Stock Info Nets

Needham argues that Apple should have paid more for a deal to keep its data hidden from one of its primary competitors in Alphabet. Needham says that Alphabet and Amazon.com Inc. which share similar tech innovations is keeping themselves at home.

David Berman to join Moderna as Chief Development Officer. He will serve on Modernas Executive Committee.

The West has become privatized, Thatcherized, and financialized, says Julian Zelizer. The United States, unlike the condition in 1945, is no longer an industrial power. This has left the United States as a high-cost economy.

No US government will last long when USians are paying $8 for gas and driving to Walmart to find empty shelves.

Apple IPOd in 1980 and has grown 210,270% since going public. Apple expects year-over-year revenue to jump between 13% and 16% in the current quarter.

SoftBank Group Corp. will indirectly acquire all the outstanding common stock of DigitalBridge Group for $16.00 per share in cash. SoftBank will indirectly buy DigitalBridge for $4.0B. CME Group increased margin requirements following steep sell-off last week.

Financial assets (stocks and bonds) now exceed 200% of GDP. Average 50-something American has a net worth of $1.4 million, according to a report from Empower, the financial services firm. World central banks have spent all of their efforts over the past 20–30 years suppressing volatility.

Streamline Control Collaborates with Snowflake to Accelerate AI-Driven Energy Operations. Snowflakes Energy Solutions helps energy organizations unify IT and OT data and accelerate AI-driven operations.

Wolf Street changed its mailing address in November (to do its part fighting rampant inflation in services)

PayPal Holdings could lose nearly a fifth of its value on Tuesday. PayPal reported a sharp slowdown in a key metric and announced an unexpected leadership shift.

Visa Inc. earned $3.17 per share in its fiscal first quarter ending December 31. Visa is down 3.3% over the past year. Visa declared a 67-cent quarterly dividend per class A share. Visa reported $10.9 billion in net revenue, up 15% from the same period last year. Net income rose 14% to $5.9bn, while Visa has an annual dividend of 67 cents per share ($2.68 a year)

Amazon shelled out $40 million for the rights to “Melania” in a bidding war that reportedly included other major studios, with Disney being the second highest bidder.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on an earnings call with investors that the company is still in the ‘beginning stages” of AI diffusion. Microsoft added 1 gigawatt of data center capacity in its latest quarter.

Blackstone assets under management hit $1.27 trillion as inflows explode - blackstone (nyse:bx) - benzinga.com. Blackstone (NYSE: BX) reported fourth-quarter results, with distributable earnings per share of $1.75 (+4% Y/Y), beating the analyst consensus estimate of $ 1.53.

Casella Waste Systems will remarket $29 million in solid waste disposal bonds on August 1, 2025. Bank of England recently revealed that banks create money in debt-based money.

Nucor expects wv mill to help in auto, appliance markets. The $4 billion undertaking along W.Va. is 75% complete and on schedule, company says. Nucor expects first-quarter earnings to increase across all three operating segment,s with the biggest increase in the steel mills segment. Board declared a cash dividend of 56 cents per share, payable on Feb. 14.

Alphabet was the top-performing stock in the Magnificent Seven basket of top technology stocks in 2025. Alphabet is the second largest holding in the index, while Amazon ranks third at 147334%, while Alphabet is second. Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan maintained a Buy rating and $375 price target on Alphabet ahead of earnings. Alphabets results come on Wednesday after market close.

Scotiabank maintained a Buy rating on Exxon Mobil, with a price target of $128.00 in a report released today. Wall Street Journal reported that Exxon Mobil and Chevron posted their lowest annual profits since 2021.

Yves Smith: Forecasting China is very complicated and difficult. China has to grow, and China will pull the rest of us along, he says. Unemployment Insurance drops to lowest since sept. 2024. China allowed its economy to become dominated by real estate, reducing long-term productivity growth. China may also come to regret the fruits of the Uyghur repression, the crushing of Hong Kong society.

PetroChina International seeking to hire a bunker trader in London or the Netherlands. Amazon considering investing $50 billion into the company all by itself.

Johnson & Johnson is a dividend stock, which means that, in addition to appreciating in price, it pays quarterly dividends to shareholders. The closing price of 10 shares 10 years ago, on Oct. 31, was $971.50. The average one-year price target for Johnson &Johnson stock was $204.02. Johnson & Johnson called the verdict egregious and patently unconstitutional The same plaintiffs firm, Dean Omar, won a record $966 million talc. Johnson strikes me as more of ‘Mike of Amnesia’ where its always news he hasnt yet read or heard, when breaking evasive on a query he wants to answer.

HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital is building a new freestanding emergency room in south Lee County, set to open this fall. HCA used to have a presence in Lee when it operated the long-ago-demolished Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and what was formerly known as Gulf Coast Hospital. HCA Healthcare is one of the largest hospital chains in the U.S. with a vast, diversified network of facilities. The company is positioned to perform well over the long run.

