Online search giant and ascendant AI services leader Alphabet Inc (tickers: $Alphabet(GOOG)$, $Alphabet(GOOGL)$ ) – better known as "Google" – released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 results on the 4th of February, a decidedly pivotal moment when investments in AI technology and returns from thereof are under heavy scrutiny in this market. Trends indicate that, on balance and relative to the overall mood prevalent in the market, it could best be described as either “so-so” or reassuring, depending on what investors are looking to find within the results. Trend Analysis Google's top and bottom lines show, i.e. revenue and diluted earnings per share (EPS) – are showing trends that have been consistent since 202

Chipmaker Nvidia Corporation ($NVIDIA(NVDA)$) shows – once again – solid results for the third quarter (Q3) of its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 in its release after markets closed on the 19th of November, leading to the customary uptick in the post-trading session and the pre-trading session the next day estimated to be mostly from Asian and European investors. American investors – on the other hand – likely wouldn't gloam on to the stock with the same enthusiasm, despite the trends in key line items.  Trend Analysis Relative to the trends seen during Q2, there have been a few subtle shifts in product category trends:  "Compute and Networking" has pulled back from 92% to that seen in FY 2025 while its operating income share remains largely unch

The release of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (ticker: $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ ) third quarter (Q3) results for its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 on the 16th of October 2025 prompted different market reactions in the U.S. vis-à-vis its Taiwan-listed ticker (“2330.TW”): While the Taiwan-listed ticker soared before moderating in the present week, the U.S.-listed ticker (wherein each ADS comprises of 5 ordinary shares) showed a distinctly bearish flavour. The factors behind this are directly related to the outlook on AI chip buy-ins as well as the ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions. Trend Analysis Taiwanese investors weren’t entirely unjustified, as trends in the year till date indicate relative to the previous FY. As of the fir

China's e-commerce and tech giant Alibaba (ticker: $Alibaba(BABA)$) – officially known as "Alibaba Group Holding Limited" – witnessed a price surge after it released the earnings results for the first quarter (Q1) for its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. The price surge was mostly attributed to its advances in capturing AI spends.  This surge might be somewhat overstating the advances made by the company.  Trend Drilldown In 2023, the company's management moved to consolidate into six distinct entities that could possibly be spun out into six separate companies/tickers. While the logistics arm – Cainiao – worked on an IPO since, the plan was dropped early in 2024. In Q1 2026, the “6 entities” plan has been effectively dissolved.  As of FY 202

Given that some analysts estimate that half of all AI infrastructure capital expenditures end up in the purchase of its products and services, American/Taiwanese chipmaker Nvidia Inc ( $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ ) was expected to show pretty solid results for the second quarter (Q2) of its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 that ended on July 31, 2025. While it did precisely that by delivering revenue: of $46.74 billion versus a LSEG-polled estimate of $46.06 billion and adjusted Earnings Per Share of $1.05 versus an estimate of $1.01, the stock's price went on to show weakness in after-markets trading.  There are a number of factors behind this. Trend Drilldown Across its product categories, the corporate-demanded "Compute and Networking" segment far eclipses the ga

Market-leading chipmaker Nvidia, Inc ( $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ ) walked up to its first quarter (Q1) earnings for its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 on the 28th of May with a warning that its total revenues will be taking a hit after the U.S. administration continued with a largely-bipartisan effort enacted over the course of the past five years to restrict sales of advanced technology to China by including its "China-specific" H20 chips with immediate effect. In the fortnight leading up to the Q1 2026 earnings release, the company's stock essentially held steady around the $124 level attained on the 14th of May. Traded volumes shrunk back from the highs seen in early April after President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs were announced and followed by tightening c

When Tesla, Inc ( $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ ) reported its first quarter (Q1) 2025 results on the 22nd of April, the company’s top and bottom lines both missed aggregate LSEG expectations, with reported revenue of $19.34 billion versus expectations of $21.11 billion and earnings per share of $0.27 cents (adjusted) versus expectations of $0.39. However, market reactions were decidedly different. If the S&P 500 ($S&P 500(.SPX)$) was to be considered as a proxy for broad market sentiment, then the conviction in Tesla’s stock can be summarized thus: in the week leading up to the earnings, broad market volumes mostly trumped that in Tesla. On the day before the earnings release and subsequently till the end

