A former Securities and Exchange Commission official will return to the agency next month to take the top enforcement job following the sudden resignation of the previous director. David Woodcock, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher , will start May 4, the agency said Wednesday. Acting Enforcement Director Sam Waldon will continue in the role until then. “I am incredibly pleased to have David rejoin the SEC at this critical time, as we continue to focus on the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm to investors,” Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement . Woodcock was head of the SEC’s Fort Worth, Texas office from 2011 to 2015. He also previously served as an in-house corporate attorney at Exxon Mobil Corp . Woodcock had been under consideration for the high-profile enforcement director role last year, according to people familiar with the process who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential processes. Ultimately, Atkins chose Margaret “Meg” Ryan, a senior military judge with no securities law background who was on a list of potential Supreme Court nominees during President Donald Trump ’s first term in office. Ryan quit in March after just about six months on the job. She gave no reason to the staff for her departure. Enforcement cases against firms and individuals have dropped at the SEC during Trump’s second administration, as have the size of the penalties levied on firms and individuals, according to a report from Cornerstone Research. The agency’s recent enforcement statistics for fiscal year 2025 reported higher penalties and returns of illegal profits compared to the previous year, but those statistics were bolstered by actions at the end of the Biden administration.

Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images Last summer I believed that long-term growth gem Repligen ( RGEN ) was suffering some setbacks. Its growth story was impaired at the time, with the performance falling short of expectations. Despite a 60% drop in the share price from the peak, valuations were still quite demanding, too demanding for me. After actually having posted substantial revenue declines in a post-pandemic environment, Repligen has returned to solid growth again, with organic growth rates for 2025 reported comfortably in the double digits. This is accompanied by modest margin gains, and while this and a strong positioning are very real, the reality is that expectations remain quite high even as shares have come in a bit further. This makes me continue to be interested in the shares, yet despite the great growth prospects, growth pace, and anticipation of further margin gains, I am not yet willing to pull the trigger. Other, higher conviction ideas, including recent M&A efforts, can be found at Value In Corporate Events . Still Solid Growth Repligen announced relatively solid 2025 results by the end of February. Reported revenues rose by 16% to $738 million, as fourth-quarter revenue growth accelerated to 18%, with revenues reported at nearly $198 million. Acquisitions and currencies benefited the results, with organic growth rates reported at 14% for both the quarter and the year. The company delivered on solid operating leverage with GAAP operating profits reported at $55 million. However, earnings benefited from a near $14 million negative change in the fair value contingent consideration, with operating earnings otherwise seen at $41 million. For the fourth quarter, the realistic GAAP operating earnings number came in at close to $16 million, for operating margins that rapidly approach the high single digits. The company ended the year with $225 million in net cash, with debt consisting of convertible debt securities, as the company reported posi...

当地时间4月8日，据黎巴嫩民防部门报告，以色列当天对黎巴嫩各地发动的大规模空袭已造成至少254人死亡、1165人受伤。(央视新闻)

Blue Owl Stock Slides After Moody's Cuts Outlook To "Negative" On Surging Redemption Requests Blue Owl stocks is getting slammed this morning, erasing all early gains, after Moody's Ratings cut its outlook on a $36-billion Blue Owl non-traded fund to "negative" from "stable" on Tuesday , citing redemption requests that were significantly higher than at peers in the first quarter. Moody's also said the change in the outlook on Blue Owl Credit Income Corp (OCIC) is ​due to the majority of the redemption requests coming from a very limited number of investors, revealing some concentration in ​the equity-holder base. The downgrade highlights ​the mounting strains in the $2 trillion private credit industry after a strong run, as jittery retail investors bail out amid ‌rising concerns around transparency, lending standards and valuations. As we noted recently, having started the firesale in the private credit in February, the decision has since backfired on Blue Owl, leading to an unprecedented surge in redemptions, which hit a record 40.7% for the Blue Owl Technology Income Corp, and 22% for the Blue Owl Credit Income Corp. In response, OCIC, Blue Owl's biggest business development company (BDC), had said about 90% of the investors did ⁠not request to redeem in the first quarter, which, however, is precisely one of the main concerns for Moody's which cautioned about concentration risk. OCIC investors sought to redeem 21.9% of shares in the first quarter, significantly higher ​than the 5.2% redemption requests received in the fourth quarter. Moody's said it expects elevated redemptions to persist in the coming quarters and inflows ​could slow further, resulting in the dissipation of OCIC's currently strong capital and liquidity positions. Blue Owl has previously said there was a "meaningful disconnect" between public sentiment on private credit funds and the underlying performance of its portfolio, although as we explained previously , the company may be simply delaying t...

