watch now VIDEO 2:48 02:48 Why students are choosing community college, certificates over four-year degrees Markets and Politics Digital Original Video It's a challenging labor market for those just starting out, and new job seekers will likely have to recalibrate their earning potential. Today's college seniors expect to make about $80,000 one year after graduation, according to a survey of under...
watch now VIDEO 2:48 02:48 Why students are choosing community college, certificates over four-year degrees Markets and Politics Digital Original Video It's a challenging labor market for those just starting out, and new job seekers will likely have to recalibrate their earning potential. Today's college seniors expect to make about $80,000 one year after graduation, according to a survey of undergraduates pursuing a bachelor's degree by real estate site Clever in February and March. Yet, the average starting salary for recent graduates is $56,153, Clever found, a difference of nearly $24,000. The disconnect between perception and reality only worsens over time. A decade into their careers, students anticipate making $144,889 on average. That's well over the average midcareer salary of $95,521, according to Clever. Read more CNBC personal finance coverage Social Security benefits are reduced for retirees who work. How that may change Fed keeps interest rates unchanged in April: What that means for you Used EV sales are surging — how their ownership costs compare to gas cars Trump said $465,000 in retirement savings is 'rich.' Is it? CNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked More than three million new graduates enter the workforce every year, banking on the idea that a college degree is the ticket to a well-paying job. However, this year, those armed with a newly minted diploma have faced one of the toughest job markets in years. A shaky outlook for jobs As the artificial intelligence boom reshapes the workforce, some large employers have said they're replacing entry-level positions with AI in order to streamline operations and cut costs. Concerns about the economy and persistent inflation are also causing some companies to put hiring plans on hold. Amid a shaky job market, rising tuition and ballooning student loan balances , more young adults are questioning whether a college degree is worth it, several studies show. At the same time,...
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the stock dominating every retirement account discussion, every cable hit, and every chart on Twitter, and the multi-year run is precisely why. The more important signal sits elsewhere. Semiconductor revenue is cyclical. Always has been. The Bureau of Economic Analysis already shows the math: manufacturing’s share of GDP fell from 9.7% in ... While NVDA Dominates Headlines,...
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the stock dominating every retirement account discussion, every cable hit, and every chart on Twitter, and the multi-year run is precisely why. The more important signal sits elsewhere. Semiconductor revenue is cyclical. Always has been. The Bureau of Economic Analysis already shows the math: manufacturing’s share of GDP fell from 9.7% in ... While NVDA Dominates Headlines, Here’s Where the Real AI Economics Are Hiding
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) is back on every retail trader’s radar after a 43.11% rip in a single month and a 20.1% single-day pop into May, fueled by a Reddit setup note pitching a “voice AI infrastructure play with an interesting setup” ahead of earnings on May 7. SoundHound trades near $10 with the stock still ... Skip the SoundHound Hype — These Three Titans Own the AI Infrastructure Layer Tha...
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN) is back on every retail trader’s radar after a 43.11% rip in a single month and a 20.1% single-day pop into May, fueled by a Reddit setup note pitching a “voice AI infrastructure play with an interesting setup” ahead of earnings on May 7. SoundHound trades near $10 with the stock still ... Skip the SoundHound Hype — These Three Titans Own the AI Infrastructure Layer That Actually Matters
Here is the absolute core of Paramount’s (NASDAQ: PSKY) problem with the news channels it gets in its Warner Bros. Discovery buyout. Ancerson Copper is, by many measures, the most-watched show on CNN, which Warner owns. He stands 23rd overall in cable show ratings, with an audience of about 1.2 million. In sum, Paramount gets ... Joe Rogan’s Audience Is 10 Times More Than Anderson Cooper’s
Here is the absolute core of Paramount’s (NASDAQ: PSKY) problem with the news channels it gets in its Warner Bros. Discovery buyout. Ancerson Copper is, by many measures, the most-watched show on CNN, which Warner owns. He stands 23rd overall in cable show ratings, with an audience of about 1.2 million. In sum, Paramount gets ... Joe Rogan’s Audience Is 10 Times More Than Anderson Cooper’s
Director Richard P. Grimley of Kaiser Aluminum Corporation (NASDAQ:KALU) disclosed an open-market sale of 1,524 shares of common stock for a transaction value of ~$261,000, according to the SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 reported price ($171.52); post-transaction value based on April 29, 2026 closing price ($172.52). *1-year price change calculated as of April 29, 2026. ...
