Alistair Berg Seeking Alpha analyst The Techie has upgraded Robinhood ( HOOD ) to Buy, arguing that crypto headwinds are now priced in while core business momentum remains underappreciated. Similarly, Edmund Ingham sees a rebound opportunity in Humana ( HUM ) following a steep decline in shares and increased activist pressure. On the downgrade side, Bay Area Ideas has shifted Apple ( AAPL ) to Hol...
Alistair Berg Seeking Alpha analyst The Techie has upgraded Robinhood ( HOOD ) to Buy, arguing that crypto headwinds are now priced in while core business momentum remains underappreciated. Similarly, Edmund Ingham sees a rebound opportunity in Humana ( HUM ) following a steep decline in shares and increased activist pressure. On the downgrade side, Bay Area Ideas has shifted Apple ( AAPL ) to Hold despite robust quarterly results, citing valuation concerns as the forward P/E approaches multi-year highs. Meanwhile, Victor Dergunov issued a Sell rating on Micron ( MU ), warning that parabolic price action and market FOMO have pushed the memory chipmaker to excessive levels that are unlikely to be sustained. Upgrades Robinhood Markets ( HOOD ): Upgrade Hold to Buy by The Techie . The analyst believes crypto headwinds are fully priced in, while strong performance in equities, options, and Gold subscriptions continues to go unrecognized by the market. “Robinhood is now trading at $77 versus the October 2025 all-time high of $153.86, all while the broader market has continued to push higher. I think that after this pullback, the crypto negatives are well priced in, while the upside from everywhere else in the business is not. I see a favorable risk-reward at these levels, and so I'm upgrading the stock to a Buy.” Humana ( HUM ): Upgrade to Buy by Edmund Ingham . Following a greater than 65% share price decline, the analyst sees a turnaround supported by improved CMS rate decisions and activist investor involvement pushing for operational discipline. “I am upgrading my rating on Humana to a Buy - the company seems to be pulling firmly away from the almighty dip that stock has experienced, and is headed back, if not to $500, I'd predict >$450 before 2028.” Downgrades Apple ( AAPL ): Downgrade Buy to Hold by Bay Area Ideas . Despite strong Q2 results with 16.6% revenue growth, the analyst warns that valuation has become stretched while risks from China price cuts and memory...
Alistair Berg Seeking Alpha analyst The Techie has upgraded Robinhood ( HOOD ) to Buy, arguing that crypto headwinds are now priced in while core business momentum remains underappreciated. Similarly, Edmund Ingham sees a rebound opportunity in Humana ( HUM ) following a steep decline in shares and increased activist pressure. On the downgrade side, Bay Area Ideas has shifted Apple ( AAPL ) to Hol...
Alistair Berg Seeking Alpha analyst The Techie has upgraded Robinhood ( HOOD ) to Buy, arguing that crypto headwinds are now priced in while core business momentum remains underappreciated. Similarly, Edmund Ingham sees a rebound opportunity in Humana ( HUM ) following a steep decline in shares and increased activist pressure. On the downgrade side, Bay Area Ideas has shifted Apple ( AAPL ) to Hold despite robust quarterly results, citing valuation concerns as the forward P/E approaches multi-year highs. Meanwhile, Victor Dergunov issued a Sell rating on Micron ( MU ), warning that parabolic price action and market FOMO have pushed the memory chipmaker to excessive levels that are unlikely to be sustained. Upgrades Robinhood Markets ( HOOD ): Upgrade Hold to Buy by The Techie . The analyst believes crypto headwinds are fully priced in, while strong performance in equities, options, and Gold subscriptions continues to go unrecognized by the market. “Robinhood is now trading at $77 versus the October 2025 all-time high of $153.86, all while the broader market has continued to push higher. I think that after this pullback, the crypto negatives are well priced in, while the upside from everywhere else in the business is not. I see a favorable risk-reward at these levels, and so I'm upgrading the stock to a Buy.” Humana ( HUM ): Upgrade to Buy by Edmund Ingham . Following a greater than 65% share price decline, the analyst sees a turnaround supported by improved CMS rate decisions and activist investor involvement pushing for operational discipline. “I am upgrading my rating on Humana to a Buy - the company seems to be pulling firmly away from the almighty dip that stock has experienced, and is headed back, if not to $500, I'd predict >$450 before 2028.” Downgrades Apple ( AAPL ): Downgrade Buy to Hold by Bay Area Ideas . Despite strong Q2 results with 16.6% revenue growth, the analyst warns that valuation has become stretched while risks from China price cuts and memory...
