BNP Paribas highlighted key takeaways, including agentic AI, growth outlook, and pricing, from its meetings with investor relations of Salesforce ( CRM ), Workday ( WDAY ), and Snowflake ( SNOW ) at its BNP Paribas Strategic Access & Research Conference in Indian Wells, California. Salesforce ( CRM ) BNP Paribas reiterated its Outperform rating on Salesforce. "Salesforce is doing all of the right things, but the share price will not likely react until Salesforce can 1) demonstrate stability in its core business and 2) demonstrate continued success and adoption of Agentforce along with Data Cloud. The company is signaling we should see revenue growth acceleration in H2 (and we believe it could be as early as Q3). In the meantime, Salesforce continues to manage its cost base, conduct prudent/targeted M&A, and has accelerated significant buybacks to further lower the share count," said analyst Stefan Slowinski. The analyst noted that while most investors do not see companies ripping and replacing their Salesforce CRM systems, there is clearly anxiety around the medium-to-long-term growth impact from agentic AI systems increasingly managing and executing customer-related actions. Slowinski said Salesforce believes it is well-positioned to be a winner in the new agentic layer, as it benefits from the following things. Context: Salesforce having the customer data and the metadata to provide customer context results in better and more accurate outcomes. Work: Salesforce has the systems of work in its various apps that customers do not want to rebuild and then be responsible for maintaining, and even the Large Language Model, or LLM, providers are using Salesforce’s apps. Agency: Salesforce’s Atlas Reasoning Engine can decide which workflows can be executed within Salesforce, and which workflows are best going to use an external LLM, and which LLM would be best for each task. Engagement: Salesforce has the front-end interaction layer with Slack, but also enables users to le...

The Nasdaq Composite Index ( COMP:IND ) closed in the red for the third straight week, weighed down primarily by tech stocks amid the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict. It ended -0.93% on Friday. For the week, the Nasdaq lost 1.26%. The index had declined 0.95% and 1.24% in the previous two weeks. The week’s performance highlights a clear rotation within technology, with semiconductors and storage hardware outperforming, led by Micron and Western Digital. Meanwhile, application software stocks, including Atlassian and Workday, declined sharply, pointing to investor preference for AI infrastructure over SaaS. Meanwhile, prediction markets have also started to signal concerns over a potential economic recession, further dampening investors’ sentiments. Top gainers of the week: Micron Technology ( MU ) +15.08% Western Digital Corporation ( WDC ) +11.03% Seagate Technology ( STX ) +8.76% Lam Research Corporation ( LRCX ) +6.46% KLA Corporation ( KLAC ) +5.51% Top losers for the week: Thomson Reuters ( TRI ) -13.57% Axon Enterprise ( AXON ) -13.56% Adobe ( ADBE ) -12.09% Workday ( WDAY ) -11.92% Atlassian ( TEAM ) -10.06% More on NASDAQ Composite Index U.S. Tariffs: A New Trade War? Weaker Dollar: I Have Begun Questioning What I Was Taught Was Last Week The Tipping Point For Stocks? Top 3 things to look out for on Monday SA analyst flags bullish Nasdaq signal as markets weigh PCE data, Middle East risks

If history repeats itself, Nvidia's ( NVDA ) upcoming GTC 2026 could provide another catalyst for the stock. "We're NVDA buyers ahead of the event, and while history certainly does not repeat itself, we would highlight the historically strong performance NVDA stock has shown following GTC over the past few years (3-mo post-GTC NVDA outperformed SOX by ~30%+; range: +12%-45%)," said Wells Fargo analysts, led by Aaron Rakers, in an investor note. Tech sector investors will certainly be focused on the event, which runs from March 16-19 in San Jose, Calif. The company's messaging highlights OpenAI ( OPENAI ) , Google DeepMind ( GOOG )( GOOGL ), Meta ( META ) , Microsoft ( MSFT ) , and Tesla ( TSLA ) as participating in main stage or marquee sessions. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will give a keynote address at 2 p.m. ET on Monday. Huang will also moderate an industry panel at 3:30 pm ET on Wednesday. GF Securities believes the event might not only be a catalyst for Nvidia but for the entire semiconductor sector. Nvidia is expected to reveal its second-generation co-packaged optic switch. This will likely feature Taiwan Semiconductor's ( TSM ) co-packaged optic technology, but volume is not expected to ramp up until 2027, when it hits 80,000, analysts at the firm said. Other potential announcements include updates on its Feynman line of GPUs - its Kyber NVL576 line of racks. Bank of America is also high on Nvidia ahead of the event, reiterating its Buy rating and $300 price target. "While we don't expect an official 2027-28 sales outlook, any color around the Rubin ramp (CY27-28) could help the currently depressed stock (at a historical low of 17x fwd PE), following a strong Blackwell ramp with $0.5Tn in cumulative sales," said BofA analyst Vivek Arya. Wells Fargo anticipates Nvidia providing an update on its pipeline. "$500B+ pipeline expansion + elongation (through CY27?) + add'l context to NVDA's disclosure that it has cumulatively deployed 9 GWs of Blackwell (vs sub-4.5 GW...

