As temperatures continue to rise as we go into the bank holiday weekend, heat health alerts come into force today across parts of the United Kingdom. Many areas will enter into the official heatwave thresholds across the next few days, with temperatures widely in the high 20s and low 30s into next week. Bank holiday Monday could see the hottest May day on record as temperatures are forecast to app...
As temperatures continue to rise as we go into the bank holiday weekend, heat health alerts come into force today across parts of the United Kingdom. Many areas will enter into the official heatwave thresholds across the next few days, with temperatures widely in the high 20s and low 30s into next week. Bank holiday Monday could see the hottest May day on record as temperatures are forecast to approach 33C in south-east England. With lots of sunshine in the forecast, UV levels are also expected to be high for many.
Hi, this is Martin Ritchie in Beijing. This week, like most weeks lately, I’ve been thinking about rare earths. The critical minerals loomed over the summit Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosted with President Donald Trump, though both sides kept their remarks on the key issue pretty brief. That marked a sharp contrast from last year, when reaching a deal to restore flows of rare-earth magnets became T...
Hi, this is Martin Ritchie in Beijing. This week, like most weeks lately, I’ve been thinking about rare earths. The critical minerals loomed over the summit Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosted with President Donald Trump, though both sides kept their remarks on the key issue pretty brief. That marked a sharp contrast from last year, when reaching a deal to restore flows of rare-earth magnets became Trump’s singular goal. That’s because China’s dominance of the industry gives Xi a clear upper hand over Trump, one that will very likely last for years to come . The minerals and related products are vital to the production of F-35 fighter jets, Virginia-class submarines, electric vehicles and other advanced tech. Bloomberg Economics estimates that about 4% of America’s GDP — or roughly $1.2 trillion — comes from industries that use rare earths. For Xi, that spells leverage, and he’s willing to use it. Last year, Trump backed down on sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods to get rare earths flowing again. Underscoring America’s exposure, at one point Ford had to temporarily idle operations when supplies dried up. Since last year’s shock, Trump has waged a campaign on multiple fronts to break America’s rare earths dependence on China. Some $10 billion of public funds globally is being pumped into mines, refineries and factories this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Those efforts haven’t always been easy. This week Bloomberg News reported that the Pentagon was weighing whether to scrap an $80 million conditional loan offer to a rare-earths refiner over concern about its ability to scale its technology and its long-term revenue forecasts. But as I wrote with colleagues around the world, the fruits of this mission — truly wearing down China’s leverage — will likely not be seen until well into the next decade. As part of our reporting, I visited the world’s biggest rare earth processing site outside China. In a corner of a massive industrial complex in Malaysia, Lynas Rare ...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images By Min Joo Kang , Senior Economist, South Korea and Japan Energy subsidies and waivers led to soft inflation print Japan’s headline inflation slowed to 1.4% year-on-year in April (vs. 1.5% in March, 1.6% market consensus, 1.8% ING). Core inflation was also below the market consensus and the previous month. In monthly comparison, goods prices rose 0.5% month-on-mon...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images By Min Joo Kang , Senior Economist, South Korea and Japan Energy subsidies and waivers led to soft inflation print Japan’s headline inflation slowed to 1.4% year-on-year in April (vs. 1.5% in March, 1.6% market consensus, 1.8% ING). Core inflation was also below the market consensus and the previous month. In monthly comparison, goods prices rose 0.5% month-on-month, seasonally adjusted, while services prices were down 0.5%. It appears that increases in energy prices are contributing to broader inflation across goods. But government social welfare programmes helped reduce overall service prices. Government energy subsidies drove down energy and utility prices. Energy prices dropped 3.9%, with gasoline prices down 9.7%, thanks to the government’s price cap, while utility fees also dropped 1.5%. Education prices also declined by 6.1%, mostly due to tuition and fee reductions for other school activity programmes. Among food items, rice prices rose 0.6%, coming down continuously from the recent peak of 101.7% last May. The base effect will stay throughout this year. Government's social welfare programs lowered service prices in April Source: CEIC BoJ watch The weaker CPI reading may complicate the Bank of Japan’s rate decision next month. However, we continue to believe that a June hike is likely. The BoJ focuses on inflation excluding institutional factors, with core prices projected to remain above 2%. According to the BoJ's outlook, inflation is expected to pick up in the second quarter. Yesterday's data largely aligns with this forecast. Also, pipeline prices, including producer and import prices, rose meaningfully over the past two months. Thus, it should show up in consumer inflation in coming months. Additionally, BOJ board members Koeda and Masu, who supported keeping rates steady in April, recently stated that the BoJ should consider raising rates. Amid increasing inflation expectations, both officials remain cautious about pot...
