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Promoter entities sell Rs 153 crore worth shares in Motilal Oswal block deal; HDFC Life picks up stake

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Promoter entities sell Rs 153 crore worth shares in Motilal Oswal block deal; HDFC Life picks up stake
Two promoter-group charitable entities of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited sold shares worth about Rs 153 crore through block deals on Monday, with HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited emerging as the buyer.

According to NSE block deal data, Motilal Oswal Foundation and Motilal Oswal Healthcare Foundation together sold 18.2 lakh shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services at Rs 842.5 per share. The larger transaction was executed by Motilal Oswal Foundation, which sold 14.55 lakh shares, translating into a deal value of about Rs 122.58 crore.

Separately, Motilal Oswal Healthcare Foundation sold 3.65 lakh shares, valued at about Rs 30.75 crore.
Together, the two entities sold shares worth around Rs 153.34 crore.The entire stake was acquired by HDFC Life Insurance Company through a corresponding block deal at the same price.

The transaction represents a transfer of shares from promoter-linked philanthropic entities to a large domestic institutional investor. There was no immediate indication of any change in the promoter group’s controlling stake in the company.
Motilal Oswal Financial is one of India’s leading diversified financial services firms with operations spanning wealth management, capital markets, asset management, housing finance and investment banking.
The company has benefited from the rapid financialisation of household savings and growing participation of retail investors in equities and mutual funds over the past few years. Strong capital market activity and rising assets under management have also supported growth across its key business segments.
HDFC Life’s purchase reflects continued institutional interest in financial-sector stocks, which remain among the preferred bets for domestic investors amid expectations of sustained growth in India’s savings and investment ecosystem.

Shares of Motilal Oswal Financial Services are likely to remain in focus as investors assess the implications of the transaction and changes in institutional ownership. The stock has been one of the key beneficiaries of the structural shift of household savings towards financial assets, a trend that market participants expect to continue over the long term.

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QuickBooks Down for Hundreds of Users on June 8, Sparking Business Disruptions

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Tim Cook
Quickbooks
QuickBooks Down for Hundreds of Users on June 8, Sparking Business Disruptions

NEW YORK — Intuit’s popular accounting software QuickBooks experienced widespread outages on Monday, leaving hundreds of small business owners and accountants unable to access accounts, process payments or manage financial records, according to multiple outage tracking services and user reports.

The disruption, first noted in the early afternoon, affected login attempts, dashboard loading and core functions such as invoicing, payroll and tax filing for many users across the United States. The @status_is_down account on X reported that “QuickBooks is reportedly down for hundreds of users at the moment,” linking to community discussions and prompting numerous confirmations from frustrated business owners.

DownDetector and other monitoring sites showed a sharp spike in reports, with the majority citing problems logging in, error messages, blank dashboards or complete service unavailability. Some users reported being able to log in intermittently only to encounter frozen screens or failed transaction processing.

Customer complaints highlighted the significant inconvenience during a busy workday. Many small business owners described being locked out of essential financial tools needed for payroll, invoicing and tax preparation. The outage appeared to impact both QuickBooks Online and desktop versions, with some users noting similar issues with associated Intuit services like TurboTax.

Intuit has not yet issued an official statement on the cause or expected resolution time. In past outages, the company has typically communicated through its status page, social media channels or in-app notifications once the issue is identified. Users are advised to check Intuit’s official status page or QuickBooks support accounts for updates as the situation develops.

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This marks another notable service disruption for Intuit in 2026. QuickBooks serves millions of small businesses and accountants, making its reliability critical for daily operations. Outages like Monday’s can cause significant financial and operational impacts, particularly for users with time-sensitive tasks such as payroll processing or tax filings.

The timing coincided with typical midday business activity, amplifying frustration among users who expected reliable access. Social media platforms filled with reports from affected customers, many expressing annoyance at the lack of immediate communication from Intuit.

QuickBooks is a cornerstone tool for small businesses, offering accounting, payroll, invoicing and tax preparation features. The service’s reliability is essential for users who depend on it for compliance and financial management. Disruptions like this highlight the challenges of maintaining global cloud-based infrastructure at massive scale.

For customers impacted, recommended steps include trying alternative access methods such as the desktop version versus online, clearing cache and cookies, or using different devices. In cases of prolonged outage, contacting Intuit support via phone may provide more direct assistance, though call volumes are often elevated during such events.

