Althom Lowe’s ( LOW ) is trading defensively ahead of Wednesday’s open despite a top- and bottom-line beat for the first quarter, as lingering softness in the housing market led the company to maintain its full-year outlook, including profit guidance that was less than expectations. Additionally, operating income as a percentage of sales is expected to decline by ~120 basis points from FY25 to a r...
Althom Lowe’s ( LOW ) is trading defensively ahead of Wednesday’s open despite a top- and bottom-line beat for the first quarter, as lingering softness in the housing market led the company to maintain its full-year outlook, including profit guidance that was less than expectations. Additionally, operating income as a percentage of sales is expected to decline by ~120 basis points from FY25 to a range of 11.2% and 11.4% in FY26. The home improvement retailer continues to expect to earn an adjusted profit of $12.25 to $12.75 per share, with the $12.50 midpoint below the $12.59 per share consensus estimate. On an unadjusted basis, earnings are expected to be within a range of $11.75 to $12.25, less than the $12.44 estimate. For FY26, Lowe’s ( LOW ) sees comparable store sales for the year unchanged to up 2% compared to the prior year, while total sales are expected to increase by 7% to 9% to be within a range of $92B to $94B, straddling the consensus estimate of $93.07B. For the reported quarter, the home improvement retailer earned an adjusted profit of $3.03 per share, up 3.8% year-over-year and 6 cents better than expected. On an unadjusted basis, however, a $96M pre-tax charge tied to its Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group acquisition eroded profits by 2 cents from a year ago. While comparable store sales were up less than 1% during the first quarter, buoyed mostly by demand for appliances and home services, the company’s revenue improved by 10.4% to $23.1B, beating estimates by $220M. Lowe’s ( LOW ) underwhelming outlook for the year is dragging shares down by more than 2% in premarket trading, weighing on rival Home Depot ( HD ). More on Lowe's Lowe's: Approaching Fair Value Amid Housing Weakness (Upgrade) Lowe's: Focus On Pro Opportunities - Richer Margins Deserve Upward Re-Rating Lowe's Or Home Depot? Former Still The Better Choice Two Quarters On Lowe's beats top-line and bottom-line estimates; reaffirms FY26 outlook Lowe's Q1 2027 earning...
In this article RAND-NL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Female apprentice engineer working with CNC machine in factory Witthaya Prasongsin | Moment | Getty Images The days of going to college to secure a lucrative career are over, as skilled trade workers have seen a 30% wage bump in the past few years, the CEO of the world's largest recruitment firm told CNBC. Sander van't Noorden...
In this article RAND-NL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Female apprentice engineer working with CNC machine in factory Witthaya Prasongsin | Moment | Getty Images The days of going to college to secure a lucrative career are over, as skilled trade workers have seen a 30% wage bump in the past few years, the CEO of the world's largest recruitment firm told CNBC. Sander van't Noordende, CEO of Dutch staffing giant Randstad , recommended the skilled trades career track to young people in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Wednesday. "I would say the days of going to college and doing something in an office, they are over," Noordende said. "You've got to be smarter than that. I think technology, any kind of technology, is still a good career trajectory. "The skilled trades are coming up rapidly. I would say you can make a good career and good money in skilled trade. That's definitely a career track," he added. How the red-hot AI data center boom is igniting demand for a new, lucrative career path: Trade workers Specialized skilled trade roles are now offering salaries that compete with traditional office jobs, with wage growth up 30% in the U.S. in the past four years, up 21% in the Netherlands, 18% in Germany, and 9% in the U.K, according to Randstad's latest data shared with CNBC. Mechanics now earn an average of $79,000 in the Netherlands and $76,600 in Germany, while in the broader housing and construction sector in the U.K., average salaries reach over $78,500. The number of data centers — specialized facilities powering the AI boom — is growing rapidly, and it requires a large physical workforce, including skilled trade workers, to support it. This has caused demand for trade workers to surge in recent years. watch now VIDEO 5:10 05:10 Global data center deals hit record $61 billion in 2025 Squawk Box Europe "The digital revolution requires a massive physical foundation," Noordende previously told CNBC in March. "The debate around AI's i...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Global rollout of multi Emmy Award winning lifestyle series Staycation International on Apple TV. Streaming on Apple TV is scheduled to begin on May 24, 2026. Expansion underscores Apple’s focus on premium lifestyle and travel programming within Apple TV. News is material for Apple’s media a...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Global rollout of multi Emmy Award winning lifestyle series Staycation International on Apple TV. Streaming on Apple TV is scheduled to begin on May 24, 2026. Expansion underscores Apple’s focus on premium lifestyle and travel programming within Apple TV. News is material for Apple’s media and services strategy alongside its hardware business. Apple, traded as NasdaqGS:AAPL, is adding Staycation International to Apple TV at a time when media and technology groups are competing for user attention across devices and platforms. Lifestyle and travel shows are a common way streaming services aim to reach broad, repeat audiences, and this type of content often ties naturally into Apple’s broader ecosystem of services and devices. For you as an investor, this move sits within the longer term shift at Apple toward higher-margin services, including video streaming. While individual shows rarely move the needle on their own, a growing library of recognizable franchises can support engagement, retention, and perceived value of Apple TV for subscribers over time. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Apple by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Apple. NasdaqGS:AAPL Earnings & Revenue Growth as at May 2026 📰 Beyond the headline: 1 risk and 3 things going right for Apple that every investor should see. Quick Assessment ⚖️ Price vs Analyst Target : At US$298.97, Apple trades about 3% below the US$308.07 analyst price target, which sits well within the 10% band. ❌ Simply Wall St Valuation : Shares are trading about 29% above the estimated fair value, which screens as overvalued. ✅ Recent Momentum: The stock is up 10.6% over the last 30 days, showing solid short term momentum. There is only one way to know the right time to buy, sell or hold Apple. Head to Simply Wall St's company report f...