Indonesia will "listen to the market" as it builds a body to oversee key commodity exports, according to Pandu Sjahrir. He speaks with Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin. (Source: Bloomberg)
Indonesia will "listen to the market" as it builds a body to oversee key commodity exports, according to Pandu Sjahrir. He speaks with Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin. (Source: Bloomberg)
Earnings Call Insights: Webull (BULL) Q1 2026 Management view "Webull's first quarter results represent a strong start to 2026, our second year as a public company. Revenue grew 36% year-over-year to $160 million. Customer assets reached $24 billion, up 90% year-over-year. And importantly, order flow from our institutional business...reached 9.5% of total platform equity volumes in the first quart...
Earnings Call Insights: Webull (BULL) Q1 2026 Management view "Webull's first quarter results represent a strong start to 2026, our second year as a public company. Revenue grew 36% year-over-year to $160 million. Customer assets reached $24 billion, up 90% year-over-year. And importantly, order flow from our institutional business...reached 9.5% of total platform equity volumes in the first quarter" (President & Director Anthony Michael Denier). "That execution has put us on a path of solid business growth and balance sheet strength, which is why we recently announced a share repurchase program of up to $100 million of our Class A ordinary shares" (President & Director Denier). "Futures, in particular, is seeing excellent growth, 84% on a year-over-year basis and 27% growth sequentially...driven by huge interest in commodities futures, especially oil futures" (President & Director Denier). "In the first quarter, Webull generated total revenue of $159.9 million...On the expense side, adjusted operating expenses were $145.1 million, up 64% year-over-year, primarily driven by increased marketing and branding investments" (CFO & Director H. Wang). "We received approval for our U.S. self-clearing license" and management said it enables Webull to "clear trades and custody securities entirely in-house" as it scales institutional and B2B offerings (President & Director Denier). Outlook "The SEC's elimination of the Pattern Day Trader rule is a structural tailwind" and "when the rule becomes effective on June 4, Webull will be ready to support our customers on day 1" (President & Director Denier). Management did not provide formal revenue or EPS guidance in the prepared remarks or Q&A; forward-looking commentary centered on operational timelines and product rollouts, including self-clearing and AI-driven features. "I don't expect the self-clearing business to be operational until the end of the year...probably until Q4 of this year" (President & Director Denier). "Expectati...
By Mark LaPedus In a major milestone, AMD said that its next-generation data center processor line is now ramping into production on TSMC’s new 2nm process technology. AMD’s new EPYC data center CPU, codenamed Venice, is ramping up in TSMC’s fabs in Taiwan. In the future, there is a plan to ramp production at TSMC’s fabs in Arizona. Venice is the first high-performance computing (HPC) product in t...
By Mark LaPedus In a major milestone, AMD said that its next-generation data center processor line is now ramping into production on TSMC’s new 2nm process technology. AMD’s new EPYC data center CPU, codenamed Venice, is ramping up in TSMC’s fabs in Taiwan. In the future, there is a plan to ramp production at TSMC’s fabs in Arizona. Venice is the first high-performance computing (HPC) product in the industry to achieve production ramp on TSMC’s 2nm technology. The ramp of Venice comes as AMD continues to build momentum in the server processor market, reflecting growing customer demand for processors to power cloud, enterprise and AI deployments. AMD also plans to ramp up another data center processor on TSMC’s 2nm process. That processor is codenamed Verano. Late last year, TSMC released its 2nm process. This technology represents TSMC’s initial process with gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology. Apple, AMD and others are expected to ship chips based on TSMC’s 2nm process. “Ramping ‘Venice’ on TSMC 2nm process technology marks an important step forward in accelerating the next generation of AI infrastructure,” said Lisa Su, chair and CEO of AMD. “As AI and agentic workloads scale rapidly, customers need platforms that can move from innovation to production faster. Our deep partnership with TSMC is helping AMD bring leadership compute technologies to market with the speed and scale required to meet this moment.” Packaging deals In addition, AMD also announced more than $10 billion in investments across Taiwan’s packaging and manufacturing ecosystem. Here is where AMD’s investments are going: *Elevated Fanout Bridge (EFB) ecosystem development. AMD is collaborating with Taiwan-based ASE and SPIL, as well as other industry partners, to develop and qualify next-generation 2.5D bridge interconnect technology. EFB is a bridge die. It allows die that are next to each other to be connected in a package, according to Cadence in a blog. EFB architecture increases interc...
