Applied Materials has become one of Wall Street’s clearest ways to play the AI infrastructure buildout without buying the chip designers that dominate the headlines. The company sells the equipment needed to manufacture advanced semiconductors, and Morgan Stanley now sees a much stronger 2026 setup than it expected just a few months ago. In a
Despite the bond market’s increasing expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon need to hike short-term interest rates, one major bank says the central bank will maintain holding rates steady and then resume a dovish stance next year. Morgan Stanley’s May 18 note, shared with TheStreet, calls for two 25-basis-point rate cuts in 2027, one
The Strait of Hormuz handles roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply on any given day. When it closes, everyone eventually feels the heat at the pump. ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods had a clear message for Wall Street analysts on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call: the worst may not be
The biggest deal in utility history may land today, Monday, May 18. Financial Times and Bloomberg both reported over the May 15-16 weekend that NextEra Energy (NEE) is in advanced talks to acquire Dominion Energy (D) in a mostly stock-based deal worth roughly $400 billion in equity, with an enterprise value near $419 billion. The
HSBC just raised its silver price forecasts. It also warned that the upside may already be limited. Both of those things are true at the same time, and understanding why is the most important thing investors need to take from this note. James Steel, HSBC’s chief precious metals analyst, published a revised outlook that lifts
For three consecutive years, American workers held a thin but meaningful edge over rising prices: their earnings were growing faster than inflation. That streak ended in April 2026, and the consequences are about to ripple through household budgets in ways that are difficult to ignore. The latest Consumer Price Index report from the Bureau of
Seven years after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down outside Addis Ababa, a federal jury in Chicago is still assigning a dollar value to what Boeing’s failures cost one family. On May 13, that number came in at $49.5 million. The verdict is not large enough to threaten Boeing’s balance sheet. But the case it
After an especially bruising week of hot back-to-back inflation headlines, increasing uncertainties about the end of the Iran war’s energy shocks, and a flaccid state visit to China, the bond market’s outlook for a Fed interest-rate hike this year flexed. Long-dated Treasury yields pushed sharply higher, with bond traders upping the risk that the central
Alphabet (GOOGL) stock is up about 25.34% year to date, at the time of writing, Saturday afternoon, May 16, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 index (SPY) is up about 8.4% in the same period. Google has managed to outpace the S&P 500, but it has also outpaced other Magnificent 7 members
Rising gas prices may have some consumers on edge, but car buyers haven’t yet changed their buying habits, according to General Motors CEO Mary Barra. In March, the median lower-income household spent 4.2% of its income on gasoline, up from 3.9% a year ago, but still below the levels reached in 2022. Middle- and higher-income