A senior Democratic lawmaker with knowledge of some of the U.S. government’s most secretive operations has said he has “deep concerns” about certain activities by the Central Intelligence Agency. The two-line letter written by Sen. Ron Wyden, the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not disclose the nature of the CIA’s activities or the senator’s specific concerns. But the letter follows a pattern in recent years in which Wyden has publicly hinted at wrongdoing or illegality within the federal government, sometimes referred to as the “Wyden siren.” In a statement (via WSJ’s Dustin Volz), the CIA said it was “ironic but unsurprising that Senator Wyden is unhappy,” calling it a “badge of honor.” When reached by TechCrunch, a spokesperson for Wyden’s staff was unable to comment as the matter was classified. Tasked with oversight of the intelligence community, Wyden is one of a few lawmakers who is allowed to read highly classified information about ongoing government surveillance, including cyber and other intelligence operations. But as the programs are highly secretive, Wyden is barred from sharing details of what he knows with anyone else, including most other lawmakers, except for a handful of Senate staff with security clearance. As such, Wyden, a known privacy hawk, has become one of the few key members of Congress whose rare but outspoken words on intelligence and surveillance matters are closely watched by civil liberties groups. Over the past few years, Wyden has subtly sounded the alarm on several occasions in which he has construed a secret ruling or intelligence gathering method as unlawful or unconstitutional. In 2011, Wyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a “gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.” Two years later, then-NSA contra...

imaginima/iStock via Getty Images Vistra ( VST ) +5.4% in Friday's trading as Goldman Sachs upgraded the power generation company to Buy from Neutral with a $205 price target, following the stock's recent pullback and after the bank incorporated the Meta power purchase agreement into its forecast, which increased its FY 2027 EBITDA estimates by 5%. Goldman's Carly Davenport said the Meta deal signals that Vistra ( VST ) is able to secure sizeable PPA contracts with a shorter ramp, even in the face of continued policy uncertainty and affordability rhetoric; before the Meta PPA, Vistra had announced just one other PPA with an undisclosed hyperscaler for half of Comanche Peak’s nuclear generation and minor impact to EBITDA. In addition to PPA upside potential, Davenport sees downside protection to the stock, saying Vistra's ( VST ) current stock price implies an average $49/MWh future power price on a two-year average multiple, below the current forward average of ~$58/MWh, essentially implying limited upside around incremental PPAs or appreciation in power prices. The analyst also believes valuation is near trough levels, with the stock trading at 8.1x 2027 EBITDA following the pullback, driven by broader weakness in the power/AI trade, affordability concerns, and related risk around signing PPAs, despite further M&A optionality and this year's Meta PPA. Finally, Davenport said she remains constructive on the fundamentals of Vistra's ( VST ) existing business, with current volume hedging levels, retail operations and capacity revenues lowering the volatility of the business. More on Vistra Vistra's Growth Trajectory: Why The Stock Is Poised To Rise, But Better Plays Exist Vistra - A Tricky Balance Vistra: Pullback Driven By Accounting Optics, Not Fundamentals

Klaus Vedfelt Drew Matus, chief market strategist at MetLife Investment Management, is sounding the alarm on the U.S. labor market, asserting that there is fundamentally no demand for workers despite recent stock market gains. In an interview with CNBC, Matus pointed to declining job openings, rising layoffs, and slower hiring as evidence of deeper economic weakness that belies headline GDP figures. Matus dismissed the notion that immigration is driving labor market softness, arguing that the lack of job openings tells a different story. “The reality of it is there’s no demand for labor,” he said. “Everything is getting conflated because everyone wants to have a spin on kind of how things are working.” The strategist identified the housing market as a persistent drag on employment, describing it as “messed up” and unlikely to improve anytime soon. He noted that construction jobs have suffered as a result, while healthcare hiring has essentially reached its ceiling. “There’s only so many home health aides you need to hire,” Matus observed, questioning where the next surge in job growth might originate. Reflecting on the rapid changes brought by artificial intelligence, Matus acknowledged the difficulty of predicting employment trends. He noted that his advice from a decade ago—that people should learn to code—now appears to have been “the exact problem idea” given current tech sector anxieties and AI replacement fears. Matus also took aim at the Federal Reserve’s assessment of the labor market, praising Governor Waller for focusing on weak job growth while criticizing other committee members for emphasizing stable unemployment rates. “The trend in unemployment is higher,” he warned, expressing skepticism that anything in current data suggests the rate won’t continue to climb. The strategist argued that Wall Street’s optimism is disconnected from the struggles facing most Americans, even those in the upper-income bracket. He noted that finance professionals, who repre...