Citigroup says AI helps speed account openings and systems upgrades Reuters

周三霍尔木兹海峡仍大体处于受阻状态。在美国与伊朗达成一项脆弱的停火协议后，船东正试图评估能否安全地通过这一关键水道。 船舶追踪数据显示，周三仅有三艘船只驶离该地区。其中部分与伊朗有关联，而伊朗媒体随后报道称，在以色列对黎巴嫩发动袭击后，海峡的油轮通行已受阻。正常情况下，每天约有135艘船只通过，目前有超过800艘货船滞留在海湾内，大多等待离开。 尽管船东和保险机构纷纷对停火表示欢迎，但同时警告称，还需要更多细节来判断是否可以安全通行。伊朗表示，停火的一个先决条件是其武装部队应负责协调通过霍尔木兹海峡的船只。德黑兰还对部分船只收取高达每次200万美元的通行费。 “时间将证明这是停火暂歇还是和平降临，但就目前而言，通往海湾地区的贸易极不可能就此恢复，”Lloyd’s Market Association海事与航空负责人Neil Roberts表示。 责任编辑：李桐

England World Cup winners Rosie Galligan and Marlie Packer announce they are expecting a baby together, with Galligan due to give birth in October.

欧洲债券维持了此前因美伊达成停火协议而获得的涨幅。交易员削减了对英国央行和欧洲央行加息的押注。 2年期国债收益率领跌，英国和德国2年期收益率下跌24个基点，意大利下跌28个基点。 10年期基准国债的收益率创下自2023年3月以来最大跌幅，当时美国地区性银行危机推高了对避险资产的需求。 互换交易目前暗示欧洲央行将在2026年加息两次，英国央行加息一次，而此前市场隐含的两家央行加息幅度均为27个基点。 布伦特原油价格下跌13%；英国天然气价格下跌15%。 英国30年期国债收益率下降16个基点，德国下降8个基点，意大利下降19个基点。 市场： 德国国债债券收益率下降15个基点至2.94%， 德国国债期货上涨155点至126.23%， 意大利10年期国债收益率下降26个基点至3.70%， 意大利-德国国债利差跌12基点至76基点， 法国10年期国债收益率跌20个基点至3.58%， 10年期英国国债收益率下跌19个基点至4.71%。 责任编辑：李桐

Imagine opening an app, booking a ride, and a vehicle with no driver shows up to take you to a long-awaited errand. That’s no longer a concept. It’s a reality in Nashville. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., is a U.S.-based autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, ...

Bank of America ( BAC ) rose about 2.83% to around $51.71 in Wednesday afternoon trading, putting the stock on track for its seventh consecutive session of gains. The recent advance underscores strengthening short-term momentum, with the stock climbing more than 7.05% over the past six sessions, outperforming the broader S&P 500 Index , which gained 3.89% over the same period. Despite the rebound, shares remain down over 5.77% year-to-date, compared with a 1.06% decline in the index. According to Seeking Alpha analyst Bernard Zambonin , Bank of America is rated a Buy, with recent gains largely priced in as investor focus shifts toward the durability of earnings. While the bank remains sensitive to interest rate movements, a more diversified mix of fee-based businesses could help cushion the impact of a normalization cycle. Heading into the first quarter, the key debate is less about headline results and more about whether earnings can stabilize, with steady execution potentially supporting the stock at current valuation levels. Separately, Seeking Alpha analyst Vladimir Dimitrov maintains a more cautious stance with a Hold rating, noting that Bank of America faces heightened scrutiny ahead of its Q1 2026 results amid evolving macroeconomic and sector conditions. The upcoming results are expected to be key in assessing the bank’s resilience, with potential risks to profitability and loan growth. Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating system also assigns a Buy rating to the stock, with a score of 4.36 out of 5, supported by strong profitability metrics, though valuation remains a weaker factor. Overall, both Seeking Alpha authors and Wall Street analysts maintain a Buy consensus on the stock. More on Bank of America Bank of America Earnings: A Pivotal Report For 2026 Expectations Bank Of America: Heading Into Q1 With More Priced In Than Left To Price Bank of America: Not A Bad Time To Buy The Dip U.S. judge approves Bank of America's $72.5M settlement in Epstein-related lawsuit...

