primeimages/iStock via Getty Images Global markets are at the precipice. Nerves are increasingly frayed, yet complacency remains well entrenched. This is not uncharted territory. De-risking/deleveraging approaches critical momentum, before some policy response swiftly turns things around. The “Fed put,” the “TACO put,” the global policymaker “put”… When speculative deleveraging momentum gathered p...
primeimages/iStock via Getty Images Global markets are at the precipice. Nerves are increasingly frayed, yet complacency remains well entrenched. This is not uncharted territory. De-risking/deleveraging approaches critical momentum, before some policy response swiftly turns things around. The “Fed put,” the “TACO put,” the global policymaker “put”… When speculative deleveraging momentum gathered pace in the summer of 2019, the Federal Reserve restarted QE. When autumn 2022 UK gilt deleveraging sparked global bond deleveraging, the Bank of England postponed QT and intervened with aggressive gilt purchases (QE) and a temporary liquidity facility. As the March 2023 SVB/bank crisis spurred fear and deleveraging, the Federal Reserve and Federal Home Loan Banks responded urgently with $500 billion of liquidity injections. During the August 2024 yen “carry trade” unwind (Nikkei plunged 12.4% on August 5th), the forces of de-risking/deleveraging were abruptly reversed by BOJ Governor Shinichi Uchida’s reassuring comments (BOJ won’t raise rates when markets are unstable). And when markets were at the cusp of unraveling during the “liberation day” April 2025 instability, the “TACO put” (tariff pause) unleashed a major short squeeze, unwind of hedges, liquidity surge, and blow-off excess for the ages (i.e., AI arms race, “private credit” lending finale, crypto blowoff, and caution thrown to the wind across global asset markets). The current backdrop is unique. The IRGC currently retains the capacity to essentially shut the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian missiles and drones could potentially destroy major Middle East oil production and refining capacity. After three weeks, it’s anything but clear when bombings and assassinations will neutralize the IRGC ability to hold the world’s markets and economy hostage. Risks to global markets, finance, and economies are the most extreme in decades. With inflation risk pummeling global bond markets, now typical central bank QE responses would ...
Costco Wholesale (COST 0.29%) continues to prove to investors that it's worthy of their hard-earned savings. Share prices are already up 13% in 2026 (as of March 19). At the same time, the S&P 500 has lost 3.5% of its value. This continues an impressive run for the warehouse-club retailer. If you'd invested $1,000 in this leading retail stock 10 years ago, here's how much you'd have today. Costco ...
Costco Wholesale (COST 0.29%) continues to prove to investors that it's worthy of their hard-earned savings. Share prices are already up 13% in 2026 (as of March 19). At the same time, the S&P 500 has lost 3.5% of its value. This continues an impressive run for the warehouse-club retailer. If you'd invested $1,000 in this leading retail stock 10 years ago, here's how much you'd have today. Costco has been a magnificent portfolio holding. Over the past decade, shares generated a total return of 659%. This phenomenal gain would've turned a $1,000 initial investment 10 years ago into $7,590 right now. Given the market's love affair with technology and artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, the fact that a boring retailer can be such a winning investment is a breath of fresh air. The company reported solid financial gains. Net sales and net income were up 137% and 241%, respectively, between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2025 (ended Aug. 31, 2025). Costco is an elite business when it comes to stability and predictability. It's a safe holding due to its steady fundamentals in all economic scenarios. Expand NASDAQ : COST Costco Wholesale Today's Change ( -0.29 %) $ -2.79 Current Price $ 971.99 Key Data Points Market Cap $431B Day's Range $ 970.55 - $ 980.75 52wk Range $ 844.06 - $ 1067.08 Volume 72K Avg Vol 2.2M Gross Margin 12.93 % Dividend Yield 0.53 % The market certainly appreciates this. Costco stock's current price-to-earnings ratio of 50.7 is 73% more expensive than it was exactly 10 years ago. It's also well about the 10-year average P/E of 39. While the stock has done well, it's also trading at a premium that isn't favorable for new investors unless they are planning to hold the stock for the long term. A lot of growth is already priced into this stock.
Key Points Costco's dependable revenue and profit gains have significantly lifted the stock since March 2016. Drastically improving market sentiment has been an important tailwind for investors over the years. 10 stocks we like better than Costco Wholesale › Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) continues to prove to investors that it's worthy of their hard-earned savings. Share prices are already up 13...