Nvidia's upcoming GTC event might provide another catalyst: analysts Seeking Alpha

Surge in weekly NVDA $185 call options as shares finish at $180, Keith McCullough notes Traders Union

Natalia Arroyo, Marisa Ewers and Maggie Murphy are savouring their autonomy in the club’s major roles and are aiming high amid tough challenges “After you,” Marisa Ewers says, as we walk through a doorway on the ground floor of Aston Villa Women’s fresh-looking dedicated women’s facilities at the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground. It soon becomes clear that Ewers is hoping to open doors figuratively as well as literally by inspiring other female players to follow her and embark on a career in the boardroom. The former midfielder ended her career at Villa in 2022 and has progressed to become the club’s director of women’s football. As they prepare to dedicate Sunday’s home league game against Manchester City to International Women’s Day, it is noticeable that Ewers is alongside several other women in senior leadership roles at Villa. The club welcomed Maggie Murphy as managing director earlier this season and in Ewers, Murphy and the head coach, Natalia Arroyo, Villa are a rarity in having those three specific roles all filled by women, even before mentioning executive board members such as the chief people officer, Lisa Bailey, the head of football administration, Sharon Barnhurst, and the general counsel, Victoria Wilkes. Continue reading...

Unpaid carers have been issued with demands to repay thousands of pounds for allegedly breaking benefit rules even though officials knew the decisions were based on unlawful and discredited policy guidance. About 1,400 carers are understood to have been sent letters by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in January asking them to repay sums relating to breaches of carer’s allowance earnings rules that had been scrapped four months previously. Campaigners have demanded to know why the DWP went ahead with issuing the overpayments – causing distress and hardship to carers – rather than waiting and reassessing the decisions under the new guidance. It is thought some carers may have already repaid the sums, or agreed monthly repayment schedules. Most will have also received a £50 civil penalty imposed for negligence. In theory, an overpayment of more than £5,000 would bring a carer into scope for prosecution on fraud grounds. Many of the cases are likely to be cancelled or reduced over the next two years as part of a wider DWP reassessment of tens of thousands of potentially unsafe carer’s allowance overpayment decisions dating back over six years. The reassessment was announced by ministers in November after a highly critical independent review by disability rights expert Liz Sayce into the DWP’s handling of carer’s allowance over the past decade. “At a time when wider reforms to the system were approaching, these cases could have been considered under the new guidance rather than progressed under the previous guidance that had already been recognised as problematic,” said Helen Walker, the chief executive of Carer’s UK. She added: “The extreme distress caused by overpayments for some carers could have been avoided by simply assessing under new guidance.” The blunder will put further pressure on senior DWP officials, who have come under increasing criticism in recent weeks. MPs declared they had little confidence in the DWP hierarchy’s commitment to reform, while...

Infinite scroll There was a time when social media feeds ended. Now the scroll never stops. “There is always something more that will give you another dopamine hit that you react to and there is an infinite supply of that,” said Arturo Béjar, a whistleblower who worked in child online safety at Meta until 2021. “The promise of these things is that there is always going to be something interesting and rewarding and there is a never-ending supply. That is the mechanic of infinite scroll.” Internal documents surfaced in the trial showed that other Meta employees were worried about signs of rising “reward tolerance” among users. One email conversation in 2020 showed one person referring to Instagram saying: “Oh my gosh y’all IG is a drug.” A colleague responds: “Lol, I mean, all social media. We’re basically pushers.” Béjar told the Guardian: “You are constantly chasing and even when you find what you are chasing … there is the promise of something else that catches your attention right after and with no bounds on that part of the mechanism.” Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics said: “When you watch young people scroll through their feed, they flip really, really fast. They make split-second decisions to swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, watch, swipe, swipe, watch. There is always a feeling that the next thing could be good and it’s only going to be another second or two.”

