China stepped up efforts to temper the yuan’s advance by removing the additional charge for betting against the currency in the derivatives market. The People’s Bank of China will scrap the reserve requirement of 20% on foreign-currency forward contracts from March 2, it said in a statement . The change lowers the cost for market participants to bet against the yuan via derivative contracts with b...
China stepped up efforts to temper the yuan’s advance by removing the additional charge for betting against the currency in the derivatives market. The People’s Bank of China will scrap the reserve requirement of 20% on foreign-currency forward contracts from March 2, it said in a statement . The change lowers the cost for market participants to bet against the yuan via derivative contracts with banks. The move is aimed to “support companies’ management of foreign exchange risks,” PBOC said in the statement. Going forward, it pledged to keep the yuan exchange rate stable at reasonable, equilibrium levels and guide financial institutions to improve FX hedging services. The shift aims to check the yuan’s strength after it reached multi-year highs against a softening dollar. Officials have repeatedly warned against overshooting of the exchange rate as it would pressure local exporters and worsen deflation. “This is one of the tools expected to be utilized to slow the appreciation of the yuan against the dollar,” said Fiona Lim , strategist at Maybank in Singapore. “The PBOC is sending a clear messaging with its recent fix that although the central bank does not oppose yuan gains, the pace should be curbed.” Before the latest move, the PBOC had been setting weaker-than-expected daily reference rates for the currency to resist a sharp appreciation. The so-called fixing limits the yuan’s move by 2% on either side. The central bank has been adjusting the reserve requirement on foreign-exchange forward contracts since at least 2015 . The PBOC last used this tool in 2022 , when it re-imposed the charge on forwards to prop up the yuan against depreciation pressure. The offshore yuan fell 0.2% to 6.8585 per dollar on Friday morning in Hong Kong. What Bloomberg Strategists Say... The central bank isn’t putting an end to yuan gains, but wants to remind FX traders it doesn’t like seeing dollar-yuan turning into a one-way bet. — Mark Cranfield , Markets Live strategist
Former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new company Block — the parent of merchants payment system Square, mobile peer-to-peer payments Cash App, music streamer Tidal, and open source AI agentic system Goose — is sending shockwaves across the business world tonight after announcing a more than 40% headcount, cutting its workforce by more than 4,000 people out of a prior total of 10,000, despite it...
Former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new company Block — the parent of merchants payment system Square, mobile peer-to-peer payments Cash App, music streamer Tidal, and open source AI agentic system Goose — is sending shockwaves across the business world tonight after announcing a more than 40% headcount, cutting its workforce by more than 4,000 people out of a prior total of 10,000, despite its latest quarterly earnings statement released today showing $2.87 billion in gross profit up 24% year-over-year. The culprit? Newfound AI efficiencies. As Dorsey put it in a note shared on his own former social network, X : "we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly. i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures." Technology: The "agentic" shift The core of this reorganization is a pivot toward an "intelligence-native" model. Dorsey argues that a significantly smaller team, leveraging the very tools they are building, can deliver more value than a traditional large-scale organization. Block is re-engineering its entire operationa...
SlavkoSereda/iStock via Getty Images Iranian oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz have spiked recently, and the amount loaded onto storage tankers or en route to market has hit record levels, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note published Thursday. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are sustaining the price of Brent crude in the $70s, Goldman analysts led by Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby said, c...
SlavkoSereda/iStock via Getty Images Iranian oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz have spiked recently, and the amount loaded onto storage tankers or en route to market has hit record levels, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note published Thursday. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are sustaining the price of Brent crude in the $70s, Goldman analysts led by Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby said, calculating a $5-$6/bbl oil risk premium in the current oil price. Adding to the risk premium are Ukraine's ramped-up attacks on Russian production, which the analysts estimated fell 16% Y/Y in December. Goldman noted Ukraine has damaged the Druzhba pipeline delivering oil to Slovakia and Hungary, Russia's two most notable European allies, while an attack on a pumping station in Russia this week also has reduced output. The discounts offered by the sanctioned Iran and Russia on their crude have deepened as the quantities of oil on the water rise, Goldman said. The bank nevertheless expects geopolitical stress will ease during the year and still sees Brent dropping back to ~$60/bbl by Q4 2026. On Thursday, crude futures edged lower in a choppy session as the U.S. and Iran wound up a day of talks in Geneva, with the market weighing the bearish effect on oil prices of an eventual agreement against the impact that military action could have on supply. Oman's foreign minister, who is mediating the talks, said there was "significant progress" and that talks would resume soon. Nymex crude ( CL1:COM ) fell for the fifth straight session, with the April front-month contract closing -0.3% to $65.21/bbl, while front-month Brent crude ( CO1:COM ) for April delivery ended -0.1% to $70.75/bbl. U.S. natural gas settled lower, with front-month Nymex gas ( NG1:COM ) for April delivery finishing -1.4% to $2.827/MMBtu, its lowest settlement value since September 22. U.S. natgas inventories fell by 52 Bcf last week to 2,018 Bcf, the EIA reported; the smaller-than-usual decline reduced the stora...