Oil slumped and US stock futures gained on optimism over a potential diplomatic resolution to the Iran war. West Texas Intermediate fell as much as 5.2% to near $107 a barrel at Wednesday’s open after US President Donald Trump said he was in “heated negotiations” over the conflict, with mediator Pakistan seeking a two-week extension of his Tuesday deadline for Tehran to reopen the waterway. Future...
Oil slumped and US stock futures gained on optimism over a potential diplomatic resolution to the Iran war. West Texas Intermediate fell as much as 5.2% to near $107 a barrel at Wednesday’s open after US President Donald Trump said he was in “heated negotiations” over the conflict, with mediator Pakistan seeking a two-week extension of his Tuesday deadline for Tehran to reopen the waterway. Futures for the S&P 500 Index rose 0.9% and the dollar weakened. “I can’t tell you, because right now we’re in heated negotiations,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox News when asked about the Pakistani request. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement earlier that Trump “has been made aware of the proposal, and a response will come.” Trump earlier Tuesday threatened to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization,” pressing the nation to make an agreement before his Tuesday 8 p.m. New York time deadline. Mediators raced to keep ceasefire talks on track after Iran responded by halting its participation in the discussions, according to a person familiar with the matter. “Hope remains that Trump’s brinkmanship will produce a last-minute agreement to resolve the situation, or perhaps another postponement of the threat to destroy Iran’s domestic infrastructure,” veteran strategist Louis Navellier said. While geopolitical risks remained front and center, traders kept an eye on the latest economic data for clues on any potential impacts of the war. Near-term inflation expectations jumped in March by the most in a year as consumers anticipated higher gas and food prices with the onset of war in the Middle East, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey. Fed Bank of New York President John Williams told Bloomberg Television his outlook for underlying price pressures was largely unchanged despite his expectation that higher energy costs stemming from the war will boost overall inflation. His Chicago counterpart Austan Goolsbee said the spike in oil p...
Gold rose as traders weighed a last-minute diplomatic push to avert US President Donald Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization.” Bullion jumped as much as 1% in early trading, extending a 1.2% gain in the previous session. President Donald Trump said he was in “ heated negotiations ” about the war in Iran after mediator Pakistan asked for a two-week extension of a deadline for Tehra...
Gold rose as traders weighed a last-minute diplomatic push to avert US President Donald Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization.” Bullion jumped as much as 1% in early trading, extending a 1.2% gain in the previous session. President Donald Trump said he was in “ heated negotiations ” about the war in Iran after mediator Pakistan asked for a two-week extension of a deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Oil fell and the US dollar and Treasury yields pushed lower on Tuesday, supporting gold. Read More: Trump Says US in ‘Heated’ Iran Talks Amid Extension Request Trump earlier escalated threats of a massive new bombing campaign against Iranian power plants and bridges, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight.” The president has set a deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday to reach a deal. Now in its sixth week, the war in the Middle East has driven a spike in energy prices and raised inflationary risks, making it more likely that central banks will delay cutting interest rates or even hike them. Bond traders expect the Federal Reserve to keep borrowing costs steady through the rest of the year, which would be a headwind for non-yielding gold. Gold has fallen more than 10% since the conflict began at the end of February, with the metal’s traditional haven appeal also weakened by the need for some investors to liquidate positions to cover losses elsewhere. Spot gold rose 0.9% to $4,747.82 an ounce as of 6:07 a.m. in Singapore. Silver gained 1.4% to $74.04. Platinum and palladium also advanced. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index , a gauge of the US currency, ended the previous session down 0.3%.
While artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage in the tech investing realm right now, quantum computing is the next emerging technology. Quantum computing could change what technologies are feasible, including some aspects of AI. If it can successfully be developed to commercial viability, this technology will take the world by storm, and investors will want to be positioned to take advantage ...
While artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage in the tech investing realm right now, quantum computing is the next emerging technology. Quantum computing could change what technologies are feasible, including some aspects of AI. If it can successfully be developed to commercial viability, this technology will take the world by storm, and investors will want to be positioned to take advantage of its growth years in advance of when it actually occurs, as the market will price huge anticipated growth into shares as that hoped-for success gets closer. Indeed, many quantum computing stocks have already experienced huge run-ups, including D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) . Since the start of 2024, D-Wave's stock is up an incredible 1,460%. While that sounds like an impressive gain (and it is), at its peak last fall, D-Wave was up nearly 5,000%. This makes me wonder if the stock could return to that peak in the near future. Is it too late to buy D-Wave Quantum's stock? Or is now a perfect time? Continue reading
Better Home & Finance Holding (NASDAQ: BETR) continues to accumulate financial resources for its core activity, and investors were there for it on Tuesday. They collectively lifted the stock's price by over 11% that trading session, which easily beat the essentially flat trajectory of the bellwether S&P 500 index. For the second time in barely over one week, Better announced a major expansion of i...
Better Home & Finance Holding (NASDAQ: BETR) continues to accumulate financial resources for its core activity, and investors were there for it on Tuesday. They collectively lifted the stock's price by over 11% that trading session, which easily beat the essentially flat trajectory of the bellwether S&P 500 index. For the second time in barely over one week, Better announced a major expansion of its warehouse credit facility. This was increased to $350 million from $250 million, bringing its total mortgage capacity to $850 million (up from $750 million previously). Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
President Trump has set a deadline for Tuesday at 8:00 p.m ET, pledging to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. As of 6:00 p.m. ET, there was still no such attack, and Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has asked for Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks. Markets have been on edge since the president made that promise over the weekend, ris...
