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North America
CNBC Finance

Darden Restaurants earnings beat estimates but Olive Garden growth weakens

Darden Restaurants on Thursday reported mixed quarterly results as same-store sales growth at the company's fine-dining restaurants and Olive Garden fell short of expectations. The company's forecast for its fiscal 2027 earnings and revenue also came on the lower end of Wall Street's projections. Darden reported net income of $404.9 million, or $3.51 per share, up from $303.8 million, or $2.58 per share, a year earlier. Excluding costs of restaurant closures and other items, the company earned $3.66 per share. Net sales climbed 13.7% to $3.72 billion, boosted by the inclusion of an extra week during the fiscal year. Across all of Darden's restaurants, same-store sales rose 4.6%, topping expectations of 4.1% growth based on StreetAccount estimates. LongHorn Steakhouse led the portfolio with same-store sales growth of 9.5%, beating StreetAccount projections of 7.1%. The chain has overtaken Olive Garden to become Darden's top performer, although it still accounts for less of the company's overall sales. For its part, Olive Garden saw same-store sales grow 2.4% in the quarter, missing expectations of 3.2% growth. Darden's fine-dining segment reported same-store sales growth of 1.9%, falling short of StreetAccount estimates of 3.1%. The division includes The Capital Grille and Ruth's Chris. The company's "other business" segment saw same-store sales rise 4.6%, higher than the 3% projected by analysts. The division includes a handful of smaller restaurant chains, like Yard House and Chuy's. Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, Darden is projecting total sales of $13.60 billion to $13.75 billion and net earnings per share from continuing operations in a range of $11.10 to $11.35. Wall Street is expecting the company to report fiscal 2027 revenue of $13.72 billion and earnings per share of $11.40. Darden is also forecasting that it will report same-store sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5% during fiscal 2027 and open between 75 and 80 new locations.

Darden Restaurants earnings beat estimates but Olive Garden growth weakens
Europe
The Guardian

Elon Musk’s trillionaire status at risk; oil price lowest since Iran war began – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Elon Musk could soon be down to his last thousand billion dollars, after the share price of his recently floated SpaceX came under pressure this week. Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this month when SpaceX floated on the stock market. But after a 16% drop in SpaceX’s shares on Monday, Musk’s wealth has declined to $1.1tn. Monday’s drop alone wiped out more than $152bn from Musk’s net worth, according to Forbes estimates. And most of those who bought into SpaceX since it floated on 12 June are facing smaller losses. SpaceX’s shares closed at $156 last night, slightly above the $150 at which they started trading on the 12th, but sharply below the record high of $225 set a week ago. The IPO was priced at $135, so everyone who took part is still in the money. The weakness in the last week has dragged SpaceX’s value down from a peak of about $2.99tn to just over $2tn last night. That’s a fall of almost $1tn, or nearly one Musk. SpaceX might have seemed charmed after its record-breaking IPO and subsequent rally, but it’s come down to earth with a bump over the past couple of days, with shares at one point falling below the opening price on its market debut. “Post-IPO stocks often enter a period of volatility as the market gets to grips with the new entrant, some investors rush to cash out, and others assess at what price they are willing to jump in. “For a stock like SpaceX, a lot of decision making might have been emotional and based on the anticipation of huge leaps forward in space exploration and utilisation, but investing should be something treated with clear eyes and patience, even when such huge numbers are involved. Musk was also hit by a 5.8% drop in Tesla’s shares yesterday, as the tech sector was hit by a broad selloff in AI and semiconductor stocks.

Elon Musk’s trillionaire status at risk; oil price lowest since Iran war began – business live
North America
Yahoo Finance