Rent the Runway will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its third quarter 2025 financial results and provide a business update today, December 12, 2025. The construction industry has been putting up on average 1.45 million new housing units per year, for-sale and rental units, single-family and multifamily all combined. Inflation Adjusted House Prices 2.4% Below 2022 Peak. Price-to-rent index is 9.6% below 2022 peak. WLFI, the governance token of World Liberty Financial, has decoupled from Bitcoin. Survey done by CoinSwitch reveals deep dissatisfaction with the current crypto tax.

Construction Spending Down 1.0% Year-over-year from the Census Bureau reported construction spending for both September and October. Average 50-something American is now worth $1.4 million. Median asking rent for 0-2 bedroom units fell for the 28th consecutive month. AMD, led by CEO Lisa Su, reports fourth-quarter earnings results on Tuesday afternoon. Warm winters are breaking the ski industry, and artificial snow is not enough for skiing in mountain west. Micron Technology shares are flying high for all the right fundamental reasons, but by one technical measure, they now look primed for a hard landing. The old era of financialization is coming into focus now. January electric-vehicle sales figures dropped almost 29% in four countries in Europe. The bottom 40% of US households is seeing annual inflation rates of about 3.1%. Meanwhile, the middle 40% and top 20% see inflation rate of about 4.1%. The next twenty years are going to be completely unlike the last twenty years. Vijay Prashad and Michael Hudson discuss hyperimperialism, imperialism, and the state of global politics. Hudson describes how industrializing economies developed in unexpected manner, towards rentierism and exploitation rather than socialistic systems. Hudson: The aim of imperialism is not surplus value, but it seeks rentier and financial gains. The Interregnum of Unreality kicked off when Obamas administration and Bernankes Fed elected to keep markets and economy going via massive Quantitative Easing. After Trumps election win in 2016, Obama and the Democrats moved to set up a Silicon Valley censorship. The price of silver futures crashed thirty-one point four percent in a single session, the largest one-day decline. Wolf Richter says the US government could yet again get partially shut down this week if the Senate refuses to pass the spending bills by January 31. Hard to imagine an economic slowdown until this business investment boom fizzles. Immigration is not inherently a negative or a positive, it has to be managed for marginal benefit. Immigration has to have assimilation factored into cost equation. Legal immigration has been beneficial for the country and should be encouraged. The number of foreign residents rose by 10.5% year-on-year in 2024. Unemployment Insurance drops to Lowest since Sept. 2024, Layoffs are low, Show No Signs of Weak Labor Market. Home Depot announced 800 layoffs, with about 650 of them being remote workers, the remainder being at its corporate headquarters. California population declines again, -200,000 since 2020. Producer Price Index Jumps on Disconcerting Spike in Services PPI. Food & Energy Prices Fall by Wolf Richter. The world is increasingly caught between the United States and China. Kevin Warsh will be Volcker 2.0, look for interest rates to stay where they are or go even higher. The spread between the 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields now the widest since January. Interest on the debt is now a major budget item. How can the Fed ignore the need to fund huge fiscal deficits? US Government Sold $766 billion of Treasuries this week. Spread between 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields now widest since January 2022. Miles driven per person also show the ascent of the American commuting culture. Housing starts decreased to 1,246 million annual rate in October. Housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,412,000. Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW) was slightly positive in Q3. Mortgage debt is up $2.99 trillion from the peak during the housing. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows Japan lagging many other rich countries in terms of total entrepreneurial activity as of 2022. Katz suggests a number of concrete policy changes that could encourage more high-growth startups. In a million small ways, Japan is culturally distinct from the U.S. Politically and economically speaking, it is part of the West. People who value the wealth and freedom of European-derived societies, but who feel oppressed or bored by Western-derived cultures, find refuge in Japan. Japan needs its own unique dream for entrepreneurs.

Fortune 500 company submitted a proposal on Dec. 31 to buy UniFirst. Cintas has made multiple bids to acquire UniFirst since 2022.

Chewy has a much higher valuation and hasnt expanded net profit margins beyond the low single digits for several years. While Chewy specializes in pet food and health services, Walmart has more opportunities to grow. Chewy relies too much on the pet industry, while Walmart covers a lot more ground. Chewy is selling a self-Warming cat bed for just $16 at Chewy. Chewy has a free 365-day return policy, so if you pick up this bed and your pet decides they dont like it, you can return it for your money back.

Mastercard has exceeded the Zacks EPS Consensus for 18 consecutive quarters, most recently topping Q1 earnings expectations by 4.48% in May. Over the last three years, the performance of Mastercard and Visa stock is virtually the same, with gains of over +65%. Visa stock has a slight edge here in terms of price-to-earnings. Visa and Mastercard possess powerful network effects, supported by incredible adoption of their branded cards among consumers and due to strong acceptance by merchants. Because its a smaller business, Mastercard naturally has a bigger growth opportunity.

Apple is trading 9% below its peak. Can Apple stock reach $350 per share in 2026? Apple reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.