Alvin Man United Airlines ( UAL ) is planning an ambitious expansion of its fleet and service with the addition of more than 250 aircraft over the next two years—the most by any airline during this timeframe. Since announcing its “United Next” growth strategy in 2021, the carrier has added 326 Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus ( EADSF ) ( EADSY ) aircraft to its fleet, completed 70% of its plan to retrofit...
Alvin Man United Airlines ( UAL ) is planning an ambitious expansion of its fleet and service with the addition of more than 250 aircraft over the next two years—the most by any airline during this timeframe. Since announcing its “United Next” growth strategy in 2021, the carrier has added 326 Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus ( EADSF ) ( EADSY ) aircraft to its fleet, completed 70% of its plan to retrofit its mainline, narrow-body fleet, replaced more than 100 regional jets, and increased premium seats by 40%. The new aircraft added to United’s ( UAL ) current fleet include the new Airbus ( EADSF ) ( EADSY ) A321neo Coastliner and A321XLR, the addition of which will mean United ( UAL ) now offers double the “lie-flat seats” of its closest competitor. The Coastline will be used primarily for transcontinental flights, while the A321XLR will be used for international routes. The company is also taking delivery of 47 Boeing ( BA ) 787-9 Dreamliners with an elevated interior. 33 of which will be configured with additional premium seats, becoming United’s ( UAL ) “most premium international aircraft yet.” The inaugural flight for this craft is scheduled for April 22 to fly from San Francisco to Singapore. "These new planes and products not only complement our fleet and network plans, but they also give our customers more premium amenity and seat choices,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement . The new fleet comes at the same time as airlines are faced with higher fuel costs and the potential for travelers to reconsider flying amid security delays and tighter wallets. Recently, Kirby warned that higher jet fuel prices will impact the carrier’s bottom line “soon.” But although United is adding planes to its regional carrier and 119 Boeing 737 MAXs, it’s banking on its premium customers to drive profits. In its most recent quarterly results, United ( UAL ) said premium revenue increased 9% for the quarter and 11% for the year compared to +7% and +5% for basic economy, respecti...
Maksim Labkouski/iStock via Getty Images By Bert Colijn, Chief Economist, Netherlands Ahead of the Middle East conflict, optimism among European businesses was strong. Growth was maintaining a decent pace over previous quarters, and expectations of increased public investment were boosting hopes of a rebound among manufacturers. But the war has put paid to hopes of short-term growth acceleration. ...
Maksim Labkouski/iStock via Getty Images By Bert Colijn, Chief Economist, Netherlands Ahead of the Middle East conflict, optimism among European businesses was strong. Growth was maintaining a decent pace over previous quarters, and expectations of increased public investment were boosting hopes of a rebound among manufacturers. But the war has put paid to hopes of short-term growth acceleration. Businesses were much less optimistic in March, according to the Purchasing Managers' Index, and reported significant increases in input costs and supply chain disruptions. The bright spot was the manufacturing sector, where the output PMI remained broadly stable (51.7 compared to 51.9 in February). This still indicates decent output growth for now, but the mood among manufacturers for the months ahead has become more downbeat. The eurozone’s vulnerabilities are once again laid bare. For energy-intensive industry, this means that a recovery will be harder to achieve, which matters significantly for overall production. And consumers are less confident with prices at the pump having jumped, which means that household consumption could be under pressure despite decent wage growth. The services PMI already reported a big decline, from 51.9 to 50.1. For the eurozone economy, a return to strength depends very much on the length of the Middle East conflict. A fairly fast end would boost hopes of a more modest impact on consumer prices and would increase chances of a rebound for industry. But as today’s PMI illustrates, business conditions have worsened for the moment, and optimism is taking a hit. Content Disclaimer This publication has been prepared by ING solely for information purposes irrespective of a particular user's means, financial situation or investment objectives. The information does not constitute investment recommendation, and nor is it investment, legal or tax advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any financial instrument. Read more . Original Post
Alones Creative Oil prices ( CL1:COM ), ( CO1:COM ) will take a couple of quarters to return to the comfortable $70-80 per barrel range even after a diplomatic agreement is reached on the Strait of Hormuz crisis, according to Aditya Saraswat, Rystad Energy’s Research Director for the MENA region. In an interview with CNBC, Saraswat cautioned that despite recent headlines suggesting negotiations be...
