Latest Developments

Asia
The Economic Times

Equity mutual funds delivered up to 7% return last week, international funds lead. Check top 5 with over 2% gain

Equity mutual funds delivered up to 7% return in the past week (July 20 to July 24), with international funds leading the performance chart. Here are the top 5 performers with gains of over 2% (Source: ACE MF). Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund posted the highest return of around 6.56% during the period. Kotak Global Emerging Market Overseas Equity Omni FOF generated a return of 4.26% in the same period. DSP World Mining Overseas Equity Omni FoF reported a return of 3.84% in the same period. PGIM India Emerging Markets Equity FoF delivered a return of 2.89% during the mentioned period. The remaining 607 funds delivered returns ranging between -3.61% and 1.62% in the same period.

Equity mutual funds delivered up to 7% return last week, international funds lead. Check top 5 with over 2% gain
Asia
The Economic Times

14 penny stocks plunge up to 70% in 3 months. Are you affected?

Over the past three months, 15 penny stocks have witnessed sharp corrections, with declines ranging from 25% to 70%. These underperformers were identified through a screen focusing on stocks with a market capitalisation below Rs 1,000 crore, a share price under Rs 20, and a minimum recent trading volume of 5 lakh shares. The screen highlights low-priced, relatively liquid penny stocks that have come under significant selling pressure during this period. (Data Source: ACE Equity)Although penny stocks often attract investors with their low entry prices and potential for rapid gains, they come with substantial risks. Due to low liquidity, high volatility, and limited transparency, they are prone to manipulation and sudden price drops. Without a clear strategy and strong risk controls, investors may face more losses than gains.

14 penny stocks plunge up to 70% in 3 months. Are you affected?
Europe
The Guardian

US trade chief defends tariffs as Democrats say Trump ‘in denial’ over price hikes

Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, before senators on Wednesday. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Zuma/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenJamieson Greer, the US trade representative, before senators on Wednesday. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Zuma/ShutterstockTrump tariffsUS trade chief defends tariffs as Democrats say Trump ‘in denial’ over price hikesJamieson Greer denies tariffs have pushed up prices during grilling from lawmakers over cost-of-living concerns Donald Trump’s chief trade official denied the president’s sweeping tariffs have increased prices for US families, as lawmakers challenged him over cost-of-living concerns across much of the country. US inflation surged to a three-year high earlier this year. During a heated exchange before US senators on Wednesday, however, US trade representative Jamieson Greer appeared to claim Trump’s controversial economic agenda had not driven prices higher. Asked by the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren if the tariffs had increased prices for American families, Greer said: “No.” “Core inflation fell to 2.6% year on year, much better than in January 2025,” Greer said. Core inflation excludes food and energy. Overall inflation is slightly higher than it was when Joe Biden left office. Warren said an estimate produced by Democrats and based on the nonpartisan congressional budget office and the treasury department’s own numbers, showed families were paying an average of $1,700 more in tariff costs since Trump’s return to office. It comes at a critical time for Trump’s tariffs policy, which suffered a damaging blow in February when the US supreme court ruled that many of those tariffs were illegal. The US replaced those tariffs with a 10% tariff regime on much of the world, but this is due to expire on Friday – and Trump officials, including Greer, have indicated they will replace it with a new wave of duties on imports from overseas. During Greer’s appearance before the Senate finance committee on Wednesday, Senator Raphael Warnock said Trump had “made life more expensive for everybody” before the US-Israel war on Iran sent “energy prices through the roof”. “Despite this mountain of evidence, you and the president still seem to be in denial that tariffs have raised prices,” Warnock told Greer, “a fact that study after study confirms, and is just basic common sense – everybody sees it, we’re feeling it.” Warnock asked if Greer had “ever produced any rigorous peer-evaluated study refuting the fact that the tariffs have contributed to inflation, or is your rebuttal to these conclusion just based on vibes, people’s feelings, politics … ?”

US trade chief defends tariffs as Democrats say Trump ‘in denial’ over price hikes
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

Me & My Money: From construction painter to EV charger firm founder

Sathiyamoorthy Nagarajan (left), a power systems specialist from India, partnered with Singaporean engineer Lai Yuan Weng to set up MNL Solutions, which delivers sustainable EV charging solutions for homes, condos, commercial and industrial sites. Sign up for ST InvestMe and unlock full access to exclusive insights and financial literacy courses today. SINGAPORE – Sathiyamoorthy Nagarajan vividly remembers knocking coconuts off trees and selling them at the market before school to supplement his family’s income while growing up in India.