How Palantir tech is helping ICE agents find people to arrest Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are getting quicker at finding people to arrest, thanks to tools provided by the tech company Palantir. Agents now have a list of 20 million people on their iPhones, a senior ICE official said at a border security conference in Phoenix earlier this month. Here & Now's Indira Lakshmanan speaks w...
How Palantir tech is helping ICE agents find people to arrest Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are getting quicker at finding people to arrest, thanks to tools provided by the tech company Palantir. Agents now have a list of 20 million people on their iPhones, a senior ICE official said at a border security conference in Phoenix earlier this month. Here & Now's Indira Lakshmanan speaks with investigative journalist Joseph Cox, who is reporting on this story for 404 Media.
Supreme Court Directs Lower Courts To Reexamine Decisions In Voting Rights Act Cases Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 ordered lower courts to reconsider rulings in two redistricting cases that concern whether private individuals may sue to enforce a federal law that bans discriminatory voting practices. The court directed the lower courts to take anot...
Supreme Court Directs Lower Courts To Reexamine Decisions In Voting Rights Act Cases Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 ordered lower courts to reconsider rulings in two redistricting cases that concern whether private individuals may sue to enforce a federal law that bans discriminatory voting practices. The court directed the lower courts to take another look at the cases from Mississippi and North Dakota in light of its recent landmark ruling limiting the use of race in redistricting efforts. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from both new rulings. In Louisiana v. Callais, a majority of the court had said April 29 that race may not be the predominant, overriding reason for how congressional district lines are drawn. The case focused on the Pelican State’s decision to add a majority-black district after a lower court said omitting the district would violate the Section 2 nondiscrimination provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act. On Monday, the nation’s highest court summarily disposed of the two cases, State Board of Election Commissioners v. Mississippi State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Howe, in unsigned orders . The court did not explain its decisions. Lawyers call this process, which disposes of cases without holding an oral argument, GVR, which stands for grant, vacate, and remand. The Supreme Court follows this procedure when it wants lower courts to reconsider their rulings using a new legal framework from a recent decision without delving deeply into the specifics of the cases. North Dakota In the North Dakota case, the Turtle Mountain Band, the Spirit Lake Tribe, and three Native American voters sued the state’s secretary of state after the state legislature redrew the boundaries of state legislative districts in 2021. The move took the number of majority-Indian districts in the northeastern sectio...
Euronext NV ’s results beat expectations as market volatility boosted trading volumes and the newly acquired Athens stock exchange contributed to revenue. Sales jumped 28% for the equity markets segment in the first quarter, the fastest growth of any division and ahead of analyst estimates. Buoyed by volatile markets, the performance was also “supported by the growing momentum on the Greek market ...
Euronext NV ’s results beat expectations as market volatility boosted trading volumes and the newly acquired Athens stock exchange contributed to revenue. Sales jumped 28% for the equity markets segment in the first quarter, the fastest growth of any division and ahead of analyst estimates. Buoyed by volatile markets, the performance was also “supported by the growing momentum on the Greek market and by the dynamic growth in ETFs,” Euronext said. “It’s the eighth straight quarter of double-digit growth,” Chief Executive Officer Stephane Boujnah said in an interview. “It’s a real trend, a payoff of our strong diversification strategy.” Trading volatility has been a boon to exchange operators and banks throughout the first quarter. London Stock Exchange Group Plc now expects revenue growth for 2026 to reach the top of its forecast range, thanks in large part to heavy trading volumes, while some of the region’s biggest investment banks were able to capitalize on elevated market activity. “We are also benefiting from the market volatility, in particular in the cash equities market,” Boujnah said, adding that volumes in the first weeks of the second quarter were still important. “The market has pivoted toward thinking the war in Iran will maybe last a bit longer and Europe is benefiting from a search for diversification coming from Asia and Middle East investors, who see the continent is less directly exposed to the conflict than some geographies because of its energy mix.” The pan-European exchange operator also exceeded expectations in its non-volume segments, thanks to solid activity in custody and settlement, coupled with strong growth in its data solutions. Euronext’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization reached €343.2 million ($399 million) in the period, a 17% increase on last year and €18.6 million above expectations. Boujnah said the IPO pipeline should continue to be driven by the aerospace and defense sector this year. “We al...
