Oil was little changed at the start of the week, as traders monitored geopolitical risk before talks between the US and Iran resume on Tuesday. Brent traded below $68 a barrel, after its first back-to-back weekly drop this year, while West Texas Intermediate was near $63. US President Donald Trump said Friday that regime change would be the best outcome for Iran, ratcheting up pressure ahead of th...
Oil was little changed at the start of the week, as traders monitored geopolitical risk before talks between the US and Iran resume on Tuesday. Brent traded below $68 a barrel, after its first back-to-back weekly drop this year, while West Texas Intermediate was near $63. US President Donald Trump said Friday that regime change would be the best outcome for Iran, ratcheting up pressure ahead of the negotiations in Geneva. Oil has rallied more than 11% this year as escalating tensions with Iran — and potential supply disruptions in a region that pumps about a third of the world’s crude — outshone concerns over a building glut. Futures have pared some of those gains as the risk of an imminent strike faded and after the International Energy Agency trimmed its demand growth forecast for this year. Meanwhile, US-led talks to end the war in Ukraine are also scheduled to start in Geneva on Tuesday, though the prospects of a speedy end to the almost four-year-old conflict and the return of Russian barrels look slim. Drone strikes on the Black Sea coast over the weekend damaged infrastructure at Taman seaport and fuel tanks. Elsewhere, some OPEC+ members said they see scope to resume output increases in April, believing glut concerns are overblown, although the group hasn’t committed to action ahead of its March 1 meeting. The ultimate decision may depend on whether Trump launches military strikes against — or reaches a nuclear deal with — OPEC member Iran, one delegate said. To get Bloomberg’s Energy Daily newsletter in your inbox, click here . Brent for April settlement was little changed at $ 67.73 a barrel at 7:16 a.m. in Singapore. WTI for March delivery was steady at $ 62.83 a barrel. There will be no settlement on Monday due to the President’s Day holiday in the US.
Gold slipped, as traders took profits after mild US inflation data pushed the metal back above $5,000 an ounce. Bullion was near $5,020 in early trading, after climbing 2.4% in the previous session. The US consumer price index rose 0.2% in January, allaying concerns about a bigger jump and boosting the case for the Federal Reserve to trim rates. Lower borrowing costs typically benefit non-yielding...
Gold slipped, as traders took profits after mild US inflation data pushed the metal back above $5,000 an ounce. Bullion was near $5,020 in early trading, after climbing 2.4% in the previous session. The US consumer price index rose 0.2% in January, allaying concerns about a bigger jump and boosting the case for the Federal Reserve to trim rates. Lower borrowing costs typically benefit non-yielding precious metals. Gold surged to a record above $5,595 in late January as a wave of speculative buying pushed the rally to breaking point, before an abrupt rout at the turn of the month pulled it back below $4,500. In choppy trading, the metal has regained roughly half of its losses since then. In China, markets are closed this week for the Lunar New Year holiday. Demand for precious metals in the country has been frenetic in recent months, prompting authorities in the retail hub of Shenzhen to issue a stark warning against “illegal gold-trading activities.” Read More: Chinese Gold Frenzy Leads to Retail Hub Crackdown After Scandals Spot gold fell 0.5% to $5,017.76 an ounce as of 7:10 a.m. in Singapore. Silver slid 2.1% to $75.82 an ounce. Platinum and palladium also traded lower. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index , a gauge of the US currency, ended the previous session down 0.1%.
US President Joe Biden looks on as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a meeting with senior officials and CEOs of American and Indian companies, in the East Room the White House in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Big technology executives descend on India this week for an AI summit in New Delhi as the world's largest companies aim to expand...
