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Uber Doubles Down in Argentina

1:05 pm — UBER +5.8%

Uber (UBER +4.83%) is accelerating its Latin American expansion with a $500 million investment pledge for Argentina. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi met with Economy Minister Luis Caputo on Tuesday to finalize the three-year capital commitment. While specific project details remain under wraps, the capital influx signals Uber’s confidence in the region’s digital transformation despite local economic volatility. This move follows a broader trend of “super-app” scaling as Uber seeks to diversify revenue streams outside of its core North American and European markets.

• Latin American Growth Engine: Argentina represents a high-potential frontier where ride-hailing and delivery penetration still lag behind more mature markets.
• Economic Diplomacy: Partnering directly with government leadership suggests Uber is prioritizing regulatory stability to protect this half-billion-dollar infrastructure play.

Qualcomm Buys Back $20B

1:10 pm — QCOM +2.0%

Qualcomm (QCOM +1.79%) announced a massive $20 billion share repurchase program alongside a dividend hike to $0.92 per share. CEO Cristiano Amon is prioritizing shareholder returns even as a global memory chip shortage hampers handset production for Chinese clients. While the company faces a tepid revenue forecast, it is pivoting into automotive and data center chips to reduce its reliance on the smartphone market. This capital return strategy signals confidence in long-term diversification, including a high-stakes entry into the AI data center market to compete with Nvidia (NVDA 0.12%).

• The AI Frontier Challenge: The company is readying its first AI data center shipments for 2027, with Saudi-backed Humain as a flagship customer.
• Capital Allocation Shift: By increasing its annualized dividend to $3.68, management is rewarding patient investors while navigating a surge in memory costs that has squeezed consumer device margins.

Microsoft Pivots to AI Superintelligence

12:15 pm — MSFT -0.4%

Microsoft (MSFT 0.26%) is reorganizing its AI division to jumpstart adoption for its Copilot assistant, which currently trails OpenAI and Google (GOOG +1.26%) in daily users. CEO Satya Nadella is centralizing Copilot engineering under former Snap (SNAP +0.21%) executive Jacob Andreou, freeing up Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman to lead a “Superintelligence” group. Suleyman will focus exclusively on building proprietary, frontier-scale generative models over the next five years. The shift aims to reduce costs and deepen Microsoft’s “enterprise-tuned” model lineage as the company’s stock sits 17% lower year-to-date amid mounting pressure to prove AI ROI.

• Closing the Usage Gap: With only 6 million daily active users compared to ChatGPT’s 392 million, the structural shift prioritizes a unified user experience to capture the 97% of Office 365 commercial subscribers yet to adopt Copilot.
• The Model as the Product: By pivoting toward proprietary model development, Microsoft aims to lower the cost of goods sold (COGS) and decrease long-term reliance on external intellectual property from its partners.

WBD/Paramount Deal Triggers Massive Bonus

12:30 pm — WBD +0.8%

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD +0.53%) CEO David Zaslav is in line for a massive $886.8 million windfall if the pending $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance (PSKY 0.68%) closes. The package, revealed in fresh regulatory filings, includes $517 million in equity and a $335 million tax reimbursement to cover “golden parachute” excise taxes. The deal ends a fierce bidding war with Netflix (NFLX 0.37%), which saw its stock jump 25% after bowing out. While WBD executives prepare for liftoff, Paramount’s stock has slumped 10% this month as investors eye the $90 billion debt load the combined entity will carry.

• Backstop Confidence: Oracle (ORCL 0.91%) founder Larry Ellison personally guaranteed $40 billion in equity to ensure Paramount’s bid surpassed the Netflix offer.
• Cost-Cutting Horizon: The new media giant targets $6 billion in synergies, signaling significant workforce reductions despite the executive team’s nearly $1.4 billion in combined exit protections.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Today’s Change

(0.53%) $0.14

Current Price

$27.66

Can Agentic AI Fix Alibaba’s Slump?

11:30 am — BABA +0.2%

Alibaba Group (BABA 0.04%) unveiled its “Wukong” enterprise AI platform Tuesday, aiming to dominate the agentic AI market. Unlike standard chatbots, Wukong proactively manages document editing and approvals across 20 million corporate users on DingTalk. Despite recent leadership exits from its Qwen unit, the company is pivoting to a new “Token Hub” business group under CEO Eddie Wu. Alibaba plans to integrate the tool with rivals like Microsoft (MSFT 0.26%) Teams and Salesforce (CRM 1.40%) Slack, ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings release this Thursday.

• Crossing the Cultural Chasm: By seeking integration with Western mainstays like Teams and Slack, Alibaba is attempting to capture global enterprise workflows despite intensifying competition from Tencent Holdings (TCEHY 2.18%).
• Restructuring for AGI: The new Token Hub business group centralizes all AI units, signaling a desperate bet on artificial general intelligence to offset internal talent attrition.

