ON Semiconductor, Analog Devices and Texas Instrument are semiconductor companies, but not the standard AI players, yet their stocks and earnings are booming. What's happening here?
ON Semiconductor, Analog Devices and Texas Instrument are semiconductor companies, but not the standard AI players, yet their stocks and earnings are booming. What's happening here?
WTI Holds Gains Despite Biggest SPR Drawdown In 45 Year History, Production Jumped Oil prices are higher this morning (extending its 8%-plus surge of the last three days) as Middle East tensions simmer and global stockpiles shrink at a record pace. WTI topped $103 and Brent crude traded near $108 a barrel, erasing its retreat earlier on Wednesday, after the IEA said global observed oil inventories...
WTI Holds Gains Despite Biggest SPR Drawdown In 45 Year History, Production Jumped Oil prices are higher this morning (extending its 8%-plus surge of the last three days) as Middle East tensions simmer and global stockpiles shrink at a record pace. WTI topped $103 and Brent crude traded near $108 a barrel, erasing its retreat earlier on Wednesday, after the IEA said global observed oil inventories declined at a rate of about 4 million barrels a day in March and April. Saudi Arabia told OPEC that its output sank to the lowest level since 1990 . “With global oil inventories already drawing at a record clip, further price volatility appears likely ahead of the peak summer demand period,” the Paris-based IEA said in its Oil Market Report. The market will remain “severely undersupplied” until October even if the conflict ends next month, the agency said. For obvious reasons, this morning's official inventory and supply data (for the US) is now top of mind. API Crude -2.2mm Cushing Gasoline +502k Distillates -319k DOE Crude -4.3mm (-2.5mm exp) Cushing -1.7mm Gasoline -4.08mm - 13th weekly draw in a row Distillates +190k - first build in 7 weeks Crude stocks saw a bigger than expected drawdown last week (the third week in a row) as Cushing inventories drop and while Distillates saw a small build, Gasoline stocks plunged... again... Source: Bloomberg The drawdowns from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve continue to accelerate. The 8.6mm barrel draw was the largest on record... Source: Bloomberg US crude production jumped last week... Source: Bloomberg Crude exports jumped back up to near the 6 million barrel a day mark, rising 742,000 barrels to around 5.5 million barrels a day. Anything above 4 million barrels a day is generally considered robust demand and in recent weeks the US sets its all-time record for crude exports as the Iran war disrupts flows globally. Imports of Venezuelan crude soared to 598,000 barrels a day, the highest since early 2019 when the US first imposed...
Charles Schwab Corp. is planning to use artificial intelligence to extend benefits usually reserved for wealthy clients to the less affluent. CEO Rick Wurster said AI will be a "real accelerant" for the 55-year-old firm. He spoke with Carlyle Group Co-Founder and Co-Chairman David Rubenstein for an upcoming episode of Bloomberg Wealth. This interview was recorded May 1 in New York. (Source: Bloomb...
Charles Schwab Corp. is planning to use artificial intelligence to extend benefits usually reserved for wealthy clients to the less affluent. CEO Rick Wurster said AI will be a "real accelerant" for the 55-year-old firm. He spoke with Carlyle Group Co-Founder and Co-Chairman David Rubenstein for an upcoming episode of Bloomberg Wealth. This interview was recorded May 1 in New York. (Source: Bloomberg)
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. said it will invest about C$14 billion ($10.2 billion) in Ontario, which the province says is one of the biggest ever private sector commitments in its mining industry. The world’s second-largest gold producer plans to invest C$12 billion across existing operations, development projects and exploration activities by 2030, Chief Executive Officer Ammar Al-Joundi said at a pr...
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. said it will invest about C$14 billion ($10.2 billion) in Ontario, which the province says is one of the biggest ever private sector commitments in its mining industry. The world’s second-largest gold producer plans to invest C$12 billion across existing operations, development projects and exploration activities by 2030, Chief Executive Officer Ammar Al-Joundi said at a press conference Wednesday. It also intends to allocate another C$2 billion to expand its Detour Lake underground mine and Upper Beaver gold-copper project. The Toronto-based company aims to grow its gold output to more than 4 million ounces by the early 2030s, which would put it within striking distance of US rival Newmont Corp., the world’s largest producer of the precious metal. Agnico mined 3.45 million ounces of bullion last year, overtaking Barrick Mining Corp. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made efforts to revitalize the province’s mining industry and boost local supply chains. Ontario launched an initiative last year to accelerate mining projects through the streamlining of permitting processes, which it says will reduce government review times by 50%. Agnico’s investment plan “represents a significant sign of confidence and will be among one of the larger capital investments in Ontario’s resource economy,” Stephen Lecce , the province’s energy and mines minister, said in a phone interview.
Михаил Руденко/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis How much more upside can there really be for a stock that has surged over 3,400% in the past 12 months? According to quite a lot of people, not that much it seems. We are still looking at just how cyclical this part of the AI supply chain really will be and where Sandisk Corporation ( SNDK ) will fall into all of this. If my coverage on Micr...
Михаил Руденко/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis How much more upside can there really be for a stock that has surged over 3,400% in the past 12 months? According to quite a lot of people, not that much it seems. We are still looking at just how cyclical this part of the AI supply chain really will be and where Sandisk Corporation ( SNDK ) will fall into all of this. If my coverage on Micron ( MU ) a month ago is any hint on how I view SNDK, well then it’s a Strong Buy. Stock Price (Seeking Alpha) I see the argument that data storage devices, flash memory using NAND technology in the case of SNDK, might look highly cyclical from an outside perspective. The reality is that as long as companies like NVIDIA ( NVDA ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) continue to innovate, there will always be a need for new and better storage devices, it’s just that simple. But that can still be cyclical. What I see prevents this is the relatively short useful life of the current GPUs that are produced. Four years seems to be the average , with the reality likely being that it's lower. Below that, looking at the grand scheme of things, a drop in demand won't be that noticeable when the overall trend keeps chugging along higher. I’m rating SNDK a Strong Buy, with a cautious word though that the upside seen over the past 12 months won't be replicated, but it's certainly enough to warrant a bullish take on the business now. In The Business Of Memory So SNDK was actually spun off from Western Digital Corporation ( WDC ) just a year or so ago, at the time (February 21, 2025) the stock was trading at around $50 per share. If the spin-off never had happened I imagine I would have been writing about WDC now and not SNDK. Still, WDC has done very well with shares up 949% over the past 12 months. End Markets (SNDK Q3 FY2026 10-Q) With the small history note out of the way I want to discuss the business model which right now is heavily relying on the strong demand for flash storage for AI...
DNY59/iStock via Getty Images By Balaji Venkataraman Determining how to allocate to fixed income requires careful consideration. Our monthly Fixed-Income Monitor consolidates the views of our investment team to help identify opportunities and risks across the asset class. Key takeaways Ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions continue to drive market volatility, with oil prices fluctuating above $100 per barrel...
DNY59/iStock via Getty Images By Balaji Venkataraman Determining how to allocate to fixed income requires careful consideration. Our monthly Fixed-Income Monitor consolidates the views of our investment team to help identify opportunities and risks across the asset class. Key takeaways Ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions continue to drive market volatility, with oil prices fluctuating above $100 per barrel for Brent crude. In bond markets, this has led to higher bond yields while credit remains resilient. The Federal Reserve (Fed) policy remains accommodative but constrained by energy-driven inflation and a moderating labor market. Inflation remains a key constraint as rising energy prices are a headline inflation factor for now but could pass into core inflation if Strait of Hormuz traffic stays limited for an extended period. Markets are balancing growth and inflation risks: Solid U.S. growth (2%) persists, but moderating employment trends amid inflation uncertainty suggests the Fed faces a more nuanced policy tradeoff. Treasury yields remained elevated across the curve as markets navigate resurgent inflation from high energy prices. U.S. Treasury yields were broadly in the ~3.8%–5.0% range across maturities, reflecting a higher rate environment. Front-end yields have reacted to declining federal funds rate cut expectations, while yields further out the curve have risen amid rising inflationary pressure and solid growth. However, rate volatility did subside in April. Credit spreads have tightened over the past month as a ceasefire took hold in the Middle East and U.S. corporations reported generally strong earnings. Mortgage-backed securities rallied as rate volatility eased over the past month. At the same time, U.S. growth fundamentals remain resilient for now, even as employment growth has slowed materially. AI infrastructure investment has been a key theme in the U.S. corporate market, and related new debt issuance has arrived and is expected to continue in earnest thr...
Co-founder of Gap whose tastes helped establish the template for the clothing brand’s affordable ‘preppy’ look The first branch of Gap was a single small storefront selling men’s denim and vinyl discs at 1850 Ocean Avenue, in the classy Inglewood neighbourhood of San Francisco, the city which, at the time of the store’s opening, 1969, was at the centre of hippy and other youth cultures. The foundi...
Co-founder of Gap whose tastes helped establish the template for the clothing brand’s affordable ‘preppy’ look The first branch of Gap was a single small storefront selling men’s denim and vinyl discs at 1850 Ocean Avenue, in the classy Inglewood neighbourhood of San Francisco, the city which, at the time of the store’s opening, 1969, was at the centre of hippy and other youth cultures. The founding story is that a middle-aged real-estate developer, Donald Fisher , couldn’t find Levi jeans in his size – with a 31in inseam – in the city, and set up the store to supply Levi’s piled wall-high in all cuts and sizes. But much of what the world now thinks of as Gap actually came from his wife, Doris Fisher, who has died aged 94. The Fishers invested their life savings in the $63,000 start-up cost of the store, which Donald wanted to call Pants and Discs. The night before they had to instruct the signwriter what to paint on its fascia, Doris came up with “The Generation Gap” (referring to the divide between their age group and the then-young baby boomers), then shortening it to “The Gap”; although her style choices for Gap clothes often diminished rather than accentuated age and gender differences. Continue reading...
State officials told vendors at the facility to prepare for a breakdown of the tented camp beginning next month Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email An alliance of environmental groups and immigration advocates has welcomed what looks to be the imminent closure of Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious immigration jail in the remote Florida Everglades celebrated by Donald Trump for its har...
State officials told vendors at the facility to prepare for a breakdown of the tented camp beginning next month Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email An alliance of environmental groups and immigration advocates has welcomed what looks to be the imminent closure of Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious immigration jail in the remote Florida Everglades celebrated by Donald Trump for its harsh conditions. State officials told vendors at the facility on Tuesday to prepare for a breakdown of the tented camp beginning next month, the New York Times reported , citing its ongoing cost. Continue reading...
Ruangrit/iStock via Getty Images Probably the most popular insight to make its way from finance theory into everyday usage is that “diversification is the only free lunch” in investing. The idea dates back to Harry Markowitz in 1952. He, and those building on his work, demonstrated that in an efficient market, investors shouldn’t earn extra return for bearing company-specific risks that can be div...
Ruangrit/iStock via Getty Images Probably the most popular insight to make its way from finance theory into everyday usage is that “diversification is the only free lunch” in investing. The idea dates back to Harry Markowitz in 1952. He, and those building on his work, demonstrated that in an efficient market, investors shouldn’t earn extra return for bearing company-specific risks that can be diversified away – also known as “idiosyncratic” risks.” Thus reducing idiosyncratic risk will, all else equal, automatically improve the risk-return profile of your portfolio. Lunchtime! This is a powerful argument. As long as markets are efficient enough that beating them is difficult and highly compensated, Markowitz’s insight will broadly hold. But the maxim has taken on a life of its own, and in everyday usage “diversification” has come to mean something subtly different – and potentially misleading. When friends and clients write to us about diversification, they often mean something like “exposure spread out across the largest number of discrete risky investments.” By this understanding, a portfolio that invests the same dollar amount in each stock in the S&P 500 is more diversified than the traditional market-capitalization-weighted index fund, which currently has almost 40% in just the top ten largest companies. The logic seems to follow: if diversification is a free lunch, shouldn’t I always want a more diversified portfolio? It’s easy to see this can’t be true in general. Just adding arbitrary extra investments – say, sports bets – with zero or negative expected returns can’t possibly help your portfolio. So, perhaps we should refine the definition, replacing “the most discrete investments” with “the most separate sources of return .” But as we’ll see, this doesn’t fare much better. To see why, consider whether the equal-weight S&P 500 portfolio is better than the market-cap-weighted version. Each stock is a source of return, and the equal-weight portfolio is more e...
Read Steven Cress' Article on Seeking Alpha Explore Alpha Picks Today! Join the Waitlist for the launch of the Quant Income Growth Portfolio! This video's transcript was generated by a third party. It is not curated or reviewed and is provided for convenience and information purposes only. The accuracy and completeness of the transcript are not guaranteed. Nicole Benjamin : Hey everybody. It's Nic...
Read Steven Cress' Article on Seeking Alpha Explore Alpha Picks Today! Join the Waitlist for the launch of the Quant Income Growth Portfolio! This video's transcript was generated by a third party. It is not curated or reviewed and is provided for convenience and information purposes only. The accuracy and completeness of the transcript are not guaranteed. Nicole Benjamin : Hey everybody. It's Nicole Benjamin, your host here at Seeking Alpha to bring to you another episode of The Weekly Grade with Steven Cress, where we’re going to be giving you market signals in minutes. Now, for a little bit of housekeeping. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Content is offered for information purposes only. Unless stated otherwise, any and all individuals participating in the video are third parties that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body. Unless stated otherwise, the views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. The accuracy and completeness of content shared cannot be guaranteed. Seeking Alpha does not take into account of your objectives or financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser, or investment bank. Steven Cress : Wow! I think that’s a record in time. Well done. NB : Alright. Well, without further ado, Steven Cress, everyone. VP of Quantitative Strategy here at Seeking Alpha. He is a wonderful guy who is behind a lot of the amazing products you see on site, Alpha Picks, the PQP, and if any of that might be of interest to you, take a look. See if that might be right for your portfolio and the picks that we have in there. Now, Steve, before we jump in, can you give us a little bit about just your background? SC : Yeah. No. Absolutely. I've been in the world of finance, both Wall Street and the City of London for over ...
Karman Space & Defense (NYSE: KRMN) stock tumbled 6.8% through 10 a.m. ET Wednesday despite reporting decent earnings last night. Analysts expected the space stock to earn $0.11 per share on sales of $150.2 million. Karman did, in fact, earn $0.11 -- with $15 1 .2 million in sales. It didn't just "beat by a penny" -- Karman beat by a million dollars (albeit in revenue)! Image source: Getty Images....
Karman Space & Defense (NYSE: KRMN) stock tumbled 6.8% through 10 a.m. ET Wednesday despite reporting decent earnings last night. Analysts expected the space stock to earn $0.11 per share on sales of $150.2 million. Karman did, in fact, earn $0.11 -- with $15 1 .2 million in sales. It didn't just "beat by a penny" -- Karman beat by a million dollars (albeit in revenue)! Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today
U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice, and stole reams of data from students who use the company's flagship student data software Canvas.
U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice, and stole reams of data from students who use the company's flagship student data software Canvas.