Obtaining approval to sell its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software in Europe is one of the key catalysts for Tesla (TSLA +0.19%) stock in 2026. Not only are FSD (Supervised) and other software services becoming an important revenue generator for the company, but the demonstration of FSD (Supervised) is a key precursor of the potential approval of robotaxis using unsupervised FSD in the future....
Obtaining approval to sell its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software in Europe is one of the key catalysts for Tesla (TSLA +0.19%) stock in 2026. Not only are FSD (Supervised) and other software services becoming an important revenue generator for the company, but the demonstration of FSD (Supervised) is a key precursor of the potential approval of robotaxis using unsupervised FSD in the future. And the good news is that Tesla doesn't need European Union-wide approval to do it. Tesla obtains approval in Europe Keep in mind: The E.U. does not encompass the whole of Europe. Many countries, such as the U.K. and Switzerland, are not in the E.U. There are two pathways for Tesla to obtain approvals in the E.U. (1) an E.U.-wide approval through its Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV) and (2) on a country-by-country basis using Article 39 of E.U. Regulation 2018/858. E.U. approvals work differently from those in the U.S., and from one perspective, this may make it easier for Tesla to obtain approvals. Expand NASDAQ : TSLA Tesla Today's Change ( 0.19 %) $ 0.78 Current Price $ 418.04 Key Data Points Market Cap $1.6T Day's Range $ 412.91 - $ 426.90 52wk Range $ 273.21 - $ 498.83 Volume 2.1M Avg Vol 62.1M Gross Margin 19.07 % Tesla's European FSD approval process Earlier this year, the Netherlands, via its Vehicle Authority (RDW), became the first E.U. country to approve Tesla's FSD (Supervised) after more than 18 months of testing on its tracks and public roads. The approval applies only to the Netherlands. As noted by the RDW, an E.U.-wide approval process involves submitting an application that would be reviewed by the TCMV and then voted on by member states. The voting process requires at least 15 of the 27 E.U. member states to vote in favor, and those voting in favor must represent 65% of the E.U.'s population. The RDW in early May presented to the full E.U. seeking to expand FSD (Supervised) approval to all of the E.U.'s 27 countries. Reuters has reported the ...
(RTTNews) - Indian shares opened higher on Friday, tracking firm cues from global markets amid renewed optimism about U.S.-Iran talks. The benchmark BSE Sensex was up 448 points, or 0.6 percent, at 75,630 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty index edged up by 118 points, or half a percent, to 23,770. Among the top gainers, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trent, UltraTech Cement, Axis Ba...
(RTTNews) - Indian shares opened higher on Friday, tracking firm cues from global markets amid renewed optimism about U.S.-Iran talks. The benchmark BSE Sensex was up 448 points, or 0.6 percent, at 75,630 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty index edged up by 118 points, or half a percent, to 23,770. Among the top gainers, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trent, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints were up 1-2 percent. Eicher Motors gained 1 percent after it agreed to invest up to Rs. 750 crore to acquire a 50 percent equity stake in Volvo Financial Services. Varun Beverages climbed 2.2 percent after extending its exclusive bottling and trademark licensing agreement with PepsiCo till April 2049. Central Bank of India slumped more than 5 percent after the government decided to offload up to 36.21 crore shares in the bank via an Offer for Sale. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Key Points Berkshire's new CEO dumped a lot of stocks while adding positions in Delta and Macy's. CEO Greg Abel's biggest move, though, was significantly increasing Berkshire's stake in Alphabet. 10 stocks we like better than Berkshire Hathaway › The quarterly filing of Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) Form 13F, revealing what moves the conglomerate made within its stock portfolio, i...
