>>> US After Hours Summary: AVAV -17.5%, CRWD -9.6%, BOX -6.7% lower on earnings

After Hours Summary: AVAV -17.5%, CRWD -9.6%, BOX -6.7% lower on earnings; SWIM +18.3%, CTOS +7.7%, FLUT +1%, ROST +1% higher on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SWIM +18.3%, CTOS +7.7%, ATRO +7.7%, TXO +6.4%, EOLS +3.1%, CRDO +1.3%, FLUT +1%, ROST +1% (also increases dividend), INGM +0.8% (also initiates dividend; also $75 mln share repurchase plan in connection Imola JV), CHPT +0.5%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: GOGL +5.9% (CMBT acquires stake in GOGL), CIFR +4.8% (February operational update), ACI +4.5% (to join S&P MidCap 400), MULN +4.2% (stock offering by selling shareholders), MRNA +3.6% (CEO bought $5 mln in shares), SAGE +3.1% (CMO to step down), EOSE +2% (names new CFO), FLG +1.7% (to delay 10-K filing), SOUN +1.4% (to delay 10-K filing), AOSL +1.4% (Exec Chairman Dr. Mike F. Chang resigned), COKE +0.8% (approves 10-for-1 stock split), JPM +0.8% (files $150 bln mixed shelf securities offering), GOOG +0.7% (urges DOJ to reverse course on breaking up co, according to Bloomberg), CDNS +0.6% (SVCO acquires Process Proximity Compensation product line of CDNS), NDAQ +0.6% (Feb volume data), FIP +0.4% (to delay 10-K filing), WH +0.1% (increases dividend), XPO +0.1% (reports Feb LTL operating metrics)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: AVAV -17.5%, CRWD -9.6%, BOX -6.7%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: AJG -3.1% (to acquire Woodruff Sawyer), ED -1.7% (to offer 6.3 mln shares), LOT -1.6% (files $1.4 bln mixed shelf securities offering), MRVI -1.4% (to delay 10-K filing), AIR -0.4% (signs distribution and license agreement for PW4000 engine platforms), BNTX -0.2% (FDA places clinical hold on IND application), LOB -0.1% (to delay 10-K filing), CMBT -0.1% (CMBT acquires stake in GOGL), CGAU -0.1% (names new COO)

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 5th of March 2025

>>> Up
* Acerinox Raised at Jefferies on Product Mix, Geographic Exposure
* AUTO1 Raised to Outperform at Oddo BHF; PT 28 euros
* Barclays Raised to Outperform at BNPP Exane; PT 370 pence
* Fresnillo Raised to Buy at Banco BTG Pactual; PT 1,000 pence
* Mosaic Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT $27
* Tomra Raised to Hold at Nordea

>>> Down
* Deutsche Telekom Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 36 euros
* H&M Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 145 kronor
* Haleon Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 420 pence
* Hexagon Cut to Hold at Stifel; PT 130 kronor
* Just Eat Takeaway Cut to Neutral at Citi; PT 20.30 euros
* NatWest Cut to Neutral at BNPP Exane; PT 555 pence

>>> Initiation
* ABB Rated New Outperform at Haitong Intl; PT 64.47 Swiss francs
* BioNTech ADRs Rated New Buy at Clear Street; PT $164
* Moonpig Rated New Outperform at RBC; PT 310 pence

>>> Call
* Subsea 7 Shares Upgraded as Barclays Flags ‘Attractive Story’

>>> Stoxx 600 Pre-Market Indications

  • Hochtief (HOT TH) +11%
    • Germany Abandons Fiscal Shackles to Transform Europe’s Defenses
  • Dassault Aviation (DAU0 TH) +8.6%
  • Wienerberger (WIB TH) +6.3%
  • Thales (CSF TH) +6.3%
  • Rheinmetall (RHM TH) +5.8%
  • Heidelberg Materials (HEI TH) +5.4%
  • Rolls-Royce (RRU TH) +4.2%
  • Airbus (AIR TH) +3.9%
  • Leonardo (FMNB TH) +3.7%
  • Saab (SDV1 TH) +3.6%
  • TotalEnergies (TOTB TH) -1.1%
  • Freenet (FNTN TH) -1.7%
  • Adidas (ADS TH) -3.6%
    • *ADIDAS SEES 2025 OPER PROFIT EU1.7B TO EU1.8B, EST. EU2.04B

