Indonesia’s central bank may continue to defend the rupiah around a key threshold as volatile oil prices, a stronger dollar and risk-off flows tied to the Iran conflict deepen concerns over the nation’s investment appeal. Bank Indonesia is expected to keep intervening to hold the rupiah below the psychologically important 17,000 per dollar mark, according to analysts. Uncertainty over how long the...
Indonesia’s central bank may continue to defend the rupiah around a key threshold as volatile oil prices, a stronger dollar and risk-off flows tied to the Iran conflict deepen concerns over the nation’s investment appeal. Bank Indonesia is expected to keep intervening to hold the rupiah below the psychologically important 17,000 per dollar mark, according to analysts. Uncertainty over how long the war may last is compounding Indonesia’s existing economic concerns, while elevated crude prices risk stoking inflation in the net oil-importer. Pressure on the rupiah highlights mounting risks for Southeast Asia’s largest economy, where sustained currency weakness may strain fiscal metrics in the months ahead. After a string of warnings from rating companies about Indonesia’s economic trajectory, BI’s ability to steady the currency may be critical to restoring investor confidence. “Dollar strength and weak sentiment are weighing more on the rupiah now, and BI could see scope to defend the 17,000 level strongly,” said Lloyd Chan , currency strategist at MUFG Bank Ltd. “It’s both about anchoring sentiment and to prevent a sharp deterioration of the external balances.” The rupiah closed at 16,945 per dollar on Monday. Since late 2024, Bank Indonesia has stepped up efforts to stabilize the rupiah. It has done so by selling US dollars from its foreign-exchange reserves to buy rupiah, purchasing government bonds in the secondary market, and using non-deliverable forwards to shape market expectations. Still, further intervention may prove difficult to sustain given relatively thin reserve buffers, said Manthan Shingala , analyst at Nomura Singapore Ltd., who sees the rupiah potentially weakening toward 17,200 per dollar by the end of the month. Foreign reserves fell to $151.9 billion in February, according to Bank Indonesia data, the steepest monthly drop since April. Indonesian Stocks, Rupiah Slump as Iran Conflict Escalates Indonesia Military Goes on Highest-Level Alert on Mide...
Nvidia (NVDA +2.71%) is currently the largest public company by market cap, and Alphabet (GOOG +2.77%)(GOOGL +2.81%) isn't far behind in third (as of March 6). Each has benefited from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), but Nvidia has been the bigger winner so far. Demand for its GPUs has driven 13 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Both are strong companies and should continue to do ...
Nvidia (NVDA +2.71%) is currently the largest public company by market cap, and Alphabet (GOOG +2.77%)(GOOGL +2.81%) isn't far behind in third (as of March 6). Each has benefited from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), but Nvidia has been the bigger winner so far. Demand for its GPUs has driven 13 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Both are strong companies and should continue to do well going forward, but I expect Alphabet to deliver greater long-term growth. One of Alphabet's key advantages here is how diversified it is. Google Search is its biggest source of revenue, accounting for 55% of the $113.8 billion it made in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, Alphabet also made $17.7 billion from Google Cloud, $13.6 billion from Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and $11.4 billion from YouTube ads. With several widely used products and services, Alphabet isn't overly reliant on any one business. It has also demonstrated its ability to pivot in response to technological changes to protect its competitive advantage. When AI chatbots appeared to threaten Google's search dominance, it added AI overviews to search results, which had more than 2 billion monthly users as of July 2025. Nvidia's success primarily comes from its GPU dominance, with data center revenue accounting for 91% of sales in its most recent quarter. This leaves the chipmaker vulnerable to a few potential threats. Leading tech companies could dial back their AI infrastructure spending, which would impact Nvidia's sales. They could also buy from another chipmaker to avoid overreliance on Nvidia. We've seen an example of that recently, when Meta Platforms agreed to a GPU deal worth up to $100 billion with Advanced Micro Devices. Expand NASDAQ : GOOGL Alphabet Today's Change ( 2.81 %) $ 8.37 Current Price $ 306.68 Key Data Points Market Cap $3.6T Day's Range $ 294.09 - $ 306.80 52wk Range $ 140.53 - $ 349.00 Volume 1.4M Avg Vol 34M Gross Margin 59.68 % Dividend Yield 0.28 % In fairne...
Key Points While extremely successful in recent years, Nvidia relies heavily on its GPU dominance and rapidly increasing AI spending by tech companies. Alphabet has a more diversified revenue stream, including ads, cloud services, subscriptions, and hardware. 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is currently the largest public company by market cap, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: ...
