By Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG, April 15 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD is deliberately avoiding a price war in South Africa as competition ramps up in the continent's second biggest
By Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG, April 15 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD is deliberately avoiding a price war in South Africa as competition ramps up in the continent's second biggest
Robert Way Senator Elizabeth Warren said she sees “risks” to Nvidia's ( NVDA ) acquisition of open-source software company SchedMD in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “I write to express concern about NVIDIA’s recent acquisition of SchedMD and request information about the government’s dependency on NVIDIA hardware and software,” Warren wrote in a le...
Robert Way Senator Elizabeth Warren said she sees “risks” to Nvidia's ( NVDA ) acquisition of open-source software company SchedMD in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “I write to express concern about NVIDIA’s recent acquisition of SchedMD and request information about the government’s dependency on NVIDIA hardware and software,” Warren wrote in a letter to Secys. Hegseth and Wright. “This acquisition raises particular alarm due to the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense’s (DoD) widespread reliance on SchedMD’s workload management software, Slurm. Slurm software is used in critical DOE and DoD supercomputers and is 'the top software used worldwide in aerospace and defense.' NVIDIA’s acquisition of Slurm turns a once free software into one of NVIDIA’s proprietary offerings, which may reduce competition and harm national security. This would give NVIDIA disproportionate control over a chokepoint that rival firms rely on to operate government supercomputers.” In her letter to the Cabinet members, Sen. Warren asked for additional information on which DOE and DOD systems rely on Nvidia's software or hardware. She has requested answers by May 5. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. Led by CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia announced in December 2025 it was acquiring SchedMD, maker of the popular open-source Slurm (Simple Linux Utility Resource Management) software. Slurm functions as a manager and job scheduler for high-performance computing clusters, helping sets of computers function as a single system. Nvidia said it plans to continue developing and distributing Slurm as an open-source, vendor-neutral software solution. Slurm is already used by more than half of the top 10 and top 100 systems in the TOP500 list of supercomputers. Slurm is also supported by Nvidia's most powerful hardware. The two companies have collaborated for more than a decade. More on Nvidia Nvidia: Mu...
Billionaire Elon Musk has shared a distaste for social media platforms from Meta Platforms over the years. Meta-owned Instagram and rival social media platform TikTok, which is now owned by a group of American companies, may have attracted Musk to use platforms outside his X platform owned by xAI/SpaceX ahead of a highly anticipated IPO. Elon Musk on Instagram, TikTok? For years, Musk has shared h...
Billionaire Elon Musk has shared a distaste for social media platforms from Meta Platforms over the years. Meta-owned Instagram and rival social media platform TikTok, which is now owned by a group of American companies, may have attracted Musk to use platforms outside his X platform owned by xAI/SpaceX ahead of a highly anticipated IPO. Elon Musk on Instagram, TikTok? For years, Musk has shared his hatred for platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, which are all owned by Meta Platfo
Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Mid-cap stocks experienced initial gains due to improved market breadth; however, increasing geopolitical risks led investors to favor larger-cap companies perceived as safer. The firm remains committed to […]
Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Mid-cap stocks experienced initial gains due to improved market breadth; however, increasing geopolitical risks led investors to favor larger-cap companies perceived as safer. The firm remains committed to […]
Mar Vista's U.S. Quality Premier strategy returned -10.17% net-of-fees in the first quarter of 2026. During the quarter, it initiated new investments in Ecolab ( ECL ), GE Vernova ( GEV ), and QXO Inc ( QXO ). It also exited positions in Salesforce ( CRM ) and SAP ADR ( SAP ). During the quarter-end rebalance of the Quality Premier strategy, the fund also added to its holdings in Danaher ( DHR ), ...
Mar Vista's U.S. Quality Premier strategy returned -10.17% net-of-fees in the first quarter of 2026. During the quarter, it initiated new investments in Ecolab ( ECL ), GE Vernova ( GEV ), and QXO Inc ( QXO ). It also exited positions in Salesforce ( CRM ) and SAP ADR ( SAP ). During the quarter-end rebalance of the Quality Premier strategy, the fund also added to its holdings in Danaher ( DHR ), Netflix ( NFLX ), and Linde plc ( LIN ) and trimmed Intuit ( INTU ) and Meta Platforms ( META ). "We believe the market is transitioning into a more fundamentally driven environment where returns could be more closely tied to earnings durability, free cash flow generation, and capital discipline." More on Ecolab, Salesforce, etc. Wall Street Lunch: Big Banks Open Earnings Season With Mixed Results Meta Strikes Back Wall Street Lunch: Netflix Draws Bullish Backing As Ad Revenue Seen Doubling To $3B Oakmark Fund (Investor Class) adds ADBE, NFLX; exits DE, APA among Q1 moves Broadcom's deal with Meta boosts confidence in AI ramp: analysts
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images Commercial crude stocks (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) for the week ended April 10: 463.8 M barrels. Crude inventory change: -0.9 M barrels vs. +3.1M barrels for the week ended April 3. Consensus estimate: +2.100M. Gasoline inventory change: -6.3M barrels vs. -1.6M barrels for the week ended April 3. Distillates inventory change: -3.1M barrels vs...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images Commercial crude stocks (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) for the week ended April 10: 463.8 M barrels. Crude inventory change: -0.9 M barrels vs. +3.1M barrels for the week ended April 3. Consensus estimate: +2.100M. Gasoline inventory change: -6.3M barrels vs. -1.6M barrels for the week ended April 3. Distillates inventory change: -3.1M barrels vs. -3.1M barrels for the week ended April 3. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: 409.2M barrels , down -4.1M barrels from 413.3M barrels in the prior week. Crude Oil Futures ( CL1:COM ) -0.18% to $91.9/barrel. ETFs: ( USO ), ( UCO ), ( SCO ), ( BNO ), ( DBO ), ( USL ). More on Crude Oil Futures, United States Oil Fund LP ETF, etc. December World Oil Production Slides Oil Dynamics And Intraday Analysis: WTI Drops Back Below $100 After US-Iran Talks Set To Resume Trump's Hormuz Siege: Starving Tehran To Save The West Crude oil plunges on potential for renewed U.S.-Iran talks, pressure from naval blockade U.S. crude stockpiles rose 6.1M barrels last week, API says
Broadcom jumped nearly 4% in trading Wednesday after the chipmaker announced a deal with Meta to design the hyperscaler's custom artificial intelligence accelerators. Analysts on Wall Street in their first take broadly saw the announcement as a positive, but disagreed whether it materially changed the outlook for Broadcom shares. The partnership will lead to an initial deployment of 1 gigawatt of ...
