Perhaps the most fascinating and important aspects of US President Donald Trump’s jolt to the global economy have been its unintended consequences, especially the impact on relations between China and India. Two consistent aspects of Trump’s meandering narrative are to “make America great again” by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, and to hobble China as an economic and strategic threat....
Perhaps the most fascinating and important aspects of US President Donald Trump’s jolt to the global economy have been its unintended consequences, especially the impact on relations between China and India. Two consistent aspects of Trump’s meandering narrative are to “make America great again” by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, and to hobble China as an economic and strategic threat. A decade later, there has been negligible progress on either objective. Instead, the unintended consequences have been colossal, and comprehensively harmful to US interests. The impact on Washington’s reputation as an anchor for global economic stability has been nothing short of catastrophic. The reshoring of manufacturing – and evidence of any resultant economic stimulus or job creation – remains negligible, if not invisible. Advertisement China’s rise is also unimpaired, not least due to its strategic consistency, unwavering advocacy and preference for multilateral problem-solving, and its role in enabling the parallel rise of the Global South, which brings us to its relations with India.. One consistent conundrum of the past eight decades has been the suspicion and rivalry between New Delhi and Beijing. Rivalry has some rational foundations: both countries have colossal populations, civilisations that go back thousands of years and strong rival claims to stand as champions of the developing world Advertisement By 1950, shortly after India broke free from British colonialism and China’s Communists pushed the US-backed Kuomintang government into exile on the island of Taiwan, both countries had espoused highly contrasted models of socialism. As China under Mao Zedong focused on tackling the deep internal wounds of a decades-long civil war, India rose as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement.
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Shoe Carnival, Inc. ( SCVL ) reported 1Q26 results . The results were not positive, with sales down and margins also down. The deterioration in sales has prompted a change in strategy, with more promotionality and lower price points, but this is already affecting gross margins. As a result, operating income deteriorated significantly. The situation wi...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Shoe Carnival, Inc. ( SCVL ) reported 1Q26 results . The results were not positive, with sales down and margins also down. The deterioration in sales has prompted a change in strategy, with more promotionality and lower price points, but this is already affecting gross margins. As a result, operating income deteriorated significantly. The situation will probably worsen in Q2 before potentially (emphasis on potentially) improving in 2H26. Management maintained guidance, but the guidance implies lower profitability than last year. The stock is cheaper than when I last wrote about it , but I do not think it is cheap enough considering where the consumer seems to be headed. I maintain a Hold. Change in Strategy The company had gained margins last year by raising prices, but that also seems to have affected traffic and sales. As the new CEO explained in the call , some of the 2025 margin expansion was not sustainable because the company had become less competitive. This situation triggered a CEO change and a strategic review. The company will not continue the rebanner strategy (from value-oriented Shoe Carnival to more premium Shoe Station) as previously planned. Second, the company will close 12 to 14 stores in FY26 and another 6 to 10 in FY27, mostly Shoe Carnival. Third, the company will increase promotionality and correct assortments, especially by bringing back lower opening price points. Results Were Bad Net sales declined from ~$278 million last year to ~$271 million this year, with comparable store sales down ~2%. Shoe Carnival sales were down 2.2%, with comps down 1.7%. This was an improvement versus the mid/high single-digit declines seen through FY25, but still negative. Further, this shows negative sales despite higher promotions and marketing (as commented on the call). Shoe Station sales were down 3%, with comps down about the same. This was the first negative quarter for the banner in several quarters, accordi...
From 40m ago 09.22 BST Trump's 'disappointment' with Nato will be discussed at 'one of the most important summits in history of Nato' in Ankara, Rubio says Rubio begins with thanks to Sweden for hosting the ministerial meeting. But that’s where the niceties end as says the upcoming Ankara summit will be “one of the more important leaders’ summit in the history of Nato,” as the leaders will have to...
