Gold prices held firm on Thursday after falling as much as 1 percent the previous day, with tensions surrounding North Korea and the upcoming French presidential election driving safe-haven demand. Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,278.74 per ounce at 0756 GMT. Sentiment around geopolitical issues is really playing on people’s minds,” said Spencer Campbell, general manager with Kaloti Precious Metals in Singapore. “We are seeing a lot more physical purchasing, with shops seeing a 100-percent

4 Hours AgoRenewable energy and clean technologies can help the U.S. grow, create jobs and make money, said the pilot who flew a solar-powered plane around the world.

Asian shares traded sideways on Thursday, following key earnings on Wall Street and as oil prices came off two-week lows set earlier in the session. Brent crude was up by 0.72 percent to trade at $53.31 a barrel while U.S. crude rose 0.65 percent at $50.77. The first round of the tight French presidential election this weekend could influence movements in euro/dollar, said IG Chief Market Strategist Christ Weston in a Thursday morning note. I would however favor euro appreciation here and a brie

Trader Guy Adami said he likes Qualcomm and that the stock is “way too cheap.” Qualcomm shares closed at $53.75 on Wednesday and jumped 2 percent in extended trading after the company beat earnings expectations. Grasso is long stock BABA, CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, VRX. Karen is long AAL, BAC, BAC short calls, C, DAL, EEM, EPI, EWW, DVYE, FB, FL, GLMP, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, GS calls, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, TACO, WFM. Her firm is

Certify, which tracks millions of business expenses says the number of corporate travelers expensing rides with Uber grew by just 1 percent in the first quarter of 2017. Uber continues to dominate the ride-share business for corporate travelers, far outpacing its rival Lyft. The good news for Lyft posted slightly faster growth in business travel expenses, up 2 percent, than Uber in the first quarter. However, analysis of corporate expenses shows those traveling for business are renting cars less

Still, the company could take some hints from three companies whose strong comebacks were lost amid the IBM-related chaos: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart. And although Cramer prefers PepsiCo because of its booming snack business, he said Coca-Cola’s strong balance sheet and juicy 3.4 percent yield makes it an attractive bet. And with a 2.75 percent yield, the consumer play paid investors to wait for the comeback. You need to be patient, so I say hold onto your IBM, because they can still ge

On the topic of tech, Cramer spoke with the Ori Hadomi, CEO of Israeli company Mazor Robotics, which has been developing groundbreaking technology that helps doctors perform spine surgeries. Cramer also looked into turmoil in the pharmaceutical sector stemming from the FDA’s rejection of a key rheumatoid arthritis drug developed by Incyte in partnership with Eli Lilly. “Yes, both Incyte and its partner Eli Lilly did deserve to go down on the news. But at these levels, I think these stocks are wo

As semiconductor stocks rally off supplier Lam Research’s strongearnings report, Jim Cramer took to the charts of three major chipmakers for a closer look at the sector’s big winners. The “Mad Money” host turned to Strategic Portfolio Solutions’ Suz Smith for her take on the daily charts of Microchip Technology, Micron, and Advanced Micro Devices, three high-performing semiconductor plays. “In the case of Microchip, Smith says we’re dealing with a stock that has very strong institutional ownersh

During the quarter, Qualcomm saw revenue in its licensing division grow 5 percent from a year ago, to $2.25 billion. Revenues for its technology division grew 10 percent from a year ago, to $3.68 billion. Analysts surveyed by StreetAccount expected the licensing division to report $2.24 billion in revenue, and the technology division to report $3.56 billion. Plus there’s the burgeoning self-driving car industry, which Qualcomm hopes to enter with its $38 billion agreement to acquire NXP Semicond

Amazon and Oracle don’t much like each other. On Wednesday, two months after Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd called Amazon’s cloud infrastructure “old” and claimed his company was gaining share, Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy slammed Oracle for locking customers into painfully long and expensive contracts. Now, Jassy says, it’s about choice and ease of use, including letting clients turn things off if they’re not working. AWS has emerged as the dominant supplier of cloud technology, with a bigger