Alibaba Group

Today’s Change

(-0.04%) $-0.05

Current Price

$136.66

Mastercard Aims for Crypto Dominance

11:20 am — MA +0.7%

Mastercard (MA +0.07%) is aggressively scaling its digital asset footprint with a $1.8 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure leader BVNK. The deal — Mastercard’s largest crypto venture to date — integrates blockchain-based rails into its global network, enabling banks and fintechs to settle transactions via tokenized deposits. By acquiring a platform active in 130 countries, Mastercard is positioning itself as the primary bridge between traditional fiat and the emerging $350 billion stablecoin market. This move intensifies the rivalry with Visa (V 0.41%), which has recently expanded its own stablecoin-linked card program to over 100 countries.

• Bypassing Closed Systems: The acquisition ensures a “chain-agnostic” infrastructure, preventing customers from being locked into proprietary blockchains and securing Mastercard’s role as the universal payment orchestrator.
• Capitalizing on Regulatory Shifts: With a post-2024 push toward crypto-friendly policy, Mastercard is front-running a shift where stablecoins transition from niche speculative assets to standard B2B and cross-border settlement tools.

Today’s Take: The Art of Knowing When to Sell

10:30 am

“The past is the past. What matters is the future.” Today, our team is exploring why the hardest part of selling is ignoring the gains (or losses) already on the books and focusing solely on what the business can do next.

When you evaluate a stock today, do you look at your original buy price, or do you treat it as a brand-new decision? Share your contribution and help us fuel the debate in Today’s Take!

The SEC’s Quarterly Reporting Fix Misses the Point

10:20 am

If Washington wants to reduce short-termism in corporate America, the first place I’d recommend they start is extending preferential capital gains tax treatment to genuinely long-term holders. Long-term capital gains rates apply equally to someone who has owned an asset for 366 days and someone who has owned it for 5 full years. Make patience pay … literally.

Instead, the SEC is preparing a proposal to make quarterly earnings reporting optional, giving public companies the choice to report results twice a year instead of every 90 days, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The stated goal is admirable. The remedy, I think, is not.

Top of the Morning

9:45 am — DAL +5.1%

Delta Air Lines‘ (DAL +6.36%) updated guidance released this morning provides another window into the current “two-speed” macroeconomy, and is being greeted warmly in pre-market trading with the stock up 5%. By raising its first-quarter revenue growth forecast to the high-single digits (approx. $15.0B–$15.3B), Delta is signaling that the U.S. consumer is not merely enduring prolonged higher than expected interest rates — the affluent segment is accelerating spending. You might have heard about the health of the well-off a few times before — this is really another data point confirming the story.

The core of the presentation highlights a structural evolution: Nearly 90% of Delta’s revenue is now tied to premium cabins and loyalty programs.

Opening Bell

9:35 am

Wall Street is shaking off geopolitical jitters as the S&P 500 and the Dow both climbed Tuesday. Sentiment remains fragile as Brent crude futures topped $101 following reports that Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani. While energy markets react to the potential for further escalation, equity investors are focused on President Trump’s efforts to form a naval coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the green indices, market veterans warn that a weakening labor market and “higher-for-longer” energy costs are mounting threats to the broader growth narrative.

Amazon’s AI Powers Ultra-Fast Delivery Rollout

8:00 am — AMZN -0.30%, WMT -0.31% in pre-market trading

Amazon (AMZN +0.89%) is escalating its logistics war with Walmart (WMT 0.34%) by launching one-hour and three-hour delivery across more than 2,000 U.S. cities and towns. This Tuesday morning rollout covers 90,000 high-frequency items, from electronics to toilet paper, leveraging new specialized “work stations” within its existing same-day fulfillment hubs. While the move aims to boost shopping frequency, it comes with a steep price tag: Prime members must pay a $9.99 surcharge for 60-minute delivery, a shift from Amazon’s traditional “free with Prime” speed model. By monetizing ultra-fast fulfillment, Amazon is attempting to turn its massive infrastructure into a high-margin service that can fend off Walmart’s growing “Express Delivery” network.

• Monetizing the Minutes: The new tiered fee structure ($9.99 for 1-hour, $4.99 for 3-hour) signals a strategic move to cover the high variable costs of last-mile logistics without eroding overall Prime margins.
• Operational Overhaul: To hit these windows, Amazon is deploying predictive AI to pre-position inventory in smaller urban facilities, effectively turning its same-day hubs into high-velocity local storefronts.

