🤖 AI Shockwaves, Battery Costs Drop, $600B Chip Crunch ⚙️
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Edition #144
Investing Unlocks: How to Capitalize on the Hot Topics From The Last 7 Days
We analyze recent trends and opportunities, offering strategic insights that help you manage risks and identify growth opportunities for your portfolio.
📉 Stocks Slide on AI Shock
Stocks posted their worst week since November as AI disruption fears swept across markets. Tech stocks saw sharp volatility, which spilled into industrials, financials and other sectors. Consumer inflation slowed, helping temper rate concerns even as broader risk appetite weakened.
Investors will focus on housing starts and existing home sales, along with the latest FOMC meeting minutes and fresh inflation signals that could shape rate cut expectations.
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Canterra Minerals (TSX-V: CTM, OTCQB: CTMCF) is advancing a fully-funded 10,000-metre drill program across its 55 km copper-gold corridor in Newfoundland.
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Hot Topics
Warner Bros. Discovery Eyes Renewed Discussions With Paramount
Morgan Stanley Sees Bitcoin Miners As Wider Infrastructure Plays
$900B Saudi Public Investment Fund Targets 5-Year AI, Tourism Push
Alphabet Launches Bonds in Sterling, Swiss Francs Amid Huge Demand
Investing Data Story
Brazil’s crop exports remain near record highs in 2025, keeping potash demand strong and proving its essential role in global food production.
Potash Demand Remains Strong as Brazil Delivers Record Crops
The Battery Storage Opportunity
Utility-scale battery capacity has grown 12x since 2020, according to the IEA, with installation costs down 40% since 2024 and continued price declines expected. This isn’t speculative; deployment is accelerating in Texas and California, where grid reliability pressures are acute.
These batteries provide short-term flexibility, storing excess solar and wind power during the day and dispatching it during evening demand peaks or weather disruptions, a growing need as renewable penetration increases.
But supply chain concentration in China creates both risk and opportunity. North American investors should watch two categories:
Western supply chain developers (battery manufacturers, lithium processors, component makers outside China) may benefit from diversification efforts
Integration and services companies (installers, grid management software, project developers) that aren’t dependent on manufacturing
Multi-year delays in securing grid connections and permitting mean the growth trajectory isn’t smooth, and companies face execution risk even in a favorable market.
Best suited for investors focused on:
Long-term energy transition themes (5-10 year horizon)
Infrastructure investments with government policy tailwinds
Diversification away from traditional energy utilities
The technology works, the economics are improving, but timing implementation remains uncertain. Monitor rather than chase.
Earnings Performance
Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (NYSE: BUD)
Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (NYSE: BUD) delivered solid Q4 2024 results with EPS of $0.95, beating estimates of $0.91, while full-year 2024 revenue reached $59.32 billion with organic growth of 2% despite a 2.6% decline in beer volumes. The company achieved a significant deleveraging milestone, bringing net debt-to-EBITDA below 3.0x for the first time since 2015, which enabled management to enhance shareholder returns through a $2 billion share buyback program and a 22% dividend increase to €1 per share.
Free cash flow remained robust at $11.3 billion in FY25, matching the prior year’s strong performance and demonstrating consistent cash generation capabilities despite macroeconomic pressures.
Overall sentiment is cautiously optimistic, with analysts recognizing the company’s strong fundamentals, improved financial position, and growth potential, while remaining watchful of volume pressures and macroeconomic headwinds.
Other Earnings Updates
Ford (NYSE: F): Novelis Disruption Masks Underlying Strength
Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD): Misses Revenue Targets; Stock Drops
Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN): Q4 2025 Revenue Misses Expectations
Investing Data Story
In 2025, gold demand flipped. As consumer appetite faded, investors and central banks took control—and miners started betting on higher prices.
The Great Gold Pivot: Why Miners Are Betting on Higher Prices
Analyst Strong Buy Ratings This Week! 📈
Looking for stocks with strong analyst backing? These companies have earned top-tier "Strong Buy" ratings from analysts, signaling potential upside for investors.
Whether you’re eyeing small-to-mid cap opportunities in the U.S. and Canada or want to stick with trusted S&P 500 blue-chip picks, this list highlights stocks that experts believe could outperform.
🔍 Do your research and see if any of these fit your portfolio!
The AI Chip Crunch
A new semiconductor crisis is emerging, driven by AI data center demand for advanced memory chips. Unlike the pandemic-era shortage, this one could last until 2027-2028.
What’s Happening: Memory makers are prioritizing high-bandwidth memory for AI over chips for consumer devices. SK Hynix and Micron are facing severe supply constraints, while Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year, (the first year in 3 decades!) due to the deepening global shortage of memory chips.
Investor Impact:
Device makers (Apple, Dell, HP): Memory price hikes could squeeze margins or force price increases.
Memory winners (Micron, SK Hynix): Multi-year revenue visibility with premium pricing.
AI supply chain (NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC, ASML): Extended pricing power continues.
Equipment makers (Applied Materials, Lam Research): Benefiting from more than $600B in announced U.S. semiconductor ecosystem investments since 2020.
Consumer tech: Potential headwinds from higher costs and constrained supply.
Bottom Line: This isn’t temporary. It’s a structural shift, favoring memory and AI infrastructure plays for 2-3 years.