SAN RAFAEL, Calif., April 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westamerica Bancorporation (Nasdaq: WABC), parent company of Westamerica Bank, generated net income for the first quarter 2026 of $27.4 million and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") of $1.13. First quarter 2026 results include a reversal of provision for credit losses of $300 thousand, which increased EPS $0.01. These results compare t...
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., April 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westamerica Bancorporation (Nasdaq: WABC), parent company of Westamerica Bank, generated net income for the first quarter 2026 of $27.4 million and diluted earnings per common share ("EPS") of $1.13. First quarter 2026 results include a reversal of provision for credit losses of $300 thousand, which increased EPS $0.01. These results compare to fourth quarter 2025 net income of $27.8 million and EPS of $1.12. Fourth quarter 2025 results include an increase to the book tax provision to reconcile the 2024 income tax provision to the filed 2024 tax returns, which reduced EPS $0.02.
European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said now is a “good time” to again debate joint European Union borrowing. The German policymaker told a panel event in Washington that it’s “entirely logical” for the EU to finance European public goods by issuing common debt, but officials should first reinforce the bloc’s economic and military power. “We had a similar discussion someth...
European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said now is a “good time” to again debate joint European Union borrowing. The German policymaker told a panel event in Washington that it’s “entirely logical” for the EU to finance European public goods by issuing common debt, but officials should first reinforce the bloc’s economic and military power. “We had a similar discussion something like 15 years ago and many proposals have been made and were discussed and were in the end discarded,” she said Thursday. “But the world has changed and so we should come back and discuss it again.” As support from the US wanes under President Donald Trump , Europe is looking to bolster its autonomy through initiatives to overhaul its militaries, streamline its economy and boost the global appeal of the euro. Schnabel joins Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel in voicing support for common borrowing, though the government in Berlin isn’t so eager to back the idea. Schnabel also expressed some reservations about the latest suggestions for joint debt. “In this proposal, there is no mechanism in order to enforce the market discipline that I believe is needed to deal with the moral hazard,” she said. “And I think that is an issue.” German Opposition to EU Debt Hasn’t Changed, Klingbeil Tells FAZ ECB’s Lagarde to Send EU Leaders Checklist on Strengthening Bloc Bundesbank Chief Nagel Calls for Joint EU Debt, Politico Reports
Bullish sentiment among individual investors declined, while neutral views rose and bearish sentiment edged lower, pointing to a mixed shift in overall market outlook, according to the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). The American Association of Individual Investors said in its survey that the bullish camp fell to 31.7% for the week ended April 15, down f...
Bullish sentiment among individual investors declined, while neutral views rose and bearish sentiment edged lower, pointing to a mixed shift in overall market outlook, according to the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). The American Association of Individual Investors said in its survey that the bullish camp fell to 31.7% for the week ended April 15, down from 35.7% in the prior week. Meanwhile, bearish sentiment eased slightly to 42.8% from 43.0% the week before. Equities navigated a volatile stretch over the past week, beginning with cautious gains as optimism around a potential U.S.-Iran resolution supported sentiment, even as uncertainty lingered. Early in the period, markets swung between risk-on rallies and sharp pullbacks after talks between the two nations failed to yield a deal, raising concerns over a potential Strait of Hormuz blockade and sending oil prices higher. Sentiment improved notably mid-week, with stocks rebounding strongly and erasing conflict-driven losses as hopes for renewed diplomacy resurfaced, volatility eased, and the S&P 500 pushed back into positive territory. The rally extended further, with major indexes climbing to record highs amid optimism over Middle East developments, strong bank earnings, and continued strength in select technology names, despite narrow market breadth. However, the momentum proved fragile, with equities slipping back into negative territory toward the end of the period as investors turned cautious again, weighing lingering geopolitical risks, evolving central bank dynamics, and mixed global economic signals. According to AAII, neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, rose to 25.5%, compared to 21.3% last week. The survey has been conducted by the American Association of Individual Investors since 1987, in which it asks respondents for their thoughts on where the market is heading in the next six months...
AsianDream/iStock via Getty Images This analysis serves as a follow up to an article that I wrote last year for the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF ( IEMG ). My rating for the fund was a Sell, not because I was recommending shorting the ETF but rather just avoiding it in favor of other international options. In hindsight, my analysis was a miss. Since that article was published on May 12 , ...
