Amid an artificial intelligence-induced buying frenzy, Apple ( AAPL ) discontinued selling the 256GB version of the Mac mini last week. The move pushed the starting price on the popular computer, which has seen a resurgence thanks to AI agents such as OpenClaw, to $799 from $599. Investment firm Wedbush Securities said the move was likely done to protect the tech giant's margins. “We see the remov...
Amid an artificial intelligence-induced buying frenzy, Apple ( AAPL ) discontinued selling the 256GB version of the Mac mini last week. The move pushed the starting price on the popular computer, which has seen a resurgence thanks to AI agents such as OpenClaw, to $799 from $599. Investment firm Wedbush Securities said the move was likely done to protect the tech giant's margins. “We see the removal of the 256 GB product as a way for Apple to effectively raise pricing, thereby protecting margins (and better utilizing available component supply) in a supply constrained and rising component cost environment,” analysts at the firm wrote in a note to clients. And even with memory pricing surging (they believe average solid-state drive pricing could be roughly $.30 per gigabyte this quarter), the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant should still see a “sharp boost” in margins on its better configured products, the analysts added. Additionally, the analysts said they would not be surprised if other manufacturers made similar shifts to protect margins and limit the effects of the memory crunch. Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the issue of strong demand for the Mac mini (as well as the Mac Studio) on the company's most recent earnings call and said it could take “months” for the two to come into balance. “For Mac, in the June quarter, there's two factors that are driving the constraints,” Cook said . “One is that on the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools. And the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted. And so we saw higher-than-expected demand. The second reason is that the customer response to Mac Neo has just been off the charts, with higher-than-expected demand. And the March quarter record for customers—we set a March quarter record for customers new to the Mac, partly due to the Neo. We think, looking forward, that the Mini and the Mac Studio may take several months to reach supply-d...
Michael Burry dumped his entire stake in GameStop after the company's audacious bid for eBay , saying the deal's heavy leverage shattered the investment case he had been building. "I sold my entire GME position," Burry said in a Substack post late Monday. "Any which way I sliced it, the Instant Berkshire thesis was never compatible with > 5x Debt/EBITDA, never ok with interest coverage under 4.0x ...
Michael Burry dumped his entire stake in GameStop after the company's audacious bid for eBay , saying the deal's heavy leverage shattered the investment case he had been building. "I sold my entire GME position," Burry said in a Substack post late Monday. "Any which way I sliced it, the Instant Berkshire thesis was never compatible with > 5x Debt/EBITDA, never ok with interest coverage under 4.0x ... As a result, GME is the first sale since I started this Substack." GameStop made an unsolicited, nonbinding offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in cash and stock, valuing the online marketplace at roughly $55.5 billion. The proposal is a steep premium to recent trading levels, but also raises questions about financing. GameStop's market capitalization is a little less than $12 billion. Shares of GameStop fell about 10% Monday following the announcement, reflecting investor skepticism around the feasibility of the deal and the potential strain on the company's balance sheet. GME 5D mountain GameStop over the past 5 days Burry, made famous by the "Big Short," had thought that dealmaking could transform GameStop into a version of Berkshire Hathaway , but decided that the company's capital structure following the proposed acquisition was incompatible with his "Instant Berkshire" thesis. That idea was never consistent with the level of indebtedness required to pursue a takeover of eBay, he said. "Instant Berkshire did not contemplate anywhere near 5x+ leverage," Burry wrote. "Never confuse debt for creativity." Burry said the more likely outcome at the proposed valuation would push leverage to roughly 7.7 times debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — a level bordering on distressed, he said. He pointed to companies such as Wayfair and Carvana as examples of businesses that struggled under similar debt burdens. "Wayfair lived there for years, Carvana nearly died there and still might from such a start. Bath & Body Works too. Those are the...
One in five people in Hong Kong feels “lonely”, with about 520,000 self-isolating and unwilling to confide in family, friends or even artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society on Tuesday released the survey results, which also showed the city’s family well-being index at 6.09, slightly up from 6.06 in 2024. The NGO conducted the survey between ...
One in five people in Hong Kong feels “lonely”, with about 520,000 self-isolating and unwilling to confide in family, friends or even artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society on Tuesday released the survey results, which also showed the city’s family well-being index at 6.09, slightly up from 6.06 in 2024. The NGO conducted the survey between January and February, randomly polling 2,112 Hong Kong residents aged 18 and above who lived with...
Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK-B) cash position has become one of the defining financial stories of recent years, swelling to truly historic proportions. The company ended 2025 with $373.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, representing the largest corporate cash hoard in American business history. The initial peak occurred in the third quarter of 2025, when ... We May Soon Find Out Why Warren...
Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK-B) cash position has become one of the defining financial stories of recent years, swelling to truly historic proportions. The company ended 2025 with $373.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, representing the largest corporate cash hoard in American business history. The initial peak occurred in the third quarter of 2025, when ... We May Soon Find Out Why Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Have Almost $400 Billion in Cash
The companies are reporting strong earnings growth fueled in part by data center and robotics demand. Elon Musk also teased Tesla’s Optimus as its "biggest product ever."
