By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Artificial intelligence technology bellwether Nvidia overcame a wave of tariff-driven turbulence to deliver another quarter of robust growth amid feverish demand for its high-powered chips that are making computers seem more human.

The results announced Wednesday for the February-April period came against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again trade war that has whipsawed Nvidia and other Big Tech companies riding AI mania to propel their revenue and stock prices upward.

But Trump’s tariffs — many of which have been reduced or temporarily suspended – hammered the market values of Nvidia and other tech powerhouses heading into the springtime earnings season as investors fretted about the trade turmoil dimming the industry’s prospects.

Amer Sports Today

AS

Amer Sports

$37.67 -0.83 (-2.16%)

As of 03:59 PM Eastern

52-Week Range

$10.11

▼

$38.83

Price Target

$36.67

In 2025, among the biggest rebounders is one of the hottest names in the consumer discretionary sector over the past year or so, Amer Sports NYSE: AS. Since going public back in Feb. 2024, Amer Sports has seen its shares rise by around 187% as of the May 23 close. This dramatic rise conjures images of the explosive returns seen by other consumer discretionary stocks like ON NYSE: ONON and Deckers Outdoor NYSE: DECK in past years.

So, can Amer Sport’s incredible run continue, and is the apparel and footwear stock the new On Running and Deckers Outdoor of the current market?

To answer that question, let’s break down what Amer Sports does and its financial progress.

Amer Sports’ Strong Q1 Earnings Catapult the Stock into Deep Green Territory

Although the rebound in its sector has greatly helped Amer Sports’ recovery, the company has done much of the heavy lifting itself. Amer Sports’ extremely impressive Q1 earnings allowed the stock to rise 19% afterward. The company saw sales grow by over 23%, much faster than analysts’ expectations of just under 17% growth.

The company over doubled its adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) from $0.11 to $0.27, which also massively exceeded expectations. Amer increased the midpoint of its full-year EPS guidance by over 4% and increased the midpoint of its revenue growth guidance from 14% to 16%. Both of these figures were solidly ahead of analyst forecasts.

AS: Underlying Drivers Look Just as Impressive

As is typically true with hot clothing and footwear stocks, Amer Sports’s success is all about the brands it owns. Amer Sports’s largest and most important brand is Arc’teryx. Arc’teryx makes very high-end outdoor clothing. It is particularly known for its lightweight waterproof jackets, which sell at prices between $400 and $900.

The company’s technical apparel segment, in which Arc’teryx is, saw the fastest revenue growth of 28%, accounting for 45% of total revenue.

Amer’s promising geographic-based sales also stand out. Greater China sales grew by 43% and accounted for around 25% of total revenue in 2024. Last quarter, the United States made up 26% of revenue, with the company’s “Americas” sales growing by 12%.

This demonstrates that the company has a strong presence in the two largest economies in the world, giving it a strong runway to grow its business.

The company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) growth of 39% also outpaced the 12% growth of its wholesale channel by over three times. This is another very positive sign, as DTC sales cut out middlemen, allowing the company to generate higher margins. The higher DTC growth rate bodes well for the company’s ability to continue expanding margins.

Additionally, the company’s second-largest segment, Outdoor Performance, saw its growth rate nearly double to 25%. This segment made up 34% of total revenue. Strong performance by its Salomon footwear and apparel line drove this. The company sees strong long-term growth potential in its Salomon shoes.

They generated $1 billion in revenue in 2024, giving them less than 1% market share in the global $180 billion sneaker market. The company also plans to roll out more Arc’teryx footwear in the second half of 2025, allowing another way to further penetrate this market.

Amer Sports: High Valuation Stock With Opportunities and Skilled Management

Overall, the success of Amer Sports and the strong pathways for growth and higher profitability make its rapid rise understandable. Wall Street analysts significantly raised their price targets after the May 20 results. Among those tracked by MarketBeat that updated their forecasts afterward, the average price target is just under $41.

This implies an upside of only 6% from the stock’s May 27 closing price.

Additionally, the company’s relative valuation versus its industry looks elevated. The stock’s nearly 49x price-to-earnings ratio is significantly above the 29x average of a group of the eight largest U.S. stocks in its industry. However, the company also has one of the best earnings and sales growth profiles.

Expecting the stock to continue generating returns similar to those of On and Deckers in its heyday may be a bit unreasonable at these levels.