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The incident underscores the growing dependence on cloud-based business software and the importance of backup systems or contingency plans for temporary service interruptions, particularly for time-sensitive financial tasks.

Intuit has a history of addressing service issues promptly once identified, often with apologies and explanations posted on its status page. Monday’s event may prompt internal reviews to strengthen resilience and communication protocols during outages.

Broader context includes increasing scrutiny on major technology companies’ digital infrastructure reliability. As more businesses shift toward cloud-based tools, users expect high uptime and transparent communication when problems arise.

Monday’s disruption serves as a practical reminder for all QuickBooks users to maintain backup accounting methods and avoid relying solely on online platforms for critical financial tasks. While the service’s core functionality remains strong, occasional outages illustrate the vulnerabilities inherent in cloud-based systems.

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Affected users are encouraged to document any significant impacts, such as missed deadlines or financial disruptions resulting from the outage, in case compensation or adjustments become available. Intuit has occasionally offered goodwill gestures following notable service interruptions.

As the situation develops, users should continue monitoring official channels for updates. Alternative accounting software or offline modes may provide temporary relief for those with urgent needs.

The outage also sparked conversations about software redundancy and the importance of having contingency plans for popular business tools. Many users maintain multiple accounting platforms or backup records to mitigate risks from single-point failures in services like QuickBooks.

Intuit, a major player in financial software, continues investing in infrastructure, cybersecurity and user experience enhancements to minimize future disruptions. Monday’s event may accelerate efforts to improve service stability and scalability as user expectations evolve.

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For now, users are urged to remain patient while technical teams work toward full restoration. The company’s long history of supporting small businesses suggests a swift resolution is likely, though no specific timeline has been provided.

The incident adds to a growing list of major software service outages in 2026, underscoring the challenges of maintaining 24/7 availability at massive scale. As business operations become increasingly digital, reliability and transparent communication during incidents remain critical for maintaining customer trust.

Users experiencing issues are encouraged to try accessing QuickBooks periodically, as partial restorations often occur before full recovery is announced. In the meantime, documenting experiences can help if formal complaints or compensation requests become necessary.

Monday’s outage serves as a timely reminder for all cloud software users to maintain awareness of backup options and to avoid relying solely on one platform for critical business functions. As the situation evolves, updates from Intuit and user reports will provide further clarity on the scope and resolution of the disruption.

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NY Fed survey shows consumer pessimism hits worst level since 2022

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NY Fed survey shows consumer pessimism hits worst level since 2022

Americans are increasingly reaching a breaking point regarding their household finances.

Despite hopes for a soft landing after years of elevated inflation, consumer pessimism has reached some of its worst levels in years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations released Monday.

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The percentage of U.S. households that reported being “much worse off” financially than a year ago rose to 13.3% in May, up more than 2 percentage points from April and the highest reading since July 2022.

Additionally, 36% of Americans expect their financial situations to deteriorate further over the coming year, while fewer than 23% expect improvement, resulting in the lowest net optimism since October 2022.

TOP CEOs BRACE FOR DOWNTURN, WARN U.S. ECONOMY WILL WORSEN IN NEXT 6 MONTHS

While overall inflation expectations remained largely unchanged, respondents expected higher costs ahead, including a 5.8% increase in food prices and a 7.4% rise in rent over the next year.

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More Americans report being “much worse off” financially, according to the latest Federal Reserve Bank of New York suvery. (Getty Images)

The latest Fed survey aligns with the Federal Reserve’s most recent Beige Book, which summarizes economic conditions across the Fed’s 12 regional districts. Prices “increased at a moderate to strong pace overall, with most Districts reporting higher inflation from the previous report,” according to the Fed’s national summary.

“Districts noted that energy-related costs tied to the conflict in the Middle East were the primary driver of inflationary pressures, with spillovers into shipping, packaging, groceries, and fertilizer,” the report added, with the Cleveland Fed noting increased fuel surcharges.

Consumer concerns were also evident in the labor market, with respondents reporting that their confidence in finding a new job if they lost their current one fell to its lowest level since December 2025. Less than half of workers (43.7%) said they believed they would be able to find a replacement job if laid off.

“Labor market expectations deteriorated somewhat with an increase in layoff expectations and a decline in job finding expectations,” the New York Fed said in its release. 

However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that employers added 172,000 jobs in May, topping economists’ estimates, with unemployment holding steady at 4.3%.

Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, called the May jobs report a “Payroll Blowout!” and added: “We’ve gained more and more confidence in the last prints that the Fed doesn’t have to be worried about the labor market. Laser focused on inflation and it will all come down to the duration of this war to determine the Fed’s next move. For now, the move is to not move: HOLD.”

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The consumer report also showed that more than 1 in 8 Americans (12.6%) believe they may miss a minimum debt payment over the next 90 days. The increase was driven “mostly” by respondents with at least a high school education and households earning less than $100,000 annually.

Retired Americans older than 60 and workers earning less than $50,000 annually also reported lower spending-growth expectations.

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FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.

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Graham Corporation (GHM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Q4: 2026-06-08 Earnings Summary

EPS of $0.33 beats by $0.03

 | Revenue of $67.08M (13.03% Y/Y) beats by $7.13M

Graham Corporation (GHM) Q4 2026 Earnings Call June 8, 2026 11:00 AM EDT

Company Participants

Tom Cook
Matthew Malone – President, CEO & Director
Christopher Thome – Chief Accounting Officer, VP of Finance, CFO & Corporate Secretary

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Conference Call Participants

Russell Stanley – Beacon Securities Limited, Research Division
Robert Brooks – Northland Capital Markets, Research Division
Christopher Glynn – Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
Joseph Gomes – NOBLE Capital Markets, Inc., Research Division
Tate Sullivan – Maxim Group LLC, Research Division

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Presentation

Operator

Good evening and welcome to Graham Corporation Fiscal 4Q ’26 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions].

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tom Cook of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

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Tom Cook

Thank you, Shamali, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Graham’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2026 Earnings Call. With me on the call today is Matt Malone, President and CEO, and Chris Thome, Chief Financial Officer.

This morning, we released our financial results. Our earnings release and accompanying presentation for today’s call are available on our website at ir.grahamcorp.com. You should be aware that we may make forward-looking statements during the formal discussion as well as during the Q&A session. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is stated here today.

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These risks and uncertainties and other factors are provided in the earnings release as well as with other documents that are filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can find these documents on our website or at sec.gov.

During today’s call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these will be useful in evaluating our performance. However, you should not consider the presentation of this additional information in isolation

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A holistic strategy is the key to modernizing your plant

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A holistic strategy is the key to modernizing your plant

Intelligent modernization boosts efficiency, cuts costs, and builds resilient, connected food plants.

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Lavazza launches single-serve tablets to make espresso

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Lavazza launches single-serve tablets to make espresso

Lavazza said its Tablì tabs are made of 100% coffee, without any gelatin, coating or binders.

Source: Lavazza

Lavazza is bringing its espresso tablets to the U.S., aiming to loosen Keurig Dr Pepper’s grip on the single-serve coffee category.

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The Italian coffee giant unveiled Tablì last year and launched the new brewing system first in Italy. The tablets, made of compressed ground coffee without a coating, binder or gelatin, can only be used with a Tablì coffee machine made by Lavazza. Each tablet is marked with the words “100% coffee. At launch, the tabs will come in five varieties: espresso, double espresso, decaf espresso, super crema and lungo, or a “long shot” espresso brewed with more water.

“The result that we’ve been able to achieve was through a very complicated industrial process in order to be able to have [the coffee tablet] very compact, to be able to deliver it without destroying it, to have it able to work in a coffee machine,” Lavazza CEO Antonio Baravalle told CNBC.

Tablì is the result of Lavazza’s acquisition of the Italian startup Caffemotive in 2020. The new system took five years of development, more than 15 patents and a new production facility in Gattinara, Italy, to bring it to market.

Its launch in the U.S. comes as the country becomes an increasingly important part of Lavazza’s business. In 2025, the company’s North American turnover — or revenue — jumped 26.9%, according to Lavazza.

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“We are strongly investing in the USA because we think it is an important space for us,” Baravalle said, adding that Lavazza aims to eventually have a €1 billion ($1.15 billion) business in the U.S.

“The brand is growing, in terms of equity, extremely well,” Baravalle said. “We’ve spent a lot of money, for us, in the last two years, and we’re going to do that for the next five years.”

More than 130 years after its founding, the Lavazza family still privately owns the Italian company. In 2025, it reported net profit of €92 million on net revenues of €3.9 billion, according to Lavazza’s latest annual report.

In the U.S., it generates more than $100 million in annual dollar sales through retailers like Target and Walmart. For context, Keurig reported annual net sales of $3.99 billion for its U.S. coffee segment in 2025.

