JasonDoiy Shares of Roblox ( RBLX ) fell significantly last week after the company lowered its 2026 guidance due to headwinds associated with the implementation of enhanced child safety measures. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Daniel James and FTS Research if they thought Roblox ( RBLX ) would be able to move past the child safety issues that have been vexing the hugely popular gaming platform. D...
JasonDoiy Shares of Roblox ( RBLX ) fell significantly last week after the company lowered its 2026 guidance due to headwinds associated with the implementation of enhanced child safety measures. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Daniel James and FTS Research if they thought Roblox ( RBLX ) would be able to move past the child safety issues that have been vexing the hugely popular gaming platform. Daniel James : Child safety is obviously an important issue in its own right, but it’s also becoming increasingly relevant from an investor’s perspective. Regulators in Europe and the United States are paying closer attention to how platforms handle and safeguard child safety through engagement design, moderation, age verification, and parental controls. Roblox ( RBLX ) is not alone here, as traditional social media platforms like Meta ( META ) and Snap ( SNAP ) face similar scrutiny. Recent European regulatory pressure on Meta under the Digital Services Act underscores that enforcement surrounding youth safety is becoming more concrete. On May 1, Roblox lowered its annual projections, citing engagement and revenue impact related to age verification. Roblox is already strong with younger users. The business increasingly has social media and creator economy characteristics, and its next growth phase will benefit from attracting older users, improving monetization, and maintaining trust with parents, brands, and regulators. If it succeeds, the addressable market and earnings will grow over time. While compliance spending may create a near-term drag on earnings across the sector, it also raises barriers to entry and broadens the moat of scaled platforms that can afford robust trust and safety systems. For investors, the key question is not whether Roblox will face increasing compliance costs, but if and to what degree it can convert these into a stronger competitive position in the future. FTS Research : Roblox's ( RBLX ) attempts at improving child safety on the platform have ...
Signs of labor-market strength drove stocks to all-time highs, bolstering speculation that the world’s largest economy remains resilient in the face of an energy shock triggered by the Iran war. Bets that solid growth will keep powering earnings sent the S&P 500 to its sixth straight weekly advance. A revival of the artificial-intelligence trade fueled an 11% jump in a gauge of chipmakers since la...
Signs of labor-market strength drove stocks to all-time highs, bolstering speculation that the world’s largest economy remains resilient in the face of an energy shock triggered by the Iran war. Bets that solid growth will keep powering earnings sent the S&P 500 to its sixth straight weekly advance. A revival of the artificial-intelligence trade fueled an 11% jump in a gauge of chipmakers since last Friday. Oil notched a slide for the week. The US and Iran are working with mediators to formulate a memorandum of understanding that would set the parameters for a month of talks to end the war, the Wall Street Journal reported. Christel Rendu de Lint, co-CEO at Vontobel joins to discuss. (Source: Bloomberg)
STORY: :: Lisa Bernhard, Reuters :: Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategist, Baird The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rallied to record highs on Friday, boosted by gains in semiconductor stocks, while a stronger-than-expected jobs report pointed to labor market resilience. Speaking with Reuters' Lisa Bernhard, Mayfield said that with April's nonfarm payrolls data "building on last month's strong report... yo...
STORY: :: Lisa Bernhard, Reuters :: Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategist, Baird The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rallied to record highs on Friday, boosted by gains in semiconductor stocks, while a stronger-than-expected jobs report pointed to labor market resilience. Speaking with Reuters' Lisa Bernhard, Mayfield said that with April's nonfarm payrolls data "building on last month's strong report... you start to feel like maybe the labor market is turning a corner." Meanwhile, shares of Intel joined the chip rally late Friday, soaring as high as 19%, after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the company had reached a preliminary deal to make some chips for Apple devices. "I certainly wouldn't want to stand in front of this momentum-driven sector," Mayfield said of the recent chip rally. "In my mind, it can't be a bubble if earnings are keeping up with price."