AsianDream/iStock via Getty Images This analysis serves as a follow up to an article that I wrote last year for the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF ( IEMG ). My rating for the fund was a Sell, not because I was recommending shorting the ETF but rather just avoiding it in favor of other international options. In hindsight, my analysis was a miss. Since that article was published on May 12 , IEMG has gained just over 39% when dividend are included. I had stated a preference for more developed markets at that time, suggesting alternatives like the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets Index Fund ETF ( VEA ) and the Schwab International Equity ETF ( SCHF ). Those recommendations did not look like inferior options until the last four months or so when IEMG really began to outperform. Price Return Since May 12, 2025 (Seeking Alpha) International stocks from all parts of the world continue to outperform the counterparts from the US. What was a trendy pick for 2025 has continued to show strength in 2026. However, there are reasons for concern that go beyond the obvious issues that have been created by the current military conflict in the Middle East. Global inflation rates are trending higher . Commodity prices are rising , and fiscal policy, especially in emerging economies, is constrained by the need to limit expansion of public debt. In this analysis, I will revisit my last look at IEMG and consider what the remainder of this year may hold for emerging markets. My previous assessment of a Sell for the fund may have been too harsh, even though emerging markets continue to carry a great deal of risk. I now consider the ETF to be a Hold based on the data presented below. ETF Overview According to the fund’s prospectus, the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is designed to follow the investment results of an index composed of large-, mid-, and small-capitalization stocks from emerging markets. IEMG is passively managed, tracking the contents of the MSCI Emerging Markets...
Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic, at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. Ruhani Kaur | Bloomberg | Getty Images Anthropic on Thursday announced a new artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4.7 , which the company said is an improvement over past models but is "broadly less capable" than its most recent offering, Claude Mythos Preview . Claude...
Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic, at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. Ruhani Kaur | Bloomberg | Getty Images Anthropic on Thursday announced a new artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4.7 , which the company said is an improvement over past models but is "broadly less capable" than its most recent offering, Claude Mythos Preview . Claude Opus 4.7 is better at software engineering, following instructions, completing real-world work and using file system-based memory, Anthropic said. But the model's cyber capabilities are not as advanced as Claude Mythos Preview, which Anthropic rolled out to a select of companies as part of a new cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing earlier this month. "We are releasing Opus 4.7 with safeguards that automatically detect and block requests that indicate prohibited or high-risk cybersecurity uses," Anthropic said in a release. "What we learn from the real-world deployment of these safeguards will help us work towards our eventual goal of a broad release of Mythos-class models." Anthropic said it experimented with efforts to "differentially reduce" Claude Opus 4.7's cyber capabilities during training. The company encouraged security professionals who are interested in using the model for "legitimate cybersecurity purposes" to apply through a formal verification program. Read more CNBC tech news Altman arson suspect Moreno-Gama suffered 'acute mental health crisis,' lawyer says NAACP sues Elon Musk's xAI over Memphis data center air pollution Meta commits to 1 GW of custom chips with Broadcom as Hock Tan decides to leave board Nvidia stock is on a 10-day winning streak and up 18% over that stretch Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
GetWhys today announced $5.2M in an oversubscribed funding round to accelerate the growth of its Insight-Driven GTM Platform, which converts buyer insights into the GTM work that drives revenue. The round was led by EPIC Ventures, with participation from CEAS Investments, the Portland Seed Fund, and existing investors Next Frontier Capital, Tuesday Capital, and Capital Eleven. This round brings Ge...