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The majority of Keurig’s coffee revenue comes from its K-cups. In the U.S., Keurig has dominated the single-serve coffee market for more than a decade, although Nestle’s Nespresso has won over customers in recent years. Keurig holds about half of the total U.S. market share for fresh ground coffee pods, according to data from Euromonitor International. Nespresso holds a roughly 7% share.

Of course, Lavazza sells K-cup pods in the U.S. through a partnership with Keurig.

Baravalle said he does not expect to beat Keurig or Nespresso.

“For us, it’s important to find our own space, but we are talking about two giants, and one of them, we have an important contract with that we are very happy [with],” he said.

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A sustainability play

Lavazza is betting that sustainability is still a top consideration for many coffee drinkers, although Baravalle said that can differ across countries.

For years, Keurig’s pods have been dogged by questions about waste, leaving an opening for a competitor with a more environmentally-friendly product. The company previously claimed that 100% of its K-cups have been recyclable since the end of 2020.

In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the beverage giant with making misleading statements over the recyclability of its pods. Keurig agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. The company’s website now reads, “Check locally, not recycled in many communities.”

Nespresso’s aluminum pods are more easily recycled through the brand’s free mail-back service.

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As Lavazza launches a potential competitor, Keurig has its own plans for plastic- and aluminum-free coffee pods. This fall, the company plans to launch K-Rounds, which uses a plant-based coating to preserve the ground coffee inside the puck-shaped pod. The innovation is thanks to a multi-year partnership with Delica Switzerland, the maker of the CoffeeB system, which uses plastic-free coffee balls that have gained traction in parts of Europe.

Lavazza will officially launch Tablì in the U.S. in August. A $99.99 bundle that includes the machine, a 60-count variety pack of tabs and a milk frother is available now to pre-order on the company’s website.

In May, Baravalle said the company was still determining its pricing strategy as it conducted consumer research to understand how much coffee drinkers were willing to pay.

“We are also waiting to see how some big, huge competitors will move in the industry, trying to offer something similar,” Baravalle said. “But, for sure, Lavazza has premium positioning, and we’re not going to do something different from that.”

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Summit Therapeutics Inc. (SMMT) Presents at Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript

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OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Summit Therapeutics Inc. (SMMT) Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026 June 8, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Company Participants

Allen Yang – Head of R&D Strategy
Robert Duggan – Co-CEO & Executive Chairman
Mahkam Zanganeh – Co-CEO, President & Director
Manmeet Soni – COO, CFO & Director

Conference Call Participants

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Salveen Richter – Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division

Presentation

Salveen Richter
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division

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Great. Good morning, everyone. It’s my pleasure to introduce the Summit Therapeutics team. With us, we have Bob Duggan, Co-CEO with Maky Zanganeh, Co-CEO; Manmeet Soni, CFO; Allen Yang, CRDSO; and Dave Gancarz, CBSO.

Question-and-Answer Session

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Salveen Richter
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division

To start here, a big picture question. Ivo is the leading PD-1 or L1 VEGF asset in development and China-based Phase III frontline lung cancer survival data was just recognized by the plenary at ASCO. Walk us through your overall strategy here, including across the various tumor types and combination approaches as you look to maintain your position and expand upon global development?

Allen Yang
Head of R&D Strategy

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Yes. We’re trying to keep that a little bit close to our chest because every time we announce something, our competitors announce the same thing and say we’re going to do it as well. But when we think about PD-1, VEGF, first of all, I think that PD-1 versus PD-L1 does make a difference. I don’t know if it changes too much your strategy, but it might change your overall baseline efficacy.

But with that said, 3 years ago, when we were looking at this asset, we did the boil the ocean exercise. We looked at all the PD-1 indications, all the VEGF approved indications. There was a lot of sort of history around those 2 targets that they are validated targets. And we looked at where

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The AI trade trap: Why successful tech stocks are triggering a trillion-dollar market meltdown in Korea, Taiwan

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The AI trade trap: Why successful tech stocks are triggering a trillion-dollar market meltdown in Korea, Taiwan
An unprecedented concentration crisis in global technology equities has evolved into a structural trap for investors, triggering a violent “Black Monday” unwind that is reverberating across Asian emerging markets, such as Korea and Taiwan. Active portfolio managers are increasingly being forced to dump their best-performing chip heavyweights because these explosive stocks have grown too large for risk compliance limits.

