US pop superstar Britney Spears has checked herself into rehab following her arrest last month on suspicion of driving while intoxicated near Los Angeles, US media reported on Sunday. The 44-year-old singer was arrested in early March and booked into custody by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of DUI (driving under the influence). She was released soon after, and a representati...
US pop superstar Britney Spears has checked herself into rehab following her arrest last month on suspicion of driving while intoxicated near Los Angeles, US media reported on Sunday. The 44-year-old singer was arrested in early March and booked into custody by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of DUI (driving under the influence). She was released soon after, and a representative for Spears at the time described the incident as “completely inexcusable” and said Spears would...
(RTTNews) - Stock of Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG) is rising about 13 percent during Monday morning trading after the company signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Somnigroup International Inc. in a transaction worth $2.5 billion.
(RTTNews) - Stock of Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG) is rising about 13 percent during Monday morning trading after the company signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Somnigroup International Inc. in a transaction worth $2.5 billion.
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) today is up +0.09%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) is down -0.39%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) is up +0.16%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) are up +0.12%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) today is up +0.09%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) is down -0.39%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) is up +0.16%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) are up +0.12%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
Slate Auto CEO Peter Faricy joined Bloomberg Open Interest to reveal how his startup plans to disrupt the EV market with a $20K electric pickup. By stripping down manufacturing, offering extreme customization, and focusing on affordability over incentives, Slate aims to bring EVs to the mass market, even as overall demand faces uncertainty. (Source: Bloomberg)
Slate Auto CEO Peter Faricy joined Bloomberg Open Interest to reveal how his startup plans to disrupt the EV market with a $20K electric pickup. By stripping down manufacturing, offering extreme customization, and focusing on affordability over incentives, Slate aims to bring EVs to the mass market, even as overall demand faces uncertainty. (Source: Bloomberg)
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Times and trends change quickly in the stock market, and 2026 has brought a sea change to the way investors look at the tech sector. The cloud software stocks that drove much of the post-COVID boom are now some of the most hated stocks in the S&P 500, with many fearing that agentic AI will eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for many software ap...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Times and trends change quickly in the stock market, and 2026 has brought a sea change to the way investors look at the tech sector. The cloud software stocks that drove much of the post-COVID boom are now some of the most hated stocks in the S&P 500, with many fearing that agentic AI will eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for many software applications. I don't find this "SaaSpocalypse" prediction, as a blanket statement, to have much merit. Yet I do find that many previously high-flying stocks needed a correction, and now the market is dealing these stocks a major blow. ServiceNow ( NOW ) is a good example, but though the stock is down ~40% since the start of the year, ServiceNow had an especially bloated premium to burn off, and it's not over yet. Data by YCharts I last wrote a "Sell" article on ServiceNow in December, when the stock was trading above $150 per share. Even today, with ServiceNow sitting in the ~$80s, I still continue to be adamant that ServiceNow sits at an undeserved premium. Again, I emphasize that the company is on mostly solid fundamental footing - the primary issue from an investor's standpoint is the fact that despite its sharp valuation premiums, it doesn't offer much growth alpha on top of other enterprise software peers (which are at similarly decimated price points). Though I am becoming more constructive on this stock as its premiums wane, I still remain at a "Sell" rating here for now. To me, the core red flags in ServiceNow that investors should watch out for are: AI risk to the company's core products. I'll re-emphasize that I do not think that agentic AI is capable of replacing the need for all enterprise software applications. And yet, we do also note that there is risk. ServiceNow's core IT service management products (submitting tickets and managing inbound IT requests) have a strong chance of being simplified and revolutionized by agentic AI. No meaningful AI acceleration. S...
halbergman/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) is again in the headlines. Whether positive or negative, it always remains at the forefront of the market news. After missing Q1 deliveries , Tesla stock faced a brutal selloff in which it lost about 8% of its share value in the last couple of days, and now the stock is down 14% over the month and 24% year to date. Seeking Alpha Te...