Key Points Berkshire's new CEO dumped a lot of stocks while adding positions in Delta and Macy's. CEO Greg Abel's biggest move, though, was significantly increasing Berkshire's stake in Alphabet. 10 stocks we like better than Berkshire Hathaway › The quarterly filing of Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) Form 13F, revealing what moves the conglomerate made within its stock portfolio, is always a highly anticipated event for investors. Former CEO Warren Buffett is a legendary investor, so people no doubt wanted to see what moves Greg Abel made in his first quarter as chief executive. If I were an owner of Berkshire stock, though, I would be highly disappointed with Abel's actions. First, it appears Abel just dumped all of former Berkshire fund manager Todd Combs' picks, including some highly attractive businesses like Amazon, Visa, and Mastercard. Combs was one of two portfolio managers, along with Ted Weschler, that Buffett had hired to work with him, and he later took on the additional role of CEO of GEICO, one of Berkshire's most important insurance subsidiaries. After getting passed over to head Berkshire, he left in early December to lead JPMorgan Chase's $10 billion Strategic Investment Group. 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 » During the quarter, Berkshire fully exited 15 positions and almost all of its Constellation Brands stake. Along with newly added stocks, Berkshire went from owning 39 stocks at the end of last year to just 26 at the end of Q1. Is Berkshire repeating past mistakes? However, more concerning were the stocks Abel did add, as he bought shares in companies in two industries that Buffett has admitted were mistakes for him to get involved in. Abel's largest new position was in Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), where he took a $2.6 billion stake, purchasing ...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Substance for Putin, ‘face’ for Trump as China, Russia deepen strategic alliance Days after US President Donald Trump’s visit framed a...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Substance for Putin, ‘face’ for Trump as China, Russia deepen strategic alliance Days after US President Donald Trump’s visit framed around managing risks, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached a...
Alphabet’s Cloud’s Double-Digit Run + AI Explosion = GOOG $500 Target Earlier anxieties that Alphabet would lose its search dominance to emerging AI startups have largely dissipated. Written by: Olumide Adesina • • 2 min read • Quick overview Alphabet's search dominance concerns have eased following positive Wall Street reactions to Google I/O 2026 and Gemini's adoption. Major partnerships, like A...
Alphabet’s Cloud’s Double-Digit Run + AI Explosion = GOOG $500 Target Earlier anxieties that Alphabet would lose its search dominance to emerging AI startups have largely dissipated. Written by: Olumide Adesina • • 2 min read • Quick overview Alphabet's search dominance concerns have eased following positive Wall Street reactions to Google I/O 2026 and Gemini's adoption. Major partnerships, like Apple's integration of Gemini with Siri, enhance Google's consumer AI distribution strategy. Google Cloud experienced a remarkable 63% year-over-year revenue growth, driven by strong enterprise demand and the acquisition of Wiz. Alphabet maintains a strong financial position with a low Debt-to-Equity ratio and significant cash reserves, attracting increased price targets from major institutional banks. Earlier anxieties that Alphabet would lose its search dominance to emerging AI startups have largely dissipated. Wall Street responded favorably to the Google I/O 2026 announcements and the strong adoption of Gemini. Major partnerships, including Apple opening up options for users to integrate Gemini natively alongside Siri, provide a massive distribution pipeline for Google’s consumer AI strategy. Google’s hardware strategy is paying off cleanly. Alphabet remains uniquely positioned as the only major hyperscaler training and deploying frontier AI models entirely on its own custom silicon. The rollout of its 8th-generation custom Tensor Processor Units (TPU 8t and 8i) features liquid-cooling tech that mitigates the massive cost overhead associated with hardware bottlenecks, separating Google from competitors connecting entirely on third-party chips. Google Cloud is operating at an incredibly high velocity. Q1 2026 results showcased a 63% year-over-year surge in Cloud revenue, reaching $20 billion for the quarter. Growth has been driven by strong enterprise demand for AI-adjacent infrastructure and data tools, as well as the recent acquisition of the cloud security platform Wiz...
Affirm Holdings Inc. recently expanded its collaboration with Google LLC, rolling out its installment payment options into Google Search, AI Mode, the Gemini app, and Google Pay checkout, while also extending its Royal Caribbean partnership to holidaymakers in the U.K. and Canada on top of the existing U.S. offering. These moves deepen Affirm’s presence across both major travel and technology ecos...