New peer-reviewed research shows fetuses likely have much higher levels of Pfas “forever chemicals” in their blood than previously thought. Testing of umbilical cord blood typically looks for a small number of common Pfas compounds, like Pfoa and Pfos. However, thousands of Pfas exist, and a new Mount Sinai study tested 120 umbilical blood cord samples that were previously found to contain up to four compounds. The expanded “non-targeted analysis” identified 42 Pfas compounds across the 120 samples, and the total level of Pfas in the blood was much higher than previously found. The findings suggest “babies are exposed to many more Pfas than we previously thought”, said Shelley Liu, a study co-author and associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s particularly important to understand because it is a very vulnerable period when fetuses are exposed,” Liu added. Pfas are a class of about 15,000 compounds most frequently used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant. The chemicals have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment. Fetuses are widely exposed to Pfas via umbilical cord blood. A review of 40 studies found researchers had collectively detected Pfas in each of 30,000 umbilical cord blood samples they checked. Elevated Pfas levels in mothers is associated with higher infant mortality, as well as low birth weight and obesity later in life. Studies have also linked fetal exposure to cancer, neurological problems and cardiovascular disease later in life. The “legacy” compounds like Pfoa and Pfos were most commonly used until the last decade. Those have been phased out, and replaced with newer generations of Pfas that chemical makers claim, often without evidence, are less toxic. Meanwhile, Pfas may break down into new compounds once in t...

The small green oilseed rape plants are buffeted by the wind on a blustery spring day. Sown last August, the crop is starting to shoot up and should be ready for harvesting in July, when it can be turned into cooking oil or biofuel. The peaceful 230-hectare (568-acre) arable farm owned by James Cox on the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire is a world away from the conflict in the Middle East. However, the consequences of US and Israeli strikes on Iran – and Tehran’s retaliation – are already rippling out to affect Cox and Britain’s other food producers. The prices of crucial farming inputs such as fuel and fertiliser have skyrocketed, just at a time when their use will increase in the coming weeks as the spring planting season gets under way and farmers use their tractors more. Cox has already applied one dose of fertiliser to his oilseed rape, with the second to follow in a few weeks’ time, and he will soon be planting his spring barley crop. He is one of the lucky ones – all the fertiliser he needs for this season has already been delivered and his tanks are full of diesel for his vehicles and the heating oil which he and many other rural residents rely on to warm their homes, cook food and provide hot water. But he has no idea what it will cost the next time he needs to top up his supplies. “Not everybody will have got all the fertiliser they need, because of their finances and poor prices on the grain market,” says Cox. It is estimated that about a third of the global seaborne trade in fertilisers passes through the strait of Hormuz, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), based on 2025 figures from the data agency Kpler. A fifth of seaborne crude oil and gas also passes through the important shipping channel off the southern coast of Iran. The narrow trade artery has effectively been closed since the start of the war, halting the transport of fossil fuels as well as ammonia, nitrogen and sulphur, vital ingredients in many synthet...

US workers are still struggling with the cost of living despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to fix the US affordability crisis. The Guardian spoke to workers as an exclusive poll showed cross-party concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the US economy. Dawn Levie, 61, a postal service worker in Paulden, Arizona, said she’s lost thousands in earnings over the past year due to cuts to her hours, making it more difficult for her to afford basic necessities like paying for groceries and utility bills. “It’s hard to describe how you feel when you can’t sustain your livelihood because your money is impacted,” Levie said. “You can’t pay bills, [and] creditors get mad. How do you tell them: ‘I just don’t have it?’” The White House insists that the affordability problem Americans like Levie report doesn’t exist. At a rally in Kentucky earlier this week, Donald Trump told the crowd: “Inflation is plummeting, income is rising, the economy is roaring back!” Though the positive sentiment will be a tough sell for voters in the upcoming midterm elections. After helping Congress pass huge cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs, Trump is now pushing to remove minimum wage and overtime protections for some workers. And though seven out of 10 Americans said that tariffs have led to higher prices, Trump has only doubled down on more levies. Far from feeling like the US is in a golden age, workers said rising inflation means their paychecks can’t keep up with prices. “I know things are worse, because I’m living it and I feel it every day,” said Bryan Williams, 63, a home-care worker in Madison, Wisconsin, who is living paycheck to paycheck on $17.65 an hour. “It’s very hard trying to pay rent, pay your bills, buy food, gas and juggle which ones you can pay [and] which ones you can let go. “[I] ask myself which one should I get, when I know I need both, or worrying will I have enough money to get back and forth to work until another payday? Or will I have eno...