Morgan Stanley’s research team shared its favorite stock picks where the firm’s analysts have a fundamental outlook significantly different from the Wall Street consensus. “We highlight 12 names for which Morgan Stanley research analysts have high conviction going into earnings season,” the research team wrote in a report to clients Wednesday. “For each of these stocks, our analyst has high conviction in a view that diverges from the Street’s, and expects a near-term event to drive the stock.” T

The current and former U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the Russian documents’ classified status. Putin’s spokesman and the Russian institute did not respond to requests for comment. The report said Russia Today and Sputnik “consistently cast president elect-Trump as the target of unfair coverage from traditional media outlets.” Cyber attacksNeither of the Russian institute documents mentioned the release of hacked Democratic Party emails to interfere with the U.S. elect

Within minutes of the announcement, consumers who follow the BBC’s Facebook page received an automated digital alert, delivered via the social network’s Messenger service. And the bot, generated automatically by a piece of software from The Bot Platform, a London-based startup, didn’t stop at delivering the news. A correct answer to the BBC survey question in turn generated a short GIF animation showing U.K. foreign minister Boris Johnson cheering the news consumer’s political knowledge. The ent

The tech world just witnessed a robbery. Mr. Zuckerberg realized early on that the most important thing in his business was not necessarily creating the best new features. Then Facebook was going to get a run for its money from every other social network — Twitter, Pinterest and more. Mr. Spiegel refused — but perhaps he should have taken a closer look at the networks Mr. Zuckerberg was assembling. In other words, Mr. Zuckerberg has done it again; he has neutralized yet another rival.

Augmented reality (AR) – where digital images are overlaid on the real world – was front and center of the opening day of Facebook’s F8 developers’ conference. While it is technology that is in its infancy, it could be a big growth driver for the social networking giant. At the end of last year, Facebook’s chief financial officer David Wehner warned that ad revenue would slow “meaningfully” in 2017 because ad load was getting saturated. Ad load refers to the ratio of ads to personal posts. But s

If you’re looking into artificial intelligence, IBM might be a different pick from stocks you already own, Ark Invest analyst James Wang said Wednesday. “IBM we think is a legit differentiated pick,” Wang said on “Squawk Box.” “If you’re going to invest in artificial intelligence, as a theme there is one great horizontal play, and that’s Google … and there’s a great vertical play, and that’s IBM.” The disappointing quarterly report comes as the company transitions from its traditional business

But on Tuesday, he signed an executive order that did just that. In Kenosha, Trump drew a bright line on the H-1B visa: It “should include only the most skilled and highest-paid applicants and should never, ever be used to replace American workers.” And now, with this executive order, it’s declared that the H-1B visa is a top enemy of the pledge to “Hire American.” The executive order doesn’t change H-1B policy on its own, and it doesn’t set a timeline for when the review will be completed. Fund

Internet regulators in China’s capital plan to summon Apple to urge the American firm to tighten its checks on software applications available in its Apple Store, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday. The Beijing Cyberspace Administration, together with the Beijing Public Security Bureau and Beijing Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Team, has already met representatives from Apple about the examination of live streaming apps from its app store, Xinhua said. The U.S.

A new picture of a purported schematic for the Apple iPhone 8 suggests Apple is going to make some drastic changes to the location of the fingerprint reader. The rendering shows Apple may move the fingerprint reader to the back of the phone, while also adding a dual-camera module that sits vertically on the back of the phone. First, Pacific Crest Securities’ Andy Hargreaves said on Tuesday that Apple is facing supply chain headwinds that may force it to ditch the fingerprint reader altogether. T

UBS said Wednesday that Apple is planning to cut its royalty payments to Imagination Technologies by as much two-thirds over the coming months. Imagination Technologies said earlier this month that Apple will no longer use its graphics chips in the iPhone, iPad and iPod products. That move could simply prolong the death of Imagination Technologies. Jefferies said earlier this month that Apple could also consider buying Imagination Technologies, especially following the company’s quick decline in