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Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra: IT’s a chasm between management and investors

A relentless stock rout reflects an unanimously negative market sentiment on IT services stocks. As another lacklustre earnings season from IT services companies concludes, the contradictions between managements and investors have already been starker. From global industry leader Accenture, which reported results last month, to Infosys, which reported last week, managements remain steadfast in arguing that AI is a tailwind for the industry, judging by their commentary during earnings calls. They have maintained this view for nearly three years. That none of this optimism has translated into the financial numbers is another matter altogether. Meanwhile, a relentless stock rout reflects an unanimously negative market sentiment on IT services stocks. Investors, who initially drank the Kool-Aid after ChatGPT’s launch, are now nursing a hangover, demanding credible proof that AI will actually drive growth for IT services companies. A week prior, Anand Mahindra, Tech Mahindra Chairman, tried to bridge this trust deficit while speaking at the company’s annual general meeting when he said, “The role of IT services will not diminish. It will change. In many ways, it will become more important.” However, the evidence points in the opposite direction. IT services have occupied a relatively smaller share of global technology budgets over the past three years, and forecasts suggest that the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. The USD revenue growth estimate for next two years (FY26-28) for IT majors — TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra — remains muted at a CAGR of 1.8, 1.9, 2.7, 0.2 and 3.8 per cent, respectively (Bloomberg consensus estimate). Who is right? To answer that, investors should revisit the industry’s previous disruption and the transformation that followed. The successful shift from the legacy-focused business to a digital- and cloud-led one in the previous decade is often cited as a proof to convince the naysayers this time. But a closer analysis of the transition indicates there are two sides to it. The last 15-16 years can broadly be divided into four phases: FY10-15 (Phase 1), when outsourcing accelerated as global corporations cut costs after the global financial crisis; FY15-18 (Phase 2), when the digital and cloud disruption unsettled the industry and growth slowed; FY18-23 (Phase 3), when the transition was largely complete and digital business thrived (Covid notwithstanding); and FY23-26 (Phase 4), when AI has triggered the most disruptive technological shift yet. While success of the industry in adapting to the structural technology shift in the previous decade is commendable, what also stands out is the impact it has had on growth and margins.

TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra: IT’s a chasm between management and investors
North America
CNBC Finance

CDC says massive cyclospora outbreak is now in nine states

The nation's largest multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has expanded to nine states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The four newly linked states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania – join Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and hard-hit Michigan. Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that typically infects people through contaminated food or water and causes cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness that can result in symptoms including severe diarrhea. Patients can require hospitalization, but no deaths have been recorded related to the parasite this year. The outbreak is already the largest of cyclosporiasis reported in the U.S. this year, with thousands of illnesses recorded nationwide. That is well above the roughly 200 to 1,000 cases typically reported annually. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is investigating a separate cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to an unidentified food product or products. The U.S. is trying to investigate the sources of the parasite and contain its spread amid confusion over its response to the outbreak and staffing cuts that some experts say made it harder to curb it. In his apparent first public comments on the outbreak, President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. would put "a major tariff" on Mexico "because of the lettuce." It is unclear if he was serious. U.S. health and food regulators have zeroed in on shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms, a privately held, California-based company, from its plant in central Mexico. Mexican health authorities on Thursday said that samples of lettuce and water from the facility tested negative for cyclospora. However, that result does not disprove the Food and Drug Administration's earlier identification as Taylor Farms de Mexico as the likely source of the outbreak. The earliest cases began showing symptoms in mid-May. Moreover, the long incubation period for infection means that the crop responsible would have been distributed weeks ago. Last week, the FDA said that the produce giant supplied the shredded iceberg lettuce to the Taco Bell restaurants where people ate before becoming ill. Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall for all iceberg lettuce sourced from its Guanajuato, Mexico, facility, and Taco Bell pulled the affected lettuce from its restaurants. The CDC has so far tallied 1,947 people infected with cyclospora who also reported eating at Taco Bell in the nine states. Illnesses in the outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce began on June 22 and have continued through July 20, the CDC said. The federal count has lagged behind state tallies, so some of the states hit by the outbreak have reported much higher numbers of infections. But Taylor Farms has drawn criticism for its response to the outbreak. Some health experts blasted its recall notice, which included abbreviations and did not allow consumers to understand easily if they had bought or eaten any product that was at risk. After the FDA reported a false positive of lettuce samples from Taylor Farms on Sunday, the company issued a statement saying that the health agency had apologized. The FDA later clarified that it had not apologized to Taylor Farms, and the company deleted the statement on X, although it is still available on its website. The agency also said it still considered the company's iceberg lettuce the likely source of the outbreak.