>>> TradeGate Pre-Market Indications

DAX:
  • Rheinmetall (RHM TH) +6.1%
    • Germany Abandons Fiscal Shackles to Transform Europe’s Defenses
  • Heidelberg Materials (HEI TH) +5.7%
  • Airbus (AIR TH) +4%
  • Daimler Truck (DTG TH) +2.9%
  • Continental (CON TH) +2.7%
  • Adidas (ADS TH) -3.2%
    • *ADIDAS SEES 2025 OPER PROFIT EU1.7B TO EU1.8B, EST. EU2.04B
MDAX:
  • Bilfinger (GBF TH) +12%
  • Hochtief (HOT TH) +12%
  • Hensoldt (HAG TH) +11%
  • Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) +5.9%
  • Bechtle (BC8 TH) +4.3%
  • Evonik (EVK TH) +2.1%
  • Lufthansa (LHA TH) +1.3%
  • Evotec SE (EVT TH) +1.2%
  • Puma (PUM TH) +0.8%
    • Adidas Sees Higher Profits This Year on Retro Sneakers Boom
SDAX:
  • RENK Group AG (R3NK TH) +11%
    • Germany Abandons Fiscal Shackles to Transform Europe’s Defenses
  • Vossloh (VOS TH) +6.8%
  • SFC Energy (F3C TH) +5.3%
  • Deutz (DEZ TH) +5.2%
  • Kontron (KTN TH) +4.6%

The Information : DeepSeek Spurs Black Market Demand for Nvidia Gaming Chips in

DeepSeek Spurs Black Market Demand for Nvidia Gaming Chips in China

The Takeaway
• Chinese companies are using Nvidia gaming chips to deploy DeepSeek
• Blackmarket price of Nvidia’s newest gaming chip has soared 150%
• Nvidia CEO Huang said DeepSeek was Nvidia’s most important customer in China

When DeepSeek’s success in developing competitive artificial intelligence models at a low cost prompted a $750 billion sell-off in Nvidia shares in late January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wasn’t worried. He told some employees a few days later that DeepSeek had just become Nvidia’s most important customer in China, since any progress in AI will only increase demand for the company’s chips, according to a person who heard his remarks.

Demand for Nvidia chips in China has been soaring in the last several weeks, but not necessarily in the way Huang predicted. DeepSeek’s skyrocketing popularity has boosted demand for Nvidia’s gaming chips in the underground market as tech firms realize they can run DeepSeek’s models at a fraction of the price of AI chips, according to five chip smugglers.

The black market price for Nvidia’s latest and most powerful gaming chip, RTX 5090, has jumped 150% to more than $5,000 in recent weeks, according to the smugglers, compared to the chip’s $2,000 sticker price. Even at $5,000 apiece, the price is a sixth of the normal black market price for one of Nvidia’s most popular AI chips currently in use, the H100.

The episode is a reminder of the constantly shifting tactics used by buyers in the illicit market for Nvidia’s chips in China, where U.S. export controls ban purchase of the company’s most cutting-edge chips. Tech startups and universities have been buying Nvidia’s AI chips on the black market for more than a year to get around the export bans, using chip smugglers operating out of Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

But the smugglers have lately shifted their attention to Nvidia’s gaming chips, responding to growing demand for consumer products that can run DeepSeek models, which don’t require the high-end AI chips.

To be sure, demand for Nvidia’s AI chips also surged after DeepSeek’s models went viral. China’s internet giants significantly increased their orders for less powerful Nvidia chips that U.S. regulations allow to be sold to China, according to five people with direct knowledge of the chip procurement. But orders for those chips placed now won’t be delivered for at least two quarters.

Universities, tech startups, and technology departments of state-owned enterprises meanwhile have turned to Nvidia gaming chips, which are cheaper and have the necessary computing power for DeepSeek model reasoning. And they’re available on the black market.

