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General who helped Trump decimate ISIS terrorists in first term confirmed as Joint Chiefs chairman

Politics 3 Mins Read

The Senate has voted to confirm the general who told President Donald Trump that ISIS could be eradicated ‘very quickly’ with loosened rules of engagement during his first term to the role of chairman of the Joint Chiefs. 

The vote came in the wee hours of Friday morning after Democrats rejected a GOP attempt to quickly confirm Caine on Thursday and get out of town.

The vote tally was 60 to 25, with 15 Democrats supporting the Trump nominee.

An Air Force F-16 pilot by background, Caine will be the first National Guard general to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Trump plucked him from retirement to reactivate and serve as his top military advisor after firing Gen. C.Q. Brown in February. 

Brown had been behind a 2022 memo laying out diversity goals for the Air Force.  

Caine will be the first Joint Chiefs chairman who was not a four-star and the first to come out of retirement to fill the role. He hasn’t been a combatant commander or service chief, meaning Trump had to grant him a waiver to serve in the role. 

Caine acknowledged his unconventional nomination during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee: ‘In our family, we serve. When asked, we always say yes. Senators, I acknowledge that I’m an unconventional nominee. These are unconventional times.’ ​

He worked as the associate director of military affairs for the CIA from 2021 to 2024 and founded a regional airline in Texas. He was a White House fellow at the Agriculture Department and a counterterrorism specialist on the White House’s Homeland Security Council.

Caine was among a group of military leaders who met with the president in December 2018 at the Al Asad airbase in Iraq. Trump was there to deliver a Christmas message and hear from commanders on the ground, and there Caine told Trump they could defeat ISIS quickly with a surge of resources and a lifting of restrictions on engagement. 

”We’re only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria,” Trump said Caine told him. ”But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over – from the base that you’re right on, right now, sir. They won’t know what the hell hit them.” 

Trump had claimed Caine was wearing a red MAGA hat the first time he met him – a claim Caine repeatedly denied during the hearing.

‘Sir, for 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission, and I have never worn any political merchandise,’ Caine told Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. 

Trump, when he picked Caine, praised him as ‘an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.’

Caine vowed his duty would be to advise the president on defense considerations without any political influence. 

The role, he said, ‘starts with being a good example from the top and making sure that we are nonpartisan and apolitical and speaking the truth to power,’ Caine said.

Trump’s first chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, has now become a top foe – the president recently stripped him of his security clearance and had his portrait taken down at the Pentagon. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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Trump demands do-or-die nuclear talks with Iran. Who has the leverage?

Politics 5 Mins Read

President Donald Trump remains adamant that his administration will engage in ‘direct’ nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman, while Tehran appears to remain equally steadfast in its insistence the negotiations will be ‘indirect.’

Middle East envoy Stever Witkoff is scheduled to travel to Oman, where he could potentially be meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, though the Iranian official has so far maintained the talks will be held through a third party.

While it remains unclear who will get their way regarding the format of the discussions, Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, said this public controversy between Washington and Tehran is all a game of leverage.

‘Both sides have an incentive to either overrepresent or underrepresent what is happening,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘These are often the negotiations before the negotiations.’ 

‘For the White House, the desire to be seen as having direct talks with the Islamic Republic is high,’ he said, pointing to the lack of direct engagement between Washington and Tehran dating back to his first term and the regime’s deep disdain for the president, as witnessed in an apparent assassination attempt. 

While the Iranian government has long held contempt for the U.S., a sentiment that has persisted for decades, Trump is ‘very different,’ Ben Taleblu said.

The security expert highlighted the 2020 assassination of top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the crippling effect of the U.S.-sanctioned maximum-pressure campaign and Trump’s open support for the Iranian people as the major issues that have rankled the Iranian regime.

‘Trump is a very bitter pill to swallow, and I think the supreme leader of Iran once said that the shoe of Qasem Soleimani has more honor than the head of Trump,’ Ben Taleblu said. ‘Being seen as directly negotiating with someone [like that] would be making the Islamic Republic look like a supplicant. 