From 40m ago 09.22 BST Trump's 'disappointment' with Nato will be discussed at 'one of the most important summits in history of Nato' in Ankara, Rubio says Rubio begins with thanks to Sweden for hosting the ministerial meeting. But that’s where the niceties end as says the upcoming Ankara summit will be “one of the more important leaders’ summit in the history of Nato,” as the leaders will have to respond to Trump’s “disappointment” with the alliance’s “response to our operations in the Middle East.” “That will have to be addressed, that won’t be solved or addressed today. That’s something for the leaders level to discuss.” He notes the US announcement on Poland, but adds “the United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment, and that constantly requires us to reexamine where we put troops.” “This is not a punitive thing, it’s just something that’s ongoing, and it was pre-existing,” he says. He says there’s plenty of scope to work with Nato on defence industrial base. Share Updated at 09.26 BST 33m ago 09.28 BST Rubio's tone on Trump's 'disappointment' suggests fireworks in Ankara - snap analysis Jakub Krupa Going by Rubio’s tone on Trump’s disappointment with Nato and how this is something that will have to be discussed by the leaders in Ankara, it’s clear we will be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks. Calling it “one of the most important summits in the history of Nato” is Trumpesque in its style, and sounds almost like a warning. Share 36m ago 09.26 BST 'Some slight progress' in talks with Iran, Rubio says Rubio then goes into Iran in a bit more detail, saying there has been “some slight progress” in talks with Teheran. “I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good. The fundamentals remain the same. Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, it just cannot.” He says the US needs to “address the issue of the highly enriched uranium,” and restore the freedom of ...
What Happened? Shares of semiconductor machinery manufacturer Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) jumped 4.9% in the afternoon session after the company announced a collaboration with Broadcom to accelerate the development of advanced chip packaging technologies for next-generation AI systems. This partnership aims to utilize Applied Materials' research and development capabilities to meet the surging...
What Happened? Shares of semiconductor machinery manufacturer Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) jumped 4.9% in the afternoon session after the company announced a collaboration with Broadcom to accelerate the development of advanced chip packaging technologies for next-generation AI systems. This partnership aims to utilize Applied Materials' research and development capabilities to meet the surging demand for high-performance, energy-efficient computing driven by the explosive growth of AI. The news added to positive sentiment following a note from Morgan Stanley the previous day, where analysts reiterated an overweight rating and raised their price target on the stock, citing Applied Materials' position to benefit from AI-related spending. After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $423.78, up 4.1% from previous close. Is now the time to buy Applied Materials? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free. What Is The Market Telling Us Applied Materials’s shares are very volatile and have had 22 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 2 days ago when the stock dropped 5.7% after a broad-based sell-off hit the semiconductor sector following news of a potential strike at Samsung and a stake sale by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), which rattled global chip supply chains. These events highlighted significant supply-chain risks, triggering a sharp reversal across the chip industry. Adding to the sector's weakness were rising valuation concerns, inflation fears, and broader market jitters that led to renewed selling pressure on major companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Micron Technology. Furthermore, ongoing supply constraints for rare earth materials, which are used in semiconductor manufacturing, reportedly caused delays and higher input costs for fir...
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Ten Cent Capital as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images At the top of the market, at share price levels near $90, ...
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Ten Cent Capital as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images At the top of the market, at share price levels near $90, the management team of Wix ( WIX ) sought to capitalize on what they believed was an opportunity of a lifetime to repurchase $1.6 billion worth of shares of a company they thought was slated to benefit from artificial intelligence. Instead, they have left public shareholders holding the bag on a now leveraged company that can best be described as a melting ice cube. Wix used a $500 million revolver draw and a $260 million private placement to fund the buyback—this saddles the company with a $100 million in new annual headwind. This includes new interest expense on the Bank Hapoalim loan plus foregone interest income on the cash deployed to fund the buyback . Wix tendered at $92/share, and the current share price sits at $54.67. Insiders were locked up by a 1-year agreement tied to the Durable Capital PIPE and tendered $0. I predict that Wix’s share price will fall to about $20-30/share over the next year. Q1 2026 Earnings Snapshot Examining the Q1 2026 print, revenue grew 14% year over year , bookings grew 15%, and EPS lagged, delivering only $0.68 versus $1.22 consensus . Management has framed this as an investment year while quietly removing the rule of 45. Moreover, bookings used to lead revenue by 6-12 months, but now we are left with no acceleration in Q2 2026 guidance and no cushion left. If bookings step down to the low teens in Q2/Q3, revenue will follow by year-end. This should clearly eliminate the idea that guidance is conservative. Base44, the vibecoding tool, was acquired by Wix for $80 million from a solo Israeli founder. ARR has been on a tear, with YE 2025 o...