In January, for instance, a tech company in China’s northern Hebei province announced plans to invest approximately $2.6 million in an AI reasoning computing facility comprising initially only Nvidia gaming chips.

Meanwhile, in early February, a research team at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University announced that in collaboration with Chinese startup Approaching.AI they had managed to run DeepSeek’s full-powered models on just one Nvidia gaming chip.

Some other Chinese tech companies are running servers using eight modified Nvidia gaming chips instead of the standard eight AI chips, according to two smugglers and an engineer involved in their construction. These servers significantly lag behind regular Nvidia AI servers in performance, but their affordable pricing and quick availability have made them quite popular in China.

This isn’t the first time Chinese companies have switched to Nvidia’s gaming chips for AI work in response to U.S. export bans, although the surge in gaming chip prices in the black market is unusual.

It’s unclear whether Nvidia’s management is aware that its gaming chips are increasingly used as AI reasoning chips in China, but some of its employees in China certainly are. A couple of Nvidia employees visited an AI studio in China this month, witnessed how an engineer assembled an AI server with eight of Nvidia’s gaming chips and gushed over the craftsmanship showcased in the process, according to the engineer who did the assembly.

An Nvidia spokesperson said gaming cards are not viable for use in data center computing clusters for AI because the products are “designed, manufactured and marketed for individual gamers and consumers.”

Gaming chips are primarily designed for rendering graphics in videogames, but their powerful processing capabilities and architecture make them capable of handling AI tasks.

Before Nvidia developed AI-specific chips, academics and researchers in the early 2010s used the company’s graphics processing units designed for image processing to perform machine-learning tasks.

Just as it does with AI chips, Nvidia uses authorized distributors to sell its gaming chips rather than selling them directly. Distributors often sell some chips to other dealers, according to the five chip smugglers. Nvidia said its gaming chips are sold in compliance with U.S. export control laws. But its layered distribution network can make it difficult for the company to track the smuggling of its chips into China for use in AI data centers.

Gaming chips used to make up nearly half of Nvidia’s revenue until the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022 fueled demand for AI data center chips. But the share of Nvidia’s revenue gaming chips comprise has gradually declined, amounting to less than 10% in the quarter ending on January 26.

These chips typically feature less memory than dedicated AI chips, as they are primarily designed for gaming rather than large-scale AI tasks. To bridge the gap, many dealers in China have resorted to salvaging usable storage modules from older-generation gaming chips and incorporating them into the newer units, said two of the five gaming chip dealers.

This process enhances the storage capacity and data-handling capabilities of the modified chips, enabling them to run larger AI models more effectively.

FT : BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump

BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump
Deal worth $22.8bn involves sale of bulk of ports owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison

BlackRock has agreed to buy two major ports on the Panama Canal from their Hong Kong-based owner as part of a $22.8bn deal, following pressure from Donald Trump over alleged Chinese influence at the vital waterway.

Under the agreement, the ports’ Hong Kong-based owner CK Hutchison would sell the business to a consortium including BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, according to a company statement on Tuesday. The group would acquire a 90 per cent stake in the company that owns and operates the two ports in Panama.

Trump has frequently alleged that “China is running the Panama Canal”, and rattled Panama when he threatened earlier this year to “take it back” under American control. The Trump administration has also demanded Panama reduce Chinese influence at the canal, claiming Beijing’s involvement in the ports had violated a treaty concerning its neutrality.

The deal announced on Tuesday also includes an 80 per cent stake of CK Hutchison’s ports subsidiaries, which run 43 ports in 23 countries, including in the UK and Germany. It also runs ports in south-east Asia, the Middle East, Mexico and Australia.

The remaining 20 per cent stake is held by port operator PSA, which is owned by Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund.

CK Hutchison said it expected to receive cash in excess of $19bn from the deal, a figure that includes repayment of some shareholder loans. CK Hutchison’s market capitalisation is HK$148bn ($19bn).

Trump’s election victory last November and his calls for the US to retake control of the canal prompted CK Hutchison to consider the sale, sparking a short and intense period of negotiations for the ports, according to people briefed on the discussions.