Key Points While extremely successful in recent years, Nvidia relies heavily on its GPU dominance and rapidly increasing AI spending by tech companies. Alphabet has a more diversified revenue stream, including ads, cloud services, subscriptions, and hardware. 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is currently the largest public company by market cap, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) isn't far behind in third (as of March 6). Each has benefited from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), but Nvidia has been the bigger winner so far. Demand for its GPUs has driven 13 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Both are strong companies and should continue to do well going forward, but I expect Alphabet to deliver greater long-term growth. 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 » One of Alphabet's key advantages here is how diversified it is. Google Search is its biggest source of revenue, accounting for 55% of the $113.8 billion it made in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, Alphabet also made $17.7 billion from Google Cloud, $13.6 billion from Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and $11.4 billion from YouTube ads. With several widely used products and services, Alphabet isn't overly reliant on any one business. It has also demonstrated its ability to pivot in response to technological changes to protect its competitive advantage. When AI chatbots appeared to threaten Google's search dominance, it added AI overviews to search results, which had more than 2 billion monthly users as of July 2025. Nvidia's success primarily comes from its GPU dominance, with data center revenue accounting for 91% of sales in its most recent quarter. This leaves the chipmaker vulnerable to a few potential threats. Leading tech companies could dial back their AI infra...
(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Friday, snapping a losing streak of five sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 below the 26,700 level at a 14-month low, despite the negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders picked up stocks at a bargain following the recent sell-off. Meanwhile, trades also remain concerned about the sharp spike in domestic new corona...
(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market is trading sharply higher on Friday, snapping a losing streak of five sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 below the 26,700 level at a 14-month low, despite the negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders picked up stocks at a bargain following the recent sell-off. Meanwhile, trades also remain concerned about the sharp spike in domestic new coronavirus infections, with daily new COVID-19 cases in Japan surging to a new record of 78,929 cases on Thursday, topping the 70,000 mark for the second day in a row to push hospitals and clinics to the breaking point. The daily new cases also hit record highs each day since last week. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 508.27 points or 1.94 percent to 26,678.57, after touching a high of 26,731.02 earlier. Japanese shares closed sharply lower on Thursday. Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.3 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is gaining more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Honda is gaining 1.5 percent and Toyota is adding more than 3 percent. In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 2 percent, while Screen Holdings is losing more than 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.5 percent. In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are gaining 1.5 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is losing almost 2 percent. Among major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 1 percent, Panasonic is adding more than 2 percent and Sony is adding almost 3 percent, while Canon is declining almost 3 percent. Among the other major gainers, Fuji Electric is soaring almost 9 percent, Shin-Etsu Chemical is surging more than 7 percent and Fujikura is rising almost 7 percent, while Nitto Denko and Chugai Pharmaceutical are gaining almost 5 percent each. Idemitsu Kosan, Daiichi Sankyo, Marui Group, NSK and Citizen Watch are all adding almost 4 percent each, while Sumitomo Metal Mining, Asahi Kasei, Recruit Holding...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images There are very few companies in semiconductor equipment that I consider structurally advantaged, regardless of where we are in the cycle. TSMC is at the top of that list, along with some others, but it looks like KLA Corporation ( KLAC ) is firmly in that category. The industry is in a phase where process geometries are shrinking and the architectures are...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images There are very few companies in semiconductor equipment that I consider structurally advantaged, regardless of where we are in the cycle. TSMC is at the top of that list, along with some others, but it looks like KLA Corporation ( KLAC ) is firmly in that category. The industry is in a phase where process geometries are shrinking and the architectures are becoming more complex, so we’re seeing higher demand for inspection, metrology, and yield management. KLA supplies the tools that determine whether advanced-node production ramps efficiently or stalls under defect pressure. If we look at things operationally and financially, the company is performing at a very high level. Its gross and operating margins are very steady, and it is more profitable than ever. The latter point is largely due to its updated business model, where services now bring in roughly a quarter of revenue, and that gives the company more stability than most wafer fab equipment peers. My main question is the price being paid for that quality, because everything about the stock screams overpriced. KLA Sits At The Most Profitable Choke Point In The Fab In my opinion, KLA’s USP is that it focuses on process control, which includes wafer inspection, patterning control, metrology, reticle inspection, and the software that ties those tools together. That’s fairly complicated language, so we can simply say that its systems are used to detect defects, measure critical dimensions, and ensure that increasingly complex chip designs can actually be manufactured at acceptable yields. I cannot overstate how important it is that the products in these markets come out with uniform measurements. Nodes are shrinking, and the architectures are shifting toward advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, so any variation in wafer sizes is incredibly expensive. We all use smartphones, among other modern gadgets, and those of us who like to read spec sheets may see a 3 nm...
MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in September of last year, I argued that Copart ( CPRT ) was due to restart their buyback activity. I thought that the valuation back then, coupled with a fast-growing cash pile, made the case for buybacks imminent. "Imminent" turned out to be too strong a word, as the following earnings release (last November) revealed ongoing hand-sitting on t...
MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images Back in September of last year, I argued that Copart ( CPRT ) was due to restart their buyback activity. I thought that the valuation back then, coupled with a fast-growing cash pile, made the case for buybacks imminent. "Imminent" turned out to be too strong a word, as the following earnings release (last November) revealed ongoing hand-sitting on the buyback front [Sigh]. That changed last month. On mid-February, our prayers to the rational-capital-allocator gods were answered. Copart's CEO, Jeff Liaw, confirmed that the company had started repurchases during the prior quarter and they had already bought back $500 million (about 10% of the cash pile and some 1.3% of float). We will go into why this is a great decision, but some may not be as familiar with what the company does. What Copart does Copart is the leader in a two-horse race to consolidate junkyards (and the related auctions) in the US. It led competitor RB Global's IAA unit into the internet age by some 20 years. In doing this, they amassed a large international buyer pool that is focused on extracting the most value from deemed total-loss but repairable cars within the US market. Despite owning most of their land, Copart holds no debt. Their main asset is mostly their intangible benefit of owning the leading internet auction platform, which is impossible to disrupt without the massive land footprint to store the inventory. Insurers now depend on the two junkyard operators for most activities post-crash (to the point of delegating towing, title transfer, etc.). I have covered the company frequently; linked here is the initial piece that focuses on their operating model. Rationale for Buyback Questioned during the call about the timing, Mr. Liaw gave a "Buffettesque" answer that long-term shareholders should cheer: As to your question about the share buybacks, there's no particular witchcraft or anything magical to it. I think it's a function of what genera...
Planet Labs PBC is extending its delay on commercial satellite imagery in the Middle East to two weeks from four days over concerns that the intelligence could be used to target North Atlantic Treaty Organization members. The San Francisco-based commercial satellite provider, which has contracts with NATO and the US Navy , is also expanding the area under monitoring related to the conflict to incl...
Planet Labs PBC is extending its delay on commercial satellite imagery in the Middle East to two weeks from four days over concerns that the intelligence could be used to target North Atlantic Treaty Organization members. The San Francisco-based commercial satellite provider, which has contracts with NATO and the US Navy , is also expanding the area under monitoring related to the conflict to include all of Iran, nearby allied bases, Gulf states and existing conflict zones, it said. “There are genuine concerns of use of Planet data over Iran,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Planet has decided to take additional, proactive measures to ensure our imagery is not tactically leveraged by adversarial actors to target allied and NATO-partner personnel and civilians.” The decision underscores the growing strategic role of commercial satellite operators in modern conflicts, where high-resolution data can shape military planning as quickly as it informs financial markets and the public. Once tightly controlled by governments, Earth observation is now a multibillion-dollar industry supplying near real-time intelligence to clients worldwide. Read more: Shift in Modern Warfare Turns Defense Firms Into Growth Stocks The temporary hold on imagery isn’t the result of a requirement by any government, the company said Tuesday in a response to an emailed question. The decision was made by Planet and is intended to proactively limit risk of misuse of its imagery in the conflict. Last week, Planet said it would hold back images of Gulf states targeted by Iranian drone attacks for 96 hours. Bloomberg News uses Planet Labs imagery.
U.S. equities closed higher after a volatile session, buoyed by President Donald Trump‘s remarks suggesting the conflict with Iran might be nearing its end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.5% higher at 47,740.80, while the S&P 500 added 0.83% to 6,795.99 and the Nasdaq climbed 1.38% to 22,695.94. These are the top stocks that gained the attention of retail traders and investors through t...
U.S. equities closed higher after a volatile session, buoyed by President Donald Trump‘s remarks suggesting the conflict with Iran might be nearing its end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.5% higher at 47,740.80, while the S&P 500 added 0.83% to 6,795.99 and the Nasdaq climbed 1.38% to 22,695.94. These are the top stocks that gained the attention of retail traders and investors through the day: Hims & Hers Health (NYSE:HIMS) Hims & Hers Health saw its stock soar by 40.79%, closing at $22.16. The stock hit an intraday high of $23.51 and a low of $20.97, with a 52-week range between $70.43 and $13.74. This surge follows Novo Nordisk’s decision to sell its weight-loss drug through Hims & Hers’ telehealth platform, resolving a legal dispute over patent violations. Roku’s stock dipped slightly by 0.40%, closing at $100.17. The day’s trading saw a high of $100.25 and a low of $94.88, with a 52-week high of $116.66 and a low of $52.43. T The minor decline comes after Roku announced the addition of Apple TV to its Premium Subscriptions, aiming to enhance viewer engagement. Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) Oracle’s shares fell by 0.92%, closing at $151.56. The stock’s intraday high was $152, with a low of $146.43, and a 52-week range from $345.72 to $118.86. The stock fell as analysts cut price targets ahead of Oracle’s upcoming earnings, citing potential margin pressure despite expected revenue growth. Autozi Internet Technology Ltd (NASDAQ:AZI) Autozi’s stock skyrocketed by 146.40%, closing at $0.65. The stock reached a high of $0.89 and a low of $0.51, with a 52-week range of $69 to $0.26. The stock fell 2.92% to $0.63 in after-hours trading. Joby Aviation Inc (NYSE:JOBY) Joby Aviation’s stock increased by 5.13%, closing at $10.04. The day’s high was $10.06, with a low of $9.14, and a 52-week range between $20.95 and $4.96. The stock rose 3.59% to $10.40 in extended trading. Joby Aviation said it was selected for the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, al...