UK Watchdog Proposes Strategic Market Tag for Microsoft, Puts Excel and Copilot AI Under Competition Scrutiny
The U.K.'s competition regulator has proposed designating Microsoft as having a Strategic Market Status (SMS).
Economy · News reference
Malcolm Ethridge picked Okta, Inc. as his final trade while others recommended iShares U.S. Financials, Horizon Kinetics Inflation Beneficiaries, and Amazon.
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The U.K.'s competition regulator has proposed designating Microsoft as having a Strategic Market Status (SMS).
U.S. Bancorp reported record Q3 2026 net revenue of $8 billion with expanding operating efficiency. The bank is diversifying fee income through capital markets expansion (targeting 10%+ of revenue), scaling high-yield deposits via strategic partnerships like the Amazon small business credit card ($1.7B in period-end loans), and rebuilding capital to resume stock buybacks. Net interest margin expanded to 2.84%, positioning the bank to benefit from higher reinvestment rates.
Oracle is positioned as an attractive cloud computing investment alternative to Alphabet and Microsoft, with its cloud infrastructure business growing 121% and a record $664 billion backlog. However, heavy data center spending has pushed free cash flow negative, raising questions about whether Oracle can convert its customer commitments into sufficient profits.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/16/anthropic-ai-safety-01124654
IYF and IAT offer different approaches to financial sector investing. IYF provides broad exposure to mega-cap banks, insurers, and asset managers with lower volatility and stronger 5-year returns (60% total return, 9.8% CAGR). IAT focuses on regional banks with higher dividend yield (2.9% vs 1.5%) but greater volatility and weaker performance (5% total return, 1.1% CAGR). Both charge identical 0.37% expense ratios. IYF emerges as the better choice for most investors seeking stability and growth.
The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.5% at midday Friday as memory chips and AI-debt names sold off, while Fed Chair Warsh declined to rule out an October hike after hot CPI and PPI. WTI held near $96, the 10-year yield hovered around 5.1%, gold bounced toward $4,200 and bitcoin traded near $81,300.