Recurring applications for US unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in almost two years, declining by 32,000 to 1.819 million in the week ended March 14. Initial claims increased by 5,000 last week, to 210,000. Michael McKee reports on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)
Recurring applications for US unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in almost two years, declining by 32,000 to 1.819 million in the week ended March 14. Initial claims increased by 5,000 last week, to 210,000. Michael McKee reports on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)
A 34-year-old woman has been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of concealing a child’s birth after a newborn boy was found abandoned in a toilet rubbish bin and later declared dead at hospital. Wan Chai district crime squad officers arrested the woman in Eastern district on Thursday. She was held for questioning. A cleaner at Lee Theatre Plaza on Percival Street in Causeway Bay discovered the inf...
A 34-year-old woman has been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of concealing a child’s birth after a newborn boy was found abandoned in a toilet rubbish bin and later declared dead at hospital. Wan Chai district crime squad officers arrested the woman in Eastern district on Thursday. She was held for questioning. A cleaner at Lee Theatre Plaza on Percival Street in Causeway Bay discovered the infant – umbilical cord still attached – in a rubbish bin inside a cubicle in the women’s restroom at...
My top 10 things to watch Thursday, March 26 1. Oil prices, bond yields and Washington's apparent talks with the Iranian regime are all going the wrong way for the stock market. Futures are pointing to a lower open this morning. Very difficult backdrop to commit a lot of capital. 2. Bernstein with a big call, downgrading Qualcomm to hold from buy. Analysts lowered estimates on concerns that sky-hi...
My top 10 things to watch Thursday, March 26 1. Oil prices, bond yields and Washington's apparent talks with the Iranian regime are all going the wrong way for the stock market. Futures are pointing to a lower open this morning. Very difficult backdrop to commit a lot of capital. 2. Bernstein with a big call, downgrading Qualcomm to hold from buy. Analysts lowered estimates on concerns that sky-high memory prices are pressuring the smartphone market this year. Qualcomm has fallen out of favor. I think Wall Street prefers Arm Holdings here after Arm unveiled its first in-house chip for data centers. That's also a new pursuit for Qualcomm. 3. Adobe is back under fire. William Blair downgraded the stock to a hold from buy, citing on intense AI competition in its core creative cloud business. My take: This is one of those companies that is just way too highly valued for what it does. It charges too much, has no dividend and has declining earnings power. 4. Mizuho started coverage of Tyson Foods with a buy, saying increased protein demand from consumers seeking nutrient-rich diets is a tailwind for the Jimmy Dean owner. Analysts also said Tyson's heavy reinvestment over the past five years to improve its supply chain should make it more profitable. It's an interesting idea, but Tyson is a chronically weak reporter. 5. UBS upgraded Nucor to a buy from hold and upped its price target to $190 from $184. The firm argued the stock's recent decline is overblown and that U.S. steel producers are largely protected from the Iran-U.S. war. I really like this call. Business is very good, but people don't want to buy a steel company in an economic slowdown. They want to buy the drugmakers. 6. Some analysts are going to bat for Celsius after the stock has tumbled 13% this week on headlines about Costco's new, much cheaper Kirkland Signature energy drink. JPMorgan called the sell-off overdone. Citi said private label has historically failed to win share. We still like Costco for the C...
jittawit.21/iStock via Getty Images OPKO Health, Inc. ( OPK ) is one of my oldest positions in my portfolio. It has not been a good performer for me, but I do continue to hold the stock. The company has been going through a transition in the business. It is slimming down and putting more focus back on drug development and getting its pipeline through the FDA approval process. The company has long-...
jittawit.21/iStock via Getty Images OPKO Health, Inc. ( OPK ) is one of my oldest positions in my portfolio. It has not been a good performer for me, but I do continue to hold the stock. The company has been going through a transition in the business. It is slimming down and putting more focus back on drug development and getting its pipeline through the FDA approval process. The company has long-term potential due to that drug pipeline. It has a lot of good candidates and has partnered with a few different companies to help develop and bring those drugs to market. At this point in time, those drug candidates are in the early stages of the process. Nothing is likely to see much movement during 2026. I see the long-term potential but don't see a lot of movement happening in the near future. Diagnostic Business The company operates in two segments, one of those being the diagnostics business. The company is in the process of reducing the size of the operations in the diagnostics business. A big part of that is the sale of the BioReference business. This is a nationwide, full-service clinical laboratory. The company has sold the majority of this business and is now in the process of reducing the headcount and operations. I went into more detail on this process in previous articles . I expect this process will take a good part of 2026 to get fully cleaned up and running efficiently. They are focusing on rightsizing the ship and becoming profitable within the unit. The company completed the sale of the BioReference business during the third quarter, which means that the fourth quarter is the first full quarter since the transaction closed. Management noted on the earnings call that the post-transaction operations represented $300 million in revenue during 2025. They also stated that they expect the BioReference business will "deliver positive operating income and cash flow in 2026." The quarter showed that the company still has some progress to make if they want to hit t...
Skoda entered China in 2005 through a partnership with SAIC Motor Corp. Photo: VCG Volkswagen AG’s Skoda brand will stop selling cars in China by mid-2026, marking another retreat by a legacy global automaker from the world’s most competitive auto market. Volkswagen Group China confirmed the decision on March 26, saying Skoda will pivot to faster-growing markets such as India and Southeast Asia. T...