This structural anomaly has distorted regional benchmarks, accelerated a massive migration from active to passive funds, and triggered a historic correction.

The structural breakdown manifested in extreme volatility across the region’s tech hubs. South Korea’s Kospi index plunged more than 8% shortly after the market opened, triggering a mandatory 20-minute trading halt before narrowing its drop as memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rebounded from their session lows.

Also Read | Kospi crashes 9%, trading halted for 20 minutes, as chip rout deepens; Samsung, SK Hynix worst hit

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The Cycle of Forced Selling

The core of the market distortion lies in a mechanical paradox: As tech giants outperform, active funds are legally or structurally required to trim their holdings to manage concentration risks. Just three mega-cap tech firms—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Samsung, and SK Hynix—now command nearly a third of the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index.

The concentration is even more extreme on a national level. TSMC occupies a staggering 41.5% of Taiwan’s TAIEX, while Samsung and SK Hynix together comprise 55% of South Korea’s KOSPI.


“We have been forced sellers of TSMC, Samsung and MediaTek,” Sam Konrad, investment manager for Asia Equity Income at Jupiter Asset Management, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. His fund must shed these chipmaking stocks despite explosive year-to-date gains of 52% for TSMC, 159% for Samsung, and 184% for MediaTek.
This mechanism creates an institutional dilemma where strong performance mandates divestment, artificially capping the upside for active portfolios trying to beat their benchmarks.”As equities continue to outperform, funds will find it increasingly difficult to add exposure, reinforcing a cycle of forced selling and enlarging underweight positions even amid strong fundamentals,” Herald Van der Linde, head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific at HSBC in Hong Kong, noted in a research report. HSBC data confirms that TSMC has become the largest portfolio underweight among Asian and global emerging-market funds.

Emerging Market Exhaustion and Fund Outflows

Data from Elara Securities India confirms that the Global Emerging Market (GEM) trade is experiencing its first major phase of sustained exhaustion since its rally began. GEM fund redemptions expanded to $3 billion, the largest outflow since December 2021, marking a clear breakdown in momentum.

The capital flight has extended significantly beyond Korea and Taiwan to hit other major emerging markets. China saw foreign investors pull $3.7 billion, the largest single-week redemption in over a year, while South Korea logged six consecutive weeks of foreign outflows, compounded by a record $27.9 billion foreign portfolio rebalancing outflow.

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The systemic nature of the unwind is visible in the broader indices. Goldman Sachs data reveals that while the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index is up 27% year-to-date, it is actually down 4% when South Korea and Taiwan are excluded.

This regional distortion has accelerated a massive, unprecedented migration from active stock-picking to passive indexing. Over the last five years, Asia’s active funds have suffered $269 billion of cumulative outflows. Meanwhile, passive funds have accumulated $510 billion, with a quarter of that volume arriving in just the last six months.

“The size of recent inflows into the region’s passive funds… has no precedent across the last 10 years,” said William Bratton, head of cash equity research for Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas Securities.

This phenomenon mirrors the “Magnificent Seven” dynamic on Wall Street, where tech giants account for about a third of the S&P 500. However, concentration in Asia has unfolded at a faster and more extreme pace, turning regional indices into concentrated bets on just one or two stocks and undermining the diversification benefits of benchmark investing.

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Broader Trade Implications

The shockwaves from the AI tech unwinding are bleeding directly into structural commodities and the wider electrification ecosystem. Precious metal funds witnessed $2.8 billion of outflows, driven heavily by gold (-$2.1 billion) and silver (-$910 million, a 12-week high redemption), while energy funds recorded their second consecutive week of outflows. These asset classes had operated as indirect beneficiaries of the global AI infrastructure and electrification trade.

Furthermore, Wall Street’s nine-week winning streak concluded abruptly following a hot jobs report that ignited fears of a hawkish policy pivot by the US Federal Reserve, sending technology stocks into their largest one-day decline.

Despite the steep selloffs, which saw South Korean equities slide 12% and Taiwan fall 6% from their record highs, market opinions remain starkly divided on whether this correction marks a peak or a buying opportunity.

Some money managers are exploiting the correction to pivot to alternatives further down the supply chain, like mid-sized semiconductor equipment makers, or shifting money toward cheaper domestic themes like robotics. China’s CSI Robot Index actually bucked the broader market declines, rising 1.4%.