After my parents split up, my older sister and I lived with our dad while the youngest stayed with our mum. It became an experiment in nature v nurture - and had a profound effect on our relationships There is a paradox at the heart of sibling relationships and it is this: that children raised in the same family are for ever bound by shared experiences, yet have different childhoods. The paradox is partly (and most commonly) explained by the topic of birth order theory – the idea that your position in the family shapes your personality and potential. Oldest children, for example, are born into an adult world, full of grown-up language and behaviour. Governed by anxious, inexperienced but still fresh parents, they bask in the glow of undivided attention. Their infancy will be markedly different to that of their little brother or sister who will be born into a family . These second-born children have a toddler as their role model/ally/nemesis, no new clothes, and they also have to share their parents’ attention. These parents are a little less fresh and little more savvy. By the time any subsequent children come along, parents are at their most relaxed and most exhausted. Youngest children get away with a lot (spoken as a true middle sibling). But neat as birth order theory may be, our place in the family roll call cannot fully account for the ways in which we grow up “together apart” as siblings. To do that, we must examine – and in some cases untangle – all of the knottiness underpinning our accepted roles as “responsible firstborns”, “problematic middles” or “spoilt babies”. We need to look at the home environment, the state of the parents’ relationship, their careers, the pressures placed on each child on account of gender or aptitude, the expectations in families where a child has additional needs – or indeed, in the worst-case scenario, where a child may not have survived – before we can begin to comprehend our brother’s or sister’s version of events. Difficulti...

⁠Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally opened the new parliament on Saturday, as last month’s general election result faces court scrutiny over bar codes on the ballots that may have violated the law. The bar codes might undermine the secrecy of the ‌ballot, said the country’s Office of the Ombudsman, which petitioned the Constitutional Court to consider the case. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai party won a clear victory in the February 8 election, but the ombudsman said late on Friday that there had been 21 public complaints that bar codes and QR codes on the ballots could potentially be used to ⁠identify which party or candidate a given voter had chosen. Advertisement The court annulled a 2006 ‌election on the grounds that the voting process had not been conducted in secret. The Election Commission has said the bar codes were included for security purposes ‌and that identifying a voter would require access to the upper half of ⁠the ballots, which ⁠were securely stored. Votes cast in Thailand’s general election are seen in a ballot box in Buriram on February 8. Photo: AFP Bhumjaithai, which won at least 191 seats in the 500-member parliament, has said it will form a ‌ruling coalition with the third-placed Pheu Thai party and several smaller groups, giving the alliance more than 290 seats and raising ‌the ‌prospect of a stable government after years of political volatility.

Chinese researchers have proposed a semi-humanoid robot mounted on a wheeled platform as part of key infrastructure for the country’s lunar research station slated to take shape by 2035. Combining mobility with humanlike dexterity , the robot is designed to move across the lunar surface while carrying out delicate operations, from construction and maintenance to scientific experiments, sampling and analysis, according to researchers from the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering. Its waist can rotate about 180 degrees in either direction and bend forward up to 90 degrees, while its nimble hand has four degrees of freedom, allowing it to perform precise manipulation, the team reported in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration in December. Advertisement “Compared with bipedal walking, a wheeled active suspension moves faster and is more stable, providing a steady platform for work by the upper body,” the researchers wrote. “China’s Yutu lunar rovers and Zhurong Mars rover have both used wheeled locomotion.” The wheels will adopt a metal mesh structure with steel-wire treads, making them lightweight and durable while providing flexibility, shock absorption and reliable performance in extreme cold, enabling smooth long-distance travel across the rugged lunar surface , the researchers said. Advertisement Humanoid or semi-humanoid robots have long been explored for space operations. Robonaut, jointly developed by Nasa and General Motors, became the first humanoid robot deployed in space when it was sent to the International Space Station in 2011.

