markets

Claire Yubin Oh2h

Albemarle and fellow lithium miners jump on Zimbabwe export ban

Lithium miners Albemarle Corp., Lithium Argentina, Lithium Americas, Mineral Resourcesand Sociedad Quimica y Minera are all rising in early trading on Wednesday after Zimbabwe suspended its export of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates.

The latest move accelerates a ban that was reportedly expected to come into effect starting January 2027, and will remain in place until further notice. As the top African producer of the metal, Zimbabwe exported some 1.13 million metric tons, or $514 million worth, of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate in 2025.

Zimbabwe’s mines minister said the ban would remain in effect until companies comply with government requirements, per Bloomberg.

The ban adds further supply pressure into a market that’s already seen prices squeeze higher, with benchmark lithium futures roughly doubling since the end of October 2025. That’s spurred the shares of companies like Albemarle, which has gained more than 90% over the same time frame — a rare bright spot in an EV supply chain that’s generally been pretty depressed recently.

Some Wall Street analysts have gotten more bullish on the sector, too. Albemarle scored an upgrade from Bank of America analysts earlier this month, who cited the lithium market’s improvement in structural fundamentals, as Chinese supply restrictions combined with growing demand for utility-scale battery storage applications provide further support for lithium prices. Futures prices for lithium carbonate remain above $18 per kilogram, having been as high as $21 per kilogram in January.

More Markets

See all Markets

Matt Phillips13m

The vast majority of S&P 500 companies are talking about AI this earnings season, at least in broad strokes.

But precious few are disclosing hard numbers on how AI makes them more profitable, according to a review of Q4 earnings calls conducted by Goldman Sachs analysts.

In a note published late Tuesday, analysts with the bank found that just 1% of the members of the S&P 500 have “quantified the impact of AI on earnings.” That’s despite 70% of blue chip index’s members “broadly discussing AI” on earnings calls.

They wrote:

In earnings calls, many companies have grouped AI with broader automation and productivity initiatives, making it difficult to disentangle the impact of AI specifically. 10% of S&P 500 companies quantified the productivity boost from an AI on a specific use case during their 4Q earnings calls, particularly among developers. Our economists recently highlighted softness in tech employment in recent months.

Only two new companies quantified an AI productivity impact on their current earnings, Goldman found. One was financial analytics and ratings powerhouse S&P Global. The other was water treatment and commercial cleaning products manufacturer Ecolab.

The gap between the share of executives yapping about AI and dearth of detail on the technology’s bottom line impact, may be part of the reason investors have gotten slightly jittery about AI during the recent flurry of earnings reports, with volatility on baskets of AI related stocks picking up over the last month.

Investors know that tech giants are boosting the amount they plan to spend on AI investments in the coming year to over $600 billion. They also know that customers who who will buy AI services from Amazon , Google and Microsoft — to name a few — will have to see real benefits from using it.

If they don’t, the customers won’t keep paying. And there goes the hyperscalers ROI.

Anyway, we’re still waiting to see those benefits.

markets

Max Knoblauch2h

Joby announces plans to offer air taxi rides in the Uber app in Dubai

Air taxi maker Joby Aviation is climbing in premarket trading on Wednesday following its announcement that Uber Air (a planned partnership to add Joby’s air taxis as a transport option in the Uber app) will launch in Dubai later this year.

Joby shares are up more than 6%.

According to its press release, booking an air taxi through the Uber app will also include an Uber Black pickup and drop-off.

First, Joby will need its air taxis certified for commercial service in the UAE. Last February, the company said it expected to be flying passengers in the country “in late 2025 or early 2026,” though that timeline appears to have been delayed. According to a report by The National in November, UAE authorities said they expect certification in the third quarter.

The company’s progress in the US is slower, though it entered the final stage of its FAA certification process last year and is expected to provide an update to that timeline when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday.

The announcement marks a deepening of Joby and Uber’s partnership. Last year, Uber said it would add Joby’s Blade helicopter and seaplane services to its ride-hailing app.

