Why Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) Is Back on Investor Radar Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) has drawn fresh attention after a strong year to date, with the stock up 30.70% and a 117.15% total return over the past year. Those figures stand alongside reported annual revenue of US$4.10b and net income of US$1.91b. This context allows investors to assess how current pricing lines u...
Why Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) Is Back on Investor Radar Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) has drawn fresh attention after a strong year to date, with the stock up 30.70% and a 117.15% total return over the past year. Those figures stand alongside reported annual revenue of US$4.10b and net income of US$1.91b. This context allows investors to assess how current pricing lines up with the company’s recent financial profile. See our latest analysis for Taiwan Semiconductor...
Explore the exciting world of TopBuild (NYSE: BLD) with our contributing expert analysts in this Motley Fool Scoreboard episode. Check out the video below to gain valuable insights into market trends and potential investment opportunities!*Stock prices used were the prices of Mar
Explore the exciting world of TopBuild (NYSE: BLD) with our contributing expert analysts in this Motley Fool Scoreboard episode. Check out the video below to gain valuable insights into market trends and potential investment opportunities!*Stock prices used were the prices of Mar
Getty Images A Fast-Food Chain Welcoming a New Interim CEO While I often follow up on companies whose stock rose considerably after my buy rating, this time I'm focusing on one whose share price plummeted after I called it a sell, confirming my thesis. Jack in the Box Inc. ( JACK ), the brand behind a chain of quick-serve restaurants, is down around -40% since my bearish article last September. Ho...
Getty Images A Fast-Food Chain Welcoming a New Interim CEO While I often follow up on companies whose stock rose considerably after my buy rating, this time I'm focusing on one whose share price plummeted after I called it a sell, confirming my thesis. Jack in the Box Inc. ( JACK ), the brand behind a chain of quick-serve restaurants, is down around -40% since my bearish article last September. However, some winds of change appear to be in the kitchen, as the company beat its last earnings estimates when it reported this week on May 13th. Also, in other news, JACK also just replaced CEO Lance Tucker with Mark King, who will be the interim CEO, which was reported in Restaurant Dive this week. Some factors driving my prior bearishness included sales declines and struggling margins, so this time around I'll take another look at this stock in the wake of its recent fiscal FY26 Q2 earnings results, and other data points since my last coverage. My Updated Thesis Bets on the Turnaround Strategy Long-Term For my updated thesis, I gave JACK a slight upgrade from a Sell this time, and my worksheet below gives an overview of what categories drove the rating, with the "hold" score dominating: JACK - rating worksheet (author) Today's article will show why, despite headwinds to earnings, performance vs peers, and technicals implying a bearish pattern, with a new interim CEO in place it could be time to engineer a turnaround story through portfolio optimization which is already underway, paying down debt, and executing on consensus expectations for EPS growth by fiscal 2027, which would justify my price upside forecast and that of Wall St. Not a Clear Top-Line Growth Picture Yet In this first section focusing on what could drive growth, I must say I'm neutral. While some forecasts point to fast food market growth, others speak of inflationary cost pressures on margins, and recent company results show YoY drop in same store sales, and lack of a steady revenue growth trend. When thi...
(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Thursday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 850 points or 1.3 percent to a record closing high. The Nikkei sits just above the 62,550-point plateau although it may rebound again on Friday.
(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Thursday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 850 points or 1.3 percent to a record closing high. The Nikkei sits just above the 62,550-point plateau although it may rebound again on Friday.
Elon Musk joined President Trump’s delegation to China for high level talks with Chinese officials. During the visit, President Xi Jinping told Musk and other US CEOs that China plans to open its door wider to American companies. The trip raised investor focus on potential implications for Tesla’s Full Self Driving software, supply chain, and China based operations. Tesla (NasdaqGS:TSLA) is a majo...
