Good morning . The Trump administration prepares to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair. The US president warns the UK and Canada against deepening business ties with China. And London’s luxury housing market downturn deepens. Listen to the day’s top stories . The Trump administration is preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, people familiar said. T...
Good morning . The Trump administration prepares to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair. The US president warns the UK and Canada against deepening business ties with China. And London’s luxury housing market downturn deepens. Listen to the day’s top stories . The Trump administration is preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, people familiar said. The president plans to announce his pick this morning , with other contenders including Kevin Hassett, Christopher Waller and Rick Rieder. Senator Thom Tillis has warned he will block any Fed nominee until a Justice Department probe is resolved. The dollar and Treasury yields climbed, with investors viewing the former Fed governor as a relatively hawkish choice likely to deliver fewer rate cuts. Donald Trump warned the UK and Canada against deepening business ties with China after recent Beijing visits, as allies weigh engagement with China against risks of angering Washington. Separately, the US president threatened a 50% tariff on Canadian aircraft and to decertify new planes unless Ottawa approves Gulfstream jets, a move analysts questioned as unprecedented and potentially unsafe. London’s luxury housing market is sinking deeper into downturn. A slump has forced brokers to turn bearish , with Savills now predicting consecutive price declines for prime neighborhoods. Global wealth remains reluctant to find a home in the city, the firm said, citing tax changes, weaker demand and a shrinking pool of buyers. Prices in luxury postcodes declined 4.8% last year, leaving values 25% below their 2014 peak at the end of December. Adding to the pressure, rents in the capital’s most prestigious areas have fallen for the first time in more than four years. The London Metal Exchange delayed trading by an hour after a technical issue, adding to market unease after extreme price swings . The disruption came amid record copper volatility, with frenzied activity on the Shanghai Futures Exch...
Trump sues IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over leaked tax information toggle caption Patrick Semansky/AP WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion, as he accuses the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president's tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020. The suit, filed in a Florida federal court Thursday, includ...
Trump sues IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over leaked tax information toggle caption Patrick Semansky/AP WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion, as he accuses the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president's tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020. The suit, filed in a Florida federal court Thursday, includes the president's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump organization as plaintiffs. The filing alleges that the leak of Trump and the Trump Organization's confidential tax records caused "reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs' public standing." Sponsor Message In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech firm — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about Trump and others to news outlets. Littlejohn, known as Chaz, gave data to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be "unparalleled in the IRS's history," prosecutors said. The disclosure violated IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in federal statute. The Times reported in 2020 that Trump did not pay federal income tax for many years prior to 2020, and ProPublica in 2021 published a series about discrepancies in Trump's records. Six years of Trump's returns were later released by the then-Democratically controlled House Ways and Means Committee. Trump's suit states that Littlejohn's disclosures to the news organizations "caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump's support among voters in the 2020 presidential election." Littlejohn stole tax records of other mega-billionaires, including ...
Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images Thesis Protagonist Therapeutics ( PTGX ) stock had been on an upward trend for most of 2025. We've seen the stock up about 115% on the 1-year chart as momentum for their two late-stage assets in icotrokinra and rusfertide has continued to grow. However, the stock peaked in October last year as there were reports that Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) was in ...
Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images Thesis Protagonist Therapeutics ( PTGX ) stock had been on an upward trend for most of 2025. We've seen the stock up about 115% on the 1-year chart as momentum for their two late-stage assets in icotrokinra and rusfertide has continued to grow. However, the stock peaked in October last year as there were reports that Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) was in talks to buy the company. I initiated my buy call back in my previous coverage and highlighted the attractiveness of the company. Since then, takeover speculation has remained quite flat, and the stock price has come down from the $95 high it hit back in mid-December. I think a lot of that stock momentum was due to the JNJ takeover speculation, and with current shares now trading in the $81 range, we should keep in mind the potential and upcoming catalysts Protagonist has in 2026. 3Q25 Back in early November, Protagonist reported some pretty solid, albeit investment-heavy 3Q25 results . We're clearly seeing the company transition from late-stage development toward potential commercialisation, as investors would hope. For the quarter, Protagonist reported license and collaboration revenue of about $4.7 million, a figure which was essentially flat year-over-year and driven mainly by their development services under the Takeda partnership. Operating expenses increased quite a bit with R&D rising to $40.0 million, up slightly from the $36.0 million we saw in 3Q24. It's a reflection of the expanded discovery and preclinical activity with the overall advancement of its pipeline. Elsewhere, G&A expenses climbed to $11.1 million as a result of higher professional services costs. Protagonist for the quarter reported a much wider net loss of $39.3 million, or about -$0.62 per share, compared to a net loss of $33.2 million, or -$0.54 per share, in the prior-year quarter. Importantly, however, their cash position is still pretty strong, and it needs to be with the upcoming developments...
