A new country and new set of umpires could mean fresh scrutiny for Usman Tariq. But as Pakistan’s late-blooming mystery spinner prepares for his first outing in the T20 Blast, he says he welcomes questions about his action. Tariq, 30, has signed for the Bears in the Blast, along with Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred, to continue a remarkable rise. After spending his early 20s working for a car-pa...
A new country and new set of umpires could mean fresh scrutiny for Usman Tariq. But as Pakistan’s late-blooming mystery spinner prepares for his first outing in the T20 Blast, he says he welcomes questions about his action. Tariq, 30, has signed for the Bears in the Blast, along with Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred, to continue a remarkable rise. After spending his early 20s working for a car-parts company in Dubai, he watched a biopic of India’s MS Dhoni and decided to pack it in to pursue his cricketing dream. It has certainly paid off, with a debut in the Pakistan Super League in 2024 leading to opportunities around the world and nine T20i caps for his country. But along the way there have been two rounds of official testing regarding a bowling action that is unquestionably unique. “I have faced so many naysayers,” says Tariq, freshly arrived at his new home of Edgbaston. “People around me used to tell me ‘Usman, in the UK you might get some tough times because it’s really hard for you to go there and justify your action. The umpires, they will be quite harsh. They’re really strict.’ “I said ‘no, I want to face it. Let’s see what happens. If they feel that I’m having any issue with my action, I’m ready to go to the [testing] lab. I watched a film about [Sri Lanka’s] Muttiah Muralitharan and [he] used to invite people to test him, to show he was not an illegal bowler. The same story goes with me. “I have been tested two times. It has been cleared within one week. No one told me that you’re having some degrees [of flex] which are making you illegal.” Despite this, social media tends to be awash with remarks whenever Tariq is bowling, while Australia’s Cameron Green made a pointed “throwing” action after being dismissed by him earlier this year. But like Muralitharan, Tariq is simply unable to straighten his right arm and so gives the illusion of throwing. View image in fullscreen Tariq bowls in a T20 against Australia in January. He has developed ‘around six’ dif...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) today is down -0.35%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) (DIA) is down -0.11%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) is down -0.51%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26) are down -0.40%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQM26) are down -0.59%. Stock indexes are under pressure today as the standoff between the US and Iran boosted crude oil prices and bond yields on c...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) today is down -0.35%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) (DIA) is down -0.11%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) is down -0.51%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26) are down -0.40%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQM26) are down -0.59%. Stock indexes are under pressure today as the standoff between the US and Iran boosted crude oil prices and bond yields on concern that a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could worsen energy disruptions and fuel inflation. Crude prices jumped more than +2% after Reuters reported that Iran's Supreme Leader said enriched uranium must stay in Iran, as sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the US and Israel. The report tempers optimism that the US and Iran were moving closer to a deal to end the war. The markets are awaiting Iran’s official response to the latest US proposals to reopen the Strait. The 10-year T-note yield is up +4 bp to 4.61%. Join 200K+ Subscribers: Nvidia’s earnings results, released after Wednesday’s close, were better-than-expected, although some analysts questioned the sustainability of growth, especially amid higher competition. Nvidia is trading down more than -1%. Stock indexes found support on today’s economic news, which showed signs of stability in the labor market and strength in manufacturing and housing activity. On the negative side, the May Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey fell more than expected to a 5-month low. US weekly initial unemployment claims fell -3,000 to 209,000, close to expectations of 210,000. US Apr housing starts fell -2.8% m/m to 1.465 million, a smaller decline than expectations of 1.410 million. Apr building permits, a proxy for future construction, rose +5.8% m/m to 1.442 million, stronger than expectations of 1.384 million. The US May Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey fell -27.1 to a 5-month low of -0.4, weaker than expectations of 17.8. The US May S&P manufacturing PMI u...
I’m not sure anyone was really asking for an AI guitar pedal. But it was inevitable that someone would build one. One of the first to take the plunge is Polyend, a well-respected music gear maker with a reputation for building niche, idiosyncratic devices. The company has built grooveboxes around old-school trackers and a multi-effect pedal that you can step sequence. So there was at least some ho...