Elon Musk joined President Trump’s delegation to China for high level talks with Chinese officials. During the visit, President Xi Jinping told Musk and other US CEOs that China plans to open its door wider to American companies. The trip raised investor focus on potential implications for Tesla’s Full Self Driving software, supply chain, and China based operations. Tesla (NasdaqGS:TSLA) is a major electric vehicle and clean energy company with large scale manufacturing and sales exposure...
Welcome to Bloomberg’s California Edition—covering all the events shaping one of the world’s biggest economies and its global influence. Sign up here if you’re not already on the list. Not very long ago , artificial intelligence was a fringe concept for people who spent too much time watching Star Trek . Now, it’s a force reshaping everything from billion-dollar fortunes to politics to public budg...
Welcome to Bloomberg’s California Edition—covering all the events shaping one of the world’s biggest economies and its global influence. Sign up here if you’re not already on the list. Not very long ago , artificial intelligence was a fringe concept for people who spent too much time watching Star Trek . Now, it’s a force reshaping everything from billion-dollar fortunes to politics to public budgets, with California at its epicenter. So this week we’re taking you on an state tour—three stories across the Golden State showing the unexpected boons, the expensive battles and the outright betrayals in the world of chatbots and GPTs. Our first stop: Oakland. 1. The trial Inside a downtown Oakland courthouse, a fierce judicial battle became a window into the exponential AI riches and the fight over how to divide them. The legal showdown between Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s OpenAI has already unearthed two other AI billionaires, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever—whose stakes in OpenAI are worth about $30 billion and $7 billion , respectively. To Musk, that’s proof of how OpenAI’s leaders have abandoned its nonprofit roots to capitalize for their own benefit, with his lawyer suggesting Brockman should donate his stake to charity. Altman, in turn, has described a series of “hair-raising” exchanges with the world’s richest man , back when Musk sought to control the startup. All that is happening in a venue that’s less Silicon Valley futurism and more fluorescent-lit bureaucracy . The Oakland courthouse is a postmodern building complex from 1990s, surrounded by dingy parking lots, occasional homelessness and my favorite comic book shop ( what a nerd! ). There’s also a great fried-chicken shack down the street if you’re hungry after all the fighting. 2. Silicon Valley’s traitor Ro Khanna represents a swath of suburban Santa Clara and Alameda counties that is home to some of the world’s biggest companies. Once called a “Silicon Valley groupie,” Khanna had successfully captivated t...
Mariia Vitkovska/iStock via Getty Images Last week’s earnings report for Jumia Technologies AG ( JMIA ) came at a time when the stock was struggling to recover from a poor reaction to Q4 earnings. The stock is down 38% year-to-date while the U.S. stock indices race from one all-time high to another. Yet Jumia’s execution has at least as much momentum as it did when the stock was challenging its 20...
Mariia Vitkovska/iStock via Getty Images Last week’s earnings report for Jumia Technologies AG ( JMIA ) came at a time when the stock was struggling to recover from a poor reaction to Q4 earnings. The stock is down 38% year-to-date while the U.S. stock indices race from one all-time high to another. Yet Jumia’s execution has at least as much momentum as it did when the stock was challenging its 2024 high. CEO Francis Dufay declared in the company’s Q1 earnings conference call that “our momentum towards profitability is continuing and, in several important ways, accelerating.” Thus, hours after the company reported results on May 7, 2026, I went into my quarterly post-earnings interview with Dufay mainly focused on clarifying the finer points of the earnings report and presentation. I also wanted to understand how the company was able to deliver such a strong Q1 performance despite the disruptions in the global economy from the war against Iran. These dislocations represent a new risk landscape for the company and for investors. Performance And Guidance Amid Uncertainty Jumia hit the top end of its guidance for Q1 GMV growth of 27% to 32% , an impressive achievement since the quarter’s results included the month of March, when the war against Iran first disrupted the global economy. This growth was driven by strong performance across the business, including the following achievements listed in the Q4 earnings presentation (adjusted as needed for perimeter effects): Gross profit margin expanded by 160 basis points to 13.9% of GMV (driven by improved marketplace monetization). Quarterly cash burn decreased to $15.3M versus $23.2M in Q1 2025 (the liquidity position is now $62.6M). Adjusted EBITDA loss declined to $10.7M versus $15.7M in Q1 2025. Physical goods orders grew 31% year-over-year, and quarterly active customers grew 25% year-over-year. Repeat behavior improved from 45% of new customers in Q4 2024 making a repeat purchase within 90 days to 47% in Q4 2025 (ther...
