Alphabet shares have struggled to keep pace with the broader technology rally. Relative weakness versus peers may offer clues about where Google stock heads next.
Alphabet shares have struggled to keep pace with the broader technology rally. Relative weakness versus peers may offer clues about where Google stock heads next.
Goldman Sits Down With Anduril As 'War Unicorns' Reshape Defense Tech Palmer Luckey’s defense startup, Anduril, is emerging as the Department of War’s answer to the urgent need for affordable, scalable advanced weaponry produced at lightning speed, rather than through the slow, over-budget procurement cycles that have long defined the legacy primes. The twin conflicts raging across Eurasia and the...
Goldman Sits Down With Anduril As 'War Unicorns' Reshape Defense Tech Palmer Luckey’s defense startup, Anduril, is emerging as the Department of War’s answer to the urgent need for affordable, scalable advanced weaponry produced at lightning speed, rather than through the slow, over-budget procurement cycles that have long defined the legacy primes. The twin conflicts raging across Eurasia and the Middle East, from the Russia-Ukraine war to the U.S.-Iran war, have forever altered modern warfare, with drones, seaborne drones, ground robots, and AI kill chains now reshaping the battlefield. The quick rise of Anduril, something we call a “ war unicorn ,” has attracted the attention of Goldman analysts, who recently felt compelled to sit down with Anduril executives to better understand the story and how it will play a major role in the next phase of rebuilding America’s defense-industrial base. Analyst Noah Poponak recently hosted Anduril co-founder and CEO Brian Schimpf and head of investor relations Allison Lazarus in New York to gain more color on how the defense company is solving the defense industry’s biggest bottleneck, speed. Oculus headset creator Palmer Luckey, who founded the company in 2017, has focused on building lower-cost, scalable systems in categories such as drones, counter-UAS, and missiles, positioning itself against a legacy defense-industrial base that includes Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and many others. Here are Poponak's top takeaways after speaking with Anduril executives: What is Anduril solving for? The U.S. defense industrial base is currently geared towards producing low numbers of expensive, bespoke assets. While these assets are very capable - they have extremely high specifications and performance requirements - they have historically been used in limited quantities, often utilize sole-source specialty materials and components, and have complex manufacturing processes, all of which makes scaled production ramp-ups difficult. More recently...
Just_Super/iStock via Getty Images We’re entering the fourth month of the U.S.-Iran war, and amazingly, while oil continues to ping-pong around $100 per barrel, the equity run has continued to surge thanks to AI. A setup that is unsustainable at best. This week, we’re getting hints of progress on a deal, but simultaneously, getting signals that contradict any notion of progress. Iran put its foot ...
Just_Super/iStock via Getty Images We’re entering the fourth month of the U.S.-Iran war, and amazingly, while oil continues to ping-pong around $100 per barrel, the equity run has continued to surge thanks to AI. A setup that is unsustainable at best. This week, we’re getting hints of progress on a deal, but simultaneously, getting signals that contradict any notion of progress. Iran put its foot down on Israel’s expanding operation in Lebanon and halted talks until the situation reversed, which it later did from Trump pressuring Israel. Things still look far from calm with rising tensions leading to renewed clashes between the U.S. and Iran overnight Tuesday after the U.S. “disabled” an empty oil tanker heading to Iran, and Iran responded by targeting the U.S. main naval base in the Gulf, located in Bahrain, and the U.S. Ali Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait. This inevitably led to the exchange of several ballistic missiles between the two. The escalation is prompting Kuwait to close its airport after it sustained significant damage, spreading renewed panic in the Gulf. The U.S. taking action in the Strait of Hormuz was the trigger for renewed confrontations with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, noting that: Disrupting security in the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy cost for the US aggressor army. Headlines floated on Wednesday morning by Iranian media that Iran hasn’t spoken to Washington in a few days. Trump has called these headlines “false and erroneous,” adding that “the conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today.” Oil prices are up this morning but remain below the $100 mark, as the market doesn’t seem fazed by the series of events unfolding in the Middle East. The theme of this war is becoming clearer with each contradicting headline we see. The market will hold onto the prospect of peace until inflationary numbers roll through. Because in spite of hopes for a ...
Khanchit Khirisutchalual/iStock via Getty Images Fund performance The abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund outperformed its benchmark over the three-month period ending 30 April 2026, driven by stock selection and, to a lesser degree, sector allocation. 1 In terms of individual stocks, Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) was among the largest positive contributors. The company benefited from increasing hy...
