U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 1% on Wednesday. The Dow traded down 0.24% to 49,638.96 while the NASDAQ gained 1.18% to 26,395.66. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.60% to 7,445.55. Leading and Lagging Sectors Communication services shares jumped by 1.6% on Wednesday. In trading on Wednesday, utilities stocks fell by 1.4%. Top Headline Aliba...
U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 1% on Wednesday. The Dow traded down 0.24% to 49,638.96 while the NASDAQ gained 1.18% to 26,395.66. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.60% to 7,445.55. Leading and Lagging Sectors Communication services shares jumped by 1.6% on Wednesday. In trading on Wednesday, utilities stocks fell by 1.4%. Top Headline Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) shares gained around 6% on Wednesday after the e-commerce and clou
Shares of Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) are trading near $130 in midday action on Wednesday, down 4% on the day. That extends a punishing year for the AI software name, which is now off roughly 26% in 2026. The contrast with the broader market is stark. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 9% year-to-date ... How Can Palantir Be Down 26% in 2026 When Stocks Are Near All-Time Highs?
Shares of Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) are trading near $130 in midday action on Wednesday, down 4% on the day. That extends a punishing year for the AI software name, which is now off roughly 26% in 2026. The contrast with the broader market is stark. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 9% year-to-date ... How Can Palantir Be Down 26% in 2026 When Stocks Are Near All-Time Highs?
Robert Way UBS said first quarter server CPU shipments of Arm ( ARM ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) outgrew and continued to gain at the expense of Intel ( INTC ) quarter-over-quarter. "Total server CPU shipments increased ~6% Q/Q (or ~19% Y/Y), better than normal seasonal of down ~7%. ARM and AMD units outgrew and continued to gain share at the expense of INTC. On a unit basis, by vendor, IN...
Robert Way UBS said first quarter server CPU shipments of Arm ( ARM ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) outgrew and continued to gain at the expense of Intel ( INTC ) quarter-over-quarter. "Total server CPU shipments increased ~6% Q/Q (or ~19% Y/Y), better than normal seasonal of down ~7%. ARM and AMD units outgrew and continued to gain share at the expense of INTC. On a unit basis, by vendor, INTC ceded ~370bps of share (to 54.9%), while AMD gained 230bps (to 27.4%) and ARM gained 140bps (to 17.7%)," said analysts led by Timothy Arcuri. The analysts noted that on a year-over-year basis Arm's share increased to 17.7% from 11.5%, and AMD grew to 27.4% from 24.1%, while Intel's share declined to 54.9% from 64.4%. On a revenue basis for the x86 market, Intel lost 490 basis points, or bps, (to 53.8%) while AMD reached 46.2% — as Intel server units were down 1% quarter-over-quarter while AMD units were up 15%. The analysts said that after the server CPU grew 21% year-over-year in 2025, they don't expect any slowdown into 2026 as hyperscaler capital expenditure, or capex, grows nearly 81% year-over-year and agentic AI drives a step function increase in demand for CPUs. "While all CPU architectures will benefit from increasing AI demand near-term, we see strong hyperscaler adoption of ARM for head nodes and other applications in light of its power-efficient architecture, while AMD is well positioned with industry-leading core count combined with multithreading capabilities allowing to serve agentic workloads with multiple sub-agents on one device. We believe INTC's server roadmap will likely become more competitive with introduction of Coral Rapids lineup, but also think INTC should benefit on the Client side as agentic workloads run locally catalyze growth in the PC [personal computer] market over the medium-term," said Arcuri and his team. In addition, the analysts noted that total PC CPU shipments in the first quarter of 2026 (desktop and mobile) declined 13% quarter-o...
Robert Way UBS said first quarter server CPU shipments of Arm ( ARM ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) outgrew and continued to gain at the expense of Intel ( INTC ) quarter-over-quarter. "Total server CPU shipments increased ~6% Q/Q (or ~19% Y/Y), better than normal seasonal of down ~7%. ARM and AMD units outgrew and continued to gain share at the expense of INTC. On a unit basis, by vendor, IN...
