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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Big American companies are piling up profits despite war and consumer anxiety, bolstered by healthy sales growth.With just over one-fourth of S&P 500 companies reporting results for the first quarter, Wall Street’s expectations for earnings suggest big U.S. companies are far healthier than wider economic concerns might indicate.“Earnings growth has been exceptional,” said Parag Thatte, an equity strategist for Deutsche Bank. “We’re seeing the broadening of earnings growth beyond just tech and financial” firms.War in the Middle East had led economists to rein in growth projections for the year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Kenneth Andrade, chief investment officer (CIO) of Old Bridge Mutual Fund and founder director of Old Bridge Capital Management, who views investing as a journey where one pays ‘tuition fees’ through market cycles, believes that opportunities never really dry up.“There’s always a stock or sector to be found,” he said.He notes opportunities have become easier to spot recently, though that wasn’t the case in 2024 and early 2025. With valuations now normalised, he expects more modest returns, likely in the low teens over a longer cycle.“I think most of the worst is already priced in. If a shock occurs, the opportunity will be much larger.”He said this is a phase where it makes sense to put about 50% of capital to work upfront and stagger the rest over the year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s top private-sector banks reported a marked improvement in asset quality in the March quarter, with no visible stress in their loan portfolios despite the US-Israel-Iran war.The gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio either declined sequentially or remained stable, highlighting resilient credit performance across segments, largely due to lower slippages and stabilization in microfinance portfolios.While HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, RBL Bank and Yes Bank continued to report sub-1.5% GNPA levels, others, such as IndusInd Bank and IDFC FIRST Bank, saw a moderation in stress over the previous quarter.However, the improvement hides a cautious undertone, with lenders increasingly building buffers and stress-testing their portfolios against adverse global scenarios.Axis Bank has taken the most explicit stance, frontloading provisions to prepare for potential shocks. During the fourth quarter, it created a one-time additional provision of ₹2,001 crore as part of a voluntary enhancement of its provisioning framework.“Based on an assessment of evolving and unpredictable macro and geopolitical uncertainties, the bank created an additional one-time provision…This action is prudent and precautionary in nature and does not reflect deterioration in asset quality,” chief financial officer Puneet Sharma said in the earnings call on 25 April.The bank’s internal stress scenarios assume extreme conditions, including crude oil prices exceeding $150 per barrel, inflation at 7.4%, and a 20% currency depreciation in 2026-27.“Based on some of these test scenarios, we look at which accounts could go into NPL…and based on that, this number is right.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Private credit has had a good start. There is growing demand from corporate borrowers for faster credit decisions, customization of the loan structure and possible flexibility in repayment terms. Except a few exemplar banks, most still take 30-75 days for corporate loan underwriting, while they find it challenging to customize loans or offer flexible payments for regulatory reasons.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 2023 things were not looking good for Justin Sun, a billionaire crypto-mogul. The Securities and Exchange Commission had accused him of fraud. The regulator claimed that the companies he founded and controlled had issued unregistered securities (two crypto tokens, Tron and BitTorrent); had manipulated the markets in those securities by “wash trading” to make the tokens look active and useful; and had paid celebrities to endorse them without disclosing they were being compensated.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—President Trump scrapped a trip by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran, leaving himself tough choices over how to force Iran to make concessions the White House wants to strike a deal.Trump said on Saturday that he had decided to cancel the trip after receiving an offer from Iran that fell short of the White House’s expectations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A few days ago, an American software engineer named Sterling Crispin built a bot and set it loose on Polymarket.If you haven’t heard of it, Polymarket is where people bet real money on whether future events will happen. Will a country invade another? Will there be a major technology breakthrough this year? Thousands bet on such questions daily, each convinced their news reading gives them an edge.Crispin’s bot does something almost laughably simple: it bets “No” on every single prediction. Automatically.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The AI hack we unlocked today is based on: Skills in Chrome.Here’s a situation most of us don’t notice because we’ve accepted it as normal: you craft a great AI prompt that works perfectly—say, one that extracts key information from any product page. It works.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Inventurus Knowledge Solutions (IKS Health) aims to be the leader in the US rural healthcare outsourcing market after its acquisition of TruBridge on Thursday, its top executive said.“IKS is in the business of taking away or outsourcing chore tasks from healthcare providers in the US, so that they could focus on their core of taking care of patients…when you look at rural healthcare and RCM (revenue cycle management) within rural healthcare, TrueBridge is the largest player by far,” IKS Health founder and global chief executive officer (CEO) Sachin Gupta told Mint in an interview. “In the rural healthcare market segment, once we combine effectively with TrueBridge, we will be the undisputed leader,” he added.A healthcare outsourcer, like IKS, handles the administrative, clinical and operational tasks, including billing, clinical documentation, and insurance claims processing.On Thursday, IKS Health announced the acquisition of US-based TruBridge Inc, a Nasdaq-listed provider of healthcare technology solutions for rural and community hospitals, for up to $565 million.