halbergman/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) is again in the headlines. Whether positive or negative, it always remains at the forefront of the market news. After missing Q1 deliveries , Tesla stock faced a brutal selloff in which it lost about 8% of its share value in the last couple of days, and now the stock is down 14% over the month and 24% year to date. Seeking Alpha Tesla missed delivery and storage targets of 358,023 vehicles and 8.8 GWh of energy storage, so the selloff feels natural. But once you look past the short-term noise, the valuation actually looks cheap relative to last year’s levels. I believe that, long term, Tesla is still a Buy. I agree that short-term headwinds are looming, like tax credit expirations, and one-off inventory builds matter less over time, especially given how many huge catalysts lie ahead. But in my opinion, this dip is a golden buying opportunity, as we saw Cathie Wood has loaded about $28 million worth of shares last week amid the selloff. Moreover, I don't see these delivery misses as surprising, as I shifted my focus to Tesla’s next acts. As Wedbush’s Dan Ives put it, “The Q1 weakness was expected given the EV market backdrop as Tesla pivots more into AI and robotaxis.” Even after the pullback, TSLA still trades near a lofty valuation, but I argue that’s justified by Tesla’s future growth drivers. My bullish thesis revolves around Tesla investing for tomorrow in robotaxis, custom AI chips, and vast battery capacity. Below, I discuss each big catalyst and why now is a good time to buy. Robotaxi I think the most talked about Tesla long-term catalyst is the robotaxis. For me, it's a long-term moonshot. The idea is that once fully self-driving (“FSD”) is approved, every Tesla could serve as an autonomous ride-hailer on a network. Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk said a Tesla robotaxi could earn more annual profit than the car does from selling it. It sounds wild, but it is already factored into valuations....
halbergman/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) is again in the headlines. Whether positive or negative, it always remains at the forefront of the market news. After missing Q1 deliveries , Tesla stock faced a brutal selloff in which it lost about 8% of its share value in the last couple of days, and now the stock is down 14% over the month and 24% year to date. Seeking Alpha Te...
halbergman/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Tesla, Inc. ( TSLA ) is again in the headlines. Whether positive or negative, it always remains at the forefront of the market news. After missing Q1 deliveries , Tesla stock faced a brutal selloff in which it lost about 8% of its share value in the last couple of days, and now the stock is down 14% over the month and 24% year to date. Seeking Alpha Tesla missed delivery and storage targets of 358,023 vehicles and 8.8 GWh of energy storage, so the selloff feels natural. But once you look past the short-term noise, the valuation actually looks cheap relative to last year’s levels. I believe that, long term, Tesla is still a Buy. I agree that short-term headwinds are looming, like tax credit expirations, and one-off inventory builds matter less over time, especially given how many huge catalysts lie ahead. But in my opinion, this dip is a golden buying opportunity, as we saw Cathie Wood has loaded about $28 million worth of shares last week amid the selloff. Moreover, I don't see these delivery misses as surprising, as I shifted my focus to Tesla’s next acts. As Wedbush’s Dan Ives put it, “The Q1 weakness was expected given the EV market backdrop as Tesla pivots more into AI and robotaxis.” Even after the pullback, TSLA still trades near a lofty valuation, but I argue that’s justified by Tesla’s future growth drivers. My bullish thesis revolves around Tesla investing for tomorrow in robotaxis, custom AI chips, and vast battery capacity. Below, I discuss each big catalyst and why now is a good time to buy. Robotaxi I think the most talked about Tesla long-term catalyst is the robotaxis. For me, it's a long-term moonshot. The idea is that once fully self-driving (“FSD”) is approved, every Tesla could serve as an autonomous ride-hailer on a network. Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk said a Tesla robotaxi could earn more annual profit than the car does from selling it. It sounds wild, but it is already factored into valuations....
I Squared Capital is teaming up with Blackstone Inc. on a potential new offer for German media group Ströer SE ’s core advertising business, according to people familiar with the matter. The private equity consortium has been holding talks with Ströer in recent weeks over their interest in the unit, which includes its out-of-home advertising and digital content operations, the people said. I Squar...