Robert Way UBS said first quarter server CPU shipments of Arm ( ARM ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) outgrew and continued to gain at the expense of Intel ( INTC ) quarter-over-quarter. "Total server CPU shipments increased ~6% Q/Q (or ~19% Y/Y), better than normal seasonal of down ~7%. ARM and AMD units outgrew and continued to gain share at the expense of INTC. On a unit basis, by vendor, INTC ceded ~370bps of share (to 54.9%), while AMD gained 230bps (to 27.4%) and ARM gained 140bps (to 17.7%)," said analysts led by Timothy Arcuri. The analysts noted that on a year-over-year basis Arm's share increased to 17.7% from 11.5%, and AMD grew to 27.4% from 24.1%, while Intel's share declined to 54.9% from 64.4%. On a revenue basis for the x86 market, Intel lost 490 basis points, or bps, (to 53.8%) while AMD reached 46.2% — as Intel server units were down 1% quarter-over-quarter while AMD units were up 15%. The analysts said that after the server CPU grew 21% year-over-year in 2025, they don't expect any slowdown into 2026 as hyperscaler capital expenditure, or capex, grows nearly 81% year-over-year and agentic AI drives a step function increase in demand for CPUs. "While all CPU architectures will benefit from increasing AI demand near-term, we see strong hyperscaler adoption of ARM for head nodes and other applications in light of its power-efficient architecture, while AMD is well positioned with industry-leading core count combined with multithreading capabilities allowing to serve agentic workloads with multiple sub-agents on one device. We believe INTC's server roadmap will likely become more competitive with introduction of Coral Rapids lineup, but also think INTC should benefit on the Client side as agentic workloads run locally catalyze growth in the PC [personal computer] market over the medium-term," said Arcuri and his team. In addition, the analysts noted that total PC CPU shipments in the first quarter of 2026 (desktop and mobile) declined 13% quarter-o...
Earnings Call Insights: American Integrity Insurance Group (AII) Q1 2026 Management View “Before we get into the quarter, I want to take a minute to recognize the change to our executive management team… Ben Lurie… will continue to support us through the transition… [and] return to Sowell Company,” and “welcome Brian Foley… as our new Chief Financial Officer.” (Founder, CEO & Director Robert Ritch...
Earnings Call Insights: American Integrity Insurance Group (AII) Q1 2026 Management View “Before we get into the quarter, I want to take a minute to recognize the change to our executive management team… Ben Lurie… will continue to support us through the transition… [and] return to Sowell Company,” and “welcome Brian Foley… as our new Chief Financial Officer.” (Founder, CEO & Director Robert Ritchie) “The quarter represents and reflects a business that is transitioning toward more durable, voluntary-driven growth with a more normalized earnings profile,” with policies in force “growing double digits across nearly every channel,” including “independent agents up approximately 9%… builders up over 38% and national accounts up in excess of 40%.” (CEO Ritchie) “During the first quarter… we wrote 120 new policies per business day in these markets, up from only 6 policies a day in the same period last year,” and management said these middle-aged-home and Tri-County segments “represent more than half of the homes in Florida.” (CEO Ritchie) “In the first quarter, we wrote over 94,000 new and renewal policies in the voluntary market,” retention was “approximately 83.6%,” and policies in force were “over 437,000 policies.” (President Jon Ritchie) “We are pleased with our modest pace of new business writings” in commercial residential, “having written 81 policies during the first quarter.” (President Ritchie) “We generated net income available for common shareholders of $19.9 million or $1.02 per diluted share,” and “gross premiums written were $220 million.” (CFO Brian Foley) Outlook “We’re seeing strong engagement from our reinsurance partners and the environment is more constructive on both pricing and terms… we anticipate a meaningful reduction in risk-adjusted pricing at renewal.” (President Ritchie) “We’re seeing very meaningful reinsurance market improvement and expect substantial and meaningful rate softening on our June 1 renewal,” while emphasizing “rate adequacy rem...
Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) shares are skyrocketing Wednesday. Morgan Stanley released new research arguing that the company's energy storage ambitions are far more valuable than the market currently recognizes, putting the stock on pace for its best session since March 2020. Here’s what you should know. Ford Motor stock is among today’s top performers. What’s behind F gains? What’s Pushing Ford Higher...
Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) shares are skyrocketing Wednesday. Morgan Stanley released new research arguing that the company's energy storage ambitions are far more valuable than the market currently recognizes, putting the stock on pace for its best session since March 2020. Here’s what you should know. Ford Motor stock is among today’s top performers. What’s behind F gains? What’s Pushing Ford Higher? Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco reiterated an Equal‑weight rating and kept a $14 price targe
A paediatrician at a hospital near Berlin has been charged with sex offences in 130 cases, many of which are said to have taken place at the hospital, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The extent of the offences, which include serious sexual abuse of children and rape, had previously been unknown. The paediatrician has been in pre-trial custody since November, with prosecutors citing a risk of reoffe...
A paediatrician at a hospital near Berlin has been charged with sex offences in 130 cases, many of which are said to have taken place at the hospital, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The extent of the offences, which include serious sexual abuse of children and rape, had previously been unknown. The paediatrician has been in pre-trial custody since November, with prosecutors citing a risk of reoffending as a reason for the man’s continued detention. In January, it became known that the doctor was...
Tech stocks ripped higher on Wednesday despite a sharply hotter-than-expected April Producer Price Index reading that rekindled inflation anxieties and rate-hike fears, as strength in semiconductors fueled investor sentiment. Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) rallied for the sixth straight session to above $226 per share, with the company’s market cap soaring above $5.5 trillion ahead of next week’s high...