Me & My Money: From construction painter to EV charger firm founder
North America
CNBC Finance

Moody's says 'unprecedented' AI spending threatens credit quality of Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and others

The race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure at a trillion-dollar annual clip is eroding the free cash flow and increasing balance-sheet risk at so-called hyperscalers, warned Moody's Ratings. In a research note released this week, Moody's said that the spending surge is forcing even the world's most cash-rich corporations like Alphabet and Microsoft to lean heavily on debt, stock sales and off-balance-sheet moves to fund their AI ambitions. "Previously, these companies relied on asset-light structures centered on software, intellectual property, and scalable cloud services that required modest capital investment," Moody's said in the Wednesday note. "The transition from asset-light to asset-heavy models requires unprecedented levels of investment and capital raising." The moves "threaten credit quality" for the six companies tracked by Moody's, which include Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Oracle and CoreWeave, according to the report. The ratings firm projects that capital expenditures — or capex, which are investment for physical assets like data centers — will hit $785 billion in 2026 before reaching about $1 trillion next year. The shift breaks a decades-long Silicon Valley formula that created the world's most valuable companies. Software costs little to replicate, yielding fat profit margins and fortress balance sheets. Generative AI, by contrast, demands a vast physical footprint: warehouses crammed with expensive and energy-hungry servers and chips. To finance the expansion, tech giants are increasingly turning to Wall Street, resulting in booming profits for the financial industry. Direct debt across the six hyperscalers has reached approximately $460 billion, according to Moody's. Tech companies are also tapping public markets for cash, including Google-parent Alphabet, which last month announced an $85 billion equity sale. The ratings firm noted that because AI hardware and infrastructure require massive up-front investment while revenue materializes over a longer time horizon, free cash flow across the sector is coming under pressure. To keep direct debt off their balance sheets, hyperscalers are leaning on off-balance-sheet financing, mostly through long-term data center leases, the report explained. Moody's said that lease commitments across the group have ballooned to $1.2 trillion. More than $820 billion of that total is from leases that haven't started yet, meaning the data centers are still being built. While these obligations don't show up as traditional debt, Moody's says it considers them as debt-equivalent liabilities that will bind companies to significant rent payments down the line.

Moody's says 'unprecedented' AI spending threatens credit quality of Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and others
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra: IT’s a chasm between management and investors

A relentless stock rout reflects an unanimously negative market sentiment on IT services stocks. As another lacklustre earnings season from IT services companies concludes, the contradictions between managements and investors have already been starker. From global industry leader Accenture, which reported results last month, to Infosys, which reported last week, managements remain steadfast in arguing that AI is a tailwind for the industry, judging by their commentary during earnings calls. They have maintained this view for nearly three years. That none of this optimism has translated into the financial numbers is another matter altogether. Meanwhile, a relentless stock rout reflects an unanimously negative market sentiment on IT services stocks. Investors, who initially drank the Kool-Aid after ChatGPT’s launch, are now nursing a hangover, demanding credible proof that AI will actually drive growth for IT services companies. A week prior, Anand Mahindra, Tech Mahindra Chairman, tried to bridge this trust deficit while speaking at the company’s annual general meeting when he said, “The role of IT services will not diminish. It will change. In many ways, it will become more important.” However, the evidence points in the opposite direction. IT services have occupied a relatively smaller share of global technology budgets over the past three years, and forecasts suggest that the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. The USD revenue growth estimate for next two years (FY26-28) for IT majors — TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra — remains muted at a CAGR of 1.8, 1.9, 2.7, 0.2 and 3.8 per cent, respectively (Bloomberg consensus estimate). Who is right? To answer that, investors should revisit the industry’s previous disruption and the transformation that followed. The successful shift from the legacy-focused business to a digital- and cloud-led one in the previous decade is often cited as a proof to convince the naysayers this time. But a closer analysis of the transition indicates there are two sides to it. The last 15-16 years can broadly be divided into four phases: FY10-15 (Phase 1), when outsourcing accelerated as global corporations cut costs after the global financial crisis; FY15-18 (Phase 2), when the digital and cloud disruption unsettled the industry and growth slowed; FY18-23 (Phase 3), when the transition was largely complete and digital business thrived (Covid notwithstanding); and FY23-26 (Phase 4), when AI has triggered the most disruptive technological shift yet. While success of the industry in adapting to the structural technology shift in the previous decade is commendable, what also stands out is the impact it has had on growth and margins.

TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra: IT’s a chasm between management and investors
North America
CNBC Finance

