Iran War 3.0

Buildings Collapse After 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Philippines; Tsunami Warnings Issued A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani province in Mindanao early Monday morning, triggering tsunami warnings and causing reported building collapses in the General Santos area. The quake hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located roughly 26 kilometers southwest of Kablalan in Sarangani Province. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the event at magnitude 7.8, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.0. Tsunami Warning Issued Phivolcs immediately...

Wall Street Keeps Testing AI Traders, But Most Are Still Underperforming Recent trading competitions suggest large language models are still unreliable portfolio managers, according to Bloomberg. Tests involving models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI have often delivered underwhelming results: many lost money, traded excessively, and made erratic decisions despite receiving identical prompts. In several cases, models appeared unable to stick to coherent strategies for more than a few trading sessions. Bloomberg writes that one of the clearest examples came from Alpha Arena, a competition created by startup Nof1. Eight models were...

Despite Record Low Sentiment, US Retail Sales See Strongest Annual Gain In 8 Months After a big jump in March, retail sales likely cooled in April, according to BofA's almost omniscient forecast as they see spending on gasoline providing a smaller boost and auto sales moderating, after an early Easter pulled forward some seasonal demand into March. The “holiday shift” dynamic also may have contributed to softer activity after Easter. However, the actual print was +0.5% MoM (as consensus expected - and hotter than BofA's forecast), lifting sales by 4.9% YoY...