Tech stocks ripped higher on Wednesday despite a sharply hotter-than-expected April Producer Price Index reading that rekindled inflation anxieties and rate-hike fears, as strength in semiconductors fueled investor sentiment. Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) rallied for the sixth straight session to above $226 per share, with the company’s market cap soaring above $5.5 trillion ahead of next week’s highly awaited earnings report. Speaking via Truth Social shortly before landing in Beijing, Trump told
afterday/iStock via Getty Images For many years now, I've watched analysts on Bloomberg, CNBC, and even on Seeking Alpha caution investors about how semiconductors are "cyclical," the boom cycle is nearly over, and the bust is near upon us. And all of them have missed what has been one of the biggest bull markets of their lives (see chart below). Today I'll explain why the boom in semiconductors i...
afterday/iStock via Getty Images For many years now, I've watched analysts on Bloomberg, CNBC, and even on Seeking Alpha caution investors about how semiconductors are "cyclical," the boom cycle is nearly over, and the bust is near upon us. And all of them have missed what has been one of the biggest bull markets of their lives (see chart below). Today I'll explain why the boom in semiconductors is far, far from over and why they're an essential component within the well-diversified portfolio I have advised investors to build and hold throughout the market's up-and-down cycles. Data by YCharts As you can see from the chart above, over the past five years, the broad semiconductor sector - as represented by the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) - has outperformed the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( VOO ) by more than 4x. Investment Thesis Back in late 2021, I wrote a Seeking Alpha article which questioned the common perception that the semiconductor sector is a very cyclical industry - see "SMH: Why Semiconductors Are A Must Own." In that piece I wrote the following: Believe it or not, many investors still seem to view the semiconductor as a highly cyclical industry that's exposed to boom-n-bust cycles. That may have been true back in the day when the semi industry was dominated by the highly cyclical PC and automotive markets - but that simply is no longer the case today. Semiconductor demand is very strong across multiple, and very fast growing, technology sub-sectors. These include EVs, high-performance computing ("HPC"), networking, 5G smartphones and infrastructure, IoT, data centers, and application specific hardware to run specialized and highly tailored AI/ML algorithms. Oh, and yes - semiconductors are still needed for traditional desktop and mobile PCs. Since that article was released, the SMH ETF has outperformed the S&P500 by 215%-plus (see the Seeking Alpha scoreboard in the upper right-hand corner of that article). Five years later, I was just about to write the s...
State department grants waiver for ticket holders Trump administration has cracked down on immigration The Trump administration is suspending a requirement that would have required visitors from five World Cup-qualified countries to pay a bond of up to $15,000 in order to enter the United States for the tournament. The US state department imposed the bond requirement last year for countries that i...
State department grants waiver for ticket holders Trump administration has cracked down on immigration The Trump administration is suspending a requirement that would have required visitors from five World Cup-qualified countries to pay a bond of up to $15,000 in order to enter the United States for the tournament. The US state department imposed the bond requirement last year for countries that it said had high rates of people overstaying their visas and other security issues as part of a broader crackdown on immigration. Travelers to the US from 50 countries are required to pay the bond, and five of those countries have qualified for the World Cup – Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia. Continue reading...
Ugly, Tailing 30Y Auction Makes History With First 5%+ Yield Since The Great Quant Crash Of Aug 2007 Moments ago, the last refunding auction of the week, the sale of $25BN in 30Y paper, made history: it was the first 30Y auction to print with a high yield above 5%, and a coupon of 5%, since August 2007... which as veteran traders will recall was the month of the historic quant crash which marked t...
Ugly, Tailing 30Y Auction Makes History With First 5%+ Yield Since The Great Quant Crash Of Aug 2007 Moments ago, the last refunding auction of the week, the sale of $25BN in 30Y paper, made history: it was the first 30Y auction to print with a high yield above 5%, and a coupon of 5%, since August 2007... which as veteran traders will recall was the month of the historic quant crash which marked the S&P highs at the time and eventually culminated in the global financial crisis. The auction priced at a high yield of 5.046%, up sharply from 4.876% in April, and tailed the 5.041% When Issued by 0.5bps, the second consecutive tail following 4 stop-throughs. But, as noted above, what is more notable was that this was the first 5% interest rate coupon 30Y auction, and the the first 30Y auction with a high yield above 5% since... August 2007 when surging rates sparked a quant crash. Come to think of it, unlike retail momentum chasers, quants have had a terrible month. How much longer can they last? But we digress... Going back to the auction, the uglyness was all around: the bid to cover was 2.303, down from 2.385, below the 2.43 six auction average and the lowest since Nob 2025. Internals were not quite as bad, with Indirects taking down 66.6%, up from 64.1% in April and just below the 66.8% recent average. And with Directs awarded 21.74%, Dealers were left with 11.7%. Overall, this was an ugly, tailing auction, but the question on everyone's lips is whether today's quction will - like in August 2007 - be the VaR shock equivalent of a bond auction that pops this particular bubble. For the answer keep a close eye on quants who are suffering badly. Tyler Durden Wed, 05/13/2026 - 13:35