Viral “zombie vape” videos of young Malaysian men appearing dazed and disoriented after vaping have intensified concern that drug-laced liquids are spreading through the country’s booming e-cigarette market. The clips, shared widely on social media over the past month, showed local men slumped on the ground or behaving erratically after allegedly inhaling piu-piu or piao-piao (online slang for dru...
Viral “zombie vape” videos of young Malaysian men appearing dazed and disoriented after vaping have intensified concern that drug-laced liquids are spreading through the country’s booming e-cigarette market. The clips, shared widely on social media over the past month, showed local men slumped on the ground or behaving erratically after allegedly inhaling piu-piu or piao-piao (online slang for drug-laced vape liquids). At least two viral cases triggered arrests and fresh police warnings regarding people “vaping excessively and carrying out shameful acts”. Advertisement “The trend not only gives a negative image to the younger generation but is feared to become a medium for normalising the culture of substance abuse and an unhealthy lifestyle,” Bukit Aman narcotics director Hussein Omar Khan said in a statement on Tuesday. He added that some vape products were suspected of being mixed with dangerous substances or synthetic drugs that could threaten users’ safety. Advertisement Police arrested three people, including a suspected supplier, and seized a bottle of vape liquid believed to contain ketamine, after a video showed two men in an intoxicated daze at a residential parking space in Selangor.
SiTime ( SITM ) priced an upsized $1.2B convertible senior notes offering due 2031, increasing the deal size from the initially announced $1.1B. The sale of the notes to the underwriters is expected to close on May 22, 2026. The company also granted the underwriters a right to purchase, within a 13-day period beginning on, and including, the date on which the notes are first issued, up to an addit...
SiTime ( SITM ) priced an upsized $1.2B convertible senior notes offering due 2031, increasing the deal size from the initially announced $1.1B. The sale of the notes to the underwriters is expected to close on May 22, 2026. The company also granted the underwriters a right to purchase, within a 13-day period beginning on, and including, the date on which the notes are first issued, up to an additional $150M aggregate principal amount of notes. SiTime ( SITM ) estimates that the net proceeds will be ~$1.17B (or ~$1.32B if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full). The notes will be general unsecured obligations of SiTime ( SITM ) and will not bear regular interest, while the principal amount will not accrete. The notes are set to mature on June 15, 2031, unless earlier converted, redeemed, or repurchased. The company plans to use proceeds primarily to fund part of its acquisition of timing-business assets from Renesas Electronics , as well as for capped call transactions and general corporate purposes. More on SiTime SiTime Corporation (SITM) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript SiTime's Renesas Deal Makes This Stock Harder To Buy SiTime: The Only Pure-Play MEMS Story In Semis, But Waiting For A Better Entry SiTime surges on strong quarterly results SiTime Q1 2026 Earnings Preview
HSBC’s top boss says artificial intelligence will both destroy and create certain jobs in the financial industry, but emphasised that Hong Kong’s biggest lender will focus on retraining its workforce to embrace the challenges ahead. “We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs,” CEO Georges Elhedery said at an investor event in Hong Kong on Wednesday. HSBC’s AI ado...
HSBC’s top boss says artificial intelligence will both destroy and create certain jobs in the financial industry, but emphasised that Hong Kong’s biggest lender will focus on retraining its workforce to embrace the challenges ahead. “We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs,” CEO Georges Elhedery said at an investor event in Hong Kong on Wednesday. HSBC’s AI adoption pledge plan was announced a day after its rival, Standard Chartered, said it planned to use AI to automate its work process and replace 15 per cent of its back-office staff by 2030, which analysts estimate will result in a cut of about 7,000 jobs. Advertisement The moves by the two leading lenders showed that the financial industry was moving at great speed in adopting AI to enhance efficiency and drive profit growth by cutting costs – but it could lead to job losses in the sector, according to analysts. “Our first mission is for employees to be given training capabilities and productivity tools, so that they can become future-ready, and a better, more productive, higher-performing version of themselves,” Elhedery said, referring to HSBC’s AI adoption plans. Advertisement “Our second mission is to simplify and scale how we operate. We are simplifying more than 50 work streams. We appointed a chief AI officer to review value streams, businesses, and functions, technology, and operations to help us redesign collectively with the help of AI and external partners.” Elhedery said AI could help strengthen the customer experience as the technology speeds up background checks on clients, reducing their onboarding time by 50 per cent.