Skoda entered China in 2005 through a partnership with SAIC Motor Corp. Photo: VCG Volkswagen AG’s Skoda brand will stop selling cars in China by mid-2026, marking another retreat by a legacy global automaker from the world’s most competitive auto market. Volkswagen Group China confirmed the decision on March 26, saying Skoda will pivot to faster-growing markets such as India and Southeast Asia. The brand has struggled to keep pace with China’s rapid shift to electric vehicles and bruising price competition.
Despite the sluggish start to 2026, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) remains at the very front of the AI chip race, and its CEO Jensen Huang arguably remain the face of the AI revolution. With Vera Rubin chips ahead, and circular deals that might actually be creating great loyalty on the part of firms getting in on the ... NVIDIA Owns the Spotlight, But the Smart Money is Moving Downstream
Despite the sluggish start to 2026, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) remains at the very front of the AI chip race, and its CEO Jensen Huang arguably remain the face of the AI revolution. With Vera Rubin chips ahead, and circular deals that might actually be creating great loyalty on the part of firms getting in on the ... NVIDIA Owns the Spotlight, But the Smart Money is Moving Downstream
European lawmakers have voted to delay key parts of the EU AI Act, the bloc's flagship law for regulating artificial intelligence, while also backing proposals to ban nudify apps. The measures, approved by a large majority in the European Parliament, would push back compliance deadlines for developers of high-risk AI systems - those deemed to pose a "serious risk" to health, safety, or fundamental...
European lawmakers have voted to delay key parts of the EU AI Act, the bloc's flagship law for regulating artificial intelligence, while also backing proposals to ban nudify apps. The measures, approved by a large majority in the European Parliament, would push back compliance deadlines for developers of high-risk AI systems - those deemed to pose a "serious risk" to health, safety, or fundamental rights - until December 2027. Companies developing AI systems covered by sector-specific safety rules like toys or medical devices would have even longer to comply, with a proposed deadline of August 2028. Rules requiring providers to watermark A … Read the full story at The Verge.
TomasSereda/iStock via Getty Images Barrick Mining ( B ) is postponing its $9B Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan due to deterior ating security in the country and the ripple effects of the Middle East war, the Financial Times reported Thursday. After launching a review of the Reko Diq development following a rise in separatist violence in the Balochistan province where the mine is locat...
TomasSereda/iStock via Getty Images Barrick Mining ( B ) is postponing its $9B Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan due to deterior ating security in the country and the ripple effects of the Middle East war, the Financial Times reported Thursday. After launching a review of the Reko Diq development following a rise in separatist violence in the Balochistan province where the mine is located, "and in light of the subsequent escalation in security issues in Pakistan and the Middle East, the company considers it necessary to further assess the potential impacts and delivery strategy,," Barrick ( B ) told its Pakistani equity partners and the project’s local operator this week in correspondence seen by FT . "As a result, development activity will be slowed, with a corresponding reduced project spend, for a 12-month period commencing in July," the company said. The delay means first production will not begin until 2029 at the earliest, the report said; before the review, first production at the mine was expected in 2028. Reko Diq could become one of the world's largest copper-gold mines, although industry experts have cautioned that development will be expensive and difficult; Barrick ( B ) owns 50% and controls the mine's board, with the remaining equity split between three Pakistani state-owned enterprises and the Balochistan provincial government. More on Barrick Mining Barrick: Time To Load Up On This Massive Dip Barrick Mining: Flashbacks From 2022, Setup Too Good To Ignore Barrick Mining: How To Profit From Gold Without Owning A Single Ounce
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images Fa stly ( FSLY ) has recently risen from the dead and suddenly has become one of the top performing stocks of the market. But I would not count on this outperformance to sustain long-term. Sure, the business had a very strong quarter and guidance and is a clear beneficiary of AI-driven traffic growth and security investments. However, there are still a few par...
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images Fa stly ( FSLY ) has recently risen from the dead and suddenly has become one of the top performing stocks of the market. But I would not count on this outperformance to sustain long-term. Sure, the business had a very strong quarter and guidance and is a clear beneficiary of AI-driven traffic growth and security investments. However, there are still a few parts of the story that remain challenged and should warrant some concern. My last article on FSLY was back in August 2022, where the company was growing revenue at a similar pace, but operating losses and FCF burn weighed on the stock. Clearly, a lot has changed over the past 3.5 years, and the stock’s recent revival warrants an updated analysis. Data by YCharts Fastly is an internet infrastructure company that focuses on content delivery network ( CDN ), edge computing, and application security services. In simple terms, Fastly helps make digital experiences faster, more secure, and more reliable. By processing data at the “edge” of the internet in centralized data centers, which results in lower latency and improved application performance. Traditionally, FSLY’s workloads helped optimize applications such as e-commerce, streaming media services, and online gaming. And more recently with the introduction of AI workloads, this has presented a material growth opportunity. As seen in the chart above, the stock has acted extremely favorable in recent months, which I believe is driven by two main factors. The obvious one being that FSLY is seeing increased demand from AI workloads, resulting in better than expected revenue. And the second being that many investors had essentially “wrote-off” FSLY as an investment, thus presented an arbitrage opportunity around the lack of investor demand. More on this dynamic below. For now, the stock’s meteoric rise since last quarter’s results has been impressive, but I argue unsustainable. While not arguing the stock is necessarily a short fro...