Oli Scarff/Getty Images News BP ( BP ) held advanced talks in recent weeks to sell its U.K. North Sea assets to Ithaca Energy ( ITHLF ) in a deal worth nearly £2B (~$2.7B), the Financial Times reported Tuesday; the talks failed but BP is still exploring a deal and may pursue a transaction with other competitors, the report said. While BP has operated in the North Sea for 60 years and remains one...
Oli Scarff/Getty Images News BP ( BP ) held advanced talks in recent weeks to sell its U.K. North Sea assets to Ithaca Energy ( ITHLF ) in a deal worth nearly £2B (~$2.7B), the Financial Times reported Tuesday; the talks failed but BP is still exploring a deal and may pursue a transaction with other competitors, the report said. While BP has operated in the North Sea for 60 years and remains one of the biggest players in the basin, its fields in the U.K. account for only ~120K bbl/day out of the company's 2.3M bbl/day of total production. New BP ( BP ) CEO Meg O'Neill said shortly after she started her role in April that she saw "untapped potential" in the U.K. North Sea but also warned against further windfall taxes on the sector. BP ( BP ) is reorganizing into two main business units and considering a swath of sales across its sprawling portfolio of businesses, including some of its gasoline station networks and renewable energy businesses. More on BP Wall Street Lunch: BP Slips After Ousting Chairman Albert Manifold Over Governance Concerns BP: Risks Are Now To The Upside BP: The Market Still Underestimates This Turnaround
A technical blunder that caused the Education Bureau to send school allocation messages with the wrong details is more than an embarrassing administrative mishap. It is a reminder that in a city that prides itself on efficiency, digital readiness and smart governance, the smallest system failures can carry outsized reputational costs. Parents were understandably confused when they prematurely rece...
A technical blunder that caused the Education Bureau to send school allocation messages with the wrong details is more than an embarrassing administrative mishap. It is a reminder that in a city that prides itself on efficiency, digital readiness and smart governance, the smallest system failures can carry outsized reputational costs. Parents were understandably confused when they prematurely received SMS messages with the correct school choices but the wrong calendar year on Tuesday morning....
Nikada/iStock via Getty Images I've kept VNET Group, Inc. ( VNET ) as a Buy-rated name. VNET's Q1 2026 EBITDA surprised the market favorably. There are multiple positives associated with the entry of a new investor. My earlier March 18, 2026, update highlighted VNET's attractively priced shares and promising outlook over a multi-year horizon. Operating Profitability Topped Expectations The firm un...
Nikada/iStock via Getty Images I've kept VNET Group, Inc. ( VNET ) as a Buy-rated name. VNET's Q1 2026 EBITDA surprised the market favorably. There are multiple positives associated with the entry of a new investor. My earlier March 18, 2026, update highlighted VNET's attractively priced shares and promising outlook over a multi-year horizon. Operating Profitability Topped Expectations The firm unveiled its recent financial numbers in a media release on May 26. VNET's YoY EBITDA expansion improved from Q4 '25's +11.6% and 1Q25's +26.4% to +30.6% for the latest three-month period. The actual CNY0.89B figure beat analysts' projections by 6%, according to Bloomberg. This was also tracking above the group's full-year growth guidance of +22.6% (mid-point). In my opinion, the Q1 2026 surprise was driven by top-line acceleration and margin accretion. Its January-March '26 turnover was 19.8% higher at CNY2.69B on a YoY basis. That's better than the 18.3% and 19.6% increases for 1Q2025 and Q4 2025, respectively. VNET ran ahead of management's +17.1% forecast for FY2026. I noted in the previous mid-March piece that "a driver for VNET is its wholesale IDC business, which thrives on "AI tailwinds." My write-up also mentioned the company's "retail data centers that are intended to provide inferencing solutions" benefiting from "the rapid development of AI agents." These played a big role in the above-consensus quarterly revenue. VNET indicated in the results announcement that its Q1 '26 wholesale "capacity utilized by customers" of 687 MW represented a 57.2% year-on-year jump. The proportion of this segment's data centers being occupied rose by 560 basis points during the same period. Separately, the firm's retail "Monthly Recurring Revenue" or "MRR" on a per-cabinet basis went up 6.2% YoY to CNY9,448 for the first three months of 2026. At the sell-side briefing , management credited the top-line outperformance to rising "demand for AI-related computing power and data center res...
