Follow Luca Socci on Seeking Alpha! Read Luca Socci's Article on Seeking Alpha! This video's transcript was generated by a third party. It is not curated or reviewed and is provided for convenience and information purposes only. The accuracy and completeness of the transcript are not guaranteed. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Content is offered for information purposes only. U...
Follow Luca Socci on Seeking Alpha! Read Luca Socci's Article on Seeking Alpha! This video's transcript was generated by a third party. It is not curated or reviewed and is provided for convenience and information purposes only. The accuracy and completeness of the transcript are not guaranteed. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Content is offered for information purposes only. Unless stated otherwise, any and all individuals participating in the video are third parties that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body. Unless stated otherwise, the views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. The accuracy and completeness of content shared cannot be guaranteed. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser, or investment bank. Nicole Benjamin : Hey, everybody. It's Nicole Benjamin, your host here at Seeking Alpha to bring to you another episode of Portfolio Pulse, where, as the name suggests, we're keeping a pulse to all the big financial moves happening in the market. Now, for today's episode, we're going to be diving deep into all things MCO and SPGI. And to join us and help us do that today, I have Luca Socci. So Luca, thank you so much for joining us today. Luca Socci : Oh, thank you for inviting me and having me over. It's a pleasure and an honor. NB : Yes. Absolutely. So, I see you've been on Seeking Alpha since 2022. So, tell us a little bit more about your financial background, your investment philosophy. What got you on the platform in the first place? LS : I began my Seeking Alpha journey a bit before 2022. That's when I became an analyst, but before being an analyst, I was actually an investor, a retail investor. And I actually got more focused on inve...
John M Lund Photography Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction & Investment Thesis Yesterday, Anthropic announced a new cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing in partnership with CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and more to help secure the world’s critical software. This announcement comes af...
John M Lund Photography Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction & Investment Thesis Yesterday, Anthropic announced a new cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing in partnership with CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and more to help secure the world’s critical software. This announcement comes after the massive data leak involving Anthropic’s ( ANTHRO ) next-generation AI model, Claude Mythos, on March 26 that described it as a step change in performance in software coding and cybersecurity-related tasks, sparking renewed investor fears of potential obsolescence of traditional cybersecurity companies. There is no doubt that the cybersecurity industry as a whole has had a volatile 2026 so far amid constantly fluctuating narratives. But, in my opinion, Anthropic’s Project Glasswing initiative should mark a clear shift in narrative from “AI kills cybersecurity” to “AI will power the next generation of security," as AI models increasingly become more capable at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities. In all of this, I believe CrowdStrike is the best positioned among all to benefit not only from a fundamental perspective but also as sentiment shifts from irrational fears to the company becoming an indispensable partner that both enables and benefits from widespread enterprise AI deployment. In this post, I will explain why. AI Won’t Kill Cybersecurity- Project Glasswing Is Evidence Of That The cybersecurity industry has had a gut-wrenching, volatile Q1 so far. With the exception of Cloudflare ( NET ) and Fortinet ( FTNT ), all other major cybersecurity companies including Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Zscaler ( ZS ), and SentinelOne ( S ) have been underperforming the S&P 500 on a YTD basis, as can be seen below. SA: Price performance of cybersecurity stocks on a YTD basis It started with the “AI Eating SaaS” narrative since the beginning of the year, follow...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Consumer packaged goods company Conagra Brands ( CAG ) reported its Q3 2026 results on April 1, 2026. I see a wave of buy calls at the current price under $16, and this puts the stock's price to forward sales multiple at 0.67; essentially, you would pay 67¢ for each dollar of the next twelve months' sales. Under most circumstances, this would be, as t...