Track your investments for FREE with Simply Wall St, the portfolio command center trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Cisco Systems (NasdaqGS:CSCO) has joined Automation Anywhere, NVIDIA, Okta, and OpenAI to launch EnterpriseClaw, a coordinated AI agent platform for secure enterprise workflows. The company is also helping lead a new industry alliance focused on open standards...
Track your investments for FREE with Simply Wall St, the portfolio command center trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Cisco Systems (NasdaqGS:CSCO) has joined Automation Anywhere, NVIDIA, Okta, and OpenAI to launch EnterpriseClaw, a coordinated AI agent platform for secure enterprise workflows. The company is also helping lead a new industry alliance focused on open standards for expanded beam optical connectivity in AI data center infrastructure. These developments highlight Cisco's push into AI powered enterprise platforms and its role in setting technical standards for AI related networking. Cisco Systems enters these announcements with its stock at $115.38 and recent returns that many investors will likely notice, including 16.2% over the past week and 51.7% year to date. Over longer horizons, the stock shows 86.1% over 1 year, 156.3% over 3 years, and 149.7% over 5 years. That backdrop provides additional context on how the market has been responding to Cisco's expanding role in AI centric infrastructure and software. For investors watching NasdaqGS:CSCO, EnterpriseClaw and the optical connectivity alliance indicate Cisco is seeking to play a more central role in how large companies run and connect AI workloads. Key questions now include how these efforts translate into adoption, how they influence Cisco's position in data center networking, and how competitors respond to shared standards for AI connectivity. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Cisco Systems by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Cisco Systems. NasdaqGS:CSCO Earnings & Revenue Growth as at May 2026 We've flagged 0 risks for Cisco Systems. See which could impact your investment. The EnterpriseClaw collaboration and Cisco’s role in the expanded beam optical connectivity alliance both point toward a tighter link between its AI security software and its core networking hardware. Enterpri...
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.50 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.18. This compares to earnings of $14.19 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -177.78%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this container shipping company would post...
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.50 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.18. This compares to earnings of $14.19 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -177.78%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this container shipping company would post earnings of $2.26 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.44, delivering a surprise of 52.21%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. ZIM , which belongs to the Zacks Transportation - Shipping industry, posted revenues of $1.37 billion for the quarter ended March 2023, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 11.91%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $3.72 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. ZIM shares have added about 1.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 9.2%. What's Next for ZIM? While ZIM has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahe...
Meta Axes 8,000 Workers As Zuckerberg Admits AI Is Watching, Replacing Labor Welcome to another day of corporate America hemorrhaging engineers and other white-collar workers with insurmountable student debt as AI adoption accelerates. This era will likely be remembered in history as the great "white-collar purge," and the response will be continued hatred of data centers. We've been covering for ...