I’m not sure anyone was really asking for an AI guitar pedal. But it was inevitable that someone would build one. One of the first to take the plunge is Polyend, a well-respected music gear maker with a reputation for building niche, idiosyncratic devices. The company has built grooveboxes around old-school trackers and a multi-effect pedal that you can step sequence. So there was at least some hope that if anyone could do an AI effect pedal right, it would be Polyend. Polyend’s Endless is a $299 programmable guitar pedal running an ARM processor. It’s paired with Playground, a number of interconnected AI agents that turn any text prompt into a functioning guitar effect. If you have an idea, you don’t have to hope that someone’s already built that pedal; you can simply prompt it. Maybe there’s a specific combination of effects that you’ve always wanted, but no company sells it because there’s no demand for a combination ring modulator / auto-wah. I’m not convinced this is what guitarists are yearning for, but it’s a well-intentioned first attempt to marry an effect pedal to an LLM. To be clear, the AI isn’t actually in the pedal. Instead, Polyend trained a custom LLM to code effects you can then load onto the pedal. You can also build effects yourself in C++, but most people will either download existing free Plates (as Polyend calls the effects) from the community site or prompt them in Playground. You can also pay $20 for a physical faceplate to pair with a downloaded effect. Right now, the Plates gallery is home to about 60 effects, mostly developed by Polyend. They cover everything from simple saturators to tape loop simulators and guitar synths. There are even self-playing drum machines. Some of my favorites include Grunt (a lo-fi octave down effect), the Infinite Hall reverb, and Tessera (granular pitch-shifting reverb). There’s also Stardust, an enormous-sounding granular delay, reverb, and tremolo combination that would be hard to find elsewhere. Polyend is ...
The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again Authored by Carl Henegan and Tom Jefferson via The Brownstone Institute, There is a peculiar arithmetic that governs modern health reporting, one that has very little to do with actual risk. Hans Rosling captured it neatly during the 2009 swine flu episode, when he calculated a “news-to-death ratio” of 8,176-to-1. In other words, for every death attributed to ...
The News-to-Death Ratio Strikes Again Authored by Carl Henegan and Tom Jefferson via The Brownstone Institute, There is a peculiar arithmetic that governs modern health reporting, one that has very little to do with actual risk. Hans Rosling captured it neatly during the 2009 swine flu episode, when he calculated a “news-to-death ratio” of 8,176-to-1. In other words, for every death attributed to swine flu, there were over eight thousand news stories. Tuberculosis, by contrast, received less than 0.1 news stories per death over the same period. If that sounds absurd, it is, and yet very little has changed. Take the current hantavirus scare. A cruise ship, the MV Hondius , sits off Cape Verde. There are 7 cases in total (2 confirmed, 5 suspected) and 3 deaths, including a Dutch couple and a German national. Passengers have been confined to their cabins while evacuations and disinfection efforts are organised. It is, undeniably, a dramatic story: a floating Petri dish, a whiff of quarantine, and a hint of the exotic. In the past week alone, there have been at least 10 to 15 unique news stories, generating hundreds of articles. For a disease that, in normal times, struggles to attract even a single weekly mention, this represents a surge bordering on the hysterical. And yet it is worth stepping back for a moment and asking, what are we actually looking at? Hantavirus is a rare disease. In the United States, which diligently tracks such cases, there have been 890 laboratory-confirmed instances since 1993. In the UK, the situation is even less clear: from 2012 to early 2025, only 11 domestically acquired symptomatic cases have been recorded. Surprisingly, nine of these cases were not linked to cruise ships or exotic travel, but rather to a more mundane source—exposure to “pet fancy rats” or rodents bred as reptile feed. This is not a pathogen ready to spread through the Home Counties. However, the rarity is not the issue; visibility is. Diseases that afflict the poor, qu...
Nvidia NVDA delivered another strong earnings beat, reinforcing that demand for AI infrastructure remains powerful. But beyond the headline numbers, Nvidia’s latest quarter highlighted something equally important — the enormous amount of cash the AI boom is generating for the company, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Nvidia returned nearly $20 billion to shareholders during the quarter through stock re...