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Consumer packaged goods company Conagra Brands ( CAG ) reported its Q3 2026 results on April 1, 2026. I see a wave of buy calls at the current price under $16, and this puts the stock's price to forward sales multiple at 0.67; essentially, you would pay 67¢ for each dollar of the next twelve months' sales. Under most circumstances, this would be, as they say, a screaming buy, but I think one needs to read into management's generally positive comments and pay closer attention to the soft guidance and uncertainty they reiterated for FY 2027. The Positives at Q3 2026 - But Are They Really? On the plus side, contracted coverage for FY 2027 stands at 40 percent, per CFO Marberger . Q1 2027 coverage was confirmed at 60 percent, which implies that Q4 2026 has minimal exposure to spot prices that are now elevated across steel, freight, and crop-based ingredients. That being said, even with costs projected to be more or less under control for these procurements, gross margin weakness remains. In Q3 2026, CAG reported an adjusted gross margin compression of 112 basis points (141 bps on a non-adjusted basis), and that was largely attributed to the businesses that CAG has divested, as well as COGS inflation and operating leverage being unfavorable. Management said as much, and these conditions could persist through the end of the current fiscal year. We should be seeing validation of this when Q4 results are out. Further down the P&L, the "unfavorable operating leverage" management referred to is visible in the adjusted SG&A profile, with A&P (advertising and promotions) contributing to a 4.3 percent increase of the overall adjusted SG&A increase of 6.4 percent. The A&P year-on-year increase is better than Q2's 7.2 percent growth year-on-year, but management now expects this SG&A component to stay elevated in Q4 as volume increase remains a priority. From the Q3 call: And if things settle down with the war and things like that and ...
DNY59/E+ via Getty Images The Macro Context The US dollar is an important variable to monitor when assessing the broad macro risks. Currently, with the Iran war, the US dollar is perceived as a safe haven, and this makes the US stocks more resilient. However, a US dollar weakness together with rising rates could signal a major weakness, which makes the US stocks vulnerable—and this is likely how t...
DNY59/E+ via Getty Images The Macro Context The US dollar is an important variable to monitor when assessing the broad macro risks. Currently, with the Iran war, the US dollar is perceived as a safe haven, and this makes the US stocks more resilient. However, a US dollar weakness together with rising rates could signal a major weakness, which makes the US stocks vulnerable—and this is likely how the current situation will unfold as inflation picks up. The Liberation Day selloff and the dollar weakness Remember the Liberation Day 2025 selloff in the S&P 500 Index ( SP500 )—when it crashed by over 20%? What was the headline risk? It was the expectations of higher inflation due to the Trump tariffs. At the same time, the US dollar significantly depreciated. As the chart below shows, the US Dollar Index ( DXY ) fell from 110 to 97 during the period from January to June 2025. Why did the dollar depreciate? It was the Sell America trade. The United States 10-Year Bond Yield ( US10Y ) initially fell due to a flight to safety on Liberation Day, but then started to rise also due to the Sell America—this is when Trump backed out of the proposed tariffs and initiated trade negotiations. If Trump had not backed out of the Liberation Day tariffs, the selloff in the stock market would have deepened, with the dollar falling and interest rates rising. So, what is the Sell America trade? In this case, it was the selling of US assets by foreign investors in retaliation for tariffs. It was not due to the expected inflation. DXY (Yahoo) The Iran war sell-off and the dollar's strength Now fast forward to the current situation. The S&P 500 sold off by nearly 10% due to the Iran war. What is currently the headline risk? I also expected inflation, but this time it's due to the rising crude oil prices. However, during the current selloff, the US dollar strengthened. The 10Y yields also initially fell, but the subsequent increase remained well contained. As a result, the S&P 500 selloff was ...
IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStock via Getty Images When it looks too good to be true... It usually is. I learned that lesson long before I ever bought my first REIT. I was in high school, and I fell hard for a cheerleader at my rival school. She was smart, beautiful, and completely out of my league. There was just one problem. She was also dating the starting quarterback. Now, instead of taking the hint, I...
IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStock via Getty Images When it looks too good to be true... It usually is. I learned that lesson long before I ever bought my first REIT. I was in high school, and I fell hard for a cheerleader at my rival school. She was smart, beautiful, and completely out of my league. There was just one problem. She was also dating the starting quarterback. Now, instead of taking the hint, I decided to make my move anyway. I figured, why not? Well, I found out why not. One afternoon while I was working as a courtesy clerk (which is a fancy way of saying I was bagging groceries), the entire football team showed up in the parking lot… and surrounded me. That was the moment I realized: This opportunity wasn't mispriced-it was misjudged. And more importantly: It wasn't sustainable. The Same Lesson—Just More Expensive Fast forward to the 1990s. I was building my real estate portfolio and thought I had found the perfect formula. I was leasing properties to payday lenders like Advance America and Check Into Cash. The numbers were incredible: Yields approaching 15% Above-market rents Strong tenant demand (or so it seemed) If I bought a property for $100,000… I was collecting $15,000 in rent. It felt like I had cracked the code. But I hadn't. I had walked into another version of the same mistake I made in high school. At the time, I focused on yield, and what I ignored was durability. The payday lending industry: Became heavily regulated Consolidated rapidly Migrated online And just like that… The tenants disappeared. The business model wasn't broken overnight, but it was never built to last. And when the dust settled? I was left holding the bag with dark buildings that could be leased out at the same rents I was getting from these payday lenders. The Trap: Yield Without a Moat This is one of the most important lessons in investing: High yield is often a warning sign—not an opportunity—because yield is only as good as: The tenant The business model The balance sheet An...
Pronto's autonomous haulage trucks are about to start operating at Mariana Minerals's Utah copper mine -- the first such deal since Pronto got acquired by Travis Kalanick's Atoms Inc.
Pronto's autonomous haulage trucks are about to start operating at Mariana Minerals's Utah copper mine -- the first such deal since Pronto got acquired by Travis Kalanick's Atoms Inc.
Marsh & McLennan Cos ’ Mercer has raised just over $3.8 billion for private investments. Mercer Private Investment Partners VIII has drawn capital commitment from institutional investors including wealth managers, endowments, insurers and pension funds, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. The fund will invest in private equity, private debt infrastructure and real estate, the stat...
Marsh & McLennan Cos ’ Mercer has raised just over $3.8 billion for private investments. Mercer Private Investment Partners VIII has drawn capital commitment from institutional investors including wealth managers, endowments, insurers and pension funds, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. The fund will invest in private equity, private debt infrastructure and real estate, the statement shows. The vehicle will take advantage of the recent market dislocation on the back of a technology selloff due to artificial intelligence disruption and geopolitical challenges, Garvan McCarthy , Mercer’s chief investment officer, said in an interview. “Geopolitical landscape have factored into a general tone of caution, but it has not impacted our clients’ capital allocation into private assets,” McCarthy said. The interest within private assets have shifted, with secondaries and co-investments gaining in popularity over traditional deals like primaries and corporate lending, he said. “The importance of having the sourcing and execution capabilities of secondaries and co-investment will be really important,” McCarthy added. The predecessor vehicle, Mercer’s PIP VII, raised more than $3.9 billion in 2024. The fund also provided a variety of assets under the private capital umbrella. The benefit of diversification, spreading risk by strategy and across multiple managers, will be rewarded in terms of its robustness in an environment where there are more corporate defaults, McCarthy said.
Clinch, the agentic AI platform for omnichannel content orchestration, today announced the appointment of Melvin Stern as Vice President of Growth, strengthening its North American team as brands and agencies seek more integrated ways to connect creative to media.
Clinch, the agentic AI platform for omnichannel content orchestration, today announced the appointment of Melvin Stern as Vice President of Growth, strengthening its North American team as brands and agencies seek more integrated ways to connect creative to media.
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for HR. The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for HR can make and execute decisions within business processes...