London ( UKX ) +0.45% to 10,490.12. UK retail sales volumes dropped 1.3% month-on-month in April 2026. Germany ( DAX:IND ) +0.67% to 24,769.71. Germany’s GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose to -29.3 heading into June. France ( CAC:IND ) +0.48% to 8,124.42. France’s manufacturing business climate index rose to 102 in May 2026, compared with expectations and April’s 100. The pan-European Stoxx 600 (...
London ( UKX ) +0.45% to 10,490.12. UK retail sales volumes dropped 1.3% month-on-month in April 2026. Germany ( DAX:IND ) +0.67% to 24,769.71. Germany’s GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose to -29.3 heading into June. France ( CAC:IND ) +0.48% to 8,124.42. France’s manufacturing business climate index rose to 102 in May 2026, compared with expectations and April’s 100. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ( STOXX) rose 0.6% on Friday, driven by continued strength in tech stocks as investors rotated into AI-related companies and assessed a series of economic data. A rally in Europe would put regional stocks on course for their fourth consecutive day of gains. The Stoxx 600 currently on track for a weekly rise of 2.25%. Among equities, ASML Holding ( ASML ) gained 2.6%, while Infineon ( IFNNY ) added 3.7% and STMicroelectronics ( STM ) rose 3.5%. Shares in Puig ( PUIGF ), meanwhile, tumbled in early trade after discussions between the Spanish beauty conglomerate and U.S. cosmetics giant Estée Lauder ( EL ) over a potential business combination ended. Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, which manages around $578B, noted Europe's renewed focus on innovation, which has begun to show in the last two years in defence, energy security and AI infrastructure, Reuters reported. "You are seeing capital expenditure into those areas. We do think that those kinds of secular themes have remained pretty strong and probably have been actually reinforced by the conflict," said Shah. In the bond market , the yield on the US 10-year Treasury was down 3 basis points to 4.56%. UK's 10-year yield was down 1 basis point to 4.91%. Germany's 10-year yield was down less than 1 basis point to 3.05%. Currencies: ( EUR:USD ) ( GBP:USD ) ( CHF:USD ) ETFs: (NYSEARCA: EWG ), (NYSE: GF ), (NYSEARCA: EWI ), (NYSEARCA: EWQ ), (NASDAQ: FGM ), (NASDAQ: DAX ), (NYSEARCA: FLGR ), (NYSEARCA: FXB ), (NYSEARCA: EWU ), (NASDAQ: FKU ), (BATS: EWUS ), (NYSEARCA: FLGB ), (NYSEARCA: GREK ) M...
Key Points Jerome Powell's term as Fed chair came to a close on May 15, with Trump nominee Kevin Warsh succeeding him. Warsh is stepping into a challenging situation: the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is divided, the stock market is historically pricey, and price shocks are sending inflation screaming higher. A predictive tool from CME Group points to a growing likelihood of FOMC rate hikes...
Key Points Jerome Powell's term as Fed chair came to a close on May 15, with Trump nominee Kevin Warsh succeeding him. Warsh is stepping into a challenging situation: the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is divided, the stock market is historically pricey, and price shocks are sending inflation screaming higher. A predictive tool from CME Group points to a growing likelihood of FOMC rate hikes over the next year. 10 stocks we like better than S&P 500 Index › Today is another big day for Wall Street's leading financial institution, the Federal Reserve. Following the end of Jerome Powell's second term as Fed chair on May 15, his successor, Kevin Warsh, will officially be sworn in. In addition to marking a new chapter for the Fed, it signals the start of a period of potential unrest for Wall Street's major stock indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC). 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 » New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is stepping into a challenging situation Warsh will be tasked with one of the most challenging economic scenarios in history. He enters the central bank's lead position amid a historically divided Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), an exceptionally pricey stock market, and with two price shocks still filtering into economic data. President Donald Trump, who nominated Warsh to the position, is expecting aggressive interest rate cuts that he openly lobbied for (but never received) with Powell in charge. Wall Street would also prefer to see lower interest rates, because it would help fuel the artificial intelligence data center build-out and would make servicing the nation's more than $39 trillion in debt less costly. But inflation has other plans. Although now-former Fed chair Powell of...
