Street Calls of the Week

Investing.com – Saudi Arabia stocks were higher after the close on Sunday, as gains in the Hotels & Tourism, Telecoms & IT and Financial Services sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul All Share gained 0.05%.

The best performers of the session on the Tadawul All Share were Abdullah Saad Mohammed Abo Moati Stationeries Co (TADAWUL:4191), which rose 10.00% or 4.30 points to trade at 47.30 at the close. Meanwhile, Jahez International Company for Information Systems Technology SCJSC (TADAWUL:6017) added 8.32% or 1.29 points to end at 16.80 and Al-Jouf Agriculture Development Co (TADAWUL:6070) was up 4.76% or 2.00 points to 44.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Saudi Industrial Development Co. (TADAWUL:2130), which fell 5.72% or 0.73 points to trade at 12.03 at the close. Sustained Infrastructure Holding Company SJSC (TADAWUL:2190) declined 3.69% or 1.20 points to end at 31.30 and National Company for Learning and Education SJSC (TADAWUL:4291) was down 3.02% or 4.50 points to 144.40.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange by 201 to 125 and 21 ended unchanged.

Shares in Saudi Industrial Development Co. (TADAWUL:2130) fell to 5-year lows; losing 5.72% or 0.73 to 12.03.

Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.69% or 0.41 to $60.08 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.77% or 0.49 to hit $63.75 a barrel, while the February Gold Futures contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $4,243.00 a troy ounce.

EUR/SAR was unchanged 0.01% to 4.37, while USD/SAR unchanged 0.00% to 3.75.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 98.97.

Investing.com -- Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) test of 30-minute grocery and essentials delivery in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia has added fresh pressure to Instacart, according to analysts at Bernstein in a recent note.

Bernstein expects the overall delivery group to trade weakly as markets absorb another Amazon move in grocery.

Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is positioning Amazon Now as a limited test. The service uses smaller fulfillment centers located near residential and workplace clusters to shorten travel distances, and incorporates warehouse staff and Amazon Flex gig drivers. 

The Information also reported Amazon is pursuing approvals for similar centers in Fort Worth, Texas. Bernstein describes the effort as ambitious and notes that scaling it would require time and investment.

The test marks a shift from Amazon’s existing speed tiers. The company currently offers Same-Day delivery within five hours, and two-hour delivery windows for Prime members in select markets. 

Under Amazon Now, Prime members would pay $3.99, with an added $1.99 fee for orders below $15, to receive items in 30 minutes or less. Bernstein says the push toward minutes-level fulfillment reflects ongoing convergence between Amazon’s model and third-party delivery platforms.

Instacart’s competitive position is more complex than the stock reaction suggests, Bernstein writes. Instacart, the third-party grocery marketplace operating across multiple retail partners, already delivers at speeds that overlap with Amazon Now. 

75% of Instacart’s orders are on-demand, with a median delivery time under 90 minutes. Its Priority tier represents an estimated 40% of orders, with average delivery times under 60 minutes. 

Within that segment, 25% of Priority orders arrive in under 30 minutes. Bernstein states that “much of CART’s business is already operating competitively with Amazon Now on speed.”

Bernstein flags two constraints that will determine Amazon Now’s scalability: SKU depth and economics. Amazon Now’s selection includes “thousands” of items across staples and fresh categories, while Instacart, DoorDash and Uber, all multipartner platforms, offer the full grocery store. 

Economically, Amazon’s Same-Day grocery network benefits from combining grocery with other deliveries, but the minutes-level model requires denser networks and sustained gig-worker capacity. Bernstein says Amazon’s advertising business “helps immensely” in making the economics more workable.

For Instacart, Bernstein does not view Amazon Now as a “step-change” in the long-running competitive debate around its valuation multiple but calls the announcement a negative headline that adds to existing bearish sentiment. 

The brokerage points to Instacart’s recent quarter, which showed resilience despite competition, and says the stock’s near-term catalyst remains its ability to beat buy-side expectations on GTV resilience.

Bernstein frames the development within the broader U.S. grocery landscape, where online penetration remains in the low-to-mid teens, leaving room for category expansion. 

Third-party platforms retain advantages in broad retailer coverage, logistics flexibility and SKU breadth.

Investing.com -- Macquarie’s head of research, Josep Pujal, said in a note this week that investors should expect continuity rather than disruption across environmental, social and governance themes next year, even as parts of the regulatory landscape shift.

