Conference Call Participants

Scott Davis – Melius Research LLC
Andrew Kaplowitz – Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Christopher Snyder – Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Amit Mehrotra – UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Andrew Obin – BofA Securities, Research Division
Noah Kaye – Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
Jeffrey Hammond – KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division
Varun Govindaraj – Bernstein Institutional Services LLC, Research Division
Alexander Virgo – Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division
Joseph Ritchie – Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division
Jeffrey Sprague – Vertical Research Partners, LLC
Deane Dray – RBC Capital Markets, Research Division

Presentation

Large farms with more resources are investing in new technology.

Ketan Yashwant Sodha, is the founder and CEO of Berry Fresh Agrotech. He started with traditional open-field farming, but was frustrated by losses caused by the weather.

“For the past 10 years, it has consistently rained in India during our peak season – November, December, and the first week of January. When you are in an open field and your plantation is at its absolute peak, a single rain will ruin your entire crop,” he says.

So in 2022, he started to experiment with hydroponics, a type of covered cultivation that does not use soil and tightly controls water, nutrients, light, and temperature.

His early results were not encouraging.

“I suffered immense losses and failed multiple times,” Sodha says.

“The soil is forgiving; hydroponics does not forgive. If you make a mistake today, you will wake up tomorrow morning to a disaster – and the recovery time in hydroponics takes twice as long as soil.”

But the lessons learned from those mistakes are paying off.

“We have trailed 19 different varieties, including rare Japanese ones, and we are the only ones in India trailing a specific Netherlands variety this season.”

Sodha says that limiting each plant to 750ml of water a day produces “rich, highly concentrated sugars and aromas instead of water-logged, bland fruits”.

His team also runs what he calls regular “blood work” on the crops, which involves laboratory testing of the leaves and petioles (the stalks attaching leaves to the stems) to measure exact nutrient uptake. That way he knows exactly which nutrients and chemicals need to go into the water supply.

And by using a semi-open polyhouse, strawberries can grow the whole year round. “It’s not a seasonal fruit for us,” Sodha says.

Now he is ready to scale-up.

“We have built the trial facility, written the SOPs (standard operating procedures), and designed the farm manual. We are talking to investors to expand to a five-acre facility that will accommodate 200,000 plants.”

Krishan Bhilare’s family has been farming strawberries for generations in Mahabaleshwar.

He can remember when the first American varieties were planted in 1992 and being amazed at the size of the fruit.

Bhilare is part of a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) network. They have installed towers at four strategic locations across their land. The towers monitor weather conditions.

The system employs AI, which uses the weather data to pinpoint when rain will strike. Farmers can then be advised to delay spraying their crops, so expensive chemicals are not just washed away.

The FPO is also building vertical towers, where strawberries can be grown on a coco-peat substrate, five layers deep.

“By stacking five pots into a single vertical tower, we can scale our density from 25,000 plants to 125,000 plants per acre. We are effectively multiplying our production footprint by five times on the exact same piece of land,” says Bhilare.

But such investments are either beyond small farms, or a huge risk.

In 2017, Danavle and her husband experimented with hydroponic strawberry farming.

“The experiment was 100% successful and the fruits we grew were entirely organic. It saved us a lot of labour, the workers didn’t have to constantly bend down or prune, and it saved us a lot of money on medicines and field manure.”

But they were unlucky – a massive cyclone hit Mahabaleshwar that year.

“The cyclone completely knocked down our entire hydroponic setup. Then we did not have the courage to set it up again.”

So, Sheetal went back to the traditional method of growing strawberries, but with a twist.

“I took help of social media. I post videos of how one can grow strawberries and invite tourists to visit my strawberry farm, learn and pick the fruit. They directly now buy from the farm. This has helped, cut the middle man, and make more profit. So, now I am an influencer and entrepreneur.”