GetWhys today announced $5.2M in an oversubscribed funding round to accelerate the growth of its Insight-Driven GTM Platform, which converts buyer insights into the GTM work that drives revenue. The round was led by EPIC Ventures, with participation from CEAS Investments, the Portland Seed Fund, and existing investors Next Frontier Capital, Tuesday Capital, and Capital Eleven. This round brings GetWhys' total funding to $8.5M, and will be used to accelerate go-to-market, product development, and
Nadia Lovell, UBS Global Wealth Head of Global Equity Strategy, mphasized that the market is not simply overlooking these concerns but is confident in managing them. Highlighting that AI spending remains robust, particularly from hyperscale companies with nearly $700 billion in capital expenditures (Source: Bloomberg)
Nadia Lovell, UBS Global Wealth Head of Global Equity Strategy, mphasized that the market is not simply overlooking these concerns but is confident in managing them. Highlighting that AI spending remains robust, particularly from hyperscale companies with nearly $700 billion in capital expenditures (Source: Bloomberg)
Massive AI Data-Center in the Netherlands Hugo Kurk/iStock via Getty Images According to Seeking Alpha, and after a blistering 22% rally since the low on March 30, Alphabet Inc. aka Google ( GOOG ) closed Wednesday's trade with a market cap just over $4 trillion (see chart below). There's likely a number of reasons driving the stock higher: perhaps an irrational selloff to begin with combined with...
Massive AI Data-Center in the Netherlands Hugo Kurk/iStock via Getty Images According to Seeking Alpha, and after a blistering 22% rally since the low on March 30, Alphabet Inc. aka Google ( GOOG ) closed Wednesday's trade with a market cap just over $4 trillion (see chart below). There's likely a number of reasons driving the stock higher: perhaps an irrational selloff to begin with combined with the strong performance of Gemini AI, Google's equity stake in SpaceX ( SPACE ) prior to its pending IPO, an extension of the Broadcom partnership, the performance of Waymo robotaxis, or perhaps its simply that the investment world agreed with my take in the Seeking Alpha article " Alphabet Is The AI Leader OpenAI Is Still Chasing (But Will Never Catch). " Meantime, it's likely no coincidence that Google's TPU partner, Broadcom Inc. ( AVGO ), has rallied even stronger (+35%) than has Google off the March 30 low on the back of its booming XPU business as exemplified by two recent partnership extensions with Google and Meta Platforms ( META ). Google and Broadcom are leaders in AI, and both stocks are very likely to keep moving higher over the next 2-3 years. I reiterate Strong Buy ratings on both companies and initiate a 12-month price target of Broadcom of $550. Seeking Alpha Investment Thesis At the close of trading today, the U.S. $4 trillion market-cap club was very exclusive. Indeed, it has only two members: Nvidia ( NVDA ): $4.77 Trillion. Google ( GOOG ): $4.01 Trillion. The title says Google "rejoins" the $4 trillion club because its market-cap was also over $4 trillion back in January. Its return to $4T comes as no surprise to me given my previous article , " Why Alphabet Will Likely Leapfrog Nvidia To Become World's Most Valuable Company, " a highly read Seeking Alpha "Editor's Pick" selection. In that article, I made the case that the entirety of Google's platform - including Gemini AI, DeepMind, Waymo, YouTube (the largest streamer in the world), Android OS (Pixe...
Massive AI Data-Center in the Netherlands Hugo Kurk/iStock via Getty Images According to Seeking Alpha, and after a blistering 22% rally since the low on March 30, Alphabet Inc. aka Google ( GOOG ) closed Wednesday's trade with a market cap just over $4 trillion (see chart below). There's likely a number of reasons driving the stock higher: perhaps an irrational selloff to begin with combined with...
Massive AI Data-Center in the Netherlands Hugo Kurk/iStock via Getty Images According to Seeking Alpha, and after a blistering 22% rally since the low on March 30, Alphabet Inc. aka Google ( GOOG ) closed Wednesday's trade with a market cap just over $4 trillion (see chart below). There's likely a number of reasons driving the stock higher: perhaps an irrational selloff to begin with combined with the strong performance of Gemini AI, Google's equity stake in SpaceX ( SPACE ) prior to its pending IPO, an extension of the Broadcom partnership, the performance of Waymo robotaxis, or perhaps its simply that the investment world agreed with my take in the Seeking Alpha article " Alphabet Is The AI Leader OpenAI Is Still Chasing (But Will Never Catch). " Meantime, it's likely no coincidence that Google's TPU partner, Broadcom Inc. ( AVGO ), has rallied even stronger (+35%) than has Google off the March 30 low on the back of its booming XPU business as exemplified by two recent partnership extensions with Google and Meta Platforms ( META ). Google and Broadcom are leaders in AI, and both stocks are very likely to keep moving higher over the next 2-3 years. I reiterate Strong Buy ratings on both companies and initiate a 12-month price target of Broadcom of $550. Seeking Alpha Investment Thesis At the close of trading today, the U.S. $4 trillion market-cap club was very exclusive. Indeed, it has only two members: Nvidia ( NVDA ): $4.77 Trillion. Google ( GOOG ): $4.01 Trillion. The title says Google "rejoins" the $4 trillion club because its market-cap was also over $4 trillion back in January. Its return to $4T comes as no surprise to me given my previous article , " Why Alphabet Will Likely Leapfrog Nvidia To Become World's Most Valuable Company, " a highly read Seeking Alpha "Editor's Pick" selection. In that article, I made the case that the entirety of Google's platform - including Gemini AI, DeepMind, Waymo, YouTube (the largest streamer in the world), Android OS (Pixe...