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Concentration, AI Disruption, And Earnings: What’s Behind Recent Market Volatility

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ClearBridge Dividend Strategy Portfolios Q1 2026 Commentary

HORAN Wealth LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor that manages investment portfolios for individuals and institutions. Our firm utilizes a disciplined investing approach that should create wealth for our clients over time. Our investment bias is to invest in companies that generate a steady return over time, i.e., singles and doubles. This singles and doubles approach tends to lead to investments in higher quality dividend growth/cash flow growth companies. On the other hand, there are times when a company’s stock price seems to be trading below its fair valuation. Short term gains are possible in these situations. I have been managing investment portfolios for individuals and institutions for over fifteen years and believe investing is like running a marathon and not a sprint. Taking the road less traveled, more often than not, leads to higher returns. Visit: The Blog of HORAN Capital Advisors at (https://horanwealth.com/insights/market-commentary-blog)

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Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly roll out obesity pills, prepare for Medicare coverage

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Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly roll out obesity pills, prepare for Medicare coverage

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly took their GLP-1 pill battle to the preeminent obesity meeting this weekend as they prepare for the next sea change in how patients receive their drugs.

Novo Nordisk on Sunday announced that prescriptions of the Wegovy pill have topped 3 million since it entered the U.S. market about five months ago. The Danish drugmaker’s CEO Mike Doustdar celebrated the milestone, saying in an interview with CNBC that Novo was able to accelerate prescriptions even as Lilly introduced its own GLP-1 pill in April.

“If that’s not acceleration, then I don’t know what is,” Doustdar told CNBC this weekend at the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions. 

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Meanwhile, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC that prescriptions of its pill Foundayo are “markedly higher” than the 20,000 that Lilly reported about six weeks ago around its first-quarter earnings release, without giving a specific number. He said the number builds week over week and that Lilly is pleased with the progress. 

The competition for the weight loss pill market is only the latest for the longtime rivals. Signs of that tension were evident throughout the industry event this weekend. Cars drove around advertising Novo’s Wegovy pill, while pictures of Lilly’s Foundayo pill covered some of the floors of the convention center in New Orleans.

And the two companies will soon make their case for their daily pills and their weekly shots to seniors. Starting in July, millions of people with Medicare will be able to access GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for $50 a month. Until now, Medicare beneficiaries have had to pay out of pocket for the obesity drugs, costing them potentially hundreds of dollars a month. Both companies say they’re focused on raising awareness of the program, though they have different pitches.

Weight loss pills available: A heap of GLP-1 pills

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Doustdar thinks the program could be an opportunity to regain some of the ground Novo’s Wegovy shot has lost to Lilly’s Zepbound. The drugmaker plans to advertise Wegovy’s other health benefits on its label, he said, like the fact that it can decrease the risk of cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and strokes. He said Novo should win with seniors “if common sense is to prevail, and I put myself in their shoes.”

“With the Wegovy high dose, why would you not take a product that has the same efficacy, percentage wise, than my competitor?” he said. “On top of it, you get kidney, liver, heart, stroke protection, let’s say free of charge. I would take it if I was 10 years older.”

Lilly’s pitch to seniors is convenience. The company’s pill Foundayo can be taken at any time of day with food, water and other medicines, whereas Novo’s pill needs to be taken on an empty stomach with little water and requires fasting for 30 minutes afterward.  

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“The main thing is, it’s easy,” Ricks said. “This is something that can just go in your daily routine. Most seniors are on many other medications, and they’ve got their pill case, and they use that every day, and this will just fit right into that without any extra thought.”

Ricks said Lilly is working closely with the government to prepare, and he’s confident that Humana, which will process prescription requests, will do a good job. He thinks the program will be popular with seniors and that longer term, the initiative could help prove that obesity care should be “regular health care.” 

“We have to prove that in this pilot and prove cost effectiveness and then kind of reset what we expect from our health insurance, which is obesity care should be health care,” Ricks said. 

Lilly and Novo are trying to increase insurance coverage of GLP-1 drugs for obesity. At least one analysis found the drugs to be cost effective, but employers have balked at paying for them because so many people could be eligible for the treatments and many patients stop them after achieving a weight loss goal. Health insurance company Cigna last week said it would stop covering the medicines for its own employees.

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At Lilly, less than 20% of the company’s beneficiaries are using the drugs for weight loss, and people are staying on them, Ricks said. Lilly is conducting an internal study to measure its health costs and outcomes like hospitalization rate, progression to diabetes and cardiovascular events. Lilly plans to publish those results later this year, he said.