Khanchit Khirisutchalual/iStock via Getty Images Fund performance The abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund outperformed its benchmark over the three-month period ending 30 April 2026, driven by stock selection and, to a lesser degree, sector allocation. 1 In terms of individual stocks, Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) was among the largest positive contributors. The company benefited from increasing hyperscaler capex for generative artificial intelligence (AI), as well as surging prices across memory chips. BE Semiconductor Industries ( BESIY ) outperformed during the period, driven by surging demand for its advanced packaging solutions in AI and data center applications. First-quarter orders more than doubled year on year (y/y), bolstered by record hybrid bonding bookings and strong photonics growth. Broadcom's ( AVGO ) exceptional market performance was catalysed by its dominant position in AI networking and custom accelerators. The company reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter AI revenue, a 106% y/y increase that exceeded internal forecasts and highlighted robust hyperscaler demand. Tencent ( TCEHY ) pulled back as investors grappled with the positive and negative impacts of generative AI on its various businesses. Sales momentum at Nike weakened as softer consumer confidence and reduced footfall across Europe weighed on demand, while a lacklustre product innovation pipeline failed to generate excitement or restore relevance in key categories such as running. At the same time, heightened promotional activity to clear inventory continued to pressure the lifestyle segment, while New Balance and ASICS gained market share in an increasingly competitive pricing environment. Taylor Wimpey weakened after a cautious AGM update, while analysts downgraded earnings forecasts for the remainder of the year, reflecting underlying pricing pressure, with order-book pricing down Cumulative and annualized total return as of April 30, 2026 (%) NAV Market Price MSCI AC World Index (Net ...
Fuel cell stocks are taking a sharp step back midday Wednesday, with FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) leading the decline. FuelCell Energy shares are down 10% to around $22, after closing Tuesday at $24.64. Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) shares are off 6% to around $3.83, while Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) is slipping a more modest 3% to around $294. ... FuelCell Energy Plunges 10%, Plug Power Falls 6% in Fuel C...
Fuel cell stocks are taking a sharp step back midday Wednesday, with FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) leading the decline. FuelCell Energy shares are down 10% to around $22, after closing Tuesday at $24.64. Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) shares are off 6% to around $3.83, while Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) is slipping a more modest 3% to around $294. ... FuelCell Energy Plunges 10%, Plug Power Falls 6% in Fuel Cell Rout as Bloom Energy Slips
This week is not going well for me and my fellow Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) investors. Shares of NuBank's parent company hit a fresh 52-week intraday low on Tuesday. The stock has fallen 9% over the first two days of the trading week, a contrast to the back-to-back days of slight market upticks. Nu and several Latin American fintech stocks have fallen out of favor lately. Nu Holdings shares have plumm...
This week is not going well for me and my fellow Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) investors. Shares of NuBank's parent company hit a fresh 52-week intraday low on Tuesday. The stock has fallen 9% over the first two days of the trading week, a contrast to the back-to-back days of slight market upticks. Nu and several Latin American fintech stocks have fallen out of favor lately. Nu Holdings shares have plummeted nearly 30% so far in 2026. You can blame economic instability and intensifying competition as factors for the cooling, but this week the catalyst for the markdown is pretty clear. Nu has a new CFO, and that was enough to have two major analysts downgrade the Brazilian fintech leader. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
jbk_photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Stripe ( STRIP ), Visa ( V ) ( VISA:CA ), and Mastercard ( MA ) ( MA:CA ) are working on a new stablecoin platform, three people familiar with the plans told CoinDesk. Coinbase Global ( COIN ) ( COIN:CA ) is also looking into the possibility of participation, one of the people reportedly said. Large card networks and payment players are increasingl...
jbk_photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Stripe ( STRIP ), Visa ( V ) ( VISA:CA ), and Mastercard ( MA ) ( MA:CA ) are working on a new stablecoin platform, three people familiar with the plans told CoinDesk. Coinbase Global ( COIN ) ( COIN:CA ) is also looking into the possibility of participation, one of the people reportedly said. Large card networks and payment players are increasingly tapping the stablecoin market, the report published on Wednesday, June 3, noted. The infrastructure payments firm Stripe acquired the startup stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1B in 2024, validating the usage and growth of stablecoins as a legit use case for public blockchains. Mastercard agreed to acquire the stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8B in March this year. The company said it plans to expand its settlement capabilities, with additional intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement, supporting fiat currencies and on-chain card settlement using regulated stablecoins. In April, Visa said it was adding five more blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding its multi-chain settlement capabilities to nine blockchains. Payment processors are increasingly facing the risk of alternative transaction methods, such as stablecoins and direct bank-to-bank transfers, which impact traditional card network fees. Most of the payment processing stocks are trading lower: Global Payments ( GPN ) (-12.44% to $64.82), Repay ( RPAY ) (-8.91% to $3.58), Sezzle ( SEZL ) (-7.61% to $109.42), Payoneer ( PAYO ) (-7.85% to $4.93), Paysign ( PAYS ) (-7.16% to $6.87), Affirm ( AFRM ) (-6.86% to $66.14), StoneCo ( STNE ) (-6.76% to $10.48), Shift4 Payments ( FOUR ) (-7.16% to $40.19), Marqeta ( MQ ) (-6.95% to $3.82), Block ( XYZ ) (-5.60% to $70.00), Fiserv ( FISV ) (-5.74% to $53.22), Corpay ( CPAY ) (-5.33% to $340.64). More on related tickers Visa: Why Trailing The Equity Market Seems The Most Likely Scenario Ahead Visa: One Of The Best Businesses In The W...