On the 17th of April, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$) – the principal foundry for both Nvidia and AMD chips – announced its Q1 results. By all accounts, the company did well with 839.25 billion New Taiwan dollars (NT$) in revenue versus expectations of NT$ 835.13 billion and a net income of NT$361.56 billion versus an expectation of NT$354.14 billion. However, the general investing public hasn't been very enthusiastic about the stock over and above general market sentiment despite these solid earnings.  In fact, it displayed a near-constant underperformance relative to the broad market S&P 500 ($S&P 500(.SPX)$ ) both in the lead

As President Donald J. Trump emerged victorious in the 2024 election and prepared to begin his second term, his team informed European officials that he expects their respective countries to spend at least 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on building military capabilities.  As of 2024, it was estimated that virtually every country – even the U.S. – fell short of this target.  However, it bears noting that the U.S.' spending is significantly higher than that of almost every one of its European allies combined. Additionally, given the significant deployment of U.S. military assets over in Europe to buttress its defense from threats, it is intuitively logical that Europe could ideally stand to be more invested in its own defense (and an idea supported by many a U.S. think ta

The 2nd of April 2025 was proclaimed by President Trump as “Liberation Day” wherein the U.S. government announced a host of sweeping tariff hikes across the board with all of America's trading partners. These tariffs announced were by far the most sweeping set of hikes announced since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Perhaps, that which boggled the minds of most economists were the claims made about the "casus belli": tariffs being levied by other countries on U.S. goods, examples of which were shown to the media on a board wherein the first column were the names of select countries, the second column was titled "Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers" and the third column was titled "U.S.A. Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs".Source: White H

While American chipmaker Nvidia's ($NVIDIA(NVDA)$) earnings release for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 2025), that ended on the last day of January 2025, was positive as expected, the market's reaction was rather cool. On the day of the earnings release – the 25th of February – the stock had dipped 2.8% from the previous day's close. On the 26th, however, it rose 3.7% - essentially marking a mere 1% premium. On the 27th, it fell a staggering 8.5%.  Line item trends, while extremely encouraging at first blush, are heavy with nuance that seemingly explains why the majority of major market participants are "politely positive" as opposed to "uproariously bullish" on the stock's forward outlook. Trend Drilldown In overall terms, revenue trends are positive

China's Amazon equivalent (and a lot more), Alibaba Group Holding Limited ($Alibaba(BABA)$) is dual listed as an "American Depositary Share" in U.S. bourses and as a stock ($BABA-W(09988)$) in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). The company's earnings release on the 20th of February marked the first three quarters ("9M") for its Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 2025). The resulting effect on the two tickers is fascinating: on the 20th, the U.S. ticker rose by 8% while the HKEX ticker fell by 3% over the previous day's close. On the 21st, both tickers rose by 6% and 15% respectively. On the 22nd, they fell by 10% and 2% respectively.  This form of performance imputed on a high-conviction mega-stock clearly

Since the release of its earnings for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 on the 13th of February through the 20th, the stock price of global cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc ($Coinbase Global, Inc.(COIN)$) has dropped by almost 14%. Going by line item trends, this flies in the face of overall trends.  Trend Drilldown Net revenues in FY 2024 saw a solid 115% increase in year-on-year (YoY) terms, along with some interesting line item trends being confirmed. Stablecoins see a retreat in revenue contributions, leading to a 11% reduction in the contribution of "Subscription and Services" to net revenue. "Transactions", meanwhile, saw a staggering 162% increase in revenues being contributed in early signs of 2022's highs hovering into sight for this segment

Server and storage solution manufacturer Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: $SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC(SMCI)$) – better known as "Supermicro" – has been having a rough time of late. In October last year, their long-time auditor Ernst & Young ended their association, stating that it no longer had confidence in management’s statements and no longer wanted to be associated with the financial reports prepared. The company reported a month later that it has now retained BDO USA as its auditor to stay compliant with listing requirements at Nasdaq. Ernst & Young's decision was preceded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) opening an investigation into the company following an exposé alleging "accounting manipulation" by now-defunct s