Key Points Costco's dependable revenue and profit gains have significantly lifted the stock since March 2016. Drastically improving market sentiment has been an important tailwind for investors over the years. 10 stocks we like better than Costco Wholesale › Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) continues to prove to investors that it's worthy of their hard-earned savings. Share prices are already up 13% in 2026 (as of March 19). At the same time, the S&P 500 has lost 3.5% of its value. This continues an impressive run for the warehouse-club retailer. If you'd invested $1,000 in this leading retail stock 10 years ago, here's how much you'd have 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 » Costco has been a magnificent portfolio holding. Over the past decade, shares generated a total return of 659%. This phenomenal gain would've turned a $1,000 initial investment 10 years ago into $7,590 right now. Given the market's love affair with technology and artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, the fact that a boring retailer can be such a winning investment is a breath of fresh air. The company reported solid financial gains. Net sales and net income were up 137% and 241%, respectively, between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2025 (ended Aug. 31, 2025). Costco is an elite business when it comes to stability and predictability. It's a safe holding due to its steady fundamentals in all economic scenarios. The market certainly appreciates this. Costco stock's current price-to-earnings ratio of 50.7 is 73% more expensive than it was exactly 10 years ago. It's also well about the 10-year average P/E of 39. While the stock has done well, it's also trading at a premium that isn't favorable for new investors unless they are planning to hold the stock for the long term. A lot of growth is already priced into this stock. ...
After more than a quarter century tracking the seemingly endless growth of the wine industry, Rob McMillan was finally vindicated last year as California’s vigneron of doom. McMillan is the author of Silicon Valley Bank’s annual state of the US wine industry report, and the 2025 edition was a doozy. Since 2018, the bank has warned the industry that a correction in demand would shake the wine world...
After more than a quarter century tracking the seemingly endless growth of the wine industry, Rob McMillan was finally vindicated last year as California’s vigneron of doom. McMillan is the author of Silicon Valley Bank’s annual state of the US wine industry report, and the 2025 edition was a doozy. Since 2018, the bank has warned the industry that a correction in demand would shake the wine world. That reality is now here, with 2025 revenue down, the volume of wine produced dropping and a “bumpy bottom” in demand forecast in 2027 and 2028. “I was very direct when the industry was going fine, but nobody ever likes it when you say things are disastrous,” McMillan said. “Now, everybody understands what I’m talking about.” A ‘sunsetting’ customer base In the 1990s, McMillan said, options among beer and spirits “really sucked” and an entire generation of baby boomers gravitated towards wine. The industry responded, particularly on the premium side of things where wines start in the $20-$40 range, and areas like Napa Valley and Sonoma county rose to the occasion. “My generation really enjoyed learning about wine,” he said, noting the major addendum that many boomers lived through some “particularly generous times from an economic standpoint”, which helped the surge in the premium wine category. “We would go and geek out about how many days of sunlight the vines would get, what the sugar was like at harvest.” Now, millions of those baby boomers, long a mainstay of the cellar door, are “sunsetting” each year – industry parlance for drinking their last glass. His report paints a dire future for wineries that expect the bygone era of exponential growth to return. Instead, the document says wineries that adapt will be well placed to survive, and thrive, albeit in a more stable way. “There is a growing divide characterized by the separation between wineries that adapt and those that remain tethered to the previous era of strong growth,” the report reads. “2026 will mark the po...
Burnley are unchanged from their 0-0 draw (oh dear) with Bournemouth last time out. Armando Broja, formerly of Fulham, has to make do with a place on the bench. Fulham are 12th but only four points behind Brentford in 7th and a European place. Oh, the memories of Bobby Zamora and Zoltan Gera putting Juventus to the sword. Marco Silva has made one change to last weekend’s team that drew 0-0 (uh oh)...
Burnley are unchanged from their 0-0 draw (oh dear) with Bournemouth last time out. Armando Broja, formerly of Fulham, has to make do with a place on the bench. Fulham are 12th but only four points behind Brentford in 7th and a European place. Oh, the memories of Bobby Zamora and Zoltan Gera putting Juventus to the sword. Marco Silva has made one change to last weekend’s team that drew 0-0 (uh oh) with Forest – Rodrigo Muniz in for Raúl Jiménez up top. Yes, this is the only Premier League offering this afternoon but it’s an extremely important one for Burnley. They need points and they need them now – nine separate them and Nottingham Forest in 17th with only seven games to go after today. There is only one 3pm kick-off in the Premier League (angrily shakes fist) but fear not because there is a raft of games up and down Britain that will shape seasons. The business end of 2025-26 is almost upon us and plenty of teams in the EFL and Scotland are jostling for position for the final straight. In the Premier League, Scott Parker takes his Burnley side to Craven Cottage as they look to close the still sizeable gap to survival. Fulham are still in the hunt for a European place. In Scotland, Premiership leaders Hearts aim to bounce back from defeat to Kilmarnock last weekend as they host Dundee. Their fellow title contenders don’t play until later (Rangers) or tomorrow (Celtic). In the Championship, playoff hopefuls Southampton and Wrexham are in action while Leicester and West Brom are among those looking to boost their survival chances. In League One, leaders Lincoln are at home to Rotherham and could take a giant leap towards automatic promotion with a win. Meanwhile there’s a pivotal game in the relegation battle as Gary Caldwell and Wigan host his old side Exeter. In League Two, Bromley are aiming to reach the third tier for the first time in their history. The league leaders host Barrow looking to respond to some early results involving the chasing pack. And it’s wor...
