South Indian film star C. Joseph Vijay’s party secured support of smaller parties to reach a majority and form the government in Tamil Nadu, one of India’s most industrialized states and a key hub for automobile and iPhone production. Vijay, along with members of his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, met Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar late on Saturday to stake a claim. Support from the Indian Nation...
South Indian film star C. Joseph Vijay’s party secured support of smaller parties to reach a majority and form the government in Tamil Nadu, one of India’s most industrialized states and a key hub for automobile and iPhone production. Vijay, along with members of his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, met Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar late on Saturday to stake a claim. Support from the Indian National Congress, the Left parties and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi helped TVK cross the halfway mark in the 234-member assembly. Tamil Nadu delivered a fractured verdict after the votes were counted, setting the stage for coalition talks. Vijay’s party won 108 seats, ending more than five-decade-long duopoly of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Incumbent DMK led by MK Stalin secured 59 seats, while AIADMK won 47, according to results published on the Election Commission website. The result left investors assessing the impact of political shift. Analysts expect policy continuity as electronics, auto components, textiles and leather are large employment generators. The state is a major base for car and electronics exports, drawing significant foreign investment, including facilities linked to Apple’s iPhone assemblers.
More than 100 people aboard a cruise ship that departed from Fort Lauderdale in Florida last month have fallen ill from norovirus, according to the US Centres for Disease Control. The Caribbean Princess, a Princess Cruises ship, departed from Port Everglades on April 28 for an 11-day voyage, according to Cruise Mapper. But on Thursday, the CDC announced that 102 passengers and 13 crew members were...
More than 100 people aboard a cruise ship that departed from Fort Lauderdale in Florida last month have fallen ill from norovirus, according to the US Centres for Disease Control. The Caribbean Princess, a Princess Cruises ship, departed from Port Everglades on April 28 for an 11-day voyage, according to Cruise Mapper. But on Thursday, the CDC announced that 102 passengers and 13 crew members were sick and had been isolated. There are more than 4,000 people on board, according to the CDC. The...
Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) has shed about 48% of its value in just the last six months. The meme coin frenzy that once powered Solana's trading activity has become a reputational liability, and the broader crypto sell-off since October 2025 has compounded the damage substantially. But declaring the blockchain a lost cause as an investment would be hasty. The network's technical roadmap and institutional...
Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) has shed about 48% of its value in just the last six months. The meme coin frenzy that once powered Solana's trading activity has become a reputational liability, and the broader crypto sell-off since October 2025 has compounded the damage substantially. But declaring the blockchain a lost cause as an investment would be hasty. The network's technical roadmap and institutional partnerships tell a more complex story than the price chart suggests. Here's what's dragging the coin down, and what could pull it back up over the next couple of years. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
China’s marriage registrations in the first quarter fell to the lowest level on record for the three-month period, underscoring persistent weakness in the formation of new households — even during the peak wedding season. Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that 1.697 million couples registered to marry in the three months through March, down about 6.2% from a year earlier and below level...
China’s marriage registrations in the first quarter fell to the lowest level on record for the three-month period, underscoring persistent weakness in the formation of new households — even during the peak wedding season. Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that 1.697 million couples registered to marry in the three months through March, down about 6.2% from a year earlier and below levels seen during the pandemic, when first‑quarter registrations exceeded 2 million. China began publishing nationally comparable quarterly matrimony registration data in 2013, when marriages in the first quarter stood at about 4.28 million. The latest figures on divorce registrations were broadly stable at 622,000, little changed from recent years and well below peaks seen before the introduction of the mandatory 30-day “cooling‑off” period in 2021. The divergence has pushed the divorce-to-marriage ratio close to historic highs, underscoring demographic pressures facing the world’s second‑largest economy. With the first quarter typically accounting for nearly a third of annual marriages due to Lunar New Year traditions, the muted outcome points to structural rather than cyclical factors. The trend adds to concern about the aging population and its implications for housing demand, consumer spending and long‑term growth.
Getty Images I have a bullish view on PTC Therapeutics ( PTCT ) because I believe the market is still treating the company as a legacy rare disease business with a few uncertain pipeline shots, while the operating reality has shifted toward a commercially validated phenylketonuria launch, a de-risked Huntington 's disease partnership, and a balance sheet that gives management unusual flexibility f...