‘The U.S. wants to be seen as having driven Iran to the negotiating table, and the Islamic Republic does not want to be seen as being driven to the negotiating table,’ he added. 

Tehran’s chief advantage is the fact that, despite severe U.S. sanctions and geopolitical attempts to halt its development of a nuclear weapon, it has made serious gains in its enrichment of uranium to near-weapons-grade quality, as well as with its missile program, a critical component in being able to actually fire a nuclear warhead.

It also has drastically closer ties with chief U.S. adversarial superpowers like Russia and China, whose position and involvement in countering Western attempts to disarm a nuclear Iran remains an unknown at this point. 

While Iran holds significant leverage when it comes to negotiating with the Trump administration on its nuclear program, Washington has a plethora of levers it can use to either incentivize or coerce Tehran into adhering to international calls for the end of its nuclear program.

‘The U.S. actually has a heck of a lot of leverage here,’ Ben Taleblu said, pointing to not only more economic sanctions, including ‘snapback’ mechanisms under the United Nations Security Council, but also military options.

Trump last month threatened to ‘bomb’ Iran if it did not engage in nuclear talks with the U.S.

But some have questioned how long the administration will allow negotiations to persist as JCPOA-era snapback sanctions expire in October 2025.

The White House would not confirm for Fox News Digital any time restrictions it has issued to Iran, but Trump on Wednesday told reporters, ‘We have a little time, but we don’t have much time.’

‘The regime has its back against the wall,’ Ben Taleblu said. ‘A military option, given what has been happening in the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023, is an increasingly credible option against the Islamic Republic of Iran.’

‘And the regime is engaging, now, to delay and prevent a military option from ever materializing,’ he added. ‘They are hoping to use talks with the Americans as a human shield against the Israelis.’

‘So long as you’re talking to America, the Israelis aren’t shooting at you,’ Ben Taleblu continued. 

Trump this week said that it would be Israel who would take the lead on a military strike on Iran, not the U.S., should nuclear talks fail, which again could be a negotiating tactic as Israel has already demonstrated it will not hesitate to militarily engage with Iran.

‘Pursuing wholesale disarmament of the Islamic Republic of Iran is incredibly risky, and it doesn’t have a great track record of succeeding,’ Ben Taleblu said.

The Iranian expert said the only way to actually take on the Islamic Republic would be through a ‘broader’ and ‘more holistic’ strategy that focuses not only on nuclear nonproliferation but removing the ‘Axis of Resistance,’ scaling up sanctions and having a ‘ground game’ to counter the regime through cyber, political and telecommunication strategies ‘for when Iranians go out into the street and protest again.’

‘What the Islamic Republic would always want is to have you focus on the fire and not on the arsonist, and the arsonist is quite literally a regime that has tried to kill this president,’ Ben Taleblu said.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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I survived the Iran hostage crisis. People in countries like Iran desperately need the VOA

Politics 4 Mins Read
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Over the 44 years since my release as a hostage of the Iranian regime, I have witnessed firsthand the unmet aspirations of the Iranian people and the vibrant, if often painful, struggles of the Iranian diaspora. Millions of Iranians have consistently and bravely reached for democracy, time and again defying a regime that has proven both unpopular and dangerous. 

For decades, the Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian service stood as a beacon of hope amid darkness — a trusted conduit for uncensored news and independent analysis that empowered grassroots communities.  

Whether during the Green Movement of 2009, the mass protests of 2017-18, the widespread demonstrations of 2019, or the Women Life Freedom protests of 2022 and 2023, VOA’s Persian broadcasts offered a glimpse of a future free from the tyranny of a regime desperate to cling to power and energy to women and men willing to risk life and limb by standing up for our shared values. 

Yet today, that critical lifeline has been silenced by a recent executive order. The president’s directive has taken VOA off the air — a move that undercuts not only the aspirations of millions of Iranians but also a comparatively low-cost broader effort to cast off one of the world’s leading, antagonistic, anti-American forces that funds, trains and executes attacks against Americans and American interests around the world. 

This action is emblematic of a broader retreat: earlier this year, thousands of international assistance programs were dismantled, undermining investments in global stability and the promotion of democratic values among the global grassroots. 

