When it comes to the tech sector, most of the market's attention (and capital) so far in 2026 has gone toward artificial intelligence (AI) -- the makers of chips, networking tools, the electricity to power them, and the data center operators that deploy them. Quantum computing has been more of an afterthought for years, mostly because the technology had not been developed to the point where it cou...
When it comes to the tech sector, most of the market's attention (and capital) so far in 2026 has gone toward artificial intelligence (AI) -- the makers of chips, networking tools, the electricity to power them, and the data center operators that deploy them. Quantum computing has been more of an afterthought for years, mostly because the technology had not been developed to the point where it could do much that was genuinely useful. Still, some investors have bid up the pure-plays in the space based on speculation about its potential. That posture is starting to shift, though, and with both retail investors and some of the more disciplined institutional buyers and partners in the AI ecosystem showing enthusiasm. The conversation around quantum computing is shifting gradually from theoretical breakthroughs to commercial traction. This year has brought some of the first clear signs that the technology is moving from research labs into mainstream computing infrastructure. Continue reading
Jordan Siemens/DigitalVision via Getty Images Not everyone has a high risk tolerance Many individuals approaching retirement are faced with a fundamental question: "How much risk do I want to take after I pull the trigger?" To even get there in the first place [a point to which your portfolio can support your daily living], you've most likely been overweight US equities ( SPY )( QQQ )( DIA )( IVV ...
Jordan Siemens/DigitalVision via Getty Images Not everyone has a high risk tolerance Many individuals approaching retirement are faced with a fundamental question: "How much risk do I want to take after I pull the trigger?" To even get there in the first place [a point to which your portfolio can support your daily living], you've most likely been overweight US equities ( SPY )( QQQ )( DIA )( IVV )( VOO ) for the last decade, maybe 80/20 or 70/30. Because the fear of 'sequence of returns risk' is everywhere in the media, this normally forces retirees into more conservative allocations by retirement. What is the sequence of returns risk? Quite simply, sequence of returns risk is when your portfolio runs into bad returns in the first few years of retirement. This forces retirees to draw down their accounts as share prices fall. A really bad sequence of returns in a heavy equity-based portfolio can make it more difficult for that portfolio to recover in the future if you're consistently selling into lower and lower share prices. One way to mitigate this is to keep 2-3 years of cash around in case one has to pivot to cash-only withdrawals for a period of time. This is truly the only reliable hedge that is non-correlated with equities or any other assets for that matter. With cash equivalent yields falling, and probably continuing to fall into the next few years, this is becoming less and less desirable. Standard glide path recommendation headed to retirement A typical recommendation you'll see headed into retirement is a 55/40/5, stocks/bonds/cash portfolio . This was popularized by both Bill Bengen [who popularized the 4% rule] and the Trinity University study on safe withdrawal rates in the distribution phase of retirement. Somewhere between 4-5% is the current gold standard for safe withdrawal rates in 30 year retirement models. Another interesting allocation I came across recently was from William Bernstein's The Intelligent Asset Allocator . This investment classic...
A golden cross, when the 50-day simple moving average climbs above the 200-day SMA, is one of the more closely watched technical signals on Wall Street. For Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ), the snack maker behind Oreo, Cadbury, and Toblerone, that crossover is now tantalizingly close. Where the Moving Averages Sit Today As of May 21, ... Mondelez Stock Inches Toward Golden Cross as Cocoa Rel...
A golden cross, when the 50-day simple moving average climbs above the 200-day SMA, is one of the more closely watched technical signals on Wall Street. For Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ), the snack maker behind Oreo, Cadbury, and Toblerone, that crossover is now tantalizingly close. Where the Moving Averages Sit Today As of May 21, ... Mondelez Stock Inches Toward Golden Cross as Cocoa Relief Fuels Rally
Using vanilla websites for your dividend research? Be careful. Many of these mainstream sites miss the most important payment of the year for "special" dividend companies! This oversight could have us overlooking thousands of dollars in potential yearly income. And yields up to 14.6%! Would you believe what this 14.6% payer is listed at on these lame sites? 0.2%. Zero-point-two percent. Yup. Which...
