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Goldman Sachs Reports Best Quarter in Five Years, Beating Wall Street expectations

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Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment bank, reported its strongest quarterly profit in five years, driven by a record-breaking performance in equities trading that offset an unexpected decline in fixed-income revenues.

In the first quarter (Q1) of 2026, the investment bank generated $17.23 billion in revenue, surpassing analysts’ expectations and marking a 14% increase compared to the same period in 2025, as well as a 28% rise from the previous quarter. Profit surged by 19%, while earnings per share came in at $17.55, beating forecasts of $16.49.

A major highlight of the quarter was the firm’s equities division, which delivered more than $5 billion in revenue, exceeding its own record set just a quarter earlier by over $1 billion.

This strong performance helped cushion weaker results in fixed-income, currency, and commodities (FICC), where revenues fell 10% year-over-year to $4.01 billion due to declines in interest rate products, mortgages, and credit products.

Chairman and CEO at Goldman Sachs David Solomon commented on the milestone stating,

“Goldman Sachs delivered a very strong performance for our shareholders this quarter, even as market conditions became more volatile. Our clients continue to depend on us for high-quality execution and insights amid the broader uncertainty, and we remain confident in how we’ve positioned our businesses. The geopolitical landscape remains very complex – so disciplined risk management must remain core to how we operate.”

The firm’s Global Banking & Markets division generated $12.74 billion in revenue, representing a 19% increase year-over-year. Investment banking fees rose sharply by 48% to $2.84 billion, largely driven by a surge in completed mergers and acquisitions, alongside stronger equity underwriting activity, particularly in convertible offerings.

Debt underwriting also improved, supported by higher investment-grade and asset-backed activity, though partially offset by weaker leveraged finance. Equities revenues climbed 27% year-over-year to $5.33 billion, fueled by gains in both financing, especially prime financing and intermediation, including cash products.

Meanwhile, revenues in the other segment rose significantly to $561 million, reflecting higher gains from direct investments. In Asset & Wealth Management, revenues reached $4.08 billion, up 10% year-over-year but down 14% from the previous quarter.

Growth was driven by higher management fees due to increased assets under supervision, although this was partially offset by weaker performance in private banking and lending, largely due to lower deposit spreads tied to Marcus deposits.

Provision for credit losses rose to $315 million, reflecting growth and impairments in wholesale loans, compared to $287 million a year earlier. Operating expenses also increased by 14% year-over-year to $10.43 billion, driven by higher transaction-related costs and compensation expenses. Despite this, the firm maintained a stable efficiency ratio of 60.5%.

Litigation and regulatory provisions stood at $42 million, compared to a net benefit of $11 million in the same period last year. Despite the strong earnings performance, investor sentiment remained cautious.

Shares of Goldman Sachs declined following the results, weighed down by the drop in bond-trading revenue and reduced lending activity to wealthy clients. Broader concerns surrounding geopolitical tensions, particularly the ongoing Iran conflict, also continue to cast a shadow over the financial sector’s outlook.

Outlook

Goldman Sachs is heading into the remainder of 2026 with a cautiously optimistic outlook, underpinned by strong trading performance and a resurgence in dealmaking activity. However, the bank’s forward trajectory remains closely tied to global economic conditions and rising geopolitical uncertainties.

Global economic projections remain supportive. Goldman Sachs anticipates global GDP growth to hover around 2.8% to 2.9% in 2026, slightly above broader market expectations.

This steady expansion is expected to provide a favorable backdrop for financial markets, particularly equities, where the bank maintains a constructive stance. While returns may moderate compared to the previous year, earnings growth and broader market participation are expected to sustain momentum.

A key pillar of optimism lies in the continued recovery of investment banking. The firm has already seen a sharp rise in mergers and acquisitions activity, and this trend is expected to persist if market stability improves. A gradual reopening of the IPO market could further strengthen fee-based revenues, reinforcing Goldman Sachs’ position in global dealmaking.

Peter Schiff Urges Investors to Sell Bitcoin Near $75K And Switch to Gold & Silver

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As Bitcoin hovers around the $74,000–$75,000 level in mid-April 2026, prominent gold advocate and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff has issued a fresh warning to cryptocurrency holders.

In a recent post on X, Schiff advised selling Bitcoin while it trades near this key psychological threshold, especially as it approaches the $75k resistance zone.

He wrote,

“Bitcoin is getting close to $75K again. That’s not much below @Saylor‘s cost basis for $MSTR. The U.S. dollar seems to be rolling over, and gold and silver may be about to start new legs up. If you have any Bitcoin, sell it now and buy gold and silver.”
Schiff encouraged investors to rotate out of BTC and into precious metals, while also promoting his own SchiffGold business. This latest comment continues his long-running skepticism toward Bitcoin, which he has consistently described as lacking intrinsic value compared to tangible assets like gold and silver.