“When President Trump won and he started making noise about annexing Canada and Greenland and Panama, the pressure was put on the Panamanians,” one person familiar with the deal said. The person added that CK Hutchison “realised that it was a political headache and they wanted to do something”.

To navigate the potential political fallout, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink briefed senior leaders in the Trump administration, including the president, to secure their backing for the takeover, two people briefed on the matter said. One of the people added that the consortium would not have gone forward with its bid if they believed the US government would not support the deal.

Controlled by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing and his family, CK Hutchison has a portfolio of ports, retail, telecoms and other infrastructure. Ports operations made up about 9 per cent of CK Hutchison’s total revenue of HK$461.6bn in 2023.

The canal has become a flashpoint in Trump’s first weeks in office, as the US president looks to expand the country’s borders and take control of infrastructure assets — roiling allies and countries that had profited from decades of growing free trade.

The deal with BlackRock comes after the asset manager’s acquisition of GIP, which helped make the firm a force in infrastructure investing.

The strategically important waterway is run by the Panama Canal Authority, an arm of Panama’s government. It was built by American engineers and run by the US from its opening in 1914 until a treaty in 1977 agreed a staged handover to Panama, which was completed in 1999.

Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports, one of the world’s biggest operators of container terminals, has managed the ports at either end of the canal since 1997 under concessions from Panama’s government.

The facilities have often attracted political comment from US politicians who have alleged that CK Hutchison’s role means China in effect controls the canal.

The facilities mainly operate as “trans-shipment” ports where containers are moved between ships transiting the canal and smaller “feeder” ships shuttling to destinations around the Caribbean and the Pacific coast of South and Central America.

CK Hutchison arranged a new concession to keep operating the ports for another 25 years as recently as 2022.

WSJ : Commerce to Overhaul ‘Internet for All’ Plan, Expanding Starlink Funding P

Commerce to Overhaul ‘Internet for All’ Plan, Expanding Starlink Funding Prospects
Agency plans changes that will make Elon Musk’s satellite-internet service eligible for more rural broadband funding

The Commerce Department is examining changes to a $42.5 billion Biden-era program aimed at expanding internet access around the country with new rules that will make it easier for Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite-internet service, to tap in to rural broadband funding, said people familiar with the plans.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told staff he plans to make the grant program “technology-neutral,” the people said. That change will free up states to award more funds to satellite-internet providers like Starlink, rather than mainly to companies that lay fiber-optic cables, to connect the millions of U.S. households that lack high-speed internet service.

Republicans have said the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, created by the 2021 infrastructure bill, has moved too slowly and is bogged down by unnecessary rules. Those rules effectively said states could only fund alternative technologies such as satellite in areas where it wasn’t feasible or cost-effective to lay fiber cables.

The potential new rules could drastically increase the share of funding available to Starlink. Under the BEAD program’s original rules, Starlink was expected to get up to $4.1 billion, said people familiar with the matter. With Lutnick’s overhaul, Starlink, a unit of Musk’s SpaceX, could receive $10 billion to $20 billion, they said.

Representatives for the Commerce Department and Starlink didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The overhaul could be announced as soon as this week, possibly without some details in place, the people said. Following any changes, states may have to rewrite their plans for how to spend their funding from the program, which could delay the implementation.

Lutnick told staff he plans to do away with other BEAD program rules, including some related to climate impact and sustainability, as well as provisions that encouraged states to fund companies with a racially diverse workforce or union participation, the people said.

The program requires internet-service providers that receive funding to offer affordable plans for lower-income customers. Lutnick has told staff he is considering reducing those obligations, the people said.

Arielle Roth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department bureau that oversees the internet-access program, has been critical of the rules governing it—and of the bureau itself.

Roth, speaking as a policy director on the Senate Commerce Committee under Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), said last year that Congress had created the program “in a technology-neutral manner,” but that the bureau, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, “imposed extreme tech bias in favor of fiber.” She also said the bureau pushed a “woke social agenda” on the program.

Under Biden, the program favored fiber because the bureau thought it provided more reliable service and more durable infrastructure than other technologies.

