Khosrork/iStock Editorial via Getty Images With the stock market vaulting up to new highs, my personal view is that right now is hardly a time for complacency in the stock market. I'm still emphasizing active trading and portfolio selection, with a focus on next-gen growth stories that are being ignored in the stock market today. The AI hardware/semiconductor trade, in my view, has gotten crowded ...
Khosrork/iStock Editorial via Getty Images With the stock market vaulting up to new highs, my personal view is that right now is hardly a time for complacency in the stock market. I'm still emphasizing active trading and portfolio selection, with a focus on next-gen growth stories that are being ignored in the stock market today. The AI hardware/semiconductor trade, in my view, has gotten crowded and expensive; autonomous driving and EVs, meanwhile, are not. Lucid Group, Inc. ( LCID ), in particular, is looking quite appealing after its share price dropped ~30% since the start of the year (compared to a ~10% drop for Tesla and a ~15% decline in Rivian). Arguably, Lucid is the U.S. EV maker that has made the biggest strides in terms of closing deals and securing the path toward its next-gen mid-size vehicle, which is still slated to start production in the back half of this year. Data by YCharts I last wrote a buy article on Lucid in December, when the stock was trading at ~$11 per share. Of course, my buy call was ill-timed. But though I acknowledge that Lucid is a riskier endeavor that requires us to bet on its future product roadmap, a lot has moved in the positive direction for Lucid in the past few months, including signing major new partnerships. Trading at under a $3 billion market cap (versus $20 billion for Rivian and $1.2 trillion for Tesla), I believe the company's growth prospects are severely underappreciated, and I'm reiterating my buy call on this name. Uber and the robotaxi market opportunity To me, the largest recent announcement that Lucid made was an expanded partnership with Uber Technologies, Inc. ( UBER ). Uber is starting to make major strides in robotaxis. It has a more measured approach to market entry (it has an active presence in Atlanta and Austin), behind the rollout of rivals like Waymo. At the same time, Uber just released new data that showcases that of all the autonomous/robotaxi companies, AV utilization is highest on Uber's platform...
Sven Biscop is a Belgian political scientist and strategist specialising in the foreign affairs and security of the EU and its relations with great powers. He is a director at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and a professor at Ghent University. He is also a senior research fellow at Renmin University in Beijing, where he teaches in the summer. Biscop is the autho...
Sven Biscop is a Belgian political scientist and strategist specialising in the foreign affairs and security of the EU and its relations with great powers. He is a director at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and a professor at Ghent University. He is also a senior research fellow at Renmin University in Beijing, where he teaches in the summer. Biscop is the author of many books, including 2024’s This Is Not a New World Order: Europe Rediscovers Geopolitics,...
Hong Kong’s education minister has said the surge in students diagnosed with mental illness partly reflects parents’ growing acceptance and openness about the issue, while academic pressures, social lives and physical health also play a role. The remarks by Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin came after the Education Bureau revealed that the number of secondary school students suffering...
Hong Kong’s education minister has said the surge in students diagnosed with mental illness partly reflects parents’ growing acceptance and openness about the issue, while academic pressures, social lives and physical health also play a role. The remarks by Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin came after the Education Bureau revealed that the number of secondary school students suffering from mental illness had doubled over the past five academic years, from 660 in the 2020-21 academic...
Gins Wang Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ( TSM ) raised its revenue outlook for 2026, driven by AI chip demand, after the global foundry's first quarter net income surged 58% year-over-year. Shares of TSM climbed about 1% premarket on Thursday. Q1 Metrics TSMC — which produces chips for some of the world's largest tech companies, including Apple ( AAPL ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and AMD ( AMD ) — saw ...
Gins Wang Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ( TSM ) raised its revenue outlook for 2026, driven by AI chip demand, after the global foundry's first quarter net income surged 58% year-over-year. Shares of TSM climbed about 1% premarket on Thursday. Q1 Metrics TSMC — which produces chips for some of the world's largest tech companies, including Apple ( AAPL ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and AMD ( AMD ) — saw first quarter 2026 net revenue grow 40.6% year-over-year to $35.9B (NT$1.134T, +35.1% Y/Y). “Our business in the first quarter was supported by strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies,” said Wendell Huang, senior vice president and CFO of TSM. The company's net income attributable to shareholders of the company soared 58.3% year-over-year to NT$572.48B, beating analysts estimates of NT$542.4B, according to a report from Bloomberg News. "AI-related demand continues to be extremely robust," said TSM's CEO C.C. Wei on the earnings call. TSM noted that its capital spending this year would be at the high end of earlier guidance of $52B to $56B. Huang said on the call that TSM's first quarter capital expenditures totaled $11.1B. "At TSMC, a higher level of capital expenditures is always correlated with higher growth opportunities in the following years. With our strong technology leadership and differentiation, we are well-positioned to capture the multi-year structural demand from the industry megatrends of 5G, AI, and HPC," said Huang on the call. Middle East Impact Huang said, given the recent situation in the Middle East, prices for certain chemicals and gasesare likely to increase. He noted that based on their current assessment, "there may be impact to our profitability, but it is too early to quantify the impact." "We are also working closely with our suppliers to further strengthen the resiliency and sustainability of our supply chain. Thus, we do not expect any near-term impact on our operations for material supply. In terms of energy, TSMC works closel...