Among the Magnificent Seven, Microsoft and Apple are not just heavyweights. They are the fight card. Both are trillion-dollar tech giants that significantly shape how people live and work, and both remain major forces in the ongoing AI-driven market trend. But while they are often pitted against each other, their businesses are actually very different- and that’s what we’re looking to figure out t...
Among the Magnificent Seven, Microsoft and Apple are not just heavyweights. They are the fight card. Both are trillion-dollar tech giants that significantly shape how people live and work, and both remain major forces in the ongoing AI-driven market trend. But while they are often pitted against each other, their businesses are actually very different- and that’s what we’re looking to figure out today. So, between MSFT and AAPL, which stock looks like the better buy as we go into the second half of 2026? Microsoft ( MSFT ) The first Magnificent Seven company is Microsoft Corp., one of the world’s largest tech giants, with verticals spanning software, cloud computing, gaming, professional networking, and artificial intelligence. Best known for its Windows operating system, Microsoft is also behind some of the leading tech brands, including Office, Teams, Azure, LinkedIn, and Xbox, which are used by consumers, businesses, and governments worldwide. Microsoft sits at a market cap of ~ $3.1 trillion , and its stock has traded between $356 and $555 over the past 52 weeks. Today, its trading somewhere in the middle of that range, though the stock is down 13% YTD . Apple ( AAPL ) Next in the Magnificent Seven matchup is Apple Inc., another technology giant that has built one of the world's most powerful ecosystems. It is best known for the iPhone, but it also has a strong, wide product portfolio that includes Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, AirPods, and software services. The result? An “Apple ecosystem”, in which these products work closely together, making it easier for customers to stay within the brand once they are already using it. Apple’s dominance helped the company achieve a market cap of $4.4 trillion . Over the past 52 weeks, the stock traded between $193 and $304, and at the time of writing, it’s trading at the high end of that range. AAPL stock is also up 12% year-to-date . That gives Apple the edge, at least in upside gained since the year started. But does that ...
Explore the exciting world of Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) with our contributing expert analysts in this Motley Fool Scoreboard episode. Check out the video below to gain valuable insights into market trends and potential investment opportunities! *Stock prices used were the prices of March 25, 2026. The video was published on May 22, 2026. Continue reading
Explore the exciting world of Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) with our contributing expert analysts in this Motley Fool Scoreboard episode. Check out the video below to gain valuable insights into market trends and potential investment opportunities! *Stock prices used were the prices of March 25, 2026. The video was published on May 22, 2026. Continue reading
A massive, very powerful investor committed significant capital to the quantum industry this week, lifting sector stocks whether they were part of its initiative or not. IonQ (IONQ +7.95%) wasn't included, nevertheless market players traded the stock up on the back of that general buy-in. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, IonQ's shares rose by nearly 23% over the week. ...
A massive, very powerful investor committed significant capital to the quantum industry this week, lifting sector stocks whether they were part of its initiative or not. IonQ (IONQ +7.95%) wasn't included, nevertheless market players traded the stock up on the back of that general buy-in. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, IonQ's shares rose by nearly 23% over the week. 2 billion reasons to like quantum companies That investor is no less an entity than the U.S. Federal Government. On Thursday, the Department of Commerce (DoC) announced that it is committing $2 billion to direct investments in nine quantum companies. Again, this select group doesn't include IonQ. Yet the firm commitment to advancing the technology from the public sector immediately and powerfully improved sentiment on nearly every quantum stock. Another factor in IonQ's rise despite that exclusion is that, in a way, it puts the company a cut above those included peers. Earlier this month, it reported a first quarter in which it managed a 755% year-over-year improvement in revenue to an all-time high of almost $65 million, and secured its first 256-qubit system sale. Expand NYSE : IONQ IonQ Today's Change ( 7.95 %) $ 4.68 Current Price $ 63.57 Key Data Points Market Cap $22B Day's Range $ 57.88 - $ 65.80 52wk Range $ 25.89 - $ 84.64 Volume 2.4M Avg Vol 29.1M Gross Margin -2879.52 % The highest level of support possible To be sure, quantum still has quite some distance to go in its development as a technology; that goes double for the financial viability of the companies involved. But it's very encouraging that the Feds are putting their money where their mouths are; we can expect other forms of support -- financial or otherwise -- to boost the sector's players.
SpaceX has launched the upgraded third version of its Starship rocket for the first time, though the test launch did not go perfectly for Elon Musk’s spaceflight company. The 407-foot rocket — the most powerful ever built — lifted off from SpaceX’s company town Starbase, Texas, at 5:30 p.m. local time. Just a few minutes later, the upper stage ship separated from the Super Heavy booster and contin...