As of April 14, 2026, global markets are reflecting a mix of resilience and volatility, with major asset classes responding differently to ongoing economic and geopolitical pressures. Bitcoin continues to demonstrate its characteristic price swings, currently trading within the $74,000 to $75,000 range.

Over the past week, the digital asset has experienced notable fluctuations, dipping as low as around $71,000 and climbing back toward the $75,000 zone. This movement highlights the persistent volatility in the crypto market, even as Bitcoin maintains a relatively strong position near recent highs.

In the commodities space, Gold remains a dominant safe-haven asset, trading between $4,700 and $4,730 per ounce. The metal’s sustained elevation significantly higher than in previous years reflects continued investor demand amid uncertainty, although recent price action shows only modest day-to-day changes.

Similarly, Silver is holding firm, hovering around $74 to $76 per ounce. Its performance mirrors the broader strength seen across commodities, supported by both industrial demand and its appeal as a store of value amid uncertainty.

Together, these movements underscore a market environment shaped by cautious optimism, where investors are actively balancing risk and safety across both digital and traditional assets.

Why $75K Price Zone Matters

As BTC nears or tests the $75,000 level, while currently trading at $74,327 at the time of writing this report,  Schiff argues it represents a natural resistance point and a strategic moment for profit-taking or rotation.

Peter Schiff argues that a weakening U.S. dollar will ultimately favor precious metals over cryptocurrencies, citing the fragility of Bitcoin’s current rally and the enduring strength of gold and silver.

He believes Bitcoin remains vulnerable, warning that its recent gains may be unsustainable and that investors could face losses if momentum fades, particularly around key cost levels such as those associated with major institutional holders.

In contrast, he maintains that Gold and Silver are better positioned to benefit from ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and currency debasement, reinforcing his long-held conviction that physical precious metals serve as more reliable stores of value.

This perspective aligns with Schiff’s decades-long advocacy for sound money, during which he has consistently argued that investors who shifted from gold into Bitcoin made a significant mistake and that traditional safe-haven assets remain the more secure choice in times of financial instability.

Notably, his post on X has reignited the classic divide in the financial community. Bitcoin maximalists see BTC as “digital gold” with fixed supply, growing institutional adoption, and potential for much higher valuations. On the other hand, Gold advocates like Schiff counter that Bitcoin remains speculative, volatile, and unproven as a reliable store of value over multi-decade horizons.

With Bitcoin still well below its all-time highs from previous cycles and gold trading at record nominal levels above $4,700, both assets have delivered impressive returns in recent years, but their risk-reward profiles differ sharply.

What Investors Should Consider

As Bitcoin surges towards the $75k critical level, Peter Schiff is doubling down on his long-held belief that real money (gold and silver) will ultimately outperform digital alternatives when the dollar weakens further.

However, market participants should weigh this against their own risk tolerance, time horizon, and portfolio diversification goals.

Tekedia Capital Congratulates Sygaldry for Raising $139M for Quantum-Accelerated AI Infrastructure

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Sygaldry Technologies has announced a major funding milestone, raising $139 million across Seed and Series A rounds to build a new class of quantum-accelerated AI servers. The $105 million Series A was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, following an earlier $34 million seed round led by Initialized Capital just eight months prior. Sygaldry is a Tekedia Capital portfolio company.

At its core, Sygaldry is tackling one of the biggest constraints in AI today: the rising cost, energy consumption, and computational limits of training and running large-scale models. Its approach is to develop quantum-accelerated servers that can dramatically speed up key AI algorithms, enabling exponential improvements in performance while reducing both power requirements and operational costs.

Unlike many quantum computing companies racing to scale a single qubit architecture, Sygaldry is taking a differentiated path. The company is building a multi-qubit system, combining different types of qubits within a single platform to harness their respective strengths while mitigating individual limitations. This hybrid architecture is designed to deliver practical performance gains, making the systems compact, scalable, and economically viable for real-world deployment.

Importantly, Sygaldry is not attempting to replace existing infrastructure. Its servers are engineered to integrate seamlessly into today’s AI data centers, operating alongside GPU racks and complementing classical compute systems. This positions the company within a broader trend in advanced computing: augmenting, not replacing, existing architectures, similar to how emerging approaches in probabilistic and hybrid computing are being explored to enhance AI workloads.

The company is led by a strong technical team, including quantum computing pioneer Chad Rigetti, policy and strategy expert Idalia Friedson, and AI scientist Michael Keiser. Together, they are positioning Sygaldry at the intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, two domains increasingly converging as the industry searches for the next leap in computational capability.