Merck & Co. (NASDAQ: MRK ) extended its bullish run into a seventh straight session, with shares trading 1.56% higher at $121.62 on Friday afternoon. Over the preceding six sessions, the company’s shares rose more than 12.02%, outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which declined 2.58% over the same period. On a year-to-date basis in 2025, the company’s stock has gained over 14.91%, compared with a 0.69% decline in the broader S&P 500 Index. MRK recently reported Q4 2025 worldwide net sales of $16.4B and non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.04, reflecting continued growth driven by key product demand and portfolio strength. Seeking Alpha analyst Edmund Ingham also said Merck’s robust pipeline and recent M&A activity are expected to help offset upcoming patent expirations for Keytruda and Gardasil and maintained a Buy rating on the stock despite potential near-term revenue headwinds. Similarly, SA authors and the Wall Street analysts appeared bullish and graded the stock as Buy. However, l ooking at Seeking Alpha’s Quant rating , MRK has a Hold rating with a score of 3.34 out of 5. The company was rated A+ for profitability, while it got an F for growth and a C+ for valuation. More on Merck Merck & Co., Inc. 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Merck Chooses Evolution Over Revolution - At Proposed Price, I'm Not Surprised President Trump unveils TrumpRx website for low-cost prescription drugs Launch of TrumpRx website set

AMD Stock Rebounds 7.7% After Guidance-Driven Sell-Off | February 2026 Update - News and Statistics IndexBox

美国2月6日当周石油钻井数 412，前值 411。 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。

Blowout capital expenditures from Amazon and reports of CPU price hikes sent Intel back toward its yearly highs. Shares of Intel (INTC +6.09%) were rallying on Friday, with shares up 5.5% as of 11:52 a.m. EDT. Intel is up strongly year to date, even though the stock pulled back from recent highs following its Jan. 22 earnings report. However, the stock has been recovering this week and is now approaching its multi-year highs once again. Today, the entire AI-related semiconductor sector was moving higher on the back of massive capital spending forecasts from all the major cloud companies, especially Amazon (AMZN 5.59%), which announced a $200 billion 2026 spending plan last night. In addition, Reuters reported that both Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +8.06%) are raising server CPU prices by as much as 10% in the Chinese market amid surprising shortages. Expand NASDAQ : INTC Intel Today's Change ( 6.09 %) $ 2.94 Current Price $ 51.18 Key Data Points Market Cap $241B Day's Range $ 48.84 - $ 51.22 52wk Range $ 17.66 - $ 54.60 Volume 2.8M Avg Vol 101M Gross Margin 34.77 % Traditional CPUs: Back in fashion? The traditional server CPU market has had a dormant few years following the generative AI boom, as cloud infrastructure providers devoted most of their capital spending toward AI accelerators while deferring investments in their traditional server chips. However, not only is traditional cloud infrastructure due for a refresh, but traditional CPUs are now in demand as head nodes in AI servers and for agentic AI inference applications. While GPUs are still required to run large models, CPUs can run small and mid-sized models locally. In fact, in late 2024, Amazon reached an agreement with Intel to produce custom Xeon 6 chips, in which Amazon would co-develop a version of Intel's Granite Rapids server chip. Therefore, when Amazon forecast stunning $200 billion in capital expenditures for 2026 during last night's earnings call, at least some of that is likely ...