When VOA was on the air, it did more than inform — it challenged state propaganda and gave voice to a people yearning for change. Its silence is a setback not only for those who have long resisted an unjust regime but also for the United States, whose own security is intertwined with the stability of free and open societies. 

It’s no wonder that authoritarian states across the globe have publicly cheered for the end of VOA. Chinese state media celebrated the dismantling of VOA, with one state-owned media outlet writing, ‘The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag.’ Russia state TV broadcasters celebrated on air after the program’s termination, saying, ‘I’m addressing independent journalists: die, animals!’  

Countries like China, Russia and Iran know that the loss of a trusted source of global information will enhance their own propaganda machines and allow them to further spread anti-democratic values at the expense of democracies like the United States. They know that the end of VOA is ultimately a win for authoritarianism.  

Critics argue that domestic challenges should take precedence, particularly amid a faltering global economy, but the abandonment of VOA and international assistance programs surrenders influence to authoritarian forces like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and terrorist groups like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with their own media presence inside the Islamic Republic, not to mention their allies in Russia and China. Yielding to these enemies is not smart, strategic or in America’s interests. 

I have seen the cost of repression and the price of isolation. The Iranian regime that once held me captive continues to imprison the hopes of its citizens with an iron fist. And while the struggle for freedom remains arduous, the resilience of the Iranian people offers a clear mandate: they will not accept silence. 

For Republican policymakers, the choice is stark. Restoring a voice like VOA’s and remaining fully engaged around the world is not merely a matter of supporting international assistance; it is a strategic imperative. Re-establishing channels of free information, empowering those who dare to challenge authoritarian rule and supporting individuals and groups around the world who share our commitment to democratic values reflects our national interests and will demonstrate our commitment to standing with those who want to stand with us. 

Now is the time to write the next chapter in America’s strategic support for international assistance programs that champion freedom, human rights and the free exchange of ideas. The prospects of a free, democratic Iran — and pro-democracy efforts worldwide — depend on it. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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NRCC launches ad campaign targeting dozens of vulnerable Dems who voted against key Trump proposal

Politics 3 Mins Read

House Republicans passed a key hurdle to move forward President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax agenda on Thursday without the support of a single Democrat, prompting the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to launch ads against over a dozen vulnerable Democrat incumbents.

‘The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) launched a paid digital advertising campaign targeting 25 vulnerable House Democrats for voting against the budget resolution, leading to higher taxes for Americans by slashing the child tax credit in half and making families pay thousands more,’ the NRCC said in a press release on Friday morning.

The paid digital ad campaign will target 25 House Democrats identified as vulnerable heading into next year’s midterms. The list of Democrats targeted includes: (CA-09) Josh Harder, (CA-13) Adam Gray, (CA-27) George Whitesides, (CA-45) Derek Tran, (CA-47) Dave Min, (FL-09) Darren Soto, (FL-23) Jared Moskowitz, (IN-01) Frank Mrvan, (ME-02) Jared Golden, (MI-08) Kristen McDonald Rivet, (NC-01) Don Davis, (NJ-09) Nellie Pou, (NM-02) Gabe Vasquez, (NV-01) Dina Titus, (NV-03) Susie Lee, (NV-04) Steven Horsford, (NY-03) Tom Suozzi, (NY-04) Laura Gillen, (NY-19) Josh Riley, (OH-09) Marcy Kaptur, (OH-13) Emilia Sykes, (TX-28) Henry Cuellar, (TX-34) Vicente Gonzalez, (VA-07) Eugene Vindman and (WA-03) Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

‘Once again, House Democrats made their priorities crystal clear: They’re taking a wrecking ball to America’s economy and sticking the working class with higher taxes just to ram their radical agenda down the throats of all Americans,’ NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital. 

‘Voters will consistently be reminded of this betrayal all the way through next Fall.’

The NRCC ad campaign makes the case that by voting against the resolution, Democrats are supporting raising taxes on Americans at every income level and supporting the lowering of key tax credits. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesperson Viet Shelton said, ‘This is what happens when the same people who want to eliminate the Department of Education write political ads.’