In essence, Sygaldry is betting that the future of AI infrastructure will not be purely classical or purely quantum, but a hybrid, layered system where quantum acceleration becomes a critical component of next-generation AI performance.

Tekedia Capital congratulates Team Sygaldry for executing the mission.

One Tap Away: Why the Fastest Casino Interfaces Feel Effortless Without You Noticing

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Open the app. The game that was played last night sits right there on the home screen. No searching. No typing. No remembering what it was called. One tap, and the reels start turning. That moment feels natural. Almost invisible. But someone built that shortcut. Someone decided the player should not have to hunt for anything.

Fast casino interfaces share a quiet goal. They want to disappear. The player should think about the game, not about how to reach it. Every extra menu, every loading bar, every confirmation pop-up adds weight. Good design removes that weight before anyone notices it was there.

The Disappearing Interface

The best layouts don’t announce themselves. A player opens a trusted casino at https://nationalcasino.com and lands on a row of recently played slots. No empty state. No “start here” arrows. Just the games that matter. That is data working behind the scenes. The system remembers what was played, when, and for how long. Then it puts those choices front and centre.

Think about a blackjack table on mobile. The hit button sits low on the right side. The stand button rests on the left. Both fall exactly where the thumbs naturally hover. A player does not stretch or shift grip. The hands stay comfortable. The game flows. That placement gets tested for weeks. Designers watch where fingers land. They move buttons by millimetres until the interface feels like an extension of the player.

Nobody praises a disappearing interface out loud. But players notice when it’s missing. A cluttered screen with tiny buttons creates hesitation. Hesitation breaks the rhythm. The best designs avoid that break entirely.

Why Fewer Steps Feel Better

Every click asks for something. Attention. Time. A tiny decision. Reduce the clicks, and the whole experience feels lighter.

Take a simple action like raising a bet. Some interfaces require three steps. Tap the bet area. Tap a plus sign. Tap confirm. That is three moments where a player could second-guess. A faster design uses one tap. The bet size buttons sit next to the spin button. Tap the one wanted. No extra pop-up. The change happens instantly.

Or consider switching from a slot to live roulette. A slow interface makes the player go back to the main lobby. Scroll through categories. Find roulette. Pick a table. That is four or five taps. A fast interface puts a “recent tables” row under the slot. One tap moves straight to the last roulette wheel played. The player barely registers the switch. The game just changes.

Compare that to a clunky design. Three confirmation clicks for every bet change. A loading spinner that hangs for two seconds between menus. A back button that resets the whole navigation. That frustration builds fast. Players don’t blame the interface. They blame the platform. But the interface is the platform.

Anticipating Player Behaviour Before It Happens

Smart designs guess what comes next. They do not wait for the player to ask.

A search bar that predicts a game title after two letters saves seconds. Type “st” and Starburst appears. Type “bo” and Book of Dead shows up. That speed feels like magic. But it is just a well-indexed list and a fast lookup. The player does not need to know how it works. They only know the game appears right away.

Bet size prediction works the same way. The interface remembers that last session used two dollar spins. Next time, it suggests two dollars as the default. No slider. No dropdown. The number is already there. Players who usually bet fifty cents see fifty cents. Someone who changes bets often sees their most common amounts in a short row. The system learns. The player taps once.

Even the layout of a slot screen shows anticipation. The auto-play button sits near the spin button because designers know many players use both. The information panel tucks away because players check it less often. Every element gets a priority rank. High-use features get big targets and prime positions. Low-use features get smaller spaces or hidden menus. That hierarchy feels obvious in hindsight. But someone had to build it.

Speed as a Form of Trust

Fast responses change how a platform feels. A spin that stops instantly says the software is reliable. A bet that updates without a loading bar says the system is solid. Slow responses say the opposite. They introduce doubt. Did the tap register? Should it be tried again? That doubt breaks the flow.

Live dealer games show this clearly. The interface must keep up with a real person dealing cards. A slow layout makes the player feel behind. The chat box lags. The bet timer runs out. The whole experience turns stressful. A fast interface matches the dealer second for second. Bets place cleanly. Chips move without stutter. The player forgets there is a screen at all.

Speed also builds comfort with mistakes. Tap the wrong bet size on a fast interface, and changing it takes no time. Tap the wrong button on a slow interface, and fixing it means waiting through menus. That wait makes small errors feel bigger. Players become cautious. Cautious players hesitate. Hesitation takes the fun out of the room.