Alibaba this week released Qwen3.7-Plus , the latest AI large language model (LLM) in its globally beloved and increasingly expansive Qwen family, boasting more multimodal capabilities and a 60% lower cost than the prior, text-only Qwen3.7-Max model released just weeks ago. However, like its immediate predecessor Qwen3.7-Plus is available only under a "closed" commercial license via proprietary ap...
Alibaba this week released Qwen3.7-Plus , the latest AI large language model (LLM) in its globally beloved and increasingly expansive Qwen family, boasting more multimodal capabilities and a 60% lower cost than the prior, text-only Qwen3.7-Max model released just weeks ago. However, like its immediate predecessor Qwen3.7-Plus is available only under a "closed" commercial license via proprietary application programming interfaces (API) and Qwen Chat. That marks a big departure from the Qwen strategy to date, which was focused mainly on releasing powerful,near state-of-the-art open source models. Those enterprises and users who relied on the open source Qwen models — among them, U.S. giants such as Airbnb — will no doubt be disappointed to see that Alibaba is going closed for its newer releases. Still, the model is worth a look because of its low cost and high performance on multimodal tasks like creating enterprise-grade visuals or analyzing video, imagery and screenshots, which Qwen3.7-Max cannot do (it's text-only). It is among the cheaper powerful AI models available now, coming in price-wise just above Chinese rival's new MiniMax-M3's limited-time discount pricing. VentureBeat Frontier AI Model API Pricing Snapshot Model Input Output Total Cost Source MiMo-V2.5 Flash $0.10 $0.30 $0.40 Xiaomi MiMo deepseek-v4-flash $0.14 $0.28 $0.42 DeepSeek deepseek-v4-pro $0.435 $0.87 $1.305 DeepSeek MiniMax-M3 $0.30 $1.20 $1.50 MiniMax Qwen3.7-Plus $0.40 $1.60 $2.00 Alibaba Cloud Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite $0.25 $1.50 $1.75 Google MiMo-V2.5 $0.40 $2.00 $2.40 Xiaomi MiMo Grok 4.3 low context $1.25 $2.50 $3.75 xAI GLM-5 $1.00 $3.20 $4.20 Z.ai Kimi-K2.6 $0.95 $4.00 $4.95 Moonshot/Kimi GLM-5.1 $1.40 $4.40 $5.80 Z.ai Grok 4.3 high context $2.50 $5.00 $7.50 xAI Qwen3.7-Max $2.50 $7.50 $10.00 Alibaba Cloud Gemini 3.5 Flash $1.50 $9.00 $10.50 Google Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview ≤200K $2.00 $12.00 $14.00 Google GPT-5.4 $2.50 $15.00 $17.50 OpenAI Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview >200K $4.00 $18.00 $22.00 Goo...
Good morning from Melbourne. Today, Fortescue faces questions from China over the quality of its low-grade product, just as the Australian mining giant looks to secure a long-term contract with China’s state-owned iron ore buyer. Elsewhere, elevated inflation expectations , which can bleed through to real inflation, may pressure further action by the Reserve Bank of Australia. In the US, stocks hi...
Good morning from Melbourne. Today, Fortescue faces questions from China over the quality of its low-grade product, just as the Australian mining giant looks to secure a long-term contract with China’s state-owned iron ore buyer. Elsewhere, elevated inflation expectations , which can bleed through to real inflation, may pressure further action by the Reserve Bank of Australia. In the US, stocks hit a new record , even as progress on a US-Iran deal remains unclear.— Rich Henderson , Australian Finance Reporter What’s happening now China’s state-owned iron ore buyer is asking steel mills to quiz Fortescue about its new low-grade product , according to people familiar with the matter, as negotiations over long-term supply hit a rough patch. China Mineral Resources Group Co. has asked steelmakers with significant exposure to Fortescue ore to check with the miner about quality, the people said. Inflation expectations are on the rise , and that’s a sign the Reserve Bank of Australia may have to act stridently to make sure they don’t become entrenched, Ian Harper, an RBA board member, said Tuesday. Most Australian firms expect artificial intelligence to cut up to 20% of jobs within two years, a Mercer survey has found. Speaking on Bloomberg Television’s Australia Ahead, Mercer Workforce Solutions Leader Cynthia Cottrell outlines the potential impact on employment from AI adoption. Click image to play. Australia has increased the minimum wage. The country’s industrial relations umpire raised the national base pay 4.75% — just shy of the RBA’s inflation forecast — to A$1,004.90 ($719.90) a week, or A$26.44 an hour. What happened overnight Gains for tech stocks and fresh optimism Washington and Tehran can secure an accord to end the Iran war helped drive the S&P 500 equity benchmark to a new high on Tuesday. The advance cemented a nine-day run of gains for the US stock market, its best run since May last year. Australian equity futures were slightly higher early Wednesday. Bi...