Earnings Call Insights: PPL Corporation (PPL) Q1 2026 Management View "Overall, we delivered strong financial and operational results in the first quarter" (President, CEO & Director Vincent Sorgi). "Today, we reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $0.60 per share. Adjusting for special items, ongoing earnings were $0.63 per share" (CEO Sorgi). "We are reaffirming our 2026 ongoing earnings guidan...
Earnings Call Insights: PPL Corporation (PPL) Q1 2026 Management View "Overall, we delivered strong financial and operational results in the first quarter" (President, CEO & Director Vincent Sorgi). "Today, we reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $0.60 per share. Adjusting for special items, ongoing earnings were $0.63 per share" (CEO Sorgi). "We are reaffirming our 2026 ongoing earnings guidance of $1.90 to $1.98 per share with a midpoint of $1.94 per share" (CEO Sorgi). "We also remain on track to complete approximately $5.1 billion of planned investments in 2026" (CEO Sorgi). "We continue to project approximately $23 billion of capital investment through 2029, resulting in average annual rate base growth of 10.3%" (CEO Sorgi). "This capital projection excludes any investments that may stem from our joint venture with Blackstone" (CEO Sorgi). "Projects in advanced stages of planning now total 28.3 gigawatts" in PPL Electric Utilities’ territory, "up another 12%" from the year-end update; "about 10 gigawatts now have signed ESAs" and "5 gigawatts of the projects in advanced stages are already under construction" (CEO Sorgi). "Momentum continues to build around our Blackstone joint venture" (CEO Sorgi). "We are executing multiple gas turbine reservation agreements and have submitted requests for multiple generation projects into PJM's interconnection queue" (CEO Sorgi). "We will not build without signed energy supply services agreements or ESSAs" (CEO Sorgi). "PPL's first quarter GAAP earnings were $0.60 per share compared to $0.56 per share in Q1 2025" (Executive VP & CFO Joe Bergstein). "Adjusting for these special items, first quarter earnings from ongoing operations were $0.63 per share" (CFO Bergstein). "In February, we successfully executed a $1.15 billion equity units offering" and "we have now derisked about 2/3 of the total equity needed to support our current capital expenditure plan" (CFO Bergstein). Outlook "We are reaffirming our 2026 ongoing earning...
Kandi Technologies ( KNDI ) received a Nasdaq warning for trading below the $1 minimum bid price for 30 straight business days. The company has until Nov. 2, 2026, to regain compliance by keeping shares above $1 for 10 consecutive days. KNDI shares will continue trading on Nasdaq during the compliance period. If needed, Kandi may transfer to the Nasdaq Capital Market and consider a reverse stock s...
Kandi Technologies ( KNDI ) received a Nasdaq warning for trading below the $1 minimum bid price for 30 straight business days. The company has until Nov. 2, 2026, to regain compliance by keeping shares above $1 for 10 consecutive days. KNDI shares will continue trading on Nasdaq during the compliance period. If needed, Kandi may transfer to the Nasdaq Capital Market and consider a reverse stock split to avoid delisting. More on Kandi Technologies Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. (KNDI) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Prepared Remarks Transcript Financial information for Kandi Technologies
Toyota Motor stock was falling after earnings, but Tesla, which isn’t really a car company anymore, is rising. Toyota reported fiscal year 2026 earnings and provided an outlook for fiscal year 2027. Tesla stock didn’t seem to be affected, but Toyota investors reacted with caution.
Toyota Motor stock was falling after earnings, but Tesla, which isn’t really a car company anymore, is rising. Toyota reported fiscal year 2026 earnings and provided an outlook for fiscal year 2027. Tesla stock didn’t seem to be affected, but Toyota investors reacted with caution.
swissmediavision/E+ via Getty Images Introduction To The iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF The iShares MSCI Switzerland ( EWL ), which is one of the oldest geographic ETFs around, completed three decades as a listed product on March 12th, 1996. Since its inception, this BlackRock, Inc. ( BLK ) product under its 'iShares' brand of ETFs has garnered a total AUM of over $1.56 billion by the time of writin...
swissmediavision/E+ via Getty Images Introduction To The iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF The iShares MSCI Switzerland ( EWL ), which is one of the oldest geographic ETFs around, completed three decades as a listed product on March 12th, 1996. Since its inception, this BlackRock, Inc. ( BLK ) product under its 'iShares' brand of ETFs has garnered a total AUM of over $1.56 billion by the time of writing. EWL, which has nearly $50 million trading volume on average (over 30x more than what a standard ETF has), is priced at an expense ratio that is in line with the ETF median of 0.5%. Liquidity metrics table (Seeking Alpha) What Does EWL Do? While EWL offers exposure to around 40 stocks from Switzerland, it doesn’t actively pick these stocks but instead tracks an index (through a sampling process) that represents the movements of these stocks. The index in question is the MSCI Switzerland 25/50 Index (MS2550I) and is a variation of the MSCI Switzerland Index (MSI), which is largely seen as a barometer of the health of Swiss equities by the global fund management fraternity; after all, this index is supposed to represent the top 85% of Switzerland’s free-float market capitalization. MS25501 differs from MSI in that it seeks to impose specific caps on its holdings to prevent concentration effects. These caps include preventing any single stock from accounting for 25% of the index and preventing all stocks with individual weights of over 5% from jointly aggregating to 50% of the total index. What Are The Main Characteristics Of EWL's Portfolio? As noted earlier, EWL’s tracking index is a subset of a free-float market-cap-weighted index, which also only focuses on the top 85% of Swiss equities. This means investors won’t get any access to small caps, with giant caps accounting for the lion’s share of the portfolio (60% exposure). Market cap breakdown (Morningstar) From a sector angle, EWL offers exposure to 10 different sectors (the energy sector is a notable miss), but one sec...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images The number of oil and gas rigs actively drilling in the U.S. added 1 to 548, rising for a third consecutive week, Baker Hughes said Friday in its latest weekly report . The number of active drilling rigs targeting crude oil in the U.S. rose by 2 to 410 in the week ended May 8, while gas rigs fell by 1 to 129, and 9 rigs remained classified as miscellaneous. The total ...
imaginima/E+ via Getty Images The number of oil and gas rigs actively drilling in the U.S. added 1 to 548, rising for a third consecutive week, Baker Hughes said Friday in its latest weekly report . The number of active drilling rigs targeting crude oil in the U.S. rose by 2 to 410 in the week ended May 8, while gas rigs fell by 1 to 129, and 9 rigs remained classified as miscellaneous. The total rig count was down by 30, or 5.2%, from the same time last year. The number of rigs targeting oil in the Permian Basin gained 1 to 242, the oil rig count in the Eagle Ford added 1 to 35, and the Williston Basin remained unchanged at 28. ETFs: ( USO ), ( UCO ), ( SCO ), ( USL ), ( DBO ), ( DRIP ), ( GUSH ), ( USOI ), ( UNG ), ( BOIL ), ( KOLD ), ( UNL ), ( FCG ) More on crude oil Commodities: Oil Rebounds On Renewed U.S.-Iran Tensions Commodities: U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Hopes U.S. February Oil Production Rebounds
Introduction Over more than three decades, Arm evolved into a leading CPU architecture supplier for smartphones and embedded devices, licensing CPU architectures and core designs to customers such as Apple (AAPL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA), Samsung, and MediaTek instead of manufacturing chips itself. In 2025, that business model began changing with the introduction of Arm’s ... Arm Is Quietly...
Introduction Over more than three decades, Arm evolved into a leading CPU architecture supplier for smartphones and embedded devices, licensing CPU architectures and core designs to customers such as Apple (AAPL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA), Samsung, and MediaTek instead of manufacturing chips itself. In 2025, that business model began changing with the introduction of Arm’s ... Arm Is Quietly Becoming The CPU Backbone Of AI
Suppose you bought an S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index fund a decade ago and never touched it. Congratulations. Your money has more than tripled as of this writing on May 7, 2026 (318% with reinvested dividends , to be exact). Whether you picked the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (NYSEMKT: VOO) , the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY) , or the iShares Core S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: IVV) , your gains will be a roundi...
Suppose you bought an S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index fund a decade ago and never touched it. Congratulations. Your money has more than tripled as of this writing on May 7, 2026 (318% with reinvested dividends , to be exact). Whether you picked the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (NYSEMKT: VOO) , the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY) , or the iShares Core S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: IVV) , your gains will be a rounding error away from the underlying index. Your portfolio of specific stocks probably looks nothing like it did in 2016, though. Some positions have ballooned; others have shriveled. So is it time to trim the winners and bulk up the laggards? Rebalancing keeps your portfolio aligned with your original risk tolerance. If a single stock has grown from 5% of your holdings to 15%, you're now more exposed to that company's fortunes than you intended. Continue reading
Edward Chaidez/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Though investors are already looking ahead to a resolution in Iran, bringing a fresh bull rally into the stock market, headlines are also surfacing on consumer confidence hitting fresh new lows . Dispersion in the stock market is widening considerably, between the sharp rally in AI infrastructure stocks and much cooler sentiment for consumer names. ...
Edward Chaidez/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Though investors are already looking ahead to a resolution in Iran, bringing a fresh bull rally into the stock market, headlines are also surfacing on consumer confidence hitting fresh new lows . Dispersion in the stock market is widening considerably, between the sharp rally in AI infrastructure stocks and much cooler sentiment for consumer names. The Wendy's Company ( WEN ), the struggling fast food chain, showcases just how painful the macro is becoming, especially for lower-income consumers. Though the stock has enjoyed a slight ~5% post-earnings rally on a Q1 revenue beat , the stock remains down ~40% over the past twelve months, with little hope for a turnaround. Data by YCharts I last wrote a Sell article on Wendy's in February, when the stock was trading in the mid-$7s. Since then, Wendy's has failed to enjoy any meaningful recovery rally while the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) has burst to new highs. I continue to think that Wendy's will underperform the broader market due to its persistently weak same-restaurant sales growth trends, particularly in the U.S. I'm reiterating my Sell rating here. As a reminder for investors who are new to Wendy's, the company since last year has been focusing on a turnaround plan that it calls "Project Fresh." The core tenets of that plan are showcased in the chart below: Wendy's project fresh (Wendy's Q1 earnings deck) The company's brand revitalization comprises a revamp to its marketing, new menu items (such as the cheekily named new "Tendys" chicken tenders product), and new promotions. We note that rival McDonald's ( MCD ) has stepped up its promotional game recently and emphasized pricing via its nationally advertised $5 Meal Deal price points, forcing fast-food rivals to fall in line. The company is also looking to revamp internal store operations, rework opening hours, boost system profitability, and focus its investments away from net-new store development in the U.S. and rather t...
Cryo-Cell International (NYSE American: CCEL) on Friday said that NYSE American accepted the company’s plan to regain compliance with continued listing standards and granted it a compliance period through September 9, 2027. The company had disclosed in March that it was not in compliance with Section 1003(a) of the NYSE American Company Guide due to a stockholders’ deficit as of November 30, 2025,...
Cryo-Cell International (NYSE American: CCEL) on Friday said that NYSE American accepted the company’s plan to regain compliance with continued listing standards and granted it a compliance period through September 9, 2027. The company had disclosed in March that it was not in compliance with Section 1003(a) of the NYSE American Company Guide due to a stockholders’ deficit as of November 30, 2025, and net losses in two of its three most recent fiscal years. Cryo-Cell said its shares will continue to be listed and traded on NYSE American during the compliance period, subject to ongoing review and adherence to the plan. The company said NYSE American could initiate delisting proceedings if it fails to regain compliance by the deadline or does not make progress under the plan. Source: Press Release More on CRYO-CELL International Cryo-Cell International receives NYSE American notice over listing non-compliance Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on CRYO-CELL International Historical earnings data for CRYO-CELL International Financial information for CRYO-CELL International