Microsoft (MSFT) shares fell sharply following its Fiscal Q2 2026 earnings report, marking one of the company’s steepest single-session declines since the March 2020 crash. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) closed at $433.50, down $48.13 or 9.99% at 4:00:01 PM EST, before edging slightly lower in overnight trading to $433.15, a further 0.08% decline as of 11:20:15 PM EST. The pullback came despite soli...
Microsoft (MSFT) shares fell sharply following its Fiscal Q2 2026 earnings report, marking one of the company’s steepest single-session declines since the March 2020 crash. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) closed at $433.50, down $48.13 or 9.99% at 4:00:01 PM EST, before edging slightly lower in overnight trading to $433.15, a further 0.08% decline as of 11:20:15 PM EST. The pullback came despite solid headline results, underscoring a growing divide between Wall Street’s short-term expectations and Microsoft’s long-term AI strategy. The decline also weighed on broader US benchmarks, including the NASDAQ and the S&P 500, given Microsoft’s outsized index influence. Earnings Beat Fails to Lift Microsoft (MSFT) Shares For the quarter, Microsoft (MSFT) reported revenue of $81.3 billion, highlighting continued demand across its core software and cloud businesses. Earnings Per Share (EPS) came in at $4.14 on a non-GAAP basis and $5.16 on a GAAP basis, comfortably beating analyst estimates. Under normal conditions, such results would have driven shares higher. Instead, investors focused less on the beat and more on what lies ahead. Capital Expenditure Emerges as the Market’s “AI Tax” The dominant concern was Capital Expenditure (CapEx). Microsoft (MSFT) disclosed quarterly CapEx of $37.5 billion, representing approximately 65% year-over-year increase. This surge in spending, aimed at expanding AI infrastructure, data centers, and GPU capacity, has been labeled by analysts as the “AI Tax.” While the spending is designed to secure future dominance, the immediate impact is margin compression, something the market is increasingly unwilling to overlook. Azure Growth Slows as Capacity Constraints Limit Demand Azure (Cloud Services), Microsoft’s primary growth engine, also disappointed relative to expectations. Azure’s growth of 38–39% marked a deceleration that unsettled investors, especially as rivals delivered stronger near-term narratives. Microsoft (MSFT) emphasized that the slow...
Kyivstar Group ( KYIV ) priced a public offering of 12.5M shares by VEON Amsterdam B.V., the principal shareholder of the company, and certain other selling shareholders at a public offering price of $10.50 per share. The company is not selling any common shares in the offering. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,875,000 shares. The offering is expected to clos...
Kyivstar Group ( KYIV ) priced a public offering of 12.5M shares by VEON Amsterdam B.V., the principal shareholder of the company, and certain other selling shareholders at a public offering price of $10.50 per share. The company is not selling any common shares in the offering. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,875,000 shares. The offering is expected to close on February 2, 2026. More on Kyivstar Group Ltd. Kyivstar: An Overlooked GARP Opportunity Kyivstar: My Investment In The Ukrainian Telecom Sector With A 90% Gross Profit Margin Sphere Entertainment, EchoStar top communications services stocks in short interest; Atlanta Braves, IHS see lowest exposure VEON’s Kyivstar invests in Ukrainian solar power company Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Kyivstar Group Ltd.
China is mulling the sale of hundreds of billions of yuan in special government bonds to recapitalize some of its largest insurers, according to people familiar with the matter, strengthening the biggest players in a sector that is under pressure to consolidate. The sale would raise about 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) to help recapitalize the insurers, said one of the people, declining to be iden...
China is mulling the sale of hundreds of billions of yuan in special government bonds to recapitalize some of its largest insurers, according to people familiar with the matter, strengthening the biggest players in a sector that is under pressure to consolidate. The sale would raise about 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) to help recapitalize the insurers, said one of the people, declining to be identified as the matter is private. The proceeds will be injected into state-controlled firms including China Life Insurance Group Co., the People’s Insurance Co. Group of China Ltd., and China Taiping Insurance Group Co., the people said. It would be the first time Beijing has used special bonds to inject capital into insurers, expanding a channel the government has previously used to capitalize big state-owned banks. The plan could be announced as early as the first quarter, one of the people said. The government also plans to inject 300 billion yuan into Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. , one of the people said. The moves would add to a similar bond sale last year that helped recapitalize several major state-owned lenders, including Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co. The National Financial Regulatory Administration, PICC, Taiping, ICBC and AgriBank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. China Life declined to comment. The proposal marks an expansion in China’s use of special government debt to strengthen the largest insurers, who are now expected to assist regulators in dealing with riskier small peers, the people said. It will also bolster the capital of firms that were pushed to buy stocks when Beijing was attempting to stabilize markets last year. The plan is still under discussion and could change, the people added. Read More: China Plans Bank Capital Injections of at Least $55 Billion More than two-thirds of the 173 insurers that disclosed third-quarter numbers reported a drop in solvency ratio...