A partial US government shutdown has lead to long lines for travelers and missed paychecks for thousands of government workers. Bloomberg News' Senior Editor Wendy Benjaminson and Managing Editor of Space & Aviation Benedikt Kammel join David Gura and Christina Ruffini this morning on Bloomberg This Weekend to break it down. Watch the show LIVE every Saturday and Sunday morning. (Source: Bloomberg...
A partial US government shutdown has lead to long lines for travelers and missed paychecks for thousands of government workers. Bloomberg News' Senior Editor Wendy Benjaminson and Managing Editor of Space & Aviation Benedikt Kammel join David Gura and Christina Ruffini this morning on Bloomberg This Weekend to break it down. Watch the show LIVE every Saturday and Sunday morning. (Source: Bloomberg)
If you have been watching Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and wondering whether the current share price still makes sense, this breakdown is designed to help you focus on what the numbers are actually saying about value. The stock recently closed at US$329.24, with returns of 3.0% year to date, 88.1% over 1 year, 267.3% over 3 years and 201.4% over 5 years. However, the share price has seen a 2...
If you have been watching Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and wondering whether the current share price still makes sense, this breakdown is designed to help you focus on what the numbers are actually saying about value. The stock recently closed at US$329.24, with returns of 3.0% year to date, 88.1% over 1 year, 267.3% over 3 years and 201.4% over 5 years. However, the share price has seen a 2.7% decline over the last 7 days and a 9.1% decline over the last 30 days. Recent attention on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has centered on its role as a key semiconductor manufacturer. Investors are closely watching how demand for chips for data centers, consumer electronics and industrial uses shapes sentiment. Commentary around the stock has also focused on supply chain capacity, capital spending plans and broader interest in semiconductor names as part of long term technology trends. Simply Wall St currently gives Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing a value score of . The rest of this article will walk through what that means using approaches like DCF and multiples, before finishing with a way to think about valuation that goes beyond any single model. Advertisement Approach 1: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis The DCF model estimates what a business could be worth by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting those cash flows back to today. It aims to translate future cash generation into a single present value per share. For Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the model used is a 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity approach. The latest twelve month free cash flow is NT$898.9b. Analysts have provided forecasts for several years, and these are extended further by Simply Wall St, with projected free cash flow of NT$5,073.8b in 2035. The ten year path includes discounted projections such as NT$1,243.8b in 2026 and NT$1,850.0b in 2029, all expressed in NT$ to match the company’s reporting currency. When all these projected ...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) reports record quarterly and annual revenue alongside breakeven adjusted EPS. The company highlights a significantly larger contracted backlog, including sizeable new government agreements. Planet introduces next generation AI powered satellite capabilities built on...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) reports record quarterly and annual revenue alongside breakeven adjusted EPS. The company highlights a significantly larger contracted backlog, including sizeable new government agreements. Planet introduces next generation AI powered satellite capabilities built on an expanded partnership with NVIDIA. New offerings include real time GPU based imagery processing, generative AI super resolution, and semantic global search tools. Planet Labs operates a large Earth imaging satellite fleet that supplies data for commercial and government customers across agriculture, mapping, climate monitoring, and defense. The latest results combine business execution, reflected in record revenue and breakeven adjusted EPS, with a growing backlog that includes material government contracts. For investors tracking NYSE:PL, this combination provides a clearer view of how its data subscription model and customer base are evolving. At the same time, the expanded NVIDIA collaboration indicates where Planet is focusing its product stack, moving toward faster delivery and higher value analytics on top of raw imagery. Features such as real time GPU processing, generative AI super resolution, and semantic global search may influence how customers use satellite intelligence for mission critical decisions and may shape the company’s role in commercial and defense markets over the coming years. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Planet Labs PBC by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Planet Labs PBC. NYSE:PL Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Mar 2026 1 thing going right for Planet Labs PBC that this headline doesn't cover. Quick Assessment ⚖️ Price vs Analyst Target : At US$33.83, the share price is about 9% above the US$30.93 analyst target, which sits inside the one standard ...