‘If they actually read the bill, they would realize their budget takes away health care, cuts off food assistance, and raises costs to pay for massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy while sticking working families with the bill. The Republican budget is exhibit A of their failure to make life affordable for Americans.’

While the party in power, which clearly is the Republicans, traditionally faces serious political headwinds in the midterm elections, the NRCC chair told Fox News last month he is optimistic.

Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., emphasized in an interview on Fox News’ ‘Fox and Friends’ that 13 of the 26 House Democrats they are targeting are in districts that ‘were carried by President Donald Trump in the last election.’

Hudson characterized the upcoming midterms as an ‘opportunity election for House Republicans.’

Additionally, Hudson, who is steering the House GOP’s campaign arm for a second straight cycle, added, ‘We are bullish. Republicans are on offense thanks to Donald Trump.’

The Cook Political Report unveiled its first rankings for the next midterm elections in February and listed 10 Democrat-held seats and eight Republican-controlled seats as toss-ups. 

Courtney Rice, communications director for the rival DCCC, emphasized that ‘voters will hold House Republicans accountable for failing to lower costs while fostering a culture of corruption that benefits their billionaire backers.’

‘The political environment is in Democrats’ favor heading into 2026 — and with stellar candidates who are focused on delivering for their districts, House Democrats are poised to take back the majority in 2026,’ Rice predicted.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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Key Levels for the S&P 500: Has It Bottomed?

Stock 1 Min Read

Is the stock market on the verge of crashing or has it bottomed?

In this video, Joe Rabil uses moving averages and Fibonacci retracement levels on a longer-term chart of the S&P 500 to identify support levels that could serve as potential bottoms for the current market correction.

Understand why the 2025 stock market is different from the 2022 one and explore how the market drop can impact the SPY, QQQ, DIA, and IWM.

The video premiered on April 9, 2025. Click this link to watch on Joe’s dedicated page.

Archived videos from Joe are available at this link. Send symbol requests to stocktalk@stockcharts.com; you can also submit a request in the comments section below the video on YouTube. Symbol Requests can be sent in throughout the week prior to the next show.

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Mastering Stock Market Turbulence: Essential Insights for Investors

Stock 5 Mins Read

Tariff turmoil continues sending the stock market into a turbulent spin. Tariffs went into effect at midnight, which sent equities and bond prices lower. Then before 1:30 PM ET Wednesday, President Trump announced that China would be slapped with 125% tariffs and the reciprocal tariffs are on pause for 90 days.

This was a huge turning point for the market. Without skipping a heartbeat, buyers rushed in and accumulated equities, especially large-cap growth stocks. The S&P 500 closed higher by 9.52%, the Nasdaq was up 12.16%, and the Dow was up 7.87%. Small and mid-cap stocks also saw substantial gains. 

Wednesday’s turnaround may have been the biggest one-day point gains in history for some of the broader stock market indexes but let’s look at the charts to see a clearer picture of what’s going on with this whacky stock market. 

A View of the Broader Stock Market

From a long-term perspective, the uptrend in the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow are still intact. The weekly charts of the three indexes are also encouraging. But the daily charts are not yet screaming buy signals. Let’s start with the daily chart of the Nasdaq.

FIGURE 1. DAILY CHART OF NASDAQ COMPOSITE. The index has hit the resistance of its 21-day exponential moving average and breadth indicators in the lower panels show some breadth indicators are improving but not enough to suggest a bottom in the index.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes. 

The Nasdaq touched its 21-day exponential moving average (EMA), which could be the first resistance level for it to overcome. The three breadth indicators in the lower panels—Nasdaq Composite Bullish Percent Index (BPI), NASDAQ Advance-Decline Line, and percentage of stocks trading above the 200-day moving average of the Nasdaq—are improving slightly but they are not showing signs of bullishness. 

Wednesday’s best-performing S&P sector was Technology followed by Consumer Discretionary. Rotation into these sectors implies risk-on investing. However, since the Nasdaq’s daily trend is still down, don’t let your emotions guide your investment decisions. Look for confirming signals before entering any long positions. 

