peshkov/iStock via Getty Images Market Snapshot ▪ The MSCI ACWI ex US Small Cap Index ended the quarterly slightly down, as encouraging corporate earnings results at the start of the year were overtaken by concerns about the war in Iran. ▪ Energy was the strongest sector, rising 25%. Energy-producing markets, such as Canada and the Middle East, also outperformed. ▪ Utilities did well, as investors...
peshkov/iStock via Getty Images Market Snapshot ▪ The MSCI ACWI ex US Small Cap Index ended the quarterly slightly down, as encouraging corporate earnings results at the start of the year were overtaken by concerns about the war in Iran. ▪ Energy was the strongest sector, rising 25%. Energy-producing markets, such as Canada and the Middle East, also outperformed. ▪ Utilities did well, as investors favored domestically oriented businesses insulated from the effects of war and sought high dividend-yielding stocks in a risk-off environment. ▪ Consumer Discretionary small caps were hit the hardest, especially durable goods and apparel, as macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty weighed on consumer sentiment. ▪ Stocks of companies in the highest quintile of quality—many of which are software and services stocks—underperformed those in the lowest by almost 9 percentage points. Those in the fastest-growing quintile of the market also lagged. Index Performance ((USD %)) MSCI ACWI ex US Small Cap Index Sector 1Q 2026 Trailing 12 Months Communication Services -7.5 10.3 Consumer Discretionary -9.3 6.5 Consumer Staples -0.4 10.0 Energy 25.3 68.0 Financials -2.0 31.9 Health Care -4.2 11.5 Industrials -0.1 31.2 Information Technology 5.1 46.1 Materials 2.6 51.4 Real Estate -6.0 13.0 Utilities 8.0 39.9 Click to enlarge Region 1Q 2026 Trailing 12 Months Canada 7.3 67.6 Emerging Markets -0.7 25.0 Europe EMU -3.3 23.5 Europe ex EMU -5.3 17.3 Japan 3.7 28.9 Middle East 7.6 96.5 Pacific ex Japan -4.9 24.2 MSCI ACWI ex US Small Cap Index -0.4 28.4 Click to enlarge Source: FactSet, MSCI Inc. Data as of March 31, 2026. Click to enlarge What's on Our Minds Two very different events shaped markets in the first quarter of 2026. The first was Anthropic ( ANTHRO )'s release of Claude Opus 4.6, a more powerful AI model that enhanced Claude Code's ability to write software with minimal human intervention. Software stocks fell precipitously in what traders called the "SaaSocalypse, " a term ev...
Broadcom (NasdaqGS:AVGO) has renewed and expanded a five year VMware Cloud Foundation agreement with London Stock Exchange Group to support secure private cloud infrastructure. The partnership focuses on operational efficiency and private cloud capabilities for a large, regulated financial markets customer. The deal follows Broadcom’s VMware acquisition and recent AI focused product updates in its...
Broadcom (NasdaqGS:AVGO) has renewed and expanded a five year VMware Cloud Foundation agreement with London Stock Exchange Group to support secure private cloud infrastructure. The partnership focuses on operational efficiency and private cloud capabilities for a large, regulated financial markets customer. The deal follows Broadcom’s VMware acquisition and recent AI focused product updates in its infrastructure portfolio. Broadcom, trading at $411.07, has very large multi year returns, including a gain of 78.9% over the past year and 18.3% year to date. The stock has moved only modestly over the past month, up 1.1%, while the past week shows a small decline of 2.0%. This puts the new London Stock Exchange Group agreement into focus as investors assess recent news alongside a strong longer term track record. For investors watching NasdaqGS:AVGO, this renewed five year VMware Cloud Foundation deal highlights ongoing traction for Broadcom’s private cloud offerings with a highly regulated financial customer. As AI infrastructure spending and cloud architectures continue to evolve, partnerships of this type may help clarify how Broadcom aims to position its combined semiconductor and software businesses with large enterprises. Stay updated on the most important news stories for by adding it to your or . Alternatively, explore our to discover new perspectives on Broadcom. NasdaqGS:AVGO Earnings & Revenue Growth as at May 2026 The renewed five year VMware Cloud Foundation agreement with London Stock Exchange Group sits at the intersection of Broadcom’s AI hardware push and its infrastructure software ambitions. LSEG is a highly regulated, systemically important financial markets operator, so Broadcom securing an expanded role in its private cloud suggests that VMware Cloud Foundation 9 is being taken seriously for mission critical workloads, including production AI. For you as an investor, this is less about immediate revenue impact and more about proof that Broadcom’s po...
Hong Kong plans to launch a new gold-clearing system by July, advancing the city’s ambitions to become a global hub for bullion trading. The government-owned mechanism will mirror the financial infrastructure used in London, the world’s largest bullion market, and allow participants to settle trades through unallocated accounts, people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity as they ar...