Using vanilla websites for your dividend research? Be careful. Many of these mainstream sites miss the most important payment of the year for "special" dividend companies! This oversight could have us overlooking thousands of dollars in potential yearly income. And yields up to 14.6%! Would you believe what this 14.6% payer is listed at on these lame sites? 0.2%. Zero-point-two percent. Yup. Which is why we contrarians do our research with a focus on special dividends. Specials uncommon enough that many investors don't know much (if anything) about them. In short, they're one-time cash payouts, usually the result of a massive capital boost--say, selling off a piece of the company or delivering blowout annual profits. At least, usually that's the case. Some stocks pay out so-called "supplemental" dividends that they pair with regular distributions. Let's say a company pays out 50 cents per share quarterly, but at the end of the year it pays out half of its free cash flow as a supplemental dividend. That might be an extra $1 in one year, $3 in another. In some cases, it's a tidy little "top-up" that makes a nice dividend a little nicer. But sometimes, these special dividends take a decent to even modest yield and turn it into an eye-popping payout in the high-single or even double digits. Just check out this seven-pack of "special" payers. While financial dividend sites would tell us they're paying a collective 6% on average, in reality, this mini-portfolio's true average yield is a mouth-watering 10%. Retailers Let's start with an unlikely pair--two mall names most income investors wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. I wouldn't want to share a foxhole with Dillard's (DDS, 0.2% headline yield) and The Buckle (BKE, 2.9% headline yield). They're both mall plays--the former is one of the few remaining department-store chains, while the latter is a fashion retailer, which is as fickle as a business gets. Economic shivers give both the fits, and a pressured consumer has b...
Investors often turn to recommendations made by Wall Street analysts before making a Buy, Sell, or Hold decision about a stock. While media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm employed (or sell-side) analysts often affect a stock's price, do they really matter? Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what thes...
Investors often turn to recommendations made by Wall Street analysts before making a Buy, Sell, or Hold decision about a stock. While media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm employed (or sell-side) analysts often affect a stock's price, do they really matter? Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what these Wall Street heavyweights think about Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR). Palantir Technologies currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.79, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 29 brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.79 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy. Of the 29 recommendations that derive the current ABR, 19 are Strong Buy, representing 65.5% of all recommendations. Brokerage Recommendation Trends for PLTR Broker Rating Breakdown Chart for PLTR Check price target & stock forecast for Palantir Technologies here>>> While the ABR calls for buying Palantir Technologies, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential. Do you wonder why? As a result of the vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover, their analysts tend to rate it with a strong positive bias. According to our research, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations for every "Strong Sell" recommendation. In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement. Zacks Rank, our proprietary stock rating tool with an impressive ext...
Investors often turn to recommendations made by Wall Street analysts before making a Buy, Sell, or Hold decision about a stock. While media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm employed (or sell-side) analysts often affect a stock's price, do they really matter? Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what thes...
Investors often turn to recommendations made by Wall Street analysts before making a Buy, Sell, or Hold decision about a stock. While media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm employed (or sell-side) analysts often affect a stock's price, do they really matter? Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what these Wall Street heavyweights think about Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR). Palantir Technologies currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.79, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 29 brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.79 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy. Of the 29 recommendations that derive the current ABR, 19 are Strong Buy, representing 65.5% of all recommendations. Brokerage Recommendation Trends for PLTR Broker Rating Breakdown Chart for PLTR Check price target & stock forecast for Palantir Technologies here>>> While the ABR calls for buying Palantir Technologies, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential. Do you wonder why? As a result of the vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover, their analysts tend to rate it with a strong positive bias. According to our research, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations for every "Strong Sell" recommendation. In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement. Zacks Rank, our proprietary stock rating tool with an impressive ext...
Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images The Thesis Moving into 2026, ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI ), a leading supplier of high-performance materials, primarily for the aerospace and defense (A&D) market, reported a nearly flat topline but strong earnings growth in Q1 , thanks to improved margins during the quarter. Overall demand environment for ATI's differentiated products remains healthy, particul...
Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images The Thesis Moving into 2026, ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI ), a leading supplier of high-performance materials, primarily for the aerospace and defense (A&D) market, reported a nearly flat topline but strong earnings growth in Q1 , thanks to improved margins during the quarter. Overall demand environment for ATI's differentiated products remains healthy, particularly across its jet engine and defense end markets. In my view, sustained demand in core end markets, along with an elevated backlog, should continue to support the company's topline, offsetting the short-term impact from softness in certain end markets. Although overall volumes might remain under pressure in the coming quarter, ATI's profitability is likely to continue to benefit from a richer mix and ongoing operational improvements. With continued focus on quality revenue, ATI remains well positioned for further margin expansion through FY26 and beyond, supporting steady bottom-line growth. Since my last buy rating earlier this year, the ATI stock has been up in single-digit percentages. Although the stock is currently trading above its historical average, it remains reasonable due to the company's strong market positioning in the high-growth A&D end market and healthy double-digit forward growth expectations, keeping this stock a solid buy at the present valuation. ATI’s Q1 2026 Highlights ATI reported its first-quarter results for FY26 a few weeks ago, in April. Entering into 2026, the pressure across ATI’s topline continued as overall volumes were down due to a focus on enhancing the mix for better revenue quality. As a result, the company’s consolidated topline was nearly flat year on year, with just about ~1% growth to $1.15 billion in Q1, missing the consensus estimate by about $30 million. However, despite volume softness in certain areas, the company’s HPMC segment continues to show strength, delivering a 5.2% growth year on year, thanks to robust momentum in the...
Dmytro Skrypnykov/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My normal approach is to cover all the Notes and Preferred Stocks from the same issuer in separate articles. Here, for Adamas Trust ( ADAM ), I will compare one of the four Notes, the Adamas Trust, Inc 9.875% Senior Notes due 10/01/2030 ( ADAMH ) versus one of the four Preferred Stocks, the Adamas Trust, 8.00% Series D Fix/Float Cumulative Red...
Dmytro Skrypnykov/iStock via Getty Images Introduction My normal approach is to cover all the Notes and Preferred Stocks from the same issuer in separate articles. Here, for Adamas Trust ( ADAM ), I will compare one of the four Notes, the Adamas Trust, Inc 9.875% Senior Notes due 10/01/2030 ( ADAMH ) versus one of the four Preferred Stocks, the Adamas Trust, 8.00% Series D Fix/Float Cumulative Red Preferred Stock ( ADAMN ). The pair was chosen as their Call dates are in the same month in 2027. Their differences highlight what investors should consider when deciding between two asset classes where income is usually the prime reason for holding either. I am keeping my Sell rating on the Preferred stock and giving the Note an initial rating of Hold; reasons for both are explained later. Adamas Trust review Data by YCharts Regardless of whether the investment vehicle being considered, a good due diligence starting point is understanding the issuer. Seeking Alpha describes this mREIT as (edited): Adamas Trust, Inc. acquires, invests in, finances, and manages mortgage-related single-family and multifamily residential assets in the United States. The company operates through two segments: Investment Portfolio and Constructive. The Investment Portfolio segment manages a diversified portfolio primarily consisting of mortgage-related single-family and multifamily residential investments, including agency residential mortgage-backed securities ( RMBS ), non-agency RMBS, residential loans, and business purpose loans. The Constructive segment is a business purpose loan lender specializing in rental and transitional loans for real estate investors; and origination and sale of loans, and commercial mortgage-backed securities ( CMBS ). It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. Adamas Trust, Inc. was formerly known as New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. and changed its name to Adamas Trust,...
Oleh Stefaniak/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Since my last coverage on Micron ( MU ) last time, the stock is up another ~80% on growing demand for HBM, LPDDR and AI-friendly memory. Yet despite the rally, I am even more bullish on Micron now than before. I think investors significantly undervalue the importance of memory, storage and bandwidth in the AI era. With memory and data transf...