Pre-training is responsible for the large-scale training runs that give Claude its core knowledge and capabilities, according to the company. It's also one of the most expensive, compute-intensive phases of building a frontier model.
Pre-training is responsible for the large-scale training runs that give Claude its core knowledge and capabilities, according to the company. It's also one of the most expensive, compute-intensive phases of building a frontier model.
Key Highlights Microsoft unveiled Surface Pro for Business and Surface Laptop for Business, featuring Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chips manufactured on the 18A process technology. Both enterprise-focused devices target AI workloads with on-device processing capabilities, with the 13-inch Surface Laptop for Business model priced from $1,499. Surface for Business line will expand with Qualcomm Snapd...
Key Highlights Microsoft unveiled Surface Pro for Business and Surface Laptop for Business, featuring Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chips manufactured on the 18A process technology. Both enterprise-focused devices target AI workloads with on-device processing capabilities, with the 13-inch Surface Laptop for Business model priced from $1,499. Surface for Business line will expand with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 processor options arriving later in the year, offering up to 80% enhanced local AI inferencing compared to prior generations. Industry analyst firm IDC projects an 11.3% decline in worldwide PC shipments for 2026, characterizing the market outlook as “extremely volatile” amid memory component challenges. Intel executives have divested $4 million in company shares over the previous three months, with zero insider purchases recorded during that timeframe. Microsoft has updated its enterprise device portfolio with a pair of new Surface products — the Surface Pro for Business and Surface Laptop for Business — each equipped with Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 processors manufactured using Intel’s advanced 18A fabrication process. Microsoft just unveiled its 2026 Surface for Business lineup! The new Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 arrive with Intel’s latest Core Ultra Series 3 chips and a 50‑TOPS NPU designed to boost AI performance across Windows 11. The flagship Surface Laptop models add and a new… — Windows Central (@WindowsCentral) May 19, 2026 Both products are currently shipping in selected geographic markets. The 13-inch Surface Laptop for Business retails from $1,499 with 16GB of memory, while the 13.8-inch and 15-inch configurations begin at $1,949. An entry-level 8GB variant starting at $1,299 is planned for release later in the year. The 13-inch Surface Pro for Business carries a $1,949 starting price and features a convertible two-in-one design with optional 5G connectivity. Microsoft Corporation, MSFT According to Microsoft, the new hardware delivers over 9...
Despite reporting nearly 199% year-over-year revenue growth in first-quarter 2026, Rigetti Computing’s RGTI shares have plunged roughly 19% since the earnings release as investors appear concerned about the company’s long path toward commercial quantum advantage. While Rigetti Computing highlighted the general availability of its 108-qubit Cepheus-1 system across major cloud platforms, including A...