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for HR. The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for HR can make and execute decisions within business processes by securely accessing unified enterprise data, workflows, policies, approval hierarchies, permissio
AI World – Oracle continues to strengthen its financial crime and compliance portfolio with new AI capabilities that accelerate investigations, insights, and results. By securing rights to technology from Lucinity, whose platform delivers AI agent-driven capabilities for financial crime prevention, Oracle will further enhance its industry-leading Financial Crime and Compliance Management (FCCM) po...
AI World – Oracle continues to strengthen its financial crime and compliance portfolio with new AI capabilities that accelerate investigations, insights, and results. By securing rights to technology from Lucinity, whose platform delivers AI agent-driven capabilities for financial crime prevention, Oracle will further enhance its industry-leading Financial Crime and Compliance Management (FCCM) portfolio with a new generation of AI agent-driven capabilities.
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for finance and supply chain operations. The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for finance and supply chain c...
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for finance and supply chain operations. The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for finance and supply chain can make and execute decisions within business processes by securely accessing unified enterprise dat
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced a comprehensive series of enhancements to Oracle AI Database. These enhancements help customers achieve extreme availability and security for all database applications, and always-on, stock-exchange level availability for their most critical workloads without requiring application changes or extensive in-house expertise.
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced a comprehensive series of enhancements to Oracle AI Database. These enhancements help customers achieve extreme availability and security for all database applications, and always-on, stock-exchange level availability for their most critical workloads without requiring application changes or extensive in-house expertise.
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for customer experience (CX). The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for CX can make and execute decisions wit...
Oracle AI World Tour -- Oracle today announced Fusion Agentic Applications for customer experience (CX). The new agentic applications are powered by coordinated teams of specialized AI agents that are outcome-driven, proactive, reasoning-based, and engineered for enterprise execution. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Fusion Agentic Applications for CX can make and execute decisions within sales, service, and marketing processes by securely accessing unified enterprise data, workflows
国际数据公司(IDC)9日发布2026年第一季度全球PC市场初步追踪数据:全球PC出货量同比微增2.5%至6560万台,在宏观经济承压、内存短缺、地缘冲突扰动物流的多重压力下,依然实现正增长。头部厂商中,联想以25.2%市占率稳居全球第一,出货量同比增长8.6%,达到1650万台,增速是市场平均水平的3.4倍。本次数据显示,2026 年Q1全球传统 PC 出货量显著高于今年2月预测的6360万台,...
国际数据公司(IDC)9日发布2026年第一季度全球PC市场初步追踪数据:全球PC出货量同比微增2.5%至6560万台,在宏观经济承压、内存短缺、地缘冲突扰动物流的多重压力下,依然实现正增长。头部厂商中,联想以25.2%市占率稳居全球第一,出货量同比增长8.6%,达到1650万台,增速是市场平均水平的3.4倍。本次数据显示,2026 年Q1全球传统 PC 出货量显著高于今年2月预测的6360万台,短期增长由部件涨价预期、Windows 10迁移需求及新品集中上市拉动。IDC判断,随着整机价格持续走高,2026年剩余季度全球PC出货量或承压。厂商供应链稳定性与核心零部件获取能力将成为决胜关键,覆盖全价位段的产品组合更能抵御市场波动。(国是直通车)
CoreWeave stock popped on Thursday amid an expanded $21 billion cloud computing infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms for artificial intelligence workloads.
CoreWeave stock popped on Thursday amid an expanded $21 billion cloud computing infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms for artificial intelligence workloads.
️ Latest news from the first round at Augusta National ️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott Welcome, patrons, to the 90th staging of the Masters Tournament. And with Rory McIlroy having finally got his hands on his holy grail, as the man himself wondered: what is there left for us all to talk about now? Well, how about … can world number one Scottie Scheffler, supposedly in c...