Hong Kong plans to launch a new gold-clearing system by July, advancing the city’s ambitions to become a global hub for bullion trading. The government-owned mechanism will mirror the financial infrastructure used in London, the world’s largest bullion market, and allow participants to settle trades through unallocated accounts, people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to the media. Unallocated accounts allow for faster and more scalable trading, which is important for liquidity. They permit customers to hold a claim against the clearer on a quantity of gold without the need to own specific, numbered bars. Most precious metals traded in London are cleared in this way. Hong Kong has invited a number of China-friendly central banks to participate in the clearing system as part of a push to promote itself as a trading, financing and storage hub. The special administrative region has also signed a cooperation pact with the Shanghai Gold Exchange and plans to expand gold-storage capacity to 2,000 tons within three years. Read More: Hong Kong Woos Central Banks to Become Gold-Trading Hub In an emailed response to questions, the Hong Kong government agency behind the clearing system, known as the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, said preparatory work “has entered its final stage and trial operation of the clearing system is scheduled to commence within this year.” The clearing system has attracted significant interest from the industry, two of the people said, particularly from trading houses and financial institutions seeking an alternative for trading gold within Asia, home to two of the world’s major bullion consumers in China and India. Eleven banks – five Chinese and six international – are on the board of the Hong Kong clearing company, according to an announcement by the regional government last month. These include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd., as well as HSBC Gr...
AI adoption is on the rise in Singapore, with 52% of workers in the country using the technology in their jobs, according to Slack's new Workforce Index. Primeimages | E+ | Getty Images Singapore has inked separate agreements with Google and OpenAI to strengthen its position as a global artificial intelligence hub and accelerate AI deployment across public services, healthcare, education and enter...
AI adoption is on the rise in Singapore, with 52% of workers in the country using the technology in their jobs, according to Slack's new Workforce Index. Primeimages | E+ | Getty Images Singapore has inked separate agreements with Google and OpenAI to strengthen its position as a global artificial intelligence hub and accelerate AI deployment across public services, healthcare, education and enterprise. The agreements, announced on Wednesday, include a new National AI Partnership with Google and the first memorandum of understanding between Singapore and OpenAI, which will see it set up an AI lab in the city. Under the partnership, OpenAI will commit more than 300 million Singapore dollars ($234 million) to strengthen Singapore's AI ecosystem, according to a joint statement released by the ChatGPT-maker and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information. While Google's announcement didn't include an investment commitment, the company said the main focus would be on solving societal challenges, building an AI-ready workforce, driving enterprise innovation and creating a secure AI ecosystem. The companies announced the news alongside Singapore's ATxSummit, a flagship technology conference taking place in the city with a heavy focus on AI deployment this year. The city-state has been trying to carve out a niche in the global AI race, positioning itself as a neutral and talent-rich platform for developing, testing and deploying AI solutions. Google and OpenAI's deals also build on Singapore's broader national AI strategy, which includes an investment commitment of more than 1 billion Singapore dollars to strengthen public AI research capabilities over five years from 2025 to 2030. Singapore has attracted major commitments from global AI players, including Amazon 's AWS and Microsoft , in addition to frontline model developers such as Google DeepMind and OpenAI. Frontline deployment The establishment of the "OpenAI Singapore Applied AI Lab" — the first such lab esta...
Pacific Investment Management Co. is seeing an opportunity in Japan’s 30-year sovereign bonds at a time when concerns over inflation and government spending have pushed those yields to record highs. Marc Seidner , chief investment officer of non-traditional strategies, said Japan’s yield curve has become “too steep” relative to other developed markets, creating attractive value in longer-dated deb...
Pacific Investment Management Co. is seeing an opportunity in Japan’s 30-year sovereign bonds at a time when concerns over inflation and government spending have pushed those yields to record highs. Marc Seidner , chief investment officer of non-traditional strategies, said Japan’s yield curve has become “too steep” relative to other developed markets, creating attractive value in longer-dated debt. The firm has bullish positions on 30-year bonds while taking bearish bets on the 10-year note on expectation that the gap between the two will narrow. “There is an excess risk premia that is attractive on an absolute basis and relative to many, many other markets,” Seidner said in an interview in Singapore. Japan’s yield curve is the steepest in developed markets, reflecting investor concerns that the Bank of Japan has been too slow to raise interest rates as well as growing unease over the country’s long-term fiscal spending. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi added to those worries this week by calling for an extra budget to cushion the impact of higher commodity prices. The gap between Japan’s 10- and 30-year bond yields currently stands at around 130 basis points, down from as high as 171 basis points in September, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s still wider than 52 basis points in the US and 67 basis points in the UK. Seidner said the spread between Japan’s 10-year and 30-year yields has already started to narrow. “It has normalized to a degree. It still is one of the steeper yield curves in the world, which is why we’d continue to hold,” he said. What Bloomberg Strategists Say... “With Japan’s economic growth beating estimates, it suggests there is more pain ahead for JGBs” Mark Cranfield , Markets Live Strategist Markets have debated what could drive further compression in Japan’s yield curve, with factors including additional BOJ rate hikes, easing fiscal concerns and improving investor sentiment seen as catalysts. It’s “probably a little of all of the above,”...
