Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. AMD on Thursday said it will invest more than $10 billion across Taiwan's semiconductor and AI ecosystem to advance chip production and performance. Taiwan is at the center of the semiconductor industry because of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac...
Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. AMD on Thursday said it will invest more than $10 billion across Taiwan's semiconductor and AI ecosystem to advance chip production and performance. Taiwan is at the center of the semiconductor industry because of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ., the world's largest chip manufacturer, which makes products for the most valuable companies in the world from Nvidia to Apple . AMD has been a beneficiary of the continued heavy spending on AI infrastructure with its shares doubling so far this year as it looks to step up competition to rival Nvidia, which itself reported blowout earnings on Wednesday.
Kaewta Suphan/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview US equities ended lower in a volatile quarter, as shifting market sentiment between fears of a prolonged war in Iran and hopes for a quick resolution spurred considerable uncertainty about the path of inflation and economic growth. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) held interest rates unchanged during the quarter, with the Fed's quarterly dot plot i...
Kaewta Suphan/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview US equities ended lower in a volatile quarter, as shifting market sentiment between fears of a prolonged war in Iran and hopes for a quick resolution spurred considerable uncertainty about the path of inflation and economic growth. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) held interest rates unchanged during the quarter, with the Fed's quarterly dot plot in March showing only one projected interest-rate cut in 2026. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the bank's outlook for interest rates, inflation, and the labor market was highly uncertain as policymakers grapple with the economic implications of the Iran War and the inflationary effect of high oil prices. Growth stocks significantly underperformed their value counterparts over the quarter, as investors rotated toward cyclicals and more defensive areas of the market amid anxiety about the disruptive influence of AI on the technology sector, particularly software and data-services companies. Economic data released during the quarter was mixed, but the economy remained on a firm footing. Performance Summary Hartford Equity Income Fund (I Share) underperformed the Russell 1000 Value Index during the quarter. Security selection was the primary driver of relative underperformance. Weak selection in information technology and consumer staples was partially offset by selection in healthcare and industrials. Sector allocation, a result of our bottom-up stock selection process, contributed to returns. Allocation effect was driven by our underweight to communication services and financials and overweight to utilities, but partially offset by our underweight to energy and overweight to healthcare. At the issuer level, our top two relative detractors were not owning Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) (energy) and an out-of-benchmark allocation to Ares Management ( ARES ) (financials), while our top two relative contributors were not owning Alphabet ( GOOG ) (communication services) and an o...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images You may think this take is crazy, but it is my opinion that Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) is one of the two worst large companies for investors right now. The other one, not surprisingly, is Tesla ( TSLA ), which is drastically overvalued and dealing with significant competitive pressures. At least with Palantir Technologies, we have a company that is vi...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images You may think this take is crazy, but it is my opinion that Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) is one of the two worst large companies for investors right now. The other one, not surprisingly, is Tesla ( TSLA ), which is drastically overvalued and dealing with significant competitive pressures. At least with Palantir Technologies, we have a company that is viable for the long run. It boasts significant margins and has been exhibiting extraordinary growth. In fact, I have even had to revise higher my own expectations for it, and I was already using an outlook that was, in my eyes, very aggressive. Even so, high growth does not necessarily translate to an attractive prospect. If the valuation is drastically too high, even a great company can deserve a bearish assessment. That is the sole reason why I have been consistently negative on the company for quite some time now. In my last article about it, published in February of this year, I reaffirmed it as a ‘strong sell’ candidate. And since then, it has indeed underperformed the market, rising only 2.4% while the S&P 500 is up 9.7%. And since I first downgraded it to a ‘strong sell’ in February of last year, the stock has also underperformed, rising only 18.7% while the market is up 23.6%. That still does not count as a win in my book, even though I typically consider underperformance in relation to the market a win when I turn negative. But in this case, I firmly believe that the company deserves to drop. And that is why I maintain my ‘strong sell’ rating. A great business at an awful price From a purely fundamental standpoint, Palantir Technologies has done a fantastic job as of late. The only new data that has come out since I last wrote about the company covers the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. And as you can see, revenue during that time came in at $1.63 billion. That's massively above, to the tune of 84.7%, the $883.9 million that the business reported a year earlie...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images You may think this take is crazy, but it is my opinion that Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) is one of the two worst large companies for investors right now. The other one, not surprisingly, is Tesla ( TSLA ), which is drastically overvalued and dealing with significant competitive pressures. At least with Palantir Technologies, we have a company that is vi...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images You may think this take is crazy, but it is my opinion that Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) is one of the two worst large companies for investors right now. The other one, not surprisingly, is Tesla ( TSLA ), which is drastically overvalued and dealing with significant competitive pressures. At least with Palantir Technologies, we have a company that is viable for the long run. It boasts significant margins and has been exhibiting extraordinary growth. In fact, I have even had to revise higher my own expectations for it, and I was already using an outlook that was, in my eyes, very aggressive. Even so, high growth does not necessarily translate to an attractive prospect. If the valuation is drastically too high, even a great company can deserve a bearish assessment. That is the sole reason why I have been consistently negative on the company for quite some time now. In my last article about it, published in February of this year, I reaffirmed it as a ‘strong sell’ candidate. And since then, it has indeed underperformed the market, rising only 2.4% while the S&P 500 is up 9.7%. And since I first downgraded it to a ‘strong sell’ in February of last year, the stock has also underperformed, rising only 18.7% while the market is up 23.6%. That still does not count as a win in my book, even though I typically consider underperformance in relation to the market a win when I turn negative. But in this case, I firmly believe that the company deserves to drop. And that is why I maintain my ‘strong sell’ rating. A great business at an awful price From a purely fundamental standpoint, Palantir Technologies has done a fantastic job as of late. The only new data that has come out since I last wrote about the company covers the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. And as you can see, revenue during that time came in at $1.63 billion. That's massively above, to the tune of 84.7%, the $883.9 million that the business reported a year earlie...