️ Latest news from the first round at Augusta National ️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott Welcome, patrons, to the 90th staging of the Masters Tournament. And with Rory McIlroy having finally got his hands on his holy grail, as the man himself wondered: what is there left for us all to talk about now? Well, how about … can world number one Scottie Scheffler, supposedly in crisis with just the one win on Tour this year (!) sort himself out in time to grab a third Green Jacket? Will Jon Rahm or Bryson DeChambeau chalk one up for LIV Golf? Can Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg or Justin Rose, so often there or thereabouts at Augusta National, take the final step? Will Cameron Young repeat Rory’s feat last year of following up victory at the Players with success here? Would Tommy Fleetwood be the most popular winner? Or is that Bob MacIntyre? Oh, and what price Rory becoming only the fourth man, after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, to successfully defend his title? What about all of that? Continue reading...
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has launched a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) trading platform aimed at connecting mainland Chinese manufacturers with international markets by leveraging the city’s testing and certification systems. Leung, also vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said on Thursday that the platform, an indep...
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has launched a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) trading platform aimed at connecting mainland Chinese manufacturers with international markets by leveraging the city’s testing and certification systems. Leung, also vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said on Thursday that the platform, an independent third party, aimed to promote the centralisation, standardisation, marketisation and...
在耐克创立的50多年里,它经历过很多次悬崖边上的「绝地求生」。 由于和鬼冢虎合作终止,耐克在创立之初面临无货可卖的困境,但公司联合创始人、痴迷改进跑鞋的前田径教练鲍尔曼从华夫饼模具中获得了灵感,发明了具有超强抓地力的华夫底跑鞋,凭借它,耐克在70年代美国的慢跑热中站稳脚跟。 1980年代,耐克在跑步领域遭遇瓶颈,股价跌至个位数,创始人菲尔·奈特拿出公司所有预算孤注一掷,从阿迪达斯和匡威眼皮子底下抢走并签下乔丹。结果新秀乔丹大放异彩,耐克为其量身打造的鞋也因被NBA禁赛一炮而红。耐克从此打开篮球市场,开始步步为营直至坐稳北美市场头把交椅。 每次的逆风翻盘,你都能看到耐克身上的「鞋狗」气息:痴迷创新,对产品极度专注,喜欢打破常规,要做竞技体育赛场上的「反叛赢家」。但最近两年,人们开始怀疑耐克的「鞋狗」精神消失了。由于过于依赖经典鞋款,以及激进改革DTC渠道破坏了和经销商的关系,耐克先是在24财年创下了过去10年来的营收最慢增速,紧接着又在25年Q1营收下滑10%,净利润缩水近3成。 即使到了26财年第三季度(25年11月-26年2月),耐克的一些经营数据仍然刺眼:它113亿元的季度营收仅与去年同期持平,毛利率下降了130个百分点到40.2%,净利润大跌35%到5.2亿美元,预计Q4的营收还会下滑2%-4%。 但当公司再次站到悬崖边,临危受命成为救火CEO的老将Elliott Hill却极力告诉外界,这些都是耐克重回「鞋狗」路上必经的痛苦阶段: 「我们正在重塑市场,重构运营方式,我们相信这将帮助我们更好地服务消费者,同时提升业务运营效率。」Hill还主动提到公司清理经典鞋款库存的做法,带来了大约5个百分点的负面影响。「这是我们有意为之,也是必要的。」 Hill的笃定自有他的底气。同样是在26财年第三季度, 耐克的跑步业务增长超20%,经销商渠道增长5%,库存资产减少1%,还出现了霸榜和全球售罄的产品。 「我们正以高度紧迫感推进各项工作,它并非简单地着眼于解决现有问题,而是一次重建。Brand by brand. Sport by sport. Country by country. Partner by partner」。 Hill一次次告诉大家, 耐克正在、也必须回归到「鞋狗」的路上,尽管这条路注定艰难又漫长。 跑步业务增长20%,Nike Mind全球售罄 无论在内部...