Shares of MarketAxess Holdings surged 29.79% in Thursday morning trading, climbing $37.45 to $163.18, after Intercontinental Exchange announced a definitive agreement to acquire the electronic fixed-income trading platform in an all-cash deal aimed at expanding ICE’s presence in bond markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, ICE will pay $167 per share in cash for all outstanding shares of MarketAxess, representing a 33% premium over the company’s closing price on July 29, the day before the deal was announced. The transaction values MarketAxess at an equity value of approximately $6.0 billion and a total enterprise value of roughly $5.7 billion, or about 10.6 times MarketAxess’s trailing 12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization once expected cost synergies from the deal are fully accounted for.

The acquisition brings together two companies with complementary positions in fixed-income markets. ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has spent years building out infrastructure spanning fixed-income data and analytics, a retail bond marketplace, and global index products, while MarketAxess has established itself as a leading electronic trading platform used by institutional investors to buy and sell corporate bonds and other fixed-income securities. ICE said the combined company will offer a unified platform spanning pre-trade price analytics, electronic execution and post-trade compliance tools for fixed-income traders.

ICE Chair and Chief Executive Jeff Sprecher framed the acquisition as addressing longstanding structural inefficiencies in global bond markets. “Together, we will build the fixed-income ecosystem that investors have always deserved — one that is transparent, efficient, fully connected, and accessible to all,” Sprecher said in a statement announcing the deal.

The global bond market represents an enormous but historically fragmented segment of the financial system, with an estimated $145.1 trillion in outstanding debt globally, according to figures cited in the deal announcement. Despite decades of technological progress in other asset classes, fixed-income trading has remained disproportionately manual and conducted through bilateral, negotiated transactions relative to equities and other more electronically traded markets, a dynamic that has historically resulted in lower transparency, wider bid-ask spreads and higher transaction costs for market participants.

The transaction has received unanimous approval from the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to approval from MarketAxess shareholders, regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. ICE plans to finance the acquisition entirely through newly issued debt, including a mix of bonds, a term loan and commercial paper, rather than issuing new equity. The company said its gross leverage is expected to start at 3.4 times earnings following the deal’s completion, with a target of reducing that figure to 3.0 times or below within 18 to 24 months after closing.

Despite taking on additional debt to fund the acquisition, ICE said it plans to increase its baseline quarterly share repurchase program to $400 million from $350 million, a move the company characterized as underscoring its continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders even while integrating the new acquisition. ICE also said it expects the deal to generate approximately $100 million in annual run-rate cost synergies within three years of closing and to be accretive to the company’s adjusted earnings per share during the first full year following the transaction’s completion.

BofA Securities is serving as financial adviser to ICE on the transaction, while J.P. Morgan Securities is advising MarketAxess.

The acquisition announcement came alongside ICE’s second-quarter earnings report, which showed the exchange operator posting higher quarterly profit driven by strong trading activity across its business segments. ICE shares rose 1.7% in premarket trading following the combined news. Net income attributable to ICE totaled $958 million, or $1.69 per share, for the three months ended June 30, up from $851 million, or $1.48 per share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue in ICE’s exchanges segment, its largest source of revenue, rose 3% to $1.46 billion, while its fixed-income and data services segment, through which the company sells subscription-based pricing data for various debt instruments, posted an 8% increase in revenue. Mortgage technology revenue climbed 5% during the quarter.

Sprecher pointed to broader market volatility as a factor supporting demand for ICE’s core products during the quarter. “Against a backdrop of rapid change in global markets, our customers continued to turn to ICE’s regulated markets, trusted data and mission-critical technology to transfer risk,” Sprecher said.

MarketAxess shares had lost nearly 31% of their value over the course of the year prior to Thursday’s acquisition announcement, leaving the company valued at approximately $4.5 billion as of its last close before the deal was revealed, according to data from LSEG. Thursday’s sharp rally effectively erases a significant portion of that decline, reflecting the substantial premium ICE agreed to pay relative to MarketAxess’s depressed trading levels heading into the announcement.

With the deal now formally announced and awaiting the customary regulatory and shareholder approval process, market participants are expected to watch closely for additional details on integration planning and any potential regulatory scrutiny the transaction may face, given the scale of the combined company’s resulting footprint across both electronic trading infrastructure and data services within global fixed-income markets.