The S&P 500 daily chart is not much different (see below). The index came close to touching its 21-day EMA. If the index opens higher on Thursday, watch this EMA closely. A break above it would be a positive move but there still needs to be a series of higher highs and higher lows for an uptrend to be established. 

FIGURE 2. DAILY CHART OF THE S&P 500 INDEX. It’s worth watching the 21-day EMA in the S&P 500. If the index breaks through that level and starts showing signs of an uptrend and the market breadth indicators suggest increasing bullish participation, it may be time to think about adding positions. But, we’re far from that point. Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

The market breadth indicators in the lower panels are showing some signs of improvement. The percentage of stocks trading above the 200-day moving average of the S&P 500 is at 31.80, which is encouraging but you want to see it at or above 50%. Like the Nasdaq, the S&P 500 is showing no clear signs of an uptrend, so tread carefully.

Replace the symbol in either of the above charts with $INDU and you’ll see that the Dow is in a similar position as the Nasdaq and S&P 500. 

Bonds to the Rescue?

Although equities showed a lot of movement on Wednesday, don’t lose sight of the shenanigans in the bond world. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose as high as 4.47% but pulled back and closed at 4.40%, which is still relatively high. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) closed 3.24% higher. 

This price action in TLT is worth watching closely. Bond prices fall when yields rise and Wednesday started out with stock and bond prices falling. This is unusual since bond prices usually rise when stocks fall. There was a lot of bond selling taking place the previous night which may have been due to the unwind of the basis trade by hedge funds. Since we’re technical analysts, instead of getting into the nitty gritty details of this hedge fund strategy, let’s analyze the five-year weekly chart of TLT.

FIGURE 3. FIVE-YEAR WEEKLY CHART OF TLT. This bond ETF has been in a downward trend for the last five years. Has its time come or will it linger in the depths of the abyss for longer? Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Bond prices have been trending lower over the past five years and showing no signs of a reversal. Although TLT came off its lows, it still has a long way to go before showing modest signs of an uptrend. 

The Bottom Line 

Wednesday’s big turnaround didn’t change the big picture. We’re not out of the woods yet. And there’s more excitement to look forward to — the March CPI on Thursday morning and earnings season kicks off on Friday. A note about earnings — we probably won’t see much of an impact this quarter but keep your ear open for any chatter on how tariffs will affect profitability. 

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

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Investing

AI Market Update: Q1 2025 in Review

Investing 9 Mins Read

The first quarter of 2025 was dynamic and often volatile for the tech sector. Initial optimism, fueled by investor enthusiasm after a strong 2024, quickly gave way to economic headwinds and market anxieties.

Concerns over monetary policy, global trade tensions and individual company performances led to variations in tech stock valuations, with the Magnificent Seven ultimately experiencing losses by March.

However, Q1 also brought groundbreaking developments in artificial intelligence (AI), intense competition in the semiconductor industry and new developments in AI agents and robotics.

How did tech stocks perform in Q1?

The performance of major tech companies was influenced by a confluence of events and trends in Q1.

The sector began the year in positive territory, reflecting optimism from investors who saw US President Donald Trump’s November victory as a boon for business. However, this upward trend proved short-lived.

Economic headwinds, most notably cautious monetary policy and investor anxieties about global trade disruption, triggered a market downturn that resulted in periods of tech stock selloffs.

The tech market did demonstrate some signs of recovery in the final week of the quarter.

AI results impact major tech players

Outside overall market impacts, tech companies experienced their own fluctuations in Q1.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was boosted by acquisition rumors and a stronger-than-expected Q4 performance, after starting the year down nearly 60 percent from January 2024. Leadership changes mid-March and reports of a restructuring to its chip-manufacturing business further improved the firm’s share price performance.

More broadly, the market’s response to earnings reports highlighted the significant impact of cloud computing, AI investment strategies and future guidance for Big Tech companies.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), for example, fell after its results revealed weakness in its cloud computing unit despite revenue that exceeded estimates. Similarly, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) saw their share prices decline after capacity restraints were cited as a limitation for both companies.