Nvidia NVDA delivered another strong earnings beat, reinforcing that demand for AI infrastructure remains powerful. But beyond the headline numbers, Nvidia’s latest quarter highlighted something equally important — the enormous amount of cash the AI boom is generating for the company, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Nvidia returned nearly $20 billion to shareholders during the quarter through stock repurchases and dividends. The chip giant also approved an additional $80 billion buyback authorization, signaling confidence in both its business outlook and cash-generation ability. Buybacks and Dividends Accelerate Nvidia repurchased $19.3 billion worth of stock in the fiscal first quarter and paid another $243 million in dividends. The company also sharply increased its quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share, payable on June 26 to shareholders on record as of June 4. The aggressive buyback expansion suggests Nvidia is using its AI-driven cash flow not only to reward investors but also to reinforce confidence in its long-term growth story. NVIDIA’s Investment Portfolio Keeps Expanding At the same time, Nvidia’s investments in other companies continued to grow. By the end of the quarter, Nvidia held approximately $30.2 billion in marketable equity securities, representing stakes in public companies, along with another $43.4 billion in non-marketable securities tied to private-company investments. Together, Nvidia now holds nearly $74 billion in outside equity investments. That growing portfolio shows Nvidia is doing more than simply supplying chips for the AI build-out. The company is increasingly deploying capital across the broader AI ecosystem, investing in businesses that are helping expand AI adoption and infrastructure. AI Boom Continues to Fuel Explosive Growth The company’s operating performance explains how Nvidia can simultaneously fund buybacks, dividends and strategic investments. Revenue surged 85% year over year to $81.6 billion, while data center re...
The government is in thrall to the sunk-cost fallacy. Scrap the project, and use the money for a renaissance in urban transit So it is official, as if that makes a difference. After a 15-month review by the new chief executive, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed that HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039. Alexander called the original design a “ma...
The government is in thrall to the sunk-cost fallacy. Scrap the project, and use the money for a renaissance in urban transit So it is official, as if that makes a difference. After a 15-month review by the new chief executive, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed that HS2 will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains may not start until 2039. Alexander called the original design a “massively over-specced folly” and called the increase in time and costs “obscene”. Indeed it possibly ranks as the wildest white elephant in British history. In comparison, Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is a garden shed, and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa a mere sandcastle. This week, Alexander, the ninth transport secretary since HS2 was proposed, admitted the project made her angry. As she dusted off her department’s latest defence of its appalling conduct of this fiasco, she tried to feign surprise. She has been in office 18 months. Don’t tell us she did not know. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Uber is putting its own autonomous vehicles back on the road as part of its new AV Lab project to collect data for its dozens of robotaxi partners. The cars will be fitted with all the sensors typical of self-driving cars, lik...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Uber is putting its own autonomous vehicles back on the road as part of its new AV Lab project to collect data for its dozens of robotaxi partners. The cars will be fitted with all the sensors typical of self-driving cars, like cameras, lidar, and radar. But notably the vehicles will not be operating as robotaxis, just gathering data for Uber’s dozens of robotaxi partners. That’s important distinction, especially if you know anything about Uber’s fraught history with self-driving cars. Uber sold off its AV division in 2020 after one of its self-driving cars killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. Since then, the company has formed partnerships with dozens of AV startups, preferring instead to be the go-to platform for the technology rather than a developer. But those startups are hungry for data, so Uber is hitting the road. The company is deploying a fleet of vehicles with all the necessary hardware for autonomous driving on its ridehail network. These vehicles, which will be manually driven, will generate revenue and complete regular Uber trips, Balaji Krishnamurthy, the company’s chief financial officer, said on X. More importantly, they’ll be “getting exposure to the variety of ‘edge’ cases our network handles countless times each day, as we fulfill 40M trips daily,” Krishnamurthy said. Image: Balaji Krishnamurthy / X AV operators need at least 10 million miles of data to reach their first public driverless launch, Krishnamurthy theorized. To that end, Uber’s new AV lab fleet will generate at least 2 million miles each month by the end of this year, “and will scale further from there in 2027,” he said. The project is starting small with just one Hyundai Ioniq 5, though Uber executives tell TechCrunch they’re not wedded to that model. The driving data will be provided for free to any of Uber’s part...