AMD (NasdaqGS:AMD) is reportedly close to signing an agreement with Samsung for 2nm chip production. The move would expand AMD's access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity beyond its current reliance on TSMC. The potential deal is expected to support future cutting edge product lines and diversify AMD's supply chain. AMD operates across CPUs, GPUs, data center products, and custom chi...
AMD (NasdaqGS:AMD) is reportedly close to signing an agreement with Samsung for 2nm chip production. The move would expand AMD's access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity beyond its current reliance on TSMC. The potential deal is expected to support future cutting edge product lines and diversify AMD's supply chain. AMD operates across CPUs, GPUs, data center products, and custom chips, putting it at the center of high performance and AI computing demand. As chip complexity...
Getty Images Investment Action I had a buy rating for Cinemark ( CNK ) in July last year, as I thought the business was going to ride on a recovery tailwind given the ramp-up in film supply. My current view remains a buy because Q1 2026 showed the thesis starting to work in reported numbers. Revenue growth was strong, US attendance improved, and adj. EBITDA grew much faster than revenue. More impo...
Getty Images Investment Action I had a buy rating for Cinemark ( CNK ) in July last year, as I thought the business was going to ride on a recovery tailwind given the ramp-up in film supply. My current view remains a buy because Q1 2026 showed the thesis starting to work in reported numbers. Revenue growth was strong, US attendance improved, and adj. EBITDA grew much faster than revenue. More importantly, CNK is not only relying on Hollywood releasing more films. Premium formats, alternative content, Movie Club, and a stronger balance sheet give it more ways to monetize the recovery. Earnings Update CNK reported a strong Q1 2026 performance. Total revenue grew 18.9% y/y, coming in at ~$643 million, of which admissions revenue saw ~$311 million, concession revenue saw ~$255 million, and other revenue saw ~$77 million. Underlying this, attendance improved to 39 million patrons vs. 36.6 million last year. Worldwide average ticket price also stepped up to $7.98 vs. $7.22, while concession revenue per patron increased to $6.54 from $5.75. By region, the US business drove most of the growth. US revenue came in at $514.7 million, supported by higher admissions revenue, higher concession revenue, and stronger attendance. For attendance, the US saw 24.1 million, up from 20.6 million. Average ticket price also increased to $10.53 from $10.08, and concession revenue per patron increased to $8.58 from $7.98. Outside the US, International was more mixed. Revenue was still up to $128.4 million vs. $123.6 million, but attendance declined to 14.9 million from 16 million. That said, the average ticket price did go up to $3.87 from $3.53, and concession revenue per patron increased to $3.25 from $2.88. In other words, international revenue grew because pricing and concessions improved, but the attendance trend was weaker than in the U.S. Nonetheless, the solid top line did drive profits up sharply. Adj. EBITDA more than doubled from ~$36 million to ~$88 million, and adj. EBITDA margi...
Day one of the summit in Beijing between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump opened with a welcome ceremony befitting the importance of the event, and ended with a significant agreement on the future of the China-US relationship. Most importantly, the two sides have agreed to establish a new strategic framework of “constructive strategic stability”. This hopefully will define the bi...
