(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved notably higher during trading on Wednesday, adding to the modest gains posted in the previous session. With the upward move, the major averages are further offsetting the steep losses posted last week.

Aliaksandr Litviniuk/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Eni ( E ) is considering a return to oil and gas trading, as it seeks the billions in returns enjoyed by European rivals BP, Shell and TotalEnergies, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. "I stopped trading in 2019 but the other big companies are all traders," Eni ( E ) CEO Claudio Descalzi told FT . "BP, Shell, Total are big traders and they make billions from that." Descalzi also said Eni ( E ) is in preliminary talks with a number of commodity trading houses, including Mercuria, about forming a joint venture. "It is not in our DNA. We are not very commercial," the CEO said. "So I thought to become commercial, we have to have a partnership to understand the business... If we can offer physical hedging, that is a big advantage for [a partner]. We can complement each other," he said, adding the amount of oil and gas that Eni ( E ) produces should make it an attractive partner. Despite oil trading's profits for the major European firms, BP and Shell both noted weaker performances in their trading units over the final three months of last year. More on Eni Eni: Q3 Beat, Diversification Tailwinds, And Valuation Upside Eni: I Love The Strategy Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating on Eni

Welcome back to Soundbite. We’re coming to you early this week because, on Monday, Apple Inc. commemorated Presidents’ Day with an announcement that’s reverberating throughout the podcast world. The company is revamping its Apple Podcasts video offering, beating YouTube and Spotify to market with a solution for swappable ads and marking a significant turning point in the industry. Apple Podcasts was the last major audio-centric podcast platform, and now it’s pivoting to visuals. We’ll dive in. If you appreciate this kind of analysis, please support it and subscribe . Reach me through email . Up first, here’s what I’m reading and writing this week: More Apple news: the company introduced a way for users to type a prompt in Apple Music and receive a playlist in return, following the launch of similar features at competitors like Spotify Technology SA. Max Tani at Semafor scoops that TBPN , the tech podcast mostly popular on X, is charging $87,000 a month, around $1 million a year, for sponsorships. My colleagues Drake Bennett and Jordan Robertson premiered a new podcast, The Sixth Agency , about “superpowers, secrets and the spy who got caught — how the US accessed China’s elusive intelligence agency.” Check it out . Apple Podcasts’ video flip Yesterday, some 20 years after first popularizing the very concept of a podcast, Apple accelerated the industry’s evolutionary shift from an audio-centric medium to one decidedly focused on video. In some ways, this dramatic leap forward has been a long time coming. In recent years, consumers have been shifting their podcast viewing and listening en masse to YouTube and Spotify. Despite Apple’s head start, by April of last year, the two platforms were together accounting for 60% of the market, according to a report from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights. Meanwhile, Apple was falling further behind due to a combination of factors. “Apple likely needs to double down on video, offer better monetization for podcasters and activ...

Gavin Baker is not a household name like Buffett or Druckenmiller, but among serious technology investors, his views on AI carry enormous weight. The Atreides Management founder is known for podcast appearances displaying remarkable depth on semiconductors, deeply technical AI development, and the competitive landscape for AI chips. His latest 13F sends a powerful message: ... Top AI Investor Gavin Baker Bets Big on Nvidia With Leveraged Call Options

格隆汇2月19日｜莫德纳表示，已与监管机构展开进一步磋商，并宣布美国食品药品管理局(FDA)将受理该公司采用mRNA技术的流感疫苗上市申请。就在上周，该监管机构以研究设计存在缺陷为由，拒绝受理莫德纳这款新型流感疫苗的审核申请。但据公司称，在后续沟通中，FDA改变立场，同意启动审核流程。

As Microsoft accelerates its AI marketplace strategy—formalizing how AI models and services are distributed and monetized—Admanager, powered by Doceree, today announced the launch of the Licensed Content Marketplace, healthcare's first structured AI content licensing infrastructure built specifically for medical publishers.