SpaceX's S-1 filing asks investors to believe in three things: AI in space, a million people on Mars, and Elon Musk's ability to make it all happen. Lauren Webster, Piper Sandler's head of technology investment banking, joins Ed Ludlow to discuss if investors can bet on a future that doesn't fully exist yet on "Bloomberg Tech." (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX's S-1 filing asks investors to believe in three things: AI in space, a million people on Mars, and Elon Musk's ability to make it all happen. Lauren Webster, Piper Sandler's head of technology investment banking, joins Ed Ludlow to discuss if investors can bet on a future that doesn't fully exist yet on "Bloomberg Tech." (Source: Bloomberg)
IBM 股价周四一度上涨8.6%,创1月29日以来最大盘中涨幅。此前,特朗普政府向该公司提供10亿美元资金,用于建设一家生产量子级超导晶圆的晶圆厂;IBM同时宣布计划成立新的量子晶圆厂子公司。 根据美国商务部声明,该部门已签署9份意向书,拟依据芯片与科学法案提供总额略高于20亿美元的联邦激励资金。 彭博行业研究:“IBM与美国商务部的合作,预计将为其量子相关研发工作带来实质性提振”。 不过,“未来...
Kevin Warsh takes over as Fed Chair on Friday, May 22, inheriting an inflation problem that none of his predecessors faced. For four decades, falling semiconductor prices quietly held down U.S. inflation. That tailwind has reversed, and the AI infrastructure boom is the reason. Headline Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation ran at 4% in March, ... Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Has a New Inflat...
Kevin Warsh takes over as Fed Chair on Friday, May 22, inheriting an inflation problem that none of his predecessors faced. For four decades, falling semiconductor prices quietly held down U.S. inflation. That tailwind has reversed, and the AI infrastructure boom is the reason. Headline Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation ran at 4% in March, ... Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Has a New Inflation Nightmare: AI Is Skyrocketing Prices
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The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations supplied or endorsed by TradingView. Read more in the Terms of Use
Just two weeks ago, Tonda Eckert was a head coach who had the world at his feet. The German had transformed Southampton from relegation candidates to favourites to win the Championship promotion play-offs. It was a remarkable turnaround. And then came Spygate, the explosive controversy which would result in the south-coast club being thrown out of the play-offs and deducted four points for next se...
Just two weeks ago, Tonda Eckert was a head coach who had the world at his feet. The German had transformed Southampton from relegation candidates to favourites to win the Championship promotion play-offs. It was a remarkable turnaround. And then came Spygate, the explosive controversy which would result in the south-coast club being thrown out of the play-offs and deducted four points for next season. No-one knows exactly who was complicit with William Salt - an intern analyst - embarking on spying mission to Middlesbrough's Rockliffe Park training base, or similar visits to watch Oxford United and Ipswich Town. The written reasons from the English Football League will provide the trail of evidence. Until then, we don't know Eckert's role, or whether he was involved. Eckert looked like he was the man to build a new era for Southampton in the Premier League. But many supporters and those connected with the club have made their minds up. He is intrinsically linked to a dark period in the club's history, whether he knew about the spying or not. Why was the 33-year-old so highly rated? Is there a future for him at St Mary's? And who exactly is Eckert?
is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. The original Birdie debuted in 2022 with a morbid-but-fun design — an air-quality monitor with a literal canary in a coal mine. When the CO2 in your home hit a certain level, a mechanical bird mounted on your wall would appear to drop dead, then pro...