The S&P 500 ( SP500 ) closed in the red on Friday, after the week saw heightened uncertainty due to the conflict in the Middle East. The Russell 2000 Index ( RTY ) , a widely followed benchmark for U.S. small-cap companies, entered correction territory on Friday, while Nasdaq ( COMP:IND ) and Dow ( DJI ) fell 1.3% and 1.9%, respectively, for the week. Wall Street had a slew of upgrades and downgra...
The S&P 500 ( SP500 ) closed in the red on Friday, after the week saw heightened uncertainty due to the conflict in the Middle East. The Russell 2000 Index ( RTY ) , a widely followed benchmark for U.S. small-cap companies, entered correction territory on Friday, while Nasdaq ( COMP:IND ) and Dow ( DJI ) fell 1.3% and 1.9%, respectively, for the week. Wall Street had a slew of upgrades and downgrades from analysts. Here are some of the major calls for the week: ServiceNow upgraded to Outperform at BNP Paribas ServiceNow ( NOW ) was upgraded to Outperform at BNP Paribas as the brokerage said the recent sell-off in shares “presents an opportunity.” “The risk/reward on ServiceNow shares has shifted favorably following the 2025 sell-off, which has intensified this year (-23% YTD),” BNP analyst Stefan Slowinski wrote and raised his price target on ServiceNow to $140 from $120. “We believe software businesses need to demonstrate core business stabilization, credible AI monetization growth, and quality margins (with SBC under control). We see these qualities in ServiceNow,” he added. Qualcomm downgraded on shrinking market, memory crunch Qualcomm ( QCOM ) was in focus as brokerage Seaport Research Partners downgraded it to Sell, citing a shrinking market and the impact of rising memory costs. “This should be a difficult year for Qualcomm,” analyst Jay Goldberg wrote and put a $100 PT on the stock. “To begin with, we expect mobile phone volumes to drop 10%-15% on the back of increased memory prices. And while Qualcomm's customers are losing share in their end markets, we think the risk to Qualcomm losing addressable market to internal silicon is growing more acute, with no obvious remedy in sight,” Goldberg said. Goldberg said he believes that with the rise in memory costs, smartphones are likely either going to be pricier or specs will have to be dropped (possibly in China, with handset makers likely to focus more on low-tier handsets) and come with less memory. As such, h...
Defense stocks are making headlines amid a surge in global military activity and national security spending. The market is gearing up for a multiyear rearmament cycle, and defense companies' backlogs are growing substantially. Two under-the-radar defense stocks that are poised for growth are Kratos (KTOS 8.79%) and Rocket Lab (RKLB 6.44%). While many investors focus on the big-name prime contracto...
Defense stocks are making headlines amid a surge in global military activity and national security spending. The market is gearing up for a multiyear rearmament cycle, and defense companies' backlogs are growing substantially. Two under-the-radar defense stocks that are poised for growth are Kratos (KTOS 8.79%) and Rocket Lab (RKLB 6.44%). While many investors focus on the big-name prime contractors, mid-tier companies are shaking up high-growth niches in the defense industry. If you're looking to grow your portfolio, now may be the time to consider Kratos and Rocket Lab. But which one is the better buy today? Let's dive into the details and find out. Kratos is disrupting the defense industry with affordable technology Kratos is a dedicated defense contractor with most of its business focused on national security. Last year, roughly 68% of its total revenue came from the U.S. government, including foreign military sales. The company primarily focuses on unmanned aerial systems, satellite ground stations, microwave electronics, and missile defense. What makes Kratos appealing is that it is a disruptive mid-tier contractor that builds high-tech hardware at a lower cost than prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin or RTX. Kratos says that "affordability is a technology" and aims to be the first to market with cost-effective solutions. Kratos doesn't compete directly with prime contractors; it works as a close partner with companies like Northrop Grumman and GE Aerospace to integrate its hardware into broader systems. Expand NASDAQ : KTOS Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Today's Change ( -8.79 %) $ -8.16 Current Price $ 84.62 Key Data Points Market Cap $16B Day's Range $ 83.10 - $ 92.00 52wk Range $ 25.78 - $ 134.00 Volume 6.9M Avg Vol 4.1M Gross Margin 22.14 % Last year, Kratos was awarded a $1.45 billion contract for the MACH-TB 2.0 program, which aims to be a testing sandbox for the Pentagon's hypersonic technologies. This contract is the largest in the company'...