I Squared Capital is teaming up with Blackstone Inc. on a potential new offer for German media group Ströer SE ’s core advertising business, according to people familiar with the matter. The private equity consortium has been holding talks with Ströer in recent weeks over their interest in the unit, which includes its out-of-home advertising and digital content operations, the people said. I Squared’s renewed attempt, this time with Blackstone, comes after it dropped its previous pursuit in January. Since then, Ströer’s shares have since fallen further, giving the company a market value of about €2 billion ($2.3 billion). On Monday, the stock surged as much as 9.4% in its biggest intraday gain in six months. It’s up 3% at the close in Frankfurt. Ströer management including Co-Chief Executive Officer Udo Mueller , who is the firm’s largest shareholder, could seek a valuation of €3.5 billion or more for the out-of-home unit in any deal, some of the people said. I Squared and Blackstone haven’t made a final decision on the structure of any offer, and they could opt to bid for all of Ströer instead of bidding just for the unit, some of the people said. Any bid may help mitigate a fallout from a shakeout on the Ströer management board. Co-CEO Christian Schmalz has said he won’t extend his contract expiring 2028. Chief Financial Officer Henning Gieseke has also been considering leaving the firm, some of the people said. Deliberations are ongoing and the private equity firms could decide against proceeding with an offer, the people said. Representatives for Blackstone, I Squared and Ströer declined to comment. An investor group led by I Squared last year planned a bid for the Ströer unit. The private equity firm later struggled to secure sufficient investor backing for the transaction, in part due to concerns about the German economy, Bloomberg News reported at the time. CFO Gieseke said at a November investor conference that while Ströer has been in talks to sell the bill...
US President Donald Trump is invoking his Venezuela playbook with a pledge to blockade Iranian ships. But Iran poses more complicated logistics, higher risks for American soldiers and a more resilient enemy. The US “will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday, after talks between American and I...
US President Donald Trump is invoking his Venezuela playbook with a pledge to blockade Iranian ships. But Iran poses more complicated logistics, higher risks for American soldiers and a more resilient enemy. The US “will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday, after talks between American and Iranian delegations aimed at ending the six-week-old war broke down without agreement. If successfully enforced — and how it will be enforced is far from clear — such a move would amount to a bet that economic pain inflicted on Tehran will be enough to force it to accept US demands before the Persian Gulf nation’s own effective closure of the waterway upends the global economy. The plan is for the US military to wait outside the Persian Gulf for ships sailing from Iran to leave the region. That echoes a tactic employed in Venezuela that — alongside the capture of Nicolas Maduro — allowed Trump to wrest control of the Latin American nation’s oil. This blockade is intended hit Iran’s exports, currently the only oil still leaving the region in any volume and an economic lifeline for Tehran. The question is how big the impact will be. Iran’s oil exports are far higher than Venezuela’s during the blockade of the Latin American country, meaning that a higher level of military intervention will be needed. Tehran also continues to pose enough of a military threat to keep shipping through Hormuz all but halted to other nations’ trade, despite a fragile ceasefire being in place. The US Central Command said it was to begin to implement its measure at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, or about 6.30 p.m. in Tehran. It also provided a more-detailed explanation of the approach than the one set out by Trump. In a subsequent notice to mariners , Centcom warned that unauthorized ships in blockaded areas will be subject to “interception, diversion, and capture.” The blockade will be enforced in ...
everydayplus/iStock via Getty Images The following data is derived from trading activity on the Tradeweb Markets institutional European- and U.S.-listed ETF platforms. European-Listed ETFs Total traded volume Trading activity on the Tradeweb European-listed ETF marketplace reached a record EUR 112.3 billion in March 2026, beating April 2025’s previous best performance by EUR 14.2 billion. The prop...