Amazon

Today’s Change

(0.89%) $1.89

Current Price

$213.63

This Morning’s Breakfast News

7:30 am — NVDA +0.32%, UBER +2.46% in pre-market trading

Nvidia (NVDA 0.12%) closed 1.6% higher yesterday after sharing detailed progress on a host of key projects at GTC (GPU Technology Conference), including self-driving cars from Uber (UBER +4.83%) and more progress on AI software for the OpenClaw platform.

• Nvidia-powered autonomous fleet to roll out in 2027: A clear timeline was provided on taking the joint project with Uber to market, with Los Angeles and San Francisco identified as testing cities before expanding to 28 cities across four continents.
• NemoClaw platform launch boosts OpenClaw security: NemoClaw provides more privacy and security controls for customers using AI software, allowing self-evolving AI agents to be more scalable and trusted going forward.

Cellebrite’s AI Cuts Case Work to Minutes

7:15 am — CLBT unchanged in pre-market trading

Cellebrite (CLBT +2.22%) has announced early access to Genesis, a new agentic AI investigative platform designed to accelerate digital investigations for law enforcement agencies.

• AI-Powered Investigation Tool: According to Cellebrite, Genesis can convert investigative tasks from weeks to minutes using a conversation-like interface that analyzes mobile extractions, call detail records, documents, messages, images, and video.
• Targeting Public Safety Agencies: The platform is powered by Cellebrite’s AI intelligence layer built from decades of evidence analysis, aimed at helping resource-constrained agencies reinvigorate cold cases and strengthen investigations into narcotics, human trafficking, and crimes against children.
• 

  Cellebrite

  Today’s Change

  (2.22%) $0.32

  Current Price

  $14.72

ICYMI: Monday’s Scoreboard

6:30 am — EXEL unchanged in pre-market trading

Exelixis (EXEL +1.85%) was the subject of the latest Scoreboard video.

Storage Over Sedans: Tesla Shifts Focus

6:00 am — TSLA -0.37% in pre-market trading

Tesla (TSLA +0.81%) and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution have finalized a $4.3 billion agreement to construct a massive lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery factory in Lansing, Michigan. Confirmed by the U.S. government on Monday, the deal repurposes a former GM site to produce prismatic cells specifically for Tesla’s “Megapack 3” utility-scale storage systems. This strategic pivot allows Tesla to bypass heavy tariffs on Chinese-made batteries while scaling its fastest-growing segment—energy storage—which saw deployments hit a record 14.2 GWh in Q4 2025. By anchoring production in Michigan, Tesla gains a tariff-free, domestic supply chain that ensures its energy division can maintain 20%+ growth even as its automotive arm faces a cyclical slowdown.

• Supply Chain Sovereignty: The Lansing facility, slated for a 2027 ramp-up, ends Tesla’s heavy reliance on Chinese giant CATL for LFP chemistry, a move that secures federal tax credits for its commercial and residential energy buyers.
• Storage Over Sedans: With 2025 energy revenue jumping 27% to $12.8 billion, this multi-year deal provides the revenue visibility needed to offset current headwinds in the traditional EV market.

Rocket Acquisitions Running Ahead of Plan

5:15 am — RKT -0.34% in pre-market trading

Rocket’s (RKT +1.25%) Q4 25 results were fueled by lower rates. They generated $2.4 billion in adj revenue and $.11 in diluted EPS. They did $50 billion in loan volume in Q4 25 as rates moved toward 6%. The last time they did that volume was Q2 22 and it took twice as many people. The acquisitions of Mr. Cooper and Redfin are ahead of schedule and they inked a big partnership with Compass (COMP +2.98%), adding 340,000 agents to Redfin’s network. Rocket is built for the cycle as their servicing biz generates $5 billion in cash when rates are high. As rates drop, refinance activity kicks in. We are due for a strong spring season!

Before the Opening Bell

5:00 am

Stock futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are retreating Tuesday morning as the “AI glow” from Nvidia (NVDA 0.12%) is eclipsed by a hawkish Federal Reserve. Despite Jensen Huang’s staggering forecast of $1 trillion in chip sales by 2027, broader sentiment is buckling under a 99.1% probability that the Fed will hold interest rates steady on Wednesday. Traders are increasingly wary that the recent spike in Brent crude to $103 per barrel—fueled by escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran—is embedding inflation into the economy. This energy shock is complicating the Fed’s “dot plot” projections, leading investors to dump futures as they price out any realistic chance of a rate cut before the fourth quarter.

• Nvidia’s Narrow Rally: While the “Vera Rubin” chip announcement initially buoyed tech, the rally failed to broaden out to the rest of the market, leaving index futures vulnerable to the drag of the energy and industrial sectors.
• The Fed’s Inflation Trap: With the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showing signs of stickiness due to war-related fuel costs, futures traders are bracing for a Fed statement that may signal “higher for longer,” a scenario that traditionally punishes high-multiple growth stocks.