Meta Axes 8,000 Workers As Zuckerberg Admits AI Is Watching, Replacing Labor Welcome to another day of corporate America hemorrhaging engineers and other white-collar workers with insurmountable student debt as AI adoption accelerates. This era will likely be remembered in history as the great "white-collar purge," and the response will be continued hatred of data centers. We've been covering for weeks that today is D-Day for Meta Platforms employees , who have finally learned their employment fate at the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. Bloomberg reports that the new round of layoffs affects roughly 8,000 roles globally, with engineering and product teams expected to be at the center of the cuts as CEO Mark Zuckerberg reduces labor in favor of GPUs. This latest round of cuts is expected to hit Meta's engineering and product teams in particular, and additional layoffs could come later in the year, said people familiar with the company's plans, who asked not to be named as the information is not public. -BBG The layoffs follow Meta's reassignment of about 7,000 employees into newly created AI-focused teams on Monday. The X account, Official Layoff , posted leaked audio of an all-hands emergency at Meta earlier this week, in which Zuck told employees their devices are being tracked to train AI models. In other words, those workers are training chatbots to eventually render them obsolete. Official Layoff added more color about Monday's meeting: LEAKED AUDIO FROM META ALL-HANDS AHEAD OF LAYOFFS TOMORROW Mark Zuckerberg, in his own words, told Meta employees their devices are being tracked to train AI models. His reasoning? Meta employees are smarter than the contract workers the rest of the industry uses for data labeling. So instead of hiring outside help, Meta is turning its own workforce into training data. "The average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks if yo...
Key Points The Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF is sitting at the epicenter of some critical AI bottlenecks. It is gaining fans as about two-thirds of its assets under management flowed into the ETF this year. 10 stocks we like better than Tidal Trust II - Defiance Ai & Power Infrastructure ETF › These days, it sure feels as though the word "bottleneck" is joined at the hip with the artifici...
Key Points The Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF is sitting at the epicenter of some critical AI bottlenecks. It is gaining fans as about two-thirds of its assets under management flowed into the ETF this year. 10 stocks we like better than Tidal Trust II - Defiance Ai & Power Infrastructure ETF › These days, it sure feels as though the word "bottleneck" is joined at the hip with the artificial intelligence (AI) investment thesis. Indeed, AI adopters and enablers face a variety of logjams that threaten their ambitions. Data centers, hardware, and power infrastructure rank high on the list of AI constraints, and an array of AI stocks offers investors avenues to capitalize on various AI hurdles. However, not all investors want to engage in stock-picking, and spreading cash across a slew of bets isn't capital-efficient for some market participants. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Select exchange-traded funds (ETFs) solve that problem. Enter: the Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ: AIPO). Let's learn more about it. As its name implies, this fund is at the right place at the right time. That's reflected by the fact that this ETF is just 10 months old and already has just over $665 million in assets under management (AUM). Nearly two-thirds of that AUM tally arrived in the fund this year, confirming investors want in on the AI bottleneck story. AIPO lives up to its billing Simply because "AI" is attached to an ETF's name doesn't guarantee the fund is adequately levered to the theme. Fortunately, that's not a concern with the Defiance, as it delivers on its promise to address AI and power infrastructure. The ETF offers a decent level of AI purity, allocating about 20% of its portfolio to semiconductor stocks and data infrastructure names, with Broadcom and Nvidia ranking ...
"They deserve to have confidence in the Metropolitan Police investigation - and be assured that any past failings by the force will be thoroughly investigated. The APPG would never threaten the integrity of the police investigation - but we want to talk to the Met and the IOPC about how they earn the trust of survivors."
"They deserve to have confidence in the Metropolitan Police investigation - and be assured that any past failings by the force will be thoroughly investigated. The APPG would never threaten the integrity of the police investigation - but we want to talk to the Met and the IOPC about how they earn the trust of survivors."
BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 15: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping while leaving after a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. Evan Vucci | Getty Images The meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. and Russian counterparts came just days apart, but the style and substance of the encounters stood in stark contrast. Xi's meeting w...
BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 15: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping while leaving after a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. Evan Vucci | Getty Images The meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. and Russian counterparts came just days apart, but the style and substance of the encounters stood in stark contrast. Xi's meeting with President Donald Trump was replete with pomp and pageantry, reflecting Beijing eagerness to project China's power, strength and history during the White House leader's state visit. but the Chinese premier's meeting with his Russian counterpart and "friend" Vladimir Putin has been a much more relaxed affair, with the two leaders reaffirming already close strategic and geopolitical ties. One major notable difference between the two encounters, however, was Taiwan, which was a cornerstone of one meeting and completely absent from the other. The contested status of the island — which China claims as its own — was a central and awkward issue in Xi's meeting with Trump, but the thorny matter was glossed over in talks with Putin. "Xi does not want to have the Taiwan issue, and China's claims that Taiwan is rightfully its territory, to be conflated with Russia's irredentism and claims, and war, on Ukrainian territory," Max Hess, founder of political risk consultancy Enmetena Advisory, told CNBC Wednesday. "That would make China seem far more belligerent," Hess said, adding that while "China has recognized Ukraine and its borders many times in the past, it has never recognized Taiwan's independence." Trump Taiwan flashpoint During Trump's visit to China last week, Taiwan was seen as the defining issue in talks. Xi said that any mishandling of the Taiwan "question," which he described as "the most important issue in China-U.S. relations," would put the two superpowers' relationship in " great jeopardy ." He went further, warning Trump that U.S. interference in Taiwan could be a f...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Citi lifted its price target on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to $840 from $425 and kept a Buy rating, saying the memory chip maker may benefit from firmer DRAM pricing. The firm said Micron could be entering a broader memory upcycle, with DRAM average selling prices likely to keep rising and high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, pricing expected to increase next...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Citi lifted its price target on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to $840 from $425 and kept a Buy rating, saying the memory chip maker may benefit from firmer DRAM pricing. The firm said Micron could be entering a broader memory upcycle, with DRAM average selling prices likely to keep rising and high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, pricing expected to increase next year. Citi also said its estimates now assume DRAM prices will keep climbing into 2026, while NAND prices could stay elevated as supply stays tight. Citi said producers including SK hynix and Samsung Electronics are managing constrained HBM capacity, while Micron competes with both in the segment. The analysts said the economics of HBM versus commodity DRAM are still keeping makers disciplined on new investment. The note added that more wafer capacity may be needed to satisfy 2027 AI demand. It also said Cisco has cut DRAM content in more than 20 programs, including wireless products, after recent price gains, underscoring Micron's leverage to pricing in the near term further.
Citi lifted its price target on Micron Technology MU to $840 from $425 and kept a Buy rating, saying the memory chip maker may benefit from firmer DRAM pricing. The firm said Micron could be entering a broader memory upcycle, with DRAM average selling prices likely to keep rising and high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, pricing expected to increase next year. Citi also said its estimates now assume DRAM...
Citi lifted its price target on Micron Technology MU to $840 from $425 and kept a Buy rating, saying the memory chip maker may benefit from firmer DRAM pricing. The firm said Micron could be entering a broader memory upcycle, with DRAM average selling prices likely to keep rising and high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, pricing expected to increase next year. Citi also said its estimates now assume DRAM prices will keep climbing into 2026, while NAND prices could stay elevated as supply stays tight. Citi said producers including SK hynix and Samsung Electronics are managing constrained HBM capacity, while Micron competes with both in the segment. The analysts said the economics of HBM versus commodity DRAM are still keeping makers disciplined on new investment. The note added that more wafer capacity may be needed to satisfy 2027 AI demand. It also said Cisco has cut DRAM content in more than 20 programs, including wireless products, after recent price gains, underscoring Micron's leverage to pricing in the near term further.
The United States is expanding semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona to reduce a dangerous dependence on Taiwan. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executives recently announced the start of construction on an advanced chip packaging plant in Arizona, set to open by 2029. The move comes after January’s US-Taiwan trade and investment agreement, which followed the White House’s Secti...
The United States is expanding semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona to reduce a dangerous dependence on Taiwan. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executives recently announced the start of construction on an advanced chip packaging plant in Arizona, set to open by 2029. The move comes after January’s US-Taiwan trade and investment agreement, which followed the White House’s Section 232 tariff pressure and created incentives for Taiwanese semiconductor producers to expand US capacity instead. Under the deal, Taiwanese semiconductor and technology enterprises committed at least $250 billion in new direct investment in the United States, while Taiwan also pledged at least $250 billion in credit guarantees to support further expansion. For many like TSMC, much of that is going towards states like Arizona, which is quickly becoming America’s chip hub. In fact, TSMC’s chip fabrication plant, Fab 21, in Arizona, is already producing Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell chip architecture, and TSMC is expected to expand its stateside operations to around 11 facilities. In total, this will bring TSMC’s US investment goal to at least $165 billion in Arizona alone, notably adding at least three fabs, two critical advanced packaging facilities, and a Research & Development center. This current and future buildout brings advanced chip manufacturing (smaller than seven nanometers [nm]) to sizable US production. Fab 21 is already working on five nm and four nm production, with smaller and more efficient chip generations being built through the end of the decade. Policy Incentives Are Driving a Semiconductor Manufacturing Boom In total, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) estimates that semiconductor firms have announced more than $640 billion in investments since 2020. Some even project that total US chip investments will surpass China, South Korea, and Taiwan starting in 2027. Notably, this industrial buildout is driven by both the policy “stick” of Section 232 a...