Despite reporting nearly 199% year-over-year revenue growth in first-quarter 2026, Rigetti Computing’s RGTI shares have plunged roughly 19% since the earnings release as investors appear concerned about the company’s long path toward commercial quantum advantage. While Rigetti Computing highlighted the general availability of its 108-qubit Cepheus-1 system across major cloud platforms, including Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure Quantum, management acknowledged that meaningful commercial adoption remains in the early stages. The company noted that most current workloads are still limited to research and experimentation rather than real-world enterprise deployment, suggesting that large-scale monetization opportunities may still be years away. Investor sentiment also seems pressured by the company’s continued heavy spending requirements and long development timeline. Rigetti Computing reiterated that quantum advantage is likely still around three years away, targeting a roughly 1,000-qubit system with 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity and some level of error mitigation. Meanwhile, operating expenses climbed 24% year over year in the quarter, due to elevated R&D investments, fabrication spending and infrastructure expansion. Management also expects capital expenditures to remain high throughout 2026 as it scales dilution refrigeration capacity and supports higher-qubit systems. While Rigetti Computing exited the quarter with a strong cash balance of nearly $569 million and no debt, the market appears cautious about the long road to profitability and the execution risks tied to scaling quantum computing systems commercially. Peers Updates D-Wave Quantum QBTS continues to expand its commercial quantum computing footprint despite mixed first-quarter 2026 results. Revenues declined sharply year over year due to the absence of a large prior-year system sale. However, bookings surged significantly, supported by a major system purchase from Florida Atlantic University and a mult...
Cotton price action is 68 to 110 points lower so far on Tuesday morning. Futures closed the Monday session with contracts 110 to 309 points higher on the day. The US dollar index was $0.298 lower at $98.91. Crude oil was up $1.83 at $107.25 on the day. Much of...
Cotton price action is 68 to 110 points lower so far on Tuesday morning. Futures closed the Monday session with contracts 110 to 309 points higher on the day. The US dollar index was $0.298 lower at $98.91. Crude oil was up $1.83 at $107.25 on the day. Much of...
Apple Inc. Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji is reorganizing hardware development and shifting oversight of key functions such as product design, part of an effort to speed up work on future devices. Srouji, who was elevated to an expanded role managing both hardware engineering and technologies, is making the changes this month, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He took the posi...
Apple Inc. Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji is reorganizing hardware development and shifting oversight of key functions such as product design, part of an effort to speed up work on future devices. Srouji, who was elevated to an expanded role managing both hardware engineering and technologies, is making the changes this month, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He took the position as part of a broader leadership overhaul at Apple, with longtime hardware executive John Ternus tapped to become chief executive officer on Sept. 1. The hardware shake-up is also meant to better integrate teams working on in-house silicon with those creating products, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the reshuffling hasn’t been announced. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. In the biggest shift, Srouji is changing management of product design — a function that involves engineering the look, feel and main capabilities of the company’s devices. That responsibility is moving from Kate Bergeron, a veteran Apple vice president, to two of her longtime deputies: Shelly Goldberg and Dave Pakula. Read More: Apple Bets New CEO John Ternus Will Bring Back Jobs-Era Decisiveness Goldberg already oversees that function for the Mac, while Pakula has led the effort for the Apple Watch, iPad and AirPods. Richard Dinh, a longtime Ternus deputy, will retain leadership of product design for the iPhone. At Apple, the product design group is distinct from industrial design, which is led by a separate executive reporting directly to the CEO. Industrial design drives the overall vision and appearance of new devices, while product design focuses on translating those concepts into actual products that can be shipped to consumers. Bergeron, meanwhile, is moving into the critical role of overseeing product reliability across all Apple devices. That job was previously held by Tom Marieb, who succeeded Ternus as head of hardware engineering. Marieb reports to Srouji. B...
India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. has largely shifted to making spot crude purchases as the Iran war upends annual arrangements for Middle Eastern barrels, highlighting challenges for refiners to secure supplies. The state-owned refiner had planned to source about 55% of its crude requirements through annual term contracts during the fiscal year that began in April, similar to the previous year,...