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple delivered its strongest June quarter on record, reporting $109.4 billion in revenue and beating analysts’ estimates of $108.65 billion in the company’s final earnings report before CEO Tim Cook steps down.

A 22% jump in iPhone sales, combined with record spring-quarter Mac revenue, helped drive the results. Tariff refunds also boosted Apple’s bottom line, adding roughly 5% to profit during the period.

But the earnings numbers were only part of the story. In an interview following the report, Cook addressed Apple’s approach to open-source artificial intelligence, the state of U.S.-China relations, rapidly rising memory chip costs and the legacy he leaves after 15 years at the helm.

APPLE CHIEF TIM COOK SAYS IT WAS THE ‘RIGHT TIME’ TO STEP DOWN AS CEO

Cook said he has “nothing negative” to say about open-source AI models, adding that “they are useful.” His comments come as the technology industry debates whether the most powerful AI systems should remain proprietary or be made more broadly available to developers.

That debate has intensified after Chinese AI company Moonshot launched Kimi K3, a new model that has drawn attention for performance that rivals some of the most powerful systems from Anthropic and OpenAI. Apple, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its long-awaited AI-powered Siri this fall using Google’s Gemini.

Cook’s comments suggest Apple intends to remain pragmatic rather than ideological in choosing the models that power its products. The company has traditionally exercised tight control over its hardware and software ecosystem, but the fast-moving AI market may require it to draw on a wider range of outside technologies.

WHO IS JOHN TERNUS, SET TO SUCCEED TIM TOOK AS APPLE’S CEO?

China remains another critical part of Apple’s AI strategy and its broader business.

“In terms of the U.S.-China relationship, I was over in April for the state dinner, and I think the engagement between the countries are really good, and I’ve got a favorable view, and I’m very optimistic at this point about where the relationship is,” Cook said.

Apple Intelligence has finally been approved in China after a delay of nearly two years compared with its U.S. launch. The approval could help Apple compete more effectively in one of its largest markets, where domestic smartphone makers have moved quickly to add generative AI features.

Apple’s China sales rose 22% during the spring quarter to $18.81 billion. Even with that sharp increase, revenue still fell short of analysts’ estimates of more than $19.5 billion in Apple’s third-largest market.

Tariff refunds provided another lift to the quarter. Cook said Apple is directing that money back into domestic production.

APPLE TO LEASE IPHONES, OTHER PRODUCTS TO USERS THROUGH KLARNA PARTNERSHIP

“We’re taking our tariff refunds and reinvesting those in the United States’ advanced manufacturing,” he said.

Apple has already committed to spending $600 billion over four years on the U.S. economy. The reinvestment gives the company a way to frame the refunds not simply as a temporary earnings benefit, but as additional support for its long-term manufacturing strategy.

At the same time, Apple is contending with a sharp increase in the cost of memory chips. The company recently raised prices on some Mac computers and iPads by as much as $300 as memory chip prices soared by as much as 600% over the past two years.

“As I’d mentioned on the call last time around, the memory costs were higher in March than December quarter, and then in June they were significantly higher than in the March quarter,” Cook said.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
AAPL	APPLE INC.	333.43	-4.76	-1.41%

Those higher costs are arriving just as artificial intelligence is driving demand for more computing power and memory. Despite the price increases on some devices, Cook said Apple’s new, lower-priced MacBook Neo, which starts at $699, was the company’s best-selling computer in the United States during its first full quarter on the market.

Demand for Apple’s higher-powered Mac Studio computers has also surged, creating supply shortages and helping push Mac revenue above $10 billion for a new spring-quarter record.

Cook will step down as chief executive on Sept. 1 after leading Apple for 15 years. He will remain chairman, while Apple’s hardware engineering chief, John Ternus, takes over as CEO.

Cook became chief executive in 2011, succeeding Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Since then, Apple’s market value has increased by more than 1,000%. This week, the company became only the second corporation to surpass $5 trillion in market value, briefly overtaking Nvidia to reclaim the title of the world’s most valuable company.