In this article BABA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT An Alibaba logo is displayed at the company's booth at China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, Sept. 10, 2025. Maxim Shemetov | Reuters CHONGQING, China — Alibaba announced Wednesday its new artificial intelligence chip would be three times as powerful as its predecessor, as rival Nvidia struggl...
In this article BABA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT An Alibaba logo is displayed at the company's booth at China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, Sept. 10, 2025. Maxim Shemetov | Reuters CHONGQING, China — Alibaba announced Wednesday its new artificial intelligence chip would be three times as powerful as its predecessor, as rival Nvidia struggles to get its advanced chips into China. The Zhenwu M890 delivers three times the performance of the current Zhenwu 810E, Alibaba said, adding that the new processor has 144 GB GPU memory and interchip bandwidth of 800 GB per second. Alibaba said it had already delivered 560,000 Zhenwu units to more than 400 customers across 20 industries. The e-commerce giant also revealed its next generation large language model, Qwen3.7-Max, would soon be released. In early April, Alibaba and China Telecom said they were launching a data center in southern China powered by the e-commerce giant's own chips, as the country ramps up its focus on homegrown AI infrastructure. — CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
OpenAI Inc. is setting up an AI lab in Singapore through a multiyear partnership with the local government, part of a broader effort to support the city-state’s artificial intelligence ambitions. The ChatGPT maker agreed to spend more than S$300 million ($234 million) to establish its first so-called applied AI lab outside the US, it said in a statement Wednesday. The effort will expand its Singap...
OpenAI Inc. is setting up an AI lab in Singapore through a multiyear partnership with the local government, part of a broader effort to support the city-state’s artificial intelligence ambitions. The ChatGPT maker agreed to spend more than S$300 million ($234 million) to establish its first so-called applied AI lab outside the US, it said in a statement Wednesday. The effort will expand its Singapore-based technical team to more than 200 roles over the next few years. OpenAI established its Singapore office in 2024 . The AI firm backed by Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. is striking partnerships with governments across the planet, part of a bid to stay ahead of rivals such as Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc. ’s Google. The new lab will support Singapore’s implementation of AI in areas such as public service, finance, health care and digital infrastructure, while working with the island nation’s startups. Singapore has made AI a strategic priority, with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong ’s administration focused on training citizens and reinforcing social safety nets while urging Singaporeans to adapt to faster changes in the job market. Read More: Singapore PM Warns of AI Disruptions, Vows to Support Workers The country earlier announced a pact to explore collaboration with Google DeepMind in areas such as health care and research. The partnership will encompass work on “triadic care” — the idea that AI tools are used to assist patients throughout their treatment while doctors remain in charge. Nvidia is also setting up a new AI research lab in the city-state to collaborate with university researchers, industry partners and government agencies, the country’s Infocomm Media Development Authority said in a statement. “Singapore’s domestic market may not warrant so much attention. What makes us compelling is the global networks that we are connected to and our track record for trusted technology adoption,” Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said a...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. The era of ultra-high performance Mercedes EVs is here. The German automaker finally revealed its new super sedan, the AMG GT 4-door coupe...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. The era of ultra-high performance Mercedes EVs is here. The German automaker finally revealed its new super sedan, the AMG GT 4-door coupe, with technology borrowed from the automaker’s XX concept that last year made history by driving 24,901 miles in under 8 days at Nardò Ring in southern Italy. With the production model, Mercedes rethought its approach to motors and batteries in the hopes of delivering a high performance vehicle that could go toe-to-toe with even some hypercars. The new AMG GT utilizes three axial flux motors developed by Mercedes subsidiary YASA, delivering up to 1,153 horsepower and 1,475 lb-ft of torque. Mercedes claims to be the first to use these types of motors, which thanks to their thin disc shape weigh just a fraction of a traditional radial motor while still delivering massive horsepower. The high-performance battery, meanwhile, utilizes tall, ultra-slim cylindrical cells that are only 1 inch in diameter, allowing heat to escape from the core to the outside surface almost immediately. In addition, Mercedes developed a special, high-tech oil that is non-conductive so as not to cause an electrical short. The oil flows directly around every single individual cell for direct cooling. Inspired by Formula 1, this system provides 20 kW of cooling power, or about four times more cooling capacity than a standard EQS battery. You can drag race it over and over again, and it theoretically won’t overheat. The AMG GT 4-door coupe is built on an 800-volt architecture capable of handling ultra-fast charging up to 600 kW. That plus the innovative cooling system enables charging from 10-80 percent in just 11 minutes, Mercedes says. The nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum cathode, combined with an ano...