winhorse/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Summary I gave a buy rating to Meituan ( MPNGF ) in March as I was still bullish on the underlying business trends despite the weaker Q4 headline numbers. I remain bullish after looking at the Q1 2026 results. The quarter was not perfect, especially with y/y profits still under pressure, but the sequential improvement is good. CLC losses narrowed sharply...
winhorse/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Summary I gave a buy rating to Meituan ( MPNGF ) in March as I was still bullish on the underlying business trends despite the weaker Q4 headline numbers. I remain bullish after looking at the Q1 2026 results. The quarter was not perfect, especially with y/y profits still under pressure, but the sequential improvement is good. CLC losses narrowed sharply, adj. EBITDA losses improved, and food delivery economics moved in the right direction. This matters because the main bear case was that Q4’s subsidy pressure could become the new normal. Q1 suggests otherwise. In my view, the stock still has upside as investors start to value MPNGF on recovery earnings. Earnings results update A few days ago , MPNGF released its Q1 2026 results, and it was a good one. Revenue came in at RMB91 billion (6% y/y), and Core Local Commerce [CLC] revenue was almost flat y/y at RMB64.1 billion. A flat y/y performance is good enough for me because, remember, this segment is still coming through a period of heavy competition and incentives in on-demand delivery. What matters more this quarter is that the revenue base did not collapse. New Initiatives is still the main growth segment. Revenue grew 21% y/y here to RMB27 billion, with growth mainly driven by Xiaoxiang Supermarket and Keeta overseas. Profit y/y performance wasn’t great. Gross profit fell 19% y/y, driving the business to an operating loss of RMB6.5 billion vs. an operating profit of RMB10.6 billion last year. Net loss came in at RMB6.8 billion vs. a net profit of RMB10.1 billion last year. That said, I urge readers to focus on the sequential improvement here. Adj. EBITDA loss narrowed from RMB14 billion in Q4 2025 to RMB3 billion in Q1 2026. CLC's operating loss also narrowed from RMB10 billion to RMB2 billion. New Initiatives' operating loss also narrowed from RMB4.7 billion to RMB2.1 billion. This is why I read this quarter positively, as MPNGF managed to move in the right direction a...
A seemingly endless appetite for buying US stock dips has propelled Vanguard Group ’s S&P 500-tracking ETF past $1 trillion in assets, making it the first fund of its kind to reach a milestone once thought unimaginable for the ETF industry. A $1.7 billion inflow in the latest session for which figures are available brought assets in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (ticker VOO ) above $1 trillion, data co...
A seemingly endless appetite for buying US stock dips has propelled Vanguard Group ’s S&P 500-tracking ETF past $1 trillion in assets, making it the first fund of its kind to reach a milestone once thought unimaginable for the ETF industry. A $1.7 billion inflow in the latest session for which figures are available brought assets in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (ticker VOO ) above $1 trillion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. As such, VOO — already the largest ETF in the world — now ranks as the first and only ETF to cross $1 trillion, a threshold reached by just a handful of open-ended funds worldwide. Its ascent has been fueled by a remarkably durable buy-the-dip mentality that has kept cash flowing into US equities through wars, tariff scares and growth concerns alike. It’s a watershed moment not just for Vanguard, but for the ETF industry as a whole, which birthed its first funds in relative obscurity in the early 1990s. Over the past three decades, the low fees and tax-efficiency of ETFs have made the structure a hit with big and small investors alike, while the wrapper’s liquidity and derivatives ecosystem have knit ETFs into the central nervous system of Wall Street. “This milestone is just the latest sign that ETFs are all grown up,” said Ben Johnson , head of client solutions at Morningstar Inc. “What was once a fringe category has become the default investment wrapper for millions of investors around the world.” While US equities shuddered at the outbreak of the Iran war, a seemingly relentless climb higher in the S&P 500 has funneled a wall of buy-and-hold money into the likes of VOO. The ETF has absorbed more than $69 billion so far in 2026 — the most of any other ETF — as the benchmark has soared 11% year to date on the heels of multiple all-time highs. VOO’s 2026 cash haul follows two straight years of more than $100 billion annual inflows, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Since its 2010 inception, VOO has managed to take in money every year, helping it to...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said Marvell Technology could become the next trillion-dollar stock. Well, it looks like Advanced Micro Devices ’ investors would like a word on that. AMD shares advanced 3.1% to $537.57 on Wednesday, trading as high as $544.04 intraday and on pace for a record closing high, as investors shook off their Nvidia announcement hangover and broadly pushed red-hot chip s...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said Marvell Technology could become the next trillion-dollar stock. Well, it looks like Advanced Micro Devices ’ investors would like a word on that. AMD shares advanced 3.1% to $537.57 on Wednesday, trading as high as $544.04 intraday and on pace for a record closing high, as investors shook off their Nvidia announcement hangover and broadly pushed red-hot chip stocks higher.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. saw French car registrations surge 655% in May to 5,446 vehicles, the latest sign of European recovery for an EV maker that lost nearly half its market share there last year. The headline number comes with...
Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. saw French car registrations surge 655% in May to 5,446 vehicles, the latest sign of European recovery for an EV maker that lost nearly half its market share there last year. The headline number comes with...