伊朗称德黑兰周边部分地区遭到“敌人”袭击，但未明确指名任何国家。 德黑兰部分地区可听到防空警报声。 责任编辑：李桐

Joa_Souza/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Banco do Brasil ( BDORY ) continues to be tied to a still-stressed agribusiness cycle, as reflected in the last print , with very high credit costs and profitability yet to fully recover, pressured by rising delinquencies. Although recent results have suggested a "worst may be behind" scenario, the visibility of full normalization is still limited, in my opinion. The guidance for credit costs is still at high levels, and timid loan growth points to a slow recovery. And even with all this, BDORY shares rebounded meaningfully from their recent lows, supported by this perception that the cycle is bottoming and the macro in Brazil is more constructive versus the last couple of years. This view, however, is already reflected in valuations, a scenario that has yet to fully materialize, leaving the asymmetry even more limited at current levels. This Is an Agribusiness Problem First Banco do Brasil has essentially suffered over the past two years for two key reasons: profits collapsing and delinquencies surging. Data by YCharts At the heart of these two reasons is agribusiness, the sector where the state-owned bank is most exposed. Approximately one-third of Banco do Brasil's consolidated loan portfolio is agribusiness-linked assets of R$406.1 billion—about half of Brazil's agricultural credit. Banco do Brasil's IR And it wasn't a slight drop in profits. In FY25, Banco do Brasil closed the year posting adjusted net income of R$20.7 billion, a drop of 45.5% versus FY24, while seeing its ROE go from 20.8% in 4Q24 to 12.4% in 4Q25. Delinquencies in agribusiness help to clearly explain the drop in Banco do Brasil's profits. Depicted below, Agribusiness NPLs of +30d and +90d went from 3.42% and 2.23%, respectively, in 4Q24 to 8.28% and 6.09% in 4Q25. Banco do Brasil's IR At the same time, customers in judicial reorganization went from 176 in 4Q22 to 980 in 4Q25. Of course, in the aggregate, delinquency was also drastically affected as...

当地时间8日，伊朗总统佩泽希齐扬与巴基斯坦总理夏巴兹·谢里夫通电话。佩泽希齐扬强调称，伊朗接受巴基斯坦提出的停火建议，尽管美国过去多次违反承诺并践踏国际法。此举体现了伊朗负责任且坚定有力的立场。地区和世界各国应借此机会向侵略者施压，避免其重蹈覆辙。佩泽希齐扬强调，伊朗所持这一立场的前提是，对方真正信守谈判原则并履行自身义务。 此外，佩泽希齐扬谴责了多起违反停火的行为，包括8日早晨针对伊朗拉万岛和锡里岛的袭击，称伊朗将果断回应任何侵略行为。他表示，霍尔木兹海峡及波斯湾出现的不安全局势，是美国和以色列军事侵略的直接后果。确保这一重要水道安全的前提是彻底停止这些侵略行为。 佩泽希齐扬说，伊朗已公布了10项条款的计划框架以结束战争，其中一项关键条款是黎巴嫩实现停火。 夏巴兹·谢里夫在通话中强调，各方必须遵守停火协议，并表示作为相关共识的一部分，以色列针对黎巴嫩的袭击必须立即停止。巴基斯坦愿与所有地区国家合作，共同推动波斯湾及整个地区的和平、稳定与安全。（央视新闻）

美国参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默表示，他将在下周推动参议院就一项战争权力决议案进行投票。 “特朗普在霍尔木兹海峡问题上把筹码拱手让给了伊朗人，”他表示。 “这是美国有史以来采取的最糟糕的军事和外交政策行动之一，”他还称。 舒默可强制发起投票，要求总统特朗普除非获得国会授权，否则须停止军事行动。 若该决议在众议院和参议院均获得通过，特朗普仍可否决该决议。 责任编辑：李桐

伊朗外交部长阿拉格齐8日与土耳其外长费丹通电话时表示，若美方展现诚意，实现持久的稳定和安全“完全可能”。伊朗光明通讯社援引阿拉格齐的话报道，伊朗愿以负责任态度对待停火，并以此作为彻底结束战争的基础。报道说，费丹强调，土耳其支持通过外交途径彻底结束战争，并呼吁有关各方建立有效机制，推动实现长期安全稳定。(新华社)

Only a few vessels have crossed the strait since the US-Iran ceasefire deal, according to BBC Verify analysis.