SpaceX has launched the upgraded third version of its Starship rocket for the first time, though the test launch did not go perfectly for Elon Musk’s spaceflight company. The 407-foot rocket — the most powerful ever built — lifted off from SpaceX’s company town Starbase, Texas, at 5:30 p.m. local time. Just a few minutes later, the upper stage ship separated from the Super Heavy booster and continued on into space. The booster pitched away from the Starship vehicle and headed back to Earth, where it was supposed to perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico. But the booster’s engines did not properly re-ignite for the sustained burn that is meant to deliver it back to the launch site. The booster then tumbled down to the water, where it likely exploded. Starship, meanwhile, lost one of its six Raptor engines as it ascended into space. The ship was still moving through space on its way to the Indian Ocean at the time this story was published. But it successfully deployed all 20 of the Starlink satellite simulators along with two modified Starlink satellites meant to record footage of Starship’s exterior. While it didn’t go exactly according to plan, this was an important test launch for SpaceX. It was the first real shakedown of the upgraded Starship V3 hardware, which has been in development for months. The company was also testing out an all-new launchpad at Starbase that it’s been developing and building for years. The test launch also comes at a historical inflection point for SpaceX as a company. Its IPO filing was made public this week, and SpaceX is expected to list on the Nasdaq in mid-June. The IPO is reportedly supposed to raise around $75 billion for SpaceX, which the company plans to use to fuel further development, massive AI ambitions, and to pay off some of the debt associated with xAI and Musk’s social media company X. (That means this could also be the last Starship test launch to happen without a stock market reaction.) SpaceX has spent years...
Bloomberg Television brings you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today's guests are Crossmark Global Investment’s Victoria Fernandez, Wedbush Securities Managing Director Dan Ives, Citi Director of Equity Research Filippo Falorni, Former Fed Governor Betsy Duke, Wealth Enhancement Senior Investment Strategist...
Bloomberg Television brings you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today's guests are Crossmark Global Investment’s Victoria Fernandez, Wedbush Securities Managing Director Dan Ives, Citi Director of Equity Research Filippo Falorni, Former Fed Governor Betsy Duke, Wealth Enhancement Senior Investment Strategist Ayako Yoshioka, RBC Capital Markets’ Rishi Jaluria, XRC Ventures General Partner Diana Melencio, BCG Managing Director & Partner Julia Dhar & All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan. (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world. ...
SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world. It’s the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and Nasa’s Artemis program. The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX’s third-generation Starship – a souped-up version dubbed V3 – soared from a brand-new launchpad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening’s launch attempt. SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames. At 407ft (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet and packs more engine thrust. Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launchpads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos. Nasa is paying SpaceX billions of dollars – and also Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin – to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon. The two companies are scrambling to be first. While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos’s Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year. Nasa is following April’s successful lunar fly-around by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Ea...
SpaceX’s Starship lifts off in a test of a new rocket designed to deliver Elon Musk’s ambitions for human space travel, satellite internet and data centers in orbit. Ed Ludlow reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX’s Starship lifts off in a test of a new rocket designed to deliver Elon Musk’s ambitions for human space travel, satellite internet and data centers in orbit. Ed Ludlow reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
At least four Russian military satellites changed their orbits to match that of a Finnish-American radar surveillance satellite in the last week, raising questions about Russia's intentions amid an ever-expanding standoff high above Earth. The maneuvers were identified through open source orbital tracking data. Greg Gillinger, a retired Air Force space intelligence officer, revealed the orbit chan...
At least four Russian military satellites changed their orbits to match that of a Finnish-American radar surveillance satellite in the last week, raising questions about Russia's intentions amid an ever-expanding standoff high above Earth. The maneuvers were identified through open source orbital tracking data. Greg Gillinger, a retired Air Force space intelligence officer, revealed the orbit changes Friday in a special edition of his Integrity Flash newsletter , published by Integrity ISR, a private business that provides "combat-proven operational support and elite training that enhances mission success across ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), cyber, space, and targeting domains." The Russian satellites in question, designated Kosmos 2610 through 2613, launched together on April 16 on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Over the last week or so, the four satellites adjusted their inclinations—the angles of their orbits to the equator—by less than a degree. Read full article Comments
China To Impose Mining Controls On Strategic Minerals The Trump-Xi meeting is now history, so Beijing can go back to doing what it does best: squeezing US supply chains with its near chokehold on most strategic and rare-earth supply chains. China plans to impose mining controls on certain strategic minerals to ensure supply security and protect the finite resources , Beijing revealed in a governme...
China To Impose Mining Controls On Strategic Minerals The Trump-Xi meeting is now history, so Beijing can go back to doing what it does best: squeezing US supply chains with its near chokehold on most strategic and rare-earth supply chains. China plans to impose mining controls on certain strategic minerals to ensure supply security and protect the finite resources , Beijing revealed in a government notification published by the official Xinhua News Agency. The new rules will take effect from June 15 and allow Beijing to control total output, restrict mining entities and run security reviews on foreign investments in mining that could pose a risk to national security. Xinhua didn’t specify which minerals will be impacted. Any adjustment to the list of strategic mineral resources will assess factors like economic importance, national security, domestic requirements and supply chain resilience , according to the regulation. China currently has similar controls on production of rare earths, critical materials vital for high-tech manufacturing, through annual production quotas to a few licensed domestic companies. Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 18:50
Income investors who bought the YieldMax SMCI Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:SMCY) wanted exposure to Super Micro Computer’s volatility without owning the stock outright. SMCY’s pitch is compelling: a 105.6% distribution rate, weekly payouts, and a synthetic covered-call strategy designed to monetize one of the most volatile tickers in the AI complex. The problem is ... SMCY’s Dreamy Distrib...
Income investors who bought the YieldMax SMCI Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:SMCY) wanted exposure to Super Micro Computer’s volatility without owning the stock outright. SMCY’s pitch is compelling: a 105.6% distribution rate, weekly payouts, and a synthetic covered-call strategy designed to monetize one of the most volatile tickers in the AI complex. The problem is ... SMCY’s Dreamy Distribution Hides a Track Record Even YieldMax Investors Should Find Concerning