Having recently updated the regular iPhone with a raft of meaningful upgrades, Apple Inc. set a high bar for its entry-level “e” series. There are significant differences between the iPhone 17e and its pricier sibling, and it’s easy to argue someone should just spend an extra $200 for a more well-rounded product. But the new budget device brings enough meaningful improvements of its own to make it a better value for shoppers who just want the most affordable but still dependable option. This is a phone for people who care more about price than having the very best camera or the flashiest hardware features. Not everyone can easily afford an additional $200 for the standard 17. Many people just want an iPhone. Any iPhone. I feel much better recommending the 17e to that audience than its uninspired predecessor. Read More: Apple’s iPhone 17 Line Wins By Returning the Focus to Hardware Apple has refreshed the 17e with its current A19 chip and 256 gigabytes of base storage — guaranteeing that it will last well into the future without owners hitting slowdowns or running out of space for photos, videos and music. It now includes built-in magnets for compatibility with a vast range of MagSafe accessories and charging stands. The trade-offs necessary to reach that $599 price will be obvious to tech enthusiasts. But most of them won’t matter to the 17e’s target audience. The iPhone 17e’s Downsides Like its predecessor, the 17e’s screen is limited to a basic 60-hertz refresh rate, whereas the 17, 17 Pro and iPhone Air can all scroll and play games at a smoother 120 hertz. Some people — myself included — will be able to spot the difference. But many won’t care. That display also sticks with Apple’s inelegant notch for housing the Face ID sensors and front-facing camera. Other iPhones tuck these components into the smaller, more interactive Dynamic Island cutout. There’s no Always On Display mode for showing the time or your notifications when the phone is out of reach — like on ...

Welcome to the Wall Street Week newsletter, bringing you stories of capitalism about things you need to know, but even more things you need to think about. I’m David Westin , and this week we told the stories of the risks and rewards of private credit and of the surprising leadership of Sweden in rearming Europe. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up here for this newsletter. Private Credit Flashes Yellow Every day this week there was another headline about private credit. Lloyd Blankfein said private credit firms have done “very, very well over time, built big businesses.” But as with any investment, private credit has some risks. Former Federal Reserve Board Member Dan Tarullo of Harvard acknowledges the role that private credit plays in the banking system while urging caution. One concern stems from the relative opacity of private credit funds, which means we don’t really know how much “leverage,” or borrowed capital, is in the system. Meanwhile, illiquidity poses a potential problem as private credit funds have turned to retail investors, who are not used to having their money tied up when things go wrong. Things aren’t as dire as they could be for the asset class, though. We “should be on yellow, not red alert,” Tarullo said. Sweden’s Saab Sees Surge in Orders Russia’s war on Ukraine is changing defense policy across Europe. Governments are ramping up spending, and European defense firms are increasing their capacity, especially in Germany and Poland. But it turns out that one of the best-positioned to help meet the demand is one of their smaller neighbors — Sweden, led by defense firm Saab. More from Wall Street Week Bloomberg Wall Street Week is live Fridays at 6 p.m. New York time. Watch on Bloomberg Television , on the Terminal at TV and on YouTube ; or listen to the show on Bloomberg Radio and RADI . Catch the show Saturdays at 10 a.m. New York time and Sundays at 9 a.m., and find other re-airings through your local listings. Daily editions of Wall Stree...

內地消防部門近日查獲多款不合規格的消防產品，又發現有滅火筒不僅無法救火，反而令火勢更大。 廣西桂林的消防部門近日進行真火測試，首先測試這個市面找到的不合規格滅火筒，整瓶快要噴完火種仍未熄滅。消防再用合規格的滅火筒來示範，很快就救熄。 輪到測試不合格的滅火毯，蓋在火種上，毯很快就被燒穿。而合格的滅火毯，只需幾秒鐘就能控制火勢。 廣西、江西等地消防部門近日巡查市面上滅火用品，分別在大學、屋苑等場所發現不合格的滅火筒、消防喉等。又查獲有生產滅火器的公司，存放大量過期的消防產品。 消防部門近日集中銷毀這些不合規格的消防產品，避免流入市場。 安康市消防救援支隊消防監督員郭偉烈稱︰「如果這些假冒偽劣不合格的消防產品充斥市場，一旦發生火災，不僅無法發揮應有的防火滅火、自救作用，還有可能因產品失效、質量不達標，延誤救援時機，加劇火災危害。」 內地消防部門提醒消費者，要選購滅火產品時，切勿「貪平」，並要在正規渠道購買。