Travis County to withhold part of Tesla tax incentives over noncompliance Austin American-Statesman

Tesla loses some of its tax breaks for Gigafactory Texas for noncompliance with agreement Austin American-Statesman

Monty Rakusen/DigitalVision via Getty Images Arxis ( ARXS ) is aiming for a valuation of as much as $11.2 billion in its planned U.S. initial public offering, the aerospace components manufacturer said Wednesday, as investor appetite shifts toward defense-linked companies amid heightened geopolitical tensions. The Bloomfield, Connecticut-based business, which is backed by private equity firm Arcline Investment Management , is seeking to raise up to $1.06 billion by selling 37.7 million shares at a price range of $25 to $28 each. The offering comes at a time of increased market volatility tied to the conflict involving the United States and Iran , prompting bankers to lean toward listings in defense and aerospace, sectors viewed as more resilient during periods of global instability. Other companies tapping into that theme include drone manufacturer AEVEX Aerospace ( AVEX ) and precision parts maker Elmet Group ( ELMT ) , both of which have recently filed for U.S. IPOs. Arxis produces both electronic and mechanical components used across aerospace and defense, as well as in medical technology and specialized industrial applications. Its operations are organized into two primary divisions: electronic components and mechanical components. Proceeds from the IPO are expected to be used in part to reduce debt, with the remainder allocated toward working capital and general corporate needs. Several large institutional investors have signaled early interest in the deal. Funds managed by Capital International Investors , Capital Research Global Investors , Janus Henderson Investors and T. Rowe Price Investment Management have collectively indicated they may purchase up to $400 million of shares in the offering. The IPO is being led by Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and Jefferies as joint bookrunners. Arxis ( ARXS ) plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ARXS.” More on Arxis, Inc. Aerospace Components Supplier Arxis Files For IPO To Pay Down Debt Fina...

Key PointsBeyond Meat stock is down 27% year to date.

Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) still has a real path to upside if execution catches up with the story. But what makes this setup so compelling is that the same doubts crushing sentiment today could fuel a major rerating if the company starts proving skeptics wrong.

The Bottom Is in for Micron Stock: 3 Signals to Buy Now The Globe and Mail

A new defense budget proposal from the White House means the drone industry could soon see a spike in cash flow. President Donald Trump last week requested $1.5 trillion for defense in fiscal 2027 starting in October, 44% higher than the fiscal 2026 military budget. If Congress were to pass the bill, U.S. military spending would be at its highest level as a proportion of GDP in decades. Though the proposal doesn't specify how funds will be allocated, an analysis from Needham estimates $63 billion of the budget will go to unmanned or drone technology. That's more than six times the enacted level of drone spending 2026. "We view this unprecedented funding as a positive catalyst for the entire unmanned ecosystem, as expanding federal investment meaningfully increases the U.S. market opportunity not only for platform providers, but also across the broader value chain of critical subsystems and key components," Needham analyst Austin Bohlig wrote. The analyst estimates that $55 billion of the $63 billion in projected drone spending will go to the Defense Autonomous Weapons Group, a program meant to rapidly produce low-cost drones. Bohlig named four defense stocks as potential beneficiaries. AeroVironment Drone company AeroVironment is one of Needham's expected beneficiaries. The defense company specializes in drone and counter-drone technology and has already reached several major deals with the U.S. government. In February, AeroVironment won a $186-million contract from the Pentagon to deploy its Switchblade drones. The army spent another $17.6 million in March for a fleet of AeroVironment's Red Dragon drones. Bohlig believes the military budget proposal would benefit AeroVironment through both those franchises, and gave a $400 price target on the stock, suggesting upside of 114% from Tuesday's close. Ondas Needham also expects AI-powered drone maker Ondas to win additional government funding. The West Palm Beach, Florida-based company said in March that it would merge ...

Mixed options sentiment in Meta Platforms Inc with shares up 7.4% TipRanks

Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA America still has a long and winding regulatory road before it can launch a commercial robotaxi service.

格隆汇4月9日｜市场消息：防空系统已在伊斯法罕、克尔曼、帕兰德和罗巴特卡里姆等城市启用。据悉在伊斯法罕听到了爆炸声。

One major challenge in deploying autonomous agents is building systems that can adapt to changes in their environments without the need to retrain the underlying large language models (LLMs). Memento-Skills , a new framework developed by researchers at multiple universities, addresses this bottleneck by giving agents the ability to develop their skills by themselves. "It adds its continual learning capability to the existing offering in the current market, such as OpenClaw and Claude Code," Jun Wang, co-author of the paper, told VentureBeat. Memento-Skills acts as an evolving external memory, allowing the system to progressively improve its capabilities without modifying the underlying model. The framework provides a set of skills that can be updated and expanded as the agent receives feedback from its environment. For enterprise teams running agents in production, that matters. The alternative — fine-tuning model weights or manually building skills — carries significant operational overhead and data requirements. Memento-Skills sidesteps both. The challenges of building self-evolving agents Self-evolving agents are crucial because they overcome the limitations of frozen language models. Once a model is deployed, its parameters remain fixed, restricting it to the knowledge encoded during training and whatever fits in its immediate context window. Giving the model an external memory scaffolding enables it to improve without the costly and slow process of retraining. However, current approaches to agent adaptation largely rely on manually-designed skills to handle new tasks. While some automatic skill-learning methods exist, they mostly produce text-only guides that amount to prompt optimization. Other approaches simply log single-task trajectories that don’t transfer across different tasks. Furthermore, when these agents try to retrieve relevant knowledge for a new task, they typically rely on semantic similarity routers, such as standard dense embeddings; high seman...

JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis A recovery in Dow Inc.'s share price ( DOW ) was already well underway when the Iran war started, raising serious questions about natural gas availability around the world. The Qatari shutdown of its LNG operations, which will take months to restart even after the war ends, caused natural gas prices to rise in Europe and in key Asian markets. At the same time, Dow Inc. benefits from low US natural gas prices, providing it with a long-term competitive advantage, since the higher natural gas prices experienced around the world are likely to persist beyond this year. Despite Dow's share price rising a further 25% since the start of the war, I continue to see it as a buying opportunity on the dip on longer-term fundamentals-based considerations. Maintaining a Buy Position I last covered Dow Inc. in October 2025, at which point I highlighted its cost-cutting efforts, which showed some early signs of producing positive financial trends. Its Q4 results continued to show signs of operational improvement amid tough external conditions, such as cost-cutting measures that are starting to bear fruit. Those early signs of company-specific operational improvements helped to produce an increase in its share price of about 24% from the point I wrote my late October article to the end of February when the war started. It is up over 48% since I wrote my October article as I write this, even after the sizable selloff we saw in the initial reaction to the news of a ceasefire between the US & Iran. Dow Inc. share price and other metrics. (Seeking Alpha) While I considered it prudent to take some profits recently on my Dow stock position, I intend to hold a long position in this stock, even after the war officially ends, given longer-term trends that, in my view, will continue to favor Dow as a mostly American petrochemicals manufacturer relative to its European & Asian peers. Constrained natural gas supplies outside of North ...

(RTTNews) - European stocks rose sharply on Wednesday thanks to sustained buying right through the day's session as U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal lifted sentiment. A sharp drop in oil prices and lower bond yields contributed as well to the bullish mood in the markets.

iQoncept/iStock via Getty Images Foreign industrial stocks have been among the standout performers in international equity markets so far in 2026, with several names posting gains well above 50% year-to-date. Much of the momentum is concentrated in defense, aerospace, and heavy equipment companies, reflecting sustained increases in global defense spending, particularly across Europe, as governments continue to expand military budgets in response to ongoing geopolitical pressures. The following list ranks the top 10 foreign industrial stocks by YTD performance, spanning companies from Norway, Japan, Israel, China, Germany, and Canada, covering sub-sectors including aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, heavy electrical equipment, and marine transportation The list is topped by Kongsberg Gruppen ASA ( KBGGY ), with a YTD performance of 72.06%. Organo Corporation ( ORGJF ) and Elbit Systems Ltd. ( ESLT ) are next, rounding out the top three performers with gains of 71.28% and 58.24%, respectively. The remaining stocks reflect strong geographical and industrial diversity. Fujikura Ltd. ( FJIKY ) and Weichai Power Co., Ltd. ( WEICF ) represent Japan and China in the electrical components and heavy transportation equipment sectors. Major international players like Mitsubishi Corporation ( MTSU:CA ) and MDA Space Ltd. ( MDA:CA ) also make the top ten, while Höegh Autoliners ASA ( HOEGF ) rounds out the list from the marine transportation industry. Here is the list: Kongsberg Gruppen ASA ( KBGGY ), YTD perf: 72.06% Organo Corporation ( ORGJF ), YTD perf: 71.28% Elbit Systems Ltd. ( ESLT ), YTD perf: 58.24% Fujikura Ltd. ( FJIKY ), YTD perf: 57.52% Weichai Power Co., Ltd. ( WEICF ), YTD perf: 57.12% Nordex SE ( NRXXY ), YTD perf: 52.99% Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. ( KWHIY ), YTD perf: 51.79% Mitsubishi Corporation ( MTSU:CA ), YTD perf: 50.97% MDA Space Ltd. ( MDA:CA ), YTD perf: 49.32% Höegh Autoliners ASA ( HOEGF ), YTD perf: 49.22% More on global industrial sto...