If the company hopes to continue substantially beating forecasts, expectations will keep rising. The potential in footwear could allow this to happen.

The company’s fantastic execution and ability to make products that resonate with consumers are hard to bet against. Overall, investors should view Amer Sports as a somewhat high-risk, high-reward consumer discretionary play going forward.

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WhatsApp frequently updates its features. A new update to the app is set to overhaul the voice messaging system: here’s what to expect.

WhatsApp is on a roll with updates. The popular messaging app, developed by Meta, is gearing up to revamp its voice messaging system, which has remained unchanged for many years. The two billion users of the platform will soon need to adapt, as the current methods will soon become obsolete. Sending a voice message will be much simpler.

According to WABetaInfo, a website that specializes in WhatsApp information, the upcoming update is poised to bring innovation to the voice message interface. These changes were spotted in the beta version 25.13.10.70 of WhatsApp for iOS. So, what should we expect from the new version of the app?

Until now, to send a voice message on WhatsApp, users had two options: either hold down the microphone icon for an extended period or slide the button upward to lock the feature. One of the key updates in beta version 25.13.10.70 is straightforward: users will need to press the icon just once to send a voice message.

Once the voice message is initiated, users will see an audio wave along with several options: delete, pause, and send. Currently, this functionality is available only to iOS users enrolled in the beta program via TestFlight.

Another innovation introduced in the upcoming WhatsApp version is the ability to allow the recipient to listen to the voice message just once. Similar to Snapchat’s stories, WhatsApp will enable users to limit the playback of their messages. This feature is particularly useful for those who prefer greater control over their communications.

These new features, found in iOS version 25.13.10.70, do not yet have an official release date. As usual, WhatsApp plans to test these new options for several weeks or even months. During this period, potential bugs will be identified and feedback from TestFlight users will be gathered.

For highlights of MSE and DXC partnership, CLICK HERE.

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), America’s leading integrated sports and entertainment company, today announced an expanded partnership with DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), a Fortune 500 global technology services provider. As an official global partner, DXC’s expertise in digital transformation will help enhance the experience for MSE’s millions of fans. DXC will bring technology innovation to support MSE’s vision for the iconic new Capital One Arena, part of the $800+ million entertainment district transformation in downtown Washington, D.C.

The multi-year collaboration will span across the entire MSE enterprise, including the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, Capital One Arena, and Monumental Sports Network (MNMT). MSE will leverage DXC’s expertise in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, and AI to deliver smarter connected experiences to millions of fans around the world.

“Our expanded partnership with DXC aligns perfectly with our vision for the new arena, leveraging their technological prowess to enhance the experience for our fans, partners, and more. Together, we are setting the stage for a dynamic hub in downtown D.C. and DXC’s technology and industry expertise will help us redefine how we experience sports, entertainment, and business in the heart of our nation’s capital,” said Jim Van Stone, President of Business Operations and Chief Commercial Officer at MSE. “As we embark on the transformative process of creating a brand-new arena and surrounding entertainment district, we are not just reshaping a physical space, we are creating a vibrant ecosystem where businesses can connect, collaborate, and engage with audiences on a global scale.”

“Together, DXC and MSE are driving the next era of innovation in sports, entertainment, and business,” said Kaveri Camire, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at DXC. “As a trusted partner to many of the world’s most innovative brands, DXC brings deep industry expertise and engineering excellence to help customers innovate for the future. We’re proud to collaborate with MSE and reimagine Capital One Arena to create smarter, more immersive fan experiences that set a new standard in business and sports.”

DXC will join MSE as the presenting partner of MNMT’s newest original show, Sports Business Journal: Inside the Industry, covering the rapidly evolving business of sports and innovation. DXC was the first partner to leverage the award-winning MNMT studios to create dynamic internal and external content, reaching its 120,000 employees worldwide, as well as customers and partners. 

Today’s announcement comes as construction is underway on the brand-new arena. MSE is taking a 360-degree approach to planning a high-tech, high-touch building that will serve millions of annual visitors for the next 25 years and set a new standard for fan experience and technological innovation.   

Additional information about MSE’s brand-new arena is available HERE.  

About Monumental Sports & Entertainment 
Monumental Sports & Entertainment is America’s leading integrated sports and entertainment company and is ranked as one of the most valuable globally. Our people, players, teams, and events bring excitement and joy to millions. We invest and innovate to consistently raise the game so we can deliver extraordinary experiences that will inspire and unite our community, our fans, and our people. To learn more, please visit monumentalsports.com.  