Broadcom jumped nearly 4% in trading Wednesday after the chipmaker announced a deal with Meta to design the hyperscaler's custom artificial intelligence accelerators. Analysts on Wall Street in their first take broadly saw the announcement as a positive, but disagreed whether it materially changed the outlook for Broadcom shares. The partnership will lead to an initial deployment of 1 gigawatt of power, with it expected to scale to multiple gigawatts through 2029. As part of the expanded partnership between the two companies, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan announced he won't run for reelection for a seat on Meta's board, which he joined in 2024. It comes on the heels of Broadcom announcing last week expanded deals with both Google and Anthropic. "Strategically, we see this as further evidence of AVGO's leading position in the AI/XPU/Networking sectors, and while not overtly announced as an [long-term agreement] like the recent collaboration with Google/Anthropic, we view the multi-generational aspect of this press release as a positive," wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore in a Tuesday note. AVGO YTD mountain AVGO year-to-date chart. Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso said Tan's decision to step down from Meta's board is an important development, and he believes it implies the duration of the partnership between the two companies may be longer than explicitly stated. But Caso also thinks the information delivered in the announcement wasn't new. "On the most recent earnings call, AVGO noted an expectation to ship META multiple GW in FY27 and beyond," he wrote in a Wednesday note. "Therefore, this disclosure doesn't appear to be materially different from what the company discussed on the earnings call." Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon made a similar point, with the caveat that the 2029 detail did appear to be a new disclosure. Harlan Sur, a JPMorgan analyst, wrote in a Wednesday note that this deal and others show Broadcom stands to benefit as hyperscalers look more to deve...
The moment you board, the music grabs you. These privately owned, brightly painted minibuses are moving canvases, mobile sound systems — rolling declarations of what young Nairobi finds cool.
The moment you board, the music grabs you. These privately owned, brightly painted minibuses are moving canvases, mobile sound systems — rolling declarations of what young Nairobi finds cool.
Getty Images Introduction Back when I first covered McDonald’s ( MCD ), I highlighted how its “Dividend King Status Nears, But Premium Valuation Meets Rising Political Risk,” rating them a Hold as their valuation didn’t seem to offer a compelling enough argument to buy yet given the macro pressure and long-term risks. Following a solid report highlighting the company's resilience as a business des...
Getty Images Introduction Back when I first covered McDonald’s ( MCD ), I highlighted how its “Dividend King Status Nears, But Premium Valuation Meets Rising Political Risk,” rating them a Hold as their valuation didn’t seem to offer a compelling enough argument to buy yet given the macro pressure and long-term risks. Following a solid report highlighting the company's resilience as a business despite the macro pressure, MCD’s valuation implies modest potential from current levels, with the risk-reward continuing to be unattractive while the risks stemming from the environment are rising. On The Path to 50,000 McDonald’s IR MCD reported a solid Q4 report, beating the market’s EPS and revenue estimates, with free cash flow reaching $7.19 billion, a solid increase compared to the $6.67 billion seen in 2024 despite the significant jump in CAPEX, the latter coming as a result of the company exceeding their development plan and opening nearly 2,300 restaurants towards their target of 50,000 restaurants by the end of 2027. McDonald’s IR This comes as MCD reported a 3.1% increase in global sales, with 2.1% comparable US sales growth, 3.2% for international operated markets (especially in Germany and Australia) and 4.6% for international developmental licensed markets, especially in Japan. The company continued its real estate investments that are ultimately key to its business model while advancing on its Accelerating the Arches strategic plan, as highlighted before, being on track to achieve the company’s fastest period of unit growth from 2024 to 2027 alongside its digital and drive thru expansion while expecting solid margins. In a move to better compete with peers and adapt to the evolving consumer demands, McDonald’s is reportedly planning to offer new energy drinks and specialty sodas this year, which can offer a lot of potential for what are already fast-growing segments of the beverage industry while also reportedly planning to sell them at lower prices than rivals...