You’d think that if very expensive share prices slammed into global political chaos and a nasty energy crisis there’d be a crash. A durable correction at least. You’d be wrong. This year at least. Instead, in 2026, we are getting non-stop new highs. This could all make sense. Maybe the market has learned to look through things, taking a lesson from the pandemic. Maybe we are in the early stages of...
You’d think that if very expensive share prices slammed into global political chaos and a nasty energy crisis there’d be a crash. A durable correction at least. You’d be wrong. This year at least. Instead, in 2026, we are getting non-stop new highs. This could all make sense. Maybe the market has learned to look through things, taking a lesson from the pandemic. Maybe we are in the early stages of an artificial intelligence-driven productivity boom and profits will boom some more. Maybe there just isn’t any real evidence that the US-Israel war with Iran, despite the thousands who have been killed and all the energy infrastructure damage, is a long-term problem for markets. Sure, it’s a bit muddled, but we are on a sort-of off-ramp, and once the ships get moving and the overtime for port workers is agreed, things will soon be back to normal. The other possibility is that it isn’t any of those things. It is that reality just can’t hold out against passive investing. It used to be that if stocks were cheap you could be pretty sure you’d make good returns from them long term. If they were expensive you would not. The price you paid dictated the returns you got. That’s not so true now. When a large number of investors pay no attention to balance sheets, earnings forecasts, price-to-book ratios and the like and just keep chucking cash in, things change. Flows have always trumped fundamentals, of course. This is how you get bubbles: people get over-excited and ignore reality for a while. But historically, with the market dominated by active (and analytical) investors, eventually recognition of fundamentals reverses flows. Prices go up too high, everyone sells. Prices come down. These days, in our new world of passive dominance (making up anything from 20% to 50% of the S&P 500, depending on who you listen to), that doesn’t seem to happen. The result? A recent study by Min Jun Song of Columbia Business School found that “the relatively fundamentals-agnostic nature of passiv...
To celebrate the release of the film Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel, in which a fashion designer creates a comeback dress for a pop star, we weigh up the best performative looks “Dressed like a fabulously turned-out carrion crow,” is how our reviewer described the gothic, avian-like get-up PJ Harvey wore to perform her journalistic and theatrical ninth album, The Hope Six De...
To celebrate the release of the film Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel, in which a fashion designer creates a comeback dress for a pop star, we weigh up the best performative looks “Dressed like a fabulously turned-out carrion crow,” is how our reviewer described the gothic, avian-like get-up PJ Harvey wore to perform her journalistic and theatrical ninth album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, in Brixton, south London, in 2016. The dress was the work of Harvey’s longtime friend, the Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester, and epitomises the more dramatic stage looks – melodramatic but pared-back – that Harvey turned to for her later, darker albums. As she said of the clothes : “For me, it’s about the ability to meet the world. And it is a second skin, isn’t it? It’s protection, as well. It’s a very big part of clothing, the feeling of protection, particularly in Ann’s clothes.” Who would have thought that someone who earlier in their career took to the stage in Spice Girls co-ords and hot-pink catsuits would wind up in such serious Belgian high-fashion? Ellie Violet Bramley Continue reading...
Hong Kong’s Aberdeen marina-residential tourism project has attracted local and overseas interest, with the city’s leading yacht club and a Singapore-based operator seeking partnerships with developers to expand their presence. Experts in the real estate and boating industries said developers would be keen to work with local, mainland Chinese or overseas marina operators to strengthen their bids a...
Hong Kong’s Aberdeen marina-residential tourism project has attracted local and overseas interest, with the city’s leading yacht club and a Singapore-based operator seeking partnerships with developers to expand their presence. Experts in the real estate and boating industries said developers would be keen to work with local, mainland Chinese or overseas marina operators to strengthen their bids and tap into the market, while urging the government to improve infrastructure and reinforce the...
Mozambique and China have agreed to map the vast, untapped deposits of critical minerals buried beneath the African nation’s resource-rich northern provinces, as Maputo seeks Chinese capital and security expertise to unlock one of the continent’s most coveted – and conflict-ridden – resource frontiers. The announcement was made in a joint statement issued after talks between Chinese President Xi J...
Mozambique and China have agreed to map the vast, untapped deposits of critical minerals buried beneath the African nation’s resource-rich northern provinces, as Maputo seeks Chinese capital and security expertise to unlock one of the continent’s most coveted – and conflict-ridden – resource frontiers. The announcement was made in a joint statement issued after talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Mozambican counterpart Daniel Chapo in Beijing on Tuesday. The geological survey will...