Affirm Holdings Inc. recently expanded its collaboration with Google LLC, rolling out its installment payment options into Google Search, AI Mode, the Gemini app, and Google Pay checkout, while also extending its Royal Caribbean partnership to holidaymakers in the U.K. and Canada on top of the existing U.S. offering. These moves deepen Affirm’s presence across both major travel and technology ecosystems, potentially increasing how often consumers encounter its transparent, fee-free installment loans during everyday and higher-ticket purchases. Now we’ll examine how Affirm’s deeper integration into Google Pay’s search and AI-powered shopping experiences may influence its broader investment narrative. The future of work is here. Discover the 34 top robotics and automation stocks leading the charge in AI-driven automation and industrial transformation. Affirm Holdings Investment Narrative Recap To own Affirm, you need to believe its installment network can keep scaling across big platforms and travel partners while managing credit and funding risks. The Google and Royal Caribbean expansions broadly support the near term catalyst of growing transaction volume across more touchpoints, but they do not directly resolve key concerns around profitability on 0 percent APR products or exposure to a few major enterprise partners. The deeper integration into Google Search, AI Mode, Gemini and Google Pay looks most relevant here, because it extends Affirm’s wallet and checkout presence beyond merchant sites into discovery and AI assisted shopping. That aligns with the existing catalyst that wider point of sale and wallet integrations could unlock new usage occasions, but it also sits against risks that competition from large tech payments players could still compress margins over time. Yet even with these encouraging partnerships, investors should also be aware of the risk that... Read the full narrative on Affirm Holdings (it's free!) Affirm Holdings' narrative projects $7.3 bil...
Lenovo Group press release ( LNVGY ) jumped as much as 13% following a blockbuster Q4 fiscal earnings report that underscored a powerful, AI-driven turnaround in global hardware demand. Revenue reached $21.59 billion, up 27.1% year-on-year, beating estimates by a substantial $2.22 billion. Adjusted net income doubled year-on-year to $559 million. GAAP EPS came in at $0.04. AI-related revenue stood...
Lenovo Group press release ( LNVGY ) jumped as much as 13% following a blockbuster Q4 fiscal earnings report that underscored a powerful, AI-driven turnaround in global hardware demand. Revenue reached $21.59 billion, up 27.1% year-on-year, beating estimates by a substantial $2.22 billion. Adjusted net income doubled year-on-year to $559 million. GAAP EPS came in at $0.04. AI-related revenue stood out as the primary growth engine, surging 84% year-on-year to account for 38% of total Group revenue during the quarter. Revenue for IDG grew 24% from last year to US$14.6 billion, with PC and Smart devices revenue rising 26%, marking the highest growth in five years. Lenovo's global PC market share reached 24.4%, the highest in the fourth quarter, and the gap with the second player has widened significantly. Premium PC shipments increased 29%, while Motorola smartphones saw record shipments and double-digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Following the strong performance, Lenovo’s Board of Directors declared a final dividend of 33.70 HK cents per share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. More on Lenovo Group ADR Lenovo Group Limited 2026 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Lenovo: Long-Term Gain Tech firms' margins under pressure from rising memory costs PC, smartphone market to see a 'challenging' 2026 amid memory shortage, rising prices Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Lenovo Group ADR
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Christopher Gannatti, CFA The Case for Low Volatility in U.S. Equity Portfolios For many investors, there is a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in after a market drawdown. It is not just the portfolio loss itself; it is also the compounding anxiety of watching a recovery that feels too slow, the second-guessing of every allocation decision, and the n...
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Christopher Gannatti, CFA The Case for Low Volatility in U.S. Equity Portfolios For many investors, there is a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in after a market drawdown. It is not just the portfolio loss itself; it is also the compounding anxiety of watching a recovery that feels too slow, the second-guessing of every allocation decision, and the nagging question of whether a smoother path was ever available. For many U.S. equity investors, the answer to that last question is increasingly: usually yes, and here is how to find it. The search for lower-volatility equity exposure is not new, and minimum-variance strategies have existed since the early 1990s, but investor demand has sharpened considerably as markets have grown more prone to abrupt dislocations. 1 The 2020 pandemic shock, the 2022 rate-driven selloff, and the volatility spikes of early 2025 have all reinforced a simple, uncomfortable arithmetic: Large losses require disproportionately large gains just to break even. Putting numbers to it, a hypothetical portfolio that drops 30%—for instance, from $100 to $70—needs a 43% recovery to get back to where it started. That asymmetry is the engine behind the enduring appeal of volatility management. Today, the largest U.S. minimum-volatility-focused strategy is the iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF ( USMV ), with nearly $23 billion in assets and a history stretching back to 2011. 2 It seeks to achieve its volatility-reduction objective through sophisticated equity optimization undertaken by the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility Index , which holds a constrained subset of large- and mid-cap U.S. stocks that, in combination, aims to produce the lowest achievable portfolio variance. The WisdomTree Equity Premium Income Fund ( WTPI ), by contrast, does not own equities at all. It writes short-dated put options on the S&P 500 Index , collects premium income, and holds U.S. Treasury bills as collateral. Both strategies mec...