Shares of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks Inc NASDAQ: PANW have been on one of the most explosive runs in the software space in recent weeks. The stock was changing hands below $150 at the end of March, and it's now trading around $240, having posted gains in seven straight sessions through the end of last week. Palo Alto Networks Today PANW Palo Alto Networks $240.13 -7.42 (-3.00%) 52-Week...
Shares of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks Inc NASDAQ: PANW have been on one of the most explosive runs in the software space in recent weeks. The stock was changing hands below $150 at the end of March, and it's now trading around $240, having posted gains in seven straight sessions through the end of last week. Palo Alto Networks Today PANW Palo Alto Networks $240.13 -7.42 (-3.00%) 52-Week Range $139.57 ▼ $248.85 P/E Ratio 132.67 Price Target $219.49 Add to Watchlist That's a move of more than 70% in less than two months, one that has taken the stock to record highs while also pushing its relative strength index (RSI) to 87. This is not only its highest reading ever, but one of the most extreme RSI readings among all mega-caps right now. Get Palo Alto Networks alerts: Sign Up On paper, that kind of setup is usually a signal to stay away. A stock up 70% in weeks, trading at all-time highs, with an RSI that technically screams exhaustion, is not the kind of chart that typically invites fresh buyers in. And yet, the analyst community hasn't been buying into that thesis—if anything, they've been doing the opposite. The question for investors is whether the market is right to keep chasing this one, or whether the technicals are about to catch up with the narrative. What's Driving This Rally While Palo Alto shares had spent much of the first quarter on the back foot, this rally didn't come out of nowhere, and understanding the key components matters when assessing whether it has legs. The initial spark came from the launch of Idira, Palo Alto's new identity security platform, which marked the company's first public integration of CyberArk's technology, acquired last year, into its broader security offering. Analyst reaction was immediately positive, with Oppenheimer, for example, coming away from the company’s Impact customer conference encouraged, pointing to uninterrupted renewal activity, strong spending expectations, and no signs of customer churn from the acq...
Meredith Heil/iStock Editorial via Getty Images I know a lot of people following Weis Markets, Inc. ( WMK ) still have their eyes on the possible Pennsylvania minimum wage hike I talked about in the last article . With a lot of hourly workers there (baggers, stockers, and others), studies show that a ~10% bump in the minimum wage would cause Weis to raise prices by 0.36%. And, following the bill p...
Meredith Heil/iStock Editorial via Getty Images I know a lot of people following Weis Markets, Inc. ( WMK ) still have their eyes on the possible Pennsylvania minimum wage hike I talked about in the last article . With a lot of hourly workers there (baggers, stockers, and others), studies show that a ~10% bump in the minimum wage would cause Weis to raise prices by 0.36%. And, following the bill proposed by the House (from $11 in 2027 to $15 in 2029), Weis would raise prices by almost 4% to compensate for that. That's not quite what you expect when there's price pressure coming from Aldi/Lidl and other hard-discounters. Weis has been trying to move a bit more upmarket so it can stay competitive. It's somewhat similar to what Village Super Market, Inc. ( VLGEA ) has been doing, but instead of aggressively opening new stores, Weis seems more focused on remodeling the stores they already have—around seven renovations for FY 2025. If Weis Markets can't win on price, the bet is that fresher products and more prepared foods can offset that with fuller shopping carts. Seeking Alpha And that's where I left off in my last article. After my 'Hold' position here, assuming Weis would continue as a kind of bond-like stock, paying stable dividends, the total return was almost 0%. It wasn't quite what I expected. Of course, they underperformed the S&P in a very unfavorable stretch, but at the end of the day the price is still very close to my price target of $75 per share. With not much new on the table regarding the minimum wage—the Republican Senate has consistently blocked the proposals—I want to show you the early stages of premiumization and whether it's already working. Three Things Happening at Once Right off the bat, you can see that Weis is taking the thesis down a rather unconventional path. That's why it sounds a bit 'middle-ground' compared to other grocers. Premiumization seems to be working. That doesn't seem to be the problem right now. You can already see it showin...
Higher Rates Weigh On Tesla Valuation The managing partner of The Future Fund LLC, wrote on X that "there's been no change in $TSLA fundamentals," but said that was precisely the problem. Tesla shares have fallen this year, though Black's stated 12% year-to-date decline differs from Benzinga Pro data, which shows the stock down 7.75%. "When long-term int rates go higher, long-duration (high P/E na...
Higher Rates Weigh On Tesla Valuation The managing partner of The Future Fund LLC, wrote on X that "there's been no change in $TSLA fundamentals," but said that was precisely the problem. Tesla shares have fallen this year, though Black's stated 12% year-to-date decline differs from Benzinga Pro data, which shows the stock down 7.75%. "When long-term int rates go higher, long-duration (high P/E names) get whacked the most mathematically," Black wrote. He said Tesla stock is likely to continue moving lower if Brent crude oil holds at $110 a barrel and the 10-year Treasury yield stays at 4.6%. Black's argument centers on Tesla's valuation. He suggests that high-growth companies such as Tesla often trade as "long-duration" assets because investors expect much of their future cash flow years ahead. When bond yields rise, investors apply a higher discount rate to those future earnings, reducing their present value. At the time of writing, Brent crude held near $111 per barrel on Wednesday after coming under pressure in the previous session, as investors assessed President Donald Trump's renewed threat to resume military strikes on Iran if it failed to accept US peace terms. Black Points Investors Toward Cheaper Growth The investor also pointed to what he called a valuation mismatch. He said Tesla trades at a forward price-to-earnings-to-growth ratio of 6.0, about triple the level of other megacap growth stocks. PEG compares a company's valuation with its expected earnings growth. Tesla still has a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $403.59 based on 32 analysts, according to Benzinga data. The highest target is $600 from Wedbush, while GLJ Research has the lowest at $24.86. Critical Levels To Watch For According to Benzinga Pro data, Tesla currently shows a mixed technical picture, with its price trading above the 20-day and 50-day simple moving averages (SMAs), suggesting some bullish momentum. However, the 100-day and 200-day SMAs are acting as resistan...
India may take a number of steps in coming months to bolster foreign reserves and the rupee, including possibly restricting outflows from businesses, according to Citigroup Inc. The government has already taken several measures, including hiking fuel costs and increasing taxes on gold imports, to curb foreign outflows as soaring global oil prices put pressure on India’s current account deficit. Au...
India may take a number of steps in coming months to bolster foreign reserves and the rupee, including possibly restricting outflows from businesses, according to Citigroup Inc. The government has already taken several measures, including hiking fuel costs and increasing taxes on gold imports, to curb foreign outflows as soaring global oil prices put pressure on India’s current account deficit. Authorities may now consider steps to encourage foreign inflows, and could look at tightening rules on outward investment by businesses, Citi economists led by Samiran Chakraborty said in a research note. While India’s economy is on a stronger footing now compared to past episodes of rupee weakness, disruptions to energy supplies and surging oil import bills triggered by the Middle East conflict have intensified the challenge for policymakers. The rupee is Asia’s worst performing currency so far in 2026, down more than 7% against the dollar. “The initial set of measures have been in favor of not letting growth and inflation to be affected and allowing the shock to be absorbed by current account and fiscal,” Chakraborty said, referring to fuel tax cuts and credit guarantees. “But more recent policies in May indicate a shift towards curbing the balance of payment deficit and identifying tax revenue streams.” Among the measures Citi sees as having a “high” likelihood of being introduced over the next month are tighter curbs on overseas direct investment by Indian firms, stricter rules requiring exporters to repatriate foreign-currency earnings more quickly, higher import duties on edible oils and measures to encourage more overseas borrowing by banks. Steps to encourage inclusion in the Bloomberg Bond Index and further fuel price hikes are highly likely too. Read More: Here’s a Look at India’s Measures to Stem Hit From Oil Shock India maintains some capital account restrictions on residents, which limits the amount of money they can take out of the country. The government has sa...