Key Points AI chip stocks rallied on the back of Amazon's blowout spending forecast. Intel and Amazon have a strategic partnership on custom CPUs for agentic AI applications. Reuters also reported Intel and AMD are raising prices of traditional server CPUs in China. 10 stocks we like better than Intel › Shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) were rallying on Friday, with shares up 5.5% as of 11:52 a.m. EDT. Intel is up strongly year to date, even though the stock pulled back from recent highs following its Jan. 22 earnings report. However, the stock has been recovering this week and is now approaching its multi-year highs once again. 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 » Today, the entire AI-related semiconductor sector was moving higher on the back of massive capital spending forecasts from all the major cloud companies, especially Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which announced a $200 billion 2026 spending plan last night. In addition, Reuters reported that both Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) are raising server CPU prices by as much as 10% in the Chinese market amid surprising shortages. Traditional CPUs: Back in fashion? The traditional server CPU market has had a dormant few years following the generative AI boom, as cloud infrastructure providers devoted most of their capital spending toward AI accelerators while deferring investments in their traditional server chips. However, not only is traditional cloud infrastructure due for a refresh, but traditional CPUs are now in demand as head nodes in AI servers and for agentic AI inference applications. While GPUs are still required to run large models, CPUs can run small and mid-sized models locally. In fact, in late 2024, Amazon reached an agreement with Intel to produce custom Xeon 6 chips, in which Amazon would co-develop a vers...

Why Intel Was Rallying Today Yahoo Finance

The Nasdaq Composite is on pace for its worst week since November despite Friday’s rebound.

250% That's how much Tesla shares ran up in the six months before it joined the S&P 500. Figures like this help explain why another of Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX, is looking for fast-track index inclusion after it goes public.

Not long ago, Michael Burry became bearish on the AI trade . In fact, he called some of the biggest names frauds , referring to their accounting practices. Morgan Stanley has now come out with a warning: the huge investments in AI could result in higher-than-anticipated depreciation charges over the next few years. Was Burry right all along? Morgan Stanley points out that many of the hyperscalers, including Oracle (ORCL), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META), were originally involved in asset-light business models. They are only now shifting to infrastructure-heavy operations by setting up AI projects that demand big data centers. Collectively, these companies could face over $680 billion in depreciation charges in the next four years! If investors hadn’t taken Michael Burry’s earlier warnings seriously, they might want to do so now. Tech Stock #1: Oracle (ORCL) Oracle is a provider of database software, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), cloud infrastructure, and similar services. It has a global customer base and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. ORCL was comfortably outperforming the S&P 500 ($SPX) last year when it touched highs of nearly $350. Since then, it has more than halved, and over the last 12 months, has returned -11.7% versus the S&P 500’s 14.32%. The stock has become an example of how an AI trade can go bad. At one point, it was among the top 10 companies in the U.S. by market cap. While the stock falling more than 50% is bad, it does give a great entry point for new investors. The stock’s forward P/E of 25.82x is now 17% below its 5-year average. It is also quite close to the forward P/E of the Nasdaq 100 Index, which currently stands at 25.89x. ORCL is expected to grow its earnings at 35% in 2027 and 49% in 2028. After Morgan Stanley’s revelations, these estimates may be revised downward. Investors can take a wait-and-see approach and wait for those revisions, because the comp...

Hi everyone. Today we’re unraveling the latest gaming-stock selloff, but first... This week’s top gaming news: I visited Xbox’s Obsidian Entertainment for this Businessweek deep dive into what it’s like navigating the video-game industry today Sony Group Corp. reported a big profit boost and said it’s secured memory supply for the year Nintendo Co. dropped after Switch 2 profit underwhelmed Roblox Corp.’s users and bookings topped Wall Street’s estimates in the fourth quarter Irrational fear Over the past week, video-game industry stocks have taken a nosedive thanks to Alphabet Inc.’s showcase of Google Genie , a generative AI tool that allows users to create virtual worlds with text prompts and then roam around inside of them. This arrives amid a broader selloff in the software industry as investors speculate about AI’s effect on our world. One school of thought is that Genie and tools like it will disrupt the entire video-game industry. Genie is primitive right now — you can only use it for 60 seconds — but it could be the harbinger of an era where anyone can create a video-game world by typing a few sentences into their browser. This belief is likely why stocks such as Take Two Interactive Software Inc., Unity Software Inc., and Roblox Corp. plummeted following Genie’s announcement on Jan. 29. Even Electronic Arts Inc., which will be taken private for $210 a share in a deal expected to close this summer, inexplicably fell below $197 after staying steady at around $204 for months. Traders are operating under the belief that this new technology will kneecap both the makers of video games and the tools that are currently used to make them. If anyone can make a game, who needs the game makers? Another school of thought is that this is all ridiculous. It’s hardly a hot take to point out that in recent years the market has often acted irrationally when it comes to artificial intelligence. But in this case, there’s also a fundamental misunderstanding of how the business...

