By at least one metric in the $9.5 trillion foreign-exchange markets, demand for the dollar is ebbing amid the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran. Measures of the so-called cross-currency basis — the extra cost investors pay or receive when sourcing dollars overseas instead of the US — show a steady waning in appetite for the greenback in recent days, particularly against the euro and Swiss...
By at least one metric in the $9.5 trillion foreign-exchange markets, demand for the dollar is ebbing amid the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran. Measures of the so-called cross-currency basis — the extra cost investors pay or receive when sourcing dollars overseas instead of the US — show a steady waning in appetite for the greenback in recent days, particularly against the euro and Swiss franc. “This is a simple reversal of the dollar trade,” said Nathan Thooft , a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management. “It was one of the few beneficiaries of the crisis as it developed, and now as there are signs of de-escalation that bid is reversing course.” But while the basis is indicative of the global investor appetite for US cash, it’s not a forward-looking measure of what the dollar will do next. Predicting that is a different task altogether, especially in a market primed to move on the latest war headlines and comments from President Donald Trump . “It is really difficult to anchor views and portfolio positioning to a single macro narrative right now,” said Thooft, chief investment officer of the firm’s equities and multi-asset solutions teams managing $309 billion. The cross-currency basis market gauges how much it costs to exchange one currency for another beyond what is implied by borrowing costs in the cash markets. It effectively sets the price of foreign-exchange hedging for global investors and is an indication of flows between economies and asset classes. On Friday the six—month euro basis tightened in favor of the single currency to a level last seen in early March. The Swiss franc’s own gauge, meanwhile, is now at its most favorable in three weeks. Following the launch of US and Israeli strikes against Iran six weeks ago, these gauges rapidly moved in favor of the greenback — implying a rush for dollar funding as the spiraling Middle East war slammed global risk appetite. “The softening of headlines around the conflict have definite...
ServiceNow could fall even farther as software stocks spiral due to artificial intelligence disruption risks, even though the company once seemed immune to threats posed by AI, according to UBS. The investment bank downgraded ServiceNow to neutral from buy. It also lowered its price target on shares to $100 from $170. "To date, our view has been that ServiceNow is better-positioned for this AI era...
ServiceNow could fall even farther as software stocks spiral due to artificial intelligence disruption risks, even though the company once seemed immune to threats posed by AI, according to UBS. The investment bank downgraded ServiceNow to neutral from buy. It also lowered its price target on shares to $100 from $170. "To date, our view has been that ServiceNow is better-positioned for this AI era relative to other application software firms… [but] given that our confidence in that view has weakened and we're hearing more anecdotes of non-AI apps software budget pressure, we're moving to a Neutral rating," UBS analyst Karl Keirstead said Thursday in a note to clients. ServiceNow shares are down 41% this year, leading a broader slump in software that has persisted despite a relief rally in U.S. stocks this week. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is off by 27% this year, with the latest hit this week coming from the release of a new Anthropic agentic tool. Those losses could mount if those companies' clients begin to curb their non-AI software spending, according to UBS. "Beginning in December, we began hearing [Fortune 500] enterprises and partners express a view that because AI and the associated data and infrastructure spend were expected to inflect in 2026, spending on non-AI or core software spend was now under greater pressure," Keirstead wrote. "We'd estimate that over half our enterprise customer calls these days include some anecdotes of containing non-AI spend." ServiceNow shares were down another 2% in premarket trading Friday on the UBS call. UBS' call goes against consensus on Wall Street. Of the 49 analysts covering ServiceNow, 45 have a buy or strong buy on the stock despite this year's sell-off
Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket: Lumentum Holdings , Coherent — Lumentum shares jumped 5% after its CEO told Bloomberg that the optical and photonic producer's products are booked through 2027, amid the artificial intelligence buildout. Shares of Coherent, another photonics company, were up 4%. Both companies have investments from Nvidia . ServiceNow — The software compa...
Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket: Lumentum Holdings , Coherent — Lumentum shares jumped 5% after its CEO told Bloomberg that the optical and photonic producer's products are booked through 2027, amid the artificial intelligence buildout. Shares of Coherent, another photonics company, were up 4%. Both companies have investments from Nvidia . ServiceNow — The software company fell 1.5% after a downgrade from UBS from buy to neutral. UBS previously said ServiceNow was relatively better positioned to adapt to the AI era than other software companies but said its confidence in that view has weakened. Palo Alto Networks , CrowdStrike — The two cybersecurity stocks bounced back on Friday after a major sell-off on Thursday after faith in a partnership between these companies and AI giant Anthropic around its new Claude Mythos model faded. Palo Alto and CrowdStrike both rebounded more than 2%. Sandisk , Western Digital — Mizuho reiterated its outperform rating on the memory and storage group, and raised its price targets on several names. Sandisk, the best performing stock on the S & P 500 in 2026, rose nearly 3% after Mizuho hiked its price target on the stock to $1,000. Western Digital rose more than 1.5% on its price hike from the bank as well. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co . — Shares jumped 2.5% after the company reported another record revenue total in the first quarter. Revenue was up 35% year-over-year, totaling 1.13 trillion new Taiwan dollars, or $35.6 billion.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) is expected to report March-quarter financial results that may come in slightly below consensus expectations, according to Jefferies analysts who maintained a ‘Hold’ rating on the iPhone maker. The firm has a price target of about $295 on the company, which...
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) is expected to report March-quarter financial results that may come in slightly below consensus expectations, according to Jefferies analysts who maintained a ‘Hold’ rating on the iPhone maker. The firm has a price target of about $295 on the company, which...
simonkr/E+ via Getty Images It is unfortunate to see the markets show a lot of interest in the YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF ( ULTY ), when there were apparent structural flaws for most of 2025. But, as the flaws seemed to have been ironed out better now, interest in ULTY has been waning considerably. I see that as a mistimed product understanding. What should have been an opportunisti...
simonkr/E+ via Getty Images It is unfortunate to see the markets show a lot of interest in the YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF ( ULTY ), when there were apparent structural flaws for most of 2025. But, as the flaws seemed to have been ironed out better now, interest in ULTY has been waning considerably. I see that as a mistimed product understanding. What should have been an opportunistic Buy around the tariff sell-off lows last year, and a more cautious approach around August-September turned out to be otherwise. Interest kept picking up till reverse stock splits potentially raised concerns. Coincidentally, it was around December YieldMax fixed some vital flaws in the portfolio and strategy, making it no worse than several other strong covered call income ETFs. Markets seem to be reacting to developments and most recent performances so far when it comes to ULTY, rather than truly understanding its positioning, strategy changes and projecting ahead, rather than simply extrapolating recent performance. I have been able to time the calls on ULTY reasonably well because I have been trying to understand what has been going on behind the high yield screen. My Ratings on ULTY (Seeking Alpha) This analysis is a follow-up to the Buy rating issued in December on structural improvements. At the time, we did not have empirical data to prove expectations ahead. We have more than 3 months of data now, and that includes a period of high volatility, first through a phase where markets started correcting long duration growth multiples, and then geopolitical tensions and stagflation worries. The data through this testing period shows ULTY has indeed held up far better than even some more popular index-level option writing strategies. I expect more of that to continue. So, ULTY should rank quite high up now for income investors, especially those looking for high yields and quick de-risking from the markets. Pros and Cons of High Yields One of the major concerns I had around...