Critics hope to keep Elon Musk from escaping a strict data-privacy order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shortly before he took over Twitter. The FTC order placed restrictions on X's data use for 20 years, while requiring regular independent audits and granting the agency authority to request documents as needed to ensure compliance. The FTC’s action came after Twitter voluntarily di...
Critics hope to keep Elon Musk from escaping a strict data-privacy order imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shortly before he took over Twitter. The FTC order placed restrictions on X's data use for 20 years, while requiring regular independent audits and granting the agency authority to request documents as needed to ensure compliance. The FTC’s action came after Twitter voluntarily disclosed that between May 2013 and September 2019, a coding error accidentally allowed phone numbers and email addresses that users shared for two-factor authentication purposes to be used for targeted advertising aimed at those same users. In a settlement that came just months before Musk's 2022 takeover, Twitter agreed to pay $150 million and to allow the FTC to monitor the platform's data-handling practices until 2042 in order to protect user privacy. Read full article Comments
Tim Robberts/DigitalVision via Getty Images For years now, Datadog ( DDOG ) has been building itself up, and it's no longer the simple observability company it used to be. In fact, its strategy to become a unified platform for cloud infrastructure, security, and application monitoring has been working incredibly well. You can see very clearly why I’m such a big fan of Datadog. The numbers are in i...
Tim Robberts/DigitalVision via Getty Images For years now, Datadog ( DDOG ) has been building itself up, and it's no longer the simple observability company it used to be. In fact, its strategy to become a unified platform for cloud infrastructure, security, and application monitoring has been working incredibly well. You can see very clearly why I’m such a big fan of Datadog. The numbers are in its favor! DDOG stock summary (Best Stocks Now) And this last quarter was incredibly strong for Datadog as well. Q1 2026 reported revenue was $761.6 million, up 25% year over year. Non-GAAP operating income reached $167 million, and non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.46. Those numbers aren’t anything to scoff at; they’re a clear sign to me that Datadog is executing at a high level. Just look at Datadog’s expansion strategy. What started as infrastructure monitoring became logs, which then became application performance monitoring. Which expanded into security, then cloud security, and now they’re in developer tools and AI monitoring. That’s not just a company expanding randomly. They decided early on to move into areas they believed the industry was heading toward and then executed well enough to make those bets truly pay off. Datadog’s deliberate efforts to become the central layer that companies go to in order to operate increasingly complex systems have greatly increased the value of the company. They're now a multi-project platform that continues to grow even as it scales. Being that central layer is an extremely valuable position for a company to be in, and like I pointed out, it didn't just happen overnight. It was a result of foresight and disciplined execution. First, let's look back at Datadog’s numbers. DDOG vs S&P performance (Best Stocks Now) The 10-year average total return is 18.09% (vs. the S&P 500’s 26.3%), the five-year average total return is 22.13% (vs. the S&P 500’s 16.2%), the three-year average total return is 38.47% (vs. the S&P 500’s 27.0%), the twelve-month ...
Verizon CEO Daniel Schulman says AI could replace “a large percentage” of the company's customer service workforce. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech Conference 2026 in San Francisco, Schulman also says that the technology is primed to handle routine customer requests like billing amounts and increases customer satisfaction when used but AI agents will also have to work together with human agents to ...
Verizon CEO Daniel Schulman says AI could replace “a large percentage” of the company's customer service workforce. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech Conference 2026 in San Francisco, Schulman also says that the technology is primed to handle routine customer requests like billing amounts and increases customer satisfaction when used but AI agents will also have to work together with human agents to satisfy many requests. (Source: Bloomberg)
On June 2, 2026, the three major A-share indexes all closed higher, with total market turnover reaching 2.81 trillion yuan. Photo: VCG China’s major stock exchanges are overhauling their benchmark indices to add domestic artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies while phasing out traditional consumer electronics manufacturers. The semi-annual rebalancing, effective June 15, impacts more ...
On June 2, 2026, the three major A-share indexes all closed higher, with total market turnover reaching 2.81 trillion yuan. Photo: VCG China’s major stock exchanges are overhauling their benchmark indices to add domestic artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies while phasing out traditional consumer electronics manufacturers. The semi-annual rebalancing, effective June 15, impacts more than a dozen key gauges including the CSI 300, SSE 50, and STAR 50. Passive funds are already injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into newly selected computing and memory chip stocks during the two-week trading window before the changes take effect.