Day one of the summit in Beijing between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump opened with a welcome ceremony befitting the importance of the event, and ended with a significant agreement on the future of the China-US relationship. Most importantly, the two sides have agreed to establish a new strategic framework of “constructive strategic stability”. This hopefully will define the bilateral relationship for the rest of Trump’s term. It is not simply the definition of a relationship...
watch now VIDEO 2:17 02:17 The big gating factor for advanced generative intelligence in our country is power, says Jim Cramer Mad Money with Jim Cramer CNBC's Jim Cramer said Nvidia should be allowed to sell artificial intelligence chips into China, arguing the U.S. would be better served by keeping Chinese companies reliant on American technology rather than forcing them to develop competing pro...
watch now VIDEO 2:17 02:17 The big gating factor for advanced generative intelligence in our country is power, says Jim Cramer Mad Money with Jim Cramer CNBC's Jim Cramer said Nvidia should be allowed to sell artificial intelligence chips into China, arguing the U.S. would be better served by keeping Chinese companies reliant on American technology rather than forcing them to develop competing products. "You force them to build their own chips, they will catch up and with seemingly unlimited electricity, they will surpass us," the " Mad Money " host said Thursday, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was in China alongside President Donald Trump for high-stakes diplomatic summit. Nvidia's ability to sell advanced AI chips into China has been constrained for years following export restrictions introduced during the Biden administration on national security grounds. Investors have increasingly focused on whether Nvidia will be able to restart meaningful sales into the world's second-largest economy, especially after the company signaled earlier this year that approvals remained uncertain. "While small amounts of H200 products for China-based customers were approved by the U.S. government, we have yet to generate any revenue and we do not know whether any imports will be allowed into China," Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said during the company's February earnings call. In March, however, CEO Jensen Huang struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters at Nvidia's GTC conference that the company had received purchase orders and was restarting manufacturing . "We have received purchase orders, and we're in the process of restarting our manufacturing," Huang said. "It's different than it was two weeks ago or three weeks ago, but that's our condition today ... and our supply chain is getting fired up." With Nvidia set to report earnings on Wednesday, investors are eager to see whether the company has any updates on its China business, particularly in light of Huang's participation in T...
Ralph Baric And UNC's Biodefense Contract Racket Exposed Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle , “DLA Piper wants to get you,” I was told, from a source in DC over the weekend. “Well, what can they do to me?” I asked. “They can’t really do anything,” she said. “But they are pissed off.” Well, they should be. DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms on the planet, with over ...
Ralph Baric And UNC's Biodefense Contract Racket Exposed Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle , “DLA Piper wants to get you,” I was told, from a source in DC over the weekend. “Well, what can they do to me?” I asked. “They can’t really do anything,” she said. “But they are pissed off.” Well, they should be. DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms on the planet, with over 90 offices scattered across more than 40 countries. A week back, I took a shot at one of DLA Piper’s top lobbyists, former Republican North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, and one of DLA Piper’s major clients, the University of North Carolina (UNC). As I reported last month for RealClearInvestigations , The National Institutes of Health removed UNC virologist, Ralph Baric, from all his NIH grants. And UNC put Baric on administrative leave. This all took place last year, but remained hidden until I exposed it all in a sprawling investigation that delved into Baric’s career , his past lobbying efforts of the federal government to keep taxpayer money pouring into his UNC lab, and Baric’s manipulations of public opinion to shut down speculation that the pandemic started because of the dangerous virus research that he pioneered in collaboration with Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That’s right. Baric’s main collaborators to create experimental pandemic viruses were virologists working in the same city where the COVID pandemic started in 2019. Neither Baric nor UNC would respond to my repeated inquiries. However, when a reporter sent them questions about my article, UNC said that they couldn’t discuss Baric “citing the university’s policy on personnel matters.” Another reporter who sent UNC questions, received this reply : “Thanks for reaching out. Under the North Carolina State Human Resources Act, the University of North Carolina does not comment on personnel matters.” But the pressure became overwhelming and the dam finally burst on Tuesday, when UNC administrat...