Getty Images I have a bullish view on PTC Therapeutics ( PTCT ) because I believe the market is still treating the company as a legacy rare disease business with a few uncertain pipeline shots, while the operating reality has shifted toward a commercially validated phenylketonuria launch, a de-risked Huntington 's disease partnership, and a balance sheet that gives management unusual flexibility for a mid-cap biotech. Sephience has very quickly become large enough to replace the shrinking parts of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) franchise and to fund the next stage of the company without forcing shareholders into the typical biotech financing cycle. PTC is now in a different category. It has a global commercial infrastructure; a growing metabolic disease product with real launch velocity; a partnered late-stage neurology asset where Novartis ( NVS ) is carrying the heavy development burden; and nearly $1.9 billion of cash and marketable securities as of March 31, 2026. This is not a clean story, since Translarna is under regulatory pressure and Emflaza is facing generic erosion, but I think that is exactly why the opportunity exists. The market is still discounting the old revenue base faster than it is capitalizing the new one. Latest Financials The first quarter of 2026 provided the clearest evidence yet that the Sephience launch is not merely an example of pre-launch stockpiling or enthusiastic launch activity. PTC reported first quarter total revenues of $272.6 million, with net product revenues of $225.6 million, representing a 47 percent increase from the first quarter of 2025. Sephience generated $124.6 million in the quarter, with a sequential increase of 36 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 Sephience revenue. PTC management indicated that there were 1,244 patients on commercial therapy globally at the end of the quarter. In the U.S., patient start form submissions have averaged approximately 140 per month for the last few months and excee...
Shares of CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) tumbled more than 11% on Friday, the day after the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud infrastructure specialist released its first-quarter results. The drop came after a torrid run for the stock; heading into earnings, shares had nearly doubled in 2026. What sent the stock lower wasn't the headline numbers, which on the surface looked transformational. Revenue mo...
Shares of CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) tumbled more than 11% on Friday, the day after the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud infrastructure specialist released its first-quarter results. The drop came after a torrid run for the stock; heading into earnings, shares had nearly doubled in 2026. What sent the stock lower wasn't the headline numbers, which on the surface looked transformational. Revenue more than doubled. The contracted revenue backlog approached $100 billion. New deals with Anthropic, Meta , and other AI heavyweights stacked up. But the market zeroed in on what came alongside the report. Second-quarter guidance came in light, capital spending plans crept higher, and the bottom line continued to deteriorate. With shares still up nearly 60% on the year, even after the slide, the question is whether this pullback is the entry point bulls have been hoping for. Continue reading
How Governments, Corporations, & Technocratic Systems Are Quietly Redefining Ownership In The 21st Century Authored by Milan Adams via PreppGroup, There are periods in history when societies begin to discover that the liberties they believed to be permanent were, in reality, conditional arrangements tolerated only while they remained politically convenient. Across the Western world, governments ar...
How Governments, Corporations, & Technocratic Systems Are Quietly Redefining Ownership In The 21st Century Authored by Milan Adams via PreppGroup, There are periods in history when societies begin to discover that the liberties they believed to be permanent were, in reality, conditional arrangements tolerated only while they remained politically convenient. Across the Western world, governments are quietly expanding the legal and administrative mechanisms through which private land can be reclassified, restricted, absorbed, or transferred in the name of infrastructure, sustainability, industrial security, climate adaptation, and economic modernization. Entire farming regions are now being surveyed for carbon pipelines. Rural communities are facing unprecedented redevelopment pressure linked to energy transitions and semiconductor expansion. Financial institutions are purchasing strategic agricultural land at historic levels while policymakers openly discuss the restructuring of urban life around centralized digital systems. Officially, these transformations are described as progress. Unofficially, an increasing number of citizens have begun to suspect that the modern definition of ownership itself is being rewritten in real time. The New Architecture of Property Seizure The modern citizen has been conditioned to believe that private property represents one of the sacred foundations of liberal democracy. Constitutions defend it, political campaigns celebrate it, and economists routinely describe it as the engine of prosperity and social stability. Yet beneath the ceremonial rhetoric lies a more fragile reality — one in which ownership increasingly resembles a conditional administrative privilege rather than an untouchable natural right. This contradiction becomes impossible to ignore when examining the doctrine of eminent domain, the extraordinary legal authority through which governments may confiscate private property without the owner’s consent. Supporters of emin...
Mrinal Pal/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis On May 7, Genpact Limited ( G ) published a report for the first quarter. According to all the main indicators, the company managed to beat the market consensus forecast, as a result of which the shares rose slightly in price by 2%. At the same time, the company remains unreasonably cheap relative to its competitors, and discounts on m...