About DXC Technology 

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. The world’s largest companies and public sector organizations trust DXC to deploy services to drive new levels of performance, competitiveness, and customer experience across their IT estates. Learn more about how we deliver excellence for our customers and colleagues at DXC.com. 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monumental-sports–entertainment-announces-dxc-as-official-global-partner-302466168.html

SOURCE DXC Technology Company

Strava drama has become the name of the game in the fitness tracking world. I suppose when your favorite fitness app also includes a social media element, a little tension is inevitable. Add competitive leaderboards into the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for intrigue that would make reality TV producers salivate.

If you’re tuned into leaderboard controversies, you’ll know that runners and cyclists are deeply divided on whether the platform is doing too much—or not nearly enough—to combat fake entries. If you ask me, when some users are deploying electric unicycles to dominate local climbing segments, that’s evidence enough something needs to be done.

And now Strava is doing something: The company has announced the launch of AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity, a new tool intended to separate legitimate athletes from creative cheaters.

How Strava is using AI to root out cheaters

For the uninitiated, the reason people cheat is usually to claim King of the Mountain (KOM) and Queen of the Mountain (QOM) titles—coveted crowns that represent the fastest times on specific segments. Peruse the Strava subreddit for a few minutes, and you’ll be sure to see grievances about leaderboard cheaters.

Strava’s latest update is designed to identify and flag “irregular, improbable, or impossible” performance recorded on the platform. The system acts as a digital referee, capable of detecting when an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular cycling effort, then politely prompting users to correct their entries.

The technology goes beyond simple speed checks. Strava revealed in February that its machine learning system analyzes activities using 57 different factors, including speed patterns, elevation gains, and acceleration data, to determine when something doesn’t add up. The result of this crackdown? Strava has already removed 4.45 million activities from its platform.

The deleted activities generally fall into two main categories: entries uploaded with the wrong sport type (like labeling an e-bike ride as regular cycling) and activities recorded while in a vehicle. To be fair, the latter category likely includes everything from users forgetting to stop their tracking while driving home, to more deliberate attempts to game the system by recording car or train journeys as part of legitimate running segments.

How Strava users are reacting

The fitness community’s reaction to Strava’s cheater detection has been characteristically split. Serious athletes and segment hunters generally applaud the stricter measures—after all, leaderboard integrity is what makes the app’s competitive element at all meaningful. If the numbers are fraud, what’s the point?

However, some users worry about false positives—that is, legitimate exceptional performances getting flagged by overzealous algorithms. And the AI is overzealous: Some users have commented that their personal records are being deleted without any sort of prompt or ability to dispute the AI’s findings. If you’re a serious athlete, seeing your genuinely impressive times being questioned by an automated system that might not account for peak human performance is naturally going to rankle.

Outside of leaderboard integrity, Strava’s AI initiatives are generally overzealous and inaccurate. I’m not alone in noticing how absurd its new route generation can get. I’m talking routes with concentric loops, cutting through buildings, major roads instead of residential paths, and other issues that will make no sense to a real human moving through the world. Given the immense heat map data that we’ve all effectively donated to Strava, to be given such shoddy AI-generated routes is fairly bonkers, and it’s hardly surprising that its cheat-detecting tools would also be less than precise.

The bottom line

Controversy aside, Strava’s competitive features should be more about personal motivation than serious competition. If cheater detection is ruining your experience, I recommend some perspective. Try not to let it spoil what should be a fun, social fitness experience—especially given the AI tools don’t (yet) seem accurate enough to reflect reality.

But with 4.45 million activities already in the digital trash bin, Strava’s message is clear: The days of easily gaming the leaderboards are over. Of course, as fitness tracking technology continues to evolve, so too will the methods people use to fool the system. Hopefully Strava stays one step ahead of creative rule-benders.

Congressman Bacelar, who requested the hearing, stated that even after the regulation of the betting market in Brazil through Law 14.790/23, there continue to be reports of illegal operators acting in the country without paying taxes or offering consumer protection guarantees.

“I believe much of these problems stem from the delay in regulation. For five years it was a completely lawless land. I think efforts have focused on licensing since 2023, and only now are we starting to move towards enforcement. Blocking websites is like drying ice; over 12,000 sites have already been blocked,” he said.