Opinion: An ancient, sophisticated palate toggle caption Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images We might look at cave paintings and conclude that our prehistoric ancestors speared a bison or saber-toothed tiger and just hefted their carcasses into a fire. But new research suggests that our forbears had more varied and cosmopolitan tastes, centuries before the Guide Michelin. A study in the scientific journal PLOS ONE looked at what they call "foodcrusts" on potshards left by ancient people who lived between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago in what's now northern Europe. Oliver Craig of the University of York, one of 22 co-authors of the study, told us those dirty dishes suggest the true paleo diet was more sophisticated than researchers had seen sifting through cooking fire ashes looking for bits of bone. Sponsor Message "We examined 85 pot shards," he said. "58 of them had identifiable fragments of plants, roots, tubers, and leaves," including traces of carp and other fresh-water fish, viburnum berries, which kind of taste like what we know as cranberries, amaranth, beets, and an edible weed known as oak-leaved goosefoot. "They were remarkably selective in what they cooked, too, and how," he said. "It's as if they were working out 'recipes.'" The spoils of both hunting and gathering, piquantly rendered into cave meals! Plated or family-style? And what spirits might you pair with this tundra-to-flat stone cuisine? So perhaps ancient humans didn't just sit around campfires, telling tales of the hunt, and looking into the stars for signs from the gods. Instead, maybe they smacked their lips and asked, "Did you think the viburnum berries were a little flavor forward?" Or, "Could you detect the terroir of that oak-leaved goosefoot?" Or, "Could those beets have used a touch more amaranth?" Humans of 8,000 years ago might have looked into the heavens and cried out, "How many centuries do we have to wait for an oat milk latte around here?"

is a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview. “Someone might be watching everything I’m doing on my screen,” I tell myself in public. Even when I’m doing nothing of consequence — just making my little Wordle guesses — there’s a sense of unease that stays with me. It’s never bothered me too much, and I generally save the sensitive stuff like banking for when I’m home, but I realize it’s a feeling I’ve internalized whenever I’m on my phone in a crowded place. Using Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra for the past couple of weeks has offered some relief from that particular worry simmering in the back of my mind; it solves a problem I didn’t even fully recognize until I started using it in my daily life. I used the S26 Ultra in a lot of places where people could have been looking over my shoulder. Planes, airports, crowded convention halls… wherever I was, the phone’s new Privacy Display really did relieve that feeling of discomfort. It’s not totally bulletproof — I’m sure someone could have made out my Wordle guesses if they were trying pretty hard to look at the dimmed screen — but just the knowledge that a casual glance wouldn’t reveal the way I’d missed the obvious solution four guesses in a row was enough. And the fact that I can turn it off when I’m back at home? That rules. The question is, how much is that peace of mind worth? And how confident can you be in the display’s ability to keep prying eyes away from real stuff like passwords, not just puzzle games? Those are the $1,300 questions. I tend to think of the S26 Ultra as existing in a class by itself. Can you think of another phone with four rear cameras? A built-in stylus? Performance specs up the wazoo? It attracts a particular kind of fan. So I think your interest in the S26 Ultra as a whole package should be your guiding star if you’re interested in the Privacy Display but unsure...

I just got back from the GDC Festival of Gaming, a big industry-focused event in San Francisco that was formerly known as the Game Developers Conference. While the show is mostly about educational sessions and networking opportunities for working developers, there were also a bunch of games that I got to play. Here are some of my favorites, listed alphabetically. Best of all, these could all launch this year — hopefully well before Grand Theft Auto VI. At Fate’s End At Fate’s End is a gorgeous new action-adventure game from Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus all about grappling with sibling relationships through exploration and battles. I got to see two fights with just the first of the main character’s siblings. But even those early battles were thrilling skirmishes with dramatic animations, full-screen lightning attacks, and dialogue choices that can influence which ending you get. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the game all week. At Fate’s End is set to launch in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X / S. Mina the Hollower The next title from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games is an homage Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy, but with the twist that you play as a mouse that can dig through the ground. The game is set to launch sometime this spring following a delay last October, and based on a new demo I played, the extra time was worth it. I was disappointed by the demo I played on PC last year, but this time around, I loved exploring the game’s world, fighting challenging enemies, and even digging my way into some hidden secrets. Yacht Club Games plans to launch Mina the Hollower this spring on PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X / S. The Melty Way The Melty Way blends challenging, Super Meat Boy-style platforming with a gooey twist: You play as an adorable little slime, and as you move through the world, you melt away and get smaller. Becoming smaller gives you advantages like higher jumps and being a...

is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 119, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope your agents are well, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) I also have for you a new game to add to your daily list, an enticing new Sonos speaker, a huge new book about Apple’s first half-century, a fun new way to YouTube, and much more. Let’s get into it. (As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / listening to / playing / taking on spring break this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.) The Drop Parseword . A new game from Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle, this one is based on the concept of cryptic crosswords. The concept is substantially harder to explain than Wordle, but tickles my word game-loving brain in a similarly delightful way. A new game from Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle, this one is based on the concept of cryptic crosswords. The concept is substantially harder to explain than Wordle, but tickles my word game-loving brain in a similarly delightful way. The Sonos Play . Sonos’ first new speaker in more than a year is too expensive — $299 is just a lot for a wireless speaker — but otherwise sounds kind of ideal? Big and powerful enough to be a good living room speaker, portable enough to actually throw in a bag or carry to the backyard. And it does plain ol’ Bluetooth, too! I want one. Sonos’ first new speaker in more than a year is too expensive — $299 is just a lot for a wireless speaker — but otherwise sounds kind of ideal? Big and powerful enough to be a good li...