Director Richard P. Grimley of Kaiser Aluminum Corporation (NASDAQ:KALU) disclosed an open-market sale of 1,524 shares of common stock for a transaction value of ~$261,000, according to the SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 reported price ($171.52); post-transaction value based on April 29, 2026 closing price ($172.52). *1-year price change calculated as of April 29, 2026. Continue reading
Semiconductor stocks ripped higher in April, with several names posting one-month gains that would outperform one-year returns for most portfolios. On CNBC’s Halftime Report episode “Can the Market Move Higher in May?” (5/1/26), the panel openly split on a single question: Do you keep buying after a move this large, or sell on the risk ... Chip Stocks Soared 70%+ in April. Have They Gone Too Far?
Semiconductor stocks ripped higher in April, with several names posting one-month gains that would outperform one-year returns for most portfolios. On CNBC’s Halftime Report episode “Can the Market Move Higher in May?” (5/1/26), the panel openly split on a single question: Do you keep buying after a move this large, or sell on the risk ... Chip Stocks Soared 70%+ in April. Have They Gone Too Far?
April marked a sharp reversal from the prior month’s risk‑off environment with U.S. equity markets staging a powerful rebound despite an increasingly complex geopolitical and macro backdrop.
April marked a sharp reversal from the prior month’s risk‑off environment with U.S. equity markets staging a powerful rebound despite an increasingly complex geopolitical and macro backdrop.
Fritz Jorgensen/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis In my first article on Meta Platforms, Inc. ( META ), I pointed out how CapEx leads to even higher ROIC, and investors shouldn’t be concerned. In my last coverage , I illustrated evidence of how META leverages AI to offer higher advertising efficiency and benefits from pricing power, while I also mentioned the Click‑to‑Message ads...
Fritz Jorgensen/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis In my first article on Meta Platforms, Inc. ( META ), I pointed out how CapEx leads to even higher ROIC, and investors shouldn’t be concerned. In my last coverage , I illustrated evidence of how META leverages AI to offer higher advertising efficiency and benefits from pricing power, while I also mentioned the Click‑to‑Message ads business as a promising growth catalyst, especially in emerging markets. Our story continues with more evidence of AI‑driven advertising efficiency and an examination of the company’s outlook to create AI agents for everyone, and how this factor could change its overall business model. AI Efficiency of Ads Continues to Expand and Leads Growth META continues to accelerate its revenue growth, given that it achieved 33% YoY growth in Q1’26 - mainly coming from advertising – the Family of Apps (FoA) segment- while maintaining a 41% operating margin despite the headcount drop of 1% compared to Q4. This means that the company, by using AI, becomes more efficient internally and reduces operating costs. Notably, the Other business line, which includes products such as WhatsApp paid messaging and Meta Verification, increased by 74% YoY and represents the company’s fastest-growing business. Q1’26 Investors Presentation Ads revenue continues to be META’s flagship revenue stream, with 33% YoY growth despite a slight decline in family daily active people -or users - due to: “Internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia” As mentioned by the company, it reached 3.56B users in Q1’26, compared to 3.58B in the last quarter. Deep diving into the advertising business, the total number of ad impressions increased by 19% YoY - compared to an increase of 5% in Q1’25 - while the global average price per ad increased by 12% YoY - compared with an increase of 10% in Q1’25. This means that META continues to sell more ads at higher prices. The increase in ave...
Fritz Jorgensen/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis In my first article on Meta Platforms, Inc. ( META ), I pointed out how CapEx leads to even higher ROIC, and investors shouldn’t be concerned. In my last coverage , I illustrated evidence of how META leverages AI to offer higher advertising efficiency and benefits from pricing power, while I also mentioned the Click‑to‑Message ads...
Fritz Jorgensen/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Investment Thesis In my first article on Meta Platforms, Inc. ( META ), I pointed out how CapEx leads to even higher ROIC, and investors shouldn’t be concerned. In my last coverage , I illustrated evidence of how META leverages AI to offer higher advertising efficiency and benefits from pricing power, while I also mentioned the Click‑to‑Message ads business as a promising growth catalyst, especially in emerging markets. Our story continues with more evidence of AI‑driven advertising efficiency and an examination of the company’s outlook to create AI agents for everyone, and how this factor could change its overall business model. AI Efficiency of Ads Continues to Expand and Leads Growth META continues to accelerate its revenue growth, given that it achieved 33% YoY growth in Q1’26 - mainly coming from advertising – the Family of Apps (FoA) segment- while maintaining a 41% operating margin despite the headcount drop of 1% compared to Q4. This means that the company, by using AI, becomes more efficient internally and reduces operating costs. Notably, the Other business line, which includes products such as WhatsApp paid messaging and Meta Verification, increased by 74% YoY and represents the company’s fastest-growing business. Q1’26 Investors Presentation Ads revenue continues to be META’s flagship revenue stream, with 33% YoY growth despite a slight decline in family daily active people -or users - due to: “Internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia” As mentioned by the company, it reached 3.56B users in Q1’26, compared to 3.58B in the last quarter. Deep diving into the advertising business, the total number of ad impressions increased by 19% YoY - compared to an increase of 5% in Q1’25 - while the global average price per ad increased by 12% YoY - compared with an increase of 10% in Q1’25. This means that META continues to sell more ads at higher prices. The increase in ave...