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Reflecting on his tenure, Cook said, “I’ve had an incredible opportunity to work with people that I love to work with… and it’s just been the privilege of a lifetime.”

Asked how he wants to be remembered, Cook demurred.

“How people will write about that will be theirs to decide,” he said. “But for me, it’s been a privilege.”

Cook arrived in the top job facing doubts that a supply-chain expert could preserve the product vision and culture associated with Jobs. Fifteen years later, he leaves behind a company operating at a scale few could have imagined in 2011 – and one now entering a new era defined by artificial intelligence, geopolitical competition and the challenge of sustaining growth from the world’s most valuable consumer technology franchise.

New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday accused AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal of orchestrating hoax calls to mislead voters across constituencies, including the New Delhi constituency, claiming that their were “cancelled” by the BJP. Addressing a press conference, BJP MP Parvesh Verma played an audio recording of one such call, in which a person was heard saying, “Your vote has been cut by the BJP. AAP will ensure you get your vote back,” and urged the receiver to support the Aam Aadmi Party.

“Hoax calls are being made to the public, saying that BJP will end all AAP schemes. This is a blatant lie,” he said.

He also wondered how “confidential voter data” was accessed by the party.

“Other than the Election Commission of India, this data is not provided to anyone. How did Kejriwal get the voters’ contact list? This must be inspected,” Verma said.

The BJP’s New Delhi candidate for the Assembly election also alleged the AAP of distributing Rs 500 wrapped in a calendar in the slum areas. He claimed three people were arrested in this regard.

There was no immediate reaction from the AAP on the allegations, nor from Delhi Police.
He said he has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and his party demands an investigation into the matter. BJP leader and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, who was also present at the press conference, welcomed the US Supreme Court’s decision to extradite to India Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

“Under Modi’s leadership, the government remains committed to fighting terrorism. The decision to hand over Tahawwur Rana to India is a welcome one for all of us,” Trivedi said.

Trivedi accused the AAP and Congress of supporting activities that indirectly shield terrorism.

“Atishi’s parents were among those seeking a ‘shama yajna’ (forgiveness ritual) for Afzal Guru,” he alleged, referring to the mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack.

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Friday announced a host of measures to attract foreign currency inflows, aimed at strengthening external buffers, even as the six-member rate-setting committee voted to keep the policy rate unchanged at 5.25% and maintained a neutral stance.

RBI took steps to attract overseas investors into government bonds and equities, provided public sector units time-bound incentives to raise external commercial borrowings (ECB), and agreed to bear the hedging cost on fresh three- to five-year FCNR(B) deposits, among other measures.

“As a result of these measures on FCNR(B) and ECBs, and initiatives taken by the government on bonds and trade agreements, we are quite confident of a very healthy balance of payments, compared to what it would have been otherwise,” said RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra at the post-policy press meet.

The central bank revised inflation forecast upward to 5.1%, from 4.6%, and lowered its growth forecast for FY27 to 6.6%, from 6.9% projected in the previous policy.

“Adverse implications of extended disruptions in supply chains and elevated energy prices are reflected in moderation of growth and increase in inflation projections from the April policy,” the governor said, while revising forecasts in his second policy following the West Asia crisis. He stated that “although risks of higher inflation have amplified, the MPC felt it would be prudent to wait for greater clarity to emerge.”

The measures to attract inflows come amid outflows of $13.7 billion by foreign institutional investors from the equity market and are likely to support the rupee, which has fallen 4.1%, or about four rupees, since the start of the US-Iran conflict.Malhotra said he expects strong inflows but declined to put a number to them while adding that he expects banks to pass on the benefits of lower hedging costs to customers. Chairman State Bank of India CS Setty said, “These steps should help enhance capital inflows, deepen bond markets, improve liquidity and provide support to the rupee.”

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, State Bank of India, said the measures would result in a potential capital flow of at least $40 billion, a pullback in the rupee toward 92-93 levels, and a pause in the August policy.

