As in the Gareth Southgate era, a diverse and passionately committed national team is offering a counter-narrative to the forces of social division The identity of the worst performers at the men’s World Cup has come as no surprise. In the lead-up to the tournament, the world had seen more than enough of Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino in action to fear the worst once the games actually began. M...
As in the Gareth Southgate era, a diverse and passionately committed national team is offering a counter-narrative to the forces of social division The identity of the worst performers at the men’s World Cup has come as no surprise. In the lead-up to the tournament, the world had seen more than enough of Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino in action to fear the worst once the games actually began. Mr Trump’s lobbying of Fifa to lift a one-match ban on the United States’ star striker confirmed that his bullying will-to-power extends to spheres that he neither cares about nor understands. Mr Infantino’s craven willingness to accommodate it has been an affront to sporting integrity. From prohibitive ticket prices to the introduction of advertiser-friendly hydration breaks – conveniently replicating the lucrative four-quarter format common in US sports – there have been plenty of other reasons to question Fifa’s overly commercialised stewardship of the beautiful game. But the World Cup still delivers a unique spectacle, as anyone who marvelled at the heroic exploits of Cape Verde, or witnessed Scottish fans’ good‑humoured invasion of Boston, can testify. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...
Monthly sales growth at Costco slowed in June — a sign that even one of retail's strongest operators isn't immune to the economic realities that have consumers rattled. Costco reported late Wednesday that total June sales rose 10.6% year over year to $29.4 billion, coming in slightly below expectations. Drilling down on June comparables in the U.S., excluding gasoline, sales increased 7.6%, down f...
Monthly sales growth at Costco slowed in June — a sign that even one of retail's strongest operators isn't immune to the economic realities that have consumers rattled. Costco reported late Wednesday that total June sales rose 10.6% year over year to $29.4 billion, coming in slightly below expectations. Drilling down on June comparables in the U.S., excluding gasoline, sales increased 7.6%, down from an 8.7% gain in May, and modestly below Mizuho analysts' expectations of 8% to 9%. All categories slowed slightly last month. Shares of the membership-only retailer fell more than 4% on Thursday. While the stock is still up about 5.5% year-to-date, that performance trails the S & P 500 's nearly 10% gain. "Costco's in a funk," Jim Cramer said Thursday on CNBC, noting the company is doing business in a tough economic climate. Still, portfolio director Jeff Marks signaled the importance of diversification. "They're doing well, but was it as good as May? No, and that's why the stock is down," Jeff said during Thursday's Morning Meeting for Club members. "This is a very defensive name that can still put up strong comps even when the economy is good or bad," he added. For his part, Jim said he would be interested in buying Costco stock if it broke below $900 per share. The stock was trading around $913 in afternoon trading. Put simply, Jim thinks Costco is a good name in a bad neighborhood, pointing to the tepid gains in the retail sector overall. The popular S & P Retail ETF (XRT) is only up 1.7% year to date. That underperformance was reflected in KeyBanc Capital Markets' latest consumer survey, which was conducted late last month and published Monday. During the March to June quarter, spending intentions and financial confidence both weakened, KeyBanc found, as consumers remain worried about high food costs, their own personal income, and elevated gas prices. Those concerns align with the latest consumer sentiment surveys and Costco's June traffic and ticket trends. Domes...
In this article PANW Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch now VIDEO 2:42 02:42 Palo Alto Networks CEO: We need to see the pricing for AI come down Squawk on the Street Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora warned that token costs need to drop as much as 90% to promote large-scale artificial intelligence adoption. "I think 54% is a good start," Arora told CNBC's Seema Mody on " Squaw...