Enphase Just Found A New Story To Tell

The solar sector’s sudden bursts of volatility often have less to do with immediate product shipments and more to do with the market’s hunger for a new narrative. Look no further than the dizzying, counterintuitive price swings of Enphase Energy (ENPH) over a single 72-hour window. On Thursday, June 18, 2026, the stock rocketed up 9.4% in a single session, outperforming the S&P 500 amid a broad rally across solar names, right as the company announced it had begun shipping its most powerful commercial microinverter yet, the GaN-based IQ9S-3P™. Yet, just days later on Tuesday, June 23, the script completely inverted: the stock tumbled nearly 9.9% on a sharp “sell the news” macro pullback, even though Enphase had just formally launched its next-generation IQ9N™ microinverter for the U.S. residential market. Following that sharp drop, the stock remained flat, absorbing the volatility to close the June 25 session at $47.21. On the surface, this aggressive back-to-back hardware rollout looks like a straightforward operational win. However, the rapid whiplash between a single-day near-double-digit leap and an immediate post-launch correction points to a deeper dynamic. Does an upgraded hardware portfolio running on cutting-edge gallium nitride architecture truly justify that kind of market volatility, or was the market chasing a completely different story beneath the surface? An Unexpected AI Angle Look a little closer, and you’ll find the real story. The same day the stock spiked, analysts at Barclays upgraded the stock, but only from Under Weight to Equal Weight, a move to the sidelines rather than a full-throated buy call, with the price target lifted to $51 from $30. They pointed to Enphase’s emerging solid-state transformer (SST) business as “a credible entry point into the evolving data center power stack,” estimating a U.S. addressable market of roughly $2 billion a year by the late 2020s. Suddenly, a familiar solar tech company was being discussed in the same breath as AI data center power — and in this market, even a neutral-rated nod to that theme carries weight. This new story arrives at a critical time. The company’s revenue over the last twelve months is actually down 1.6%. While that’s an improvement over its recent history, it’s hardly the explosive growth investors once prized. The market was hungry for a new reason to get excited, and the prospect of powering the AI revolution is a compelling one. The IQ9S-3P™ Commercial Microinverter launch provided the tangible news hook, but the SST roadmap provided the vision. The subsequent drop on June 23, however, serves as a harsh reality check. Short-term traders quickly used the residential IQ9N™ launch as a liquidity window to lock in profits, exposing the friction between a years-away theoretical opportunity and immediate financial performance. Now, the burden of proof sits entirely on Enphase. The company must prove it can successfully convert an investment bank’s theoretical data center blueprint into actual, high-margin enterprise dollars, or risk its stock remaining tethered to a sluggish domestic solar recovery. Chasing single-name moves is its own kind of risk, whether you are trying to time a sudden tech rally or watching how traditional energy giants manage unexpected operational headwinds—as explored in The Number That Could Test Exxon Mobil Stock. The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio takes the other side of that bet: 30 quality names, sized and re-balanced with discipline, and a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000.

Enphase Just Found A New Story To Tell
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Only 14% of India's MSMEs have access to formal credit despite digital finance boom: Deloitte report

The report comes at a time when India is positioning its financial sector to support long-term economic expansion. Only 14 per cent of India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have access to formal credit despite the country's rapid advances in digital finance, leaving millions of businesses dependent on informal lenders, according to Deloitte's State of Financial Services in India report. "Only 14 per cent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) have access to formal credit, leaving the majority of these enterprises (mostly micro-enterprises) dependent on informal, usurious financing," the report said. It added that these are "not marginal shortfalls -- they are fundamental indicators of the critical need for deepening financial inclusion, and achieving broader economic growth." According to the Deloitte report, India's MSME credit gap was estimated at around ₹25 lakh crore as of March 2025. It noted that based on the sector's contribution to GDP and a healthy credit-to-GDP ratio, the formal credit gap could be "well over INR 50 lakh crore". The report comes at a time when India is positioning its financial sector to support long-term economic expansion. It noted that India remains one of the world's fastest-growing major economies and that achieving higher growth will require stronger financial inclusion and better access to credit for underserved businesses. Despite the credit gap, the report highlighted significant progress in financial access. Around 89 per cent of Indian adults now have a financial account, while the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processes more than 20 billion transactions every month and accounts for nearly half of global real-time payment volumes. However, Deloitte cautioned that major gaps remain. About 16 per cent of bank accounts remain inactive, only 15 per cent of adults access formal credit compared with a global average of 24 per cent, and insurance penetration at 3.7 per cent of GDP is roughly half the global average. Calling for renewed policy focus, the report said structural bottlenecks continue to limit financial inclusion. "The need to scale cash-flow-based MSME lending through AA (Account Aggregator) framework (Credit should and can become ridiculously cheap and easy for every small business owner - the small supplier, the shopkeeper, the contractor, the artisan and various others)," it said while outlining reforms needed to improve credit delivery. The report added that addressing these structural challenges by improving credit access, expanding insurance coverage, strengthening financial literacy and narrowing digital access gaps will be critical to ensuring that financial inclusion translates into broader economic participation, financial resilience and sustainable growth. It said deeper inclusion across semi-urban, rural and underserved segments can also create new demand drivers for the economy while strengthening resilience against external shocks.

