The Rebellious Economy – by Justin Vaughn

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) Nearly all sectors and all stocks finished Friday lower wiping out the week’s gain and setting the stage for the upcoming week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 438 points or 1.7% while the S&P 500 was off 1.7%. The heavy technology Nasdaq Composite was the big loser, falling 2.8% as the Magnoficient 7, chips and artificial intelligence stocks led the cascade downward–the biggest drop this year. Contributing to … Read more…

Silicon Valley Bank’s former parent can pursue $1.93 billion FDIC lawsuit

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Silicon Valley Bank’s former parent may pursue a lawsuit to recover $1.93 billion of deposits that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized following the bank’s March 2023 collapse, a federal judge ruled. In a decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California said the former parent, now known as SVB Financial Trust, adequately alleged that the FDIC in its corporate capacity maintained control over the … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized

Meta plans to release standalone Meta AI app, CNBC reports

(Reuters) – Meta Platforms plans to debut a standalone Meta AI app to join Facebook and Instagram during the second quarter, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The move marks a major step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to make Meta the leader in AI by the end of the year, ahead of competitors like OpenAI and Alphabet, CNCB reported. Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for … Read more…

FCC chair opens probe into diversity practices at Verizon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr on Thursday opened a probe into diversity practices at Verizon and raised the telecommunications company’s ongoing effort to purchase Frontier Communications. Carr earlier this month told NBC News-parent Comcast he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Verizon is awaiting FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier. “In order to aid the FCC’s resolution of these … Read more…

Exclusive-Aerospace industry scrambles to deal with fallout from huge US factory fire

By Allison Lampert and Tim Hepher (Reuters) – Boeing and other top aerospace firms are scouring their supply chains to determine their exposure to a major fire last week at a Philadelphia-area parts factory that has set off alarm bells across the industry, people familiar with the matter said. The days-long fire at SPS Technologies’ century-old factory could put pressure on the industry’s already strapped supply chain. GE Aerospace and others are now trying to … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized

UK’s Starmer, Trump to work on economic deal with AI at its core

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday that he would work with U.S. President Donald Trump on a new economic deal with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence at its core. “Instead of over regulating these new technologies, we’re seizing the opportunities that they offer. So we’ve decided today to go further to begin work on a new economic deal with advanced technology at its core,” Starmer told reporters during a … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized

Starlink owner Musk warns about US aviation system run by rival Verizon

By David Shepardson and Mrinmay Dey WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Billionaire presidential adviser Elon Musk on Thursday said a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration communications system operated by Verizon is months away from failure and putting air safety at risk. Verizon, which operates the largest U.S. wireless network, said it has only begun work on the system currently run by another company, and rejected the criticism by Musk, who owns the rival SpaceX Starlink satellite system. “The Verizon … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized

Salesforce sees annual results below estimates as Agentforce adoption lags

(Reuters) – Business software provider Salesforce forecast fiscal 2026 revenue below Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, weighed down by slower adoption of its artificial intelligence agent platform, sending shares of the company down around 4% in extended trading. The software-as-a-service pioneer is banking heavily on AI agents to reinvigorate growth at a time when other cloud firms, including Microsoft and Amazon, have firmly established themselves as leaders in the sector while making strides in machine … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized

Paramount Global misses quarterly revenue estimates on continued cable TV declines

(Reuters) -Paramount Global fell short of Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue expectations on Wednesday as a continued decline in its cable TV unit clouded higher-than-expected subscriber growth for its Paramount+ streaming platform.  Shares of the company fell 1.5% in extended trading. Media giants are reshaping their business strategies in response to the continued erosion of cable TV audiences to streaming platforms.  According to TD Cowen’s analysts, Paramount is highly vulnerable to fluctuations in advertising performance due … Read more…

Nvidia: AI boom not dead yet

By Max A. Cherney, Arsheeya Bajwa and Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – Nvidia forecast higher first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, signalling continued strong demand for artificial intelligence chips, and said orders for its new Blackwell semiconductors were “amazing.” The company’s forecast helps allay doubts around a slowdown in spending on its hardware that emerged last month, following Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s claims that it had developed AI models rivaling Western counterparts at a fraction of their cost.  … Read more…

Categories Uncategorized