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Most stocks in Nvidia's (NVDA) portfolio lost ground in the second quarter, though a majority of the company's holdings have still gained since the start of the year.

The chipmaker held shares of Arm (ARM), SoundHound AI (SOUN), Nano X Imaging (NNOX), Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX), and Serve Robotics (SERV) as of the end of the second quarter, Nvidia's 13F filing this week showed.

Nvidia, along with most firms with assets under management of $100 million or more, is required to file this form quarterly with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing equity holdings.

During the quarter, Nvidia maintained the number of shares it held of Arm, SoundHound AI, Nanox Imaging, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and added a stake in Serve Robotics, which began trading on the Nasdaq in April.

Arm was the only stock among those holdings that gained during the second quarter, while all of the other holdings fell. Shares of Arm climbed about 30%, while Nanox Imaging and Recursion Pharmaceuticals lost close to 25%, and SoundHound AI fell 32%. Serve Robotics shares lost about half their value from their initial public offering (IPO) price through the end of the period.

Nvidia's Arm stake is its most valuable stock investment, worth over $320 million at the end of June.

However, the majority of stocks held by Nvidia have still recorded year-to-date gains, with some growing at a faster pace than the S&P 500 index, which rose 16.5% over the period.

SoundHound AI shares have more than doubled in 2024 so far, much like Nvidia, while Arm surged 73%, and Nano X Imaging climbed 13% through Friday's close.

Meanwhile, Serve Robotics has nearly tripled in value from its IPO price. The company recently announced a partnership with Shake Shack (SHAK) through Uber Technologies’ (UBER) Uber Eats, sending shares higher.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals was the only holding that lost ground over the same period, dropping nearly 32% from the start of the year.

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Generally, personal finance experts advise people to contribute enough to earn the employer match offered for their 401(k) retirement plan. However, what happens when there’s a vesting schedule that requires you to stay at a company for a few years to earn that match? 

Your own retirement contributions are always 100% vested and recoverable if you leave, but you may need to meet certain requirements before your employer’s contributions are vested. A vesting schedule refers to a period of time over which you gain ownership of your employer’s contributions. 

If you depart a job early (or before the vesting period ends), you could end up leaving thousands of dollars worth of retirement savings on the table. 

In a recent report, researchers evaluated Vanguard-managed retirement plans in 2022 and found that 30% of employee separations happened before the end of a participant’s vesting period.

In other words, when people left their jobs or were laid off before the end of the vesting period, they were forfeiting, on average, 40% of their final account balances. These forfeitures reduced the average worker’s retirement wealth by $26,000 at age 65, according to the report.

Vesting schedules are meant to encourage employee retention and to give workers incentives to stay at companies for longer periods of time, but this recent research shows that may not be working. For example, the researchers found that younger and low-income workers had higher retirement plan forfeiture rates.

“Rather than providing effective retention incentives, vesting appears primarily to be an employer cost-control tool that disproportionately affects lower-income workers,” the researchers wrote.

Samantha Price, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University's Dickinson Law School, and other researchers evaluated more than 900 retirement plans in another recent paper. They found that, in 2022, workers forfeited more than $1.5 billion worth of employer contributions due to vesting schedules.

“We have a country where most private employees have to rely on 401(k) plans. We need to rely on what people call free money, [or] the company match, to help us get to retirement,” Price said. “Why is this the thing that employers get to screw around with?”

According to Price’s research, those forfeited funds flow back to employers, which then may redistribute the funds to other participants in their retirement plan.

“When a plan participant’s employment ends prior to vesting, the plan must use the forfeited funds, and this generates savings for employers,” researchers wrote.

In 2023, roughly one-half of retirement plans at Vanguard had immediate vesting schedules, while 24% of plans had either five- or six-year vesting periods.

If a plan has immediate vesting, it means that you automatically get to keep your employer’s matching contributions. If it doesn’t, you may have to stay at your employer for up to six years to receive the entirety of the match.

There are two types of vesting schedules: cliff and graded. With cliff vesting, you have to stay at an employer for a number of years, say three, before you’re 100%-vested. 

In contrast, if you have a graded vesting schedule, you gradually gain ownership of your employer’s contributions. For example, if you have a six-year graded vesting period, you might only be 40%-vested after three years, depending on how your employer calculates time of service to the company.

When workers are evaluating a job offer, experts recommend carefully assessing the length of the vesting schedule versus how long you expect to stay at the new job. 

“If there's a match and vesting schedule, it essentially means that that money's not yours until you satisfy their requirements,” Jason Siperstein, president and wealth advisor at Eliot Rose, said. 