Only 14% of India's MSMEs have access to formal credit despite digital finance boom: Deloitte report
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

What could end the tech rally? Jefferies flags investment risks as China’s cheap AI models threaten US players

The report also flagged cybersecurity risks, citing a Five Eyes Alliance warning that “advances in AI could dramatically accelerate cyberattacks in the near future with organisations having only months to prepare.” The biggest risk to the AI-driven tech rally is not a sudden jump in semiconductor supply but a "sudden realisation by investors that the hyperscalers and the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic will not be able to make a return on their investment," according to latest research report by Jefferies. The brokerage argued that "for now at least, there remains zero sign of AI capex slowing," yet warns that funding concerns could "trigger a sudden unwillingness to fund these investments which will then be aggravated by the circular arrangements between the main players, such as Nvidia financing OpenAI to buy its chips." Jefferies' view comes as Hong Kong-listed Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI, launched GLM-5.2 on 13 June. "GREED & fear is no expert but GREED & fear hears from more informed sources that this new model is almost equal to Anthropic as a competitor for the corporate market and is just one quarter of the cost in terms of cost per token," the report said. The launch coincides with what Jefferies calls a "reaction against tokenmaxxing" that is likely to "lead to a slowdown in Anthropic's uptil now remarkable revenue growth ahead of its planned IPO." Anthropic's annualised run-rate revenue "surged from $9 bn at the end of 2025 to $47 bn in May," Jefferies noted. The report highlights a shift in usage toward Chinese models. "Top Chinese AI models processed 21.37tn tokens on the global aggregator platform OpenRouter in the week ended 21 June, up from 4.37tn in late April, compared with 5.76tn tokens for the top US models," Jefferies said, citing weekly usage of the top nine models on OpenRouter. "GLM-5.2 proves enterprises no longer have to sacrifice intelligence for privacy. We are seeing a massive acceleration in companies pulling their AI workloads out of the public cloud and back onto local corporate servers," the brokerage quoted AI feedback it received. Despite token price pressure, Jefferies remains constructive on memory suppliers due to the Jevons Paradox. "Falling token prices should lead to rising DRAM prices," the report stated, adding that "the story that the DRAM industry has changed structurally... looks to GREED & fear an increasingly powerful argument." Hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron are now trading at 7.8x, 6.8x and 9.2x consensus 12-month forward earnings, respectively. Reflecting this view, Jefferies is increasing tech hardware exposure across portfolios. "Hynix and Kioxia will be included in the global long-only portfolio with an initial 4 per cent weighting each... while the existing investment in Samsung Electronics will be increased by one percentage point," the report said. On Taiwan, Jefferies noted "boom-like conditions" with real GDP up 14.55 per cent y-o-y in 1Q26, "the fastest quarterly growth rate in nearly 48 years." TSMC capex is forecast to rise to $56 bn in 2026 and $65-70 bn in 2027, with AI expected to account for 31 per cent of TSMC's revenues this year. The report also flagged cybersecurity risks, citing a Five Eyes Alliance warning that "advances in AI could dramatically accelerate cyberattacks in the near future with organisations having only months to prepare."

What could end the tech rally? Jefferies flags investment risks as China’s cheap AI models threaten US players
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Aarogya Setu 2.0 to drug registry: Govt to launch various digital healthcare initiatives on June 29

The revamped Aarogya Setu 2.0 app is built on the Covid experience and provides a gateway to multiple digital health services through a single platform, Health Ministry said. | Photo Credit: SOMASHEKARA GRN A series of digital initiatives in the health sector, including the Aarogya Setu 2.0 - a personal health record application (PHR) for citizens- will be unveiled on Monday, June 29, by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare; and Chemicals & Fertilizers, JP Nadda. The initiatives being launched include “citizen-facing applications, provider-focused solutions, interoperability frameworks, registries and data standards,” according to the Health Ministry. And they are expected to “enhance accessibility, efficiency and interoperability across the healthcare ecosystem while benefiting citizens, healthcare providers, insurers, technology innovators and policymakers alike,” it added. The revamped Aarogya Setu 2.0 app is built on the Covid experience and provides a gateway to multiple digital health services through a single platform, the Ministry said. “The application enables creation and management of ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account), access to and sharing of digital health records, consent-based health information exchange, AI-powered health insights and smart health reports, wearable device integration, OPD registration through Scan & Register, hospital payments through Scan & Pay, medication reminders and family health management,” it said. Furthermore, it said, the app would help locate nearby healthcare facilities and doctors, ambulance services, blood banks with blood unit availability, and Jan Aushadhi Kendras. In addition to this, the application provides access to PM-JAY services, including search for PM-JAY empanelled hospitals, access to AB PM-JAY wallet etc, along with access to other healthcare services, the note added. The enhanced Ayushman app will also serve as a one-stop digital platform for beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) health insurance scheme. “The upgraded application will enable beneficiaries to access essential scheme-related services, including eligibility verification, Ayushman Card services, treatment history, hospital discovery, grievance redressal and beneficiary support,” it said. Also being launched is Ayushman Sarathi, a WhatsApp chatbot for beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, to deliver PM-JAY services through a conversational interface. The Ministry also pointed to the National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX), a digital public infrastructure for health claims processing, that would enable standardised exchange of health claims information between providers and payers across public and private health insurance programmes - reducing administrative burden and facilitating faster and more efficient claims processing, it said. A Unified Health Interface (UHI) is also being dedicated to the nation, the note said. It enables digital applications to connect citizens with healthcare service providers through a common framework, facilitating easier discovery and access to healthcare services. The e-Sushrut Clinic will be unveiled “as a plug-and-play clinic management solution that enables healthcare providers to digitise clinical workflows, maintain electronic health records and seamlessly integrate with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission ecosystem,” it said. A “Drug Registry” will also be launched to standardise medicine-related information across the healthcare ecosystem, it said. “By enabling uniform coding of medicines across digital health applications, the registry will strengthen prescribing, dispensing and healthcare data exchange,” it said.