Earnings Call Insights: ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) Q1 2026 Management View "We continue to make good progress in the first quarter of 2026 as we advance towards multiple important milestones for ZYNLONTA over the remainder of the year, beginning with the expected LOTIS-5 top line readout in the second quarter" (CEO & Director Ameet Mallik). "First quarter net product revenues were $20.0 million as co...
Earnings Call Insights: ADC Therapeutics (ADCT) Q1 2026 Management View "We continue to make good progress in the first quarter of 2026 as we advance towards multiple important milestones for ZYNLONTA over the remainder of the year, beginning with the expected LOTIS-5 top line readout in the second quarter" (CEO & Director Ameet Mallik). "First quarter net product revenues were $20.0 million as compared to the prior year's first quarter net product revenues of $17.4 million" (CEO & Director Mallik), adding that "the increase was driven primarily by normal quarter-to-quarter variability in customer ordering with underlying demand broadly stable" (CEO & Director Mallik). "We expect to share top line data before the end of June" for LOTIS-5, while noting, "we are currently still blinded to the data" (CEO & Director Mallik). "We continue to pay close attention in the quarter to managing our cost base and optimizing our balance sheet" (CEO & Director Mallik), and "we ended the first quarter of 2026 with a healthy cash balance of $231 million" (CEO & Director Mallik). "We are confident that ZYNLONTA has the potential to reach peak annual revenues of $600 million to $1 billion in the U.S., assuming both compendia listing and regulatory approval" (CEO & Director Mallik), and "we expect to accelerate our revenue growth trajectory starting in 2027" (CEO & Director Mallik). "On a GAAP basis, we reported a net loss of $33 million for the first quarter of 2026 or $0.21 per basic and diluted share" (Chief Financial Officer Jose Carmona), and "at the end of the first quarter, we had cash and cash equivalents of $231 million" (Chief Financial Officer Carmona). Outlook "We expect to share the top line data for LOTIS-5 before the end of June" (Chief Financial Officer Jose Carmona), and "assuming the results are positive, we plan to submit a supplemental biologics license application to the FDA by year-end" (Chief Financial Officer Carmona). "With potential publication and compendia i...
This morning a "Potential Dividend Run Alert" went out for Special Opportunities Fund Inc (NYSE: SPE), at our DividendChannel.com Dividend Alerts service (a free email alerts feature). Let's look at the situation in greater detail, shall we? First of all, what is a "Dividend Ru
This morning a "Potential Dividend Run Alert" went out for Special Opportunities Fund Inc (NYSE: SPE), at our DividendChannel.com Dividend Alerts service (a free email alerts feature). Let's look at the situation in greater detail, shall we? First of all, what is a "Dividend Ru
damedeeso/iStock via Getty Images I last covered the Capital Group Growth ETF ( CGGR ) back in November , when I called it an alternative to the Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ). While Capital Group benchmarks CGGR against the S&P 500 ( SP500 ), I think its beta exposure makes the Nasdaq 100 ( NDX ) a more natural comparison. Both carry a higher-than-market beta, and up until recently, CGGR has carried t...
damedeeso/iStock via Getty Images I last covered the Capital Group Growth ETF ( CGGR ) back in November , when I called it an alternative to the Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ). While Capital Group benchmarks CGGR against the S&P 500 ( SP500 ), I think its beta exposure makes the Nasdaq 100 ( NDX ) a more natural comparison. Both carry a higher-than-market beta, and up until recently, CGGR has carried the higher figure, indicating that it tends to be more deeply influenced by market risk overall, even if QQQ is taking the lead now. Data by YCharts Correlations are high across the board, since all three are mostly composed of U.S. large-cap equities. Although, from their returns, it should be clear that the major differences are still relatively small in the grand scheme. The two funds were neck-and-neck until recently, when QQQ broke away. Again, to note that the fund compares itself to the S&P 500, to be fair to Capital Group with these comparisons. Since its inception, it has beaten its benchmark. Data by YCharts CGGR vs. QQQ Overview The two funds are unique in their minutiae, even if their results are similar, and that warrants further investigation. Right off the bat, the clear answer to “What's different under the hood?” is that CGGR is actively managed while QQQ is a passive index. Most folks have their own opinions about active management, but the core point is this: one has to be willing to take on the risk of Capital Group making poor choices for CGGR's holdings. That risk comes with the potential reward that they make great choices, but critics will be quick to point out that the failure rate of active managers beating their benchmarks consistently over long periods of time is fairly low. Finding the top decile of managers who do beat the index is very difficult. Some investors—and history has proven them right so far regarding performance against the S&P 500—believe that Capital Group is part of that top decile that will outperform in the long run. This point ...
