Sinopec has set a flexible budget target for this year, flagging a potential capital expenditure cut of as much as 20%, after it reported a steeper-than-expected decline in profit for last year. China’s biggest refiner wants to retain room to adjust spending depending on market conditions, it said in an exchange filing on Sunday, as it braces for rising headwinds from global volatility and weak de...
Sinopec has set a flexible budget target for this year, flagging a potential capital expenditure cut of as much as 20%, after it reported a steeper-than-expected decline in profit for last year. China’s biggest refiner wants to retain room to adjust spending depending on market conditions, it said in an exchange filing on Sunday, as it braces for rising headwinds from global volatility and weak demand. Most of the reduction is set to come in chemicals. The oil major set this year’s spending target at 131.6 billion yuan to 148.6 billion yuan. That’s down from 164.3 billion yuan ($24 billion) in 2025. Sinopec, officially known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. , reported a 34% drop in net income for 2025. The slump reflected a decline in consumption of transport fuels due to continuing electrification of the vehicle fleet, as well as a wave of new petrochemical plants leading to structural oversupply. The company will also need to deal with the fallout from the Middle East war, which has sent oil prices soaring and led to China banning fuel exports. Sinopec’s refining margins will likely come under pressure in the second quarter, due to the spike in crude prices and freight costs from the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, Citigroup Inc. said in a note by analysts including Oscar Yee . Despite mounting pressure from rising feedstock costs and tepid demand, Sinopec said it plans to keep throughput and oil production broadly unchanged from the previous year. It will cut its sales target by 4%, while continuing to expand natural gas and ethylene production, but at a slower pace, it said in the filing. China’s massive oil reserves have given the world’s largest oil importer some breathing space to deal with the Middle East war. Beijing has built up an estimated 1.4 billion barrels of stockpiles that can be tapped if Hormuz remains mainly shut. Sinopec has trimmed run rates by about 10% from its original plan for March, according to people familiar with the matter, a redu...
UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said his firm’s customers aren’t making dramatic changes to asset allocation as a result of the Middle East conflict, but digesting the full impact of the war will take time. “Clients are still, broadly speaking, calm,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview in Beijing. “We don’t see any major shift in asset allocation,” however “this pressure on th...
UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said his firm’s customers aren’t making dramatic changes to asset allocation as a result of the Middle East conflict, but digesting the full impact of the war will take time. “Clients are still, broadly speaking, calm,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview in Beijing. “We don’t see any major shift in asset allocation,” however “this pressure on the economy will start to weigh into the markets.” Markets assumed a risk-off stance on Monday with equities and Treasuries retreating after US President Donald Trump set a deadline for Iran to reopen the key waterway that’s integral to energy flows around the world. Investors are continuing to assess how long is it going to take to digest the shock of this crisis, he added. “We saw clients already diversifying their portfolios earlier this year,” Ermotti said. “You saw much more dispersion in the way they were looking at maybe shifting away from more the AI technology to a more diversified portfolio. That was a good move considering what we saw in the last few weeks.” Top Bankers Win Reprieve as Swiss Lawmakers Reject Bonus Ban UBS Bonus Pool Rises 10%, Ermotti Pay Unchanged at $19 Million Ermotti Warns of Risky Bet as Europe Eyes US Debt Selloff
Like many investors, I've put a portion of my portfolio into artificial intelligence (AI) companies. AI technology seems to get more advanced with every new model, and the United Nations Trade and Development projects that the AI market will reach $4.8 trillion in 2033. My top AI stocks are businesses that I believe have high growth potential over the next decade without carrying excessive risk. T...