is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. The original Birdie debuted in 2022 with a morbid-but-fun design — an air-quality monitor with a literal canary in a coal mine. When the CO2 in your home hit a certain level, a mechanical bird mounted on your wall would appear to drop dead, then prompt you to open a window to air things out. Once the air quality improved, the bird miraculously came back to life. The new Birdie Pro carries forward that same design and approach, but adds additional sensors providing a more comprehensive analysis of the environment in your home. Birdie Pro is now available through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign and can be preordered with a discount that brings its $299 MSRP down to $199 for a limited time. Shipping is expected as early as August 2026, and while this isn’t the company’s first Kickstarter, delays are always possible given the chaos in the tech manufacturing world right now. Using a collection of new environmental sensors hidden inside the base, Birdie Pro can keep tabs on other factors including temperature and humidity, but it’s also able to connect to other sources of data online, including Google APIs. The bird’s dramatic death is still used to indicate high CO2 levels in a space, but through a new mobile app you can also keep tabs on concerns like mold risk, local pollen levels, and the air quality outside your home. The app also facilitates integrations with smart home platforms including Home Assistant and Homey so you can potentially automate a response to unfavorable conditions like turning on an air purifier.
Elon Musk's companies love to work together. Now, we have a bit more insight into how much money is moving between them. On Wednesday, SpaceX filed its 277-page S-1, a document that peels back the curtain on the combined space-and-AI company's spending. The filing showed that SpaceX (and its recently acquired fellow Musk company, xAI) bought hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of products from ...
Elon Musk's companies love to work together. Now, we have a bit more insight into how much money is moving between them. On Wednesday, SpaceX filed its 277-page S-1, a document that peels back the curtain on the combined space-and-AI company's spending. The filing showed that SpaceX (and its recently acquired fellow Musk company, xAI) bought hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of products from Tesla. Purchases included $697 million in Tesla Megapack products across 2024 and 2025, plus $131 million in Cybertrucks in 2025. The rocket company also bought an additional $34 million in Megapacks between January and March of this year. The purchases were listed as "related party transactions." The filing also described other ties between the companies — including work on voice-assistance features in Tesla vehicles, plans for a combined-use chip factory, and Tesla ad purchases on X. "SpaceX and Tesla developed the early foundation of a strong and constructive partnership through a series of limited but successful commercial engagements," SpaceX wrote in the filing. Seth Goldstein, an equity strategist at Morningstar who covers Tesla, said the related-party spending is "a little unique" to Tesla and SpaceX, but that the purchases themselves do not strike him as unusual. "A company like SpaceX purchasing a large amount of work trucks and batteries for energy storage is not unusual and would be necessary for its business," he told Business Insider. "If what SpaceX is buying from Tesla or vice versa is necessary for its operations, then it makes sense." Goldstein did say one element may raise investor eyebrows: SpaceX reported buying the Cybertrucks "at manufacturer's suggested retail price." He said most companies receive a discount when buying products in bulk. That wording also offers a rare window into how many Cybertrucks may have gone to one of Musk's own companies. Tesla sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in 2025, according to Kelley Blue Book. SpaceX did not reveal which trims ...
Forecasters expect slightly fewer hurricanes than usual this year, but the risk of destructive storms is still high toggle caption Matias Delacroix/AP Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expect slightly fewer storms than average during the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. But abnormally warm water in the Atlantic makes it more likely that at least one very large, destructive hurricane will...
Forecasters expect slightly fewer hurricanes than usual this year, but the risk of destructive storms is still high toggle caption Matias Delacroix/AP Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expect slightly fewer storms than average during the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. But abnormally warm water in the Atlantic makes it more likely that at least one very large, destructive hurricane will form. Tens of millions of people live in places that are threatened by flooding from heavy hurricane-driven rain, wind damage and coastal storm surge. The states at risk from hurricanes include large swaths of the eastern and southern U.S., including inland areas in Appalachia and the Northeast. The official 2026 forecast calls for 8 to 14 storms in the Atlantic between June 1 and November 30. The average number of storms for an Atlantic hurricane season is 14. Sponsor Message Of the storms that form, 3 to 6 are expected to be full-blown hurricanes, which have higher wind speeds than tropical storms. One to 3 of those are forecast to be major hurricanes, which have winds powerful enough to bring down trees and power poles, remove shingles from roofs and destroy some mobile homes. "Even though we're expecting a below-average season in the Atlantic, it's very important to understand that it only takes one," says Neil Jacobs, who leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We have had major hurricanes make landfall during below-average seasons." And even relatively weak storms have the potential to cause deadly flooding far from the coast, as recent storms have made devastatingly clear. States in the southeast are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which no longer packed hurricane-strength winds when it arrived in Appalachia in 2024, but nonetheless caused massive flooding. In 2021, flash-flooding killed dozens of people in the Midatlantic and Northeast, thousands of miles from where Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana. "The impacts don't stop at the...
