My dad just turned 60 and lives alone. I’m 28 and moved out last August after living with my dad for 4 years while I went to school. He had retired earlier that year before I moved in and began living in my grandpas second house in a secluded area.
I liked living there because of the location. It was quiet and I had lots of hiking trails, but living with my dad was kind of hell on earth. I couldn’t move out due to being in school and cost of living, so I basically had to live there and be my dad’s caretaker. He’s also a complete slob. There would be dirty, cracked socks all over the floor, sliced cheese packages all over, the carpets would get caked with cigarette ash from his shoes..etc.
I would pick up food for my dad and cooked often to make sure he ate something. I’d have to monitor the oven to make sure he didn’t leave the gas partially on. There were times when I’d have to dig the ATV out of the woods when he’d get drunk and go off the trail.
Anyways, you get the picture. I took it upon myself to manage someone else’s life. I moved out into an apartment last August and felt tremendous guilt. It was really hard to imagine him being all alone but with the support of my sister I realized it wasn’t my problem. I confided in her all of the messed up things I had been through while living there that I had kept a secret because I felt stuck(couldn’t move out).
I convinced my dad to get an apartment nearby so that he wasn’t all alone 2.5 hours away in the woods. He did and even then he basically isolated himself and I would be the only one calling to make plans for lunch. He ended his lease last month saying getting that apartment was “the worst mistake he’s made all year” because he barely got to see my sister, nephew and I.
Now he’s been back up there permanently for 3 weeks. I have some time off work so I went up yesterday planning on staying the night but when I walked through the door my chest sank. He was gone but the door was unlocked. The entire house reeked of cigarettes(he’s never smoked in the house before), the kitchen countertops were covered in trash. A trash can buzzing with flies was in front of the porch. I saw his dog sleeping on the couch and I thought she was dead. I shook her about 8 times and she woke up and just stared straight ahead. Her water dish was bone dry. I went into the garage where he smokes and drinks and the entire garage floor was covered in cigarette butts and cartons and trash. I called him and he was at the doctors because he recently injured his back. I said with a shaking voice “do you want to come back and stay with me tonight?” He said he’ll talk with me later.
I called him again and asked when he was coming back and he said “you’re not planning on leaving right away, are you??” I said this house is really dirty, dad. He said…I know. I’ll talk to you when I get home. Okay.
He gets back and I clean up the house. He recently injured his back so he couldn’t help. He just seemed off, broken. Wasn’t talkative at all. It was like the isolation killed something in him.
I stayed for an hour and a half and left. I couldn’t stay the night there. It stunk. I recently bought my first home that has 4 bedrooms and a basement but this is my home, I can’t have him here smoking and drinking. He also has terrible hygiene and my car still has a smell to it from yesterday. Plus this is MY space. I finally got away from living in that environment and I know if I invited him to stay here it would go downhill so fast. My sister doesn’t help with anything so all of this has fallen on me.
What do I do?

Hitters of the Week (8) (5/13-5/19)
1 - Jake Meyers (25 PA, Min 15 PA, 9 Qualified)

• Spoiler alert, 2 Outfielders and one corner infielder made this an extremely easy week. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly if you’ve been watching games this week), Jake Meyers comes in first. Of 10 non-luck categories (WPA, WPA/LI ,BA, xBA, xSLG, xISO, wOBA, xwOBA, BRV, BRV/100), Meyers was at or above the 90th Percentile in 9 of them (only one he wasn’t was xISO, 83rd Percentile). 8 of those 10 are at least in the 95th Percentile. The highlight of his week by WPA was a 2-Run Homer in the Bottom of the 2nd on Friday, giving the Astros a 1 Run lead as well as a 20% WPA swing.

2 - Kyle Tucker (30 PA, Min 15 PA, 9 Qualified)

• Tucker, our 2nd Outfielder, contributed to this easy week. Tucker, with 6 stats in the 90th Percentile, finishing in the 98th Percentile in WPA/LI, wOBA and Batter Run Value. A highlight for him would be the insurance Homer on Sunday to turn a 2-Run Game to a 5-Run Game. He went 2-4 with 3 Walks in PAs with at least a Leverage Index of 1 (1 = Average LI for a PA). This week continued Tucker’s Monster 1st Half, ending him at 1st in the AL in many batting categories, most notably wRC+ (192) and fWAR (3.0)

3 - Alex Bregman (29 PA, Min 15 PA, 9 Qualified)

• Bregman, that infielder I was referring to. While his stats relative to the rest of the league during last week weren’t as impressive as Meyers’ and Tucker’s, they are still great. 3 Categories >= 90th Percentile; WPA/LI, wOBA, and Batter Run Value. His 3 Homers to begin the week are his 3 plays of greatest impact by WPA. Though there isn’t much to highlight on his season stats, there could be a lot ot highlight if he keeps this up.

Pitchers of the Week (8) (5/13-5/19)
Starters
1 - Framber Valdez

• Continuing the trend of easy choices, my selections for Starters of the Week have also been made easy. First is Framber Valdez, who put up a 79 GameScore on Wednesday the 15th, in 7.0 Innings of Shutout Ball. Framber let only 4 men on while giving the Astros 35.1% in WPA during the team win that day.

2 - Cristian Javier

• My 2nd Starting Pitcher, Cristian Javier started Thursday vs. Oakland, pitching a similar line to Framber; 6.0 IP, 0 R, 3 allowed on base, and a 75 GameScore. His K total of 8 is also the same total Framber put up. The Astros did win behind his 18.3% WPA, 8-1.

Relievers
1 - Josh Hader

• Entering in 2 Games (14th, 17th) with no lead greater than 1, Hader did his job in 3 total innings. Hader struck out 4, while letting only 1 man on via a Walk. Closing out one game, and giving the Astros a chance to walk it off was worth 61.7% in WPA. He has not allowed an ER in his last 4 appearances.

2 - Rafael Montero

• Abreu was in consideration, though letting 3 Inherited Runners Pass the Plate Sunday put him out of consideration. So that leaves Montero, coming in to 3 Games with a 1 Run Lead and exiting all 3 with a 1 Run Lead. All that was worth 25.8% of WPA. Montero finished the week with 0 R, 3 Hits, 0 Walks, and 5 Strikeouts.