Key Points Kratos and Rocket Lab are two emerging defense companies that focus on high-growth niches. Kratos specializes in affordable military technology, with a focus on unmanned systems and missile defense. Rocket Lab has evolved from a commercial launch company into a defense contractor, and last year won a major contract for missile-warning satellites. 10 stocks we like better than Kratos Def...
Key Points Kratos and Rocket Lab are two emerging defense companies that focus on high-growth niches. Kratos specializes in affordable military technology, with a focus on unmanned systems and missile defense. Rocket Lab has evolved from a commercial launch company into a defense contractor, and last year won a major contract for missile-warning satellites. 10 stocks we like better than Kratos Defense & Security Solutions › Defense stocks are making headlines amid a surge in global military activity and national security spending. The market is gearing up for a multiyear rearmament cycle, and defense companies' backlogs are growing substantially. Two under-the-radar defense stocks that are poised for growth are Kratos (NASDAQ: KTOS) and Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB). While many investors focus on the big-name prime contractors, mid-tier companies are shaking up high-growth niches in the defense industry. 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 » If you're looking to grow your portfolio, now may be the time to consider Kratos and Rocket Lab. But which one is the better buy today? Let's dive into the details and find out. Kratos is disrupting the defense industry with affordable technology Kratos is a dedicated defense contractor with most of its business focused on national security. Last year, roughly 68% of its total revenue came from the U.S. government, including foreign military sales. The company primarily focuses on unmanned aerial systems, satellite ground stations, microwave electronics, and missile defense. What makes Kratos appealing is that it is a disruptive mid-tier contractor that builds high-tech hardware at a lower cost than prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin or RTX. Kratos says that "affordability is a technology" and aims to be the first to market with cost-effective sol...
Since ChatGPT’s debut, AI has been framed as everything from a world-changing breakthrough to an existential threat. Companies are pouring hundreds of billions into the space as commentators debate potentially utopian and dystopian futures. But researchers like Princeton’s Arvind Narayanan argue the reality may be more incremental – a powerful technology that will reshape work and productivity ove...
Since ChatGPT’s debut, AI has been framed as everything from a world-changing breakthrough to an existential threat. Companies are pouring hundreds of billions into the space as commentators debate potentially utopian and dystopian futures. But researchers like Princeton’s Arvind Narayanan argue the reality may be more incremental – a powerful technology that will reshape work and productivity over time, without overturning the basic limits of economics, labor, or human decision-making. (Source: Bloomberg)
One morning last year, Jacobus Louw set out on his daily neighborhood walk to feed the seagulls he finds along the way. Except this time, he recorded several videos of his feet and the view as he walked on the pavement. The video earned him $14, about 10 times the country’s minimum wage, or for Louw, a 27-year-old based in Cape Town, South Africa, half a week’s worth of groceries. The Guardian’s j...
One morning last year, Jacobus Louw set out on his daily neighborhood walk to feed the seagulls he finds along the way. Except this time, he recorded several videos of his feet and the view as he walked on the pavement. The video earned him $14, about 10 times the country’s minimum wage, or for Louw, a 27-year-old based in Cape Town, South Africa, half a week’s worth of groceries. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. The video was for an “Urban Navigation” task Louw found on Kled AI, an app that pays contributors for uploading their data, such as videos and photos, to train artificial intelligence models. In a couple of weeks, Louw made $50 by uploading pictures and videos of his everyday life. Thousands of miles away in Ranchi, India, Sahil Tigga, a 22-year-old student, regularly earns money by letting Silencio, which crowdsources audio data for AI training, access his phone’s microphone to capture ambient city noise, such as inside a restaurant or traffic at a busy junction. He also uploads recordings of his voice. Sahil travels to capture unique settings, like hotel lobbies not yet documented on Silencio’s map. He earns over $100 a month doing this, enough to cover all his food expenses. And in Chicago, Ramelio Hill, an 18-year-old welding apprentice, made a couple hundred dollars by selling his private phone chats with friends and family to Neon Mobile, a conversational AI training platform that pays $0.50 per minute. For Hill, the calculation was simple: he figured tech companies already capture so much of his private data, so he might as well get a cut of the profit. These gig AI trainers – who upload everything from scenes around them to photos, videos and audio of themselves – are at the frontlines of a new global data gold rush. As Silicon Valley’s hunger for high-quality, human-grade data outpaces what can be scraped from the open internet, a thriving industry of dat...
There is no subtle way to receive heating oil deliveries in rural Northern Ireland: clearly marked tankers trundle through roads and lanes and park outside homes while they replenish storage tanks. The trucks’ comings and goings are visible to the entire community, indicating which households have stocked up on oil, and that is a problem because criminals monitor deliveries to identify targets. St...