Alones Creative Oil prices ( CL1:COM ), ( CO1:COM ) will take a couple of quarters to return to the comfortable $70-80 per barrel range even after a diplomatic agreement is reached on the Strait of Hormuz crisis, according to Aditya Saraswat, Rystad Energy’s Research Director for the MENA region. In an interview with CNBC, Saraswat cautioned that despite recent headlines suggesting negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, the resumption of energy trade through the critical waterway remains months away. The current market volatility is being driven by “headline arbitrage” rather than fundamentals, Saraswat explained, pointing to the whiplash that followed President Trump’s Truth Social post suggesting negotiations with Iran were underway. Prices dropped nearly 10% before recovering when Iranian officials denied the talks were happening. The Rystad analyst emphasized that this is “a military and a political problem, which is something that energy markets and especially the oil and gas markets cannot solve on its own.” The disruption has already become the largest in the history of oil markets, with active field closures occurring across the region. The Strait of Hormuz accounts for approximately 20% of global oil and LNG trade, with the majority flowing toward Asian markets. “We are months away from resumption of energy trade through the Strait of Hormuz,” Saraswat said, noting that even once de-escalation begins, there will be an additional lag of about a month before supply resumption can follow. Operational challenges will further complicate any recovery. With storage facilities at full capacity, operators in the Gulf will need two to four weeks to bring shut-in fields back to pre-conflict production levels, depending on the maturity of the fields and any damages incurred during the shutdown process. Even after traffic begins to normalize, high premiums will persist as the market tests the durability of any political resolution. Saraswat expects shipping traffic to ...
A former Hong Kong civil servant has been jailed for 12 months for threatening to burn down the newsrooms of the South China Morning Post and five other media outlets if they refused to publish seditious material he had created to frame the husband of his former girlfriend. West Kowloon Court on Tuesday heard the guilty pleas from Tse Chun-pan, 43, who had set up a website selling merchandise them...
A former Hong Kong civil servant has been jailed for 12 months for threatening to burn down the newsrooms of the South China Morning Post and five other media outlets if they refused to publish seditious material he had created to frame the husband of his former girlfriend. West Kowloon Court on Tuesday heard the guilty pleas from Tse Chun-pan, 43, who had set up a website selling merchandise themed around the 2019 anti-government protests and demanded that six local media publish screenshots of...
DeepSeek , the Chinese AI startup challenging the leaders of Silicon Valley, posted a cluster of job openings for specialists in agentic artificial intelligence and other positions, as enthusiasm for the technology that can carry out tasks without human intervention grips China. The 17 job postings include roles for Agent Deep Learning Algorithm Researcher, Agent Data Evaluation Expert and Agent I...
DeepSeek , the Chinese AI startup challenging the leaders of Silicon Valley, posted a cluster of job openings for specialists in agentic artificial intelligence and other positions, as enthusiasm for the technology that can carry out tasks without human intervention grips China. The 17 job postings include roles for Agent Deep Learning Algorithm Researcher, Agent Data Evaluation Expert and Agent Infrastructure Engineer. Other openings describe the need for candidates to become “deeply involved in the application of DeepSeek models in search, content creation, multi-modal and agent scenarios.” No salary ranges were disclosed. The recruiting site listings mark a move beyond traditional large language models popularized by the likes of OpenAI and toward AI agents, which are increasingly used for planning, reasoning and operating across digital environments with minimal human oversight. China has been seized by an agentic fever over the past few weeks as local companies and consumers rapidly adopt OpenClaw, open source software that can be plugged into messaging services like WhatsApp and WeChat. DeepSeek, which exploded on the global tech scene just over a year ago with the debut of its R-1 reasoning model , has been expected to unveil a new version of its flagship model any day. But the secretive Hangzhou-based startup hasn’t announced the new technology or publicly discussed the timing. DeepSeek didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment for this story. Read More: DeepSeek’s ‘Tech Madman’ Is Threatening US Dominance Over AI Chinese media reports suggest the anticipated DeepSeek V4 is optimized for coding and long-context software engineering tasks. The startup is also collaborating with domestic chipmakers Huawei Technologies Co. and Cambricon Technologies Corp. to fine-tune its models through close hardware integration. In the meantime, the company has been leaning heavily into agentic AI, launching DeepSeek-V3.2 in December, with designs to transform founda...
