Yahoo Finance

After a mostly calm January, the VIX Volatility (Fear) Index jumped three points on Monday as the S&P 500 dropped 89 points and the Nasdaq shed 600. Are we headed for a correction or a visit from the bear? Not necessarily. But risks remain. Indeed, in our 2025 Market Outlook, we noted that investor complacency was high and stock valuations were susceptible to a sell-off in the Technology sector. And that's what happened Monday, on news that Chinese AI technology was becoming more sophisticated, and that large language models (LLMs) from companies such as DeepSeek were more powerful and less expensive than established LLMs from Meta, OpenAI, and others. It is important to keep in mind, though, that the AI market is large and growing, and new entrants are expected to continue to disrupt this emerging industry. And while pricing is important, companies in the AI space prioritize relationships, continuity, security, and reliability; and adding new vendors always entails risk that these requirements will not be met. Meantime, U.S. government policy is highly likely to prevent wide dissemination of Chinese LLMs in implementations in the U.S., given risks of "back doors" to Chinese military and intelligence. Non-U.S. nations are largely following similar policies, which will inhibit acceptance of Chinese AI LLMs worldwide. Back to the market, the current VIX is around 18.0, below the 15-year average of 20.5, and signals investors aren't overly worried, yet. This reading compares to the average VIX of 24 during the most-recent bear market and 35 during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. During the long bull market in the 2010s, the VIX averaged 18 and even touched lows below 10 in 2017. We continue to think that the S&P 500 is in the early-to-mid stage of a bull market that dates to October 2022. And while the path for equities won't be straight up, we suggest investors favor growth stocks at the current market juncture.

Baidu is the largest internet search engine in China with over 50% share of the search engine market in 2024 per web analytics firm, Statcounter. The firm generated 72% of core revenue from online marketing services from its search engine in 2023. Outside its search engine, Baidu is a technology-driven company and its other major growth initiatives are artificial intelligence cloud, video streaming services, voice recognition technology, and autonomous driving.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.

KT is South Korea's largest fixed-line telecom operator, with around 11.7 million fixed-line broadband customers and 9.4 million IPTV customers, and is the second-largest wireless operator with 25 million subscribers. Additionally, it has a number of nontelecom businesses, including real estate, payment processing, artificial intelligence, and IDC/cloud services, many of which are the focus of its growth strategy. The company was formed from the previously government-owned, monopoly telecom business and was listed in 1998. After selling its mobile business in 1994 (forming its mobile competitor, SK Telecom) KT created its own mobile operator in 1997.