Like many investors, I've put a portion of my portfolio into artificial intelligence (AI) companies. AI technology seems to get more advanced with every new model, and the United Nations Trade and Development projects that the AI market will reach $4.8 trillion in 2033. My top AI stocks are businesses that I believe have high growth potential over the next decade without carrying excessive risk. There are two in particular that look like fantastic investments right now, especially given the tech sector's recent downturn. 1. Nvidia Considering Nvidia (NVDA 3.17%) is the world's largest public company, you can't exactly say it's overlooked, but it may still be underestimated given the tremendous results it's delivering. Revenue is rapidly growing, most recently to $68.1 billion in the fourth quarter of its 2026 fiscal year (ended Jan. 25), a 73% year-over-year increase. The chipmaker also maintains strong margins, with gross margins reaching 75% in the same Q4 2026 period. Expand NASDAQ : NVDA Nvidia Today's Change ( -3.17 %) $ -5.66 Current Price $ 172.90 Key Data Points Market Cap $4.2T Day's Range $ 171.73 - $ 178.11 52wk Range $ 86.62 - $ 212.19 Volume 6.5M Avg Vol 174M Gross Margin 71.07 % Dividend Yield 0.02 % In total, Nvidia generated $215.9 billion in revenue during its 2026 fiscal year. And if CEO Jensen Huang is correct, sales growth isn't going to slow down from here. At the company's annual GTC conference, he said that he expects "at least $1 trillion" in revenue from data center products through 2027. Even though Nvidia has a massive market cap, it still looks like a bargain when you factor in its projected earnings and earnings growth. It trades at 22 times forward earnings as of March 19, below fellow tech giant Alphabet and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices. In addition, the company's forward-P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio is below 0.4, indicating that you can buy Nvidia stock at a low price relative to its growth rate. 2. Meta Platforms When I wrote that A...
Copper extended declines to the lowest level in more than three months as the Middle East war sapped risk appetite across financial markets and raised concerns about global inflation and growth. The red metal fell as much as 1.8% on the London Metal Exchange, following a drop of 6.7% last week, the steepest since April 2025. The war, now in its fourth week , has pushed oil and gas prices higher, t...
Copper extended declines to the lowest level in more than three months as the Middle East war sapped risk appetite across financial markets and raised concerns about global inflation and growth. The red metal fell as much as 1.8% on the London Metal Exchange, following a drop of 6.7% last week, the steepest since April 2025. The war, now in its fourth week , has pushed oil and gas prices higher, threatening to hurt economic activity worldwide and fueling inflation that will likely force central banks to take a more hawkish stance on interest rates. “Copper prices haven’t reached a bottom yet,” as the market is pricing in the prospect of recession and inflation, said Yan Yuhao, senior analyst with Zhejiang Hailiang Co. , a major Chinese producer of copper tubes and rods. Meanwhile, a drop below 100,000 yuan ($14,485) a ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has prompted “significant” purchases from Chinese fabricators that are seeing full orders into next month, according to Yan. That Chinese demand resilience will support domestic copper prices in outperforming LME prices, he added. Copper fell 0.7% to $11,840 a ton on the LME as of 10:00 a.m. in Shanghai. Other base metals were mostly lower, with aluminum down 0.4% to $3,201.50 a ton. Copper was down 2% to 92,930 yuan a ton on SHFE.
Analysts said the project depends on advanced manufacturing tech currently available only from TSMC, Samsung and Intel. U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges SpaceX founder Elon Musk (R) after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Saul Martinez/Getty Images) Musk called the planned $25B T...
Analysts said the project depends on advanced manufacturing tech currently available only from TSMC, Samsung and Intel. U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges SpaceX founder Elon Musk (R) after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Saul Martinez/Getty Images) Musk called the planned $25B Terafab facility the “final missing piece” of Tesla’s AI chip strategy across vehicles, Optimus robots and space-based AI systems. Terafab will combine chip design, fabrication, packaging and testing under one roof and target 1 terawatt of annual compute output. Analysts said Terafab could mark a shift toward vertically integrated, systems-level chipmaking supporting Tesla’s broader AI and robotics platform. Shares of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) slipped over 1% in overnight trading late Sunday after CEO Elon Musk shared fresh details on the company’s proposed $25 billion Terafab chip facility, with analysts warning the plan depends on technology controlled by just three companies worldwide. TSLA stock slid over 3% on Friday to $367.96, its lowest level in more than six months and the third consecutive session of losses. Musk Calls Terafab ‘Final Missing Piece’ Of Tesla’s AI Chip Strategy Musk formally introduced Terafab on Saturday during a presentation at the former Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, calling it “the most epic chip building exercise in history by far.” The planned facility — a collaboration between Tesla, SpaceX and xAI — will combine chip design, fabrication, mask production, packaging and testing inside a single complex capable of eventually producing about one terawatt of computing capacity annually. In a series of overnight posts on X, Musk said Terafab would be structured as two coordinated fabrication lines, each built around an individual chip architecture, to simplify the production flow and accelerate iteration cycles. He added that the research fab could enable...