Robert Half NYSE: RHI executives pointed to improving sequential revenue trends during the fourth quarter of 2025, while acknowledging continued year-over-year declines across the company’s staffing and consulting operations. Management said enterprise revenues returned to positive sequential growth on a same-day, constant-currency basis for the first time in more than three years, and early Janua...
Robert Half NYSE: RHI executives pointed to improving sequential revenue trends during the fourth quarter of 2025, while acknowledging continued year-over-year declines across the company’s staffing and consulting operations. Management said enterprise revenues returned to positive sequential growth on a same-day, constant-currency basis for the first time in more than three years, and early January trends continued the momentum. Get Robert Half alerts: Sign Up Fourth-quarter results and cash flow For the fourth quarter of 2025, Robert Half reported global enterprise revenues of $1.302 billion, down 6% year over year on a reported basis and down 7% on an adjusted basis. Net income per share was $0.32, compared with $0.53 in the year-ago quarter. Keith Waddell, president and CEO, said the company’s revenue and earnings exceeded the midpoint of prior fourth-quarter guidance and described the company as “very well positioned” to support clients’ talent and consulting needs. Cash flow from operations totaled $183 million, which management called the highest quarterly level of 2025 and an 18% increase over the prior year’s fourth quarter. The company paid a $0.59 per share dividend in December, representing a $59 million cash outlay. Return on invested capital was 10% in the quarter. Segment performance: Talent Solutions and Protiviti CFO Michael Buckley said Talent Solutions revenue declines continued on a year-over-year basis, though sequential trends improved. On an adjusted basis, fourth-quarter Talent Solutions revenues fell 9% year over year. U.S. Talent Solutions revenues were $623 million (down 9%) and non-U.S. Talent Solutions revenues were $200 million (down 8%). The company operated Talent Solutions offices in the U.S. and 18 other countries. Buckley also noted contract Talent Solutions bill rates increased 3.2% versus a year ago (adjusted for mix, currency, and geography), compared with 3.7% growth in the third quarter. Protiviti posted fourth-quarter global ...
South African equities are on track for their longest monthly winning streak on record as optimism mounts that the powerful commodities-driven rally is poised to broaden out to other sectors. The benchmark gauge was up 8.1% in January through Thursday’s close, set for an eleventh monthly advance. Precious metals and mining stocks led gains, up 28%, followed by a gauge of industrial-metal producers...
South African equities are on track for their longest monthly winning streak on record as optimism mounts that the powerful commodities-driven rally is poised to broaden out to other sectors. The benchmark gauge was up 8.1% in January through Thursday’s close, set for an eleventh monthly advance. Precious metals and mining stocks led gains, up 28%, followed by a gauge of industrial-metal producers. But other sectors are also rising as investors bet the commodities windfall will filter through to the wider economy. Chemicals, construction and travel and leisure stocks were among the biggest gainers. Miners riding the wave of record metal prices accounted for as much as 75% of the FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index’s gains last year, according to Brendon Hubbard , a portfolio manager at ClucasGray. The next phase of the rally hinges on whether gains spread into domestically focused stocks, which still trade at deep discounts, he said. The Johannesburg benchmark trades at a 20% discount to the MSCI emerging-markets stock index on a forward price-earnings basis. “South Africa Inc. remains relatively cheap,” Hubbard said. “When flows start moving beyond commodities into emerging markets more broadly, the banks, retailers and industrial names are the obvious next stop.” That may already be happening. South African fund managers are overweight software, real estate and retail and food companies, and see banks as the the most-preferred sector over the next 12 months, according to a survey by Bank of America. A net 78% of managers surveyed are equity bulls, up from 75% in December, with a total return of 17% seen over the next year. “What typically happens is you get first-round effects directly through mining, then second-round effects in financials and industrials, and lastly in everything else as profits and liquidity broaden out to the rest of the economy,” said Casparus Treurnicht , a portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management. “Even if commodity prices just stay where ...