Source: Bloomberg, 0:00

Perawit Boonchu/iStock via Getty Images Shares of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. ( CRL ) have been a mixed performer over the past year, trading essentially flat. That said, it has been a rollercoaster ride for investors, as shares have been negatively impacted by fears around FDA efforts to phase out animal testing and potential competition from AI. While these are medium-term challenges, a weak spending environment by biotech firms has hampered near-term results. In response, Charles River has been aggressively cutting costs, planning divestitures, and authorizing a $1 billion buyback program. I last covered shares in November , rating the stock a “ H old” as I did not feel the strategic efforts were sufficient to merit a "B uy." With CRL down 5% since then and with updated financials, now is a good time to revisit CRL. Seeking Alpha In the company’s fourth quarter , Charles River earned $2.39, which beat estimates by $0.04 on flattish revenue of $1 billion. Organic growth was down 2.6% from last year, largely offset by a weaker dollar. Revenue in DSA (Discovery and Safety Assessment) and manufacturing remains weak. Given higher staffing costs and lower revenue, margins compressed by 180 bps to 18.1%. During the quarter, it acquired a supplier in its DSA business, further integrating its supply chain. There should be a modest margin benefit from this transaction. Bio-Spending Environment Is Still Muted DSA revenue fell 3.3% on an organic basis to $592 million, reflecting the weak funding environment in the first half of the year. Its backlog stands at $1.86 billion, down $110 million from last year. Operating margins were down 460 bps to 20.1%. This business is heavily reliant on animal testing, and FDA plans to phase this out threaten CRL. While CRL is investing in new models, there is no guarantee that they can lead in this science as they have with animal testing. Beyond this, AI may be able to simulate much of this work, and large technology fi...

Massimo Rosi/Getty Images Entertainment According to a report by data analytics provider Apptopia, older Americans have spent 90 minutes on average watching the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on their smartphones. In the first 10 days of streaming the Winter Olympics on Peacock ( CMCSA ), viewership on mobile compared to previous Olympic events was lower, but the watch time of the audience was longer, the report said. 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics snapshot (Apptopia) "Comparing the past three Olympic Games on Peacock, Average Time Spent per DAU is up for all age groups for these Winter Games, with the exception of the 36-45 bracket," Apptopia said. "Older users, those aged 46+, saw the largest increase over the Summer 2024 games, at 48.5%. They are watching more than 90 minutes of Olympic coverage a day on their phones." When compared to the Summer Olympics, daily active users for the Winter event are down 9%. However, the surge in DAUs from Day 1 to Day 10 was a whopping 92% for the Winter Olympics this year, which is much higher than the 35% rise for Winter 2022 and the 27% jump for Summer 2024 for the same duration. Apptopia found that about 27% of users who watched the Winter Olympics on Peacock were new and had never had a session on the app before, and about 23% were "resurrected users," or those who had "churned" but re-engaged for the event. The remaining 50% were already active users on the streaming platform. "This means the Winter Games functioned less as a pure acquisition play and more as a full-funnel lifecycle tool, reactivating lapsed subscribers while deepening engagement among the existing base," said Apptopia Director Adam Blacker. More on Comcast Comcast: Deep Value With Double-Digit Shareholder Returns Still Intact Comcast: Transformation Takes Time, Market Patience Wears Thin Comcast Corporation 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation 'College Football Playoffs' on ESPN drives cable viewership in January - Nielsen Comcast on tra...

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Key PointsBoth ETFs charge a rock-bottom 0.03% expense ratio and focus on short-term, investment-grade bonds

格隆汇2月19日｜安哥拉4月份将装载28批原油，而3月份原计划装载35批。

Micron Stock on Track to Become a Trillion-Dollar Company? techi.com

The feature will require customers to buy both versions of the title, but at a discounted price.