US President Joe Biden looks on as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a meeting with senior officials and CEOs of American and Indian companies, in the East Room the White House in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Big technology executives descend on India this week for an AI summit in New Delhi as the world's largest companies aim to expand their presence in what is seen as a critical growth market. India this week will host the AI Impact Summit, the latest in a series of government-hosted events focused on artificial intelligence that have taken place in the U.K., South Korea and France. Among the key attendees are Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Anthropic boss Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis are also slated to be there. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will roll out of the red carpet which tech CEOs will happily walk down as the country presents a lucrative market of young, tech-forward consumers and a huge pool of talent which could be key to continued development of AI. "The summit ... is a huge validation of the potential of the market. Everyone's coming in because they realize that this is the place to be in and India just cannot be ignored," Lalit Ahuja, CEO of ANSR, a company that helps businesses run offshore teams in India. The AI Impact Summit also comes amid a reset in relations between India and the U.S. as the two nations push toward a trade deal . India strives to be a major tech hub Modi's government has made its intentions clear in the last few years — it wants India to be one of the world's tech superpowers. India has approved $18 billion worth of semiconductor projects as it looks to build a domestic supply chain. The government has pushed major companies, including Apple, to manufacture more of its goods in India . Venture capital investors are betting on India's startups while the country's stock exchanges are seeing a ...
Lunar New Year, with its much-loved traditions, colourful celebrations and hopes for the future, is one of the world’s most popular festivals. It is a special time, when families and friends gather together to enjoy festive food and events. Hong Kong will mark the arrival of the Year of the Fire Horse with a variety of activities expected to draw up to 1.4 million visitors from mainland China. The...
Lunar New Year, with its much-loved traditions, colourful celebrations and hopes for the future, is one of the world’s most popular festivals. It is a special time, when families and friends gather together to enjoy festive food and events. Hong Kong will mark the arrival of the Year of the Fire Horse with a variety of activities expected to draw up to 1.4 million visitors from mainland China. The city must be well prepared. A spectacular fireworks display will light up the harbour on Wednesday....
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) has impressed investors with its incredible growth in a short period of time. Though this company has been around for more than 20 years, during this artificial intelligence (AI) boom, its revenue growth and stock performance have looked more like those of an exciting tech start-up. Revenue has soared in the double-digits quarter after quarter, and the stock pr...
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) has impressed investors with its incredible growth in a short period of time. Though this company has been around for more than 20 years, during this artificial intelligence (AI) boom, its revenue growth and stock performance have looked more like those of an exciting tech start-up. Revenue has soared in the double-digits quarter after quarter, and the stock price has skyrocketed. The cause for such momentum? Palantir offers its customers an easy way to apply AI to their needs and generate big results. So, we know that an investment in Palantir since its initial public offering has probably been successful -- but exactly how much would you have made if you'd invested $10,000 in Palantir at that time? Let's find out. Continue reading
Sumedha Lakmal/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Baron Discovery Fund Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Fund returned 0.19% (Institutional Shares), trailing the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the Index) by 1.03%. For the full year 2025, the Fund returned 10.96%, and trailed the Index by 2.05%. On every rolling five-year period since we st...
Sumedha Lakmal/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Baron Discovery Fund Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Fund returned 0.19% (Institutional Shares), trailing the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the Index) by 1.03%. For the full year 2025, the Fund returned 10.96%, and trailed the Index by 2.05%. On every rolling five-year period since we started the Fund, our returns (Institutional Class) have beaten the market 93% of the time. Over the last 12 years, our process has led to very consistent annualized returns for the Fund of 12.61%, which has outpaced the Index by 3.81% annually. And this is AFTER management and other fees. So definitionally, our investors have meaningfully outperformed small-cap index funds. Of course, this strategy will not work in the short periods of time in which the market is fixated on “hype” versus objective long-term valuation metrics. This is what occurred in spectacular fashion in the third quarter of 2025, and to some extent in the fourth quarter as well. In these periods, low quality (high debt and poor profitability) and short-term price momentum-oriented stocks outperformed. Because low quality stocks outperformed, our portfolio experienced a 4.7% headwind versus the Index in 2025 just for owning higher quality stocks! This was the worst year on record for underperformance by high quality* stocks (going back to when data first started to be collected in 1975). We doubt it will re-occur. Similarly, short-term momentum* was a 2.8% headwind to the Fund in 2025 versus the Index due to our long-term orientation. Stacked together, these “factors” hurt the Fund’s relative performance versus the Index by about 7%, putting the Fund’s overall 2% relative performance shortfall into some context. We plead guilty to not owning quantum computing companies with minimal revenues until the 2030s (or small nuclear reactor companies with the same profile). Not owning some of these speculative area...