Ray Blanco:

NASA unveils Roman Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt

NASA unveiled a new high-tech telescope Tuesday at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The agency said the telescope will revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

NASA Scientist Julie McEnery calls the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which stands at 42 feet tall and weighs 18,000 pounds, a game-changer.

“We will point to the center of our galaxy and monitor hundreds of millions of stars, but we are not just going to image millions of stars, we are going to find a treasure trove of exoplanets up to 40 times more than are known today,” McEnery said.

The Roman Space Telescope will be able to generate never-before-seen pictures of our galaxy. The telescope will also survey billions of galaxies in a quest to solve the mystery of dark energy, which causes the universe’s expansion to speed up.

Tuesday was one of the last opportunities to view the fully integrated flagship telescope before it ships to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of a launch planned as early as this fall.

⇒ Read More Here

Ari Goldschmidt:

Tesla Set To Report First-Quarter Results After the Bell

Tesla reports first-quarter results after the bell on Wednesday. Wall Street is expecting earnings per share to come it at 37 cents and revenue to come in at $22.64 billion.

Tesla has underperformed all of its megacap peers on Wall Street so far this year, with the stock down 14% as of Tuesday’s close, weighed down by lackluster sales in the company’s core automotive business. The S&P 500 is up more than 3%.

Analysts expect revenue growth of about 17% from $19.3 billion a year earlier. That would mark the company’s most robust period for growth since mid-2023.

The past year has been a struggle due to competitors like China’s Xiaomi and BYD, which offer high-tech but lower cost models against Tesla’s aging lineup of EVs. Tesla also faces an ongoing consumer backlash in response to CEO Elon Musk’s work with the Trump administration and his incendiary political rhetoric.

Musk has been trying to change the narrative by focusing on the company’s efforts in self-driving technology and humanoid robots, but Tesla still relies on EV sales for the bulk of its revenue and it doesn’t yet sell a robotaxi-ready vehicle.

⇒ Read More Here

Enrique Abeyta:

Tripping Into a New Market

Biotechs working on psychedelic-based treatments have long been a staple in retail investors’ portfolios. Now, several are poised to gain federal approval, potentially turning them from cash-burning to money-printing. 

Saturday, President Trump signed an executive order that would expedite approvals of psychedelic substances to treat mental illness, specifically calling out ibogaine, a plant-derived substance used in other countries to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said priority review vouchers, which allow for a fast-tracked review process, would be given to three psychedelics treatments this week. Shares of psychedelic biotechs – such as Psyence Biomedical, Compass Pathways, Definium Therapeutics, and GH Research – rallied on the news. 

The sector had already been on the rise over the past year after a series of encouraging late-stage clinical trial results from some major players in this space. Their treatments use psychedelic compounds derived from plants, mushrooms, and toads to treat a range of mental health conditions. The drugs are administered at specialized clinics where patients remain under observation for several hours after a dose is given.

Large banks like Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have initiated coverage of psychedelic biotechs, signalling meaningful institutional attention surrounding the growing industry.

⇒ Read More Here