Get Ready for Takeoff With Uber and Joby

Get Ready for Takeoff With Uber and Joby

According to its press release, booking an air taxi through the Uber app will also include an Uber Black pickup and drop-off.

First, Joby will need its air taxis certified for commercial service in the UAE. Last February, the company said it expected to be flying passengers in the country “in late 2025 or early 2026,” though that timeline appears to have been delayed. According to a report by The National in November, UAE authorities said they expect certification in the third quarter.

The company’s progress in the US is slower, though it entered the final stage of its FAA certification process last year and is expected to provide an update to that timeline when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday.

The announcement marks a deepening of Joby and Uber’s partnership. Last year, Uber said it would add Joby’s Blade helicopter and seaplane services to its ride-hailing app.

markets

Workday’s miserable year continues after soft revenue guidance sinks the stock

Workday slumped nearly 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday, and continued to languish in the red in early trading on Wednesday, after the HR and finance software company issued a lighter-than-expected subscription revenue outlook.

For the quarter ended January 31, subscription revenue — which makes up over 90% of total revenue — rose 15.7% year over year to $2.36 billion, in line with analysts’ estimates, while adjusted earnings per share of $2.47 topped the $2.32 expected.

However, guidance for the coming quarter, ending April 2026, came in a hair below analysts’ estimates, as did projections for fiscal 2027 subscription revenue of $9.93 billion to $9.95 billion, below the roughly $10 billion estimate on Wall Street.

The outlook comes amid broader AI-driven anxiety among software-as-a-service companies, with investors questioning whether generative-AI tools could displace traditional software vendors.

On the earnings call, CEO Aneel Bhusri pushed back on this narrative, arguing Workday’s domains are “really, really hard to build.” The company has been prioritizing investment in “agentic AI,” with its annualized revenue from AI products now topping $400 million.

Still, shares are now down ~45% year to date, marking the stock’s sharpest annual decline since going public in 2012. All told, shares are now 61% down from their all-time high.

Is Nvidia dead money, or a coiled spring?

The stock has done next to nothing for five months. Stellar Q3 results and guidance failed to inspire a rally.

A Slinky is a precompressed helical spring toy invented by Richard James in the early 1940s

markets

President Trump announces data center electricity deals in State of the Union

President Donald Trump said during Tuesday’s State of the Union address that he’s struck agreements with tech companies to pay more for electricity in areas where they build data centers.

The “rate payer protection pledges” are intended to insulate consumers from higher bills in regions where new, power-hungry data centers are built. The White House earlier told Politico that the plan meant that tech giants would “pay their own way” and offset their demand for power causing electricity bills for all ratepayers to increase.

Some tech companies are already trying to get out in front of the public’s negative perception of their surging electricity use, and Trump’s criticism of it. In January, Microsoft committed to paying up for its data center electricity use. That move came after criticism from the president. As part of the plan, Microsoft said it would ask utilities and public commissions to charge it rates high enough to cover the costs of both data center installation and usage, and support two-tier pricing systems where “Very Large Customers” (like data centers) get charged higher prices.

Coming into the end of 2025, utilities with a footprint on the country’s largest utility grid — the PJM Interconnection, which serves vast swaths of the Eastern Seaboard and Great Lakes region — like Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra saw their share prices surge as electricity auction prices hit record highs. So far in 2026, however, that trade has largely reversed.

Trump tries to get ahead of voters’ grumbling on AI data costs

Some tech companies are already trying to get out in front of the public’s negative perception of their surging electricity use, and Trump’s criticism of it. In January, Microsoft committed to paying up for its data center electricity use. That move came after criticism from the president. As part of the plan, Microsoft said it would ask utilities and public commissions to charge it rates high enough to cover the costs of both data center installation and usage, and support two-tier pricing systems where “Very Large Customers” (like data centers) get charged higher prices.

Coming into the end of 2025, utilities with a footprint on the country’s largest utility grid — the PJM Interconnection, which serves vast swaths of the Eastern Seaboard and Great Lakes region — like Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra saw their share prices surge as electricity auction prices hit record highs. So far in 2026, however, that trade has largely reversed.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.

©2026 Sherwood Media, LLC