My phone vibrated. As did my smartwatch. I glimpsed up from my laptop, which was sitting in my lap so I could go over my presentation again. I was in the car, my boss was driving and we were headed to a conference, where both of us were supposed to speak. We were traveling for more than 7 hours now due to numerous traffic jams on our way.
Looking at my watch, I saw, it was the doorbell which caused the vibration. Already distracted from my presentation I pulled out my phone. Opening the doorbell app, I just so see, that my wife asks Becky, our young black dogsitter with her DD boobs into the house. "Curious" I thought, my wife hadn't told me, she wanted to go out that evening. It was a Tuesday, so it was her usual day for her Zumba class, but that would have meant leaving the dogs alone for about 1 and a half hours, so no need for a dogsitter. However, judging from what little I had seen, Becky was wearing an extremely short black latex skirt and a minimalist latex crop top, the full outfit barely covering her tits, ass and pussy. In addition to a black leather collar, it looked like my wife had ordered her in with other stuff in mind than just watching the dogs, even if there was the possibility, Becky's outfit was just due to the 30+ degree heatwave we were having.
A few minutes later, my phone vibrated again. It was a text from my wife. "Heading out to Zumba". She followed it up with a picture of her in her sports dress. Due to the heat she only wore tight short pants, a very tight revealing top and her sports bra. So her petite size combined with her chubby figure and her big tits were easy to spot. "Looking great" I answered. "Have fun, love you". "You have any plans later?" She asked. "No" I answered. "I won't be able to make it to swimming today. I'm not even at the hotel yet. So just dinner with my boss and then I will head for the bed." I replied. "Ok" was the only answer I got.
My boss and I checked into the hotel and found a place to eat, when I got another message from my wife. It was a shower selfie from the gym, showing her having her tits soaped up. I had to make sure, nobody saw my developing boner below a napkin. And this was also unusual, as my wife normally prefers to shower at home. What did she have planned. "Going out?" I asked her. I didn't get an answer for a while. Then I got another selfie. My wife was now wearing a long, tight, black PU skirt, and a black leather corsage, which was barely able to keep her G-Cups inside. She also had makeup on and her black hair with a tint of red worked perfectly with her black lipstick. A second picture showed, that she did not wear panties, but a buttplug. "Gonna surprise Becky" was her answer to my previous question. "Let's check whether she obeyed" was the next text I got, before I had an incoming videocall from the group my wife had created for the three of us. I excused myself from the table and left the table, while keeping the lid of my phone case closed. I took a Bluetooth headset out of my pocket and went outside to take the call. As soon as I did, I had to hold my breath. My wife held up her phone in her car in a way, that Becky and I had perfect view of her cleavage, while Becky was clearly sitting on our terrace, wearing the earlier described outfit, her legs spread apart and her camera clearly showing that she also had inserted a buttplug and additionally a vibrator in her pussy, pleasuring herself. From her position I could see, that there was a very slim, but not zero chance she could be seen by a passing neighbor. "Good girl" I heard my wife's voice. "Expect me home in 20 minutes. Keep going with the vibrator but do not come before I'm home or you will regret it". "Yes Madam" was Becky's answer. "Now put on a show for my husband" my wife again commanded. I watched the vibrator going in and out her pink pussy, which contrasted nicely with her chocolate skin, before commanding her, to take down her top, revealing her double D's to the camera (and potentially the neighbors). She was hesitant at first. "I will tell my wife of your disobedience" was all I had to say. However, as much as I loved the show, I could not watch it till the end, as my boss now also came out of the restaurant, having paid the bill. So I cut the connection and we went on our way to the hotel.
When we arrived at the hotel, my boss asked, whether we wanted to go for a drink at the bar. At the same time, my wife had already sent me a selfie with our car on the garage and her playing on her pussy, presumably watching Becky somehow. "Are you ready to watch" was the caption. So I thanked my boss again for the dinner and excused myself to my hotel room. "Give me a couple of minutes" was my answer to my wife. "Hurry up" she wrote, accompanied by a picture below her skirt, showing her pink pussy and her fluids already flowing down her legs. I quickly setup my tablet and connected it to the WIFI. While I was doing this I received several messages from my wife. The first one was a picture, showing a top view into her corsage, showing clearly, that it was unable to really tame her tits, with her areolas already visible. If a neighbor saw her on the way from the car to the house, he would have quite a look. I was secretly hoping for that to happen. I know some of the neighbors had already checked out Becky or other visitors to our house when they arrived in playtime "clothes" but my wife so far had mostly gone unnoticed by the neighbors. The second picture was a screenshot from one of our bedroom cameras on my wife's phone, showing Becky, lying on her back, her tits once again hidden by her latex top, her legs spread wide open towards the camera. Her skirt had moved upwards and was lying on her hips. The buttplug was replaced by a vibrator, and she also had a vibrator inserted into her pussy. I admired once again the contrast of her pink flesh to the dark chocolate color of her body. "I have the remotes" my wife wrote with a winking emoji. "Hurry up, I'm horny". "Me too" I thought, "and it's not helping that you send me these pictures". Finally I had an internet connection ready and connected onto our home VPN to access the cameras. "I'm in" I wrote to my wife. "Going in" was her answer.
While I waited for my wife to appear, I watched Becky on the tablet. She was still pretty much in the same pose as before and I could only imagine, that she was in this pose, because my wife had ordered her so. She really loved to submit herself to both of us, what made the evenings with her fun. Suddenly I could see her shiver and heard hear moans getting louder. I could see her fighting, but ultimately losing the fight against her orgasm, induced by the two vibrators in her pussy and ass, controlled by my wife. Only a few seconds later I hear high heels coming up the stairs and my wife entering the room. She had added black, knee high leather boots to her already seducing outfit and held a small whip in her hand. I saw Becky's eyes widen, it was a mixture of lust and fear. "You know you can tell me to stop at any time if it is too much," my wife said ."It is fine, I dreamed about playing with a whip, just haven't done it yet. But please be gentle, "was Becky's answer. "Did I stutter, when I told you not to come?" My wife now said in a fake angry voice. She followed it up with a lash onto her top and the boob below. I could hear the sound and I saw Becky flinch for a split-second. But her eyes told, that she was okay with what happened. "Sorry Madam. It was just to much pleasure you gave me with the vibrators," Becky whispered. "So now this is my fault you cannot control yourself?" My wife asked while still faking anger, followed by a lash onto the other boob. "No Madam, I did not obey your orders. What can I do to make it up?" "That will be up to me, I already have some ideas." My wife said to her, while she positioned a few whiplashes around Becky's pussy. You could already see the mixture of pain and lust in Becky's eyes.
From the messages before, and the show I got on camera my cock was already more than rock hard and I hurried to get rid off my pants and boxers, to release the pain this was causing me. That was when I realized, the blinds were still open, so I corrected this mistake quickly. No need to be seen masturbating in a conference hotel.
On my screen the action now got more intense. "Why are you still dressed?" My wife asked. I laughed out, because the short top and the extremely short skirt that was already hanging on Becky's hips could barely be counted as dressed, as she didn't even wear any underwear. "Get these skimpy clothes of your body" was the next command. To reinforce this statement two whiplashes onto each boob were added. Becky quickly got up, robbing me of the view between her legs and wanted to pull her top over her head, her back to my wife and the camera. She was interrupted by a whiplash onto her ass, as the skirt still was hanging on her hips. This time my wife seemingly had put more force into it, as for a short time you could see the impact on Becky's chocolate skin. "No need to hide. Make it a show for me and the camera". Becky obeyed. She turned around and started pulling up her top above her DD tits, covering them with her hands, playing a little bit by pushing them left right and up and down before performing a boob drop and finally pushing her top over her head. She let it turn around one of her fingers before throwing it on the general direction of my wife. While her boobs are a lot smaller than my wife's G-Cups, due to her taller but skinnier stature and chocolate color, those were my second favorite boobs. Her areolas were forward facing and she had quite a gap in between them. And they looked incredibly sexy in the current lighting, bouncing with every of Becky's movements. My wife nodded approvingly. Afterwards Becky started pulling down her skirt while moving laszivly. Her boobs and her hips moving while she slowly hid her pussy before revealing it again. She got down on her knees, spreading her legs for my wife and me before she got out of the skirt, pushed it aside and got up again. Unfortunately for her, the vibrator fell out of her pussy during this movement. A second later she got another whiplash on her pussy. "Did I tell you to loose the vibrator?" My wife said in a harsh voice. "No Madam." Becky said, lowering her head. "Well, then pick it up and put it where it belongs again. Becky started bending her knees and lowering her back, when she was once again interrupted by a whiplash targeted at her right tit. "Not like that. Turn around and bend over, we want to see your ass." I think I caught a short grin on Becky's face. She definitely did not mind what my wife did to her. She turned around, spread her legs so I would be able to see her face and upper body between them, bent over, wiggled with her ass, which of course also caused her tits to wiggle in front of her face. This of course also revealed the vibrator in her butt. Just when Becky had her fingers on the vibrator on the floor I could hear her moan and saw her legs shaking. My wife now stood besides her, facing the camera holding the remote in the hand that did not hold the whip. With shaking hands from arousal Becky tried to take up the vibrator again, and just when her fingers were there, my wife increased the intensity with the remote again, leading to Becky losing control and collapsing on the floor. As soon as her body hit the floor another whiplash hit her ass. "Am I talking incomprehensibly? You are not to come without my permission and you are asked to get this vibrator into your worthless pussy while showing your fucking ass. What is so hard about that?" While talking, my wife added additional whiplashes onto her ass with a couple of them also hitting the pussy area. "I'm sick of this, now get your worthless body onto the bed and open your legs to the camera". "Yes Madam" was the only answer from Becky. When she got up I glimpsed a look in her face and saw it was pure lust, despite the pain.
Up until now I had started playing with myself. The view and sound on my tablet were just to arousing. I realized, that I was already close to cumming, but there would be more action for me to watch. Nevertheless I couldn't stop, and a few quick strokes and I came in 3 high squirts over my upper body. In the meanwhile the action on the screen continued.
As ordered, Becky lay down as she had been before only now her tits were also clearly visible on camera. My wife bent down herself, making sure I got a good show and picked up the vibrator Becky had failed to pick up twice. She shoved it into Becky's pussy again, before she used the remote again to set both vibrators in Becky's ass an pussy to their lowest setting again. Becky's pelvis moved, as the overstimulation was to much again. My wife once again addressed her: "This should be about me, not you! Time you put your body to some use. Now get me out of my skirt." She ordered, standing next to the bed, with her ass to the camera. Becky sat up, her open pussy still facing the camera and giving me a prime look at her tits. She undid my wife's belt and started pulling down the skirt. My wife supported this with very erotic moves and just a few seconds later I had the perfect view onto the greatest ass in the galaxy. The right roundness, perfect size, perfect shape and feel and just overall perfect for me. My wife pushed Becky back onto the bed, while at the same time bending over, revealing the buttplug and vibrator she had in herself. This movement was also to much for her corsage and her tits fell out. "Make yourself useful and suck on my tits!" was her next command, to which Becky promptly obeyed while my wife made quite a show out of removing the vibrator from her pussy. She spread her legs, shaking that great ass and slowly pulled out the vibrator millimeter by millimeter and pushing it in 5 millimeters in again for every 10 millimeters she had pulled it out. When she was done, she climbed onto the bed sat up and pushed Becky's upper body down. She then climbed over Becky's face and began riding on her face. Becky understood what to do and gave her best to luck my wife's pussy. My wife's boobs jumped around on her chest, which made her abandon her whip and she started massaging and playing with them, while leaning slightly backwards. This gave me a great view and made me hard again in an instant. Also due to my wife's movements on the bed, Becky's tits started to wiggle, but she needed her hands to ensure my wife's thighs had sufficient space in between for her not to suffocate. This got more and more difficult, as my wife quickly approached her orgasm. It took her less than 2 minutes before she collapsed forward, her face more or less falling onto Becky's pussy. My wife catched her breath for half a minute or so, before she pulled herself up again, grabbed her whip and climbed down from Becky. Becky's face was covered in my wife's fluids, it almost looked like my wife had squirted onto Becky's face. Becky also sat up and catched her breath.
My wife held up Becky's face by placing her whip below her chin. "Good girl, seems like you are good for something. I think you have earned some reward." She said and gave Becky two gentle whiplashes onto her nipples, which made Becky moan again. My wife bent down beside the bed, showing me her great ass with the buttplug again and opened our toy drawer. She grabbed a blindfold and tossed it to Becky. "Put that on, and get on your knees, face to the camera." Becky went on her knees and elbows, what resulted in a harsh whiplash on her ass. "On your hands, not your elbows" and as Becky took to long for her liking, a second whiplash followed. Now Becky obeyed and stayed more upright. Next my wife went, and repositioned the camera, so now the camera was low enough to look between Becky's legs. Next, my wife pulls out a dual vibrator we had bought recently. She inserted the short part as advertised into her vagina and went behind Becky. She then removed the vibrators from Becky's pussy and ass and slowly started to insert the long part of the double vibrator into Becky's pussy. I was able to see Becky's surprised look through the blindfold, as my wife's pelvis touched Becky's ass and she realized, what was happening. The next surprise came, when my wife activated the vibrations and started fucking her Doggystyle. I was almost in heaven. Seeing a pair of DD tits bouncing in the big picture, and my wife's G-Cups also bouncing in the background while my wife grabbed Becky by the hips and gave her a pounding was an absolutely fantastic view. This went on for about 10 minutes, with me wanking of in my hotel bed, my wife pounding the dogsitter Doggystyle and the dogsitter moaning loudly. It seemed, the double vibrator had some kind of burst mode, as both women increased and decreased their volume in regular intervals. After 10 minutes the two women collapsed over each other from their orgasm and I also came again.
After everyone had catched their breath again, my wife told Becky she could go home now, she would still make the last train even with some time to wash herself. After Becky was gone, my wife and myself had video call under our showers. After that we said goodnight. My wife told me, to have fun on the conference reception the next day, but to not forget my camera...

I need some advice.
So last Friday I was leaving for a three day trip and as I was putting my bags in the car a neighbor kid walked by with a lawnmower and asked if they could mow my lawn. I said sure, the kid gets money and my lawn needed mowing. Win. Win.
Anyways I gave him a piece of paper with my # on it that he gave to his older brother cause i didn't have cash so I could send him money on Zelle, which is one of the apps like paypal or cash app.
Anyways later that evening the brother reaches out and I send the Money, and ask for pictures of my yard the next day which he says sure to and which I never get.
Anyways I get back from my trip Sunday night and this kid only partially did just my front lawn, like my lawn has looked horrible for three days and I message the brother in the morning to figure out what happened and he tells me he will get to the bottom of it. So the kid showed up Monday and says sorry, and gave a excuse on why he couldn't finish my lawn during the weekend then I ask if he can finish now and he says yes. And starts on my lawn again, this is at about 4pm, Anyways I went back to bed cause i am on night shift and was asleep, I get up and look at my lawn and the kid had done only one side and the rest of the front and left the other side and the backyard and was nowhere to be seen. It is like 5pm, he mowed for like 10/15 mins, like I only live on a quarter acre, at most my lawn would take a hour to do with a push mower. Like I had specifically told the kid that I had unlocked the backyard so he could mow that, it was very clear I had meant for him to do my whole yard.
So I message the brother and ask what is going on and have not got a message, I sent another text this morning asking to speak with a parent which I'm probably not going to get a response to.
What should I do?
Like obviously I could have just done my lawn myself but I'm recently back on night shift and having a hard time of it, and thought I could throw this kid some money, like when I was his age I mowed my grand parents lawn for 10$'s and loved having that extra pocket money each summer and thought I could pay that forward.
Should I just move on and just get the lawn completed myself and drop the whole thing and write this off as a loss or should I try to get in touch with this kids parents for my money back or something look that, idk
I thought about calling the non emergency police number, cause I have a phone number that they should be able to track and get a house number or something, and let the police take care of it, or at the least get advice from them.
I just feel so taken advantage of when I tried to do something nice for a neighbor, and it's like spoiled my whole weekend, I can't stop thinking about it.

