STORY: Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo – a lower-priced laptop starting at $599. It’s one of Apple’s most aggressive entry points into the price-sensitive PC market in years… And, it could help Apple broaden its reach among students and first-time buyers. The Neo will compete with Google-powered Chromebooks and lower-end Windows devices, where Microsoft's own efforts to shift to more b...
STORY: Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo – a lower-priced laptop starting at $599. It’s one of Apple’s most aggressive entry points into the price-sensitive PC market in years… And, it could help Apple broaden its reach among students and first-time buyers. The Neo will compete with Google-powered Chromebooks and lower-end Windows devices, where Microsoft's own efforts to shift to more battery-life-friendly chips have failed to ignite a sales boom. The new, cheaper MacBook will be powered by the A18 Pro chip, the same processor that debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro models in 2024. In the midst of a global memory chip crunch, the Neo comes with only 8 gigabytes of unified memory, half of what’s in the M4-based MacBook and less than the 12 gigabytes in the iPhone 17 Pro.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Tesla (TSLA, Financials) gained in premarket trading after Bank of America reinstated coverage of the electric vehicle maker with a Buy rating, calling it a leader in consumer autonomy. Analyst Alexander Perry said the firm expects Tesla to become a major player in robotaxi services, arguing the company can scale more profitably than rivals due to its came...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Tesla (TSLA, Financials) gained in premarket trading after Bank of America reinstated coverage of the electric vehicle maker with a Buy rating, calling it a leader in consumer autonomy. Analyst Alexander Perry said the firm expects Tesla to become a major player in robotaxi services, arguing the company can scale more profitably than rivals due to its camera only approach and access to driving data from its consumer fleet. Perry also said the absence of drivers could give Tesla a cost advantage compared with traditional ride-hailing services. BofA expects Tesla's robotaxi operations, currently described as operating in San Francisco and Austin, to expand into seven additional markets in the first half of the year. The firm said faster scaling could help position Tesla as a key change agent in what it described as the next phase of mobility. BofA set a $460 price objective based on a sum-of-the-parts analysis and assigned more than $30 billion in value to Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot business. Tesla shares were up about 2% in premarket action following the call.
Apollo Global Management Inc. ’s John Zito said the turmoil facing private credit could endure well into next year, but downplayed the idea that the wave of withdrawals in some funds are a problem. The next 12 to 18 months will probably be more difficult, the co-president of Apollo’s asset management arm said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York. “I’ve been surprised by the iso...
Apollo Global Management Inc. ’s John Zito said the turmoil facing private credit could endure well into next year, but downplayed the idea that the wave of withdrawals in some funds are a problem. The next 12 to 18 months will probably be more difficult, the co-president of Apollo’s asset management arm said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York. “I’ve been surprised by the isolation of just private credit,” Zito said during a panel discussion. “There’s still a complete misunderstanding of what that represents in the economy.” Zito added that investors can protect themselves by being more diversified and senior in the capital structure. He also took a more nuanced stance on a recent note from UBS Group AG, which predicted a 15% default rate for private credit. The report — which Ares Management Corp . Chief Executive Officer Michael Arougheti derided on Tuesday — was “taken out of context” and was presented as a “severe bear case,” Zito said. Read More: Arougheti Calls 15% Private Debt Default Forecast ‘Wrong’ “If the private credit market goes through, as UBS said, a 15% default rate, the idea that the public high-yield market, the public equity market, all these public markets would be completely fine, while the entire private debt market melts, the likelihood of that is extremely, extremely low,” he said. Zito pushed back on the framing of withdrawals from business development companies as a problem, adding that managers are making decisions on how to meet client needs. On Tuesday, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan warned of a shakeout in the $1.8 trillion private credit industry as it grapples with redemptions and concerns about rising defaults on loans to software companies. Read More: Apollo’s Rowan Warns of Shakeout Coming for Private Markets “There will be clear dispersion coming,” Zito said. “It will be interesting to see.”
The iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:LQD) is a broad corporate bond fund with a slightly lower fee and higher yield than the iShares 20 Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT), which focuses on long-duration U.S. Treasuries and has experienced deeper drawdowns in recent years. Expand NYSEMKT : LQD iShares Trust - iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF Today's Ch...
The iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:LQD) is a broad corporate bond fund with a slightly lower fee and higher yield than the iShares 20 Year Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ:TLT), which focuses on long-duration U.S. Treasuries and has experienced deeper drawdowns in recent years. Expand NYSEMKT : LQD iShares Trust - iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF Today's Change ( 0.25 %) $ 0.28 Current Price $ 111.14 Key Data Points Day's Range $ 110.83 - $ 111.17 52wk Range $ 103.45 - $ 112.93 Volume 30M LQD and TLT are both large, liquid fixed-income funds from iShares, but they serve different roles: LQD provides exposure to a wide array of investment-grade corporate bonds. At the same time, TLT focuses exclusively on U.S. Treasury bonds with maturities of 20 years or more. This comparison explores costs, returns, risk, and portfolio makeup to help investors weigh which fund best fits their needs. Snapshot (cost & size) Metric TLT LQD Issuer iShares iShares Expense ratio 0.15% 0.14% 1-year total return (as of 2026-02-27) 3.92% 7.07% Dividend yield 4.27% 4.44% Beta 2.30 1.38 AUM $45.5 billion $32.3 billion Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year monthly returns. The 1-year return represents total return over the trailing 12 months. LQD edges out TLT on cost, charging a slightly lower annual expense ratio, and also offers a modestly higher dividend yield for income-focused investors. Performance & risk comparison Metric TLT LQD Max drawdown (5 y) (48.3%) (24.9%) Growth of $1,000 over 5 years (as of March 4, 2026) $752 $1,021 What's inside LQD tracks a diversified universe of investment-grade corporate bonds, holding more than 3,071 securities as of its 23.6-year track record. Its largest positions are in well-known issuers such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs, each accounting for over 2% of the portfolio. The fund’s focus on corporate debt may appeal to those seeking hig...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Alphabet (GOOGL, Financials) is facing a lawsuit alleging its Gemini chatbot contributed to the death of a Florida man, in what the complaint describes as the first wrongful death claim tied to Googles AI products. The victim's father filed the lawsuit in federal court in Northern California. He says that the guy used Gemini for about two months, became em...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Alphabet (GOOGL, Financials) is facing a lawsuit alleging its Gemini chatbot contributed to the death of a Florida man, in what the complaint describes as the first wrongful death claim tied to Googles AI products. The victim's father filed the lawsuit in federal court in Northern California. He says that the guy used Gemini for about two months, became emotionally attached to the chatbot, and then was forced to hurt himself. The lawsuit includes chat records and says that the technology made the connection stronger by letting people role-play and giving emotionally supportive answers, even in Gemini's voice mode. Google claimed that Gemini is not meant to promote violence or self-harm in the real world, and that the firm attempts to make these kinds of talks safe. The business also alleged that the chatbot kept telling the customer that it was an AI system and instructed him to get help. The article says that Alphabet's stock price dropped over 1% on Tuesday, ending the day at $303.58. The complaint raises more legal problems about how AI chat systems treat vulnerable users and if firms will need to put in more protections or supervision as they introduce more AI capabilities for consumers.
Dazman/E+ via Getty Images Vale ( VALE ) has regained its permit to operate in the Brazilian city of Congonhas after meeting the requirements set by local authorities, the city government said Wednesday. Operations at Vale's ( VALE ) Fabrica and Viga mines were halted in January after a water overflow at the units that analysts say account for ~2% of the company's iron ore production outlook for t...
Dazman/E+ via Getty Images Vale ( VALE ) has regained its permit to operate in the Brazilian city of Congonhas after meeting the requirements set by local authorities, the city government said Wednesday. Operations at Vale's ( VALE ) Fabrica and Viga mines were halted in January after a water overflow at the units that analysts say account for ~2% of the company's iron ore production outlook for this year. The company recently reaffirmed its FY 2026 iron ore production guidance of 335M-345M metric tons, but analysts said the Fabrica and Viga suspension was a negative, as the units have an annual combined output of ~8M tons. It is unclear whether Vale ( VALE ) is approved to resume operations, as the Minas Gerais state government had also suspended activities at the mines. More on Vale Vale Presents at 35th BMO Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference - Slideshow Vale: The Rally Has Outpaced Iron Ore Fundamentals (Rating Downgrade) Vale: A Cyclical Sell As Asymmetry Turns Negative
ToucanStudios/E+ via Getty Images After the 2008 financial crisis, more than a decade of zero-interest rate policies drove an explosion in private credit products and funds that were initially marketed to institutions and pensions under the oxymoron of safe ‘high-yield’. Then, from March 2022 to May 2023, a record succession of central bank rate hikes took the US Fed rate from .25 to 5.25% in 14 m...