Watch: Dr. Oz Unmasks Billions In Hospice Fraud Tied To Foreign Mafias And Welfare Scams Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Unchecked immigration policies have opened the floodgates for criminal networks to bleed taxpayers dry, while Democrat governors like Gavin Newsom turn a blind eye to the exploitation of vulnerable Americans. The Trump administration is finally shining a light on the rampant fraud infesting America’s healthcare system, where foreign criminal elements exploit lax oversight to siphon billions from Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has been on the front lines exposing these schemes that harm seniors and drain resources meant for real patients. The clip Gavin Newsom doesn’t want you to see! Seniors and caretakers, please be careful! People, posing as salespeople, are targeting older Americans to trick them into signing up for Hospice without their knowledge. If they get you to sign, you will forfeit regular Medicare… pic.twitter.com/lafYH4ANvY — DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 30, 2026 Recent reports reveal the backlash from officials, with Newsom filing a civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz, accusing him of baseless and racially charged claims that could deter participation in legitimate programs. Gavin Newsom will do literally anything to avoid talking about the rampant Medicare fraud in his state. The problem isn't isolated to California, though as far as our team can tell, it is the worst. Every working American pays into Medicare, and I will not stand idly by while… https://t.co/2wxIBOkTzu — DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 30, 2026 But as Oz’s investigations show, the real scandal is the unchecked abuse that’s ballooned under years of ‘progressive’ mismanagement. In a stunning revelation, Dr. Oz highlighted the explosive growth in Minnesota’s autism care expenditures, pointing to potential fraud in a state long criticized for its loose immigration and welfare policies. WOW 🚨 D...

美国财长贝森特称，特朗普有关解雇沃什的言论是个玩笑，特朗普非常尊重美联储的独立性。（财联社）

Peter Mandelson’s former lobbying firm sought work with companies controlled by the governments of Russia and China shortly after he left ministerial office, according to emails the disgraced former minister forwarded to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The emails show how Mandelson and Benjamin Wegg-Prosser scrambled to drum up high-paying foreign business after co-founding Global Counsel even as Mandelson remained a member of the House of Lords. Potential clients included the Russian state investment firm Rusnano and the state-owned China International Capital Corporation, the emails suggest. The emails also showed that Wegg-Prosser met Epstein at his New York townhouse in 2010 to discuss the business. A person with knowledge of the situation said that the meeting was at Mandelson’s request and only lasted 25 minutes. Wegg-Prosser resigned as Global Counsel’s chief executive on Friday amid intense scrutiny. A huge trove of 3m files from the investigation into Epstein has laid bare the extent of the financier’s communication with a host of politicians, business leaders and royalty from around the world. Epstein served a 2008 jail term for child sex offences, but retained much of his influence until his arrest and death in custody in 2019. The revelation that Mandelson and Epstein were in close contact after his conviction has caused a political crisis for Keir Starmer. The prime minister is under intense pressure after he revealed that he appointed Mandelson to the role of US ambassador despite knowing about his friendship with Epstein. Mandelson did not respond to requests for comment. Global Counsel was approached for comment. Global Counsel has tried to distance itself from the scandal, revoking Mandelson’s voting rights and pushing him to divest his stake in the business. However, the emails give an insight into the work of Global Counsel, and reveal the efforts of Mandelson and Wegg-Prosser to secure lucrative work. The documents showed that M...