I've been asking myself this question, but I cant seem to justify it in my brain. Its like everything becomes fuzzy and unclear and my brain doesn't want to make sense of anything. I'm 26 and my stepmother has gaslighted me so many times. My father is an extremely weak individual who has never stood up for me or protected me. He is selfish. I think he cares about me a little bit but his own comfort and wants come first 100%. He actually disgusted me by how selfish he is. Now it's like they want to sweep everything under the rug and act like they're great parents and never made any mistakes. They did so many things to hurt me and basically threw me away then acted like nothing happened. My mom died when I was 16, mom had anger issues and a lot of undealt with trauma, she was somewhat abusive, dad never protected me. Stepmother came into the picture when I was 18. She's said things to purposely upset me and talked to my family badmouthing me. Whenever I've had to address previous issues, my stepmother will storm out and say she's not going to have this discussion with me. They say I am holding onto the past and holding bad feelings in my heart but how can I move on when they have hurt me so much and no one has ever talked about it or apologized? It's like they're both trying to be nice since I don't live there anymore but I can't be a doormat for everything that has happened and when they hurt me I got angry then I'm painted as the antagonist. My sister heavily complicates things. Shes 17 and currently living with them. I love her dearly but I'm afraid she takes after our father. She cares but not too deeply to sacrifice her own comfort. I was talking to her about the stepmother and she refused to say anything. I asked her why she's not agreeing when she knows its true, she said it doesn't benefit her to pick a side. She says that when she knows how the stepmother has treated us, she has threatened my sister saying she will kick me out (while I was living with them) if my sister misbehaves. Thats so manipulative. Sorry for this long post and grammar errors.
Edit: I have arthritis and other autoimmune issues that my parents never had. I'm 26 and I think this is due to the stress from the relationship.

At the time of Dwaynes arrest I was an employee at Arms Acres, a substance abuse treatment facility in NY, and Dwayne was my direct supervisor. I will post a brief description of the case in hand along followed by my personal experiences with Dwayne and why this case really bothers me.
(Excerpt from https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2022/04/24/putnam-county-ny-man-accused-dealing-drugs-killing-woman/7423036001/)
A Patterson man accused of being a drug dealer is facing federal charges including murder.
Dwayne Pulliam, 59, also known as "Doc," is accused of killing Lori Lee Campbell, 59 and of Putnam County, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which said Pulliam believed the woman was stealing drugs from him.
Pulliam was arrested Thursday in New Milford, Connecticut. He was presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause, who ordered him held without bail pending further court action, according to a release from the office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Pulliam was released from prison in December 2020 after serving approximately 24 years for murder, Williams said.
Williams said Pulliam contacted an unidentified co-conspirator in the drug trade on March 29 and told him he had murdered Campbell. No age or hometown for Campbell was made available.
According to the release:

• Pulliam told his co-conspirator he confronted Campbell, and when she tried to flee, he stopped her. When Campbell started screaming, Pulliam told his co-conspirator he "stopped her from screaming."
• Pulliam told his co-conspirator to help him move Campbell's body, and threatened to kill the co-conspirator's family if he did not cooperate.
• The co-conspirator helped Pulliam move Campbell's body, wrapped in a sheet, to Pulliam's car. They then drove to Pulliam's mother's house in North Carolina, where they got shovels, a bag of lime and plastic wrap from a shed. They then drove to a cul-de-sac, where they covered Campbell's body in lime and buried it in a shallow grave.

Law enforcement officers found Campbell's body on Tuesday of this week.
Pulliam is charged with one count of traveling in interstate commerce and using a facility in interstate commerce with intent to engage in a business enterprise involving narcotics, and committing murder to further that unlawful activity. He also is charged with one count of participating in a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of crack cocaine.
Pulliam faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted of the first count, and a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison if he is convicted of the second count.
Now what the media missed.
Dwayne was the direct supervisor at a substance abuse treatment facility from January 2021 until the time of his arrest. That means within a month from being released from prison, for murder and selling crack, he was given a position of authority in a rehab and had direct contact with patients in both the detox and rehab sections of the facility.
I worked directly under Dwayne during that time period as a Milleu and counselor and spoke with him on multiple occasions the week in which the crime occurred (without knowing he had just murdered someone and disposed of their body).
I thought he was an odd individual. It felt as if he was overdressed for the position, he was soft spoken and almost timid. On one occasion after I had worked the overnight shift during a snowstorm he had asked me to cover the day shift as well. I objected and he said he would return in fifteen minutes to let me go home and just disappeared himself, leaving me there for the entirety of the day shift as well. I thought he was somewhat of a snake following that interaction but I was never under the impression that he was capable of murder.
On the day after he disposed of the body and returned to work he joked about being tired after staying up all night driving home from Washington D.C. There was virtually no shift in his demeanor and I never would have suspected a thing had he not been charged shortly after.
Now following his arrest the facility went quiet in regards to him. There was no explanation or briefing with the staff, there was no accountability or internal investigation. Neither the police or anyone from the facility ever spoke to me or any of my coworkers that I'm aware of. I have absolutely no idea how the facility managed to avoid virtually all negative publicity that should have accompanied this.
It really bothers me that he was able to get a position of trust in a rehab so quickly after being released from prison for murder and distribution of narcotics. For some context I have a criminal record that consists of misdemeanors from 8+ years ago when I was active in my addiction and had to undergo multiple interviews (including explaining directly to the CEO) prior to getting the job. It was a process that took me 2 months from application to start date, yet it appears he was streamlined in to a position of trust.
Questions regarding the case

• Did he meet Lori and his other customers at the rehab he was employed?
• how did he get the job as a supervisor so shortly after being released from prison?
• Why isn't it mentioned in any newspapers? I would think there's some meat behind this story yet it just happened and was never mentioned again.

Day one Pixel 8 Pro owner here. Thought I’d share my experience, after over 8 months of ownership.
P8P Bay 256GB has been my daily driver since its release. I use it with 5G on, screen at full resolution, dynamic "smooth display" refresh rate is on, no bluetooth or tethering. Brightness left on auto.
TLDR :
Positives = camera quality, great design, OS (with some caveats), great screen (some caveats too)
Negatives = everything else
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Camera : beautiful imagery has always been the signature of the Pixel line, and this release is no exception. Every shot has this mesmerizing "Pixel touch", and the new ultrawide sensor is finally on par with the main unit. Videos are world class too, not quite on the level of the iPhone but we'll get there eventually.
Beautiful and unique design : It's sitting in a clear case, and in a sea of generic, boring slabs, it really stands out and doesn't go unnoticed. People often ask me what kind of phone it is, most are still not aware that Google is making smartphones and has been doing so for almost a decade now.
Very long software support : Seven years of updates is unrivaled in the Android scene, albeit with the following you’ll understand no one would willingly keep this phone seven years, so it’s not really a positive.
Sleek OS : Android in its purest, cleanest form. Customization galore. However as I'll mention later this pure android is NOT running smoothly, so I don't know if this count as a positive.
Gorgeous OLED panel : A truly beautiful display, high-resolution, good brightness..unfortunately plagued by mutiple lags and frame drops in the UI, I'll get back to that. Now onto the negatives.
First off, we must address the elephant in the room. Battery life. This phone charges PAINFULLY slow and discharges EXTREMELY fast. The opposite of what you want, right ?
The 10 minutes top ups to 50% is a concept Google seemingly never heard of. You want half a charge ? Better sit & wait half an hour. Full charge ? Go watch a movie. Now the discharge, and this is where the real drama clocks in. This phone EATS battery, ON IDLE.
On your average 9 to 5 workday (no camera, no games, just basic apps) you’ll head home with 15% tops. Phone dead by 7pm, then full charge will eat 90 minutes off your schedule, better not be in a hurry.
Now try to make a bit of power usage out of your power user phone : A bit of pictures for work at 10am, a short 4K video at 1pm, a bit of Fallout Shelter on the toilet at 2pm. You’re now looking at a 4pm shutdown.
But let’s go real on the camera, after all this is a camera flagship and it should be your reliable companion on a field day. Starting at 10 am : pictures, videos, a bit of editing, about 40 pictures taken and 3 videos of 10 minutes each. Shutdown at 1PM.
The CPU just eats battery on IDLE doing NOTHING. Throw anything heavy at it and you’ll head home with a dead phone, one that died long before your day was over. Simple as that.
Keep in mind that this is my experience with a 8-months-old device, and it will get worse and worse as the battery cell degrades over time. One can only wonder how many cell replacements this phone will need to get to the end of its famed software support.
Now we need to talk UI and animations because this isn’t good either. Stellar 120hz OLED panel and stock android should be a recipe for smoothness, but not here. Actually, some animations including the cool lock screen clock are barely 60hz. Switching apps isn’t 120hz either, nor is scrolling. A TON of lags and various frame drops, resulting in a framerate like 40-90hz, never stable, with the occasional but very rare peak at 120. This isn't TW3 gameplay on a potato but simply browing menus and scrolling instagram on a 2023, 1159€ flagship phone from Google.
This phone FEELS slow, and yet consume an enormous amount of power to do so. Infuriating.
One day I had to handle a coworker’s A54 to tweak a few things. I was SHOCKED by the smoothness, this was indeed true 120hz, which only happens a few times a day on Pixel 8 Pro. I realized what I was missing on by handling an Exynos mid-ranger. I understand the need for a dynamic framerate, not locked at 120hz all the time to save battery. But only reaching 120hz 5 times a day and still having a mediocre battery life wasn’t what I had in mind.
Finally, the optical, under-display fingerprint scanner. This, my friends, is an antique piece of hardware that belongs to a museum. Remember the Huawei Mate RS from 2018 ? One of the first phones with UDFS. The optical technology was so experimental and unreliable (still is, most OEMs moved on to ultrasonic) that Huawei also included another optical fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, just in case. Well, this ancient tech is what you have on the Pixel 8 Pro, and no optical sensor backup in sight.
Sometimes, it can take up to 2 full seconds of contact to….successfully fail to unlock. After it fails 3 times or so, it will ask you to enter your password, making one-hand unlocks a luck job. Sometimes it will successfully unlock after a couple tries, but a couple tries of 2 seconds each makes unlocking your phone a 4 seconds job which is just painfully slow. The occasional one tap magic is as rare as the occasional 120hz peak in the UI. As for face-unlock, I know it's there but I disabled it because it doesn't work in the dark (no IR sensor) and I simply want to unlock my phone at waist height, without having to raise it to my face.
Pixel 8 Pro remembers me of an exotic sports car that might look incredibly cool from a distance but is actually a pain to live with on a daily basis. And indeed it does look incredibly cool. I remember seeing this phone as a much better pick than the generic Galaxy and the boring iPhone, but I’d rather go boring or generic than having to handle this mess of an hardware Google sold me for 1159€.
TLDR : Positives = Camera quality, great design Negatives = everything else

