chaos; Now It’s Discipline, Not Hype There will always be the risk of overcompensation with Intel. Thus, every new step taken by the company and every news item announced made it clear that the company had lost control over itself. With milestones finally being hit, the market is quick to claim that Intel is on the verge of a turnaround. While I do not subscribe to the former view, nor do I share the latter opinion. The changes that have occurred in operations within the company are very real and, in some ways, unexpected. To my mind, the best evidence of the transformation process is that management is operating with an iron fist. In other words, Lip-Bu Tan is bringing Intel back to its financial essence after years of expansion in all directions. From reducing the workforce to slashing costs, from restraining the creation of more fab capacity to linking the 14A investments to client demands, Intel is doing what needs to be done. Yes, it may appear to be mundane, but Intel desperately required such a shift in focus. On a separate note, the x86 business looks far healthier than the market believes. The client segment is not very exciting these days. However, it is still very monetizable. The Data Center segment is more interesting. According to management, demand for CPUs in terms of conventional server computing ou...
jiefeng jiang/iStock via Getty Images By far, the most convincing argument in favor of a bullish outlook toward Intel Corporation ( INTC ) is that management has finally regained its execution discipline amid increasing structural demand for Intel chips amid the rise of AI applications and the opportunity of foundry optionality. Provided that 18A is successfully scaled up and external customers st...
jiefeng jiang/iStock via Getty Images By far, the most convincing argument in favor of a bullish outlook toward Intel Corporation ( INTC ) is that management has finally regained its execution discipline amid increasing structural demand for Intel chips amid the rise of AI applications and the opportunity of foundry optionality. Provided that 18A is successfully scaled up and external customers start converting orders, Intel will become not just a recovering semiconductor vendor but a strategic Western manufacturing platform with superior operating leverage and a profitability growth profile relative to the current consensus estimate. Intel’s Problem Was Chaos; Now It’s Discipline, Not Hype There will always be the risk of overcompensation with Intel. Thus, every new step taken by the company and every news item announced made it clear that the company had lost control over itself. With milestones finally being hit, the market is quick to claim that Intel is on the verge of a turnaround. While I do not subscribe to the former view, nor do I share the latter opinion. The changes that have occurred in operations within the company are very real and, in some ways, unexpected. To my mind, the best evidence of the transformation process is that management is operating with an iron fist. In other words, Lip-Bu Tan is bringing Intel back to its financial essence after years of expansion in all directions. From reducing the workforce to slashing costs, from restraining the creation of more fab capacity to linking the 14A investments to client demands, Intel is doing what needs to be done. Yes, it may appear to be mundane, but Intel desperately required such a shift in focus. On a separate note, the x86 business looks far healthier than the market believes. The client segment is not very exciting these days. However, it is still very monetizable. The Data Center segment is more interesting. According to management, demand for CPUs in terms of conventional server computing ou...
Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd from the main balcony of St. Peter's basilica for the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at St Peter's square in the Vatican on April 5, 2025. Alberto Pizzoli | Afp | Getty Images Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace in global conflicts thr...
Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd from the main balcony of St. Peter's basilica for the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at St Peter's square in the Vatican on April 5, 2025. Alberto Pizzoli | Afp | Getty Images Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace in global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world's woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter's message of hope as a celebration of Jesus' resurrection after being crucified, in both the blessing and his homily. "Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!" the pope implored. With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia's ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo acknowledged a sense of indifference "to the deaths of thousands of people ... to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow … to the economic and social consequences they produce.'' Without mentioning the wars by name, Leo quoted his predecessor, Pope Francis, who during his last public appearance from the same loggia last Easter reminded the faithful of the "great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day.'' Francis, weakened by a long illness, died the next day on Easter Monday. The Urbi et Orbi blessing, Latin for "to the city and the world,'' has traditionally included a litany of the world's woes. Leo followed that formula during his Christmas blessing. There was no immediate explanation for the shift. Earlier, Leo addressed some 50,000 faithful from an open-air altar in St. Peter's Square flanked with white roses, while the ste...