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is facing its largest-ever US recall, with more than 170,000 vehicles pulled back over a critical drive power defect, an issue that, by one estimate, could cost the British luxury carmaker upwards of $130 million and dent customer confidence in a key market.The recall, triggered by a hardware fault that can lead to a complete loss of drive power, comes as the Tata Motors-owned unit grapples with the fallout of a cyberattack and higher tariffs in North America. While the financial hit is seen as manageable, analysts warn the cumulative impact of repeated disruptions and safety concerns could weigh on demand and brand perception.According to at least two independent experts, the recall could lead to multi-million dollar expenses, with one estimate pegging the impact at more than $130 million.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Trump administration announced criminal charges, sanctions and multimillion-dollar rewards aimed at combating online scams coming out of Southeast Asia and targeting Americans.The measures—some of which were directed at a Cambodian senator featured in a recent Wall Street Journal investigation into cyber-scam operations in the country—are the latest attempt by the U.S. to stem the fast-growing illicit industry.Americans alone lost $10 billion to online fraud originating from Southeast Asian nations in 2024, according to U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.This week, we’re bringing you stories about the financial impact of divorce.Olivia Kelly grew up watching her mother make her pizza and chicken enchiladas. Then, in middle school, her parents got divorced, and the kitchen transformed into a small business.Her mother went from stay-at-home mom to working parent with a handful of side hustles. The home-cooked dinners became workweek to-go meals that friends and their nannies would buy for around $35 apiece.As Kelly’s mother changed, so did she.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.THE US-IRAN conflict has revealed something that many outside observers—and perhaps even some within—had underestimated: Iran’s strategic doctrine of resilience is not just rhetorical. For years, terms such as the “resistance economy”, “distributed deterrence” and “self-reliance under pressure” were often dismissed, both abroad and domestically, as political language rather than strategic reality. Yet in the face of sustained confrontation with a vastly superior military and economic power, these ideas have proved coherent in practice.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A few days ago, the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell apologized to the chief judge of Manhattan’s US Bankruptcy Court for a court filing with AI-hallucinated citations. Andrew Dietderich, co-head of the firm’s global restructuring group, wrote the judge that the firm’s “comprehensive policies and training requirements governing the use of AI tools” had not been followed. A secondary review process also failed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With equity markets roiled by the West Asia war and sharp swings in mid- and small-caps, investors are grappling with how to position portfolios.In an interaction with Mint, Trideep Bhattacharya, president and chief investment officer-equities, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, with average assets under management of ₹1.65 trillion in the March quarter, shares why he remains cautiously optimistic and how investors should navigate the current phase. Edited excerpts:Where do you see markets heading from here, given the recent volatility?We are incrementally positive on markets, particularly from a near-term perspective.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—The U.S. has burned through so many munitions in Iran that some administration officials increasingly assess that America couldn’t fully execute contingency plans to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion if it occurred in the near term, U.S. officials said.The U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Dorena slipped past a U.S. Navy cordon and was headed out into the Indian Ocean when it switched off its location signal and went dark.The ship, whose movements were tracked by shipping-intelligence firm Kpler, is one of hundreds of sanctions-evading ghost-fleet vessels playing a game of cat-and-mouse as the U.S. tries to lock down Iran’s oil trade and pressure the country to agree to President Trump’s terms for peace.This time, the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: India’s avocado demand is surging, but domestic supply is still playing catch-up, keeping the country reliant on imports even as local cultivation expands.Government data show imports have more than tripled in two years, rising to $42.27 million in FY26 (till February), from about $27 million in FY25 and $13.5 million in FY24. Domestic output, meanwhile, has increased more gradually—from about 6,000 tonnes in 2023 to around 9,000 tonnes in 2026, experts said.The mismatch highlights a widening gap: rising health-driven consumption is outpacing India’s nascent production base, forcing the market to lean on overseas suppliers even as farmers begin to scale up planting.The area under avocado cultivation has expanded over the years, with farmers in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim and parts of Maharashtra responding to growing urban demand.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.With high interest rates, valuation gaps, and global upheavals weighing on traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A), promoters and institutional investors are turning to the secondary market, driving block and bulk deals to a multi-year high in the January-April period despite bearish sentiment.This year, until 15 April, a total of ₹1.1 trillion changed hands in open-market trades, up 25% from ₹86,810 crore a year ago, according to data from capital markets platform Prime Database.Deven R. Choksey, founder and managing director of boutique fund DRChoksey FinServ, said that investors are using block and bulk deals to realign portfolio weights or pare long‑held positions quickly in a volatile market."What we are seeing is a clear rotation of capital.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MINING A CRYPTOCURRENCY can be an expensive business. Producing new coins, also known as tokens, can require computers to solve cryptographic puzzles, which takes large amounts of power. One way to keep costs down is to relocate mines to wherever electricity is cheapest.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A jet fuel shortage is leading airlines to cut flights, and could cause a severe slowdown in travel this summer—particularly in Europe.German carrier Lufthansa said this week it is canceling 20,000 flights from now through October, immediately reducing its flight schedule by 120 trips a day. Reductions are happening all over, including at the company’s hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels, and Rome.More than a dozen other airlines have also reduced capacity, including discount Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic, which cut flights from Los Angeles. American carriers are not in danger of running out of fuel, but U.S.