everydayplus/iStock via Getty Images The following data is derived from trading activity on the Tradeweb Markets institutional European- and U.S.-listed ETF platforms. European-Listed ETFs Total traded volume Trading activity on the Tradeweb European-listed ETF marketplace reached a record EUR 112.3 billion in March 2026, beating April 2025’s previous best performance by EUR 14.2 billion. The proportion of transactions and notional volume completed via Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool amounted to 95% and 27%, respectively. Adam Gould, Global Head of Equities at Tradeweb, said: “March ETF activity contributed to a record first quarter for our European ETF platform, with volumes just shy of EUR 280 billion, significantly surpassing previous quarters. This elevated level of trading underlines how institutional investors are increasingly using ETFs to actively manage exposures and respond to shifting market conditions.” Volume breakdown Both equity and fixed income ETFs saw net selling in March, whereas ‘buys’ mirrored ‘sells’ in commodity ETFs. Activity in bond- and commodity-based products increased to 24% and 9% of the overall platform flow, respectively. Global Equities ETFs accounted for one-fifth of the monthly total traded volume, overtaking their North America Equities counterparts by EUR 2.4 billion. Top ten by traded notional volume Equity ETFs dominated March’s top ten by traded notional volume, reflecting trading activity across broad market and regional products. However, the commodity-based iShares Physical Gold ETC was ranked first. The ETF offers targeted exposure to the gold spot price via an investment in physical gold. U.S.-Listed ETFs Total traded volume Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in March 2026 was a record USD 130.1 billion, up USD 11.6 billion from April 2025. AiEX transactions represented 56% of all U.S. ETF tickets on the platform, an all-time high. Adam Gould, Global Head of Equities at Tradeweb, said...
Consumers browse and purchase vehicles at an auto show in Huai’an, Jiangsu province, on Jan. 3, 2026. Photo: VCG China’s wholesale passenger-vehicle sales fell 22% year-on-year to 4.2 million units in the first quarter of 2026, as consumers held off on purchases, waiting for deeper price cuts and local trade-in subsidies. Speaking at an industry forum on April 12, Xu Changming, a senior economist ...
Consumers browse and purchase vehicles at an auto show in Huai’an, Jiangsu province, on Jan. 3, 2026. Photo: VCG China’s wholesale passenger-vehicle sales fell 22% year-on-year to 4.2 million units in the first quarter of 2026, as consumers held off on purchases, waiting for deeper price cuts and local trade-in subsidies. Speaking at an industry forum on April 12, Xu Changming, a senior economist at the State Information Center, attributed the sluggish start to a prevailing wait-and-see attitude among buyers holding out for better deals and clearer policy incentives.
josefkubes/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) is expected to report a 3.2% fall in its first-quarter earnings, due on April 14, before the opening bell. The consensus EPS estimate is $2.68 on revenue of $23.61B, which represents a Y/Y jump of 7.8%. Over the last 3 months, EPS estimates have seen 7 upward revisions and 7 downward moves. Revenue estimates have seen 10 upward...
josefkubes/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) is expected to report a 3.2% fall in its first-quarter earnings, due on April 14, before the opening bell. The consensus EPS estimate is $2.68 on revenue of $23.61B, which represents a Y/Y jump of 7.8%. Over the last 3 months, EPS estimates have seen 7 upward revisions and 7 downward moves. Revenue estimates have seen 10 upward revisions. This quarter, investors’ attention is expected to be around the loss of exclusivity (LOE) of the pharma giant’s super-blockbuster autoimmune drug Stelara. The drug is the second-largest revenue contributor for JNJ, after oncology drug Darzalex. It contributed to 6.5% of the firm’s total sales in 2025. Stelara sales were down 41.5% year-over-year. Seeking Alpha analyst Dividend and Value Investor sees the company well-positioned, backed by drugs like Icotyde and Tremfya. “In immunology, Icotyde, an oral treatment for plaque psoriasis, looks particularly promising. The peptide drug was approved as a first-line treatment only in mid-March this year. Also, I wouldn't underestimate Tremfya, which grew 40% in 2025, despite sales of already more than $5 billion,” the analyst noted. For 2026, J&J projected operational sales growth in the range of 5.7% to 6.7% with a midpoint of $100 billion or 6.2%, while adjusted operational earnings per share are expected in the range of $11.28 to $11.48, translating to a growth of 5.5% at the midpoint. 2026 sales growth is expected to be driven by products including Tremfya, Darzalex, Carvykti, Erleada, Spravato, Rybrevant Plus Lazcluze and Caplyta in Innovative Medicine, and new launches in MedTech, the company added. Over the last 2 years, JNJ has beaten EPS estimates 88% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 100% of the time, building investors’ expectations for another quarter of a solid beat. Year-to-date, the stock has advanced over 15%, giving attractive returns to investors. More on Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson ...