What to know about Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader toggle caption Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images Iran's killed supreme leader will be replaced by one of his sons, Mojtaba Khamenei, a mid-ranking cleric who has until now wielded his power exclusively behind the scenes. Iran's Assembly of Experts — the clerical body tasked with selecting the country's supreme leader — said on Sunday th...
What to know about Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader toggle caption Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images Iran's killed supreme leader will be replaced by one of his sons, Mojtaba Khamenei, a mid-ranking cleric who has until now wielded his power exclusively behind the scenes. Iran's Assembly of Experts — the clerical body tasked with selecting the country's supreme leader — said on Sunday that a majority of its members voted to appoint Khamenei as the Islamic Republic's third supreme leader since its founding in 1979. The announcement appeared in state media just over a week after the former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli attack. His nearly four-decade rule was marked by staunch opposition to both countries as well as any efforts to reform or modernize Iran. Questions loom about Iran's future as it responds with continued strikes on Israel and Gulf states. The younger Khamenei's appointment answers some of those questions. The 56-year-old has close ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), signaling a continuation of his father's hard-line theocratic rule. Sponsor Message "[Of] all the candidates that were put out there, he was the one that was closest to the IRGC. He was also very well-connected in his father's own office," Iran specialist Afshon Ostovar told NPR last week, as Khamenei emerged as one of the most likely successors. Ostovar said his selection would mean "the regime wants to preserve as much of the status quo as possible." But Khamenei is also a relative mystery. He has never held a formal position in government. And he rarely speaks or appears in public, save for occasional loyalist rallies. "He's kind of an unknown quantity," Ostovar said. "He's sort of a guy who you see in pictures, in meetings, that sort of thing, kind of in the background." But he has long been accused — including by analysts, Iranian dissidents and the U.S. government — of amassing power and pulling strings fr...
May arabica coffee (KCK26) today is up +2.20 (+0.75%), and May ICE robusta coffee (RMK26) is down -10 (-0.27%). NY arabica coffee prices today posted a new 3-week high. Coffee prices have continued to receive support from potential supply disruptions, as the war in Iran has halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The closure of the waterway has increased global shipping rates, insurance, and...
May arabica coffee (KCK26) today is up +2.20 (+0.75%), and May ICE robusta coffee (RMK26) is down -10 (-0.27%). NY arabica coffee prices today posted a new 3-week high. Coffee prices have continued to receive support from potential supply disruptions, as the war in Iran has halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The closure of the waterway has increased global shipping rates, insurance, and fuel costs, and raises costs for coffee importers and roasters. Also, coffee prices have positive carryover from last Thursday when Brazil's Trade Ministry reported that Brazil's Feb coffee exports fell -17.4% y/y to 142,000 MT. Don’t Miss a Day: Coffee prices are being undercut by mild dollar strength today. Smaller coffee supplies from Colombia, the world's second-largest arabica producer, are supportive of prices, following the National Federation of Coffee Growers' report that January coffee production fell by -34% y/y to 893,000 bags. As a bearish factor, Somar Meteorologia reported Monday that Brazil's largest arabica coffee-growing area, Minas Gerais, received 14.9 mm of rain last week, or 35% of the historical average. Coffee prices in February sold off sharply, with arabica falling to a 15-month low on February 24 and robusta tumbling to a 6.75-month low on February 23 as signs of a bumper Brazilian coffee crop have improved the global supply outlook. On February 5, Conab, Brazil's crop forecasting agency, said that Brazil's 2026 coffee production will climb by +17.2% y/y to a record 66.2 million bags, with arabica production up +23.2% y/y to 44.1 million bags and robusta production up +6.3% y/y to 22.1 million bags. Meanwhile, Rabobank said on March 4 that global coffee production is projected to reach a record 180 million bags in the 2026/27 season, up by about 8 million bags from a year earlier. Soaring coffee exports from Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, are bearish for robusta prices. Vietnam's National Statistics Office reported on March 6 that...
In this article USO XOM CVX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A driver refuels a vehicle at a Wawa gas station in Media, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Matthew Hatcher | Bloomberg | Getty Images With oil spiking to $100 a barrel and the job market essentially paralyzed, the threat of stagflation again is looming over the U.S. economy and financial markets. High inflation...
In this article USO XOM CVX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A driver refuels a vehicle at a Wawa gas station in Media, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Matthew Hatcher | Bloomberg | Getty Images With oil spiking to $100 a barrel and the job market essentially paralyzed, the threat of stagflation again is looming over the U.S. economy and financial markets. High inflation and slow growth present a double threat, as stimulative measures such as interest rate cuts and government spending only aggravate inflation. Persistently higher prices in turn can put a damper on the labor market as well as the consumer spending that drives more than two-thirds of the U.S. economic engine. "I have been concerned about the threat of stagflation for a long time, in part because there are so many different inflationary pressures on the economy," CME Group chief economist Erik Norland said. "You have huge budget deficits, inflation above target, and central banks are easing policy anyway. And then you add to that $100 per barrel oil." Markets were rattled again Monday over the prospect of prolonged fighting in the Middle East . Early in the session, U.S. crude oil soared past the $100 a barrel mark for the first time since 2022, though prices eased heading into the afternoon. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon crude prices The surge in energy costs came just a couple days after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy lost 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4%. The weak jobs number followed a pattern of stagnant job growth that began in early 2025, raising fresh fears that the air had been let out of a strong growth spurt through most of last year. Total job growth for all of 2025 — 116,000 — was 5,000 less than the monthly average for the prior year. At the same time, core inflation as measured through the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge last stood at 3%, a full percentage point above the central bank's tar...
What if the biggest risk to the AI revolution isn't bad models or overhyped startups — but a shipping lane? The entire global AI buildout runs on chips designed by Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) . Data centers worth hundreds of billions are being planned around them. Investors have pushed the company to the center of the tech universe. But Nvidia doesn't actually manufacture its chips. And the country ...
What if the biggest risk to the AI revolution isn't bad models or overhyped startups — but a shipping lane? The entire global AI buildout runs on chips designed by Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) . Data centers worth hundreds of billions are being planned around them. Investors have pushed the company to the center of the tech universe. But Nvidia doesn't actually manufacture its chips. And the country that does depends on energy shipped through one of the most fragile chokepoints in global trade. Nvidia Designs The Chips. TSMC Actually Builds Them Every cutting-edge Nvidia AI processor is manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (NYSE:TSM) . From training clusters used by large language models to the GPUs powering hyperscale data centers, Nvidia's designs ultimately become physical chips inside TSMC's fabs. That means the AI supply chain runs through Taiwan. For years, investors have focused on the geopolitical risks around Taiwan's relationship with China. But another vulnerability sits quietly in the background: energy. Taiwan imports roughly 97–98% of its energy, much of it shipped through global energy routes tied to the Middle East. In other words, the fabs producing Nvidia's most important chips depend on energy that ultimately flows through the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea Just Showed What Energy Risk Looks Like The market recently got a real-time stress test of that vulnerability. Like Taiwan, South Korea imports nearly all of its energy. And like Taiwan, its semiconductor industry runs massive fabrication plants that require enormous and continuous power. Once investors realized that geopolitical events could threaten the energy feeding those fabs, semiconductor stocks moved fast. The Hidden Constraint Behind The AI Boom The AI boom is being financed at historic scale. But those chips must first be fabricated at TSMC. And those fabs consume staggering amounts of power. Which means the AI supply chain ultimately depends on something far mo...
Dzmitry Skazau/iStock via Getty Images Fund Strategy Seeks to achieve compelling risk-adjusted returns by using a relative-value framework for duration (within one year of the benchmark), yield-curve positioning, sector allocation, and security selection decisions Allows our portfolio managers to strategically allocate up to 35% in plus sectors, including high-yield debt, emerging market debt, and...
Dzmitry Skazau/iStock via Getty Images Fund Strategy Seeks to achieve compelling risk-adjusted returns by using a relative-value framework for duration (within one year of the benchmark), yield-curve positioning, sector allocation, and security selection decisions Allows our portfolio managers to strategically allocate up to 35% in plus sectors, including high-yield debt, emerging market debt, and non-U.S.-dollar corporate and government debt Combines a top-down and bottom-up approach and uses a six-month investment horizon to anticipate market cycles and then position the fund accordingly May be used as a foundational fixed-income allocation, with portfolio managers responsible for tactically allocating to plus sectors in an effort to enhance the fund's total return Average Annual Total Returns (%) As Of 12/31/2025* 3 MONTH YEAR TO DATE 1 YEAR 3 YEAR 5 YEAR 10 YEAR SINCE FUND INCEPTION (7/13/98)^ Core Plus Bond Fund-Inst 1.01 7.36 7.36 5.48 0.29 3.31 4.39 Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index 1.10 7.30 7.30 4.66 -0.36 2.01 — Lipper Core Plus Bond Funds Average 1.06 7.54 7.54 5.21 -0.01 2.46 — Click to enlarge *Returns for periods less than one year are not annualized. Figures quoted represent past performance, which is no guarantee of future results, and do not reflect taxes a shareholder may pay on an investment in a fund. Investment return, principal value, and yields of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted and assumes the reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Current month-end performance is available at the fund's website, Allspring Global Investments: Investment Management & Services . Institutional Class shares are sold without a front-end sales charge or contingent deferred sales charge. The fund's gross expense ratio is 0.47%. The fund's net expense ratio is 0.35%. The manager has contractu...
Karen Vardanian/iStock via Getty Images Van Eck BDC Income ETF ( BIZD ) is the most liquid basket of Private Credit Business Development Companies (“BDCs”) and was certainly not immune from the carnage in Private Credit last week. BIZDs operating expense ratio is almost 50% below the Actively managed Putnam BDC Income ETF ( PBDC ) but which to use and whether to have any long or short position in ...
Karen Vardanian/iStock via Getty Images Van Eck BDC Income ETF ( BIZD ) is the most liquid basket of Private Credit Business Development Companies (“BDCs”) and was certainly not immune from the carnage in Private Credit last week. BIZDs operating expense ratio is almost 50% below the Actively managed Putnam BDC Income ETF ( PBDC ) but which to use and whether to have any long or short position in either are the bigger questions. I will argue that the Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses (“AFFE”) which have been estimated by Van Eck to exceed 12% annually are far more relevant to any decision to buy or sell BIZD or PBDC than the operating expenses. While the Private Credit asset class may present attractive gross long-term returns within fixed income, the incentive fees on income inside the specific BDCs make the publicly traded BDCs that these ETFs can choose from extremely expensive. Such presents a headwind for anyone using BIZD or PBDC to invest in Private Credit. Conversely such provides a tailwind for anyone using BIZD or PBDC to short private credit. NAV Discounts among publicly traded BDCs have grown as well. These constituent holdings are permanent capital though. There is no reason to expect opportunities to ever redeem most publicly traded BDCs for Net Asset Value (“NAV”). The underlying liquidity model for publicly traded BDC holdings of BIZD and PBDC is altogether different from the redemption process (at NAV) of non-traded BDCs that was in the limelight last week. The Week in Private Credit The latest week in Private Credit finished with BlackRock, Inc. ( BLK ) limiting Q1 redemptions of its flagship non-traded private credit fund. As recently as Tuesday, the concerns had only been the requests for record redemptions. And to be clear, BlackRock's $1.2 billion request brought the total among two high-profile non-traded funds revealed in the week to a clean $5 billion. But Blackstone’s massive $82 billion non-traded BCRED had met all of its record-high redempt...
Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Oracle's fair value estimate has been revised from US$272.89 to US$255.31, signaling a reset in where analysts think the shares line up against their models. That shift sits alongside Street research, which has broadly trimmed price targets while still describing Oracle as a key ...
Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Oracle's fair value estimate has been revised from US$272.89 to US$255.31, signaling a reset in where analysts think the shares line up against their models. That shift sits alongside Street research, which has broadly trimmed price targets while still describing Oracle as a key AI beneficiary across cloud infrastructure, databases and applications. As you read on, you will see how to interpret these moving targets and keep up with the evolving story around the stock. Stay updated as the Fair Value for Oracle shifts by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Oracle. What Wall Street Has Been Saying 🐂 Bullish Takeaways Cantor Fitzgerald, Barclays and TD Cowen all keep positive ratings while trimming targets, pointing to AI driven demand across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, databases and SaaS as a key part of their thesis. Goldman Sachs and HSBC highlight Oracle as a beneficiary of AI adoption in enterprise software, with Goldman flagging potential share gains in infrastructure as a service. Oppenheimer’s upgrade to Outperform with a US$185 target and Deutsche Bank’s Buy rating with a US$300 target focus on what they view as attractive risk reward after a sharp multiple reset and Oracle’s role in AI related workloads. 🐻 Bearish Takeaways Barclays and Citi cut price targets substantially, to US$230 and US$310 respectively, while pointing to margin pressure from AI build out costs and sector wide multiple compression. Deutsche Bank and TD Cowen both flag heavy capital and cash needs for AI and OCI expansion, which they see as requiring trust and patience as spending and funding plans work through the model. Do your thoughts align with the Bull or Bear Analysts? Perhaps you think there's more to the story. Head to the Simply Wall St Community to discover more perspectives! NYSE:ORCL 1...
英國舉行一年一度背老婆大賽 芬蘭兩公婆成功克服難關奪冠 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】英國舉行一年一度背老婆大賽,芬蘭夫妻贏得冠軍。 經常說體重是女人的秘密,不過一班老婆參賽前都要磅重,確保她們至...
英國舉行一年一度背老婆大賽 芬蘭兩公婆成功克服難關奪冠 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】英國舉行一年一度背老婆大賽,芬蘭夫妻贏得冠軍。 經常說體重是女人的秘密,不過一班老婆參賽前都要磅重,確保她們至少有符合資格的50公斤。準備好就出發,婚姻的重量有多重,這班男士應該最清楚。380米的「愛情路」不算崎嶇,但並非一帆風順,參賽者要同舟共濟,跨過乾草堆,克服難關,與另一半鬥快跑到終點,就算被人「撥冷水」都要咬緊牙關堅持下去。 賽事2008年起舉行,今屆在英國薩里郡上演,參賽者不一定要背真老婆,不限男、女,18歲或以上就可以。幾經辛苦終於衝線,「超人」都顯得有點吃力,成績只是其次,最重要「兩公婆」遇上多大考驗都一同面對。這對來自芬蘭的夫妻贏得冠軍,獲得一桶啤酒獎勵,回去「飲得杯落」。
Earnings Call Insights: Unusual Machines, Inc. (UMAC) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Allan Evans emphasized that 2025 marked a turning point, stating the company “generated approximately $11.2 million in revenue. This is 101% year-over-year growth from 2024.” He highlighted the transformation from an online retail store to a drone components producer and enterprise sales business, noting the enterpri...
Earnings Call Insights: Unusual Machines, Inc. (UMAC) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Allan Evans emphasized that 2025 marked a turning point, stating the company “generated approximately $11.2 million in revenue. This is 101% year-over-year growth from 2024.” He highlighted the transformation from an online retail store to a drone components producer and enterprise sales business, noting the enterprise segment grew from 31% of revenue in Q1 to 81% in Q4. Evans described Q4 as the company's "seventh consecutive quarter with record revenues" and reported approximately $4.9 million in Q4 revenue, representing 133% sequential quarterly growth. The CEO confirmed operational expansion, with headcount rising from 19 at the start of Q3 to 81 by year-end, and facility growth from 6,900 to 62,500 square feet. Evans announced the start of motor factory production in November and stated, "we are absolutely in the early phases of rapid growth." CFO Brian Hoff stated, "2025 was a transformational year for Unusual Machines. We started the year with the goal of bringing drone component manufacturing to the United States. And by the end of the year, not only have we accomplished this, but we did this with such dramatic pace and scale that's required for the industry." Hoff reported, “Gross margin has increased from 24% in the first quarter to 36% in the fourth quarter and 35% for the full fiscal year 2025.” He noted the company ended 2025 with $103 million in cash, $15 million in inventory, and no debt, supported by $157 million raised through capital raises. Outlook Evans described the drone marketplace as "supply constrained," stating, "we see demand outstripping supply this year and deep into 2027." He indicated that the FCC ban on new licenses for all foreign-made drones and parts, effective late December 2025, "creates a huge marketplace vacuum... to go along with the demand we're seeing from the military segment of the industry." Evans projected, "the FCC actions have created at ...
People are worried about HPS liquidity “Private credit” means raising money from long-term locked-up investors and using their money to make loans to companies. The fact that the investors in private credit funds have their money locked up is not incidental; it is the point of private credit. Because the investors’ money is locked up: Private credit funds have a safe funding model . There cannot b...
People are worried about HPS liquidity “Private credit” means raising money from long-term locked-up investors and using their money to make loans to companies. The fact that the investors in private credit funds have their money locked up is not incidental; it is the point of private credit. Because the investors’ money is locked up: Private credit funds have a safe funding model . There cannot be a “run on the bank” where all the investors ask for their money back, forcing the funds to sell their loans at fire-sale prices, because the investors can’t ask for their money back. Private credit, in its simplest core implementation, is not systemically risky , because it is not vulnerable to runs. Because they have a safe funding model, private credit funds are much less regulated than banks. This keeps costs down and also lets them do stuff — like lend to companies at high leverage ratios — that banks are discouraged from doing . (It also helps with recruiting: Banks are boring, but private credit these days is where the action is, and pays well.) Because their money is locked up and committed, private credit funds can be more attractive lenders to companies. They can move faster and be more flexible than banks, whose balance sheets are fragile and who have to market and syndicate many loans. They can promise to hold loans for the long term , to be relationship lenders rather than transactional financiers. Some companies like this sort of thing, and are willing to take the tradeoff, which is that private credit is normally more expensive than other forms of credit. Put another way, the expected return on private credit lending should be higher, because private credit funds get paid an illiquidity premium . Everything about private credit — its systemic safety, its light regulation, its go-anywhere investing approach, its high returns — flows from the fact that the investors can’t get their money back whenever they want. Traditionally, the long-term locked-up investors...
Commodities have been a notable area of strength year to date, and with U.S. equities in a corrective phase, it can be beneficial to broaden exposure to alternative assets with improving long-term momentum. The energy complex qualifies, but we also encourage investors to consider agricultural commodities, several of which have positive technical catalysts. The Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) is ...
Commodities have been a notable area of strength year to date, and with U.S. equities in a corrective phase, it can be beneficial to broaden exposure to alternative assets with improving long-term momentum. The energy complex qualifies, but we also encourage investors to consider agricultural commodities, several of which have positive technical catalysts. The Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) is a popular way to gain exposure, holding futures contracts tied to corn, soybeans, wheat and other agricultural commodities. DBA has broken out from a one-year triangle pattern, marking a resumption of its secular uptrend in a bullish long-term development. Intermediate-term momentum has accelerated with the breakout, which supports upside follow-through beyond last year's peak. The triangle breakout generates a long-term measured move projection near $29.30, approximately 9% above current levels. The chart of DBA does not appear overextended in the near term, suggesting the triangle breakout is actionable. Short-term momentum is positive and expanding per the daily moving average convergence/divergence histogram, and the daily stochastics have turned higher in a bullish "pop" that supports upside follow-through in the near term. For short-term traders, an upside objective is resistance at the 2025 high, near $27.50. To manage risk, we would reduce long positions if DBA falls back below former trendline resistance near $26.00. The ratio of DBA to the SPX has reversed a multi-month downtrend, suggesting DBA's recent outperformance versus the SPX reflects a meaningful shift in relative momentum. The trend shift in the ratio supports further outperformance for DBA, and agricultural commodities in general, over the SPX. This is not unusual during a corrective phase in equities. Overall, DBA's breakout from a one-year triangle acts as a positive technical catalyst and aligns with strengthening momentum in commodities more broadly. We expect DBA to remain a beneficiary of rotation...
BlackJack3D/E+ via Getty Images The Microsoft-backed ( MSFT ) OpenAI ( OPENAI ) revealed plans today to acquire Promptfoo, a startup that helps enterprises identify and correct vulnerabilities during the development of artificial intelligence systems. Promptfoo was founded in 2024 by Ian Webster and Michael D'Angelo in San Francisco. Despite its recent founding, it discovered a niche in providing ...
BlackJack3D/E+ via Getty Images The Microsoft-backed ( MSFT ) OpenAI ( OPENAI ) revealed plans today to acquire Promptfoo, a startup that helps enterprises identify and correct vulnerabilities during the development of artificial intelligence systems. Promptfoo was founded in 2024 by Ian Webster and Michael D'Angelo in San Francisco. Despite its recent founding, it discovered a niche in providing security tooling for AI systems. It said more than 125,000 developers have downloaded their open-source tools, and they are currently being used by more than 25% of Fortune 500 companies. Promptfoo raised an $18.4 million Series A led by Insight Partners last July, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. "Promptfoo brings deep engineering expertise in evaluating, securing, and testing AI systems at enterprise scale," said Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer of B2B Applications. "Their work helps businesses deploy secure and reliable AI applications, and we’re excited to bring these capabilities directly into Frontier." OpenAI plans to integrate several of Promptfoo's tools into OpenAI Frontier, a platform for building and operating AI agents. This includes security and safety testing built into the platform, security and evaluation in development workflows, and improved oversight and accountability. "We started Promptfoo because developers needed a practical way to secure AI systems," Webster said. "As AI agents become more connected to real data and systems, securing and validating them is more challenging and important than ever. Joining OpenAI lets us accelerate this work, bringing stronger security, safety, and governance capabilities to the teams building real-world AI systems." Financial details of the proposed acquisition were not released. Before founding Promptfoo, Webster led the large language model engineering and developer platform teams at Discord. D'Angelo formerly worked as the former vice president of engineering and head of AI at Smi...
EschCollection/DigitalVision via Getty Images Two US banks posted double-digit percentage growth in assets on a sequential basis in the fourth quarter of 2025, causing a shake-up in the US banking industry asset rankings. Banco Santander SA ( SAN ) on Feb. 3 announced its $12.23 billion agreement to acquire Webster Financial Corp. ( WBS ), marking the third-biggest US bank deal since 2010 and Sant...
EschCollection/DigitalVision via Getty Images Two US banks posted double-digit percentage growth in assets on a sequential basis in the fourth quarter of 2025, causing a shake-up in the US banking industry asset rankings. Banco Santander SA ( SAN ) on Feb. 3 announced its $12.23 billion agreement to acquire Webster Financial Corp. ( WBS ), marking the third-biggest US bank deal since 2010 and Santander's first US retail bank acquisition in roughly 17 years . For the purposes of an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis, Santander Holdings USA Inc.'s assets were adjusted upward by $84.07 billion to account for its parent company’s pending acquisition, resulting in a 47.9% increase in assets compared to the third quarter. As a result, Santander Holdings USA rose to the 19th-largest US bank by total assets in the fourth quarter, up from 30th in the prior quarter. SoFi Technologies Inc.'s ( SOFI ) total assets rose 11.8% sequentially in the fourth quarter, representing the second-highest growth rate among the nation's 50 largest banks and propelling the company into the fourth quarter rankings. The increase was driven by $3.1 billion in loan growth and about $1.7 billion in additional cash, cash equivalents, and investment securities, SoFi CFO Christopher Lapointe disclosed in a January earnings call. As of Dec. 31, 2025, the 50 largest US banks had a combined $25.580 trillion in assets, according to Market Intelligence data. In the most recent quarter, the 50 largest US banks reported a $186.20 billion increase in assets, with 38 institutions posting growth. In contrast, during the fourth quarter of 2024, the 50 largest US banks at that time saw their combined assets fall by $436.75 billion, with most of that decline — $347.46 billion — concentrated at the three biggest banks: JPMorgan Chase & Co. ( JPM ), Bank of America Corp. ( BAC ) and Citigroup Inc. ( C ). Big 4 banks' combined assets decrease Aggregate assets of the four largest US banks declined sequentially by...
February 2026 confirms that the US smartphone market has settled into a high-volume, highly repeatable promotional equilibrium where the “deal” is no longer a seasonal tactic but a core sales system. Across AT&T, T‑Mobile, Verizon, Spectrum Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile, GlobalData tracked 724 new smartphone promotions across 11 distinct promotion types, with trade-in (for both upgrades and new lines...
February 2026 confirms that the US smartphone market has settled into a high-volume, highly repeatable promotional equilibrium where the “deal” is no longer a seasonal tactic but a core sales system. Across AT&T, T‑Mobile, Verizon, Spectrum Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile, GlobalData tracked 724 new smartphone promotions across 11 distinct promotion types, with trade-in (for both upgrades and new lines) and bundle offers dominating the mix. Verizon (289 offers), AT&T (186), and T‑Mobile (164) collectively set the pace, while Samsung and Apple absorbed the bulk of subsidy attention, accounting for roughly 473 and 199 offers, respectively. Carriers promote premium plan adoption and bundles Verizon’s approach was the clearest expression of “premium-plan monetisation via flagship demand.” Its promotions scale sharply by unlimited tier, with the richest credits reserved for Verizon Unlimited Ultimate, followed by Unlimited Plus, while Unlimited Welcome remains a lower-incentive entry ramp. The Samsung Galaxy S26 series launch was the anchor: the Samsung S26 Ultra reached up to $1,300 for eligible trade-in upgrades on Ultimate, while new-line credits remained substantial across tiers. This structure is effective at driving ARPU and reducing churn by rewarding upgrades, but it also increases consumer decision complexity and pushes value-sensitive customers toward either new-line options or lower tiers with materially weaker savings. Verizon is winning on volume and device visibility, but risks perception of “strings-attached” value if the offer ladder becomes too opaque. AT&T’s promotional stance was more measured and operationalised—less about flash and more about consistency. With emphasis on bundle deals, trade-in, and upgrade-with-trade-in mechanics, AT&T signalled a “steady-state” model intended to support retention and predictable gross adds. Its Samsung Galaxy S26 offers (up to $1,300 / $1,100 / $900 with trade-in on AT&T Unlimited Starter SL) were competitive, and the t...