Kwangmoozaa/iStock via Getty Images Since my previous article on auto parts manufacturer Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. ( CPS ), the company has reported Q4 and FY2025 earnings and completed a refinancing of its debt. Although Q4 2025 earnings came in below expectations, the business continued to exhibit the margin expansion that is core to my investment thesis, and the miss was driven by temporary...
Kwangmoozaa/iStock via Getty Images Since my previous article on auto parts manufacturer Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. ( CPS ), the company has reported Q4 and FY2025 earnings and completed a refinancing of its debt. Although Q4 2025 earnings came in below expectations, the business continued to exhibit the margin expansion that is core to my investment thesis, and the miss was driven by temporary disruption of production at Ford Motor Company ( F ), which should be made up in 2026. The company’s debt refinancing, which was completed a few days after earnings were announced, was a little disappointing. I had initially hoped that the company might save up to $20m in yearly interest expense by paying down some of the debt with cash on hand, drawing on the ABL facility at a lower interest rate and refinancing the rest, however, they instead chose to refinance the full amount, saving perhaps £6m at most. This means a bump in EPS of $0.32 vs the $1+ I had hoped for. The market seems to agree that this refinancing was sub-optimal, as it has given up all its post-earnings and immediate post-refinancing gains. As a result, the risk/reward continues to be attractive, despite slight downward adjustments to my long-term EPS targets. I still think $10+ EPS is possible by 2030, hence, with the stock around $29, I re-iterate my Buy rating. Earnings Review Cooper-Standard reported Q4 and FY2025 earnings on 12 February 2026. Adjusted EPS of -$1.73 for the quarter missed by a 60 cent margin, but revenue of $672.4m beat by $30.9m and was up 1.8% year-over-year. GAAP EPS was actually positive at $0.18 a share. The difference is largely accounted for by a “deferred tax valuation allowance reversal”, as it was in Q4 2024. This means that the company, through a lack of profitability, has acquired deferred tax assets, meaning that when it becomes profitable again, it will be allowed to pay less tax on those profits by offsetting them against previous losses. These deferred tax assets get ...
Stocks were in retreat Tuesday, giving up some of the previous session's gains, as investors continued to worry about the war in Iran. All four major U.S. indices — the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 — were down. Iran has started charging transit fees on some commercial vessels passing ...
Stocks were in retreat Tuesday, giving up some of the previous session's gains, as investors continued to worry about the war in Iran. All four major U.S. indices — the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 — were down. Iran has started charging transit fees on some commercial vessels passing ...
Getty Images Elevator Thesis IREN Limited ( IREN ) has been shaking the AI cloud industry. IREN is a fast-pivoting AI compute company that started as a Bitcoin miner. Simply put, it offers the power and infrastructure that companies require to execute large-scale AI workloads with great speed and efficiency. The company is already executing GPU deployments, which puts its transformation into full ...
