A small group of bankers in Hong Kong tasked with cleaning up the city’s unprecedented pile of bad debt is done playing nice. They number under 200 people, less than 0.07% of the city’s finance workforce. But these so-called special asset bankers are up against a large and increasingly urgent task: cutting a HK$200 billion ($25.5 billion) pile of soured debt that’s pushed the city’s distressed loa...
A small group of bankers in Hong Kong tasked with cleaning up the city’s unprecedented pile of bad debt is done playing nice. They number under 200 people, less than 0.07% of the city’s finance workforce. But these so-called special asset bankers are up against a large and increasingly urgent task: cutting a HK$200 billion ($25.5 billion) pile of soured debt that’s pushed the city’s distressed loan ratio to a two-decade high. Working behind the scenes, the specialists have increasingly been turning to last-resort tactics of selling collateral or pushing borrowers into liquidation, often due to losses on Hong Kong commercial real estate, according to more than a dozen such bankers and people who work directly with them. Lenders have been building out these squads—which some also call special credit, recovery & collection, or workout teams—as they seize a window of opportunity to cut losses and free up money for fresh lending as the rest of the economy rebounds. At least half a dozen lenders in Hong Kong have increased their number of special asset bankers, people familiar with the matter said. Among them, Bank of East Asia Ltd. and United Overseas Bank Ltd.’s Hong Kong branch have nearly doubled headcount since 2024, while Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Hang Seng Bank Ltd. have added a handful of the specialists to teams that already had more than 10 people, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. A UOB spokesperson said the bank works constructively with customers facing challenges, while safeguarding the interests of its stakeholders. BOC and Hang Seng declined to comment, while BEA didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. The work of such specialists can be unpleasant, given they’re dealing with borrowers “at their lowest lows,” said Jason Bedford , a visiting senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute. One banker at a Chinese lender, who asked not to be identified discussing personal details, described fr...
flowgraph/iStock via Getty Images Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) has surged following a big quarterly report and very bullish signs on huge CPU demand related to AI. The chip company had become a leader in CPU server chips before the market suddenly shifted to spending on AI GPUs, but the market is now shifting back in their favor. My investment thesis remains ultra Bullish on the stock, wit...
flowgraph/iStock via Getty Images Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) has surged following a big quarterly report and very bullish signs on huge CPU demand related to AI. The chip company had become a leader in CPU server chips before the market suddenly shifted to spending on AI GPUs, but the market is now shifting back in their favor. My investment thesis remains ultra Bullish on the stock, with signs the $600 price target is now far too low due to surging CPU demand. Source: Finviz Focus on CPU Shift AMD reported another strong quarter. The Q1'26 numbers weren't the big story though: Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.37 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $10.25B (+37.8% Y/Y) beats by $330M. For Q2'26, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $11.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million vs. $10.52 billion. The chip company reported strong numbers, but the stock market isn't excited about just 38% growth during this AI boom for chips. The Q2 guidance was very strong with revenue targets of $11.2 billion, nearly $1 billion above the Q1 numbers and far above the consensus estimates. AMD didn't really surge until CEO Lisa Su started talking about the CPU demand on the Q1'26 earnings call as follows: At our Financial Analyst Day in November, we outlined the server CPU market growing at approximately 18% annually over the next 3 to 5 years. Based on the demand signals we are seeing today and the structural increase in CPU compute requirements driven by Agentic AI, we now expect the server CPU TAM to grow at greater than 35% annually, reaching over $120 billion by 2030 . In response to this demand, we are working closely with our supply chain partners to meaningfully increase our wafer and back-end capacities to support this growth. As a result, we now expect server CPU revenue to grow by more than 70% year-over-year in the second quarter, with robust growth continuing through the second half of 2026 and into 2027 as we ramp our next-generation EPYC processors. Lisa Su discussed CPU server rev...
Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and commercializes high-quality medicines for the treatment of oncology, autoimmune, cardiovascular and metabolic, ophthalmology, and other major diseases, announced that the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has granted a...
Innovent Biologics, Inc. (Innovent) (HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and commercializes high-quality medicines for the treatment of oncology, autoimmune, cardiovascular and metabolic, ophthalmology, and other major diseases, announced that the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has granted a third Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to its first-in-class PD-1/IL-2α-bias bispecific fusio
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the most prominent investment theme on Wall Street over the past few years. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has benefited dramatically from this trend, with the stock up over 640% in the past three years. But with its next earnings report on May 20, investors are concerned about whether the stock has already run too far or if there is still more upside left. Here are so...
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the most prominent investment theme on Wall Street over the past few years. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has benefited dramatically from this trend, with the stock up over 640% in the past three years. But with its next earnings report on May 20, investors are concerned about whether the stock has already run too far or if there is still more upside left. Here are some reasons why I am considering buying the stock before the numbers come out. Continue reading
The summer of 2006 was meant to be England's moment. A world-class squad, celebrity partners and confident fans - the hype was huge and the fall was hard.
The summer of 2006 was meant to be England's moment. A world-class squad, celebrity partners and confident fans - the hype was huge and the fall was hard.
The Liberia-flagged crude oil tanker Shenlong Suezmax successfully docked at Mumbai Port after navigating the high-risk Strait of Hormuz amid the intensifying West Asia conflict on March 11, 2026 in Mumbai, India. Hindustan Times | Getty Images Oil prices jumped Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the conflict with Iran was "not over," raising fears that tensions in ...
The Liberia-flagged crude oil tanker Shenlong Suezmax successfully docked at Mumbai Port after navigating the high-risk Strait of Hormuz amid the intensifying West Asia conflict on March 11, 2026 in Mumbai, India. Hindustan Times | Getty Images Oil prices jumped Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the conflict with Iran was "not over," raising fears that tensions in the Middle East could escalate again and further threatening energy supplies. U.S. President Donald Trump , meanwhile, rejected Iran's counteroffer to end the war with the U.S. and Israel. "I have just read the response from Iran's so-called "Representatives." I don't like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!" U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with June delivery advanced 3.08% to $95.42 per barrel, while the international benchmark Brent crude futures with July delivery rose 3.16% to $104.49 per barrel. "There's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran," Netanyahu said on Sunday in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" that is set to air Sunday night. "There is still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled, there's still proxies that Iran supports, there are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce ... there's work to be done." Asked how the U.S. and Israel would remove the nuclear material, Netanyahu replied: "You go in, and you take it out." Citi analysts wrote in their latest oil report that prices could rise further if Iran and U.S. do not agree a deal, adding that crude markets have been cushioned by high inventories, strategic petroleum reserve releases, weaker demand in developing economies and intermittent signs of possible de-escalation in the Middle East. Citi maintained that risks to oil prices remain tilted to the upside, as Iran retains significant control over the timing and terms of any potential agreement to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz energy route. "We assume that the regime will make a deal that reopens the Str...
Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to a Tehran hospital more than a week after collapsing in prison, her foundation said on Sunday. Her transfer comes after days of pleading by her family and others who described her condition as critical. Her foundation said she has been granted a prison sentence suspension on bail. It was not clear for how long her sentence i...
Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to a Tehran hospital more than a week after collapsing in prison, her foundation said on Sunday. Her transfer comes after days of pleading by her family and others who described her condition as critical. Her foundation said she has been granted a prison sentence suspension on bail. It was not clear for how long her sentence is suspended, the foundation said. Mohammadi had been imprisoned since December in Zanjan prison. She...
Kraft Heinz CEO: "Consumers Are Literally Running Out Of Money Toward The End Of The Month" While the digital US economy, if proxied through the earnings growth and stock prices of AI companies and their "picks and shovels" support ecosystem, has never been stronger, the traditional US consumer, responsible for 70% of US GDP, has rarely been more depressed than right now (and according to the late...
Kraft Heinz CEO: "Consumers Are Literally Running Out Of Money Toward The End Of The Month" While the digital US economy, if proxied through the earnings growth and stock prices of AI companies and their "picks and shovels" support ecosystem, has never been stronger, the traditional US consumer, responsible for 70% of US GDP, has rarely been more depressed than right now (and according to the latest University of Michigan sentiment survey, Americans have literally never been more pessimistic). That was the take home message from the latest earnings week, when various executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods indicated they are increasingly worried about US shoppers - especially those from the" lower half" of the K-shaped economy - with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices caused by the Iran war, and consumer electronics prices through the roof thanks to record memory chip prices. “ They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month ,” Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane said in an interview with the WSJ . “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” Sure enough, last week we showed that as a result of personal spending growth far outpacing personal income... ... the personal savings rate has collapsed to a 3 year low. This underscores a remarkable trend: since the pandemic, Americans have continued to spend at surprising levels despite high inflation, keeping the US economy growing and thwarting recession fears, with much of the spending growth fueled by credit card debt, with February's $10BN+ increase in credit card debt the highest since February 2024. But soaring fuel costs might be the straw that breaks the overlevered camel's back: “ The war in Iran amplified consumer concerns about the cost of living ,” Whirlpool . CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts. The maker of washers and dryers said it’s counting on purchases picking up after a harsh US winter slowed shoppi...