President Trump has set a deadline for Tuesday at 8:00 p.m ET, pledging to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. As of 6:00 p.m. ET, there was still no such attack, and Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has asked for Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks. Markets have been on edge since the president made that promise over the weekend, rising on Monday in hopes that there would be a resolution to the war, and inched up on Tuesday with two of the three major indexes finishing in the green despite trading lower for nearly the whole session. Continue reading
On March 31, 2026, NVIDIA Corporation and Marvell Technology announced that NVIDIA would invest US$2.00 billion via convertible preferred stock and enter a broad partnership linking Marvell’s custom XPUs, networking and optical solutions into NVIDIA’s NVLink Fusion AI infrastructure and AI‑RAN ecosystem. Just days later, Marvell added nearly US$1.00 billion of new 5.300% senior unsecured notes due...
On March 31, 2026, NVIDIA Corporation and Marvell Technology announced that NVIDIA would invest US$2.00 billion via convertible preferred stock and enter a broad partnership linking Marvell’s custom XPUs, networking and optical solutions into NVIDIA’s NVLink Fusion AI infrastructure and AI‑RAN ecosystem. Just days later, Marvell added nearly US$1.00 billion of new 5.300% senior unsecured notes due 2036, underscoring how the NVIDIA partnership is being paired with substantial balance sheet...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images It's that time in the evolution of mankind again where the governmental leaders are flaunting their guns and ships and trying to gamble their way to more and more market share on the global stage. For normal people, like you and I, we don't want to be involved, and we also want to maintain somewhat of a decent quality of life. Given you're reading this, you probab...
imaginima/iStock via Getty Images It's that time in the evolution of mankind again where the governmental leaders are flaunting their guns and ships and trying to gamble their way to more and more market share on the global stage. For normal people, like you and I, we don't want to be involved, and we also want to maintain somewhat of a decent quality of life. Given you're reading this, you probably also have a portfolio. So, it only makes sense to begin thinking laterally. That doesn't mean being fearful, but it does mean being shrewd. It's time to risk-adjust, and the main company in focus on the world stage is in Taiwan. You guessed it: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, aka TSMC ( TSM ). Since my last analysis , the stock is up by 23% in price. I don't really think Taiwan is going to be invaded or blockaded by China, but then again, I also haven't expected many things to happen in my life, and they still have. The purpose of this analysis isn't to impress you. I'm a portfolio trigger-puller, and so my research explains my thoughts, risk process, and methodology for stock selection and sizing. I want to make cash and live well. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis is to help you make simple but powerful portfolio moves that will protect you when other "geniuses" are getting burned. Keep it simple. If you can fry an egg, you can beat the Nasdaq-100 ( QQQ ). You're Looking at Iran, While I'm Looking at Taiwan Firstly, I want to look into some of the positives, because analyzing tail risk as a full analysis is a bit like being paranoid... I don't want to live in fear like that. I prefer to analyze the heavy probabilities and then spend a small amount of time on the "worst case," but have the countermeasures in place to quickly win in the case of any number of tail risks emerging. Plausibly, we could see Arizona, Japan, and Germany scale TSMC fabs fast and furiously if Taiwan appeared to come under hard pressure. In fact, one has to wonder: if it ...
Joe Hendrickson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The last time I wrote an article about The Charles Schwab Corporation ( SCHW ) was back in October of last year. In that article, I pointed out that the company had achieved great performance leading up to that point. Despite intense competition and disruption in the financial technology space, not to mention certain other challenges that the busin...
Joe Hendrickson/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The last time I wrote an article about The Charles Schwab Corporation ( SCHW ) was back in October of last year. In that article, I pointed out that the company had achieved great performance leading up to that point. Despite intense competition and disruption in the financial technology space, not to mention certain other challenges that the business was facing, such as those with declining bank deposits and the rise of higher-cost money market funds, the firm was still experiencing growing revenue and profits thanks to asset expansion and a rise in client balances. At the end of the day, however, I argued that the firm justified more of a "N eutral" rating than it did a bullish one because of the aforementioned issues. And sure enough, the company has performed similarly to what I would have anticipated during that time. You see, whenever I rate a company a "Hold," I am making the claim that the stock should perform similarly to the broader market for the foreseeable future. Shares have outperformed slightly, rising 1% while the S&P 500 was down 0.6%. But honestly, even a single day can make up that spread, so I wouldn't call it material. We have seen performance that has been similar to the market over a longer period. Since I originally downgraded the stock to a "Hold" in January 2024, shares have jumped 44.1%. Although impressive, that's barely higher than the 39.9% increase that the market enjoyed. Looking at the data today, I see a picture that is very similar to what it was back then. And when you consider how the stock is priced compared to how it has been in the past, I would say that it's not trading at some big discount to justify a bullish outlook. Until something changes, then, I will maintain my "Hold" rating on it. Not ready for an upgrade yet Despite challenges in the financial technology space that have created doubt about the ability for incumbent financial technology companies to thrive in this mo...