There is no subtle way to receive heating oil deliveries in rural Northern Ireland: clearly marked tankers trundle through roads and lanes and park outside homes while they replenish storage tanks. The trucks’ comings and goings are visible to the entire community, indicating which households have stocked up on oil, and that is a problem because criminals monitor deliveries to identify targets. Stealing heating oil and other fuels is a decades-old practice in this part of the UK but the conflict in the Middle East has worsened it by ratcheting up the price of “liquid gold”. “Rural homes and farms are increasingly being targeted by opportunistic thieves,” said Gary McCartney, the regional director of Countryside Alliance Ireland. “A tank can be drained in minutes. “We urge rural residents to remain vigilant.” Police have issued alerts and posted security tips on how to deter a crime that can leave victims facing bills of thousands of pounds to replace oil, repair broken equipment and clean up biohazards. Gareth Kelly and Aimee Leigh Brolly, a couple in Limavady, County Derry, woke up last week to choking fumes from an oil line severed by thieves during the night. The couple, who have a newborn son, vacated their home, deeming it unsafe. Oil thefts are not unique to Northern Ireland but as one of Europe’s most dependent regions – 62% of households use oil for heating, and in rural areas the figure is 80% – it is especially vulnerable to price shocks and theft. View image in fullscreen A former police officer said heating oil theft is more opportunistic than organised. Photograph: CAZIMB/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News. The Police Service of Northern Ireland was unable to provide statistics on recent cases but the Rural Community Network, an umbrella group, believes theft is widespread. “We think it is hugely underreported, especially in rural areas and places that are isolated,” said Kate Clifford, the chief executive. Since the US and Israel began attacking Iran on...
Washington’s deployment of an amphibious assault ship from Japan to the Middle East could signal a temporary reduction in US military capacity in the Indo-Pacific region but will not necessarily diminish its deterrence of China, according to analysts. According to American media reports, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli has left its home port in Japan and is making its way to the Middle Eas...
Washington’s deployment of an amphibious assault ship from Japan to the Middle East could signal a temporary reduction in US military capacity in the Indo-Pacific region but will not necessarily diminish its deterrence of China, according to analysts. According to American media reports, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli has left its home port in Japan and is making its way to the Middle East, carrying 2,500 marines on board. According to Marinetraffic.com, which monitors ships based on automatic identification system data, an “unspecified US warship” was last tracked departing Okinawa and manoeuvring through the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean as of Thursday. Advertisement The Tripoli is based in Sasebo in Kyushu, Japan, facing the East China Sea . It is effectively a small aircraft carrier that carries F-35 stealth fighters and MV-22 Osprey transports as well as landing craft to move troops ashore. The USS Tripoli serves as the lead ship in an amphibious ready group, usually accompanied by the amphibious transport docks USS New Orleans and USS San Diego. Photo: Handout It serves as the lead ship in an amphibious ready group, usually accompanied by the amphibious transport docks USS New Orleans and USS San Diego, though it is unknown whether these ships are also en route to the Middle East. Advertisement According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon ordered the Tripoli to transport additional American troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), a rapid-response force comprising about 2,200 personnel.
For decades, humans have sought to harness the power of the stars to generate electricity here on Earth. And for nearly as long, achieving that goal always seemed just a decade away. Now, a slew of startups are closer than ever before and rushing to build fusion reactors capable of putting power on the grid. Fusion startups have drawn more than $10 billion in investment, with more than a dozen rai...
For decades, humans have sought to harness the power of the stars to generate electricity here on Earth. And for nearly as long, achieving that goal always seemed just a decade away. Now, a slew of startups are closer than ever before and rushing to build fusion reactors capable of putting power on the grid. Fusion startups have drawn more than $10 billion in investment, with more than a dozen raising over $100 million. Many large funding rounds have closed in the last year, with investors drawn to the industry as energy demand from data centers ramps up and as fusion startups draw closer to the finish line. At its core, fusion power seeks to use the energy released from the fusing of atoms to generate electricity. Humans have known how to fuse atoms for decades, from the hydrogen bomb — an example of uncontrolled nuclear fusion — to any of the myriad fusion devices built in labs around the world. Experimental fusion devices have been able to control nuclear fusion, and one has been able to generate more energy than was required to spark the reaction. But none of them have been able to produce enough of a surplus to make a power plant possible. To solve that problem, fusion startups are trying a number of different approaches. Experts have varying opinions on which have the best chance of success, though the industry is still in its infancy, so nothing is guaranteed. Here is a brief overview of the main approaches to fusion power. Techcrunch event Disrupt 2026: The tech ecosystem, all in one room Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to save up to $400. Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit 1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-wor...
is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn’t fully understand the technology, she was curious about what it could d...
is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn’t fully understand the technology, she was curious about what it could do, and she saw that other artists were building online communities to share their new AI creations. The hope of connecting with people drew Veatch into the AI space, but once she was there, she was shocked to see how often the technology would generate images dripping with racism and sexism. Veatch was even more unsettled by the way her new AI-enthusiast peers did not seem to care that the machine they rallied around spewed out hateful, bigoted garbage without being explicitly prompted to do so. The bizarre situation drove Veatch away from her early experimentation with gen AI. But it also inspired her to make Ghost in the Machine, a new documentary about the technologies and schools of thought that laid the groundwork for gen AI’s existence. Instead of focusing on the potential (if highly improbable) benefits to society that gen AI accelerationists swear are just around the corner, Ghost in the Machine explores the technology’s history to explain why it works the way it does now. When I recently spoke with Veatch about the film, she told me that she wanted to chronicle gen AI’s genesis to give people a clear view of the very intense cycle of industry hype we’re currently living through. First, however, she had to cut through AI firms’ purposeful obfuscation of the entire concept. “In order to use the phrase ‘artificial intelligence,’ we have to know what the fuck that phrase means,” Veatch told me over a video call. “The truth is, it doesn’t mean anything; it’s a marketing term and always has been. It’s a completely misleading, stupid phrase that has taken on its own cultu...
Zero Gravity Labs Inc Logo With NVIDIA, OpenAI, and enterprise players racing to build agent infrastructure, 0G delivers the onchain layer where autonomous AI agents compute, store, and transact - live on mainnet San Francisco, CA, March 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the AI industry converges on autonomous agents as the next major computing paradigm, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang projecting a $1 ...
Zero Gravity Labs Inc Logo With NVIDIA, OpenAI, and enterprise players racing to build agent infrastructure, 0G delivers the onchain layer where autonomous AI agents compute, store, and transact - live on mainnet San Francisco, CA, March 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the AI industry converges on autonomous agents as the next major computing paradigm, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang projecting a $1 trillion agentic AI opportunity at GTC 2026 and OpenAI releasing GPT-5.4 models designed specifically for multi-agent architectures - 0G (Zero Gravity) is staking its position as the blockchain purpose-built for AI agents. 0G Positions as the Blockchain for AI Agents as Industry Moves Toward $1 Trillion Agentic AI Economy With NVIDIA, OpenAI, and enterprise players racing to build agent infrastructure, 0G delivers the onchain layer. 0G’s Aristotle Mainnet, live since September 2025, provides the three capabilities every autonomous AI agent needs to operate independently: verified compute, persistent memory, and onchain settlement. Why AI Agents Need Their Own Blockchain The AI agent economy is accelerating faster than most of the industry anticipated. This week alone: NVIDIA open-sourced NemoClaw, a guardrails framework for autonomous agents, and projected agentic AI as a trillion-dollar revenue category OpenAI launched GPT-5.4 mini and nano - its first models explicitly architected for subagent and multi-agent systems Solana reported 55 live AI agents generating $52,000 in daily revenue Binance indexed over 1,600 AI agents through its Agent Skills Hub But agents running on centralized infrastructure inherit a fundamental problem: they depend on providers who can revoke access, monitor inputs, or shut down operations at any time. For AI agents to be truly autonomous, they need infrastructure that no single party controls. “AI agents are software that makes decisions and takes actions on behalf of users. If those agents run on infrastructure controlled by someone else, they ...
What are baby boomers worth right now, on average? The exact number depends on who you ask and what you mean by "average net worth." Baby boomers' age range is between 62 and 80. If you're using the frequently cited numbers from the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, the average net worth for people between the ages of 65 and 74 is $1.78 million. The 75-and-up crowd's net w...
What are baby boomers worth right now, on average? The exact number depends on who you ask and what you mean by "average net worth." Baby boomers' age range is between 62 and 80. If you're using the frequently cited numbers from the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, the average net worth for people between the ages of 65 and 74 is $1.78 million. The 75-and-up crowd's net worth, as well as the 55-to-64 cohort's, wasn't too far behind that figure. It sounds like a lot, but you'll want to take that $1.78 million figure with a grain of salt. While that's a respectable average, it's skewed higher by a small number of ultra-wealthy people. The more meaningful median -- or midpoint -- figure for 65-to-74-year-olds is a much lower $410,000 (and again, the people immediately above and below this age range are worth slightly less). You should also know that this data was gathered in 2022 (the last time the Federal Reserve conducted this survey), when the COVID-19 pandemic was still undermining incomes and economic activity. Much has changed for the better since then, most likely including these figures. That being said, bear in mind that total net worth includes assets like real estate, vehicles, and investments minus any debt. It's different from liquid net worth, which is just assets that can readily be converted into cash. In this vein, the average amount of money that these baby boomers have tucked away in retirement accounts is $609,000, while the median -- or midpoint -- retirement savings is a measurably lower $200,000. Investors who are immediately older or younger than this group also once again have slightly less saved in retirement accounts.