In contrast, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) surged after it announced substantial AI investments and released results that exceeded expectations. Meanwhile, concerns about Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) AI strategy and sales in Asia led to turbulence in its trading patterns throughout the quarter. Even NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) share price initially dipped following strong earnings, driven by market concerns about competition and geopolitical tensions.

Emergent player CoreWeave’s (NASDAQ:CRWV) journey to its initial public offering demonstrated the volatile and challenging nature of going public in the rapidly evolving AI sector. After its initial announcement revealed a 700 percent increase in 2024 revenue, the company made major moves leading up to its debut, acquiring Weights & Biases for US$1.7 billion before securing a five year, US$11.9 billion cloud services contract with OpenAI.

However, CoreWeave’s March 28 IPO coincided with a hotter-than-expected inflation reading, and the company raised roughly US$1 billion less than its target, with both the number of shares and share price lower than expected.

China’s DeepSeek makes AI market waves

Beyond individual company performances, the quarter was marked by key developments in AI.

The release of China’s open-source AI model, DeepSeek-R-1, created a significant market disruption when it was reported to perform comparably to models from OpenAI and Anthropic at a significantly lower training cost: US$5.6 million compared to the US$500 million OpenAI reportedly spent to train o1.

The market’s reaction resulted in a 17 percent loss to NVIDIA’s market cap, the largest single-day loss for any company on Wall Street. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (INDEXNASDAQ:SOX) lost 9.2 percent.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman expressed curiosity and excitement about the competitor, while others saw it as a development that could increase return on investment for companies using AI and drive further innovation.

“We still don’t know the details and nothing has been 100 percent confirmed … but if there truly has been a breakthrough in the cost to train models from US$100 million+ to this alleged US$6 million number this is actually very positive for productivity and AI end users,” said Jon Withaar, senior portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management.

Since its release, DeepSeek has been noted to have potential issues with accuracy and security.

Other companies making strides in AI training speed this past quarter include Foxconn Technology (TPE:2354), which reportedly trained its large language model (LLM), FoxBrain, in four weeks.

Celestial AI secured funding to advance photonics technology for more efficient AI computing, and Cohere introduced Command A, an LLM focused on business needs and optimized for efficient inference.

Pluralis Research received funding for its work on decentralized AI systems and “protocol learning,” a method designed to enable collaborative and distributed AI model training.

NVIDIA’s chip-making competitors

Competition within the chip industry heated up in the first quarter as AI spending enthusiasm shifted to other semiconductor companies and custom chip development advanced.

Barclay’s (NYSE:BCS,LSE:BARC) analyst Thomas O’Malley reaffirmed his ‘buy’ rating for NVIDIA on January 20 and raised his price target to US$175, but warned that NVIDIA’s customers are looking for alternatives to its GPUs.

He identified Marvel Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) as NVIDIA’s biggest contenders, adjusting their price targets to US$150 and US$260, respectively.

For its part, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (NYSE:TSM) has continued to experience strong demand for its chip-making services. Its quarterly profits for Q4 2024 reached a record, and the company is anticipating strong revenue growth moving forward. The firm has planned significant investments in technology and capacity, including US$100 billion for new facilities to boost US chip production.

ASML Holding (NASDAQ:ASML), the sole producer of the EUV lithography machines crucial for advanced AI chips, also exceeded Q4 earnings expectations, resulting in a positive effect on its share price.

AI agents and other emerging tech

Looking ahead, the market for AI agents — autonomous entities that can take actions to achieve specific goals — is poised for expansion. At its annual GPU Technology Conference, held from March 17 to 21, NVIDIA’s CEO emphasized a shift from generative AI to physical AI, describing AI agents as a “multi-trillion dollar opportunity.’

Strategic acquisitions, such as ServiceNow’s intention to buy Moveworks, underscore the growing importance of agentic AI in enterprise solutions. Amazon Web Services is developing a team focused on developing agentic AI, betting on increased client spending for automation. Meta is gearing up to test AI agents for small businesses, and OpenAI is developing premium agent offerings for business and academic pursuits.