Pujal stated that “many reporting regulations have been rolled back, but decarbonisation efforts have continued,” and that 2025 delivered “pretty decent” performance for environmental stocks, a backdrop that could help sustain interest in sustainability-linked strategies.

Looking ahead, Macquarie highlights eight themes likely to shape ESG priorities in 2026. 

The analysts say “the general trend that started in 2024 [is] continuing,” with Europe adapting its Green Deal to “business and competitiveness realities.” 

Energy competitiveness is expected to be a core political and industrial focus, inspired partly by the Draghi report, with “a number of laws” set to push in this direction. 

This should continue to draw investor attention to electrification, energy efficiency and renewables.

Automotive policy will also feature prominently. Macquarie points to expected changes to “the 2030 and 2035 CO2 limits for new cars,” as well as potential obligations for companies to adopt battery-electric vehicles.

The analysts additionally see sovereignty and security as major drivers, noting that the Critical Raw Materials Act “will have to be put further into concrete measures.” 

Cybersecurity is another expanding theme, with the European market experiencing “significant growth” and a “complex web of cybersecurity rules” emerging after the NIS2 directive.

Despite some ESG regulation rollbacks, Macquarie stresses that “many of the basics remain unchallenged.” 

Water policy is expected to tighten in 2026, including new PFAS limits and EU-wide monitoring, while food policy is shifting amid a pivot away from ultra-processed foods and rising demand for high-protein, low-calorie products.

Finally, the firm said negotiations over changes to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation will be crucial, with potential new restrictions likely to influence sustainability-fund strategies.

Investing.com -- Demand for growth capital is set to remain strong in 2026, but the supply side of the equation is shifting in ways that are pushing more companies toward private credit, according to Andrew Kahn, Co-Founder and CEO of private credit firm Partners for Growth.

While businesses still need capital to expand, “what is changing is the supply," Kahn says. With equity markets more selective and banks retrenching, he expects growth debt to play a bigger role in financing technology companies across stages.

Kahn sees equity funding becoming harder to secure and increasingly concentrated next year. Venture capital and private equity investors are poised to stay cautious, channeling larger amounts of money into a narrower group of opportunities, particularly in artificial intelligence.

This leaves many otherwise strong firms in areas such as SaaS, fintech, healthtech, and robotics facing slower fundraising cycles and pressure on valuations. As a result, more founders are likely to “rely on growth debt to preserve ownership and maintain their growth plans.”

Bank lending is also becoming more constrained. In the United States, consolidation in the commercial banking sector has reshaped the innovation-lending landscape. Larger banks are doing fewer deals, writing bigger checks, and concentrating on less risky sectors or companies with only the strongest venture-capital backing.

Smaller, founder-oriented banks have pulled back, merged, or changed their risk appetite since 2023, leaving a widening financing gap.

Kahn notes that outside the United States, similar or even more pronounced dynamics persist, with traditional banks often too slow or too conservative for fast-growing firms. This is creating room for specialist private credit providers to step in.

As access to equity and traditional credit tightens, founders are rethinking how they structure their capital raises. Kahn expects more companies to blend venture funding with structured credit, using growth debt as a “proactive and founder-friendly tool” that allows them to align capital with milestones, support expansion, and limit dilution.

This approach is especially relevant for businesses with established revenue, asset-backed models, or strong unit economics.

Limited partners are also reassessing portfolio construction. After years of heavy exposure to direct lending and private equity-backed credit strategies, many investors are looking for diversification and more resilient sources of return.

Growth debt offers access to founder-led, high-growth companies with lower volatility than venture or growth equity and stronger downside protection. As private-market conditions evolve, Kahn expects growth debt to become a more meaningful component of institutional portfolios.

Regarding regional trends, he sees continued strength in Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC, supported by national development agendas and government-backed innovation programs.

Southeast Asia and Australia remain healthy as their startup ecosystems mature and require more sophisticated financing tools. Latin America offers opportunity but demands careful structuring due to currency swings and political cycles.

In the United States, the equity market’s focus on artificial intelligence has left “overlooked pockets of opportunity” in other technology sectors, where growth debt can help bridge funding gaps.

Meanwhile, despite macroeconomic headwinds in the United Kingdom and Europe, areas such as fintech, healthcare, and deep tech continue to show resilient growth trajectories, Kahn said.