The law conditions the operation of the online betting market on prior approval from the Ministry of Finance and prohibits financial institutions from allowing or conducting financial transactions with unauthorized companies.

“The national financial system, forgive the comparison, knows even who we sleep with—how can it not control and identify this?” Bacelar added.

Enforcement

André Wainer, coordinator of Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring at the Ministry of Finance, reported that the ministry has already authorized 72 companies to operate in the online betting market, representing 164 brands. Another six companies (12 more brands) obtained authorization through court rulings.

Each company pays a monthly supervision fee ranging from R$55,000 (US$9,700) to R$2 million (US$353,000), depending on its size, totaling around R$7 million (US$1.23m) monthly in revenue for the Treasury.

He also noted that inspections began in 2025, with 69 inspection processes already initiated. Of these, 20 sanctioning processes have been opened, with five already resolved—resulting in three warnings and two fines of R$1.2 million (US$211,000) each.

So far this year, the Ministry has requested the blocking of over 7,000 websites from Anatel. Additionally, institutions used for illegal financial transactions are being scrutinized, with 69 institutions already notified.

The Ministry is also engaging with social media platforms to remove profiles that promote illegal betting.

“There were 22 inspections involving digital influencers, and we have communication channels with tech companies to request these takedowns and are negotiating with them to enhance their efforts,” he said.

Wainer mentioned the Ministry is studying parameters to implement a distinctive seal with a token to identify authorized betting operators.

Marcelo Alves da Silva, Anatel’s Superintendent, stated that more than 12,000 sites have been blocked. He explained that Anatel blocks access to these illegal sites—often hosted outside Brazil—since it cannot take down the sites themselves. He advocated for regulating digital platforms.

Responsibility of big tech

Giovanni Rocco Neto, National Secretary for Sports Betting and Economic Development of Sports at the Ministry of Sports, called for greater accountability from big tech companies in combating illegal operators.

“YouTube itself promotes an illegal betting site. That’s public information that must be addressed. This is a complex issue that includes regulating social media, which has become a no man’s land. And it’s not just Google, there’s also Meta, with Instagram—there’s a lot happening there. It’s a black box and it must be held accountable.”

Rocco also said the Ministry has signed five cooperation agreements with monitoring and integrity organizations to strengthen efforts to combat match-fixing. He recommended joining the Macolin Convention, the Council of Europe’s convention against the manipulation of sports competitions.

“We’re fighting a transnational crime. Sometimes the match is happening here but being manipulated abroad—or vice versa—so international cooperation is essential,” he emphasized.

Consumer protection

Vitor Hugo do Amaral, director of the Consumer Protection and Defense Department at the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, stressed that Brazil already has a law—the Consumer Protection Code—to combat illegal practices, including misleading and abusive advertising.

He said Senacon is already conducting training and guidance on the betting market.

“Very soon, we’ll be able to share the main data obtained on the platform Consumidor.gov.br from complaints filed by consumers,” he said.

View of legal operators

Pietro Lorenzoni, Legal Director of the National Association of Games and Lotteries, said there are over 12,000 illegal websites in Brazil that follow no rules, lack anti-money laundering measures, responsible gaming policies, or consumer protections—and still operate using PIX.

According to him, the illegal market is twice the size of the regulated one, which must be based in Brazil, be part of CONAR, follow the Consumer Protection Code, and be supervised by the national financial system. For him, migration to the regulated market is the best way to protect consumers.

He also defended the regulation of technology providers to combat the illegal market: “The best global practice shows that proper regulation of these providers is the most effective way to fight the illegal market, since these same providers might be supporting both legal and illegal platforms. If regulated, they would be required to serve only the legal market.”

Advertising

Heloísa Diniz, Director of Regulatory and Government Relations at the Association of Bets and Fantasy Sports, stated that the illegal online betting market—representing about 50%—constitutes unfair competition because it doesn’t pay taxes, doesn’t protect consumers, and engages in predatory advertising.

To address this, she called for strengthening regulatory and enforcement bodies.

“We’re discussing banning advertising for the regulated sector and imposing additional restrictions—while illegal market ads run freely on digital platforms with no oversight,” she said.

She also mentioned that regulated betting companies can’t publish their apps because app stores block them.

Bacelar and other participants lamented the absence of a representative from the Central Bank in the debate.

Source: Agência Câmara de Notícias