Letters to US agency raise concerns over tech firms’ plans to use reflective satellites and expand numbers in low Earth orbit Proposals to deploy reflective mirrors and up to 1m more satellites in low Earth orbit could have far-reaching consequences for human health and ecosystems, leading sleep and circadian rhythm researchers have said. Presidents of four international scientific societies repre...
Letters to US agency raise concerns over tech firms’ plans to use reflective satellites and expand numbers in low Earth orbit Proposals to deploy reflective mirrors and up to 1m more satellites in low Earth orbit could have far-reaching consequences for human health and ecosystems, leading sleep and circadian rhythm researchers have said. Presidents of four international scientific societies representing about 2,500 researchers from more than 30 countries are among those who have raised concerns in letters to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Continue reading...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The Invesco S&P 500 Value with Momentum ETF ( SPVM ), launched on 06/16/2011 and managed by Invesco Management LLC, provides exposure to S&P 500 stocks with value and momentum characteristics. It charges an expense ratio of 0.39% and manages ~$100 million. SPVM's value/momentum exposure has underperformed the market in the long term, marked by an endurin...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The Invesco S&P 500 Value with Momentum ETF ( SPVM ), launched on 06/16/2011 and managed by Invesco Management LLC, provides exposure to S&P 500 stocks with value and momentum characteristics. It charges an expense ratio of 0.39% and manages ~$100 million. SPVM's value/momentum exposure has underperformed the market in the long term, marked by an enduring bull run. However, the conditions in the last few months helped the fund start outperforming, and their likely persistence in the near term warrants a bias towards this ETF. Methodology SPVM tracks the S&P 500 High Momentum Value Index, which starts with the S&P 500 and ranks its constituents based on a value and momentum factor. Value is measured based on the book/price ratio, earnings/price ratio, and sales/price ratio. After the top 200 stocks by value are selected, they are ranked based on their momentum, defined by the TTM price performance, excluding the most recent month; the top 100 out of those based on momentum are selected. Weighting is based on the value score, rather than the market capitalization of each constituent, making SPVM's approach more pure-value than those of many prominent large-cap value ETFs. The index is rebalanced semiannually, after the close on the third Friday of June and December. Portfolio The first thing that stands out below is the low idiosyncratic risk represented by the 17.4% exposure to the top 10 holdings. The top weight is also 2.6%, which shouldn't influence the overall performance to a meaningful degree in the short and long term. Another thing to keep in mind is that the top names reflect a tilt towards cyclical industries (Bunge, Ford, ADM, GM, Allstate, United Airlines; 11.42% of the portfolio). Seeking Alpha This is also observed in the sector composition, as Financials, Consumer Cyclical, Energy, Industrials, and Basic Materials account for ~60% of the portfolio. However, I need to note that the fund has about 28% allocated...
Clause says those aged up to 45 may need permission from armed forces to leave country for more than three months A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into ef...
Clause says those aged up to 45 may need permission from armed forces to leave country for more than three months A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on 1 January, aims to bolster the the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription . Continue reading...
Pope Leo celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call on Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. Leo, the first US-born pope, emphasised Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being...
Pope Leo celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call on Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. Leo, the first US-born pope, emphasised Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being crucified, in both the blessing and his homily. “Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his...
Warren Buffett, the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway , is known as one of the greatest value investors of all time. The portfolio he built at Berkshire Hathaway has changed over the past several decades, but it has always included stocks that Buffett targeted as great values. Buffett is no longer running Berkshire, but the portfolio is filled with the stocks that were picked during his tenure as C...
Warren Buffett, the former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway , is known as one of the greatest value investors of all time. The portfolio he built at Berkshire Hathaway has changed over the past several decades, but it has always included stocks that Buffett targeted as great values. Buffett is no longer running Berkshire, but the portfolio is filled with the stocks that were picked during his tenure as CEO -- and many of them are great values, especially now with the recent market pullback. The absolute cheapest stock in the Buffett portfolio right now is Charter Communications. The cable TV and internet provider is trading at just 6x earnings and 5x forward earnings. But the best value stock in the Buffett portfolio right now is Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) . Continue reading