Starlink has more than 7,000 satellites orbiting Earth. The company says it serves more than five million homes, businesses and vehicles around the world, including many in rural America. Despite its high price tag—a dish costs several hundred dollars, plus a $120 monthly service fee—Starlink has gained a loyal following because it works in areas where fiber service isn’t available.

Many broadband providers worried the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency would eliminate or reduce the program’s funding. Given the overhaul, fiber broadband providers may not benefit from it as much as they expected because non-fiber technologies are poised to receive more funding than before.

Starlink lobbied the Commerce Department to change the program’s rules last year but halted its lobbying after Trump took office, said people familiar with the matter.

WSJ : BlackRock Strikes $23 Billion Deal for Ports on Both Sides of Panama Canal

BlackRock Strikes $23 Billion Deal for Ports on Both Sides of Panama Canal
A consortium of investors is buying a majority stake in the ports from CK Hutchison

A consortium of investors led by BlackRock has agreed to buy majority stakes in ports on both sides of the Panama Canal from CK Hutchison for $22.8 billion, the companies said Tuesday.

The deal would bring the key ports under American corporate ownership, from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison. The Panama Canal is controlled by Panama, but foreign-owned ports on either side have been flagged as a threat by the Trump administration.

BlackRock has briefed the Trump administration and Congress on the deal, said a person familiar with the matter.

“China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn’t give it to China,” Trump said in his inaugural address, referring to the 1977 treaty that handed control of it to Panama.

American opposition to the current ownership structure centers on concerns China could use the ports for military purposes, including monitoring of ship movement. Panamanian officials, and several former U.S. military officials, have said that the Chinese facilities didn’t represent a military threat or breach the canal’s neutrality.

The U.S. built the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, and relinquished it to Panama in late 1999 under a treaty negotiated more than 20 years earlier with then-President Jimmy Carter. Trump has long said the deal was bad for the U.S. and has complained about the fees Panama charges and Chinese infrastructure built up along the waterway.

BlackRock, its new infrastructure arm Global Infrastructure Partners, and Geneva-based Terminal Investment agreed to acquire a 90% interest in Panama Ports. The company owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama. The consortium also agreed to buy CK Hutchison’s controlling interest in 43 other ports in 23 countries.

If completed, the BlackRock deal could go a long way toward easing concerns about China’s influence over the canal.

CK Hutchison said that the sale was part of a “competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received.”

“I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” said Hutchison co-managing director Frank Sixt.

In acquiring GIP last year, Chief Executive Larry Fink bet that private infrastructure assets would help drive his firm’s next wave of growth. GIP operates energy, transportation, and waste and water companies around the world, along with London Gatwick Airport, U.S. natural-gas pipelines and data centers.

The CK Hutchison deal is the largest-ever infrastructure acquisition for BlackRock or GIP.

FT : Panama Canal ports sold to BlackRock in victory for Donald Trump

Panama Canal ports sold to BlackRock in victory for Donald Trump
Deal involves sale of bulk of ports owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison

BlackRock has agreed to buy two major ports at the Panama Canal from their Hong Kong-based owner, following pressure from Donald Trump over alleged Chinese influence at the vital waterway.

In apparent reference to the ports, the US president has frequently alleged that “China is running the Panama Canal”, adding last month that “we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen”.

The ports’ Hong Kong-based owner CK Hutchison will sell the business to a consortium including BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment, according to a company statement on Tuesday.

In a large-scale investment in the sector, the consortium will acquire a 90 per cent stake in the CK Hutchison subsidiary that operates the two ports in Panama.

The deal also includes an 80 per cent stake of CK Hutchison’s ports subsidiaries, which run 43 ports in 23 countries, including the UK and in Germany.

FT : Zelenskyy says Ukraine prepared to sign US minerals deal ‘at any time’

Zelenskyy says Ukraine prepared to sign US minerals deal ‘at any time’
Conciliatory statement comes after White House clash led to abandonment of plan to sign agreement

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine remains committed to signing a minerals deal with the US “at any time and in any convenient format”.

In a conciliatory post on X on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader expressed regret over his clash at the White House with US President Donald Trump and his vice-president JD Vance last week, which led to plans to sign a deal over Ukraine’s minerals being abandoned.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security,” he added. “Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”