The next stage in the GLP-1 race

While they prepare for Medicare coverage, both companies are trying to introduce more drugs to treat obesity. At the conference this weekend, Lilly presented Phase 3 data for retatrutide, an experimental triple agonist that helped people lose an average of 28% of their body weight when they stayed on the drug. Nearly half of people lost more than 30% of their body weight, an amount that’s similar to bariatric surgery. The drug also helped improve related conditions like knee osteoarthritis and sleep apnea.

Initially, Ricks expects retatrutide to primarily be used to treat people with higher body mass indexes, or BMI. He also sees promise for the second-lowest strength of the drug. It helped people lose an average of 19% of their body weight with fewer side effects than the higher strengths.

One question was whether Lilly would make retatrutide available on its direct-to-consumer sales platform LillyDirect once it’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration because it’s so powerful. Lilly “absolutely” plans to make the drug available there, Ricks said.

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For Novo, the next drug on the horizon is called CagriSema. It combines the main ingredient of Wegovy with another molecule called cagrilintide, which mimics another hormone called amylin. The drug’s efficacy has underwhelmed investors since it has showed weight loss that is similar to Lilly’s Zepbound and less than Lilly’s retatrutide. Doustdar thinks the drug’s edge in effectiveness over Wegovy, even if only a few percentage points, is meaningful, and said he’s committed to launching CagriSema. Novo expects an approval decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the drug in the fourth quarter of this year.

“If I have to forget about CagriSema, a lot of other products have to be forgotten about as well,” Doustdar said. “I don’t think it should work that way.”

Doustdar took over as chief executive almost one year ago after a major shakeup that led to the departure of the company’s former leader and thousands of employees being laid off. He’s tasked with reinvigorating sales of Wegovy, the company’s pipeline and its stock price. Eventually, he said Novo will be more diversified within the area of cardiometabolic health — like diabetes and obesity — and some of the “adjacencies.”

In the meantime, Doustdar said the early success of the Wegovy pill has helped Novo regain some momentum.

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“The pill was a great example of people getting confident that we can do this, that at Novo Nordisk, better days are ahead of them and not just behind,” he said. “So we also have to really make sure that we turn these positive moments that right now we’re in into a longer term trend, so we gain the trust day by day and improve that both internally as well as, of course, externally, and I will work hard to make sure that this continues.”

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United CEO brushes off airline mergers after American rejection

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United CEO brushes off airline mergers after American rejection

A United Airlines plane taxis at Los Angeles International Airport on April 21, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

RIO DE JANEIRO — United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said he doesn’t expect more airline consolidation in the U.S. and he’s not interested in pursuing a merger for his airline after American Airlines rejected the idea of a combination earlier this year.

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“United’s not going to do a deal just to do a deal,” Kirby told reporters Sunday on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association’s annual meeting.

When asked about the wave of consolidation that has brought together Allegiant and Sun Country this year, and Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines in 2024, Kirby said further combination opportunities look unlikely: “There’s nothing,” he said.

“It’s a lot harder,” he said. “I’ve been … one of the primary architects of consolidation in the United States. I’ve been around a lot of these deals. It’s hard, and you shouldn’t do deals that don’t make economic sense.”

Kirby has repeatedly dismissed the idea of buying its new partner, JetBlue Airways.

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But earlier this year Kirby discussed the possibility of combining with American, where Kirby used to work, floating the idea to the Trump administration, CNBC previously reported.

Kirby later said in a statement that he had hoped a combined airline would compete with big foreign rivals, though some analysts said the tie-up would face insurmountable regulatory hurdles.

A merger “requires support from everyone,” Kirby told reporters at the IATA conference. “We would need the unions, we’d need the customers, the shareholders, the regulators and the management team.”

He said, however, regarding American’s management team, “we don’t have that, clearly, so we can’t get it done without them.”

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Delta Air Lines President Peter Carter similarly told CNBC on Saturday that he doesn’t see a merger or acquisition in Delta’s future. He said the carrier’s longtime strategy has been partnerships and joint ventures, which include those in South Korea, Mexico and Europe.

Because the U.S. domestic air travel market is so mature, international travel is the future, Carter said. He added he wants to take on United, the second most-profitable airline in the U.S., in the lucrative trans-Pacific market.

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