JuSun/iStock via Getty Images Co-authored by Kody's Dividends When investors are building a dividend portfolio, they're often forced to balance their current need for yield today and their desire for dividend growth tomorrow. The logic goes that the younger you are, the lower yield you can accept because you have more time for that growth runway to benefit you. Unfortunately, what this causes is many investors to think that they need a higher yield than they actually need to be sustainable in the long run. They overshoot their yield and end up falling into a realm of dividend cuts and unsustainable dividends or enter a realm where the performance of their portfolio is solely governed by the dividend yield of their portfolio, and their capital either erodes or sits unmoving in value as inflation slowly eats it up. For many, they would simply say, "I could just reinvest dividends. That's all I need to do to have my portfolio value climb and my income grow." This is true. If you have a 10% yield and you're reinvesting 25%, you're only going to see a pitiful 2.5% dividend increase. The math is simple: you collect $100. You reinvest $25. You end up with $2.50 more next year. This is the major difference between how we invest within Dividend Kings and how many dividend investors approach their portfolio. We have a combination approach, collecting high yields today from our fixed-income positions that never make it to the public and enjoying strongly growing dividends and total returns from our common equity positions that make up our portfolio. Together, we enjoy yields in the 6% to 8% range on average across the entire portfolio while enjoying dividend growth well beyond 2.5%. There's no need to climb up to 10% and reinvest 25% and get returns as far as dividend growth and capital turns that are worse than staying at a lower, more sustainable level. Today, I want to discuss a company whose yield, for many, is going to be entirely unattractive until you recognize that it ...

Khairun Nisa/iStock via Getty Images The Japanese economy has largely been moribund throughout the 21st century. It is hard to remember now when the country was an economic miracle, and many economists were lauding Japan's industrial policy as something that should be copied in the United States. Japan GDP Growth Rate by Year (STATBOX) It was a hard decade for the country following the end of WWII. It took until 1955 before Japan achieved the per capita GDP it enjoyed prior to that great conflict. Despite having to import almost all of its energy needs, the country was able to deliver remarkable economic growth for decades. In 1968, while the U.S. was spilling blood and treasure in the jungles of Vietnam, Japan experienced nearly 13% GDP growth. By the 1980s, growth in Japan's industrial export-led economy had slowed notably, but the country still delivered 6.7% GDP growth in 1988 with a 4.9% rise in 1989. The NIKKEI was the wonder of the world. And then things imploded, with the 1990s becoming known as the ' lost decade.' After peaking in 1989, the NIKKEI would not see that level again until 2024, 35 years later. NIKKEI Price Chart (MarketWatch) There were many reasons for the collapse of the Japanese stock and property markets. The first of which was that Japanese stocks and real estate had achieved ridiculous valuations in hindsight. At one point, the land around the Japanese Imperial Palace was valued more than the state of California. Statista Another key trigger for the huge economic slowdown in Japan in recent decades is apropos for the U.S. economy, real estate, and equity markets. And that is Japan began to rapidly age. It is now the second oldest population on the globe. U.S. and Japanese Debt to GDP ratios (FRED) And when a population ages, labor participation and productivity drop, all things being equal. There are also greater demands on governmental coffers. In the U.S. that takes the form of pensions for federal workers as well as Medicare and Social ...

Getty Images Shares of Better Home & Finance ( BETR ) have been a remarkable performer over the past year, tripling in value, as there have been hopes its AI and tech-oriented platform could disrupt the mortgage market. This stock, with its elevated short interest, became a “meme” stock in fall 2025, surging as high as $75 before giving back much of the gains. Shares dropped 6% in early trading on Friday as investors digested quarterly results. I last covered shares in September , rating the stock a “sell,” and it has been a roller coaster ride, but BETR is essentially at the same level today as back then. Clearly, though, there was an opportunity to play the "meme" theme for a time. With updated financials, now is a good time to revisit shares. Seeking Alpha Q4 exhibits strong growth, but BETR remains loss making In the company’s fourth quarter , Better Home & Finance lost $40 million even as revenue surged 77% to $44 million. During Q4, it funded $1.5 billion of loans, up from $936 million a year ago. Funded loans were up 29%, which I view as the best indicator of BETR’s market share gains. Beyond this, the average size of its loans grew, enhancing origination growth. This metric can be volatile quarter to quarter depending on loan mix. Refinancing activity tripled thanks to a more favorable rate environment, while purchase volumes were up a more modest 22%. Its Tinman AI platform drove $646 million of loan volume, passing 40% of total volumes. This was up an impressive 34% sequentially. Better Adjusted EBITDA improved by $4 million to a $24 million loss. Gain on loan sales more than doubled to $38 million, reflecting a stronger margin on sales as it gains scale and improves time to market. Still, it is important to emphasize that this is a loss-making business. Compensation costs of $45 million eclipsed revenue. All expenses of $85 million were nearly double revenue. We will likely need to see the business triple from here to reach breakeven on a net income basis...