Oleh Stefaniak/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Since my last coverage on Micron ( MU ) last time, the stock is up another ~80% on growing demand for HBM, LPDDR and AI-friendly memory. Yet despite the rally, I am even more bullish on Micron now than before. I think investors significantly undervalue the importance of memory, storage and bandwidth in the AI era. With memory and data transfers emerging as key bottlenecks for increasingly massive AI systems in addition to compute, Micron finds itself uniquely well-positioned to benefit from multiple AI challenges through HBM4, PCIe Gen6 SSDs, CXL memory, LPDDR5X and EUV fabrication capabilities. Data by YCharts AI Infrastructure’s Greatest Bottleneck Is Not Limited to Compute Power Anymore One of the key things happening in AI hardware is that computing power alone is not what constrains current AI systems anymore. Modern accelerators and large language models find themselves starved for bandwidth and/or memory to deliver their full potential. The result is that accelerators end up sitting around waiting for access to memory, bandwidth, or data needed for training or inference operations as context sizes increase, models evolve and inference itself becomes more challenging. That is why Micron’s strategic position is becoming much more evident than it was a few years ago. While large language models require vast amounts of memory capacity in training and inference environments, the emergence of agentic AI and KV cache expansion makes inference increasingly reliant on memory capacity and bandwidth. Simply put, AI systems are not just doing math anymore, they need to retain context, search information on-demand and keep persistent memory in use. That increases demand for advanced memory and ultra-high-speed storage solutions. That also means that Micron is well-positioned to capitalize on multiple bottlenecks at once, not just sell DRAM. In addition to HBM to address high-bandwidth AI computing needs, Micron also...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Many of Europe's largest banks raised loan loss provisions for risks related to the war in the Middle East during the first quarter, citing uncertainty over the impact and duration of the conflict. European lenders attributed more than €1.5 billion of fresh provisions to the war and geopolitical risk, an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of the late...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Many of Europe's largest banks raised loan loss provisions for risks related to the war in the Middle East during the first quarter, citing uncertainty over the impact and duration of the conflict. European lenders attributed more than €1.5 billion of fresh provisions to the war and geopolitical risk, an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of the latest round of bank earnings shows. UK banks set aside the largest sums, led by Asia-focused groups HSBC Holdings PLC ( HSBC )( HBCYF ) and Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) ( SCBFF )( SCBFY ). While the direct impact of the war on European banks has been limited so far, lenders set aside additional reserves mainly due to updated macroeconomic scenarios and weightings, reflecting potential negative second-round effects such as slower GDP growth and higher inflation. Banks stressed that a longer duration of the war would have a more pronounced macroeconomic impact in Europe and globally. Many still expect resolution within the next couple of months, but the ongoing uncertainty prevented some from updating financial targets for the year. HSBC's $300 million ECL charge was precautionary and meant to cover the negative effects of the war everywhere, not just the Middle East, CFO Pam Kaur said during a May 5 earnings call. The bank "has not experienced significant financial impacts from recent events in the Middle East to date, and we are well positioned to manage the current uncertainties," the group said in its earnings presentation . StanChart executives made similar comments during an April 30 earnings call, with interim CFO Peter Burrill saying the $190 million in additional management overlays was precautionary for effects that have not been experienced yet. StanChart's overall annualized cost of risk in the quarter of 32 basis points was within the group's through-the-cycle guidance of 30-35 basis points, Burrill said. So far, markets and trade have been "quite resilient," ...
Working on PaleBlueDot AI's NVIDIA B300 platform, ZFLOW AI used hardware-aware simulation to find an optimized SGLang serving configuration for high-concurrency DeepSeek V4-Pro inference. SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 22, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZFLOW AI today announced a performance optimization milestone on PaleBlueDot AI's 8×NVIDIA B300 bare-metal platform, using simulation to identify an optimized D...
Working on PaleBlueDot AI's NVIDIA B300 platform, ZFLOW AI used hardware-aware simulation to find an optimized SGLang serving configuration for high-concurrency DeepSeek V4-Pro inference. SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 22, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZFLOW AI today announced a performance optimization milestone on PaleBlueDot AI's 8×NVIDIA B300 bare-metal platform, using simulation to identify an optimized DeepSeek V4-Pro serving configuration on an SGLang stack. To our knowledge, this is the first publicly documented simulation-guided serving optimization of a frontier open-source model on NVIDIA’s B300 production platform. ZFLOW AI is building a neutral optimization and control layer for AI infrastructure. Sitting above serving runtimes and below the business decision, ZFLOW AI helps infrastructure teams find the lowest-cost, highest-performance way to run a given workload on a given cluster. ZFLOW AI's role is complementary to the serving runtime. Building on the high-performance DeepSeek V4 foundation provided by the SGLang ecosystem, ZFLOW AI applies an optimization intelligence layer on top of the runtime — profiling real workload behavior and using hardware-aware simulation to guide deployment and tuning decisions for a specific workload on specific hardware. In this milestone, ZFLOW AI evaluated DeepSeek V4-Pro serving with SGLang and EAGLE speculative decoding, analyzing serving-architecture tradeoffs, high-concurrency throughput and latency, and next-step multi-node deployment. Under higher-concurrency traffic, the prefill-decode disaggregated configuration reached peak throughput of 826 tokens/second — approximately 1.54× the non-disaggregated (monolithic) peak — with tail latency 2–3× better. The monolithic path remained favorable for single-stream, low-concurrency, and long-context workloads, including full 1M-token context. ZFLOW AI also observed that MTP/EAGLE speculative decoding improved throughput with no measured quality regression in this test run: GSM8K ac...