Old West Investment Management went all in on energy stocks when oil was trading around $60 a barrel, Nicolás Maduro was still president of Venezuela and the prospect of a Middle East conflict that would send the world into a crisis was still only a distant worst-case scenario. By the end of February, even before the Iran war sent energy prices soaring, the wager had driven the firm’s flagship fun...
Old West Investment Management went all in on energy stocks when oil was trading around $60 a barrel, Nicolás Maduro was still president of Venezuela and the prospect of a Middle East conflict that would send the world into a crisis was still only a distant worst-case scenario. By the end of February, even before the Iran war sent energy prices soaring, the wager had driven the firm’s flagship fund to a 31% return this year — just not entirely for the reasons that its chief investment officer expected. “I don’t know if we were lucky in it or just that these types of events highlight the importance of those types of scarce resources,” said Brian Laks , the CIO of Old West, which oversees about $1 billion of investments. Old West’s decision to increase its energy-stock exposure from the single digits to over 30% of its holdings stemmed from a call that looked far more predictable. Many in the industry had been expecting oil prices to drop as new supplies hit the market and slowing growth curbed demand. When that didn’t happen, it appeared the sector’s stocks were poised to rally back from a lagging run. That’s exactly what happened as Trump administration’s capture of Maduro, its hardline approach toward Iran and the impacts of Russian sanctions pushed oil prices higher. Then prices surged anew this month after the US and Israel started bombing Iran, miring the region in an escalating conflict that’s shuttered a key shipping lane and pushed oil to over $110 a barrel. “It’s an interesting problem to have: we make this big rotation into an area, and within the first one to two months, a lot of the stocks are up 30% to 50%,” Laks added. “For the most part, that’s what people usually look for as a great return for the total lifespan of an investment.” The decision has catapulted the small Los Angeles hedge fund to returns that have eclipsed some of its bigger and better-known peers. It outpaced oil-trader Pierre Andurand ’s main hedge fund, which gained 19% through March ...
Tesla Inc. (ISIN: US88160R1014) navigates challenging market dynamics with recent production figures and analyst adjustments drawing investor focus. German-speaking investors in DACH region should monitor EV demand trends and regulatory shifts impacting global auto sector exposure. Latest developments highlight resilience amid volatility. Tesla Inc. stock has encountered headwinds in early 2026, r...
Tesla Inc. (ISIN: US88160R1014) navigates challenging market dynamics with recent production figures and analyst adjustments drawing investor focus. German-speaking investors in DACH region should monitor EV demand trends and regulatory shifts impacting global auto sector exposure. Latest developments highlight resilience amid volatility. Tesla Inc. stock has encountered headwinds in early 2026, reflecting broader electric vehicle market challenges and company-specific production updates. Shares on Nasdaq recently traded around $368 USD, down over 3% in a session, amid concerns over softening demand and competitive pressures. For DACH investors, this matters due to Europe's stringent EV mandates and Tesla's significant factory presence in Germany, influencing local supply chains and energy costs. As of: 21.03.2026 By Dr. Elena Voss, Senior Auto Sector Analyst – Tracking EV innovation and European market integration for institutional investors. Recent Market Trigger: Production and Delivery Figures Tesla released its latest quarterly production and delivery numbers, showing resilience despite a tough environment. Global EV demand has softened, but Tesla maintained output at key facilities, including Gigafactory Berlin. This update triggered stock volatility as investors assessed if the company can sustain growth amid rising competition from Chinese rivals. Analysts note that while deliveries met lowered expectations, margins remain under scrutiny due to price cuts implemented earlier. The market reacted with a pullback, highlighting sensitivity to volume guidance. DACH investors benefit from Tesla's European expansion, which bolsters local job creation and tech transfer. Key metrics indicate steady Cybertruck ramp-up alongside Model Y refreshes. Yet, inventory levels signal caution, prompting questions on pricing power. This development underscores why timely data drives trading in high-growth autos. Stock Performance on Nasdaq The Tesla Inc. stock was last seen on N...