Aarogya Setu 2.0 to drug registry: Govt to launch various digital healthcare initiatives on June 29
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Ashok Vaswani to step down as Kotak Mahindra’s chief after current term in December 2026

Ashok Vaswani has informed Kotak Mahindra Bank’s board that he does not wish to seek re-appointment as Managing Director & CEO upon completion of his current term on December 31, 2026. Ashok Vaswani has informed Kotak Mahindra Bank’s board that he does not wish to seek re-appointment as Managing Director & CEO upon completion of his current term on December 31, 2026. “The Board has, at its meeting held today, respected his decision and has initiated the process for the appointment of a new Managing Director & CEO. The process will be completed within applicable regulatory timelines,” the private sector bank said in a regulatory filing. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Ashok Vaswani to step down as Kotak Mahindra’s chief after current term in December 2026
North America
CNBC Finance

The brands winning with World Cup advertising may not be the sponsors

As people around the world tune into this summer's World Cup, some of the brands generating the most buzz aren't even official sponsors of the tournament. The list of official sponsors for this year's World Cup, hosted in cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, include global household names like Adidas, Coca-Cola and Qatar Airways. But even before the tournament began, the spotlight fell on companies like Levi Strauss & Co., Taco Bell and Texas-based convenience store chain Buc-ee's. Some have garnered traction on social media for their creative marketing strategies, while others have benefited from organic customer response with the influx of international players and fans. McDonald's celebrated the tournament with limited-time menu items and cups. Taco Bell leaned into a new campaign to support fans in celebration or support depending on the outcome of a match. According to marketing research firm WARC Media, advertising spending on this year's World Cup tournament is expected to reach $10.5 billion. That's just below spending for the 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, which totaled roughly $12.6 billion. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower told CNBC that World Cup advertising spend increased 42% week over week in the days leading up to the first game. The firm tracked that Taco Bell and Duracell have both increased their advertising spend in the past few weeks, though the top 10 World Cup advertisers by spend over the past three months have been sponsors or broadcast partners of the event. According to market research firm Meltwater, in the ramp-up to the World Cup, non-sponsor brand collaborations generated nearly double the engagement of official sponsors, reaching roughly 61 million engagements versus just 33 million. The firm told CNBC that while sponsored advertisements led in volume, distribution and creative quality helped propel non-sponsors to higher engagement, with the most social media engagement coming from TikTok. Since the tournament began, non-sponsor brands have surpassed 57,000 mentions on social media versus just over 43,000 for official sponsors, the company said. "A big takeaway from this World Cup is that you don't need an official sponsorship to own the cultural moment anymore," Meltwater CEO John Box told CNBC. "The brands that will win the next tournament aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets, but instead the ones who are set up to see what's trending in real time, the creativity to connect it back to your brand, and the speed to act before the moment passes." According to Meltwater, Coca-Cola and Adidas accounted for half of all sponsor mentions in the buildup to the tournament. But in the final 11 days before the first match on June 11, McDonald's became the clear winner, with engagement share rising from 2.6% to 23%. Of the non-sponsors, Lego accounted for 82% of the top 50 most engaging non-sponsor posts across social media platforms, Meltwater said. The construction toy company's World Cup campaign delivered 12 times the sponsor average in the days leading up to the tournament.

The brands winning with World Cup advertising may not be the sponsors
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Nifty and Nifty Bank Prediction for the week 29 Jun’26 to 03 Jul’26 by BL GURU

Nifty is holding well above its support. The nifty bank index is stuck inside a range. Both are in line with our expectation. Overall, the bias remains positive. We expect the Nifty to break its resistance and go higher. The Nifty Bank index can also make a bullish breakout of its range and rise in the coming weeks. Nifty can rise to 24,750-24,850 on a break above 24,250. Support is around 23,800 The Nifty bank index can make a bullish breakout of its 56,500-58,800 range and rise to 60,500-61,500. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Nifty and Nifty Bank Prediction for the week 29 Jun’26 to 03 Jul’26 by BL GURU