Getty Images In October 2025 I published my last article about International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. ( IFF ). Back then I rated the stock as a “Buy” and I argued in my conclusion: If IFF will continue to decline lower and reach $55, the stock might be a good "Buy". At this level the stock is at least fairly valued and most likely well underpinned by strong floor of support, and I only see limite...
Getty Images In October 2025 I published my last article about International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. ( IFF ). Back then I rated the stock as a “Buy” and I argued in my conclusion: If IFF will continue to decline lower and reach $55, the stock might be a good "Buy". At this level the stock is at least fairly valued and most likely well underpinned by strong floor of support, and I only see limited downside for the stock, and in my opinion, it is unlikely for the stock to decline below $50. Nevertheless, I still don't think IFF is the best investment one can make at this point, as the stock is only slightly undervalued and certainly not a screaming bargain. However, if you want to invest in IFF, now might be the best investment opportunity of the last ten years. Since my last article was published, the stock gained almost 13% in value (and more than 14% when including dividends). Last week, the company announced it will sell its food ingredients business. In the following article, I will argue why IFF is now rated a “Hold” again due to the higher stock price and a business that will generate lower amounts of revenue and free cash flow. Quarterly Results As always, we start by looking at the latest quarterly results. The company beat analysts' expectations for revenue as well as earnings per share. Net sales, however, declined from $2.843 billion in Q1 2025 to $2.741 billion in Q1 2026, resulting in a 3.6% decline year over year. And while the company had to report an operating loss of $903 million in the same quarter last year, it now reported $273 million in operating income. The bottom line also switched from a diluted loss per share of $3.98 in Q1/25 to $0.66 earnings per share in Q1/26. IFF Q1/26 Presentation In April, management expected revenue for fiscal 2026 to be between $10.5 billion and $10.8 billion, resulting in 1% to 4% comparable currency-neutral growth. Adjusted operating EBITDA is expected to be in a range of $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion, resultin...
Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman expects that artificial intelligence technology will replace “a large percentage” of the work that customer service representatives do as the New York-based carrier looks to boost financial performance and improve customer satisfaction. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Schulman said he’s certain...
Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman expects that artificial intelligence technology will replace “a large percentage” of the work that customer service representatives do as the New York-based carrier looks to boost financial performance and improve customer satisfaction. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Schulman said he’s certain AI will cause “disruption in certain job functions.” But he’s bullish on the technology’s ability to help customers get answers to easy queries like recovering a lost password or retrieving a billing amount. For more complex requests, human employees and AI agents will work together. The AI implementation is part of Schulman’s overall strategy to reinvigorate the largest US wireless provider, which had seen sluggish growth in recent years. He inherited a company that had increased monthly rates and fees over the past few years to boost revenue, but it had been squeezing more money from a shrinking customer pool. To combat customer fatigue and better compete against AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. , Verizon has started introducing promotions and service guarantees. Schulman said he won’t raises prices without delivering something of value to consumers. Schulman’s focus on improving the customer experience already seems to be paying off. In April, Verizon reported the first positive phone subscriber additions in a first quarter since 2013, surprising analysts who had been expecting customer losses. The turnaround has still come with challenges. Schulman has navigated the company through a widespread network outage and announced layoffs of more than 13,000 employees. Verizon has set aside $20 million to help retrain workers for the AI era, including learning how to write effective prompts and create AI agents. About 7,000 employees have already applied for the assistance, he said. He’s also “spending a lot of time down in DC” talking to government officials about responsible A...
Fan ran on to court during NBA finals opener Knicks guard appeared upset with fans Howard Bryant: Brunson the difference in Game 1 The NBA has banned two fans for life after an incident in which a man ran on to the court to take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama during Game 1 of the finals . In a separate case, ESPN reports that the league is investigating an incident during Wednesday night’s game w...
Fan ran on to court during NBA finals opener Knicks guard appeared upset with fans Howard Bryant: Brunson the difference in Game 1 The NBA has banned two fans for life after an incident in which a man ran on to the court to take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama during Game 1 of the finals . In a separate case, ESPN reports that the league is investigating an incident during Wednesday night’s game when New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson became upset after an interaction with fans during the fourth quarter of his team’s 105-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Continue reading...