Mrinal Pal/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis On May 7, Genpact Limited ( G ) published a report for the first quarter. According to all the main indicators, the company managed to beat the market consensus forecast, as a result of which the shares rose slightly in price by 2%. At the same time, the company remains unreasonably cheap relative to its competitors, and discounts on multiples reach 50% and above. This is despite the fact that Genpact maintains a good revenue growth rate and is one of the most profitable companies in the sector. Management competently rebuilds the business model, focusing on the development of AI-related services. Because of this, investors' skepticism about the company's future is gradually fading. Since the results for Q1 turned out to be within my expectations, I left the key assumptions of the DCF model the same and maintain a Buy rating with a target price of $43 and an upside of about 32% to the current market price ($32.56 at the time of writing). AI Strategy Starting to Translate Into Financial Results I recommend reading my first article about Genpact Limited, among other things. There, in addition to financial analysis of the reports, I also deeply analyzed the company's business model, described its development strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy, and the key growth drivers and risks inherent in the company. This will help you gain a deeper understanding of the business and better understand the reasons for the company's current financial situation. And now I will proceed to the analysis of the latest report. Seeking Alpha With the advent and active implementation of AI in everyday life, investors began to be skeptical of consulting companies such as Genpact, whose key assets are essentially people. There is an opinion that AI will be able to automate all this work of people, which means why should customers pay the same money to Genpact if AI can do everything on its own. As a result, the ...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images All year long in 2026, cybersecurity stocks have been among the heaviest sold-off category in the software sector, thanks to the rising capabilities of Anthropic's Mythos. There has been one major exception: CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), the endpoint security software platform that has rebranded itself as an agentic security platform. Since the start of...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images All year long in 2026, cybersecurity stocks have been among the heaviest sold-off category in the software sector, thanks to the rising capabilities of Anthropic's Mythos. There has been one major exception: CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), the endpoint security software platform that has rebranded itself as an agentic security platform. Since the start of the year, shares of CrowdStrike have rallied ~15%, and over the past twelve months the stock has jumped nearly 30%. Strong results, and in particular healthy cross-sell results across the company's vast product portfolio, continue to help justify the rally. Data by YCharts I last wrote a neutral article on CrowdStrike in February, when the stock was hovering under $400 per share. I acknowledge now that my skittishness over CrowdStrike's valuation has caused me to lose out on larger gains. Though it is certainly a premium momentum stock, CrowdStrike is proving itself to be something like a Palantir ( PLTR ): expensive multiples, but also furious growth at scale and accelerating trends that make near-term multiples less of a telling indicator as to the company's potential. I'm upgrading CrowdStrike back up to a buy rating. In my view, these are the key tenets of the bull case for CrowdStrike that investors should be aware of: CrowdStrike addresses a massive 2030 TAM of $325 billion. The company asserts that the proliferation of AI, and the need to secure additional agents and endpoints, has dramatically boosted its addressable market relative to ~$149 billion today. Against its longer-term TAM, the company's <$6 billion revenue guide for the current year represents just ~2% penetration into the overall market. Growth at scale without any deceleration. The company has achieved low/mid 20s growth in an uninterrupted fashion, despite hitting a very sizable scale at >$6 billion in ARR. Net retention rates continue to improve as the company succeeds in selling multiple modules to...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Over the past few months, things have not gone exactly according to plan when it comes to Associated Banc-Corp ( ASB ). Since I reaffirmed the company as a 'buy ' candidate in February of this year, the stock has barely moved, inching higher by only 0.9%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 4.4% over that same window of time. The good news is that, even th...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images Over the past few months, things have not gone exactly according to plan when it comes to Associated Banc-Corp ( ASB ). Since I reaffirmed the company as a 'buy ' candidate in February of this year, the stock has barely moved, inching higher by only 0.9%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 4.4% over that same window of time. The good news is that, even though the stock has underperformed, it is still beating the market compared to the time that I originally turned bullish about it in October of 2023. From that time through today, shares are up 89.2%. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is up 69.3%. So on the whole, I view this as a win. Fundamentally speaking, the institution is actually doing quite well. Growth in the company's balance sheet, combined with improved profitability, should be viewed in a favorable light. Although the stock is not exactly the cheapest, it's not expensive either, especially for an institution with decent asset quality. Given this, I believe that maintaining it as a soft 'buy ' is the right choice here. I 'm Still Bullish on Associated Banc-Corp Whenever I analyze a bank, I almost always start with the balance sheet. This is because everything flows from there, and it's the easiest way to see how healthy these institutions are. Take deposits for starters. During the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year , deposits amounted to $35.73 billion. That's up from the $35.55 billion that the company ended 2025 with. This is great to see in and of itself. But what's even better is the fact that, even as total deposits increased, high-cost brokered deposits declined. These fell from $3.80 billion to $3.56 billion. This means that organic deposit growth was even more impressive. And that, according to management, was largely thanks to a rise in savings and interest-bearing demand deposits that more than offset a drop in brokered deposits and a decline in network transaction deposits. Author - SEC EDGAR Data Another po...