European finance ministers are pressing Anthropic PBC to let local companies see the new Mythos AI model so they aren’t exposed to digital attacks and fall behind US peers. “We need to have a response from Europe,” Carlos Cuerpo , Spain’s economy minister, told reporters Monday before a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels. The bloc, he said, must determine how “we can defend ourselv...
European finance ministers are pressing Anthropic PBC to let local companies see the new Mythos AI model so they aren’t exposed to digital attacks and fall behind US peers. “We need to have a response from Europe,” Carlos Cuerpo , Spain’s economy minister, told reporters Monday before a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels. The bloc, he said, must determine how “we can defend ourselves, ensure our companies have access to these models, and can protect themselves against what may come.” Ministers will discuss the subject Monday, as concerns mount over unprecedented digital attacks should the artificial intelligence-model fall into the wrong hands. But so far, European companies have not been granted access to Mythos, leaving them unable to judge the unreleased tool’s potential impact. Cuerpo warned that Mythos and other new models may be able “to find vulnerabilities or backdoors in virtually all our institutions — not only in the financial sector and companies, but across all sectors.” In response, he pushed for Europe to consider “regulatory and legislative instruments such as the AI Act” — the bloc’s legal framework for AI development. Read more: Mythos AI Sparks Fear and Confusion Among Global Finance Elite Speaking before the European Parliament’s economic committee, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos emphasized the need to preemptively shield the continent’s payment systems from any digital vulnerabilities that Mythos may expose. These technologies “should be focused on identifying the flaws of your operating systems,” he said. But if bad actors gain access to these weaknesses, he added, it “can give rise to a lot of problems.” Mythos was also a prominent topic of conversation at the recent International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington. The White House opposes plans to make the tool available for more companies and organizations, Bloomberg previously reported. “AI poses a significant opportunity, productivity wise, ec...
Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn/iStock via Getty Images FYC strategy First Trust Small Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund ETF ( FYC ) was launched on 4/19/2011 and tracks the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Growth™ Index. FYC has 264 holdings and an expense ratio of 0.70%. As described by First Trust , eligible stocks are constituents of the Nasdaq US 700 Small Cap™ Index that meet some criteria. They are ranked with a gro...
Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn/iStock via Getty Images FYC strategy First Trust Small Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund ETF ( FYC ) was launched on 4/19/2011 and tracks the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Growth™ Index. FYC has 264 holdings and an expense ratio of 0.70%. As described by First Trust , eligible stocks are constituents of the Nasdaq US 700 Small Cap™ Index that meet some criteria. They are ranked with a growth score and a value score. The growth score is based on momentum metrics, sales-to-price, and sales growth. Each stock gets either its growth score or its value score as a selection score, depending on its classification by Nasdaq in the growth style or the value style. The top 262 stocks based on the growth score are included in the underlying index. Then: The selected stocks are divided into quintiles based on their rankings, and the top-ranked quintiles receive a higher weight within the index. The stocks are equally weighted within each quintile. The underlying index is reconstituted quarterly, and the fund’s turnover rate in the most recent fiscal year was 137%. This article will use the S&P SmallCap 600 Index as a benchmark, represented by iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF ( IJR ). FYC portfolio The portfolio is almost exclusively invested in U.S. companies (about 98% of asset value), with significant exposure in healthcare (25.2%) and industrials (21.2%). Other sectors are below 14%. Compared to IJR, FYC greatly overweights healthcare and mostly downplays financials. FYC sector breakdown in % of assets (Chart: author; data: First Trust, iShares) The portfolio is very diversified, and company-specific risk is low. The top 10 holdings, listed in the next table, represent only 9.7% of asset value, and the heaviest position weighs about 2%. Ticker Name Sector Weight MXL MaxLinear, Inc. Information Technology 1.96% AAOI Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. Information Technology 1.20% ANAB AnaptysBio, Inc. Healthcare 0.87% CTOS Custom Truck One Source, Inc. Industrials 0.85% INBX...