Madhavi Arora, chief economist, Emkay Global Financial Services, expects inflows of $30-50 billion over the year, while Aastha Gudwani, chief economist at Barclays, said the measures could add about $5 billion a month.

Economists said the policy is supportive of growth but has overlooked rising inflation risks. These would stem from higher oil prices following the West Asia crisis.

However, the governor defended the stance, stating that the 4% inflation target is “not in abeyance” and remains “sacrosanct.”

“This target is to be met over a period. It is a medium-term target, and it is not advisable to take action for every small deviation, as that could have disproportionate consequences for growth,” Malhotra said. The governor highlighted that the economy is facing uncertainty over the nature and duration of the conflict, as well as the time needed for the restoration of supplies. He also noted uncertainty around the monsoon and the impact of El Niño, both of which have implications for inflation and growth.

The NSE Nifty 50 index declined 0.21% to 23,366.7. The 10-year government bond yield fell four basis points to close at 6.97%, while the rupee gained 84 paise to close at 94.95 on Friday.

Upasna Bhardwaj, a senior economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank, expects a 50-basis point rate hike in October, while Arora said RBI will raise rates only if inflation becomes entrenched. The governor reiterated that RBI would “look through” shocks unless inflation becomes broad-based and persistent or starts getting embedded in expectations.

On the upward revision in inflation forecasts, RBI said in its statement that the pass-through of higher oil prices could exert upward pressure in the coming months as firms pass on input costs.

This article was written by

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Certain robotic vacuum cleaners, including some Roomba-style devices, will be banned under the new U.S. policy restricting foreign-made advanced robotics, federal regulators told FOX Business Thursday.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said robotic vacuums fall under its updated “Covered List” rules adopted Tuesday, making certain new foreign-produced models ineligible for FCC equipment authorization due to national security and cybersecurity risks to U.S. critical infrastructure.

While the agency did not identify specific brands, an FCC spokesperson confirmed to FOX Business that robotic vacuums are among the devices covered by the restrictions. 

Major manufacturers including iRobot, SharkNinja, Dyson, Samsung and LG sell robotic vacuums in the U.S., with most production taking place in China, alongside manufacturing operations in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

FCC BLOCKS NEW FOREIGN-MADE POWER INVERTERS AND ADVANCED ROBOTS OVER NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS

However, the restrictions apply only to newly authorized devices and will not affect the many robotic vacuums already in consumers’ homes.

“This action does not impact a consumer’s continued use of devices they previously acquired,” the FCC spokesperson said.  

The agency added that previously authorized models may continue to be sold, imported and marketed in the U.S., and it does not “prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import or market relevant models approved previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process.”

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“We are aware of the FCC’s recent action and are working with them to better understand its implementation and potential impact,” iRobot said. “We remain committed to serving our customers and will share updates as more information becomes available.”

Under the FCC’s new rules, many household robotic cleaners qualify as “advanced robotic devices” because they are mechanical mobile devices capable of locomotion, navigation and obstacle avoidance. 

Covered devices generally weigh more than 4.4 pounds and operate near human operators. Their autonomous navigation is either powered by firmware, AI models or sensors via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular technology. 

That definition could encompass products such as iRobot’s Roomba lineup, SharkNinja’s Shark robotic vacuums, Dyson’s 360 series, Samsung’s Jet Bot line and LG’s CordZero robotic cleaners. 

US BANS NEW FOREIGN-MADE CONSUMER INTERNET ROUTERS OVER SECURITY CONCERNS

Roomba, one of the first robotic vacuum brands to gain widespread popularity in the U.S., was introduced by American company iRobot in 2002 but is now owned by Shenzhen Picea Robotics and Santrum Hong Kong.

Picea Robotics, which operates development and manufacturing facilities in China and Vietnam, sells Roomba models starting at $200.

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By comparison, American robotics startup Matic, one of the few U.S.-based competitors that designs and assembles its products domestically in California, sells its robotic vacuums for about $1,245. 

FOX Business reached out to SharkNinja, Dyson, Samsung and LG for comment.

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