CDC says massive cyclospora outbreak is now in nine states

The nation's largest multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has expanded to nine states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The four newly linked states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania – join Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and hard-hit Michigan. Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that typically infects people through contaminated food or water and causes cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness that can result in symptoms including severe diarrhea. Patients can require hospitalization, but no deaths have been recorded related to the parasite this year. The outbreak is already the largest of cyclosporiasis reported in the U.S. this year, with thousands of illnesses recorded nationwide. That is well above the roughly 200 to 1,000 cases typically reported annually. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is investigating a separate cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to an unidentified food product or products. The U.S. is trying to investigate the sources of the parasite and contain its spread amid confusion over its response to the outbreak and staffing cuts that some experts say made it harder to curb it. In his apparent first public comments on the outbreak, President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. would put "a major tariff" on Mexico "because of the lettuce." It is unclear if he was serious. U.S. health and food regulators have zeroed in on shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms, a privately held, California-based company, from its plant in central Mexico. Mexican health authorities on Thursday said that samples of lettuce and water from the facility tested negative for cyclospora. However, that result does not disprove the Food and Drug Administration's earlier identification as Taylor Farms de Mexico as the likely source of the outbreak. The earliest cases began showing symptoms in mid-May. Moreover, the long incubation period for infection means that the crop responsible would have been distributed weeks ago. Last week, the FDA said that the produce giant supplied the shredded iceberg lettuce to the Taco Bell restaurants where people ate before becoming ill. Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall for all iceberg lettuce sourced from its Guanajuato, Mexico, facility, and Taco Bell pulled the affected lettuce from its restaurants. The CDC has so far tallied 1,947 people infected with cyclospora who also reported eating at Taco Bell in the nine states. Illnesses in the outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce began on June 22 and have continued through July 20, the CDC said. The federal count has lagged behind state tallies, so some of the states hit by the outbreak have reported much higher numbers of infections. But Taylor Farms has drawn criticism for its response to the outbreak. Some health experts blasted its recall notice, which included abbreviations and did not allow consumers to understand easily if they had bought or eaten any product that was at risk. After the FDA reported a false positive of lettuce samples from Taylor Farms on Sunday, the company issued a statement saying that the health agency had apologized. The FDA later clarified that it had not apologized to Taylor Farms, and the company deleted the statement on X, although it is still available on its website. The agency also said it still considered the company's iceberg lettuce the likely source of the outbreak.

CDC says massive cyclospora outbreak is now in nine states
North America
CNBC Finance

Albertsons stock plunges as it says weaker grocery spending will cut into sales and earnings

Shares of grocer Albertsons sank more than 20% on Thursday after the company lowered its fiscal 2026 outlook, citing softer demand and a more cautious consumer. The company said it is now "moving decisively" to invest in the customer experience because it believes that will improve its growth trajectory. "In the first quarter, our digital and pharmacy businesses continued to deliver strong growth, while core grocery faced increasing pressure from softer industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer," CEO Susan Morris said in a statement. The company's outlook cut comes amid broader signs that U.S. consumers have scaled back their grocery trips. Food inflation and tighter budgets due to high gas prices, among other factors, appear to be hurting spending. For the full year, Albertsons said it now expects net income between $1.75 and $1.85 per share, down significantly from its previous expectation of between $2.22 and $2.32 per share. It also lowered its adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of between $3.55 billion and $3.625 billion, compared with a previous projection of between $3.85 billion and $3.925 billion. It also now expects identical sales, a metric similar to comparable sales, to be in a range of down 1.5% to down 0.5%, compared with a previous expectation of flat to up 1%. For the first fiscal quarter of the year, the company reported that identical sales fell 0.8%. Albertsons reported net income of $84.7 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $236.4 million, or 41 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Still, Morris said on a call with analysts that while the pressure on consumers is weighing on near-term earnings, the company aims to "improve traffic, units, loyalty and the overall trajectory of the business over time." Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Albertsons stock plunges as it says weaker grocery spending will cut into sales and earnings
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

What they say on their India plans

With India being the fastest growing large economy, ‘what is your India plan?’ is a common topic in boardrooms of most global corporations. One important source to distil their India plans is from their quarterly earnings calls. This column will present what CXOs of global corporations are saying about India, along with their perspectives and plans during the current earnings season. With the June quarter earnings season in progress, here are some from companies that reported their earnings last week. The injectable drug-packaging company identified India as its second-fastest-growing market, supported by new biosimilar approvals and increasing demand for GLP-1 products. “India is currently our second-largest geographic growth engine after China. Growth is broad-based but led by generic and biosimilar GLP-1 products, where we are participating in several newly-approved Indian programmes and will scale alongside our customers.” The aerospace major opened a helicopter assembly line in India to expand capacity and serve rapidly-growing civil and military demand. “We opened a new assembly line in India as helicopter demand accelerates across both civil and military markets. The facility expands our production capacity and adds India to our global assembly footprint alongside France, Germany, the US and Brazil.” The automotive component supplier is expanding Indian manufacturing for electric powertrains and camera systems, targeting a three-fold increase in local sales by 2028. “We are investing in a new 3-in-1 e-Axle production line for Mahindra and a high-definition surround-view camera line for local OEMs. We expect India sales to reach €700 million by 2028, three times the 2024 level, and remain on track.” The consumer goods major expects India to remain a key growth driver, sustaining double-digit growth even as favourable sales-tax comparisons begin to normalise. “India continues to benefit from the sales-tax change, although this tailwind will begin to lap in Q3 and comparables are becoming tougher. Nevertheless, we still expect double-digit growth and see India as an important growth driver.” The diversified industrial company reported a seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in India, supported by expanded sales coverage and a dedicated local organisation. “India led double-digit growth across Asia, extending its growth streak to seven consecutive quarters. Increased sales coverage and a hybrid organisational model combining global business groups with a dedicated India-based team are driving the performance.” The beverage-can manufacturer plans to invest approximately $250 million in a new Indian plant with two high-speed production lines, supported by long-term customer commitments.

What they say on their India plans