CDC says massive cyclospora outbreak is now in nine states
North America
CNBC Finance

Albertsons stock plunges as it says weaker grocery spending will cut into sales and earnings

Shares of grocer Albertsons sank more than 20% on Thursday after the company lowered its fiscal 2026 outlook, citing softer demand and a more cautious consumer. The company said it is now "moving decisively" to invest in the customer experience because it believes that will improve its growth trajectory. "In the first quarter, our digital and pharmacy businesses continued to deliver strong growth, while core grocery faced increasing pressure from softer industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer," CEO Susan Morris said in a statement. The company's outlook cut comes amid broader signs that U.S. consumers have scaled back their grocery trips. Food inflation and tighter budgets due to high gas prices, among other factors, appear to be hurting spending. For the full year, Albertsons said it now expects net income between $1.75 and $1.85 per share, down significantly from its previous expectation of between $2.22 and $2.32 per share. It also lowered its adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of between $3.55 billion and $3.625 billion, compared with a previous projection of between $3.85 billion and $3.925 billion. It also now expects identical sales, a metric similar to comparable sales, to be in a range of down 1.5% to down 0.5%, compared with a previous expectation of flat to up 1%. For the first fiscal quarter of the year, the company reported that identical sales fell 0.8%. Albertsons reported net income of $84.7 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $236.4 million, or 41 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Still, Morris said on a call with analysts that while the pressure on consumers is weighing on near-term earnings, the company aims to "improve traffic, units, loyalty and the overall trajectory of the business over time." Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Albertsons stock plunges as it says weaker grocery spending will cut into sales and earnings
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

What they say on their India plans

With India being the fastest growing large economy, ‘what is your India plan?’ is a common topic in boardrooms of most global corporations. One important source to distil their India plans is from their quarterly earnings calls. This column will present what CXOs of global corporations are saying about India, along with their perspectives and plans during the current earnings season. With the June quarter earnings season in progress, here are some from companies that reported their earnings last week. The injectable drug-packaging company identified India as its second-fastest-growing market, supported by new biosimilar approvals and increasing demand for GLP-1 products. “India is currently our second-largest geographic growth engine after China. Growth is broad-based but led by generic and biosimilar GLP-1 products, where we are participating in several newly-approved Indian programmes and will scale alongside our customers.” The aerospace major opened a helicopter assembly line in India to expand capacity and serve rapidly-growing civil and military demand. “We opened a new assembly line in India as helicopter demand accelerates across both civil and military markets. The facility expands our production capacity and adds India to our global assembly footprint alongside France, Germany, the US and Brazil.” The automotive component supplier is expanding Indian manufacturing for electric powertrains and camera systems, targeting a three-fold increase in local sales by 2028. “We are investing in a new 3-in-1 e-Axle production line for Mahindra and a high-definition surround-view camera line for local OEMs. We expect India sales to reach €700 million by 2028, three times the 2024 level, and remain on track.” The consumer goods major expects India to remain a key growth driver, sustaining double-digit growth even as favourable sales-tax comparisons begin to normalise. “India continues to benefit from the sales-tax change, although this tailwind will begin to lap in Q3 and comparables are becoming tougher. Nevertheless, we still expect double-digit growth and see India as an important growth driver.” The diversified industrial company reported a seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in India, supported by expanded sales coverage and a dedicated local organisation. “India led double-digit growth across Asia, extending its growth streak to seven consecutive quarters. Increased sales coverage and a hybrid organisational model combining global business groups with a dedicated India-based team are driving the performance.” The beverage-can manufacturer plans to invest approximately $250 million in a new Indian plant with two high-speed production lines, supported by long-term customer commitments.

What they say on their India plans
Europe
BBC Business

Warning shot or publicity stunt - how worried should we be about the OpenAI hack?