While these advancements are exciting, challenges remain, with Gartner predicting a sharp rise in AI agent-related security breaches by 2028. To address reliability, Microsoft is developing ‘deep reasoning agents.’

The first quarter of 2025 also signaled a major acceleration in robotics development, with Google’s new Gemini Robotics models and partnership with Apptronik indicating AI and robotic integration. The US$2 billion valuation for Kyle Vogt’s the Bot Company suggests the robotics sector is poised for growth and market expansion.

Advances like Eliza Wakes Up’s humanoid and Figure AI’s in-house development signal the potential for near-term commercial availability. Funding activity, with Field AI seeking a US$2 billion valuation and Aescape securing US$83 million in strategic funding, demonstrates investor confidence in the potential of robotics.

AI data centers signal growth

The massive investments in data centers announced in Q1 foreshadow an expansion of AI infrastructure.

The Trump administration has partnered with executives from Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), OpenAI and SoftBank (TSE:9984) for a four year, US$500 billion AI infrastructure project dubbed Stargate. MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based technology investment firm focused on AI, is another equity partner in the Stargate project.

Separately, MGX is a founding partner in the AI Infrastructure Partnership, a group that includes BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft. It is reportedly aiming to invest up to US$100 billion in US and OECD AI infrastructure. NVIDIA and xAI joined the consortium in the first quarter.

This large-scale infrastructure development is mirrored by substantial investment and product development plans from individual tech giants. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have all revealed plans for significant AI-related investments in the coming months that include data center builds and product releases, while NVIDIA has committed to spending ‘hundreds of billions of dollars in the US,’ emphasizing TSMC’s manufacturing role in supply chain resilience.

OpenAI is also reportedly finalizing the design for its first in-house AI chip, with a long-term goal of mass production at TSMC by 2026; it is also in talks to build its first data center for storage in Texas near the Stargate data center.

These developments point to a future where data centers become the battleground for AI dominance, with significant implications for energy consumption, hardware demand and technological advancement.

Investor takeaway

Wrapping up the quarter, Nick Mersch, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments, hosted an ‘ask me anything’ session on Reddit (NASDAQ:RDDT) to share insights on what investors should consider when evaluating tech stocks.

“The number one predictor of stocks over time is their earnings power. Invest in companies that are growing earnings more than the overall market and you will win. This is easy in theory but difficult in practice. You need to look at secular trends in order to skate to where the puck is going. It is much easier to pick a winner in a sector that has strong overall growth than picking through the rubble of a beaten-down industry,’ said Mersch.

“However, you do also have to recognize that sometimes, this is cyclical. That’s why I like to pick companies that are what I call ‘compounders.’ These are companies that are growing both top line (revenue) and bottom line (earnings) at a solid rate and are reinvesting in new growth avenues. At the end of the day, you need cash flow generative companies.’

Mersch added, “Look for three things — earnings, earnings, and earnings.”

Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

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Silver Price Update: Q1 2025 in Review

Investing 6 Mins Read

Gold may be grabbing headlines with record-breaking highs in 2025, but silver is quietly making its own impressive climb, rising 17 percent since the start of the year.

Long supported by industrial demand, the silver market is also benefiting from its reputation as a safe-haven asset. However, mounting economic uncertainty has rattled investors in recent months.

While there are many driving forces behind this uncertainty, the ongoing tariff threats from US President Donald Trump and his administration have spooked equity markets worldwide.

What happened to the silver price in Q1?

After reaching a year-to-date high of US$34.72 per ounce in October 2024, the price of silver spent the rest of the year in decline, bottoming out at US$28.94 on December 30.

A momentum shift at the start of the year caused it to rise. Opening at US$29.53 on January 2, silver quickly broke through the US$30 barrier on January 7, eventually reaching US$31.28 by January 31.

Silver price, January 2 to April 4, 2025

Chart via Trading Economics.

Silver’s gains continued through much of February, with the white metal climbing to US$32.94 on February 20 before retreating to US$31.13 on February 28. Silver rose again in March, surpassing the US$32 mark on March 5 and closing above US$32 on March 12. It peaked at its quarterly high of US$34.43 on March 27.