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The stochastic challenge Traditional software is predictable: Input A plus function B always equals output C. This determinism allows engineers to develop robust tests. On the other hand, generative AI is stochastic and unpredictable. The exact same prompt often yields different results on Monday versus Tuesday, breaking the traditional unit testing that engineers know and love. To ship enterprise...
The stochastic challenge Traditional software is predictable: Input A plus function B always equals output C. This determinism allows engineers to develop robust tests. On the other hand, generative AI is stochastic and unpredictable. The exact same prompt often yields different results on Monday versus Tuesday, breaking the traditional unit testing that engineers know and love. To ship enterprise-ready AI, engineers cannot rely on mere “vibe checks” that pass today but fail when customers use the product. Product builders need to adopt a new infrastructure layer: The AI Evaluation Stack . This framework is informed by my extensive experience shipping AI products for Fortune 500 enterprise customers in high-stakes industries, where “hallucination” is not funny — it’s a huge compliance risk. Defining the AI evaluation paradigm Traditional software tests are binary assertions (pass/fail). While some AI evals use binary asserts, many evaluate on a gradient. An eval is not a single script; it is a structured pipeline of assertions — ranging from strict code syntax to nuanced semantic checks — that verify the AI system’s intended function. The taxonomy of evaluation checks To build a robust, cost-effective pipeline, asserts must be separated into two distinct architectural layers: Layer 1: Deterministic assertions A surprisingly large share of production AI failures aren't semantic "hallucinations" — they are basic syntax and routing failures. Deterministic assertions serve as the pipeline's first gate, using traditional code and regex to validate structural integrity. Instead of asking if a response is "helpful," these assertions ask strict, binary questions: Did the model generate the correct JSON key/value schema? Did it invoke the correct tool call with the required arguments? Did it successfully slot-fill a valid GUID or email address? // Example: Layer 1 Deterministic Tool Call Assertion { "test_scenario": "User asks to look up an account", "assertion_type": "schem...
Jinda Noipho/iStock via Getty Images By Ryan J. Puplava Earnings Run the Tape Earnings season took center stage this week, but unlike prior quarters where beats alone were enough, this market demanded clarity on margins, capital spending, and forward guidance. The result was a highly fragmented response where individual company narratives, not just sectors, drove performance dispersion. The defini...
Jinda Noipho/iStock via Getty Images By Ryan J. Puplava Earnings Run the Tape Earnings season took center stage this week, but unlike prior quarters where beats alone were enough, this market demanded clarity on margins, capital spending, and forward guidance. The result was a highly fragmented response where individual company narratives, not just sectors, drove performance dispersion. The defining moment came late in the week with Intel’s ( INTC ) blowout earnings report, which sent shares surging more than 20% and catalyzed a sharp rally across semiconductors. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed aggressively, extending its monthly gain to nearly 40%, underscoring just how levered the market remains to AI infrastructure. Intel’s strength wasn’t isolated; it was reinforced by Texas Instruments ( TXN ), which posted a standout quarter with data center revenue growth of 90% year-over-year and a strong forward guide. That combination, legacy chipmakers showing credible AI exposure, helped validate broader semiconductor valuations. On the other side of the ledger, software and select industrial names struggled despite often beating headline estimates. ServiceNow ( NOW ) fell sharply after its report, with investors questioning whether AI-related costs and growth sustainability were beginning to erode margins. Similarly, IBM ( IBM ) delivered solid results but was punished for decelerating revenue growth, highlighting a key theme: the market is no longer rewarding backward-looking strength. It is aggressively discounting future growth trajectories. The same dynamic showed up in industrials. GE Aerospace ( GE ) posted strong results with 87% order growth and 25% revenue expansion, yet shares declined as investors focused on guidance durability. Meanwhile, United Airlines ( UAL ) cut its full-year outlook, citing rising fuel costs—an early signal that margin pressure from energy is already filtering into earnings revisions. Mega-cap leadership remained critical. ...
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the 10 best cybersecurity stocks to invest in according to analysts. The company’s multi-year overseas investments in AI infrastructure and cybersecurity are supporting a bullish case on the stock. On April 3, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) unveiled a $10 billion investment in Japan for the period from 2026 to 2029, […]
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the 10 best cybersecurity stocks to invest in according to analysts. The company’s multi-year overseas investments in AI infrastructure and cybersecurity are supporting a bullish case on the stock. On April 3, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) unveiled a $10 billion investment in Japan for the period from 2026 to 2029, […]