M. Suhail/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Arcos Dorados ( ARCO ), the franchisee of McDonald's ( MCD ) across most of Latin America, presented its 1Q26 results . Although the results look very positive on the surface in both a comparable, USD-adjusted, and constant currency basis, they do not really show any substantial underlying business improvement. Most of the improvement comes from either i...
M. Suhail/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Arcos Dorados ( ARCO ), the franchisee of McDonald's ( MCD ) across most of Latin America, presented its 1Q26 results . Although the results look very positive on the surface in both a comparable, USD-adjusted, and constant currency basis, they do not really show any substantial underlying business improvement. Most of the improvement comes from either inflation or currency appreciation. In this context, the company trades at a P/E of 13x+ when adjusting the TTM results for non-recurring factors, of what seems like currency-overvalued earnings. I do not think the company is worth this much, given the cyclical position, and therefore believe it remains a Hold. 1Q26 results The company's quarterly results seemed pretty good on the surface. Revenues are up 13% YoY in USD to ~$1.2 billion, across all of their geographical segments (NLAD, mainly Mexico; SLAD, mainly Argentina; and Brazil). Adjusted EBITDA levered 120 bps to a 9.7% margin, and increased by 30% YoY to ~$120 million on a reported basis. Because of leverage on D&A and interest, reported net income almost tripled to $36 million from ~$14 million a year ago. This all seems like a significantly positive quarter for the company. However, under the first reported results, we find a more challenging scenario across most markets. The first point, more obvious but less fundamental, we have to make is that the company excluded some expenses from adjusted EBITDA (non-recurring severance mainly) but failed to exclude the non-recurring gain from transactions of restaurants with its sub-franchisees. This represents $7.5 million in total or ~25/30% of the improvement in adjusted EBITDA (~$27 million on a reported basis). The second point, more fundamental, is that ARCO's results are always quite hard to read because of the combination of local-currency inflation, appreciation against the USD, and store growth. The company sells in local currency (Brazilian real, Mexican peso, Co...
It also did not immediately specify which of those stores it was proposing to close, but said they were ones "whose performance has been challenged for a number of years and which are loss making, despite remedial action".
It also did not immediately specify which of those stores it was proposing to close, but said they were ones "whose performance has been challenged for a number of years and which are loss making, despite remedial action".
There’s a lot to be optimistic about in the Technology sector as 3 analysts just weighed in on Salesforce (CRM), Nvidia (NVDA) and nCino (NCNO) with bullish sentiments. Start a conversation with TipRanks’ trusted, data-backed investment intelligence Ask Samuel about stocks, your portfolio, or the market and get instant, personalized insights in seconds Salesforce (CRM) Barclays analyst Raimo Lensc...
There’s a lot to be optimistic about in the Technology sector as 3 analysts just weighed in on Salesforce (CRM), Nvidia (NVDA) and nCino (NCNO) with bullish sentiments. Start a conversation with TipRanks’ trusted, data-backed investment intelligence Ask Samuel about stocks, your portfolio, or the market and get instant, personalized insights in seconds Salesforce (CRM) Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow maintained a Buy rating on Salesforce today and set a price target of $252.00. The company’s shares closed last Wednesday at $180.10. According to TipRanks.com, Lenschow is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 1.8% and a 47.4% success rate. Lenschow covers the Technology sector, focusing on stocks such as The Descartes Systems Group, DigitalOcean Holdings, and ZoomInfo Technologies. ;'> Currently, the analyst consensus on Salesforce is a Moderate Buy with an average price target of $255.88, representing a 45.4% upside. In a report issued on May 15, Stifel Nicolaus also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $250.00 price target. See Insiders’ Hot Stocks on TipRanks >> Nvidia (NVDA) Barclays analyst Thomas O’Malley maintained a Buy rating on Nvidia today and set a price target of $275.00. The company’s shares closed last Wednesday at $223.47. According to TipRanks.com, O’Malley is a top 100 analyst with an average return of 44.5% and a 66.6% success rate. O’Malley covers the Technology sector, focusing on stocks such as MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd, and Advanced Micro Devices. ;'> Currently, the analyst consensus on Nvidia is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $283.90, representing a 27.2% upside. In a report issued on May 7, Goldman Sachs also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $250.00 price target. nCino (NCNO) Barclays analyst Saket Kalia maintained a Buy rating on nCino today and set a price target of $22.00. The company’s shares closed last Wednesday at $15.47. According to TipRanks.com, Kalia ...