Bespalyi/iStock via Getty Images FreightCar America ( RAIL ) recently reported Q4 2025 earnings results . The company performed fairly well in Q4 considering the challenging railcar market. The stock sold off significantly after the report as the company provided cautious guidance. The valuation remains attractive as the stock sold off. However, lowered growth expectations for 2026 could keep the stock suppressed for longer. Insights From The Q4 2025 Earnings Report FreightCar America achieved mixed results in Q4 as the company has been facing challenges. RAIL's revenue declined 8.8% YoY to $125.6 million in Q4, and revenue also dropped 10.5% yoy to $501 million for the full year in 2025. The revenue declines were attributed to the lowest industry build rates that the company saw in over a decade in the North American rail market. The company believes that this is temporary and that they are positioned to be resilient in any market cycle. RAIL's resiliency is evident in the margin expansion that was achieved in 2025. The gross margin increased from 12% in 2024 to 14.6% in 2025. The operating income margin increased from 6% to 6.7%, and the net income margin increased from a negative (13.55%) to a positive 7.6% over the same time. These margin gains were achieved through disciplined execution and cost containment to drive profitability. FreightCar America demonstrated its effectiveness with its leaner and more flexible manufacturing footprint that was built over the past few years. This includes RAIL's growth in conversion and retrofit programs. RAIL's manufacturing flexibility and operational efficiencies drove margin gains during this period of revenue declines. RAIL's margin increases led to a 69% YoY increase in operating cash flow to $10 million in Q4 2025 despite the 22% YoY decline to about $35 million in operating cash flow for the full year. Unfortunately, the margin gains weren't enough to prevent the adjusted EBITDA decline of 25% yoy to $10.4 million in Q...

Big banks are increasingly seeing their shares impacted by worries about underwriting quality at private lenders.

Refunds are almost 11% higher than the same point last year, the IRS said this week.

There are flat organizational structures, and then there’s Meta’s new applied AI engineering team. The division, tasked with advancing the tech giant’s superintelligence efforts, will employ a 50-to-1 employee-to-manager ratio, according to the Wall Street Journal, double the 25-to-1 ratio that is usually seen as the outer limit of the so-called span‑of‑control scale. The Facebook parent’s one-sided management ratio took aback even those well-versed in flat organizations. “It’s going to end in tragedy is the bottom line,” says André Spicer, executive dean of Bayes Business School in London and a professor of organizational behavior. The idea behind a flat organization, in which managers have a large number of direct reports, is that it makes companies more agile by streamlining decision-making processes and positioning management closer to front-line workers and the customer experience. Cross-functional collaboration that isn’t muddled in hierarchy speeds up innovation. Employees who are closer to people of authority are more engaged, with a deeper sense of ownership. Or so the theory goes. Meta is not alone in embracing a flat structure. Companies across the U.S. are flattening out, according to a January Gallup report. The average number of people reporting to managers rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025. Last year’s figure represents a nearly 50% increase in team size since Gallup first measured, in 2013. And ultra-flat organizations account for a big part of the uptick. “The increase in average team size across the U.S. working population in the past year is largely influenced by a two-percentage-point increase in teams of 25 or more employees,” the report says. The business world cycles through periods of tight and “loose” or flat culture, the latter being more en vogue when the economy is good, Spicer says. Delayering “will save costs in the short term,” he says. “You can show some nice quarterly report, quarterly numbers from that.” “But then it will creat...

Vista Cima Wealth Management LLC cut its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) by 63.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 839 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock after selling 1,469 shares during the quarter. Vista Cima Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Tesla were worth $373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Get Tesla alerts: Sign Up A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Chapman Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company's stock. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several brokerages recently commented on TSLA. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on shares of Tesla from $313.00 to $280.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $510.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, DZ Bank reissued a "sell" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy...