Is SOUN still a strong AI play after its Q1 selloff, despite 52% revenue growth, and can OASYS and the LivePerson deal outweigh margin pressure and valuation concerns?
Is SOUN still a strong AI play after its Q1 selloff, despite 52% revenue growth, and can OASYS and the LivePerson deal outweigh margin pressure and valuation concerns?
Trading volume on Polymarket has declined for the first time in eight months, a setback that comes as its founder acknowledges missteps and its chief rival Kalshi Inc. continues to grow. Monthly notional trading volume on Polymarket’s offshore exchange and US app slipped by roughly 9% to $10.3 billion in April, according to user-compiled data on Dune Analytics. Kalshi’s volume rose 13% to $14.8 bi...
Trading volume on Polymarket has declined for the first time in eight months, a setback that comes as its founder acknowledges missteps and its chief rival Kalshi Inc. continues to grow. Monthly notional trading volume on Polymarket’s offshore exchange and US app slipped by roughly 9% to $10.3 billion in April, according to user-compiled data on Dune Analytics. Kalshi’s volume rose 13% to $14.8 billion. The last time volume declined on Polymarket was August 2025, the month before the National Football League regular season kicked off, attracting legions of new users. Polymarket later set its volume record in March, spurred by major sporting events including the March Madness college basketball tournament. A Polymarket spokesperson said that volume dipped last month because of a technical overhaul designed to handle increased activity. The upgrade was rolled out on April 28 after a delay. “Over the coming weeks, we are shipping a series of updates that will make trading faster and smoother than ever — reducing delays and delivering the biggest speed improvement in Polymarket’s history,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. Polymarket had more trading volume than any other prediction market exchange for most of the past few years, but it was overtaken in September by Kalshi. Polymarket has faced challenges including trading outages and delayed product launches, as well as scrutiny from lawmakers over the types of bets allowed on the platform and allegations of insider trading. At the same time, the company’s valuation has continued to increase as the nascent industry grows. Polymarket was recently valued at $15 billion when it received a $600 million investment from Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Read More: Polymarket Loses Lead as Delays, Apologies and Blowback Mount Founder Shayne Coplan has publicly acknowledged stumbles, saying that he sometimes found it difficult to delegate and communicate goals a...
French football captain warned against prospect of far-right National Rally party gaining power The French football captain, Kylian Mbappé, has angered Marine Le Pen’s far-right party after expressing concerns about it winning next year’s presidential election. Mbappé, 27, who grew up in Paris’s northern suburbs , in a family with Algerian and Cameroonian heritage, told Vanity Fair this week: “I k...
French football captain warned against prospect of far-right National Rally party gaining power The French football captain, Kylian Mbappé, has angered Marine Le Pen’s far-right party after expressing concerns about it winning next year’s presidential election. Mbappé, 27, who grew up in Paris’s northern suburbs , in a family with Algerian and Cameroonian heritage, told Vanity Fair this week: “I know what it means and what consequences it can have for my country when people like them come to power.” Continue reading...
Laurence Berger April’s headline-grabbing 0.6% M/M rise in the U.S. Consumer Price Index masks what economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics believe is a more optimistic underlying trend: core inflation has likely peaked. The 0.38% increase in core CPI—which excludes volatile food and energy prices—was largely driven by one-time factors, according to Samuel Tombs, Pantheon’s chief U.S. economist. Ove...
Laurence Berger April’s headline-grabbing 0.6% M/M rise in the U.S. Consumer Price Index masks what economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics believe is a more optimistic underlying trend: core inflation has likely peaked. The 0.38% increase in core CPI—which excludes volatile food and energy prices—was largely driven by one-time factors, according to Samuel Tombs, Pantheon’s chief U.S. economist. Over half of the rise came from a technical catch-up in rent calculations after the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t conduct its October survey during last year’s government shutdown. Other temporary spikes included an 11.9% jump in tax preparation services as filing season ended and a 2.8% surge in airline fares driven by a rush of bookings, the note said. Google Trends data suggest flight searches have since normalized, pointing to falling airfares in May. Pantheon forecasts the core CPI to rise by an average of just 0.20% over the next three months. While headline inflation may climb to around 4.1% in May due to higher gasoline ( UNG ) ( BOIL ) prices, the firm expects core CPI inflation has already peaked at 2.8%. Looking further ahead, Pantheon projects core PCE inflation—the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure—will average 3.0% in the fourth quarter, potentially enabling the Federal Open Market Committee to resume rate cuts at its December meeting. But the market's base case is a hold at the current 3.50%-3.75% target range, and odds of a rate hike surged this week as inflation data came in hot, especially at the wholesale level. Pantheon Macroeconomics More on the U.S. Economy The Euro And Sterling Are Threatening To Break Lower, While A Record Current Account Surplus Does Not Prevent The Yen From Challenging Intervention Levels EUR/USD, GBP/USD And Dollar Index Overview - The U.S. Dollar Rallies Back After CPI, Is The Correction Over? Higher Inflation Is Becoming Baked Into Expectations US2Y reclaims 4% as yields climb on hotter-than-expected PPI report Fed funds fu...
Companies linked to China’s battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. agreed to buy up to a 38% stake in Chinese data center operator VNET Group Inc. from an existing shareholder, in a deal that could be valued at up to $942 million. Under the deal, units of PJ Millennium LP, whose general partner is an affiliate of CATL, will acquire up to 650 million Class A shares at $1.4486 each f...