Thursday's market session has been a study in contrasts. All three major indexes opened lower and spent the morning in the red. Near noon ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.47%) was down 0.2% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.27%) had slipped 0.3%. As usual, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.28%) index provided more drama with a 0.3% drop after touching a session low near -0.8% earlier in the morn...
Thursday's market session has been a study in contrasts. All three major indexes opened lower and spent the morning in the red. Near noon ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.47%) was down 0.2% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.27%) had slipped 0.3%. As usual, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.28%) index provided more drama with a 0.3% drop after touching a session low near -0.8% earlier in the morning. ^DJI data by YCharts The Dow actually poked into positive territory briefly around 10:20 a.m. ET, then gave it back. The vibe so far is choppy and indecisive. Not that the stock market has an agenda, but it's hard to find patterns in the chart lines today. The good, the bad, and the quantum The second earnings season of 2026 (mostly covering Q1 results) is drawing to a close with two big reports leading into today's trading. They are pulling the market in opposite directions. Walmart (WMT 6.86%) dropped nearly 8% after warning that high fuel costs are eating into margins. The retail giant beat on revenue but issued soft guidance, and the stock is weighing on the three leading indexes (since it's both a Dow member and a Nasdaq stock). The Strait of Hormuz story is hitting Main Street again. Gas prices near $4.56 per gallon mean higher shipping costs for Walmart and tighter budgets for its customers. Nvidia (NVDA 0.95%) fell about 1.7%. That sounds bad, but the AI chip designer just posted $81.6 billion in quarterly revenue, announced a $91 billion guidance for next quarter, and unveiled an $80 billion buyback. The stock's reaction? A collective shrug. This is what happens when great results meet sky-high expectations. Not even a home run report moved Nvidia's needle today. However, the $5.3 trillion market cap gives Nvidia so much weight on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes that it overshadows even Walmart's effect. There was still room for some good news on Wall Street, though. The day's clear winner is quantum computing. The Trump administration announced a $2 ...
Key Points Nvidia once again reported strong earnings results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027. However, investors might be concerned that leaning into dividends and repurchases signals that management is not seeing new investment opportunities. The company is still showing strong growth, despite being the largest stock by market cap. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › The artific...
Key Points Nvidia once again reported strong earnings results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027. However, investors might be concerned that leaning into dividends and repurchases signals that management is not seeing new investment opportunities. The company is still showing strong growth, despite being the largest stock by market cap. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › The artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has done it again. Last night, Nvidia reported $1.87 in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of over $81.6 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027. Both numbers came in solidly ahead of Wall Street analyst consensus estimates. 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 » Furthermore, the company provided revenue guidance of $91 billion for the current quarter, well above consensus estimates calling for slightly below $87 billion. The stock traded roughly 1.70% lower, as of 12:34 p.m. ET. Nvidia announced that it will raise its quarterly dividend to $0.25 per share, up from $0.01, a 25-fold increase. Nvidia's board of directors also authorized an additional $80 billion in share repurchases, on top of the $38.5 billion remaining under its old share buyback program. The company returned roughly $20 billion to shareholders through repurchases and dividends in the first quarter of its fiscal year. Does the dividend hike and increased share repurchase authorization signal that the company is slowing down? Yes and no At first glance, investors might see the increased dividend and repurchase authorization as a positive, which they are overall. The company is returning more money to shareholders. However, increased capital distributions can lead investors to believe the company may see fewer opportunities to reinvest for growth and is now transiti...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images By Elior Manier WTI crude oil corrected strongly yesterday following President Trump's optimistic announcement that a diplomatic deal was in its final stages, but the geopolitical reality is proving to be much less straightforward. As the market quickly learned this morning, sometimes, headlines aren't enough – especially when Trump is posting a dozen each day. Ayatol...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images By Elior Manier WTI crude oil corrected strongly yesterday following President Trump's optimistic announcement that a diplomatic deal was in its final stages, but the geopolitical reality is proving to be much less straightforward. As the market quickly learned this morning, sometimes, headlines aren't enough – especially when Trump is posting a dozen each day. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has reportedly announced that the nation insists on keeping its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium stockpile within its borders. This condition remains an absolute dealbreaker for the United States, so this could prove to be another barrier to a longer-run deal. Despite yesterday's massive wave of diplomatic enthusiasm, it is now clear that the proposed agreement still harbors severe, contentious roadblocks that must be navigated before any true resolution is reached. Peace Deal odds for June 30 – Source: Polymarket. May 21, 2026. Consequently, traders are actively preparing for a highly rocky and volatile path to peace. With the immediate diplomatic situation once again steeped in heavy uncertainty, the geopolitical risk premium is aggressively flooding right back into energy markets, sending WTI violently rallying back above the $100 psychological handle today. Now, let's take a closer look at the technical analysis for WTI Crude to see if prices can remain above $100 for long. US Oil Intraday Timeframe Analysis WTI 4H Chart and Technical Levels WTI Oil 4H Chart – May 20, 2026. Source: TradingView WTI crude is stuck in a large triangle formation, currently consolidating $110 to $98 – a key development to watch out for. Recently rejecting its upper bound on rumors of a new deal, the commodity broke its upward channel, but this wasn't enough for sellers to push momentum lower. Buyers stepped back into the commodity just shy of the 4H 200-period MA, and the commodity is now back 5% higher since – Check out reactions within the $106–$108 resistance zone ...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) climbed 2% on Wednesday as investors returned to semiconductor names after several sessions of selling pressure, and the move came as broader markets also recovered. Micron joined a wider rebound across chip shares, with buyers stepping back into a group that has driven much of the market's recent momentum. The S&P 500 finishe...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) climbed 2% on Wednesday as investors returned to semiconductor names after several sessions of selling pressure, and the move came as broader markets also recovered. Micron joined a wider rebound across chip shares, with buyers stepping back into a group that has driven much of the market's recent momentum. The S&P 500 finished up 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.5%. Micron has been one of the strongest names in the high-performance memory market, and Micron remains closely tied to demand for high-bandwidth memory used with artificial intelligence processors. That demand backdrop has helped support the stock this year, even after a recent pullback. Micron is still up about 156% in 2026, but it remains roughly 9% below its record high. Investors may continue to watch whether the latest rebound in chip stocks can hold if broader semiconductor sentiment weakens.
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Plagued by a constrained housing market and stubbornly high-interest rates, home improvement retailers like Lowe’s ( LOW ) and Home Depot ( HD ) continue to navigate a challenging environment. The latest quarterly results from the two—specifically demand from contractors—suggest that with homeowners unlikely to buy a new home, they are taking on...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Plagued by a constrained housing market and stubbornly high-interest rates, home improvement retailers like Lowe’s ( LOW ) and Home Depot ( HD ) continue to navigate a challenging environment. The latest quarterly results from the two—specifically demand from contractors—suggest that with homeowners unlikely to buy a new home, they are taking on larger home improvement projects with the help of a professional, a trend that bolstered Pro sales for both Home Depot ( HD ) and Lowe’s ( LOW ) in the first quarter. But while Lowe’s ( LOW ) outperformed Home Depot ( HD ) on comparable store sales, the former set conservative guidance that spooked investors and briefly drove shares lower in a knee-jerk reaction. Wall Street analysts attribute the cautious guidance to the “sluggish home improvement space,” “subdued DIY backdrop,” and “elusive inflection point for the industry” but see emerging trends that could underpin the sector. Truist analyst Scot Ciccarelli believes that the bottom might be in for the housing market, and “given stable demand and the near cycle lows for housing investment, we continue to believe the bias to an inflection is to the upside, with timing uncertainty as the primary risk.” Jefferies analyst Jonathan Matuszewski also sees the second half of the year unfolding favorably for Lowe's ( LOW ). “The path to the full-year comp leans on the back half. With Q1 results, LOW remains on track, and a reiteration of guidance suggests more comp support is needed in H2. We see that as achievable, given easier ticket compares in the back half, continued market share gains, and greater help from transactions ahead.” Seeking Alpha analysts Justin Purohit and Luca Socci see the aging housing market as a tailwind for both Lowe’s ( LOW ) and Home Depot ( HD ). “I believe that over the long term, LOW is positioned to benefit from one of the most durable themes in housing, and that is America’s aging housing market,...