ToucanStudios/E+ via Getty Images After the 2008 financial crisis, more than a decade of zero-interest rate policies drove an explosion in private credit products and funds that were initially marketed to institutions and pensions under the oxymoron of safe ‘high-yield’. Then, from March 2022 to May 2023, a record succession of central bank rate hikes took the US Fed rate from .25 to 5.25% in 14 months. In the liquidity crunch that followed, stock prices dove, credit markets froze, and real estate entered an ongoing mean reversion. Needing cash, private funds shifted their marketing focus to retail investors as the next pool of necessary greater fools. It worked for a while. Private credit vehicles, known as semi-liquid funds, were an engine of growth for giant private investment firms, including Blackstone ( BX ), Ares Management ( ARES ) and Blue Owl ( OWL ), providing lucrative management fees and helping quadruple assets in BDCs [Business Development Companies] since 2021 (charted below). See, Investors ditch private credit funds on rising worries over bad loans : Many affluent retail investors were drawn to the space by the high dividends on offer, with annualised total returns eclipsing 8 per cent over the past decade, according to S&P Global. The recent cuts as well as asset sales at some funds “reignited credit-cycle fears” across private credit, said Paul Johnson, an analyst at KBW. Fast forward to 2025, and investors began trying to exit private credit funds as they took losses on bad loans, and concerns intensified that AI would wreak havoc on the software companies they had financed. In response, funds have increasingly gated withdrawals and income distributions. As usual, blocking exits intensifies panic and increases the urge to get out. Once more, investors are learning that there is no such thing as a free lunch or safe high yields. While would-be sellers swamp willing buyers, asset prices are headed lower. The clips here and here discuss some of the...
Bereaved families have marked the final day of witness testimony in the long-running Covid inquiry by saying government “incompetence, chaos and callousness is now on the public record”. Matt Fowler, the co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (CBFFJ), urged officials to use the inquiry as a blueprint “to take brave, decisive, urgent action” and warned that the country was still no...
Bereaved families have marked the final day of witness testimony in the long-running Covid inquiry by saying government “incompetence, chaos and callousness is now on the public record”. Matt Fowler, the co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (CBFFJ), urged officials to use the inquiry as a blueprint “to take brave, decisive, urgent action” and warned that the country was still not prepared for a future crisis. “We will continue to fight for the inquiry’s recommendations to be implemented in full, and we will push back against the growing tide of conspiracy theorists that want to ignore the evidence and politicise saving lives,” he said outside Dorland House in London, where the inquiry hearings took place. The Covid inquiry has become the most expensive in history, with total costs now at £203.98m, covering the inquiry setup, the chair and lawyers’ salaries and the running of hearings. Previously the most expensive public inquiry was the Bloody Sunday inquiry, which cost £191.2m. The Covid inquiry has been criticised by groups such as the Taxpayers’ Alliance for being long and costly. A Covid inquiry spokesperson said it had a broader scope than any previous public inquiry and the now completed public hearings were the most expensive part of its work. In total there were 238 public hearing days held across the UK, with 381 individual witnesses and more than 600,000 evidence documents, equating to about 5m pages of evidence. Last year, the government said there were 286 full-time staff members working on the inquiry’s 10 separate investigations, called modules. These covered resilience and preparedness, decision-making and political governance, the healthcare system, vaccines, procurement, the care sector, test and trace, children and young people, the economic response and the impact on society. Evidence for all 10 modules has now been heard, but the inquiry chair, Lady Hallett, has published her final findings only on the first two. Her first repo...
When They Realize That They Are The Only Ones In The Theatre zGel/iStock via Getty Images In our previous coverage of EPR Properties ( EPR ), we examined the prospects for the common and preferred shares and concluded that there was one real standout. We go over that trade and why we made a switch. We also opine on the valuation of the common shares and tell you why one preferred class is extremel...
When They Realize That They Are The Only Ones In The Theatre zGel/iStock via Getty Images In our previous coverage of EPR Properties ( EPR ), we examined the prospects for the common and preferred shares and concluded that there was one real standout. We go over that trade and why we made a switch. We also opine on the valuation of the common shares and tell you why one preferred class is extremely overvalued. Previous Trade EPR has three preferred shares. 1) EPR Properties PFD C CV 5.75% ( EPR.PR.C ) 2) EPR Properties CONV PFD 9% SR E ( EPR.PR.E ) 3) EPR Properties 5.750% CUM PFD G ( EPR.PR.G ) In our last article, we went with EPR.PR.E, as it was radically underpriced compared to the other two and sported the highest stripped yield of 7.6%. EPR.PR.E was around $30.06 when we conducted the trade. Seeking Alpha The stock meandered around there for a couple of weeks and then took off in the new year. The main reason for its pricing was that people continue to see it as a regular preferred share where the $25 holds some kind of redemption upper limit. As explained previously, this one is a different beast, and 7.6% of it was a gift. While the yield was enticing, it was only the yield that was enticing. We were not believers in a runaway case for the common shares, and hence the conversion was not at all a booster, at least at this price. Hence, when it reached $34.00, we took half off. At a 6.7% stripped yield, EPR.PR.E shares were mildly attractive and no longer the stellar bargain they were just three months back. As we have pointed out recently, you are getting 7% plus yields with even higher credit ratings than those of EPR preferred shares. Plus, if we can lock in 65% annualized returns on preferred shares, we will do it all year long. What We Bought Interestingly, the day after we took that position off, EPR.PR.G came into the right spot. When we had purchased EPR.PR.E in December, EPR.PR.G was trading at $20.64. Seeking Alpha We were able to pick up a position ...