“If you plan to stay at a company long-term, you can consider it almost free compensation ... However, if you're not going to be there for a long time—and it's hard to tell ahead of time—then I probably wouldn't even factor in the match," Siperstein said.

Scott Sturgeon, Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and founder of Oread Wealth Partners, said that if you’re leaving a job before the vesting period ends, you may want to calculate how much those matching contributions could be worth years down the line.

With 401(k)s, you don’t pay taxes until you take withdrawals in retirement, which means you get tax-free compound growth on your investments. Sturgeon recommends comparing the new job's potential raises against the expected value of the matching contributions you’re leaving on the table at your current employer.

And if you do end up leaving savings on the table, Siperstein suggests using a new raise to prioritize paying down high-interest debt, making sure your emergency fund is in order, and then contributing to your new employer’s 401(k) up to the matching point.

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Cancer treatment can involve difficult tradeoffs, and that's also true of the testosterone-blocking drugs used in treating prostate cancer. These drugs work in two different ways. Androgen deprivation therapies (ADT) shut down the body's production of testosterone, a hormone that fuels prostate cancer growth. A newer class of drugs called androgen-receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) block testosterone by deflecting the hormone from its cell receptor.

ADT can slow or control prostate cancer, and mounting evidence shows that adding ARSIs also improves survival when the disease is in advanced stages. This treatment combination is called intensified ADT. Researchers are now testing intensified ADT for some men with early-stage prostate cancer as well.

However, all drugs that block testosterone have challenging side effects, including metabolic changes that can compromise cardiovascular health. In June, British researchers reported that cardiovascular risks worsen when ADT and ARSIs are given together. The authors concluded that men who get intensified ADT should be counseled about the risks, and monitored for signs of heart disease before and after the treatment begins.

Study goals and results

The findings were derived from a systematic review of 24 clinical trials that assessed ADT and ARSI treatment for prostate cancer. Published between 2012 and 2024, the trials enrolled a combined total of 22,166 men ages 63 to 77. Their diagnoses ranged across the prostate cancer spectrum, from nonmetastatic cancer with aggressive features to metastatic prostate cancer that no longer responded to ADT by itself.

The goal of the systematic review was to compare ADT and intensified ADT with respect to cardiac events, including hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats), blood clots, or — in the worst case — heart attack or stroke.

Results showed that adding an ARSI to ADT approximately doubles the risk of a cardiac event across all prostate cancer states. Risks for severe "grade 3" events that can require hospitalization ranged between 7.8% and 15.6%. Notably, giving two ARSIs — abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide — led to a roughly fourfold increase in cardiac risk. Mounting evidence shows that combining abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide worsens side effects without improving prostate cancer survival. The use of that combination is now broadly discouraged by expert groups around the world.

The authors emphasize that intensified therapy is riskier for men with pre-existing cardiac conditions than it is for healthier men. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Katelyn Atkins, a radiation oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, noted that cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of death among men with prostate cancer.

Candidates for traditional or intensified ADT, Dr. Atkins wrote, should be assessed for atherosclerosis, fatty plaques in coronary arteries that can accumulate asymptomatically. Fortunately, cardiac risk factors are treatable by lowering blood pressure, eating a heart-healthy diet, exercising, and in some cases using a cholesterol-lowering drug called a statin.

Experts comment

"More and more research shows that intensive therapy prolongs survival, and may in some men even evoke a cure," said Dr. David Crawford, head of urologic oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who was not involved in the study. "We have learned time and again from the treatment of many cancers that it is not one drug followed by another and another that results in the best outcomes. Rather, it is combining drugs more effectively to treat the cancer.

"Still, we need to tackle the challenges of prostate cancer treatment and focus on preventing cardiovascular events and other side effects of ADT. As clinicians and in clinical studies, we have seen that men who maintain their weight, exercise, expand muscle mass, and maintain normal lipids and blood pressure do much better than men who gain weight and have a lot of cardiovascular risk factors."

"This important study re-emphasizes the necessity to keep a patient's cardiovascular history front and center when treatment choices are made, " said Dr. Marc Garnick, the Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Prostate Diseases.

"Intensification of treatment — that is, adding several drugs earlier and earlier in prostate cancer management — is to be both encouraged and cautioned. The caution is for physicians to consider and discuss pre-existing risk factors and how to modify them when deciding upon treatment programs. The ARSI class of drugs have greatly improved outcomes. The goal is to maximize the best outcomes while minimizing the side effects."

Source: Harvard Health Publishing

Prominent investors including Bill Ackman and David Tepper cut their stakes in several big tech stocks during the second quarter, ahead of the global sell-off driven by recession fears at the start of the month, recent 13F filings showed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires most firms with assets under management of $100 million or more to file a 13F form quarterly, disclosing their equity holdings.