优步 表示，将鼓励充电桩运营企业在其司机居住和工作的社区安装充电桩。 作者：杰克・尤因 优步周三宣布，将在美国和欧洲推出激励政策，鼓励其他企业建设电动汽车充电桩，这对近期受美国政策变化冲击的汽车市场相关领域可能形成提振。 优步表示，将 保证 在司机居住或频繁上下客的社区所安装的充电桩达到最低使用时长。这一承诺有助于充电运营商更快收回新建站点的投资。充电桩使用率是其盈利或亏损的关键，但却难以预测。 在美国国会共和党人与特朗普总统废除多项旨在鼓励零尾气排放汽车销售的政策后，电动汽车销量大幅下滑。但尽管政策转向，去年充电桩建设增速仍创下历史新高，部分原因在于像查尔斯・伊沃哈这样的优步司机 —— 纽约市有 1.3 万名网约车司机使用电动汽车，他便是其中之一。 去年，在优步的资金支持下，他购买了一辆起亚 EV9 电动 SUV。他说，车辆电池足以支撑整整 10 小时的运营，而且充电费用比他之前开的燃油车便宜 20 至 40 美元。 住在皇后区的伊沃哈表示，这是一笔可观的节省。“纽约房租太高了，” 他说，开优步 “能维持生计，但也只是勉强糊口。” 分析师和充电企业称，网约车司机是公共充电桩的最大使用群体之一，尤其是能在半小时或更短时间内充满电的快充设备。优步、来福车及其他网约车平台司机支付的充电费用，是充电桩数量增长的重要原因。 但充电桩并非总是建在优步司机需要的地方。例如，伊沃哈住在公寓楼里，无法在家充电。他只能依赖公共快充桩，而这些充电桩常常人满为患，在曼哈顿尤为如此。 优步全球出行负责人普拉迪普・巴拉梅斯瓦兰表示，公司希望通过推动建设 1000 个充电桩来缓解部分问题。 “长期来看，我们认为电动化有助于降低司机在优步平台的运营成本，” 他在接受采访时说，“最终，这对城市也有利，能减少排放。” 与优步合作的欧洲充电企业 Ionity 首席执行官杰罗・范蒂尔堡表示，优步的数据将帮助其确定建设充电桩的最佳位置。 “对所有充电运营商来说，最大的顾虑就是找准位置。” 范蒂尔堡说。 在优步支持下建设的充电桩将对所有人开放，对无法在家充电的租房人群和其他城市居民尤其便利。优步表示，希望在纽约、洛杉矶、波士顿、旧金山、伦敦、巴黎和马德里推动新建充电桩。 优步周三还宣布，将投入 1 亿美元建设 自动驾驶汽车充电枢纽 ，这类车辆几乎均为电动汽车。自动驾驶出租车可能对优步业务构成威胁，因此优步一...

JulieAlexK/iStock via Getty Images Canadian inflation has cooled in January, driven largely by lower gas prices. Robert Both, Senior Macro Strategist with TD Securities, breaks down the latest economic data and why that may not be enough to prompt the Bank of Canada to lower interest rates. Transcript Anthony Okolie - Canadian inflation edged lower in January, but does that mean that the Bank of Canada may budge on interest rates? Joining us now to discuss is Robert Both. He's a Senior Macro Strategist with TD Securities. And, Robert, thanks very much for joining us today. Robert Both - My pleasure, Anthony. It's great to be back. Anthony Okolie - All right, so let's start with inflation report. What's your headline reaction? Robert Both - So my headline reaction is that the inflation backdrop looks much tamer today than it did last month and the month before that. Headline inflation came out softer than expected at 2.3%. That's 0.1% below where it was last month. We actually looked for inflation to tick a little bit higher because we knew there would be this acceleration in restaurants, bars, and liquor stores. Anything that was affected by the sales tax holiday last year has seen inflation move sharply higher over the last two months. But we have seen some large offsets to that. So we had that acceleration in restaurants, but we also had more deflation in energy prices. Shelter prices have made more progress. And there was a very large deceleration in telecoms as well. So, overall, it was quite a noisy report. But if you just cut through that and look at those core inflation measures the bank puts more focus on, those are running around 2.45%. And on a three-month annualized basis, they have really come off -- CPI trim and CPI median are now sitting at 1.2%. It was only a couple of months ago that gauge of core inflation momentum was closer to 2.5%. So what we're seeing is momentum swing much lower. That is going to potentially raise some concerns in the Bank of C...