The companies are reporting strong earnings growth fueled in part by data center and robotics demand. Elon Musk also teased Tesla’s Optimus as its "biggest product ever."
(RTTNews) - Atkore Inc. (ATKR), a manufacturer of electrical products, on Tuesday reported a wider net loss for the second quarter compared to the prior year despite an increase in revenue.
(RTTNews) - Atkore Inc. (ATKR), a manufacturer of electrical products, on Tuesday reported a wider net loss for the second quarter compared to the prior year despite an increase in revenue.
"The Pulse With Francine Lacqua" is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today's guests: Vivek Paul, BlackRock Investment Institute, Portfolio Research Global Head; Yu Jie, Chatham House, Asia-Pacific Program...
"The Pulse With Francine Lacqua" is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today's guests: Vivek Paul, BlackRock Investment Institute, Portfolio Research Global Head; Yu Jie, Chatham House, Asia-Pacific Programme Senior Research Fellow; Ester Baiget, Novonesis, President & CEO; Massimo Battaini, Prysmian, CEO. (Source: Bloomberg)
Derick Hudson Meta ( META ) on Tuesday said it was “expanding” technology to protect younger users across its platforms. The company says its AI-powered age assurance and enforcement tools are designed to identify users who may be teenagers, even if they provide an adult date of birth. The tech would place such accounts into “Teen Account” settings. This rollout includes Instagram in the European ...
Derick Hudson Meta ( META ) on Tuesday said it was “expanding” technology to protect younger users across its platforms. The company says its AI-powered age assurance and enforcement tools are designed to identify users who may be teenagers, even if they provide an adult date of birth. The tech would place such accounts into “Teen Account” settings. This rollout includes Instagram in the European Union and Brazil and Facebook in the United States, with further expansion planned. Meta last year rolled out the technology on Instagram in the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK. "Now we are expanding our use of this technology to 27 countries in the EU and Brazil. This will ensure more people whom we suspect to be teens are proactively placed into age-appropriate protections on Instagram," Meta said. These systems analyze profile signals such as posts, comments, and even visual content to estimate age. The company emphasized that its visual analysis tools are not facial recognition but instead assess general cues like context and appearance patterns. If an account is flagged as potentially underage, it may be deactivated pending age verification. Meta says it is also simplifying reporting tools and using AI-assisted moderation to improve speed and consistency in handling violations. Meta also called for app stores to take a larger role in verifying users’ ages. Centralized age verification would create more consistent safeguards across platforms while preserving user privacy. More on Meta Meta Platforms: Why AI Is Still Driving Ads Growth And Value Creation Meta's Post-Q1 2026 Earnings Price Slump Might Continue Meta Does Things Their Own Way Meta taps Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan for $13B El Paso AI data center deal: report AI boom lifts big tech earnings, but Wall Street is picking winners and losers
Southwest Gas press release ( SWX ): Q1 GAAP EPS of $1.91 misses by $0.09 . Revenue of $585.12M (-21.6% Y/Y) misses by $110.4M . Southwest Gas invested $186.3 million in capital expenditures (on an accrual basis) during the quarter to strengthen and modernize infrastructure to support new and existing customer demand; Southwest Gas achieved gross margin of $298.9 million and operating margin of $4...
Southwest Gas press release ( SWX ): Q1 GAAP EPS of $1.91 misses by $0.09 . Revenue of $585.12M (-21.6% Y/Y) misses by $110.4M . Southwest Gas invested $186.3 million in capital expenditures (on an accrual basis) during the quarter to strengthen and modernize infrastructure to support new and existing customer demand; Southwest Gas achieved gross margin of $298.9 million and operating margin of $477.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026; As of March 31, 2026, the Company had $484.8 million of cash on hand, and nearly $1.2 billion in available liquidity; and The Company increased its quarterly common stock dividend to $0.645 per share, representing a 4% increase over the 2025 dividend rate. Southwest Gas Holdings Guidance and Outlook: The Company affirms the following 2026 and forward-looking guidance ranges, as follows: (in millions, except percentages) Affirmed Estimates 2026 Earnings per share from continuing operations $4.17 - $4.32 / share vs. $4.26 consensus 2026 Capital expenditures (1) ~$1.25 billion 2026 - 2030 Adjusted Earnings per share from continuing operations CAGR (2) 12.0% - 14.0% 2026- 2030 Capital expenditures (1) $6.3 billion 2026 - 2030 Rate base CAGR (2) 9.5% - 11.5% Click to enlarge More on Southwest Gas Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (SWX) Presents at Jefferies Power, Utilities, & Clean Energy Conference 2026 - Slideshow Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (SWX) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Southwest Gas Q1 2026 Earnings Preview Southwest Gas raises quarterly dividend by 4% to $0.645/share