Hello there fellow players and GMs,
I'm a big fan of play-by-post games in discord, and I used Avrae for my dnd 5e games a lot. Being also a fan of Daggerheart, it is only natural what was my mission: create a bot that have a similar flavor to Avrae.
I present you Duality, a Discord bot designed to help you and your friends play Daggerheart online. Inspired by the game's mechanic where two 12-sided dice are rolled for each action, one for hope and one for fear, Duality facilitates game management and dice rolls directly from Discord.
This are the current features supported:

• Advanced Dice Roller: Uses the d20 library for advanced dice rolls, using!roll [expr] commands.
• Action Rolls: Ability to roll actions with hope and fear dice, using!action command.
• Demiplane Integration: Import character sheets from Demiplane, using!import command.
• Attribute-Based Rolls: Perform action rolls based on character attributes, using!agility or any other attribute command.
• Basic resources management: mark or remove slots of armor, hp, stress and hope using, for example for HP!hp to add or remove makrs (!hp +1d4) or !hpset to set the actual number of marks.

Invite the bot to your server using the following link: https://discord.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=1239800716801998860
If you have any suggestion or need support, please, come to my personal Daggerheart West Marches PbPServer: https://discord.gg/hstRkJAK where we have a category for all the things related to the bot.
PD: take a look at the code, its free! https://github.com/Duality-Bot/duality

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

For more of my content, please join Tradingedge

Well here we are, FG, our first decades tournament, the 2010’s. Thank you to everyone who nominated movies, and let’s get right into it!
Results of Round 1

• Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (2018) (9) beat 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) (8) and Sorry to Bother You (2018) (6)
• Snowpiercer (2013) (11) beat 12 Years a Slave (2013) (7), and Spotlight (2015) (6)
• Skyfall (2012) (9) beat 127 Hours (2010) (8) and Spring Breakers (2012) (7)
• First Reformed (2017) (10) beat Skate Kitchen (2018) (3), and Steve Jobs (2015) (3)
• 1917 (2019) (9) beat Sing Street (2016) (6), and Stoker (2013) (6)
• Silence (2016) (14) beat 20th Century Women (2016) (4) and Stray Dogs (2013) (3)
• Sicario (2015) (17) beat Sunset (2017) (3) and 50/50 (2011) (3)
• Shutter Island (2010) (11) beat A Field in England (2013) (5), and Tabu (2012) (2)
• A Ghost Story (2017) (13) beat Short Term 12 (2013) (6), and Tehran Taboo (2017) (1)
• A Separation (2011) (7) tied with Shoplifters (2018) (7), and beat The Act of Killing (2012) (3)
• The American (2010) (8) beat A Silent Voice (2016) (2), and Shin Godzilla (2016) (2)
• The Assassin (2015) (11) beat Shame (2011) (7), and A Star is Born (2018) (5)
• Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) (11) beat Ad Astra (2019) (6), and The Avengers (2012) (4)
• The Babadook (2014) (10) beat All is Lost (2013) (7) and Rubber (2010) (4)
• Annihilation (2018) (15) beat Room (2015) (5), and The Babysitter (2017) (2)
• Roma (2018) (12) beat April and the Extraordinary World (2015) (4), and The Conjuring (2013) (3)
• The Big Short (2015) (7) beat Aquarius (2016) (5), and Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) (0)
• Arrival (2016) (16) beat Raw (2016) (3), and The Big Sick (2017) (1)
• Atomic Blonde (2017) (6) beat Rango (2011) (5) and The Captain (2017) (3)
  
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) (8) beat Post Tenebras Lux (2012) (3), and Bait (2019) (1)
  
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) (10) beat Barbara (2012) (1), and The Counselor (2013) (1)
  
• The Death of Stalin (2017) (8) beat Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) (6), and Beasts of No Nation (2015) (3)
  
• Birdman (2014) (7) tied Phoenix (2014) (7) and beat The Double (2013) (2)
  
• Black Swan (2010) (11) beat Phantom Thread (2017) (8), and The Drop (2014) (3)
  
• Blade Runner 2049 (2017) (11) beat The Florida Project (2017) (9), and The House That Jack Built (2018) (2)
  
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) (15) beat Blindspotting (2018) (2), and Paddington 2 (2017) (1)
  
• Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) (7) beat Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) (6), and The Great Beauty (2013) (2)
  
• The Handmaiden (2016) (11) beat Bone Tomahawk (2015) (7), and Only God Forgives (2013) (4)
  
• Once Upon a Time....In Hollywood (2019) (15) beat The Hateful Eight (2015) (8), and Bridge of Spies (2015) (4)
  
• Boyhood (2014) (7) beat Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) (5), and The Hollars (2016) (2)
  
• O.J. Made in America (2016) (10) beat Parasite (2019) (9), and Brooklyn (2015) (5)
  
• Nightcrawler (2014) (12) beat Burning (2018) (7), and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) (1)
  
• Nebraska (2013) (7) beat The Hunt (2012) (4), and Byzantium (2012) (4)
  
• Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) (4) beat Carlos (2010) (3), and The Imposter (2012) (2)
  
• Carol (2015) (12) beat The Irishman (2019) (6), and mother! (2017) (3)
  
• The Lighthouse (2019) (9) beat Moonrise Kingdom (2012) (8), and Cemetery of Splendour (2015) (4)
  
• Moonlight (2016) (9) beat The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) (5), and Chappie (2015) (3)
  
• Molly’s Game (2017) (8) beat Coherence (2013) (7), and Cloud Atlas (2012) (4)
  
• The Master (2012) (11) beat Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) (6), and The Martian (2015) (5)
  
• Cold War (2018) (5) ties Meek's Cutoff (2010) (5), and beats The Missing Picture (2013) (2)
  
• The Nice Guys (2016) (14) beat Contagion (2011) (5), and Mary Poppins Returns (2018) (2)
  
• Margaret (2011) (9) beat The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) (6), and Creed (2015) (2)
  
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) (8) tied with The Raid 2 (2014) (8), and beat Maps to the Stars (2014) (3)
  
• Drive (2011) (17) beat The Revenant (2015) (6), and Mandy (2018) (4)
  
• Django Unchained (2012) (11) beat The Salesman (2016) (3) and Made in Dagenham (2010) (2)
  
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (9) beat Train to Busan (2016) (5), and Diamantino (2018) (1)
  
• Eighth Grade (2018) (5) beat Elle (2016) (4), and Long Way North (2015) (2)
  
• The Turin Horse (2011) (10) beat Logan (2017) (9), and El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) (0)
  
• The Way Back (2010) (8) beat Locke (2013) (5), and The Tree of Life (2011) (4)
  
• Embrace of the Serpent (2015) (10) beat Little Women (2019) (6), and The Whispering Star (2015) (2)
  
• Enemy (2013) (6) tied with The Wind Rises (2013) (6) and beat Like Someone in Love (2012) (3)
  
• Life of Pi (2012) (9) beat The Witch (2015) (8), and Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012) (1)
  
• The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) (7) beat Leave No Trace (2018) (6) and Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) (3)
  
• Ex Machina (2014) (9) beat Thoroughbreds (2017) (4), and Le Havre (2011) (3)
  
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) (13) beat Ladybird (2017) (9), and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
  
• La La Land (2016) (13) beat 13 Assassins (2010) (4), and White Boy Rick (2018) (1)
  
• The Social Network (2010) (11) Four Lions (2010) (5), and Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) (2)
  
• Get Out (2017) (7) beat Two Days, One Night (2014) (5), and Konosuba Legend of Crimson (2019) (1)
  
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) (7) beat Girlhood (2014) (4), and Klaus (2019) (1)
  
• Under the Skin (2013) (13) beat Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) (3), and God Bless America (2011) (2)
  
• Upstream Color (2013) (8) beat Killer Joe (2011) (7), and I Saw The Devil (2010) (4)
  
• Good Time (2017) (11) beat Joker (2019) (6), and Us (2019) (2)
  

View Poll

I've been asking myself this question, but I cant seem to justify it in my brain. Its like everything becomes fuzzy and unclear and my brain doesn't want to make sense of anything. I'm 26 and my stepmother has gaslighted me so many times. My father is an extremely weak individual who has never stood up for me or protected me. He is selfish. I think he cares about me a little bit but his own comfort and wants come first 100%. He actually disgusted me by how selfish he is. Now it's like they want to sweep everything under the rug and act like they're great parents and never made any mistakes. They did so many things to hurt me and basically threw me away then acted like nothing happened. My mom died when I was 16, mom had anger issues and a lot of undealt with trauma, she was somewhat abusive, dad never protected me. Stepmother came into the picture when I was 18. She's said things to purposely upset me and talked to my family badmouthing me. Whenever I've had to address previous issues, my stepmother will storm out and say she's not going to have this discussion with me. They say I am holding onto the past and holding bad feelings in my heart but how can I move on when they have hurt me so much and no one has ever talked about it or apologized? It's like they're both trying to be nice since I don't live there anymore but I can't be a doormat for everything that has happened and when they hurt me I got angry then I'm painted as the antagonist. Am I wrong? My sister heavily complicates things. Shes 17 and currently living with them. I love her dearly but I'm afraid she takes after our father. She cares but not too deeply to sacrifice her own comfort. I was talking to her about the stepmother and she refused to say anything. I asked her why she's not agreeing when she knows its true, she said it doesn't benefit her to pick a side. She says that when she knows how the stepmother has treated us, she has threatened my sister saying she will kick me out (while I was living with them) if my sister misbehaves. Thats so manipulative. Sorry for this long post and grammar errors. I'm too upset to care much.
Edit: Edit: I have arthritis and other autoimmune issues that my parents never had. I'm 26 and I think this is due to the stress from the relationship.

DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

For more of my content, please join Tradingedge

Christopher Alvarez:

Going to do a quick live. If you haven't already, go to my stories and read the article I just dropped about the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef.
It's been a wild ride, a wild weekend, and today is Monday. Like we say in Spanish: [I don't speak Spanish.]
Today has been a day where I have been forced to reflect on many of the things that happened to what started on social media and it wasn't a very exciting weekend for my family because they were concerned for my mental health and well-being.
The article that dropped kind of explains that Drake and Kendrick and all of the other celebrities that I have had the courage to connect with, they are great moments that I've lived in my life and that was a time when we were -- I was a kid, you know, just being a fan, living life, meeting my idols.
But nothing happened that night. All these accusations that Drake raped me, that Drake paid off some big money to make me stay quiet or like the Post article. Like, on that I have nothing to hide. I'm an open book. That's what I've told everybody my whole life.
I kind of write down the struggle of being a disabled person and I would never put anyone in harm's way. I understand that these comments on social media have hurt a lot of people because they have messaged me and I'm sorry to them.
I'm sorry to the Mark Hotel for the bad publicity that they have, that they've obtained.
I'm sorry to the security guard at the Mark Hotel for getting fired.
None of this is fabricated. I don't have any intention go bash anyone. It's unfortunate that this is the reason that I have to go live, this is the reason that I have to connect with my fans because I have to apologize for something that I have no idea how I got involved in.
So, I wish everybody could just put this aside. Look forward. Because that's what life is about, you know? Life throws you a lot of curveballs but it's how you get around it and it's how you make the best of every situation and I hope this predicament is an example of how obstacles are never too big for me to overcome and this is just one of them.
Thank to anybody who's texted me kind words. Thank you to the Brooklyn Eagle for giving me the space, the opportunity, to share my side of the story. If you haven't already, go and read it. And I'm gonna go answer Some questions in a little bit so go ahead and type whatever you want to know.
Okay, so, no, I was not on drugs. I'm not --
3 AM, yes, 3 AM. So what? It's New York City, baby. We party. It's the city that never sleeps.
No, Drake did not pay me. I'm okay. Nothing happened between Drake and I, nothing bad happened. We were just hitting it off, like a fan, as someone who likes music, and he’s got some great, great music coming out so stay tuned.
What else?
I guess that's pretty much it but I wanna say I know there have been some news outlets clearly like [???] who have tried to turn this debacle into something that it’s not. I don't think that's the right way to go about it. We should all reach out to the source before posting something. That's what I learned at Columbia journalism school. [Study to be right, to be best?]
What else do you want me to say?
It's been real. It's been real, guys. Thank you for the support. Thank you for everything. Keep reading. I'm gonna keep posting stuff as a journalist because that's what I do. I make people pay for doing bad things. So, those who are private entities or public officials, I make them pay. I make them own their word.
What other articles? I'm working on an article about [Miami pools?] shutting down so I think that’s my next article. I should have something coming out Friday night so stay tuned to that page, as well. If you don't follow me: journalvarez, that’s my professional page. Just like my Twitter handle which I think you guys, most of you guys, have figured out and started following so whether it's for the good reasons, or the right reasons, stay tuned.
I don't really keep up with what's being dropped by those Twitter users. I don't really know what else has been leaked so I can't comment on the audio of the puppy or the dog, whatever people are texting about.This is something that was brought to my attention by a friend. I don't follow beef. I don't really care about the beef from anyone because I live life happy, every day. Life is too short to hate. [So, gotta do that justice?]
I wish Kendrick and Drake all the best going forward. Hopefully they can hash things out. And keep reading the article. Thank you for this [?], I'm out.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[Moonshine?]

Woman:

Do you want to answer questions, or no?

Chris:

I’m out. [??] Everything goes so fast.

Woman:

I know. They're asking if you got paid. They're asking who came in the room, I don't know what that - I don't know where they got a room from. “Did you see the altercation with the security?” What puppy? That’s our dog. Okay.

Chris:

That's my dog.

Woman:

Let’s see… “Don't lie,” okay. “Was Drake kind to you?”

Chris:

Drake is always kind to me. He’s [??] guy and I can't say anything wrong about him or any other celebrities that I’ve come in contact with.

Woman:

“Did he slap you?” Answer’s no. “Were you paid?” No.

Chris:

I was not paid. I was not slapped. I was not abused. Nothing happened that night except just two guys enjoying some music.

Woman:

They want to know why you said to the person to DM you

Chris:

Yes. I will address that. That person said that there was a New York officer who paid Ebony Prince to make all this nonsense up. I just wanted to talk to her about what else she knew but apparently something is going on with her page so I never DMed her cause the page, the DMs weren't showing up

Woman:

Okay. “Why were you with him at 3 AM?”

Chris:

3 AM, I mean… it’s the morning. I know it's late, but New York is the city that never sleeps and people party hearty here in New York

Woman:

“Is Drake innocent of these accusations?”

Chris:

Drake is innocent and should not be slandered.

Woman:

“Why were you liking comments earlier?” Do you want me to answer that? You got it?

Chris:

I like… Everything I do on social media has a second intention and I like comments to create suspense, whether it's pertaining to, who knows what the comment is talking about.

Woman:

Yeah, they're asking about the comments. Okay. “The fact that the nurse answers those two means she's lying.” I don't know what nurse you're talking about. Okay. “Hospital after that date, everything okay?” Did you go to the hospital?

Chris:

I don't think so.

Woman:

I have no idea.

Chris:

I went to the [?] hotel in Brooklyn the night after.

Woman:

Yeah, okay.

Chris:

I like the ice. I like the cold.

Woman:

“He got a little girl as a present from…” I have no idea what that means.

Chris:

Wait, what?

Woman:

They said that you got a little girl as a present, which is fucking weird

Chris:

Stop, stop doing that.

Woman:

Stop what? Cursing?

Chris:

Don't curse.

Woman:

Okay, no cursing.

Chris:

I'm a [?] guy, I don't curse.

Woman:

He said “What's the benefit to answering crazy allegations like this?”

Chris:

There's no benefit, you know. I'm not a guy who likes to feed people what they like to hear but this was a specific scenario where my family and my friends would be harmed and I needed to come out.

Woman:

Okay, wait…

Chris:

What else, what else?

Woman:

“Someone talking in Spanish to him in the background…”

Chris:

I'm Spanish. I'm from Colombia. Colombia [???]

Woman:

Okay. Sorry. I think that's it.

Chris:

Wait, go back, go back.

Woman:

Oh, go back?

Chris:

To “the article do--”

Woman:

Oh, “the article doesn't seem consistent,” I guess

Chris:

What part of the article is not consistent? Let me know. Type your thoughts.

Woman:

Yeah, be more specific about this so-called inconsistency. “What's on the lobby video?”

Chris:

I have not seen the video. I have seen a screenshot of my face that's clearly me at 3:19 AM leaving the hotel after Drake and I had a good time listening to beats.

Woman:

“Chris, did you ever see Drake around any minors that night?”

Chris:

That night, I never saw him with any minors.

[Video freezes]

you let me know, okay? Because we’re [??] to tell them to get away from me because I like to be independent.

Woman:

Okay, good.

Chris:

What else?

Woman:

“What is she reading?” I'm reading the questions, guys.

Chris:

That’s my assistant. She'll be reading questions because y’all type too fast.

Woman:

Yeah.

[Video freezes]
Woman:

Okay.

[Video freezes]
Woman:

These are just comments.

Chris:

I don't know about the second guard. I know about one guard. [??]

[Video freezes]

I usually [?????]

Woman:

It says “You said it was just you two but we see multiple people in the picture?” Or in the video, I guess.

Chris:

I have only seen one picture and it’s me and this [blurred out?] guy in a red hoodie and I have no idea who that is.

Woman:

Okay. It’s too many questions. “Do you know who this Ebony person is?”

Chris:

I would like to find out who he is and trust me that the journalism guy in me will get to the bottom of it.

Woman:

Okay, they keep asking why the guard was fired.

Chris:

The guard was fired for letting me into the hotel. I had gotten to the hotel an hour before Drake arrived.

Woman:

They're also asking if you had to sign an NDA.

Chris:

I don't sign NDAs. Nobody controls me. I am my own man and I know when I have to speak up.

Woman:

Someone said “Where can I read the article?”

Chris:

Go to brooklyneagle.com. Go ahead, I'm on the front page.
“You’re making up your own questions to check.”

Woman:

I saw that, but I'm not. “Did you meet Drake’s dogs?”

Chris:

No. I did not meet Drake’s dog. I don't like dogs. I have a dog because it’s my sister’s but I don't mess with dogs.
[J???] get out of here.

Woman:

Oh, [J???]’s here.

Chris:

[J???], get out. You don't want to be here.

Woman:

Yeah, they're saying your ventilator sounds just like the beginning of 6:16. I will say I listened to that and it sounds nothing like the ventilator. I don't know where people are getting that from.

Chris:

The ventilator is the reason why I can't hear. It’a too loud.

Woman:

[J??] says “Hola.” Hi, [J??]
“Why were there police there?”

Chris:

Police are always there to protect the celebrity.

Woman:

“Why were you following underage kids,” you already answered that.

Chris:

Okay. I guess we’re done, guys. Thank you for keeping up. Thank you for following. Thank you for supporting, those of you who have [?]. Keep reading the article. Brooklyn Eagle, if you haven't already. I will be on my social media more, obviously, because you guys are commenting. So, I will be on the lookout for anything in the comments that needs to be answered. Thank you. Have a good night. I’m out.

