In today’s briefing:
- Smartkarma Webinar | Promoting Sustainability in ASEAN: Rise of the Green Economy
- AMD. Adding $6 Billion Buyback & Authorizing 78% Increase In Share Count. But Why?
- Gold About To Lose Its Shine?
- Global base oils margins outlook: Week of 19 May
- Global base oils arb outlook: Week of 19 May
- Expecting a Test of All-Time Highs; Crypto (MSTR, HOOD, BTDR) And Quantum (QBTS, IONQ, RGTI) Leading
- RERE: 1Q25 Earnings
- ReAlpha Tech Corp – AIRE: 1Q25 Revenue Ramps, With Peak Homebuying Activity Still Ahead
- SUUN: Reports Q3 results
- UHAL: U-Haul Holding Company to Report 4Q and full-year FY2025 results on May 28th after the close conference call on May 29th at 11 AM ET.
Smartkarma Webinar | Promoting Sustainability in ASEAN: Rise of the Green Economy
In the next installment of our Webinar series, in collaboration with ASEAN Exchanges, we go live with Smartkarma Insight Provider Sharmila Whelan.
Due to the region’s fast-growing urban areas and proximity to coastal regions, ASEAN is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Even as countries in ASEAN pursue economic growth, these efforts cannot be isolated from a focus on sustainability. Achieving sustainable growth will open the doors to not just unprecedented, future-forward opportunities, but also large-scale risks and challenges that demand innovative solutions.
- Understanding the myriad benefits that a green economy brings, ASEAN countries have taken several steps to accelerate their green transition.
Join us as Sharmila Whelan shares her thoughts on ASEAN’s energy transition, discussing carbon emission trends, national clean energy policies, green financing progress, and the region’s fastest ESG adopters.
The webinar will be hosted on Wednesday, 4 June 2025, 16:30 SGT/HKT.
Sharmila Whelan is a seasoned Global Geopolitical-Macro Strategist with nearly three decades of experience advising buy-side clients on multi-asset investment strategies and asset allocations. Her career has been defined by her differentiated thinking, a deep understanding of the interlinkages between global geopolitics, macro and policy dynamics and Austrian business cycle approach to economic analysis. Sharmila has extensive experience in both developed and emerging markets, particularly in China and India, and a proven track record of accurately forecasting investment risks and opportunities ahead of consensus.
AMD. Adding $6 Billion Buyback & Authorizing 78% Increase In Share Count. But Why?
- Following its AGM on May 13 last, AMD announced a new $6 billion share repurchase program, despite still having $4 billion remaining on the previous buyback program
- The AGM also approved a proposal to authorize a 78% increase in the company’s share count, from 2.25 billion to 4 billion shares
- It’s a bold move on AMD’s part and it reawakens memories of the company’s acquisition of Xilinx back in 2022 in a $35 billion all stock deal. Deja vu ?
Gold About To Lose Its Shine?
- The latest BofA survey showed that the consensus trade continues to be “long gold” with 58% of participants surveyed, followed by only 22% “long mag 7”.
- According to the analysis, gold is now more overvalued than ever before (since data was recorded in 2008). At the same time, positioning in the US dollar fell to a 19-year low.
- The positioning in gold is even that extreme that it pulled the entire commodity basket up with it – relative to equities.
Global base oils margins outlook: Week of 19 May
- Global base oils prices hold firm vs feedstock/competing fuel prices even as they edge lower.
- Firm base oils values point to tight supply-demand fundamentals, incentivize refiners to maintain high output.
- Base oils values hold firm ahead of typical seasonal slowdown in demand in coming weeks in Asia, and from start of Q3 in Europe/US.
Global base oils arb outlook: Week of 19 May
- US Group II base oils price-premium to vacuum gasoil trends higher in recent weeks compared with Q1 2025, even with dip in premium in mid-May.
- Group II domestic/export price premium trends higher after holding in relatively narrow range from mid-Nov 2024 to end-Q1 2025.
- Narrow range contrasts with steeper fall in Group II export price-premium to VGO in Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, followed by sharper recovery from end-Q1 2024.
Expecting a Test of All-Time Highs; Crypto (MSTR, HOOD, BTDR) And Quantum (QBTS, IONQ, RGTI) Leading
- The market remains relentlessly strong, shrugging off the latest “bearish” headline regarding Moody’s U.S. debt downgrade on Friday.
- This is exactly what we would expect to happen in a bull market, particularly during this “lockout rally,” and helps confirm our bullish outlook.
- Our outlook will remain bullish as long as the SPX is above 5500, while short-term gap support is at 5700-5785. We expect a test of all-time highs soon.
RERE: 1Q25 Earnings
- Key 1Q25 takeaways include: 1) rising trade-in activity continues to drive growth, powerful lead indicators around ongoing government subsidies on new mobile phones, accelerating momentum with JD.com, and continued growth in AHS offline stores 2) more recent initiatives to enhance AHS Recycle’s brand, with a focus on the company’s comprehensive suite of services and competitive pricing, likely further stimulates growth in 1P business volumes and related contributions and 3) while management remains focused on reinvesting in the business to further accelerate top line growth, we look for senior officials to increasingly return excess capital to shareholders as profitability continues to scale via ongoing share repurchases and the potential for introducing a regular quarterly dividend in the not-too-distant future.
ReAlpha Tech Corp – AIRE: 1Q25 Revenue Ramps, With Peak Homebuying Activity Still Ahead
- GTG Financial was acquired in late February 2025 and so did not make a full quarter impact on AIRE’s consolidated results.
- Even so, since closing the acquisition during the quarter, GTG contributed to originating 36 mortgages in 1Q25, representing total loan volume of about $22.4m.
- 2Q25 – with peak homebuying activity underway – will mark the first quarter with full GTG contribution.
SUUN: Reports Q3 results
- SolarBank has positioned itself as a vertically integrated energy firm offering solar, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and other forms of power development services, EPC services, Operations & Maintenance services, and operates as an independent power producer (IPP).
- Despite the apparent shift in US Energy policy at the Federal level, demand for renewable energy remains robust at the state, provincial, and local levels.
- Increased energy demand from data centers, renewed domestic manufacturing, and EV penetration should all increase solar demand.
UHAL: U-Haul Holding Company to Report 4Q and full-year FY2025 results on May 28th after the close conference call on May 29th at 11 AM ET.
- U-Haul Holding Company is the parent company of U-Haul International, the world’s largest consumer truck and trailer rental company.
- U-Haul is also the third largest self-storage operator in North America.
- U-Haul benefited from a step up in top-line demand for self-moving services during the pandemic, namely in FY2021 and FY2022.
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