In this article PANW Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch now VIDEO 2:42 02:42 Palo Alto Networks CEO: We need to see the pricing for AI come down Squawk on the Street Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora warned that token costs need to drop as much as 90% to promote large-scale artificial intelligence adoption. "I think 54% is a good start," Arora told CNBC's Seema Mody on " Squawk on the Street " Thursday, after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC that the frontier lab's latest model is 54% more token-efficient for agentic coding. "I think we probably need another turn at it." Arora said token efficiency needs to drop to as much as 20% over the next twelve months, and 90% by the following year. Rising token costs have emerged as a major pain point for businesses and put a strain on AI budgets. The current pricing, he said, makes AI tools increasingly difficult for businesses to implement. "We need to see the pricing for AI come down," Arora said. Arora is among a growing group of executives pushing for a decline in token pricing. The worry is that high token costs create a major barrier to widespread adoption, preventing many enterprises from using the tools. Read more CNBC tech news Chinese lidar maker with Nvidia ties accused of being cyber risk for U.S. China's Alibaba bans Anthropic AI for employees after 'distillation attack' accusation SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell to donate stock to Trump Accounts Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, as Xbox unit downsizes and plans to spin off four gaming studios Last week, Palantir CEO Alex Karp blasted the token model used by Anthropic and OpenAI, and called open-weight models a potential solution. "I'm not throwing shade at them, but something has gone completely wrong," he told CNBC's " Squawk Box ." "The basic view among enterprises in this country is I'm going to chillax and waste my time with tokens." The token problem is leading many businesses to implement cheaper open-weight tools, including Chinese models t...
Former Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke speaks during a discussion on "Perspectives on Monetary Policy" during the Thomas Laubach Research Conference at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, DC, May 19, 2023. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images Anthropic on Thursday announced that it has appointed Ben Bernanke , the former chair of the Federal Reserve , to its Long-Term Benefit Trus...
Former Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke speaks during a discussion on "Perspectives on Monetary Policy" during the Thomas Laubach Research Conference at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, DC, May 19, 2023. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images Anthropic on Thursday announced that it has appointed Ben Bernanke , the former chair of the Federal Reserve , to its Long-Term Benefit Trust, the company's independent governance structure that advises the company and appoints its board members. Bernanke served as Federal Reserve chairman from 2006 to 2014, having succeeded the late Alan Greenspan. Not long after taking office, he found himself in the middle of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression when the financial crisis hit in 2008. Part of his legacy was taking the Fed into the realm of zero interest rates and quantitative easing. After leaving the Fed, he served in several capacities at organizations including the Brookings Institution, Citadel and Pimco. In 2022, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for research on Great Depression causes. In his role as a member of Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust, Bernanke will help the company understand how AI is changing the economy, according to a blog post. "Anthropic has created a unique governance structure to try to ensure that the long-run benefits of AI for humanity far outweigh the risks," Bernanke said in a statement. "I am honored to have this opportunity, and I will try to contribute in any way I can to this critical mission." Read more CNBC tech news Chinese lidar maker with Nvidia ties accused of being cyber risk for U.S. China's Alibaba bans Anthropic AI for employees after 'distillation attack' accusation SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell to donate stock to Trump Accounts Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, as Xbox unit downsizes and plans to spin off four gaming studios Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of researchers and executives who defected from OpenAI. The company is va...
Dragon Claws/iStock via Getty Images The Vanguard Mega Cap Index Fund ( MGC ), launched on December 17, 2007, by Vanguard and managed by The Vanguard Group, Inc., provides exposure to mega-cap stocks by tracking the CRSP US Mega Cap Index. It charges an expense ratio of 0.05% and manages roughly $10 billion. The index reconstitutes and rebalances on a quarterly basis. The premium reflected in the ...
Dragon Claws/iStock via Getty Images The Vanguard Mega Cap Index Fund ( MGC ), launched on December 17, 2007, by Vanguard and managed by The Vanguard Group, Inc., provides exposure to mega-cap stocks by tracking the CRSP US Mega Cap Index. It charges an expense ratio of 0.05% and manages roughly $10 billion. The index reconstitutes and rebalances on a quarterly basis. The premium reflected in the expense ratio relative to what other vanilla large-cap funds charge is meaningful. However, this is not the only problem with this fund, as I will explain in this article. The macro backdrop, as well as the optimistic consensus view reflected in the high valuation and exposure of market participants, makes the current setup downside-biased. Mega-cap exposure is, therefore, not warranted and could lead to an opportunity cost if it's chosen over conservative alternatives. MGC tracks an index that selects the cumulative top 70% of the US market capitalization. This is basically the segment of the equity market defined as mega-cap, the largest companies with shares issued in the U.S. The weighting is, of course, float-adjusted market-cap based and this introduces a concentration risk that is unattractive to take right now. In the past, you can see how MGC has outperformed other large-cap smart-beta funds that can be more defensive. But the outperformance has been a recent phenomenon, as you can see below. This points directly to AI as the primary factor and interest rate cuts as the tailwind. Data by YCharts More recently, however, in 2026, MGC has so far underperformed alternative portfolios. In the first two months of the year, it has been range-bound while these other funds were going up. This indicates the rotation out of mega-caps that occurred back then, and it correlates with the negative reaction to hyperscalers' plans to increase capital expenditures for AI infrastructure this year. Data by YCharts And as you can imagine, MGC is not a broad-market fund. It offers exact...
