By Al Root
Sometimes, investors have to digest some odd news. Case in point: kamikaze dolphins.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine held a morning press conference to review "Project Freedom," which was America's latest attempt to open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping by using naval escorts.
The strait, of course, is important for the world economy, with roughly 20% of global oil supplies passing through it. Restricted shipping amid the Iran-U. S. conflict sent global benchmark crude oil prices up more than $30 per barrel.
Investors got their update, although President Donald Trump suspended "Project Freedom" on Wednesday. The biggest takeaway from the news conference was about marine life. Secretary Hegseth confirmed that Iran wasn't using kamikaze dolphins to attack U.S. military assets. He wouldn't say if the U.S. had dolphin assets in the water.
"It's like sharks with laser beams," added Caine, referencing an Austin Powers spy-satire movie. He wasn't aware of any reports of mine-carrying dolphins.
The idea isn't as strange as it seems. The U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions for decades, mostly for reconnaissance.
Dolphins or not, the war just hasn't been a boon to defense stocks. Coming into Wednesday trading, the iShares Aerospace & Defense ETF was down 12% since the start of fighting. The aerospace part of the ETF is hurt by higher oil prices. As for the defense part, investors are worried about spending pressures from a Democratic-controlled Congress, a distinct possibility after the midterm elections later this year.
Beyond the war, investors are always looking for examples of artificial intelligence generating tangible revenue for businesses. AGCO gave investors one on Tuesday. The tractor maker reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.
The company's precision farming unit is performing well. One of its new products is a camera that can distinguish between a plant and a weed, reducing herbicide use and saving farmers money. AGCO has sold 3,700 camera systems in 2026, according to CEO Eric Hansotia, exceeding his company's full-year production.
Still, the stock dropped 5.6% following the earnings report. Investors are likely happy with AGCO's precision-farming initiatives, and precision farming boosting growth and profits has been a theme for all ag-equipment companies, including Deere, but investors would prefer higher crop prices padding farmers' wallets.
Wish-cycling also made it into quarterly reports. Wish-cycling is when consumers dump everything into a single-stream recycling bin, hoping it's recyclable, even when it isn't. Difficult-to-sort contaminated single-stream recycling can end up in a landfill.
"We've been using these AI-enabled cameras now for probably six or seven years...And it is interesting watching them work because they're able to identify pretty accurately non-recyclable materials coming out of that can," said Waste Management CEO James Fish on his company's Apr. 29 earnings conference call. "We're able to contact the customer and clean up their recycle stream. And if they choose not to clean up their...stream, then we'll bill them for it."
That's helped the bottom line. First-quarter recycling earnings grew 18% despite a 27% decline in the underlying commodity prices, and Waste Management stock rose 1.3% after the release.
Still, shares are roughly flat year to date and down a little over the past 12 months. Earnings are growing, but investors aren't that excited by garbage these days. They prefer to buy semiconductor stocks. (The iShares Semiconductor ETF was up more than 65%.)
As always, any one data point -- even an odd one -- is only part of a mosaic investors build to evaluate stocks.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2026 18:34 ET (22:34 GMT)
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