核心要点 SUV 在美国市场日益走俏，但轿车仍是稳健细分品类。 外资车企在小型乘用车领域占据主导，部分美国本土车企已显现重新加码轿车投资的迹象。 价格亲民、燃油成本更低是消费者考虑轿车的首要原因。 美国主流车企近年几乎全面放弃轿车与双门轿跑业务，扎堆投身皮卡与 SUV 市场竞争。 许多美国本土消费者也转向这类大型车型。但轿车市场仍有需求，日系、韩系与德系品牌每年在美国售出数十万辆小型乘用车。 轿车...
核心要点 SUV 在美国市场日益走俏，但轿车仍是稳健细分品类。 外资车企在小型乘用车领域占据主导，部分美国本土车企已显现重新加码轿车投资的迹象。 价格亲民、燃油成本更低是消费者考虑轿车的首要原因。 美国主流车企近年几乎全面放弃轿车与双门轿跑业务，扎堆投身皮卡与 SUV 市场竞争。 许多美国本土消费者也转向这类大型车型。但轿车市场仍有需求，日系、韩系与德系品牌每年在美国售出数十万辆小型乘用车。 轿车市场的韧性，叠加高价车型正流失消费者的担忧，已促使部分美国车企重新审视其产品线布局。 行业专家表示，当前美国汽车均价徘徊在 5 万美元左右，起售价约 2.2 万美元的紧凑型轿车对消费者极具吸引力。 “核心就是性价比。” 起亚美国产品规划副总裁奥思・赫德里克表示。起亚 K4 紧凑型轿车及其前代车型福瑞迪去年合计销量达 140，514 辆，为品牌第二大畅销车型。“这款车表现极为出色，远超预期，很大程度上归功于亲民定价。” 同样，丰田 RAV4 跨界 SUV 是其王牌车型，2025 年销量达 479，288 辆。该品牌去年还售出 31.6 万辆凯美瑞、近 25 万辆卡罗拉，销量分别达到该 SUV 销量的 65% 与 51%。 “轿车能为泛滥的 SUV 市场提供替代选择，且同级别轿车价格通常低于 SUV。” 标普全球汽车情报副总监斯蒂芬妮・布林利表示，“轿车在设计上更具发挥空间，燃油经济性也普遍优于多功能车型。” 行业观察人士、经销商与车企高管公开担忧，汽车高价叠加燃油成本攀升，或导致消费者购车意愿下滑，或更多转向二手车。 大众汽车 也表示，其捷达轿车在美国市场已存续 45 年，始终作为亲民入门车型。4 月初纽约国际车展上，大众展出了全新改款的大型 Atlas SUV，但同时也亮相了捷达紧凑型轿车及两款高配版高尔夫掀背车。 “捷达是我们最重要的车型系列之一。” 大众北美产品营销高级副总裁佩塔尔・丹尼洛维奇表示，“每款车在产品矩阵中都有不同定位。捷达的关键作用在于吸引入门级消费者，希望能将其逐步转化为品牌用户，从捷达换到途观，再到 Atlas，这也是其背后的逻辑。” “亲民车型对吸引新生代与年轻消费者至关重要。” 艾利森环球董事总经理丽贝卡・林德兰德表示，“许多 Z 世代与年轻千禧一代根本无力，也不愿承担 SUV 或跨界车的典型月供。” 数十年来 SUV 热度持续攀升，2010 年代...