Key PointsThe software sector has recently been hammered by the release of increasingly capable AI agents.

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格隆汇2月19日｜美国众议院将在2025年致命碰撞事件后，下周考虑航空安全立法。

Naturgy Energy Group, S.A. press release ( GASNF ): FY 2025 Net sales of €19.45B (+0.9% Y/Y). Net income of €2.02B. More on Naturgy Energy Group, S.A. Naturgy Energy Group, S.A. 2025 Q4 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation BlackRock said to sell 7% stake in Naturgy for $2B Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Naturgy Energy Group, S.A. Historical earnings data for Naturgy Energy Group, S.A. Dividend scorecard for Naturgy Energy Group, S.A.

Typically, anyone who manages tens of billions of dollars would garner heavy publicity. There are exceptions, though, and one particular fund manager mysteriously gets left out of the cultural conversation. It just goes to show that not everyone in the billionaire class is a household name. Today, we’ll unveil an individual who oversees over $50 ... Meet the $54 Billion Fund Manager Nobody’s Talking About

All three major US stock indexes were up in late-morning trading Wednesday ahead of the afternoon re

Key PointsLa-Z-Boy beat on sales and earnings last night.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com Continue reading

Shares of car-wash operator Mister Car Wash (NASDAQ: MCW) were sharply higher on Wednesday morning following its earnings report -- and on news that the company has struck a deal to go private for $7.00 per share. As of 11:00 a.m. ET, shares were up about 16.4% to $6.99. In an early morning statement, Mister Car Wash said it has entered into a "definitive merger agreement" with private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners (LGP). LGP currently owns about two-thirds of the car-wash giant. Continue reading

39% Yield from the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (NVDY): Real or Fake? 24/7 Wall St.

In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) remains an unstoppable processor powerhouse and a darling of the stock market. With that, it certainly seems like any fund associated with NVIDIA must be massively profitable and absolutely fail-safe. Addressing the demand for stock-specific exchange traded funds (ETFs), YieldMax offers a passive-income-generating fund for NVIDIA ... 39% Yield from the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (NVDY): Real or Fake?

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers signed fewer contracts for new homes than expected as high prices and economic uncertainty hold back some buyers. Norah Mulinda reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

A researcher works in the lab at the Moderna Inc. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images Moderna said on Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review its experimental mRNA flu shot, reversing the agency's earlier decision to refuse to accept the application in a move that stunned Wall Street and the medical community. The announcement clears a path forward for the vaccine, which is key to Moderna's experimental combination Covid-flu jab and the company's goal of breaking even by 2028. The FDA is slated to make a decision on the flu shot on Aug. 5, which will allow Moderna to make the vaccine available for the upcoming influenza season. "Pending FDA approval, we look forward to making our flu vaccine available later this year so that America's seniors have access to a new option to protect themselves against flu," said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel in a release. Shares of the biotech company rose more than 6% on Wednesday. Moderna said it had a "constructive" meeting with the FDA and proposed a revised regulatory approach that addresses criticisms the agency made when refusing to accept the application last week, tailoring its new proposal to an older population. Under the new approach, Moderna is seeking full approval for the shot in adults ages 50 to 64 and an accelerated approval of the shot for people 65 and up. The latter means that upon approval, Moderna will have to conduct an additional post-marketing study in older adults to confirm its benefits. In a statement, Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon confirmed that the FDA has accepted the modified application. The agency specifically took issue with Moderna's decision to compare its product to a standard, approved flu shot in a phase three trial, arguing that it "does not reflect the best-available standard of care" in the U.S. The FDA's previous feedback expressed a preference for Moderna to use a high...