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the top stocks to buy according to Whale Rock Capital Management. On June 29, Haleon, a consumer health company, announced a new five-year collaboration with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to expand the use of cloud, data, and artificial intelligence tools across Haleon’s global operations. Haleon said the deal builds on […]
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the top stocks to buy according to Whale Rock Capital Management. On June 29, Haleon, a consumer health company, announced a new five-year collaboration with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to expand the use of cloud, data, and artificial intelligence tools across Haleon’s global operations. Haleon said the deal builds on […]
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is becoming a more important part of the AI infrastructure race as companies like OpenAI push into custom chips. The bull case is powerful: better efficiency, lower compute costs, and a deeper role in AI. But valuation and execution risk still make this st
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) is becoming a more important part of the AI infrastructure race as companies like OpenAI push into custom chips. The bull case is powerful: better efficiency, lower compute costs, and a deeper role in AI. But valuation and execution risk still make this st
Investing.com -- Citizens began coverage of Tesla with a Market Perform rating on Thursday, citing concern that valuation expectations for the company's Optimus robot and Robotaxi products imply too near a launch timeline.
Investing.com -- Citizens began coverage of Tesla with a Market Perform rating on Thursday, citing concern that valuation expectations for the company's Optimus robot and Robotaxi products imply too near a launch timeline.
From Posh George Cottrell to Honest Bob Jenrick and disciple-in-chief Dicky Tice, Farage really does know how to pick ’em We need to talk about Nigel. Again. Not so much about the £5m gift from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire, or the freebies he accepted from a convicted fraudster who called him Daddy. Nor the fact that he never thought to declare his good fortune on parliament’s register of m...
From Posh George Cottrell to Honest Bob Jenrick and disciple-in-chief Dicky Tice, Farage really does know how to pick ’em We need to talk about Nigel. Again. Not so much about the £5m gift from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire, or the freebies he accepted from a convicted fraudster who called him Daddy. Nor the fact that he never thought to declare his good fortune on parliament’s register of members’ interests. There again, he was only a professional politician and the principal shareholder in Reform UK at the time. And why would anyone feel the need to account for a gift from someone who identified as his son? After all, it’s not as if Nige also tried to lobby the Bank of England to change its rules on crypto. Oh, scrub that. He did. Continue reading...
Iron Mountain ( NYSE: IRM ) traded 3.10% higher at $119.04 in Thursday afternoon trading, recovering after seven consecutive losing sessions. While the recent weakness weighed on the stock, IRM declined 12.82% over the past seven trading sessions, compared with a 1.76% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. Despite the short-term pullback, the stock has continued to deliver strong gains in 202...
Iron Mountain ( NYSE: IRM ) traded 3.10% higher at $119.04 in Thursday afternoon trading, recovering after seven consecutive losing sessions. While the recent weakness weighed on the stock, IRM declined 12.82% over the past seven trading sessions, compared with a 1.76% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. Despite the short-term pullback, the stock has continued to deliver strong gains in 2026, with a 43.86% year-to-date, outperforming the 9.31% gain of the S&P 500 index. Seeking Alpha analyst Albert Anthony rated IRM a Buy, citing the company's growth opportunities, dividend profile, and growing operating cash flow as key positives. However, the Seeking Alpha Quant Rating remained Hold, with a score of 3.06 out of 5, reflecting a mixed fundamental profile. While growth was rated A-, the stock received a D+ for profitability and a D for valuation. Separately, Wall Street analysts and Seeking Alpha analysts were largely bullish on IRM, with both assigning a Buy rating. More on Iron Mountain Iron Mountain: A REIT Growth Idea, Thanks To Data Centers And More Iron Mountain: Blowout Earnings Thanks To Synergistic Storage/AI Offerings -- Maintain Buy Iron Mountain Incorporated (IRM) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript Iron Mountain upsizes 2035 debt offering to $1.5B These 10 large-cap REIT stocks have the least attractive valuation grades
Gold Selloff Seen As "Stop-Loss Liquidation Positioning Reset", Not Fundamentally Driven Gold’s break below key technical support of 4050 to the 4023 low in New York trading on Wednesday appears driven primarily by stop-loss liquidation and positioning rather than a material deterioration in macro fundamentals , according to UBS. As the bank's trader Marcus Millis writes, "the move flushed out lon...
