Alibaba and Regencell among market cap stock movers on Thursday

Investing.com -- Freeport-McMoRan Inc. is working to restore operations at its Grasberg site following a recent incident, according to CEO Kathleen Quirk.

"Grasberg incident was humbling, but our team... is dedicated to safely and sustainably restoring our operations," Quirk stated. The company expects to restore approximately 85% of production at the Grasberg district by the second half of the year.

The mining giant anticipates copper production from leach operations to grow 40% this year, while U.S. copper production is projected to increase by 8%.

Quirk noted that the company has three "major projects in the Americas that provide optionality for future growth." For South America specifically, copper sales in 2026 are expected to remain at levels similar to 2025’s 1.1 billion pounds.

The CEO also highlighted shifting market dynamics, stating that copper demand in the U.S. from the artificial intelligence sector is offsetting softness in residential construction and automotive sectors.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com -- Hedge funds collected the most money since before the financial crisis last year, pushing industrywide assets past a record $5 trillion.

Investors added about $116 billion in net inflows last year, the most since 2007 and the third highest annual figure since Hedge Fund Research Inc. (HFR) started compiling the data in 1991. Funds also grew by $527 billion through performance gains, the industry tracker said in a statement Thursday.

The inflows indicate rising interest in hedge funds during a strong year for returns, raising the prospect for further growth as interest in some private markets bets goes into reverse. The hedge fund industry returned 12.5% on average, the most in 16 years, according to HFR.

"Uncertainty remains the dominant theme. Hedge fund managers are responding with flexible, tactical, and opportunistic strategies that can adapt as conditions change," Kenneth Heinz, president of HFR, said in the statement. "As a result, investors continue to increase allocations to hedge funds, pushing capital beyond this historic milestone and fueling a growth trend that is expected to accelerate into 2026."

Investing.com – Morocco stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Beverage and Transport sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Casablanca, the Moroccan All Shares gained 0.76%.

The best performers of the session on the Moroccan All Shares were Miniere Touissit (CSE:CMT), which rose 6.90% or 140.00 points to trade at 2,170.00 at the close. Meanwhile, S2M (CSE:S2M) added 5.17% or 28.90 points to end at 588.00 and Involys (CSE:INV) was up 4.92% or 9.00 points to 192.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Sanlam Maroc SA (CSE:SAH), which fell 4.22% or 95.00 points to trade at 2,155.00 at the close. SMI (CSE:SMI) declined 1.63% or 99.00 points to end at 5,990.00 and Cartier Saada (CSE:CRS) was down 1.40% or 0.47 points to 33.01.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Casablanca Stock Exchange by 37 to 18 and 5 ended unchanged.

Crude oil for March delivery was down 1.86% or 1.13 to $59.49 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in March fell 1.85% or 1.21 to hit $64.03 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract rose 0.08% or 4.04 to trade at $4,841.54 a troy ounce.

EUR/MAD was unchanged 0.03% to 10.74, while USD/MAD fell 0.14% to 9.18.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 98.31.

Investing.com -- Investment firm Kimmeridge is preparing to nominate Scott Sheffield, the former chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, to join Coterra Energy’s board as part of an activist campaign to revamp the company, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

This development marks an unexpected turn in a brewing battle over the future of Coterra, a Houston-based oil-and-gas producer valued at approximately $20 billion.

Kimmeridge, which owns slightly more than 1% of Coterra, has been advocating for new leadership at the company. The investment firm has stated that Coterra should sell its natural-gas operations to focus on its crude business in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico.

By enlisting Sheffield, Kimmeridge is bringing in an industry veteran to support its position. Sheffield is widely respected in the oil industry and served as U.S. shale’s unofficial leader for many years.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com -- Jefferies says Microsoft’s recent pullback has created a compelling entry point, arguing that the company’s backlog, AI partnerships and cloud momentum give it one of the strongest multiyear growth runways in large-cap tech. 

Analyst Brent Thill notes the stock is “down 18% since F1Q,” even after Microsoft disclosed “$250B OAI & $30B Anthropic commitments,” and says its valuation, “23x CY27 EPS”, now sits below Amazon and Google “despite superior visibility.”

Jefferies highlights Microsoft’s record commitments as the central reason to buy the stock now. 

The firm expects second-quarter remaining performance obligations to deliver “the largest sequential step-up ever,” driven by those OpenAI and Anthropic agreements, which it says reinforce “unprecedented multi-year demand visibility.”

Azure remains a key upside driver. Jefferies says Azure demand is “supply-constrained, not demand-constrained,” with Microsoft set to double its data-center footprint in the next two years. 

The company has beaten its Azure revenue guidance for three straight quarters, and Jefferies argues that execution on new capacity alone “could likely drive upside to both F2Q… and FY26 Azure cons.”

The analysts also point to accelerating AI monetization through Copilot and first-party products. With Azure representing “30% of overall revenue,” consistent outperformance could push revenue growth into the “high teens.”

Although Jefferies flags ongoing capacity constraints and heavy capital spending, it maintains a Buy rating and a $675 price target, concluding that Microsoft is well positioned to deliver “meaningful upside to both top and bottom line” through fiscal 2026.