I'm a 17-year-old male from Mumbai, and I hate myself. My ego was sky-high, and I finally got humbled hard today. I decided to prepare for JEE immediately after my 10th examination, for which I worked very hard (I got 92% in my SSC examination). I dove in headfirst for my JEE preparation and joined a coaching center near my house. It was the worst decision I ever made. The faculty were irresponsible, the teachers were terrible, and the weekly tests weren't even according to the JEE pattern, with multiple errors in the questions. Unfortunately, I was too busy flexing my 10th board marks to realize this. Saying I was overconfident would be an understatement. I genuinely thought I would get into IITB. Time went by, and I wasted my first year (11th grade). I paid attention during lectures and made class notes, but I didn't revise them after coming home and didn't practice enough questions.
My second year started, and one day I realized that I was wasting the most important year of my life. From that day, everything changed for me. I deactivated my Instagram account (which was my only and major distraction), completely cut myself off from the outside world, and literally stopped talking to my friends. I didn't leave my house at all! I was studying 24/7. My mother used to feed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner while I studied. Six months went by like this, and by October, I was scoring the highest in my coaching. This just fed my ego. My parents told me to register for MHCET, VITEEE, and other entrance examinations, but I brushed them off, saying, "These are too easy for me. I won't give an exam with a lower difficulty than JEE." By the end of November, I was completely burnt out. COMPLETELY! I couldn't even get myself to look at the pile of books in my room. I was repelled by them. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I used to study for 16+ hours a day, and then I couldn't even sit to study for 20 minutes.
The first attempt was less than 40 days away. Before I knew it, time flew by, and it was the night before my first attempt. I knew deep down that I was going to mess it up. I tried to revise whatever I could—short notes, books, test analyses all lying around me while I looked like a pale corpse. What was I even thinking? There was no way I could revise more than 90 chapters in just a few hours. I gave up at 3 a.m. and cried myself to sleep. My shift was in the evening. After my exam, I told my mother I messed up in math and not to ask anything about it until the results came out. I was exhausted—not for just a day or week, but for months. Fast-forwarding a month later, the results came out. As expected, they were absolutely garbage. 80.5 percentile... hmm. I felt my throat going dry, my mother saying, "You should've worked harder." I was miserable, but there was no time to contemplate. The HSC board exam was less than a month away. I had no will to study at all but fought through it somehow. Looking back now, I feel that preparing for boards right after JEE was much more difficult than JEE itself. A month of sleepless nights went by, and the days of the board exams arrived. The papers themselves were easier than what I had expected—or so I thought. I came home every day after the paper saying, "I'll definitely get above 90 in this."
I had registered for JEE's second attempt as well, but even the thought of giving JEE again scared me. It has been three months after the boards now, and I'm at the lowest point of my life. I have no friends at all since I cut them off completely. I rot in my room each day. These three months have been hell. I'm incredibly lonely. To make matters worse, the HSC board scorecard dropped today, and I got 74.8%. Absolutely embarrassing. For months, actually a year, I made an impression of myself as being smart, intelligent, and studious. I'm ashamed to show my face to my family members. I can't show my face to my friends. I'm a failure. I can't take BITSAT and many other exams since they have a 75% criterion. I didn't register for CET, thinking it would be "too easy" for me. Even my father, who was okay with me scoring less in JEE, is really mad at me. He refrained me from taking a drop year. Even if I took a drop year, what would I do? All my dreams and ambitions of going to a good college are slowly fading away. I totally deserve this for being unrealistic and cocky. I hope karma takes pity on me.

ANALYSIS section will be posted separately on my sub Tradingedge
DATA LEDE:

• RBA minutes - Australia
• Said they will try not to excessively fine tune policy
• Future changes to cash rate are difficult to rule in or out
• CPI short term variation can be easily and reasonably overlooked
• Recent data does point to slightly increased inflation risks
• NEUTRAL/HAWKISH overall
• Australia consumer confidence numbers drop 0.3% MOM
• German PPI came 0.2% MOM vs 0.2% expected, in line with last months reading.
• YOY came in at -3.3% slightly below expected value of -3.2%. Came in light which is good for German inflation picture.
• Yellen Speech - no real meaningful comments
• EU balance of trade numbers hit a new yearly high. Points to improving world demand environment.
• Fed speakers include:
• Barkin, Waller, Williams, Bostic, Barr
• BoE’s Bailey to speak too

MARKETS:

• SPX: Maintained above 5300, now trading at 5311. Yesterday, touched 5325, before moving lower again. DJI: Trading at 39,813, just below 40k. Opened yesterday above 40k but moved lower on JPM weakness.
• Nasdaq: trading flat at 18,665. Support will now be at around 18,350.
• Ger40: Slightly lower today, at 18,600. Some slight profit taking near the highs.
• HKG50: Moving lower again for 2nd day in a row. Now at 19,240. Yesterday, was at 19,750 at one point. So down 2.7% across yesterday and today.
• Oil - hit 80 yesterday on WTI but was rejected off there. Lower today to 78, down by 1.5%. Back to range bound.
• Gold: Trading at 2418, Support at 2400.
• VIX: After getting crushed to 12 yesterday, bounced up off of there, now higher.

FX:

• DXY moving flat today and yesterday, around 104.5
• Had fallen to 100d moving average after CPI then moved higher, bouncing from there.
• EURUSD positioning still bullish, flat, slightly higher at 1.087
• GBPUSD moving higher again, trading at 1.272
• AUDUSD at 0.667,
• Has broken out of the long term downtrend.

EARNINGS:

• PANW Current Quarter:
• Revenues of 1.985B beat by 0.8%. Revenues rose 15% YOY
• Products revenue beat by 1.2%
• Subscriptions and support revenue beat by 0.3%
• EPS of 1.32 Beat expectations of 1.25 - beat by 5.6%
• Operating income was 508M, beat by 3.5%
• Operating margin was 25.6% , beat by 69 bps
• Billings came more or less in line
• Deferred revenue basically in line, slight miss.
• NEXT QUARTER GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 1.41 v slightly missed expectations of 1.42
• Revenue came in line with consensus at 2.16B
• Billings guidance beat consensus v slightly.
• FULL YEAR GUIDANCE:
• EPS of 5.56-5.58 beat estimates of 5.51
• Revenue of 8B beat estimates of 7.98B
• Billings of 10.15.5B was up 10-11% YoY
• CEO Nikesh Arora: Enthusiastic response to pjatformization and AI infused security outcomes.
• In conference call said that billings isn’t the only important measure, hence investors should overlook the slight softness in billings.
• Said cybersecurity demand will continue to grow for next several quarters, and PANW will benefit.
• Cyberattacks are scaling and aren’t going away. AI will increase these threats. So the tailwinds for PANW are very strong.

XPEV

• EPS of -0.75 was much better than the -2.06 expected
• Revenue of 6.55B beat estimates of 6.19B. Up 63% YOY, but down 50% QOQ
• Vehicle margin was 5.5%, which was up from 4.1% last quarter, and up form -2.5% last year SO VEHICLE MARGIN IMPROVED
• Vehicle sales came in at 5.54B yuan, up 50% YOY but down 50% QOQ
• Gross margin was 12.9%, up from 1.7% last year and 6.2% last quarter
• SO MARGINS IMPROVED, SALES WERE WORSE THAN LAST QUARTER
• In April saw 9,393 vehicles delivered
• Partnership with Volkswagen group on E/E architecture
• Release of AI powered functions
• GROSS MARGIN IMPROVEMENT DESPITE COMPETITION AND OTHERS CUTTING PRICES WAS A KEY BENEFIT.

NEXT QUARTER GUDIANCE:

• Revenue 7.5-8.3B miss by 15%
• Delivered of 29-32K. Up 30% YOY

MACYS:

• Current quarter:
• ADJ EPS $0.27 vs. $0.56 y/y, EST $0.14. BEAT
• EPS $0.22 vs. $0.56 y/y
• Net sales $4.8B, -3.7% y/y, EST $4.81B. IN LINE
• Gross margin 39.2% vs. 40% y/y, EST 39.6%. MISS
• SG&A expense $1.9B, -2.6% y/y, EST $1.98B. MISS
• GUIDANCE:
• Raised guidance from 2.45-2.85 to 2.55-2.9.
• Raised by 4%
• Beat estimates by 4%, although is a wide guidance
• Sees Net sales at 22.3-22.9B, raising bottom end up slightly from 22.2B.
• More or less in line with guidance.
• Merchandise margins down 100bps due to additional discounting
• Merchandise inventories are well positioned for upcoming summer season
• Credit card revenues down slightly due to higher delinquency rates
• Turnaround plan showing signs of progress as they beat and raise guidance.

LOWES:

• Current quarter:
• EPS of 3.67 beat estimates of 2.95
• Revenue of 21.4B was down YOY by 4%, but beat estimates by 1.3%
• Comparables sales were down 4%
• Reaffirms FY guidance:
• EPS of 12-12.3 vs estimate of 12.19. So miss slightly by 0.4%
• Revenue of 84-85B, basically in line.
• EXPECTS COMPARABLE SALES TO BE DOWN 2-3% vs estimates of 2.43% down.

MAG 7:

• MSFT yesterday, said that Copilot Plus PCs will be based on Qualcomm’s snapdragon X Elite chips, and will offer 15 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video battery life. MSFT says it’ll outperform MacBook Air.
• On Copilot Plus, Neural processor enables new AI features such as recall for a searchable PC memory.
• MSFT estimates 50 million AI PCs will be sold over the next year. Said its rearchitectured Windows 11 is 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air.
• MSFT - restructures Windows 11 for better ARM hardware support and AI integration. Introduces prism emulator, launched to improve compatibility with older x86 and x64 apps. MSFT says Prism emulator is 20% faster than previous versions.
• AAPL - Files law suit to overturn $1.8B EU antitrust fine over App Store rules. AAPL is challenging a 1.8B fine.
• MSFT - OpenAI will be sued by Scarlett Johansson for basically copying her voice against her explicit instruction not to.
• TSLA - Tesla shareholder group still not happy with Elon Musk’s $56B pay package. Urged other investors to reject a $56B pay package.

OTHER COMPANIES:

• XPEV higher on their strong earnings
• MACYS higher on improving picture
• LOW - higher on earnings
• Crypto stocks higher on strong Bitcoin performance
• LRCX 10-1 stock split
• PANW lower on eanrings, seems harsh to me. Other crypto names down in sentiment.
• Chinese stocks lower as Hong Kong MARKET down 1.5% today.
• NOVA - Piper Sandler downgrades Sunnova Energy to neutral from overweight, lowered price target to 4.50 from 9. Analyst had upgraded sun nova in December on expectation of lower rates, but rates have stayed high.
• Li - postpones the launch of its all electric SUVs to the first half of 2025, citing inadequate charging stations and other constraints. CEO emphasised the need for sufficient branded charging stations and more display spots.
• DOWN 4% AGAIN TODAY ON THIS.
• BABA - Alibaba cloud slashes prices for its latest LLM model, Tongyi Qianwen, by up to 97%
• BIDU - in response to Alibaba’s move, BIDU made its ENITRE Speed and ENIRE lite models entirely free to use.
• So we are seeing price wars in AI market.
• JPM says that they will not be increasing buybacks of JPM stock at these prices. Will just continue with previously outlined buyback pace.
• Jamie Dimon also hinted at retirement in the speech, hence JPM lower yesterday
• DELL - Citi raises dell price target to 170 from 125. Optimistic they can gain market share more in AI.
• JD - announces a proposed offering of $1.5B in convertible senior notes, due 2029. Will use proceeds to repurchase shares and expand overseas business.
• PTON - plans global refinancing to address debt. Secured nearly $1.4B in new credit facilities.
• ASML and TSM said they have measures in place to remotely disable advanced EUV chip making machines if China was to invade Taiwan.
• QCOM - shares were higher yesterday after Several big companies including Dell and MSFT announced AI laptops using Qualcomm’s snapdragon X elite chip. MSFT says these devices will outperform apple MacBook Air M3.
• ARM - MSFT will announce Arm powered laptops
• WEN - launches a $3 breakfast deal, including small seasoned potatoes, choice of bacon, eggs and cheese or sausage, eggs and cheese muffin. Rivals Mcdonalds $5value meal
• DASH - expanded its partnership with ULTA beauty to offer on demand delivery in under an hour from 1350 stores across all 50 states.
• VFS - US regulators are probing a vin fast VF 8 Crash, that killed 4 in California.
• LLY - secures china approval for diabetes drug, Tirzepatide. Received approval in China for its diabetes drug.
• BA - one killed on Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 due to severe turbulence.
• DIS - Redburn upgrades to neutral from Sell. Price target 100.
• Samsung - appoints new chief for its chip business, amid competition.