When Interfaces Get in the Way

Not every design gets it right. Some platforms add friction everywhere. A player wants to switch from slots to blackjack. That means exiting the game, waiting for the lobby to load, scrolling past promotions, selecting a category, and picking a table. Five steps. Each step adds a moment of boredom.

Worse are the confirmation screens. “Are you sure you want to change your bet?” Yes. “Are you sure you want to spin at this amount?” Yes. “Are you sure you want to leave the game?” No, but now the option is gone. That kind of design treats the player like someone who cannot be trusted. It slows everything down. It adds doubt where there should be none.

The fastest interfaces avoid those questions entirely. They assume the player means what they tap. If a mistake happens, fixing it takes one action. That is trust. That is respect for the player’s time.

The best casino interfaces share one trait. Nobody thinks about them. The player opens the app, finds the game, places the bet, and spins. Then they do it again. The interface never asks for attention. It just works. That quiet reliability is the whole point. When the design disappears, the play begins.

Top MT5 Indicators for Traders in Emerging Markets

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Retail trading is growing fast across Asian and African emerging markets. Better internet access, mobile-first platforms, and easier onboarding from brokers have made tools like MetaTrader 5 (MT5) accessible for anyone.

However, access alone is not enough. The real challenge starts when you try to cut down the huge list of built-in indicators into the most essential and useful list. MT5 offers dozens of built-in tools, but most traders do not need all of them. Using too many can even do more harm than good. The main idea is to understand and use a small set of reliable indicators and apply them with clarity about what they do and when you need them.

Why MT5 matters in emerging markets

The top MT5 indicators for traders have two factors in common: they are useful in live markets to generate real profits and are readily available on the MT5 trading app. Since MT5 is the best mobile trading app right now, it has quickly become widely popular both among brokers and retail traders.

MT5 supports forex, stocks, commodities, indices, and even cryptos and futures, while also offering advanced charting and drawing tools at the same time. The platform supports both custom and automated trading robots (Expert Advisors), but only on the desktop version. The mobile one does not support them, but it offers a plethora of built-in indicators with superior customization.

For traders who want to trade profitably in emerging markets, MT5 runs efficiently even on lower-end hardware and provides professional-grade tools for free. Since the platform has so many built-in indicators and tools, knowing which ones are most effective is crucial.

1.  Moving Averages (MA)

Moving averages smooth out price data to show the overall trend. There are two popular modes:

  • Simple Moving Average (SMA) – A basic average over a user-defined period
  • Exponential Moving Average (EMA) – Reacts faster to recent price changes

There are many other modes, and MT5 enables traders to customize moving averages in many ways, but these two remain most popular and useful to this day. Traders use them to identify trend direction, spot crossovers for potential entry signals, and as dynamic support and resistance levels. For beginners, moving averages are often the first step in developing basic technical analysis skills.

2.  Relative Strength Index (RSI)

RSI measures momentum. It shows whether an instrument is overbought or oversold. Here is a common setup:

  • Above 70 – Potential overbought zone
  • Below 30 – Potential oversold level

Practical use cases involve identifying reversal zones, confirming trend strength, and avoiding entering trades when momentum is already exhausted.

RSI is especially useful in markets that move in ranges, which is common in less liquid markets, such as emerging markets with sudden price spikes.

3.  MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence)

MACD is among the most popular indicators among beginner traders, and there are good reasons for this. It tracks the relationship between the two moving averages. It includes three components:

  • MACD line
  • Signal line
  • Histogram

It helps traders in detecting trend changes, spotting momentum shifts, and confirming entries based on crossover signals. In other words, it is like a moving average crossover system with the benefits of a histogram and much deeper insights than you would get by just applying moving averages. It is important to know that MACD works well in trending markets and can be used as an effective confirmation.

4.  Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands are another popular technical indicator that measures volatility by placing bands around a moving average. Bands widen when volatility rises and contract when volatility fades. Common strategies include identifying breakout conditions, spotting overextended price moves, or trading reversals when the price touches outer bands and retreats.

Since volatility can change quickly in emerging markets, this tool can be especially useful.

5.  Average True Range (ATR)

ATR measures market volatility without indicating direction. This detail is important. ATR tells you how much an asset moves on average and whether the current volatility is high or low. This indicator is very effective when trying to figure out stop-loss and take-profit levels. By understanding how volatile the current market is, traders can easily calculate the proper lot size and stop-loss distance.

Avoid over-layering indicators!

Many beginners make the mistake of layering too many indicators on the chart at once, making it difficult to conduct a clear technical analysis. Using 2-3 indicators is the best practice to detect trend direction, its strength, and possible levels for stops and targets.

Focusing on a few indicators and mastering them to their maximum extent is therefore highly recommended for forex trades and beginners.