Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) stock surged in premarket trading on Wednesday after a wave of good news landed at once. Just days earlier, Alibaba and Anthropic were trading accusations, not compliments, in a dispute over stolen AI technology and hidden tracking code. The rally proves those two ...
Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) stock surged in premarket trading on Wednesday after a wave of good news landed at once. Just days earlier, Alibaba and Anthropic were trading accusations, not compliments, in a dispute over stolen AI technology and hidden tracking code. The rally proves those two ...
Jonathan Kitchen Mercor, which specializes in training artificial intelligence models with specialized data, is in talks to raise new funding at a $20B valuation, Bloomberg reported . Mercor last raised $350M in a Series C funding round that valued the firm at $10B. Mercor counts OpenAI ( OPENAI ), Anthropic ( ANTHRO ), and Meta Platforms ( META ) as customers. Mercor did not immediately respond t...
Jonathan Kitchen Mercor, which specializes in training artificial intelligence models with specialized data, is in talks to raise new funding at a $20B valuation, Bloomberg reported . Mercor last raised $350M in a Series C funding round that valued the firm at $10B. Mercor counts OpenAI ( OPENAI ), Anthropic ( ANTHRO ), and Meta Platforms ( META ) as customers. Mercor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. More on AI companies Meta: Don't Believe The Naysayers That It Has Overbuilt Its Compute Meta: This Stock Is Heating Up Again As Capex Cycle Nears Its Peak Meta Platforms: The Most Obvious Buy This Year Meta explores options to monetize AI infrastructure Meta introduces new Muse Spark 1.1 AI model as Zuckerberg ratchets up competition
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after semiconductor stocks rebounded amid dip buying following a recent selloff, as reports revealed that China may ease restrictions on advanced Nvidia AI chip imports.
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after semiconductor stocks rebounded amid dip buying following a recent selloff, as reports revealed that China may ease restrictions on advanced Nvidia AI chip imports.
stockcam/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images First, Duolingo, Inc. ( DUOL ) suffered from disappointing growth numbers. Then the SaaS apocalypse arrived - and stayed. The stock has struggled to recover as management focuses more on user growth over monetization. Yet the company remains profitable on a GAAP basis with a net cash balance sheet. Consensus estimates look conservative as I see potential...
stockcam/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images First, Duolingo, Inc. ( DUOL ) suffered from disappointing growth numbers. Then the SaaS apocalypse arrived - and stayed. The stock has struggled to recover as management focuses more on user growth over monetization. Yet the company remains profitable on a GAAP basis with a net cash balance sheet. Consensus estimates look conservative as I see potential for growth to re-accelerate over the medium term. I am upgrading the stock to a buy rating. DUOL Stock Price I last covered DUOL in December, where I upgraded the stock to a neutral rating but explained why I was still avoiding the stock on the potential for more downside. The stock has fallen by around 36% since, indicating that my upgrade came still too soon. Data by YCharts While one could make the argument that DUOL does not look attractive when compared to also-beaten-down software peers, I am now of the view that the stock is pricing in an attractive entry point. DUOL Stock Key Metrics DUOL is an application focused on learning, especially language learning. The app has proven to be very popular and perhaps one of the few learning apps that consumers are able to stick with. In the most recent quarter, DUOL generated 27% YoY revenue growth to $292 million, slightly exceeding guidance of $288.5 million. The 14% YoY bookings growth to $308.5 million beat guidance of $301.5 million but represented a steep deceleration from the 24% growth posted in the fourth quarter. Management has signaled an intentional move to focus on user growth and retention over monetization, at least in the near term. 2026 Q1 Shareholder Letter The company saw daily active users (‘DAUs’) grow 21% YoY to 56.5 million. The 7.2% QoQ growth rate looked respectable and represented some acceleration from the 4.4% sequential growth rate seen in the fourth quarter, though seasonality may have had some impact. 2026 Q1 Shareholder Letter DUOL ended the quarter with $1.4 billion of cash and investments vers...