Here are some of the stocks making the biggest moves in midday trading. CoreWeave — The cloud company's stock popped 8% after it announced a multiyear agreement with Perplexity. The AI company will power its next-generation inference workloads on CoreWeave's platform. Broadcom — Shares moved 2% higher ahead of the chipmaker's fiscal first-quarter earnings report, expected after the bell. Analysts ...
Here are some of the stocks making the biggest moves in midday trading. CoreWeave — The cloud company's stock popped 8% after it announced a multiyear agreement with Perplexity. The AI company will power its next-generation inference workloads on CoreWeave's platform. Broadcom — Shares moved 2% higher ahead of the chipmaker's fiscal first-quarter earnings report, expected after the bell. Analysts polled by LSEG are calling for earnings of $2.03 per share on revenue of $19.18 billion. Dow Inc — KeyBanc upgraded the stock to overweight from sector weight, saying that higher oil prices will benefit U.S. ethylene producers such as Dow. Its stock rose 4% after the call. According to FactSet, the firm said about 11% to 15% of global ethylene capacity is directly tied to the Iran conflict, and U.S. and European inventories are low. KKR — Shares of the alternative asset manager were up 3% after prominent insiders disclosed their purchase of the stock. Co-CEOs Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae bought KKR shares totaling $8.8 million last week, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Brown-Forman – The maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey reversed premarket gains and was last down more than 6%. Management said on a conference call that cost pressures related to the company's barreled whiskey are expected to persist and that expenses around the barrels themselves could present a "year-over-year challenge" to gross margins next year, according to a FactSet transcript of the call. Moderna — The biotechnology firm rose 12% after it said it agreed to pay up to $2.25 billion to settle a lawsuit with Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences over a Covid vaccine patent. Ross Stores — Shares popped 7% after the off-price retailer reported better-than-expected fourth quarter financial results that showed its sales are rising. The company's earnings came in at $2.00 per share, topping analysts' consensus estimate of $1.90, per FactSet. It also brought in $6.64 billion in r...
Yahoo Finance's John Hyland tracks today's top moving stocks and biggest market stories in this Market Minute, including cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC-USD) getting a boost above $73,000 per token, while chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) is set to report its latest earnings results after Wednesday's market close. Stay up to date on the latest market action, minute-by-minute, with Yahoo Finance's Market Minut...
Yahoo Finance's John Hyland tracks today's top moving stocks and biggest market stories in this Market Minute, including cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC-USD) getting a boost above $73,000 per token, while chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) is set to report its latest earnings results after Wednesday's market close. Stay up to date on the latest market action, minute-by-minute, with Yahoo Finance's Market Minute.
MOZCO Mateusz Szymanski Shares of Uber Technologies ( UBER ) rose 0.58% to $ 76.80 in the afternoon trade on Wednesday, adding to a six-session winning streak. The stock has gained around 7% between February 24 and March 3 compared to a 1.07% fall of the S&P 500 during the same period. The move comes amid recent developments, including coverage of urban policy shifts after a judge ruled the Trump ...
MOZCO Mateusz Szymanski Shares of Uber Technologies ( UBER ) rose 0.58% to $ 76.80 in the afternoon trade on Wednesday, adding to a six-session winning streak. The stock has gained around 7% between February 24 and March 3 compared to a 1.07% fall of the S&P 500 during the same period. The move comes amid recent developments, including coverage of urban policy shifts after a judge ruled the Trump administration’s move to end New York City’s congestion toll was unlawful, continued attention on autonomous driving after Wayve raised $1.2B from backers including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber, and updates on Uber’s push into aerial mobility alongside Joby. The company also announced plans to acquire parking app SpotHero, adding to strategic expansion efforts during the period. According to Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating system, UBER is rated Hold, with a score of 3.12 out of 5, receiving an A+ for profitability, but offset by a D- in terms of momentum. A Seeking Alpha analysis said Uber has become a volatile “battleground” stock as investors debate whether autonomous vehicles represent a threat or tailwind, adding that “the unit economics of AV technology could offer a tailwind for Uber Technologies.” The analyst noted that “70% of contra-revenue… expenses are driver-related,” arguing that eliminating human-driver costs could lift profitability, and pointed out that Uber’s “200 million+ user network” gives it leverage with AV partners. The note also highlighted diversification, stating that “approximately 50% of total revenue is generated internationally” and “approximately 50% of total gross bookings is generated through the delivery segment.” On Wall Street, 47 of 56 analysts rate the stock Buy or higher, eight recommend Hold, and one recommends a Strong Sell. Shares have gained around 1.85% in the past one month, and is down approximately 7.15% year-to-date. More on Accel Entertainment, Inc. 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation Amplifon S.p.A. 2025 Q4 - Results ...