Image source, Getty ImagesByJoe TidyCyber correspondent, BBC World ServicePublished25 July 2026This week the tech world was gripped by a story that has it all - and which started like a sci-fi thriller. Hugging Face - a kind of app store for artificial intelligence tools - announced on 16 July it had been hacked by a cyber criminal wielding enormously powerful AI. The bombshell announcement was full of scary, highly technical terms: "a swarm of sandboxes", "agentic attacker", and "self-migrating command and control". Hugging Face said the hack was different from anything it had handled before because it was done at superhuman speed by an AI with little or no human guidance. The AI performed 17,000 actions in less than two days, successfully breaching the large wealthy tech company to steal secrets. Hugging Face researchers guessed the mysterious attackers had used one of the big AI models but they had no idea who or where the criminals were. Commentators and analysts took to their podcasts and social media accounts to guess which cyber crime group or nation state hacker might be behind it. Then on Wednesday, nearly a week after Hugging Face raised the alarm, the true culprit was unmasked. The Scooby-Doo-style reveal was made even more bizarre - and worrying - because OpenAI said its bot did the whole thing on its own, without permission. Two new versions of ChatGPT, designed to be master hackers, broke out of a supposedly secure test environment and gained access to the internet. They then attacked Hugging Face to get access to the information to help them ace their exam. OpenAI issued a press release explaining what had happened and said it was "partnering with Hugging Face" to address the security incident and share lessons learned.

Warning shot or publicity stunt - how worried should we be about the OpenAI hack?
North America
CNBC Economy

Trump plans steep tariffs on generic drugs starting in 2028 to spur U.S. production

President Donald Trump said generic drugs imported into the U.S. will face zero tariffs for two years starting August 1, before a 100% levy takes effect in August 2028 and rises to 200% a year later. The phased schedule is intended to push generic drugmakers to move production onshore, Trump said in a social media post Tuesday, describing the escalation as "a penalty" for companies that don't build plants and facilities in the U.S. within the grace period. Tariffs on patented and branded drugs will remain unchanged, Trump said. The president imposed a 100% levy on patented pharmaceutical products and ingredients under Section 232 on April 2, while exempting generic drugs, biosimilars, and related ingredients. Larger drugmakers were given 120 days before the 100% tariff rate goes into effect, and smaller drugmakers, which rely on contract manufacturers, had 180 days before that rate hits. More than a dozen major drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, have struck deals with Trump to lower the prices of new and existing medicines. Those agreements are part of the president's "most favored nation" policy, which ties U.S. drug prices to cheaper ones abroad, and exempts the companies from tariffs for three years. Trump has used tariff threats and his most-favored-nation pricing policy to press drugmakers into charging Americans no more than patients in other high-income countries. The stakes are high for India, as the country's pharmaceutical companies supply nearly 50% of all generic medicines consumed in America. The U.S. accounts for about a third of India's pharma exports, mostly cheaper versions of popular drugs, annually. Chinese firms dominate the upstream supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, such as amoxicillin and heparin. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Trump plans steep tariffs on generic drugs starting in 2028 to spur U.S. production
North America
CNBC Finance

American Airlines slashes 2026 earnings outlook as fuel costs spike

American Airlines further cut its 2026 earnings outlook, citing higher fuel costs, a sign that a jump in fares isn't enough for the U.S. airline that flies the most to fully offset this year's spike in fuel prices. American said it could post an adjusted loss per share of as much as 65 cents up to earnings per share of 65 cents this year, below the range it estimated in April between a loss of 40 cents per share up to earnings of $1.10 a share. Fuel prices have been volatile even in the few short weeks of the U.S. airline earnings season that kicked off in July, which has clouded the outlook for airlines this year. Carriers say strong demand and higher fares are helping offset some of the spike. Fuel is airlines' biggest expense after labor. For the current quarter, American said it could report an adjusted loss of between 70 cents a share and 10 cents a share, below the 28 cents a share in earnings Wall Street expected, but it forecast revenue to rise between 16% to 19%, above the the 16.6% analysts project. American CEO Robert Isom told CNBC in an interview last month that the carrier's "long-range" plan is to close the margin gap that has widened with profit leaders Delta Air Lines and United Airlines but he didn't give a timeframe for that goal. American is planning to order new wide-body aircraft this year and will add more high-yielding premium seats to older jets, Isom said. American's profit in the three months ended June 30 fell 88% from a year earlier, to $71 million, or 11 cents a share, down from $599 million, or 91 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 16.3% to $16.74 billion. Passenger revenue per available seat mile, a measure of airlines' pricing power, rose 10% from last year. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