The International Finance Centre and Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Photo: VCG Global and Chinese financial institutions are moving quickly to tap a new wave of fixed-income, currency and commodity market initiatives aimed at strengthening Hong Kong’s role as an offshore yuan and commodities trading hub. The People’s Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong’s Securities and Fu...
The International Finance Centre and Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Photo: VCG Global and Chinese financial institutions are moving quickly to tap a new wave of fixed-income, currency and commodity market initiatives aimed at strengthening Hong Kong’s role as an offshore yuan and commodities trading hub. The People’s Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission announced 11 measures on July 7 , aiming to strengthen Hong Kong’s fixed-income, currency and offshore yuan markets. Separately, Hong Kong’s long-planned Gold Central Clearing System began trial operations the same day.
Gretchen Lam, CEO of Octagon Credit Investors, joins Katie Greifeld on "Bloomberg Real Yield." US ETFs that buy and sell CLOs now collectively manage more $50 billion after crossing that threshold last week, according to estimates by Bank of America. (Source: Bloomberg)
Gretchen Lam, CEO of Octagon Credit Investors, joins Katie Greifeld on "Bloomberg Real Yield." US ETFs that buy and sell CLOs now collectively manage more $50 billion after crossing that threshold last week, according to estimates by Bank of America. (Source: Bloomberg)
Welcome to ETF IQ, a weekly newsletter dedicated to the $22 trillion global ETF industry. I’m Bloomberg News reporter and anchor Katie Greifeld . Depends on Your Definition SpaceX is a lot of things. It’s a rocket company. It’s a satellite company. It’s a data-centers-in-space company. It’s “one of the defining industrial infrastructure companies of the 21st century” (in the words of one starry-ey...
Welcome to ETF IQ, a weekly newsletter dedicated to the $22 trillion global ETF industry. I’m Bloomberg News reporter and anchor Katie Greifeld . Depends on Your Definition SpaceX is a lot of things. It’s a rocket company. It’s a satellite company. It’s a data-centers-in-space company. It’s “one of the defining industrial infrastructure companies of the 21st century” (in the words of one starry-eyed analyst ). It’s the biggest IPO of all time, and by some measures, it’s a value stock. A quick scan on the Bloomberg Terminal shows that SpaceX is a member of 187 indices, at least 21 of which have “value” in the name. Most of them are FTSE Russell benchmarks. According to an FAQ , the index company classifies SpaceX as a telecommunications company, and — using available book-to-price data — has given SpaceX style assignments of 90.4% growth and 9.6% value. As a result, SpaceX is simultaneously a member of both Russell growth and value indexes. As expected, that means SpaceX is in a number of value-oriented ETFs which passively track those indexes. However, there’s one standout: the $3.2 billion Fidelity Enhanced Large Cap Value ETF (FELV). While the fund tracks the Russell 1000 Value Index, its portfolio is actively managed. As such, FELV’s managers have the liberty to exclude certain names in the index from the ETF itself, and they occasionally do. For example, FELV excludes names such as Union Pacific, Deere and American Express, among others. But SpaceX made the cut. Now, we’re not talking about a massive chunk of the portfolio. Just 0.01% of FELV is dedicated to SpaceX, which is roughly in-line with the company’s 0.02% weighting in the Russell 1000 Value Index. (A Fidelity spokesperson declined to comment.) SpaceX ranking as a value stock is a fun and unintuitive quirk. The proper way to classify a value stock can be endlessly debated, but the common sense definition of the word implies some sort of bargain or discount — not necessarily qualities that you would asso...
Outgoing PM has not ruled out drawing up honours list when he stands down in just over 10 days time, despite previously opposing it Keir Starmer has signalled he could hand out resignation honours when he leaves Downing Street, despite pledging three years ago he would not hand out gongs when he eventually stood down. The prime minister twice declined to rule out drawing up a list of honours when ...