Hospitals have banned units which diagnose and treat cancer from hiring doctors as part of an NHS cost-cutting drive, despite the growing demand for care. Exactly half of the UK’s 60 specialist cancer treatment centres had a freeze on recruiting clinical oncologists imposed on them during 2025, more than double the 13 (23%) seen the year before. Similarly, more than a third (36%) of the 160 radiology departments – which perform and analyse scans – were subjected last year to a ban on hiring clinical radiologists, up from 19% in 2024, according to information supplied by 138 of the UK’s 160 such units. The Royal College of Radiologists, which collected the figures, warned that the dramatic rise in staffing freezes could lead to “dangerous” delays in cancers being spotted and treated. Dr Stephen Harden, the RCR’s president, criticised the bans as “shortsighted”, bad for patients, damaging to NHS personnel’s morale and likely to cost more money in the long term. He added that refusing to let cancer centres and radiology departments hire doctors when they need them could directly affect cancer patients’ treatment and have “tragic consequences”. Harden said: “Recruitment freezes worsen the already chronic shortage of doctors that has led to long waits, late diagnoses and delays, causing patients to have more limited treatment options, and some presenting too late to receive treatment at all. “Any delay can be distressing. But for patients with suspected cancer it is particularly dangerous [as] each month’s delay to starting cancer treatment can increase the risk of death by around 10%.” He blamed the hiring bans on the “reset” of the NHS’s finances which the chief executive of NHS England, Sir Jim Mackey, ordered last spring to tackle a looming £6.6bn overspend in 2025-26. That forced all NHS trusts to make substantial savings. Most of the freezes uncovered by an RCR workforce census were imposed on units in England. “In England, NHS finances are under particular pressur...

Reddit shares are dropping as Wall Street debates what is next for the social media company following a positive set of financial results. Reddit’s fourth-quarter earnings, released after the market closed on Thursday, handily beat analysts’ estimates.

美国财长贝森特：（连续第二天表示）总统特朗普有关“要罢免美联储主席提名人凯文·沃什”的论调“是一个玩笑”。 沃什将给美联储带来伟大的公信力和专业能力。 特朗普非常尊重美联储的独立性。 Pirro将决定是否继续推进司法部对美联储的（刑事）调查。 留意到参议员们宣扬“美联储似乎在独立性上是有罪的”。 （重申）强美元政策关乎我们所作所为的支撑环境。 政策源自税收、监管、能源行动。（CNBC） 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。

Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that will reach about $650 billion in 2026 — a mind-boggling tide of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear housed within them. Bloomberg's Mandeep Singh joins Bloomberg Intelligence to discuss. (Source: Bloomberg)

The latest tranche of Epstein files has sent shock waves around the world, but many of the powerful men who minimised and dismissed his crimes are still yet to face any real consequences. The documents show the likes of Noam Chomsky and Steve Bannon were happy to maintain relationships with Epstein even after he spent time in jail for child sex offences. What message does that send to the abused women and girls, whose experiences should be the real focus? And will these men ever be held to account? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian columnist Marina Hyde. Continue reading...

Earnings Call Insights: Equity Residential (EQR) Q4 2025 Management View Mark Parrell, President, CEO & Trustee, outlined that "2025 was a challenging year for the rental housing industry, including Equity Residential." He reported that same-store NOI results matched initial guidance, but the path was less straightforward due to decelerating revenue momentum in the second half, except in San Francisco and New York, which are expected to remain strong in 2026. Parrell highlighted that the company purchased approximately $206 million of its stock during the fourth quarter and $300 million in 2025, stating "we see our company with its high-quality asset base and sophisticated operating platform as greatly undervalued in the public markets versus private market values." He stressed the benefits of portfolio diversification, noting, "you can expect over time, we will invest in all 12 of our markets through renovations, acquisitions and development activities. Although given our current cost of capital, significant acquisition activity makes less sense at this time." Share buybacks and selective development are prioritized. Michael Manelis, Executive VP & COO, reported portfolio occupancy at 96.4%, with the lowest reported resident turnover for both Q4 and the full year in company history. He emphasized, "our focus is on two major drivers to our business: new competitive supply and job growth." Manelis detailed ongoing innovation efforts, including automation and AI-enabled applications, which are expected to deliver another 5% to 10% reduction in on-site payroll over the next several years. Bret McLeod, Executive VP & CFO, stated, "we anticipate 2026 same-store expense growth to range between 3% to 4%, with a midpoint that is 20 basis points lower than 2025." McLeod added, "we've provided a bridge from our full year 2025 norm FFO per share of $3.99 to the midpoint of our 2026 guidance, $4.08 per share, a 2.25% improvement over last year." Outlook Management expects blend...