India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. has largely shifted to making spot crude purchases as the Iran war upends annual arrangements for Middle Eastern barrels, highlighting challenges for refiners to secure supplies. The state-owned refiner had planned to source about 55% of its crude requirements through annual term contracts during the fiscal year that began in April, similar to the previous year, according to Finance Director Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta . But apart from Saudi Aramco, most Middle Eastern suppliers have been unable to deliver contracted volumes, he said. The disruptions stem from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz , a critical waterway that carries about a fifth of global oil flows. The supply shock has rattled import-dependent nations including India, the world’s third-largest crude buyer. It has also undermined the reliability traditionally associated with long-term Middle Eastern supply agreements, which typically account for roughly half of India’s crude imports. “There is no long-term strategy,” Gupta told reporters on Tuesday after the Mumbai-based company reported earnings. “Every day we are just going to the market — whatever crude is available, whatever source is available.” BPCL is now relying on Russian crude to meet about 45% of its requirements, Gupta said. It has secured crude supplies for June and nearly half of its July requirements, while purchases for August are currently underway, Chairman Sanjay Khanna said. The main thing is how to ensure adequate crude is available for BPCL’s refineries to operate at peak capacity, Khanna said. India’s state-run refiners are facing pressure to maximize refinery runs to avoid domestic fuel shortages. BPCL is currently selling diesel at a loss of 25-30 rupees a liter and gasoline at a loss of 10-14 rupees a liter, despite two government-approved fuel price increases within a week, Gupta said. The energy shock is adding pressure to India’s economy as higher crude prices widen import costs an...
Andrej Karpathy , a founding member of OpenAI who later went to work for Tesla Inc. , has joined Anthropic PBC to do research and development focused on helping train new artificial intelligence models. Karpathy, a prominent figure in the artificial intelligence industry, previously helped lead the team behind Tesla’s Autopilot system before returning to OpenAI. He left the ChatGPT maker for a sec...
Andrej Karpathy , a founding member of OpenAI who later went to work for Tesla Inc. , has joined Anthropic PBC to do research and development focused on helping train new artificial intelligence models. Karpathy, a prominent figure in the artificial intelligence industry, previously helped lead the team behind Tesla’s Autopilot system before returning to OpenAI. He left the ChatGPT maker for a second time last year and launched a startup focused on AI and education. “I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D,” Karpathy said in a social media post on Tuesday. “I remain deeply passionate about education and plan to resume my work on it in time.” Anthropic also recently recruited Ross Nordeen, one of xAI’s founding members who had previously worked for Musk at Tesla.
Refn’s film eludes definition as it moves through time and space, from doomy reality to strange dream worlds populated by quasi-Lynchian characters The title’s first word should probably be “His”. Nicolas Winding Refn has returned to Cannes with a bizarre new fantasia moodscape, a midnight movie of fear and dreamy disquiet, meaning … what, exactly? The setting of the film – a twist on the 60s pulp...
Refn’s film eludes definition as it moves through time and space, from doomy reality to strange dream worlds populated by quasi-Lynchian characters The title’s first word should probably be “His”. Nicolas Winding Refn has returned to Cannes with a bizarre new fantasia moodscape, a midnight movie of fear and dreamy disquiet, meaning … what, exactly? The setting of the film – a twist on the 60s pulp shocker of the same title by Norman J Warren – morphs and shapeshifts from place to place, with the antilogical procedure of a dream, from a supposedly real outer world to the inner space of hallucination and memory. It starts in a giant, empty hotel (whose colossal Stygian corridors are not unlike those in Refn’s Only God Forgives ) in the middle of a digitally rendered dystopian city, wreathed in the kind of mist that tends to conceal a serial killer, and people here are frightened of someone called the “Leather Man”. We move to the fictional action of a movie the hotel’s inhabitants are (possibly) planning to make, or perhaps to the world of their fears and imaginings, their ideas occasioned by this ostensible realist premise. And then we move to a situation from the past in US-occupied postwar Japan, where a haunted GI is looking for his daughter. This is a story populated by quasi-Lynchian characters and gargoyles with strange nicknames – the whole imagined landscape, lit by Refn’s throbbingly neon purples, reds and blues, looks like a nightclub in hell. And yet it is less violent and explicit than his earlier adventures. The pace is doomy, sepulchral and slow; like Refn’s TV series Too Old to Die Young , it moves at the pace of a zombie which has been shot but still keeps on shuffling forward. Or perhaps it is more like that of a sleepwalker who walks and talks slowly, but has a clearer idea of what is happening than those who are, in a more banal sense, awake. Continue reading...