As of June 2026, the Asian markets have been navigating a complex landscape shaped by geopolitical developments and fluctuating oil prices, with investor sentiment buoyed by optimism surrounding U.S.-Iran negotiations and advancements in artificial intelligence. Amid these conditions, growth companies with high insider ownership in Asia are gaining attention for their potential resilience and alig...
As of June 2026, the Asian markets have been navigating a complex landscape shaped by geopolitical developments and fluctuating oil prices, with investor sentiment buoyed by optimism surrounding U.S.-Iran negotiations and advancements in artificial intelligence. Amid these conditions, growth companies with high insider ownership in Asia are gaining attention for their potential resilience and alignment of interests between management and shareholders.
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) on Tuesday closed up +0.13%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) closed up +0.45%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) closed up +0.48%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) rose +0.14%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) on Tuesday closed up +0.13%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) closed up +0.45%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) closed up +0.48%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) rose +0.14%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
Ocean Observatories Initiative, $368m network that has provided crucial climate data, latest victim of Trump cuts The Trump administration plans to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system that has for more than a decade provided crucial data on ocean systems and climate change. In a notice , the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had “initiated descoping of the Ocean Observa...
Ocean Observatories Initiative, $368m network that has provided crucial climate data, latest victim of Trump cuts The Trump administration plans to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system that has for more than a decade provided crucial data on ocean systems and climate change. In a notice , the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had “initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative” (OOI), a vast ocean observation network comprising more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health, including current patterns, climate variability and marine biodiversity. Continue reading...
The retirement conversation usually circles the same handful of questions. How big is the nest egg? When should you claim Social Security? How much can you safely pull out each year without running dry? All of that matters. But there is one decision that shapes everything else and almost never gets equal airtime. The question ... The Retirement Decision That Rarely Gets Discussed
The retirement conversation usually circles the same handful of questions. How big is the nest egg? When should you claim Social Security? How much can you safely pull out each year without running dry? All of that matters. But there is one decision that shapes everything else and almost never gets equal airtime. The question ... The Retirement Decision That Rarely Gets Discussed
RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Brinker International, Inc. ( EAT ) reported Q3'26 back in late April, which was a decent quarter on the top line with continued same-store sales growth at Chili's. The stock fell anyway and is down roughly 13% since my February piece on the company. At the current valuation of 13.8x forward earnings, I think that's too cheap for a business ...
RiverNorthPhotography/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Brinker International, Inc. ( EAT ) reported Q3'26 back in late April, which was a decent quarter on the top line with continued same-store sales growth at Chili's. The stock fell anyway and is down roughly 13% since my February piece on the company. At the current valuation of 13.8x forward earnings, I think that's too cheap for a business where traffic trends are improving, the cost structure is improving, and the unit growth runway is just starting to become visible. A Look At Q3'26 Results When looking at the latest quarterly results for Brinker International, the company delivered revenue growth of 3.2% at $1.47 billion , coming in essentially in line with estimates. EPS of $2.90 increased 9.0% from last year and surpassed analyst expectations by 4 cents. Growth was driven by Chili's same-store sales growth of 4.0%, which was significant as this marked the 20th consecutive quarter of positive comps. Management noted on the earnings call that they've been outperforming the casual dining industry by 420bps. Investor Presentation When breaking down Chili's 4% comp, pricing contributed 4.6%, mix 0.6%, and traffic was -1.2%. The detractors came from January weather headwinds and a holiday calendar shift that negatively impacted Chili's sales and traffic by 2.1% during the quarter. Strip that out, and the underlying traffic picture in February and March was considerably healthier. On the conference call that followed the quarter, management confirmed that Chili's comparable restaurant sales grew 5.9% in both February and March with positive traffic. So that Q3 headline underrepresents the momentum. Company Filings At Brinker International's other big brand, Maggiano's, declined 4.6%, and this continues to be the weaker part of the portfolio. There's been some sequential stabilization, and management is working through a menu refresh, but Maggiano's is not a near-term earnings driver, so I wouldn't model much fr...