Companies linked to China’s battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. agreed to buy up to a 38% stake in Chinese data center operator VNET Group Inc. from an existing shareholder, in a deal that could be valued at up to $942 million. Under the deal, units of PJ Millennium LP, whose general partner is an affiliate of CATL, will acquire up to 650 million Class A shares at $1.4486 each from VNET’s existing shareholder Shandong Hi-Speed Holdings Group Ltd. , according to a company statement on Wednesday. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the buyers entered agreements with VNET founder Josh Sheng Chen , committing to vote certain shares in line with the founder group, according to the statement. The investors will also face lock-up restrictions on certain shares for a specified period. Chen said the company welcomes the new strategic investors and plans to deepen collaboration across technology and supply chains, while advancing next-generation AI-driven data center infrastructure. VNET operates in more than 30 cities in China and has over 7,000 customers. Data centers have become highly sought after assets with the boom in artificial intelligence , which has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in financing. Read more: Vnet Founder Is Said to Pair with Game Developer to Raise Stake
Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh arrives in court in Beaufort, S.C., Sept. 14, 2023. James Pollard | AP The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder convictions and life sentence of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh in the shooting deaths of his wife and younger son. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the conduct by the court clerk "egregiously attacked Murdaugh's credibi...
Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh arrives in court in Beaufort, S.C., Sept. 14, 2023. James Pollard | AP The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder convictions and life sentence of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh in the shooting deaths of his wife and younger son. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the conduct by the court clerk "egregiously attacked Murdaugh's credibility" by suggesting to jurors his testimony could not be trusted. They also said the trial judge went too far in allowing evidence of Murdaugh's financial crimes into his murder trial But Murdaugh won't be getting out of prison. The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to stealing around $12 million from his clients and currently is serving a 40-year federal sentence. Still, the state Supreme Court ruling is a win for Murdaugh, who admits to being a thief, liar, insurance cheat and bad lawyer, but has adamantly denied killing his wife Maggie and younger son Paul since he found their bodies outside their home in 2021. The justices ruled Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, influenced jurors to find Murdaugh guilty. She hoped to improve sales of a book she was writing about the case. She has since pleaded guilty to lying about what she said and did to a different judge. Murdaugh's lawyers also argued before the high court that the judge at his 2023 trial made rulings that prevented a fair trial, such as allowing in evidence of Murdaugh stealing from clients that had nothing to do with the killings but biased jurors against him. They detailed the lack of physical evidence — no DNA or blood was found splattered on Murdaugh or any of his clothes, even though the killings were at close range with powerful weapons that were never found. Prosecutors argued that the clerk's comments were fleeting and the evidence against Murdaugh was overwhelming. His lawyer said that didn't matter because the comments a juror said she made...
Humana (NYSE:HUM) stock received a price target raise to $254 from $182 from Piper Sandler, which maintained a Neutral rating. The move follows a Q1 2026 earnings beat driven by stronger Medicare Advantage performance and a favorable medical loss ratio (MLR). For prudent investors, the action signals that the longer-term margin recovery thesis is back in ... Piper Sandler Just Hiked Humana Price T...
Humana (NYSE:HUM) stock received a price target raise to $254 from $182 from Piper Sandler, which maintained a Neutral rating. The move follows a Q1 2026 earnings beat driven by stronger Medicare Advantage performance and a favorable medical loss ratio (MLR). For prudent investors, the action signals that the longer-term margin recovery thesis is back in ... Piper Sandler Just Hiked Humana Price Target to $254: Medicare Advantage Beat Powers the Bull Case
Why Oil Refiners Are the Real Winners of $100 Oil PricesEastern (NASDAQ:EML) reported lower first-quarter fiscal 2026 sales and earnings from continuing operations, as weaker demand for returnable transport packaging and an operating issue at its Big 3 Precision business weighed
Why Oil Refiners Are the Real Winners of $100 Oil PricesEastern (NASDAQ:EML) reported lower first-quarter fiscal 2026 sales and earnings from continuing operations, as weaker demand for returnable transport packaging and an operating issue at its Big 3 Precision business weighed
Joerg Koch/Getty Images News Siemens ( SIEGY ) ( SMAWF ) reported stronger-than-expected order growth, even as revenue and profit came in below forecasts, with management pointing to a fragile global backdrop shaped in part by escalating tensions in the Middle East. New orders, often seen as a forward-looking indicator for the German industrial giant, climbed 11% in the January through March perio...
Joerg Koch/Getty Images News Siemens ( SIEGY ) ( SMAWF ) reported stronger-than-expected order growth, even as revenue and profit came in below forecasts, with management pointing to a fragile global backdrop shaped in part by escalating tensions in the Middle East. New orders, often seen as a forward-looking indicator for the German industrial giant, climbed 11% in the January through March period. The increase was fueled by robust demand in the United States, along with continued spending from data center operators, utilities and defense-related customers. Chief Executive Roland Busch said customer purchasing patterns have not yet shown a clear reaction to the conflict involving Iran, which intensified toward the end of February. Still, he noted the company is keeping a close eye on potential ripple effects across inflation, supply chains and broader market sentiment. Busch added that some regions are showing early signs of improvement, citing modest recovery in parts of China, steady investment activity in the U.S. and continued strength in aerospace, defense and segments of the life sciences sector. Sales stall, margins under pressure For its fiscal second quarter, Siemens posted revenue of 19.76 billion euros, essentially flat from a year earlier and below analyst expectations of 20.14 billion euros. Industrial profit declined 8% to 2.97 billion euros, missing forecasts of 3.05 billion euros. The comparison was affected by a roughly 300 million euro gain recorded last year from the sale of its wiring business, which also weighed on margins this quarter. Currency movements also played a role, with a weaker U.S. dollar trimming margins by about 80 basis points. Net income came in at 2.24 billion euros, topping expectations of 2.13 billion euros. The company also unveiled plans for a share buyback program of up to 6 billion euros over the next five years. Siemens said its order backlog reached a record 124 billion euros, driven by its core segments in factory auto...