Heading into April, silver slumped back to US$33.67 on the first day of the month; it then declined sharply to below US$30 following Trump’s tariff announcements on April 2.

Tariff fears lift silver, but industrial demand uncertainty looms

Precious metals, including silver, have benefited from the volatility created by the Trump administration’s constant tariff threats since the beginning of the year. These threats have caused chaos throughout global equity and financial markets, prompting more investors to seek safe-haven assets to stabilize their portfolios.

“We don’t really have any indication yet that industrial demand has weakened. There is, of course, a lot of concern regarding industrial demand, as tariffs could cause demand destruction as costs go up,” he said.

Krauth noted that for solar panels there is an argument that tariffs could positively affect industrial demand if countries have a greater desire for self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on energy imports.

He referenced research by Heraeus Precious Metals about a possible slowdown in demand from China, which accounts for 80 percent of solar panel capacity. However, any slowdown would coincide with a transition from older PERC technology to newer TOPCon cells, which require significantly more silver inputs.

“This, along with the gradual replacement of older PERC solar panels with TOPCon panels, should support silver demand at or near recent levels,” Krauth said.

Recession could provide headwinds

Another potential headwind for silver is the looming prospect of a recession in the US.

At the beginning of 2024, analysts had largely reached a consensus that some form of recession was inevitable.

While real GDP in the US rose 2.8 percent year-on-year for 2024, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow tool shows a projected -2.8 percent growth rate for the first quarter.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis won’t release official real GDP figures until April 30, but the Atlanta Fed’s numbers suggest a troubling fall in GDP that could signal an impending recession.

“When the economy slows down, demand for manufactured goods, including silver, decreases, which means that buying in the next six months is unlikely to be a wise decision,” she said.

Solar panels account for significant demand, with considerable amounts also used in electric vehicles. Tariffs on US vehicle imports and a possible recession could create added pressure for silver.

“Another important factor is silver’s connection to the electric vehicle market. Previously, this sector supported demand for the metal, but now its growth has slowed down. In Europe and China, interest in electric cars is no longer so active, and against the background of economic problems, sales may even decline,” Khandoshko said.

Silver demand from solar panel production stands at 232 million ounces annually, with an additional 80 million ounces used by the electric vehicle sector. A recession could lead consumers to postpone major purchases, such as home improvements or new vehicles, particularly if coupled with the extra costs of tariffs.

Although the impact of tariffs on the economy — and ultimately demand for silver — remains uncertain, the Silver Institute’s latest news release on March 3 indicates a fifth consecutive annual supply deficit.

Silver price outlook for 2025

“I think silver will hold up well and rise on balance over the rest of this year,” Krauth said.

He also noted that, like gold, there have been shipments of physical silver out of vaults in the UK to New York as market participants try to avoid any direct tariffs that may be coming.

Khandoshko suggested silver’s outlook is more closely tied to consumer sentiment. “The situation may also change when the news stops discussing the high probability of a recession in the US,” she remarked.

With Trump announcing a sweeping 10 percent global tariff along with dozens of specific reciprocal tariffs on April 2, there appears to be more instability and uncertainty ahead for the world’s financial systems.

This uncertainty has spread to precious metals, with silver trading lower on April 3 and retreating back toward the US$31 mark. Investors might be taking profits, but it could also be a broader pullback as they determine how to respond in a more aggressively tariffed world. In either scenario, the market may be nearing opportunities.

“There is some risk that we could see a near-term correction in the silver price. I don’t see silver as currently overbought, but gold does appear to be. I think we could get a correction in the gold price, which would likely pull silver lower. I could see silver retreating to the US$29 to US$30 level. That would be an excellent entry point. In that scenario, I’d be a buyer of both the physical metal and the silver miners,” Krauth said.

With increased industrial demand and its traditional safe-haven status, silver may present a more ideological challenge for investors in 2025 as competing forces exert their influence. Ultimately, supply and demand will likely be what drives investors to pursue opportunities more than its safe-haven appeal.

Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

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