OThER NEWS:

• BTC higher to 72K.
• ETH popped 20% yesterday on renewed optimism for ETF, that SEC might green light spot ether ETFs ahead of first deadline later this week.
• Yardeni research sees Dow Jones DJI at 60k and SPX at 8k by 2030
• Mester’s comments yesterday:
• 3 rate cuts this year is no longer appropriate.
• April CPI was good, but too soon to say what path inflation is on. She said she doesnt think about rate cuts in terms of when. We can raise rates but its not base case. That’s bearish, but also unrealistic. I think there’s less risk now that we are too restrictive, and inflation risks are to upside.
• BEARISH COMMENTS FROM MESTER OVERALL
• Jefferson’s Comments yesterday:
• April inflation was encouraging. Labour market coming into better balance. Inflation decline isn’t as fast as we had liked. Policy is restrictive. - NEUTRAL comments, I’d say.
• Following these comments, Bank of America said that whilst the bar for rate hikes is still v high, rate cuts are still far off. Said Services inflation still running way above target.
• Bank of America believes markets got excited at the print, said markets pricing 50bps of cuts are likely to get disappointed.
• Did push back on stagflation narrative.
• SPACEX Q1 launch report shows that SpaceX is now launching 87% of all payload to orbit, a new record high.
• New Yorkers on average earned $89K last year, meaning that without spending more than 30% of annual income on rent, they can afford $2,216 on housing. That’s only enough to afford 4.4% of rentals.
• Marko Kolanovic held his bearish outlook on stocks, urging clients not to buy. So not all bears are capitulating.
• Fidelity ethereal fund says that the trust’s Ether will not be staked.
• IMF official expects next stage for BOE is to ease rates, says UK monetary policy is at inflection point. Actions by UK authorities are paying off.
• Said BoE should cut rates by 50-75bps in 2024.
• Upgraded UK growth forecast to 0.7% this year from 0.5% previously
• Dubai Airport expects record passenger traffic this year, set to top 100M by 2027.

For more of my content, please join Tradingedge

My first time posting and I just need to get this off my chest to have a better understanding. So buckle up this is going to be a long post… Names and dates have changed for protection of myself and others.
So back in 2013 I started college. I meet my core group of friends and one in particular had a very single good looking best friend. I was introduced to him. We hit it off! And ended up dating through college. We both graduated and got our degrees. There was a few hiccups that made the relationship rocky. Unfortunately we fell to the hiccups and our relationship ended in 2017. The years to follow I had asked my close friend about how he was doing and hoped all was well. I wished him nothing but the best and hoped he’d find someone to marry and have kids with. I had spoke to him once or twice after him and I had broke up. Once I found out he was dating someone I cut contact with him. By that I mean, I no longer texted him or reached out. We were more acquaintances than anything. I still had my ex’s family on Facebook after all these years. We ended things on good terms. The last thing he said to me was if you need anything give me a call. Well I would ask my friend how he was doing and what not. He told me he found a girl.(2021) I verbatim said I hope he is happy with her and hope she makes him happy. A year later they were engaged, married and had a kid all in less than a year.
I know I may sound odd/crazy for doing this. Hear me out. But when I heard they were expecting I sent them a baby gift addressed to the family. Note: I was also having very traumatic nightmares for like 2 years involving my ex. To the point I never thought they were going to go away. Also keep in mind by this point in our lives I have NOT spoken to or reached out in any way shape or form in nearly 4 years. So I thought for some dumb reason this would help the night mares go away. I boxed it up and mailed it. And I felt some type of weight lift off my shoulders. Why I couldn’t tell ya. Oddly enough nightmares stopped.
Fast forward to present day. I scrolled though my Facebook and notice my ex’s grandpa passed away on his moms side. I’m still friend with his mom on Facebook she is a very sweet kind Lady! She reminds me a lot of my own mom! Our friendship never really ended. We didn’t speak on a daily basis but still knew each other. So when I found out her father had passed away I reached out to her and shared my condolences and sympathy via private message. Note:(my own father has passed 2 years back. I can in a way relate to what she may or may not be feeling.) Everyone experience grief on multiple levels and in different ways. I kept the message very simple and to the point I quote “I’m so sorry to hear about your dad! my heart aches for you! Sending hugs!” Not but 30 min later I get a very unexpected nasty gram from my exes wife. In a very short sentence to sum up the whole “story” of her message is: “you have inserted yourself into our life multiple time on big events and it need to stop and you need to know your place. Have a great night. “ I have never spoken to this woman ever. Nor do I know who she is. And I know I haven’t inserted myself into thier life. she is putting me there and allowing the thought of me to take up space. I didn’t reply. Not because I don’t want to but because I don’t feel like wasting much more time on being nice to someone who doesn’t appreciate it. If you made it this far thanks for coming to by Ted talk.

I had my first upper right premolar done in Feb by previous dentist, he saw on X-ray that it needed a filling but thought it would be quick (was sorta coerced into doing it immediately as "it'll be quick", even though I was there for a cleaning and an opinion on the wisdom tooth and did not have the extra time off work and the mental fortitude for pain which I ended up needing for this). Cavity ended up being deeper than expected and very painful. Chewing on this tooth was super painful and I just avoided it for a month until it seemed to settle down.
While the first premolar settled, the second premolar also seemed to hurt, and there was a transitional period where I wasn't sure if one or the other hurt.
I then started going to a different dentist. She began work on it immediately, since I told her it hurts when chewing. I also wanted to show her the X-ray from the previous scan, especially for an opinion on my erupting wisdom tooth, but she was disinterested and told me the wisdom tooth is growing fine without checking it, which slightly confused me. (https://imgur.com/YeIRJ5O if this is of any use, idk.)
She continues to find 8 teeth with cavities (and a couple more as she begins fixing them), and, fair enough - I have neglected to see a dentist for a while. I continue going for fillings but only on the right side, since I can only chew on my left. (Got lower molars and second premolar fixed since then).
I get shooting pain lasting about 10-20sec from cold water, or hot tea, biting down on a seed or even like, a hard piece of bread crust, or anything sweet or acidic on it. Dull ache if I chew something tough with it like meat.
I was told to stop avoiding that side, but when I described the symptoms above, I was told to avoid nuts/seeds and hot foods. It still happens quite a lot and the pain is pretty distressing to have to eat through.
Dentist told me it should go away on its own, keep doing gum massage etc, and that the pain is likely because I had not gotten my teeth cleaned for too long. It has since been 3 months since then, have not noticed any improvement. I ask if it would help if I did a new X-ray, as the prev dentist did them regularly, and she told me that she disagrees with his methods and that "I don't do X-rays on live, healthy teeth". And that she would not do anything to this tooth unless the pain got way worse (in which case she'd root canal/extraction).
I'm just afraid that if I wait and ignore the pain until a root canal is needed, that I would have missed my chance to save the tooth. Anyway, since some things struck me as here is why I'm here asking for an opinion. I'm curious what parts of her recommendations you agree/disagree with? I'm looking for another dentist for a second opinion irl as well ofc, but I'm trying to really be sure before I go to yet another since budget isn't too big and I have at least 4 teeth left to fix, apparently.
ETA: Not a smoker, moderate coffee drinker, no sodas, sweet drinks etc.

Hi all, hope you're all well.
Recently, I've had a falling out with an (ex) best friend of mine due to her boyfriend's behaviour towards me. Long story short, he'd made several racist comments to me and I expressed my discomfort to her about it. She sided with him and tried to diminish what he'd said and done as 'not that bad' as a result we're no longer friends. I spoke to her about how her actions and decisions affected me and she appeared to take none of it on. As a result, I asked for space.
She and I live with 4 other women (uni living) and the 4 have been nothing short of supportive to me. I have decided to be civil with her, but not going out of my way to engage with her- I admit that sometimes I will ignore her because her actions hurt me so much that I can't fathom having a conversation with her after siding with him like that. She has taken my distance and coldness, and the fact that my 4 other housemates are supporting me as bullying and took the decision to move out.
I didn't make a fuss, didn't ask her about it or anything like that as it was her decision and not my responsibility to force her to stay to the detriment of myself. She moved out of the house yesterday and I received a message from her boyfriend late last night berating me for bullying her out of the house and that if i had any decency, I'd be the one to move out (plus other horrific things that I will not repeat), which is where I'm stuck and need advice on my next steps.
Do I move out so she can 'come back to a more comfortable environment'? Do I tell her about the text he sent me?
TIA for any help and if you'd like more details I'll be happy to discuss.

Hey WebDevMauritius community,
I want to share some practical SEO tips specifically tailored for websites targeting the Mauritian market. Optimizing your site for search engines can significantly improve your visibility and attract more local visitors. Here are some strategies to help you get started:

1. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

• Why It Matters: Google My Business (GMB) is essential for local SEO. It helps your business appear in local search results and on Google Maps.
• How to Do It: Claim your business on [Google My Business](), ensure all information is accurate, and encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews.

2. Use Local Keywords

• Why It Matters: Including local keywords helps search engines understand your target audience and geographic focus.
• How to Do It: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to find keywords related to your business and include terms like “Mauritius,” “Port Louis,” or other relevant locations.

3. Create High-Quality, Localized Content

• Why It Matters: Content that resonates with your local audience can improve engagement and rankings.
• How to Do It: Write blog posts, guides, and articles about local events, news, and topics that interest your audience. Highlight how your products or services cater to the local market.

4. Optimize for Mobile Users

• Why It Matters: A significant portion of web traffic in Mauritius comes from mobile devices. Mobile-friendly sites rank better in search results.
• How to Do It: Use responsive design, optimize images, and ensure your site loads quickly on mobile devices. Test your site’s mobile performance using Google’s [Mobile-Friendly Test]().

5. Leverage Local Backlinks

• Why It Matters: Backlinks from reputable local websites signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant to the local market.
• How to Do It: Reach out to local businesses, blogs, and news sites for guest posting opportunities or collaborations. Join local business directories and industry associations.

