"Looking For Lifeline": Spirit Airlines Asks Trump Admin For Emergency Bailout

UBS Warns Drought Shock Unfolding Across Breadbasket Of America It's not just us sounding the alarm about severe drought conditions hitting America's breadbasket as spring plantings ramp up, or warning about the second- and third-order effects that could push food prices higher later this year. UBS analysts, led by Jonathan Pingle, told clients on Thursday morning that drought conditions across the US agricultural belt rank among the worst in more than 130 years: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Palmer Drought Severity Index hit its highest level for March since records started...

OpenAI's Stratospheric Valuation Draws Investor Scrutiny As It Scrambles To Capture Enterprise Market OpenAI, fresh off the largest private fundraising round in history, is facing mounting questions from some of its own backers over its $852 billion valuation and a whiplash-inducing pivot in strategy that prioritizes the higher-margin enterprise market at the expense of its consumer crown jewel - all because Anthropic is starting to drink their milkshake with enterprise contracts.  The company raised $122 billion last month from Silicon Valley and global capital - including SoftBank, Amazon, Nvidia, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Thrive...

US Pending Home Sales Barely Bounce Off Record Lows Despite Tumbling Rates In Feb After reaching a record low last month - with the decline blamed on weather - pending home sales bounced modestly in February (up 1.8% MoM vs -0.6% MoM exp and -10.% MoM prior). Year-over-year home sales continue to decline (down 0.6% YoY)... Source: Bloomberg ...just barely off of all-time-record lows... Source: Bloomberg Pending home sales in the South, the biggest home-selling region in the country, increased 2.7%. They rose 4.6% in the Midwest and edged up in the West. Contract signings dropped in...