Gold Selloff Seen As "Stop-Loss Liquidation Positioning Reset", Not Fundamentally Driven Gold’s break below key technical support of 4050 to the 4023 low in New York trading on Wednesday appears driven primarily by stop-loss liquidation and positioning rather than a material deterioration in macro fundamentals , according to UBS. As the bank's trader Marcus Millis writes, "the move flushed out long exposure and left positioning looking more balanced, reducing the immediate risk of further forced selling." However, he cautions, the broader trading backdrop remains challenging. That's because with front-end USD rates expected to stay under pressure, upside in gold looks limited, and rallies are still viewed as opportunities to reduce exposure rather than chase higher prices. Near-term support should emerge around recent lows at 4040-50 with resistance at 4110/20, but conviction for a sustained rebound remains low. That said, the long term fundamentals remain especially solid , and patient holders who would rather collect income from gold as a "productive" metal until its next breakout, rather than a passive, not-yielding asset, can check out the offerings from our partner Monetary Metals. Case in point: as we reported a few weeks ago when analyzing the World Gold Council's 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey, the punchline was that a record 45% of respondents expect their own gold reserves will increase over the next 12 months Central banks have accumulated an average of 1,000t of gold over the past four years, up significantly from the 500t average over the preceding decade. This marked acceleration in the pace of accumulation has occurred against a backdrop of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which has clouded the outlook for reserve managers. The WGC's 2026 Central Bank Gold Reserves (CBGR) survey was conducted between 5 February and 19 May. With the majority of responses coming in after the start of the Middle East conflict, this year’s survey contains in...
alexsl Waters Corporation ( WAT ) traded higher on Thursday after RBC Capital Markets launched its coverage with an Outperform rating and a $435 target, citing the U.S. life sciences company’s recent transaction to add two of Becton, Dickinson's ( BDX ) businesses. In February, Milford, Massachusetts-based Waters ( WAT ) combined BD's ( BDX ) Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions unit with one of its...
alexsl Waters Corporation ( WAT ) traded higher on Thursday after RBC Capital Markets launched its coverage with an Outperform rating and a $435 target, citing the U.S. life sciences company’s recent transaction to add two of Becton, Dickinson's ( BDX ) businesses. In February, Milford, Massachusetts-based Waters ( WAT ) combined BD's ( BDX ) Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions unit with one of its subsidiaries, following a $17.5B deal last year creating a new entity led by its CEO Udit Batra. While BD units were undermanaged when the MedTech giant owned them, RBC analyst Dan Leonard expects Waters ( WAT ) to revive them akin to its own turnaround following the appointment of a new CEO in 2020. “The BD Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions assets were not structurally impaired but deprioritized within a diversified medical device company where biopharma and academic end markets were never a core focus,” Leonard wrote. The analyst notes that following the deal close, the company has already expedited cost synergy initiatives and taken steps to accelerate the sales momentum at the newly added units. Additionally, Leonard wrote that Waters ( WAT ) is one of the least-exposed names in the diversified tools space to the academic/government end market, where there are ongoing demand headwinds, and the company is poised to benefit from a recovery in pharmaceutical demand and U.S. reshoring. More on Waters, Becton, Dickinson Becton, Dickinson and Company: Now Is A Great Time To Buy Becton, Dickinson - Stable Undervaluation In 1Q26, Upside Is There Waters Corporation (WAT) Presents At Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript Becton, Dickinson higher after Q2 beat, guidance boost BD forecasts FY 2026 adjusted EPS of $12.52-$12.72 while reaffirming low-single-digit revenue growth
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is one of the top stocks to buy according to Whale Rock Capital Management. On June 30, Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis reiterated his Buy rating and $550 price target on Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO). The analyst cited an improving outlook for the company’s AI chip business. A key pillar of Curtis’ thesis is […]
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is one of the top stocks to buy according to Whale Rock Capital Management. On June 30, Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis reiterated his Buy rating and $550 price target on Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO). The analyst cited an improving outlook for the company’s AI chip business. A key pillar of Curtis’ thesis is […]
Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest last month’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat. Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. ...
Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest last month’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat. Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record , scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could trigger “mass-mortality events” for some species. Continue reading...