American Airlines slashes 2026 earnings outlook as fuel costs spike
North America
CNBC Finance

Comcast earnings highlight NBCUniversal strength ahead of planned split

Comcast's second-quarter results on Thursday showcased strength at NBCUniversal — particularly in its TV and film units — as the company prepares to split its media and broadband businesses apart. NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, hit profitability during the quarter for the first time, Comcast said, giving the media business a lift. The streaming service also benefitted from live sports including the FIFA World Cup and NBA postseason and brought in new subscribers. Revenue in the company's content and experiences division, which includes media unit NBCUniversal, rose almost 23% year over year. Meanwhile, it was a different story with the traditional cable and connectivity business. The company said that its shifted strategy for the broadband business is "gaining traction" following years of significant competition and pressure due to the rise of alternatives like 5G providers. But Comcast once again reported broadband customer losses for the period, and revenue for the connectivity and platforms segment notched down as its lower pricing plans and promotions took hold. The diverging storylines for broadband and media come weeks after Comcast said it would divide the two businesses into separate publicly traded companies. In Thursday's release co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh called the split "an important step toward creating two focused companies with the financial strength and flexibility to pursue their respective growth strategies." Revenue for the connectivity and platforms segment, which includes the Xfinity-branded broadband, mobile and cable TV offerings, was down 3% to $19.8 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the unit dropped nearly 6% to $7.96 billion. Comcast lost 167,000 total broadband residential customers and 280,000 cable TV subscribers during the quarter. Mobile remained a bright spot with additions that once again marked a record quarter and brought its total to 10.2 million lines. Mobile has become a major driver and key part of Comcast's strategy to boost the broadband business. The content and experiences segment that houses NBCUniversal's TV, film and theme parks, saw revenue of $10.73 billion, boosted by the impact of the FIFA World Cup that began in mid-June and was aired in Spanish in the U.S. on the company's Telemundo network. Revenue for the TV media unit in particular benefitted from Peacock and an increase in advertising, and film studio revenue rose 25%. Theme parks revenue was up nearly 3% as softness at international parks offset higher revenue in Orlando. Overall revenue for Comcast was down 1.2% during the second quarter to $29.94 billion. On a pro-forma basis, accounting for the impact of Comcast's Versant spinoff that was completed at the start of the year, the company said quarterly revenue was 4.7% higher. Comcast reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.04, topping Wall Street estimates of 97 cents, according to LSEG.

Comcast earnings highlight NBCUniversal strength ahead of planned split
Europe
BBC Business

Some food prices have fallen – but inflation expected to rise from here

Food prices are rising at their slowest rate in nearly two years, as the cost of some staples such as margarine and sugar have gone down. Supermarket price wars have helped drive down prices in the year to June, the industry says, as retailers work to tempt customers with summer deals. Inflation in the UK overall has fallen to 2.6% in the year to June, down from 2.8% in the year to May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), driven largely by lower fuel and food prices. June's figure will be welcomed by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his government, but analysts warn the fall is temporary, as higher energy prices in July are expected to push inflation back up. Lower fuel costs - particularly lower diesel prices - also pushed inflation down, with prices at the pump falling for the first time since the start of the war in the Middle East. Clothing costs fell as well due to the summer sales, with many retailers offering larger discounts than last year. Falling food pricesFood and non-alcoholic beverage inflation fell by 0.2% month-to-month, with sugar, chocolate and confectionery seeing the largest drop in price. Looking at inflation over the year, beef and veal price inflation eased from 9.4% in the 12 months to May to 5.1% in the year to June, while edible offal - which includes things like liver, kidneys and tongue - slowed from 9.2% to 3.4% over the same period. Some other food items were cheaper, according to ONS data. Pizza and quiches, for example, fell by 6.7% in the year to June. Margarine dropped by 1.9% in the same period. Food inflation often has a lag of up to 13 months due to the supply chain, so any effects from the war in Iran could still be yet to come. Fuel prices at the pump fell in June after the US and Iran agreed to halt military operations and allow the key Strait of Hormuz to re-open. But the recent resumption of hostilities and a new jump in crude oil prices means inflation could spike again in the coming months.

Some food prices have fallen – but inflation expected to rise from here