Oleh Stefaniak/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Since my last coverage on Micron ( MU ) last time, the stock is up another ~80% on growing demand for HBM, LPDDR and AI-friendly memory. Yet despite the rally, I am even more bullish on Micron now than before. I think investors significantly undervalue the importance of memory, storage and bandwidth in the AI era. With memory and data transf...
Oleh Stefaniak/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis Since my last coverage on Micron ( MU ) last time, the stock is up another ~80% on growing demand for HBM, LPDDR and AI-friendly memory. Yet despite the rally, I am even more bullish on Micron now than before. I think investors significantly undervalue the importance of memory, storage and bandwidth in the AI era. With memory and data transfers emerging as key bottlenecks for increasingly massive AI systems in addition to compute, Micron finds itself uniquely well-positioned to benefit from multiple AI challenges through HBM4, PCIe Gen6 SSDs, CXL memory, LPDDR5X and EUV fabrication capabilities. Data by YCharts AI Infrastructure’s Greatest Bottleneck Is Not Limited to Compute Power Anymore One of the key things happening in AI hardware is that computing power alone is not what constrains current AI systems anymore. Modern accelerators and large language models find themselves starved for bandwidth and/or memory to deliver their full potential. The result is that accelerators end up sitting around waiting for access to memory, bandwidth, or data needed for training or inference operations as context sizes increase, models evolve and inference itself becomes more challenging. That is why Micron’s strategic position is becoming much more evident than it was a few years ago. While large language models require vast amounts of memory capacity in training and inference environments, the emergence of agentic AI and KV cache expansion makes inference increasingly reliant on memory capacity and bandwidth. Simply put, AI systems are not just doing math anymore, they need to retain context, search information on-demand and keep persistent memory in use. That increases demand for advanced memory and ultra-high-speed storage solutions. That also means that Micron is well-positioned to capitalize on multiple bottlenecks at once, not just sell DRAM. In addition to HBM to address high-bandwidth AI computing needs, Micron also...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financials) is trying to keep up with stronger CPU demand by working with partners in Taiwan to expand production capacity. CEO Lisa Su said Friday in Taipei that demand has been stronger than expected, tightening supply across the global CPU market. That is a good problem for AMD, but still a problem. When demand runs ahead of...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financials) is trying to keep up with stronger CPU demand by working with partners in Taiwan to expand production capacity. CEO Lisa Su said Friday in Taipei that demand has been stronger than expected, tightening supply across the global CPU market. That is a good problem for AMD, but still a problem. When demand runs ahead of supply, the company has to move quickly with manufacturing partners to avoid leaving orders on the table. Taiwan remains central to AMD's production network, especially because of its close relationship with major chip foundries and suppliers. For investors, the update points to healthy demand for AMD's processors at a time when data centers, PCs and AI-related workloads continue to drive chip spending. The key question now is how fast AMD can add enough capacity to meet customer demand without creating new cost or supply-chain pressure.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financials) is trying to keep up with stronger CPU demand by working with partners in Taiwan to expand production capacity. CEO Lisa Su said Friday in Taipei that demand has been stronger than expected, tightening supply across the global CPU market. That is a good problem for AMD, but still a problem. When demand runs ahead of supply, the company has to move quickly w...
