In today’s briefing:
- Intel Offloads Altera Majority Stake At Steep Discount
- Asia base oils supply outlook: Week of 14 April
- Expecting SPX Rally to Fizzle at 5490-5500 or 5785; Still Bearish/Cautious and Defensive
- Global base oils margins outlook: Week of 14 April
- Americas/EMEA base oils demand outlook: Week of 14 April
- Asia base oils demand outlook: Week of 14 April
- BSEM: Revenue and Earnings Blow Away Estimates
- Global base oils arb outlook: Week of 14 April
- ENSC: Positive Overdose Protection Data
- Featherless.ai secures US$5M to make AI inference faster and cheaper | e27
Intel Offloads Altera Majority Stake At Steep Discount
- Intel yesterday announced that it was selling a 51% stake of its Altera business to Silver Lake for $4.46 billion
- The deal values Altera at $8.75 billion, roughly half what Intel paid to acquire the company over a decade ago
- Altera’s CEO, Intel veteran Sandra Rivera, will be replaced with a new CEO, Raghib Hussain, formerly president of Products and Technologies at Marvell
Asia base oils supply outlook: Week of 14 April
- Asia’s base oils prices surge relative to feedstock and gasoil prices.
- Surge in margins include light-grade base oils, for which supply is more readily available.
- Increasingly high margins and closed arbitrage to other markets by contrast points to tight supply.
Expecting SPX Rally to Fizzle at 5490-5500 or 5785; Still Bearish/Cautious and Defensive
- Since late-February(2/25/25) we were expecting an 8-10% pullback to provide a buying opportunity.However,after getting the 10%+ pullback, we discussed 4/1/25 that we no longer saw it as a buying opportunity
- We downgraded our outlook to bearish/cautious. We then discussed last week(4/8/25)how it was a logical spot for a local bottom to develop at 4800-4820 on SPX and $402-$412 on QQQ.
- A rally sparked from there, but we now are looking for SPX rally to fizzle, either here at 5490-5500 (20-day MA) or the 200-day MA (currently 5754) or 5785 level
Global base oils margins outlook: Week of 14 April
- Global base oils prices rise sharply vs feedstock/gasoil prices.
- Price premiums climb at time of year when they typically rise strongly in response to firmer supply-demand fundamentals.
- Rise in price premiums in April 2025 coincides with slump in crude oil prices.
Americas/EMEA base oils demand outlook: Week of 14 April
- US base oils demand could face more pressure from concern about growing disconnect between base oils prices and crude oil and feedstock prices.
- Widening base oil premium to feedstock and diesel prices points to sudden improvement in demand and tightening supply.
- Timing of surge in base oils premium suggests it is linked more to slump in crude oil prices than to marked change in supply-demand fundamentals.
Asia base oils demand outlook: Week of 14 April
- Asia’s base oils demand likely to be more muted as unusually extreme market volatility boosts incentive for buyers to keep inventories at lower levels.
- Uncertainty about outlook and sharp fall in crude oil prices so far this month add to incentive to hold back.
- Blenders could face lower-than-usual inventories at start of Q2 2025 because of tight supply and firm demand in Q1 2025.
BSEM: Revenue and Earnings Blow Away Estimates
- BioStem Technologies is a leading innovator focused on harnessing the natural properties of perinatal tissue in the development, manufacture, and commercialization of allografts for regenerative therapies.
- The company announced its 4Q and full year 2024 results.
- The company continues to execute at a high level by posting record revenue and earnings that beat expectations.
Global base oils arb outlook: Week of 14 April
- US base oils export price discount to Asia base oils prices stays wide so far this year.
- Wide price discount facilitates shipment of surplus supplies to markets like India.
- US base oils and lube exports to India surge in Feb 2025, reflecting that dynamic.
ENSC: Positive Overdose Protection Data
- Ensysce Biosciences is committed to finding a solution to the opioid crisis plaguing the US and other developed countries around the world.
- Through its proprietary TAAP technology Ensysce is in the process of receiving approval for an abuse-resistant yet still pain-relieving opioid.
- The company announced that data from its study of its overdose protection drug showed the compound to be effective and safe-furthering the case for FDA approval of this much-needed treatment.
Featherless.ai secures US$5M to make AI inference faster and cheaper | e27
Featherless.ai, a US-based serverless AI inference platform, has raised US$5 million in seed funding.
The investment comes from a notable list of global investors, including Airbus Ventures, 500 Global, Kickstart Ventures, HF0, Panache Ventures, and Oakseed Ventures.
With the new funding, Featherless.ai intends to advance research and development into next-generation AI architectures to lower inference costs, potentially enabling AI deployment on lower-cost hardware.
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