Getty Images Elevator Thesis IREN Limited ( IREN ) has been shaking the AI cloud industry. IREN is a fast-pivoting AI compute company that started as a Bitcoin miner. Simply put, it offers the power and infrastructure that companies require to execute large-scale AI workloads with great speed and efficiency. The company is already executing GPU deployments, which puts its transformation into full swing. To say the least, the heavyweights are already on board with IREN. For example, Microsoft ( MSFT ) signed a multi-year AI agreement, Nvidia ( NVDA ) is providing the GPUs, and Dell Technologies ( DELL ) is powering the major infrastructure. Even CoreWeave ( CRWV ) and Nebius ( NBIS ) are also showcasing what can be done in neoclouds. However, IREN is taking a step further in its vertically integrated approach. It aligns power, hardware, and enterprise contracts in a meaningful way. Moreover, the physical stack ownership enables IREN to convert the capacity into revenue more quickly than the competitors that depend on third-party hosts. Kent Draper, the Chief Commercial Officer of IREN, claimed in Q2 2026 earnings call , “Demand is not the constraint for us.” That is what backs my point. Execution, not interest, is the real constraint in AI infrastructure. Furthermore, IREN’s initial performance is already showing results. The revenue of AI Cloud Services is increasing with Bitcoin mining financing the pivot. The stock is currently trading at around $41. Within the present configuration, it can grow in the next few months, provided deployments remain on time. Things may go even faster in case AI revenue increases faster than predicted or new partnerships are formed. There are risks, but I view IREN as a Buy with a long runway. Execution is already underway, and for those investors who can withstand a bit of volatility, there is clear upside potential. The Moat: Power, Vertical Integration, and Speed to Compute Speed and reliability cannot be purchased through money al...
tupungato/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Thesis Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. ( PLAY ) operates a chain of restaurants and entertainment centers with arcade games across North America. When I last covered PLAY, I rated it a Hold because the valuation looked inexpensive, but weak comps and slow growth made it hard to justify a more bullish call. Since that note, the stock has been hammered...
tupungato/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Thesis Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. ( PLAY ) operates a chain of restaurants and entertainment centers with arcade games across North America. When I last covered PLAY, I rated it a Hold because the valuation looked inexpensive, but weak comps and slow growth made it hard to justify a more bullish call. Since that note, the stock has been hammered. Seeking Alpha Another slice of that drop happened yesterday (even though most of the overall market was green), thus continuing its steady decline to fresh lows in search of a new support level. TradingView Historically speaking, PLAY is a newcomer, starting its trading life in late 2014. Before it ever hit the market, it showed up in pop culture via a 2009 episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia called “ The Great Recession ,” where Dennis informs Frank (Danny DeVito) that 'if you’re looking for a better steak in an arcade setting, you are [censored] out of luck. ' Worth a watch if you’re craving a dose of absurd, brilliant comedy and a nostalgic satire of an equally absurd moment in the markets. Today, based on momentum alone, you could say Dave & Buster's appears to be in a crisis of its own, not unlike the Global Financial Crisis of the time. Which raises the obvious question: is this a breakdown or an opportunity? It’s been over six months since my last coverage. With earnings scheduled for the end of the month, I got back up to speed on the company, looking for a possible contrarian play or a chance to start a position. That said, I'm still neutral. I'd really like to see clearer proof that the company’s operational reset is actually leading to steady customer demand and more reliable, long-term profitability before getting bullish. Dave & Buster's: Pressing Start on Eat-Drink-Play Again Comparable store sales , Q3 months (Aug–Sep): weaker and contributed to the -4% quarterly comp October: improved to about -1% November: similar to October (-1%). The last quart...
Moscow appears to step up spring offensive amid concerns international focus on Iran war leaves Kyiv more vulnerable Russia has launched a fresh wave of missile and drone strikes on civilian areas across Ukraine, killing at least five people, as Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance along the front. Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and ...
Moscow appears to step up spring offensive amid concerns international focus on Iran war leaves Kyiv more vulnerable Russia has launched a fresh wave of missile and drone strikes on civilian areas across Ukraine, killing at least five people, as Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance along the front. Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and 23 cruise missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, marking one of the largest attacks in weeks after a relative lull. Continue reading...
Brown Advisory, an investment management company, released its “Brown Advisory Mid-Cap Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy lagged the Russell Midcap® Growth Index in the fourth quarter due to stock selection. The performance was in line with expectations for the full year. The firm believes […]
Brown Advisory, an investment management company, released its “Brown Advisory Mid-Cap Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy lagged the Russell Midcap® Growth Index in the fourth quarter due to stock selection. The performance was in line with expectations for the full year. The firm believes […]