Outgoing PM has not ruled out drawing up honours list when he stands down in just over 10 days time, despite previously opposing it Keir Starmer has signalled he could hand out resignation honours when he leaves Downing Street, despite pledging three years ago he would not hand out gongs when he eventually stood down. The prime minister twice declined to rule out drawing up a list of honours when he stands down as prime minister in just over 10 days time, to be succeeded by Andy Burnham. Continue reading...
COM & O Meta Platforms ( META ) Chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company is considering building a cloud business to offer access to its artificial intelligence infrastructure, Bloomberg reported, citing an exclusive interview. Zuckerberg said Meta ( META ) was evaluating whether some of its AI infrastructure could be used for external customers, including through renting out computing capacity or p...
COM & O Meta Platforms ( META ) Chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company is considering building a cloud business to offer access to its artificial intelligence infrastructure, Bloomberg reported, citing an exclusive interview. Zuckerberg said Meta ( META ) was evaluating whether some of its AI infrastructure could be used for external customers, including through renting out computing capacity or providing access to AI models hosted on Meta's systems. "The offers that you get for using the compute are so high that it may make sense, in some cases, to rent out or consider those kind of deals instead of your own internal uses," Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. He also said Meta does not have excess computing capacity and is currently using all of the computing power available to the company. However, he added that a cloud business was “certainly there any time we want to build it.” One option under consideration is a service that would allow developers to access AI models hosted on Meta's infrastructure. Another possibility is offering access to raw computing capacity, similar to specialized cloud providers. “I don’t know anyone in the industry who feels like they have too much compute,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg also said he was interested in the approach taken by Elon Musk’s SpaceX ( SPCX ), which has explored renting access to its data center capacity through deals with other companies. Meta ( META ) recently announced plans to offer access to its Muse Spark 1.1 model through an API, allowing developers to use the model on Meta’s AI infrastructure and pay based on usage. Zuckerberg said Meta ( META ) still has significant internal demand for its computing resources, adding that the company would evaluate external opportunities as they arise. Shares of META were up about 4% in the afternoon trade on Thursday. More on Meta Meta: Don't Believe The Naysayers That It Has Overbuilt Its Compute Meta: This Stock Is Heating Up Again As Capex Cycle Nears Its Peak Meta Platforms: ...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Summary Northern Trust Corporation's ( NTRS ) share price has risen 46% on a one-year basis and is still trading below historical peak levels on a forward P/E multiple. The share price has underperformed key peers even though longer-term EPS growth rates are similar. NTRS' earning growth will be driven by increased secular demand for custodian services, whi...
J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Summary Northern Trust Corporation's ( NTRS ) share price has risen 46% on a one-year basis and is still trading below historical peak levels on a forward P/E multiple. The share price has underperformed key peers even though longer-term EPS growth rates are similar. NTRS' earning growth will be driven by increased secular demand for custodian services, which is expected to grow to a $43.7bn industry in 2030 from $32.7bn in 2026, translating into stronger operating leverage for the company. NTRS has a 100% shareholder payout ratio and is currently yielding 1.78%. I rate the stock as a BUY. Company Background Northern Trust Corporation is a global financial institution that serves three primary functions: wealth management, investment management, and fund management services. Wealth management caters to high-net-worth individuals and families through services such as financial planning, private banking, trust & estate services, philanthropy, and family office services. Investment management entails managing portfolios such as mutual funds and ETFs across diverse investment strategies. NTRS has around $1 trillion of assets under management (AUM) within investment management. Finally, asset servicing provides custody, fund administration, technology/back office solutions, and fiduciary services for large institutional clients. As of 1Q26, NTRS had $13.5bn in assets under custody . 61% of revenue is derived from the services above (called asset servicing fees), with 30% being from net interest income, or NIM, which is the spread between what NTRS earns when it deposits clients' funds into safe government securities to earn interest and what it pays out in interest to clients. The remaining 10% of revenue is from other non-interest categories, which include items such as commissions from foreign exchange and equity trading, for example. What Drives Earnings Asset servicing fees are the main growth driver for the company. As NTRS e...