AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish company with its main headquarters in the U.K. and regional headquarters in Sweden and the U.S. It focuses on treatments for respiratory, autoimmune, and metabolic conditions, as well as on cardiology, neurology, and oncology drugs.

Stocks are deeply in the red at midday on Friday, as the good news/bad news battle is again in play. It's hard to not like the payrolls data that was reported this AM, as the number of new jobs created in the U.S. blew away expectations. But the flipside argument, which is winning the day so far, is that a solid employment picture makes the likelihood of an interest-rate cut very low. Indeed, a possible rate hike is capturing the headlines, and leading to equity market agita. Other notable events include the continued selling in Broadcom and peers, the price of Bitcoin falling hard and fast, and the soon to be crowning of the world's first trillionare in the form of Elon Musk. A busy day indeed, leading to a 10% spike in the VIX volatility index.

Argus is hosting a five-part webinar series on AI. Our first webinar was on AI and IT, and our most-recent event was on AI and Healthcare. Still to come are webinars on AI and the Consumer Sectors (April 1); AI and Financial Services (May 6); and AI and Industrial/Energy (June 3). In our recent webinar, we noted that Healthcare companies are using AI to improve research, surgeries, drug development, best practices, and other health-related enhancements. During the webinar, we were asked which Healthcare companies have strong records of innovation and are embracing breakthroughs in AI - and the following is a list of those companies, as we see it. They are all rated BUY at Argus.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yield was recently near 3.95%, down from 4.3% earlier in the year and at its lowest level since October. The U.S. missile strike in Iran has prompted a risk-off trade, and investors are piling into safe and secure U.S. Treasury bonds. Adding fuel to the fire, the domestic employment environment has cooled, and the on-again/off-again shutdown status of the U.S. government has upended key economic trends. Other sovereign long-term rates generally have held at higher levels. The UK's benchmark yield is near 4.25%, and the debt of Australia, which we view as a proxy for China growth, is at 4.65%. But not all have climbed to heights on fears of rekindled inflation. For example, sovereign debt yields for Japan and Switzerland remain near their pandemic lows at sub-2.0% levels. Meanwhile, China has maintained its interest rate near or below 2.0% as well. Elsewhere around the globe, tariff worries in Mexico and political uncertainty in Brazil are keeping sovereign-debt interest rates in those countries in the 8%-12% range. Russian debt yields are close to 14%, up 100 basis points from a year ago as the conflict with Ukraine drags on and inflation runs at a rate of 6.0%. Looking ahead, as U.S. inflation once again starts to moderate, the Federal Reserve is expected to continue its strategy of lowering short-term interest rates through 2027 in order to keep the U.S. economy growing. Should that occur, longer-term U.S. Treasury yields may stay in the 3.75%-4.75% range as the domestic economy continues to grow. That's not a bad return, with inflation moderating.