franckreporter/iStock via Getty Images A San Francisco-based AI startup called Artisan is causing a major stir by articulating a message that I believe could be an emerging battle cry from the AI Revolution. Artisan is putting up billboards from Los Angeles to New York City with the provocative slogan " Stop Hiring Humans" in a viral push to market their AI sales agents that can perform tasks like...
franckreporter/iStock via Getty Images A San Francisco-based AI startup called Artisan is causing a major stir by articulating a message that I believe could be an emerging battle cry from the AI Revolution. Artisan is putting up billboards from Los Angeles to New York City with the provocative slogan " Stop Hiring Humans" in a viral push to market their AI sales agents that can perform tasks like lead generation, cold emailing, list-building, and prospecting. Company Filings, RIA Advisors, Financial Times My regular readers are aware of my view that the AI narrative that has powered most of the gains in the markets since ChatGPT debuted late in 2022 is now firmly in bubble territory. And I believe that this major technology paradigm shift will end like previous ones, like the Internet and railroad booms, that ushered in major crashes due to the misallocation of capital. There simply is not the needed AI-related revenue ramp on the horizon, in my opinion, that will result in an acceptable ROI for the hundreds of billions being invested to build out massive AI data centers. And that is if potentially much cheaper LLM models from China do not upend the entire focus of the current AI ecosystem. NASA, GAO, CSR, Company Reports, Epoch AI, FHWA If I am wrong on this thesis, it will likely be because I underestimated how fast AI will be integrated throughout the U.S. economy, resulting in huge revenue flows to the likes of OpenAI ( OPENAI ) and Anthropic ( ANTHRO ). However, if this happens, it will result in massive job losses and most likely a " white-collar recession." And given the consumer is responsible for nearly 70% of economic activity in the U.S., an economic contraction. Jobs most vulnerable to be displaced by AI (CloudTweaks) And AI's impact on the job market is already being felt, and not in a positive way. One of the major areas that AI is already heavily disrupting is entry-level white-collar jobs like the ones listed above. The unemployment rate for college...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has turned into the biggest weight dragging against the S&P 500's 2026 rally. The index is still up 8.3% and is trying to deliver a fourth straight year of double-digit percentage gains, a streak it has not achieved since the 1990s, but Microsoft's 12% decline has become a major pressure point. Bloomberg data shows the software gian...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has turned into the biggest weight dragging against the S&P 500's 2026 rally. The index is still up 8.3% and is trying to deliver a fourth straight year of double-digit percentage gains, a streak it has not achieved since the 1990s, but Microsoft's 12% decline has become a major pressure point. Bloomberg data shows the software giant has been a far larger drag than Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) or Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), even as investors also contend with inflation risks and the war in Iran. Microsoft shares rose slightly Thursday after The Information reported that Anthropic is in early talks to rent servers powered by Microsoft-designed AI chips. The concern is not that Microsoft is missing the AI race. The concern is that the company's AI reset could take longer, cost more, and deliver lumpier results than investors hoped. Its late-April earnings report pointed to underwhelming Azure cloud growth, especially against Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), which are both posting double-digit percentage gains in 2026. Microsoft also forecast $190 billion in capital expenditures through the end of December, more than Wall Street expected. That spending is arriving as software investors debate whether AI tools from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI could pressure legacy products and allow users to write their own programming through vibe coding. Still, the market has not given up on Microsoft. Wall Street expects revenue to rise 17% in fiscal 2026, after 15% growth in fiscal 2025, while net income is expected to climb 26% before slowing to 12% in fiscal 2027. Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio)'s Pershing Square disclosed a $2.1 billion Microsoft stake last week after selling down Alphabet holdings, with Ackman arguing that growth concerns are misplaced. The valuation has also compressed, with Microsoft trading at 22 times estimated earnings, down from 35 in July 2024 and below its 10-year a...