Getty Images Five Below, Inc. ( FIVE ) reported great fiscal Q1 results from the February-April quarter, but the market didn’t appreciate the report. Five Below’s stock is down by -11% following earnings as of writing, not seeming to reflect the company’s highly impressive store traffic growth and significant margin gains. The market had unrealistic expectations going into the report after the sto...
Getty Images Five Below, Inc. ( FIVE ) reported great fiscal Q1 results from the February-April quarter, but the market didn’t appreciate the report. Five Below’s stock is down by -11% following earnings as of writing, not seeming to reflect the company’s highly impressive store traffic growth and significant margin gains. The market had unrealistic expectations going into the report after the stock had run up significantly during the past year. I maintained a Hold rating in my previous December 2025 article on the stock, titled “ Five Below: Another Quarter Of Traffic Acceleration. ” The stock has since returned 18%, still outperforming the S&P 500’s ( SP500 ) 10% gain even after the post-earnings decline. My rating History on FIVE (Seeking Alpha) Five Below Q1 Review The fiscal Q1 report showed a clear double beat from Five Below. Revenues came in at $1.29 billion, beating Wall Street’s expectation by $56 million and the company’s own $1.18 billion-$1.20 billion guidance range by an even larger margin. The quarter’s $2.22 adjusted EPS beat Wall Street’s consensus by $0.43, and the $1.55-$1.67 guidance range by a wider margin. Financials were accompanied by an FY2026 guidance raise in the first report of the fiscal year. By all accounts, Five Below’s Q1 report was strong fundamentally. Sales growth came in at 32.5%. While Five Below’s long-term sales growth strategy is driven by store expansion, and the company ended the quarter with 7.9% more stores than a year ago at a total of 1970 locations, most of the quarter’s growth was driven by a sharp 22.7% surge in comparable store sales. Comparable store sales accelerated from a great performance in the past few quarters already, highlighting Five Below’s good traffic trend. Author's Illustration Using TIKR & FIVE Press Release Data As I have already previously noted, improved comparable sales are quick to push up earnings through operating leverage. Five Below’s strength reflected very strong pricing power as well, th...
Mapping America's Robotaxi Boom As Driverless Fleets Hit More Cities Robotaxi deployments are entering the scaling phase across major U.S. cities as Waymo, Lyft, Tesla, Zoox, and other autonomous vehicle firms push fleets deep into cities. The autonomous rideshare market remains in its early chapters, but the direction of travel is clear even to the modest observer: robotaxis are moving from the t...
Mapping America's Robotaxi Boom As Driverless Fleets Hit More Cities Robotaxi deployments are entering the scaling phase across major U.S. cities as Waymo, Lyft, Tesla, Zoox, and other autonomous vehicle firms push fleets deep into cities. The autonomous rideshare market remains in its early chapters, but the direction of travel is clear even to the modest observer: robotaxis are moving from the test phase to becoming an increasingly common sight on the roads. With that comes the general public capturing these robotaxis doing some pretty weird stuff in the wild, such as bottlenecking in a quiet Atlanta neighborhood last month... And this. Pro tip: Waymo is more drunk friendly than uber. https://t.co/tYNgWzLBl5 — Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) May 11, 2026 The latest update on commercial AV deployments comes from Goldman analysts led by Eric Sheridan, who told clients these deployments are gaining momentum. Based on NHTSA crash data from July 2025 through mid-April 2026, along with Waymo and Tesla disclosures on miles and trips, Tesla robotaxis had an accident every 100,000 to 120,000 miles , while Waymo had an accident every 150,000 to 175,000 miles. Tesla's Austin fleet includes a mix of vehicles with and without safety monitors, while Waymo operates commercially across more cities and has a much larger fleet. Sheridan estimates that Waymo's fleet size is over 3,800 vehicles (including 577 in Texas), while Tesla's fleet in Texas is around 42 vehicles. SensorTower data for the US market shows that Waymo's app usage continued to expand in April, though momentum appears to be slowing. Monthly active users rose 20% year over year , a slower pace than in recent months. Announced current and future deployments Sheridan's ratings and price targets on robotaxi or robotaxi-aligned companies: Related: Brave New Autonomous World Takes Shape On America's Highways Beyond Chips: U.S. And China Enter Robotaxi Race As Physical AI Emerges Robotaxis Enter Commercialization Phase In North...