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financials) is trying to keep up with stronger CPU demand by working with partners in Taiwan to expand production capacity. CEO Lisa Su said Friday in Taipei that demand has been stronger than expected, tightening supply across the global CPU market. That is a good problem for AMD, but still a problem. When demand runs ahead of supply, the company has to move quickly with manufacturing partners to avoid leaving orders on the table. Taiwan remains central to AMD's production network, especially because of its close relationship with major chip foundries and suppliers. For investors, the update points to healthy demand for AMD's processors at a time when data centers, PCs and AI-related workloads continue to drive chip spending. The key question now is how fast AMD can add enough capacity to meet customer demand without creating new cost or supply-chain pressure.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Apple (AAPL, Financials) is taking its long-running App Store fight with Epic Games to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to review a contempt ruling tied to outside payment options. The case goes back to 2020, when Epic challenged Apple's control over payments and app distribution on iPhones. Apple won most of that lawsuit, but a judge later orde...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Apple (AAPL, Financials) is taking its long-running App Store fight with Epic Games to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to review a contempt ruling tied to outside payment options. The case goes back to 2020, when Epic challenged Apple's control over payments and app distribution on iPhones. Apple won most of that lawsuit, but a judge later ordered the company to let developers direct users to payment options outside the App Store. Apple added those links, but it also introduced new rules, including a 27% commission on some outside purchases. Epic argued that Apple was still making it too hard for developers to avoid App Store fees. A lower court agreed and found Apple in civil contempt. Apple says the ruling goes too far. The company argues the order should not apply to millions of developers because Epic was the only plaintiff. It also says it should not be punished for violating the spirit of an order that did not clearly ban its actions. For investors, this is about more than legal language. The App Store is part of Apple's high-margin Services business, so any change to payment rules could affect future revenue growth.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) is in talks to supply its custom artificial intelligence chips to Anthropic, a potential win as the software giant tries to catch up with Amazon and Google in AI silicon. The discussions center on Microsoft's Maia chip, which the company announced in January but has not yet made available to Azure customers. A deal has not been...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) is in talks to supply its custom artificial intelligence chips to Anthropic, a potential win as the software giant tries to catch up with Amazon and Google in AI silicon. The discussions center on Microsoft's Maia chip, which the company announced in January but has not yet made available to Azure customers. A deal has not been signed, CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The talks come after Microsoft said in November it would invest $5 billion in Anthropic. As part of that relationship, Anthropic committed to spending $30 billion on Microsoft Azure, while also continuing to use cloud services from Amazon and Google. For Anthropic, the need is clear. CEO Dario Amodei recently said the company has faced compute challenges as demand grows for its Claude assistant and Claude Code programming tool. The company has also secured long-term access to chips and cloud capacity from Amazon, Google and SpaceX. For Microsoft, landing Anthropic as a Maia customer would help validate its custom chip strategy and reduce reliance on Nvidia hardware over time. CEO Satya Nadella has said Maia 200 offers more than 30% better tokens per dollar compared with current silicon in Microsoft's fleet. The next catalyst will be whether Microsoft and Anthropic finalize a chip agreement and whether Maia becomes available more broadly through Azure.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Tesla (TSLA, Financials) is recalling 14,575 Model Y SUVs in the United States after regulators found that some vehicles were delivered without required weight certification labels. At first glance, the issue may sound minor. After all, it is not related to batteries, brakes or steering systems. But the missing label serves an important purpose. It tells o...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Tesla (TSLA, Financials) is recalling 14,575 Model Y SUVs in the United States after regulators found that some vehicles were delivered without required weight certification labels. At first glance, the issue may sound minor. After all, it is not related to batteries, brakes or steering systems. But the missing label serves an important purpose. It tells owners how much weight the vehicle can safely carry, including passengers, luggage and cargo. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers who do not have that information could unintentionally overload their vehicles, increasing the risk of an accident. The agency said there have been no reported crashes, injuries or fatalities connected to the issue. The recall affects certain 2025 and 2026 Model Y vehicles. Tesla plans to notify owners beginning July 17 and will correct the problem at no cost. While this appears to be a relatively straightforward fix, it arrives as Tesla continues to face close scrutiny over vehicle quality and safety. The company has issued several recalls over the past year, ranging from software-related issues to hardware concerns. For investors, the financial impact of this recall is likely limited. Still, repeated recalls can weigh on sentiment, particularly as Tesla works to reassure customers and regulators while navigating an increasingly competitive EV market.
Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for the “Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The first quarter of 2026 was volatile due to market shifts, including increased geopolitical risk and inflation fears from rising energy prices. The S&P declined 4.33%. Early in the quarter, va...
Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for the “Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The first quarter of 2026 was volatile due to market shifts, including increased geopolitical risk and inflation fears from rising energy prices. The S&P declined 4.33%. Early in the quarter, value outperformed growth. Inflation worries impacted financial and tech sectors in the quarter. Despite concerns, economic data and corporate earnings stayed strong. Forward S&P 500 earnings are projected to increase 15% in 2026, with the market trading at a PE ratio below 20x for the first time since 2023. Forecasting the macroeconomy is challenging, but the Fund focuses on financially strong companies with solid earnings growth that succeed in the long term despite macro issues. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026. In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund highlighted stocks like Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO). Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is a leading American company that designs and develops various semiconductor devices and infrastructure software solutions. On May 21, 2026, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) stock closed at $414.57 per share. One-month return of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was -1.94%, and its shares gained 81.26% over the past 52 weeks. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion. Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter: "Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was weak for the quarter as higher inflation led investors to fear a slowdown in hyperscaler spending. This led to lower spending on custom silicon, the main reason for Broadcom’s strength over the last couple of years. We believe Broadcom still has some of the best tech in the space and will be one of the biggest win...
Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for the “Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The first quarter of 2026 was volatile due to market shifts, including increased geopolitical risk and inflation fears from rising energy prices. The S&P declined 4.33%. Early in the quarter, va...
Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for the “Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The first quarter of 2026 was volatile due to market shifts, including increased geopolitical risk and inflation fears from rising energy prices. The S&P declined 4.33%. Early in the quarter, value outperformed growth. Inflation worries impacted financial and tech sectors in the quarter. Despite concerns, economic data and corporate earnings stayed strong. Forward S&P 500 earnings are projected to increase 15% in 2026, with the market trading at a PE ratio below 20x for the first time since 2023. Forecasting the macroeconomy is challenging, but the Fund focuses on financially strong companies with solid earnings growth that succeed in the long term despite macro issues. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026. In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund highlighted stocks like Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO). Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is a leading American company that designs and develops various semiconductor devices and infrastructure software solutions. On May 21, 2026, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) stock closed at $414.57 per share. One-month return of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was -1.94%, and its shares gained 81.26% over the past 52 weeks. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) has a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion. Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter: "Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was weak for the quarter as higher inflation led investors to fear a slowdown in hyperscaler spending. This led to lower spending on custom silicon, the main reason for Broadcom’s strength over the last couple of years. We believe Broadcom still has some of the best tech in the space and will be one of the biggest win...
Key Points Microsoft's AI business is thriving. Meta Platforms' AI plans are still in the works. 10 stocks we like better than Microsoft › When looking at megacap tech stocks, two stand out today as major values: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Both stocks are trading well below their normal valuation ranges, and could represent incredible buying opportunities. But the ...
Key Points Microsoft's AI business is thriving. Meta Platforms' AI plans are still in the works. 10 stocks we like better than Microsoft › When looking at megacap tech stocks, two stand out today as major values: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Both stocks are trading well below their normal valuation ranges, and could represent incredible buying opportunities. But the question for potential investors is, which one is the better value now? Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Different approaches to the AI megatrend Microsoft has established itself as the world's primary supplier of business productivity software. It rolled out its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Copilot, into this popular product suite and is generating billions of dollars in subscription revenue from this platform. Additionally, Microsoft is benefiting from the AI build-out by supplying infrastructure that companies can use to build and train AI applications. Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform, and countless AI companies are using it to build their models -- foremost among them, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Revenues from Azure and other cloud services grew by 40% during Microsoft's latest reported fiscal quarter -- making that its fastest-growing business. Meta Platforms is probably better known by its previous name, Facebook. Meta also owns other social media apps such as Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. These platforms generate billions of dollars in ad revenue, which doesn't sound like an AI business. However, AI has transformed how companies create, deploy, and target ads on its platforms, which has resulted in major revenue growth for Meta. In Q1, its top line rose 33% year over year, with nearly all the growth attributed to its ad business. Beyond that, Meta is wo...
Tesla is navigating a tough transition year after weaker recent quarters, sharp price cuts and slowing EV demand, while investors look ahead to autonomy, energy storage and AI. What is moving the stock now – and what matters for US-focused portfolios? Tesla, Inc. is in the middle of a strategic transition marked by weaker recent earnings, intense price competition in electric vehicles and renewed ...
Tesla is navigating a tough transition year after weaker recent quarters, sharp price cuts and slowing EV demand, while investors look ahead to autonomy, energy storage and AI. What is moving the stock now – and what matters for US-focused portfolios? Tesla, Inc. is in the middle of a strategic transition marked by weaker recent earnings, intense price competition in electric vehicles and renewed focus on robotaxis, energy storage and AI infrastructure. After a volatile start to 2026 and a difficult 2025, investors are weighing near?term margin pressure against longer?term growth narratives, according to company filings and major financial media coverage in April and May 2026. As of: 05/22/2026 By the editorial team – specialized in equity coverage. At a glance Name: Tesla Tesla Sector/industry: Electric vehicles, energy storage, software Electric vehicles, energy storage, software Headquarters/country: Austin, United States Austin, United States Core markets: North America, Europe, China and other Asia-Pacific regions North America, Europe, China and other Asia-Pacific regions Key revenue drivers: Vehicle sales, energy generation and storage, software and services Vehicle sales, energy generation and storage, software and services Home exchange/listing venue: Nasdaq (ticker: TSLA) Nasdaq (ticker: TSLA) Trading currency: US dollar Tesla, Inc.: core business model Tesla, Inc. builds and sells battery?electric vehicles, operates an energy generation and storage business and develops software for vehicle autonomy and energy management. The group reports in two primary segments: automotive, which includes vehicles and related services, and energy generation and storage. In recent shareholder communications the company emphasized that it sees itself not only as an automaker but also as a technology and AI platform, according to statements in its April 2026 shareholder materials and recent conference appearances, as summarized by major business media in April 2026. The au...