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Last November , I wrote an article covering the Invesco Buyback Achievers ETF ( PKW ) as a potential diversification strategy to avoid concentration risk of the technology-heavy S&P 500 Index ( SPY ). The thesis followed Michael Burry's disclosure of short positions in Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Palantir ( PLTR ), labeling AI a "bubble." PKW could hedge this ris...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Last November , I wrote an article covering the Invesco Buyback Achievers ETF ( PKW ) as a potential diversification strategy to avoid concentration risk of the technology-heavy S&P 500 Index ( SPY ). The thesis followed Michael Burry's disclosure of short positions in Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Palantir ( PLTR ), labeling AI a "bubble." PKW could hedge this risk by avoiding concentration risk in technology and focusing instead on shareholder return. This strategy proved successful, with PKW returning 6.34% and outperforming the S&P 500 by nearly 4% with less volatility . The fund focuses on buyback yield, favoring companies that are repurchasing a minimum of 5% of their float. My only concern was PKW's relatively high total expense ratio (0.62%). Recently, I began looking at other funds that could achieve the same objective and came across the iShares Core Dividend ETF ( DIVB ). This fund aims to accomplish the same objective by maximizing the total capital returned to investors via divi dends and buyb acks. In other words, it invests in companies with the highest total shareholder return (defined as the buyback yield, plus the dividend yield). It avoids high concentration risk in individual stocks, with Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) being the largest holding. It also does not avoid technology, which is actually the highest-weighted sector. Instead, it favors "old" technology companies like Cisco ( CSCO ), Texas Instruments ( TXN ), and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) that return massive capital flows to their investors. The fund has a lower beta than the overall market (0.88) and a total expense ratio of only 0.05%. Thus, for similar reasons as PKW, I rate DIVB a Buy for investors looking to remove technology risk from their portfolios via a simple, diversified ETF. DIVB: The Diversification And Value Edge Vs. The S&P 500 A major difference between the S&P 500 and DIVB lies not only in which stocks they hold but in why they hold them. As a market capit...
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been a long-term winner for its shareholders. The stock has risen about 680% over the past decade, turning a $10,000 investment back then into $78,010 now. While you could find other stocks that have had a better decade-long run, this run handily outperforms the S&P 500 's comparable performance of 260%. Still, measuring Microsoft's return just a few months ago would h...
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been a long-term winner for its shareholders. The stock has risen about 680% over the past decade, turning a $10,000 investment back then into $78,010 now. While you could find other stocks that have had a better decade-long run, this run handily outperforms the S&P 500 's comparable performance of 260%. Still, measuring Microsoft's return just a few months ago would have shown an even more impressive gain. The stock has sold off recently, and it now sits about 26% down from its all-time high. Sell-offs of this depth rarely happen to Microsoft's stock, especially during its current business iteration. Following Microsoft through these ups and downs, there's one clear signal I see about Microsoft stock right now, and I think it might be time for investors to load up on shares. Continue reading
Financial Results and Operational Update for Half-Year Ended December 31, 2025 Financial Results and Operational Update for Half-Year Ended December 31, 2025
Financial Results and Operational Update for Half-Year Ended December 31, 2025 Financial Results and Operational Update for Half-Year Ended December 31, 2025
Escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours makes a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan’s government spokesperson said, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours that made a Qatar-me...
Escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours makes a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan’s government spokesperson said, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours that made a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky. At least three explosions were heard in Kabul, but there was no immediate information on the exact location of the strikes in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties. Continue reading...
Although some investors have become wary of companies leaning hard into artificial intelligence (AI ), they're still bidding up the prices of some that have announced fresh AI initiatives. That was much of the dynamic behind ServiceNow 's (NYSE: NOW) rise on Thursday. After the enterprise software specialist formally introduced two new AI offerings, its shares cruised to end the day almost 5% high...
Although some investors have become wary of companies leaning hard into artificial intelligence (AI ), they're still bidding up the prices of some that have announced fresh AI initiatives. That was much of the dynamic behind ServiceNow 's (NYSE: NOW) rise on Thursday. After the enterprise software specialist formally introduced two new AI offerings, its shares cruised to end the day almost 5% higher in price. That morning, ServiceNow announced the launch of its Autonomous Workforce. In its words, the product is effectively a framework of numerous " AI specialists that can execute jobs with the scope, authority, and governance required for enterprise work -- freeing people to focus on strategic problem solving and personalized service." Continue reading
TeraWulf (WULF) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of -110.05% and -17.71%, respectively, for the quarter ended December 2025. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?
TeraWulf (WULF) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of -110.05% and -17.71%, respectively, for the quarter ended December 2025. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?