6. Optimize Your Website for Local Search

• Why It Matters: Local SEO techniques help you rank better for searches conducted in your geographic area.
• How to Do It: Include your address, phone number, and business hours on your website. Embed a Google Map on your contact page and use schema markup to provide search engines with detailed information about your business.

7. Encourage Customer Reviews

• Why It Matters: Positive reviews improve your credibility and can boost your rankings in local search results.
• How to Do It: Promptly ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business page, Facebook, and other relevant platforms. Respond to reviews to show you value customer feedback.

8. Monitor and Analyze Your Performance

• Why It Matters: Regular monitoring helps you understand what’s working and where you can improve.
• How to Do It: Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and local SEO tools to track your site’s performance. Analyze metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and keyword rankings to make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Optimizing your website for local SEO can make a significant difference in your online visibility and business success in Mauritius. By focusing on local keywords, creating high-quality content, and leveraging local backlinks, you can attract more visitors and potential customers.
What SEO strategies have worked for you in the Mauritian market? Share your tips, experiences, and questions in the comments below!

I have devised this thread as some guidance for those people who have visited this forum and are concerned about specific symptoms that are effecting them and, in particular, those who are worried that these symptoms are an indication of neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) & Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
The first thing that must be realised is that NOBODY on an internet forum can ever diagnose you or truly give you any reassurance that you do not have these conditions. Should anybody experience any signs or symptoms that are new to them they should ALWAYS approach their doctor in the first instance in order for these to be examined. In the vast majority of cases a GP will be able to advise you that these symptoms are benign but some doctors will often refer you to a neurologist for their opinion, if this should happen it is not value laden as regarding a possible diagnosis but rather would be the standard format for how you present to the doctor.
This thread is good news, it is good news because it has had to be written, it is good news because hundreds, maybe thousands of people have logged onto this board and countless other anxiety forums totally convinced that they are suffering from a neurological condition despite being told by health care profesionals that this is not the case. All these people ask the same questions and all these people have the exact same worries as you are having now. If this is you, if you have been to the doctor, maybe even a neuro, maybe even two neuro’s, maybe even had an MRI, maybe even two MRI’s, well, you get the picture, if you have been told by your health care profesional that you are healthy but you are struggling to believe this you may find some help from this thread.
So, you have come to an anxiety board. I guess that is because your doctor has told you that you are suffering from anxiety. Actually, my guess would be that your doctor has told you that you are suffering from ‘just’ anxiety and, if you are lucky, you may have been given some leaflets, you may have had some books recommended and you may even have been given some medication.
So, what took you to the doctor? Was it the tingling? The pins & needles? That damned annoying twitching eyelid that just won’t let up? Was it that weird thing when you keep seeing the flashing in your periphiral vision? The strange sensation in your throat where you just can’t swallow? The constant muscle aches and cramps? The constant small joint aches and cramps? Do you have that weird internal vibrating feeling? Was it the percieved weakness in all your major limbs? What about the foot drop you have been noticing, the clumsiness, finding the car keys in the fridge? Was it the chronic constant fatigue, that feeling when you wake in the morning like you haven’t actually gone to bed? What about the myclonic jerking, that bizarre moment when your whole body jerks like you have had an electric shock? Was it that constant twitching in your calf muscles that looks like you have a bag of worms under your skin? It could have been the parathesia, the feeling on your skin where one moment it feels sunburnt and the next minute it feels soaking wet? Maybe it was the atrophy, you know, the muscle loss in your bicep, your thigh that is so obvious to you but what frustratingly nobody else can see? What about………are you bored? I’m bored!
So, you have had some of those right? Maybe like me you are unlucky enough to have had every one of them…not much fun is it! When you first started getting these weird and wonderful symptoms cropping up I bet one of the first things you did was run off to the all powerful internet and consult that all knowing oracle, the good lord GOOGLE. If you did this, if you searched for your symptoms on a search engine on the internet, congratualtions, you have taken the first step on developing this weird and wonderful anxiety disorder known as Health Anxiety. The reason we Google is because of a basic human need at a time of stress, we are scared and we want reassurance, the problem is nothing you ever read on the internet will give you the reassurance you need, you will unwittingly discard the plethora of evidence that tells you that you do not have a neurological illness and instead will latch onto and inflate those things which seem ambigous, why would you do this? I suggest that at this point it may be adavantagous for you to look in the Genaralized Anxiety Disorder folder on this forum and see the negative thought processes and over generalization and catastrophising that defines GAD, it just may ring some bells for you.
So, by the time you have gone to the doctor you are pretty much resigned to the fact that it is MS or if you are really unlucky ALS. You picture yourself in a wheelchair, the kids looking at you with pity as you can’t play sports in the park with them anymore, you picture your partner standing by you and caring for you but all the while you feel the resentment, they never signed up for this, you picture the scene in four years time, confined to a hospital bed with your family and friends round you with the fruit and flowers…..BUT WAIT!
Oh joyous news, the doctor has said you don’t have MS, you don’t have ALS, what you have is anxiety, well, just anxiety….oh believe me there is a BIG difference. You have got out of jail free! The doctor has examind you thoroughly, he has taken your history, he knows the patterns, he has seen people with MS and ALS and you are not one of those. With a skip and a step you are on your way, same time next year doctor, yep, no worries…so with a happy heart and an increased vigour you are off out of the surgery door to continue with your life that had been on hold up to then. MS, ALS how could you be so silly eh?
…and then it begins! Right, the doctor said this is anxiety, I’m not anxious though, why do I still have these symptoms if I’m not anxious….something just isn’t right here. The more you think about it the more it seems obvious, hold on, I saw the doctor on Friday afternoon, I bet he was just thinking about the weekend and wanted to get rid of me. I’m sure that the doctor should have done more tests than he did you know, crikey, I’m sure when I told him the numbness was down just the one side he didn’t listen to that, that bit is crucial and he never heard it. Hold on, this freakin eye twitch is getting even worse and I’m not even anxious, where is the telephone? What is that doctors number?……welcome to the loop!
If any of the above seems familier to you, believe me, you are not alone…as strange as it may seem the fixation on being convinced you have a neurological condition after being told that you are in actual fact suffering from anxiety in very common.
Firstly, you need to realise that both MS and ALS are rare disease’s. Not only are they both rare disease’s but they also tend to effect spefic groups based on ethnicity, age and sex so we are talking about rare disease with partial excluding factors. In contrast, anxiety is an incredibly common and debilitating condtion that effects people both physically and mentally.
Anxiety is generally percieved to be a mental condition, when we are anxious we are anxious in our head and this can kick in the flight or fight syndrome which in turn causes the physical reactions. These reactions are generally thought to be a racing heart and palpitations, sweating, increased adrenaline etc etc. Now, this is all well and good but how does this fit in with those symptoms that mirror MS etc so effectivly.
I personally believe that the reason most people fail to be believe that their symptoms are being genrated by anxiety is because the concept of anxiety is never actually expalined sufficently. A large number of doctors will often expalin to you that you are suffering from ‘just’ anxety and this usage of the term ‘just’ is supposed to make us somehow feel reassured. The problem is that this has the opposite effect, how can a ‘just’ something cause all these real physical symptoms. If anxiety is effecting me mentally how can it make me twitch, buzz and go numb?
For some people anxiety will surface in the tradional panic attack, much seems to be written on this side of anxiety and this is not what we are concerned with here. For a sizable group of people when anxiety starts to manifest itself physically it is through physical sesnations that effect various aspects of our nervous system. This is why the sensations of this physical anxiety so closely mirror the symptoms of a condition such as MS, they actually effect the same part of the body, now, here is the crucial and all important difference, the symptoms of MS are caused by an organic condition which whilst treatable is irreversable and the physical sensations of anxiety are caused by the mind and are of course reversable. In short, you have to understand and accept that the mind can actually generate these physical sensations.
Whilst for many people physical anxiety can strike out of the blue, I am of the opinion that for the vast majority of people anxiety starts to become physical after whay could be many years of bad stress and anxiety management. You may not have even noticed this. We all have an anxiety threshold and the majority of people will probably never approach the blow off point, yes, a sudden and severe stressor could take someone right over the point from the baseline (think Post Traumatic Stress Disorder & Conversion Disorder etc) but most of us operate at an anxiety level that our bodies can handle. The problem is that if we stress ourselves constantly over a period of time, we do not allow our thermostat to reset and one sunny day something will happen, some stressor which can be a bad or even a good event and which we may not even realise the significance of will push us over the limit and it is at this point that our anxiety will effect us physically and more often than not impact on our nervous system.
This also happens to bring us to another crucial factor and what for many is the paradox that holds us back form accepting the anxiety diagniosis, how the hell can this be anxiety when I am not anxious? It makes no sense to me! What we need to realise is that once we have crossed the anxiety threshold no matter what we do we have to surrender ourselves to our mind and body and accept that we are now operating to a timescale that WE CANNOT CONTROL! We can think we are being as cool as Fonzie but we need to accept that the damage whilst reversible has been done and it is just a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Our body is now in control of us and the physical sensations will only stop when our body and mind are sufficently recovered.
It is at this point where we commit the ultimate folly, do we do as the experts suggest and sit back and realx and float through this stage? Of course not, we do the total opposite, we monitor our body for every twitch and interpret this as a sign of a misdiagnosis, we become hypervigilant, paranoid, self absorbed…this behaviour just creates more and more anxiety and we do not allow our body and mind the time necessary to recover….we are, in effect, pouring gasoline on the fire and expecting it to go out.
If you read this forum you will find a variety of posts that will offer you suggestions as to why you are suffering from the physical sensations of anxiety. Some people will advocate medication, some Cognitive Behaviour Therapy etc etc but what you will realise is that there is no one right way. I am truly of the belief that recovery is all about acceptance and learning to respond to fear correctly but how we do this is very much an indvidual thing. It could well be that you have issues with GAD and you can see how patterns realting to that disorder resonate with how you currently feel about your health, for example, note how both MS and ALS are diseases with which we lose control of our bodies. It could also be that you have issues with OCD, traits such as reassurance seeking and body and symptom monitoring could suggest this. There may well be suggestions that you could be sufferring from elements of depression, there is as school of thought that believes that the mind will somatise physical sensations when there are aspects of your life that your unconcious is unhappy with etc.
I hope this has helped if you have just visited here convinced you have MS etc and you are feeling scared and confused. You may have noticed I have not mentioned anything specific about MS or ALS and that is because there is no reason to...you do not have those. Your doctor has told you you are suffering from anxiety and therefore you are in the right place. Refrain from researching about diseases you do not have and instead concentrate on dealing with what you have today. Of course, what you have today doesn’t guarantee you won’t have MS or ALS tomorrow and if that thought fills you with fear use your time here wisely and believe me, it becomes a lot more bearable.