Welcome to Bloomberg’s Retail Monitor . Every Friday we’ll deliver you clear insights on industry trends, headwinds and emerging opportunities. Sign up now if you’re not already on the list. Walmart says consumers are under pressure from high gas prices. PepsiCo is raising some prices while Kroger is lowering them. McDonald’s won’t meet emissions goals . Shares of a Brazilian fashion company have ...
Welcome to Bloomberg’s Retail Monitor . Every Friday we’ll deliver you clear insights on industry trends, headwinds and emerging opportunities. Sign up now if you’re not already on the list. Walmart says consumers are under pressure from high gas prices. PepsiCo is raising some prices while Kroger is lowering them. McDonald’s won’t meet emissions goals . Shares of a Brazilian fashion company have crashed . And Zyn pouches aren’t moist enough . Read it all in this week’s edition. — Tonya Garcia Market Snapshot Walmart Inc $121.34 -7.3% Target Corp $126.15 +3.1% PepsiCo Inc $148.85 -0.3% Kroger Co/The $67.07 -2.3% Market data as of 09:14 AM ET. Data is subject to provider delays. Gas prices are squeezing Walmart’s customers Walmart highlighted the affordability challenge that many shoppers are facing during its most recent earnings, with gas a growing expense for many consumers . The price of fuel has gotten high enough that some are putting less of it in their cars’ tanks when they go to the pump, according to the company. Fuel was also a drag on profit margin, with Walmart absorbing nearly all of the increases during the quarter, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said. Walmart isn’t the first consumer business this earnings season to call out the financial struggles that some shoppers, particularly low-income earners, are facing. But when the world’s largest retailer says it, the problem takes on more weight. Unfortunately for the sector, this isn’t an issue that’s forecast to go away any time soon. For a hot minute, it looked like Target’s turnaround took a huge step in a positive direction. Then the executives started talking. “We’ve got a lot of work in front of us,” the retailer’s new CEO Michael Fiddelke said on its earnings call. The company’s leaders warned that the spending people have been doing while flush with tax refund cash would dry up. Moreover, the company would face its own cost pressures ahead. Even Ralph Lauren, which is reaching a custome...
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce injected massive momentum into the quantum computing sector, announcing over $2.0 billion in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act across nine quantum computing companies. D-Wave (QBTS) secured a $100 million letter of intent to accelerate domestic system fabrication, granting the federal government an equity stake. The stock surged immediate...
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce injected massive momentum into the quantum computing sector, announcing over $2.0 billion in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act across nine quantum computing companies. D-Wave (QBTS) secured a $100 million letter of intent to accelerate domestic system fabrication, granting the federal government an equity stake. The stock surged immediately on the news, reflecting renewed investor confidence in sovereign backing for quantum infrastructure. Yet, despite this high-level validation, D-Wave remains heavily misunderstood by the broader market. Valued at roughly $9.5 billion today, investors remain fixated on near-term hardware production cycles and a severe 81% year over year revenue contraction reported in the first quarter of 2026. That specific framing completely misses the underlying business pivot. Underneath lumpy hardware sales, D-Wave is quietly building three distinct software-driven revenue streams with recurring economics and structural margins exceeding 80%. If the company scales these segments successfully, its valuation framework will shift from a hardware manufacturer to a cloud software provider, creating a plausible path to a $100 billion valuation over the next decade. Leap Cloud Subscriptions The clearest validation of this software pivot lies in the underlying booking metrics, not headline revenue. While recognized revenue fell to $2.9 million in early 2026 due to a difficult physical hardware comparison, total bookings surged 1,994% to reach a record $33.4 million. A massive $10 million Quantum Computing-as-a-Service agreement with a Fortune 100 company drove this surge directly, signaling strong enterprise demand for access rather than ownership. D-Wave currently reports over 100 organizations using its platforms, with 73% of first quarter 2026 revenue originating from commercial enterprises. Because the company provides real-time access to its quantum processors via the cloud, it does not ...