Ackman, Tepper, and Daniel Loeb's hedge funds trimmed their stakes in Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) in the second quarter, along with other major hedge funds like Renaissance, Bridgewater Associates, and Seth Klarman's Baupost Group. Tepper, Loeb, and others sold some of their Meta (META) holdings as well.

The large investors moved away from Alphabet and Meta as the companies face pressure to show their hefty spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is paying off.

Intel (INTC) also stood out as a number of hedge funds cut their stakes in the second quarter. The chipmaker's stock tumbled after the company recently reported a wider-than-expected loss and a $10 billion cost-saving plan that includes layoffs.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) has significantly trimmed its stakes in Apple (AAPL), though the iPhone maker's stock still represents Berkshire's largest holding. Some like Renaissance bought shares of Apple, while Dan Loeb's Third Point added a stake in Apple during the period.

Meanwhile, several hedge funds including Bridgewater, Renaissance, and Tepper's Apaloosa boosted their holdings in AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), which could benefit from higher spending on AI infrastructure.

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Police operatives in Ogun State have arrested a 34-year-old suspected c¥ltist, Adekunle Adebajo aka Kunle Polly, over his alleged involvement in the k+lling of a member of a suspected rival c¥lt group in Ijebu Ode.

The deceased, known as Mosquito, was reportedly h@ck€d to d€ath recently with his left hand c¥t off and taken away.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Omolola Odutola, in a statement on Saturday said that on August 12, a concerned citizen made a distress call to the Divisional Police Officer in Igbeba that rival cult members engaged one another where Mosquito was sh#t, mach€ted and his left hand sev€red and taken away by his k+llers.

According to the statement, “Upon receiving this information, a team of detectives promptly mobilised and took action by moving to the location, where one suspect, Adekunle Adebajo aka Kunle Polly, 34, was apprehended.

During interrogations, Kunle Polly admitted to being a member of the Eiye confraternity.

This prompted a search to be conducted at his residence which led to the recovery of a Beretta pistol with six live rounds, two UTC axes, and charms.

Investigation is ongoing to unravel the pattern of severing the left hand of their victims, and to arrest other criminals that fled the hideout.”

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Starting Saturday, many home buyers and sellers will have to grapple with an issue they may not have given much thought to before: What exactly should the buyer’s agent do, and how much should they be paid for it? 

Those issues are coming to the forefront thanks to a lawsuit settlement reached earlier this year between the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and a group of home sellers. The sellers sued NAR accusing the association of colluding to keep buyers’ agent fees high. 

Saturday is the deadline for several changes required by the settlement to go into effect. The settlement requires buyer’s agents to sign an agreement with their clients before showing them a house—as many agents already do—and stops sellers from making commission offers to buyers’ agents on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database that real estate agents use to share details about properties for sale. 

The settlement could shake up a longstanding industry practice: the 5%-6% commission real estate agents typically charge for selling a house, which is usually split evenly between the agents of the buyer and the seller. 

Some buyers and sellers have already been rethinking compensation ahead of the deadline, said Phil Crescenzo Jr., vice president of the southeast division at Nation One Mortgage Corporation.

“It's forcing the conversation to be had a lot more often than it was before,” he said in an interview with Investopedia. “And that's probably the point.”

Some buyer’s agents he works with who used to typically get a 3% commission have renegotiated and settled for 2.5% instead, he said. 

Some experts have predicted removing the offers from MLS will make commissions less automatic, and ultimately reduce the amount that buyers and sellers pay. The U.S. could end up looking more like other countries, where agent commissions are below 2%, Ben Harris and Liam Marshall, researchers at the Brookings Institution think tank, speculated in an analysis in March.That would represent significant savings for homebuyers and sellers, and make the business much less lucrative for agents. For example, 6% commission on a median-priced home selling for $426,900 would be $25,614, compared to $8,538 if it was just 2%. 

Although the association noted that the 5%-6% commission split wasn’t officially required, sellers had a strong incentive to split commissions with buyer’s agents under the old system. While sellers could offer less than the standard commission, buyers' agents could steer their clients toward properties that offered higher rates. 

It’s possible that many agents will simply negotiate the standard deal outside of the MLS, but the shakeup leaves room for other models of compensation, such as buyers' agents being paid by the hour or a flat rate, Harris and Marshall wrote.

Some veteran real estate agents took the changes in stride. They reason the process of buying and selling a house is complicated—most people will continue to want someone to help them through the hassle and get the best possible price. 

“The professionals will survive,” said Jeff Scislow, an RE/MAX agent in Apple Valley, Minnesota, who has been in the business for 38 years. “They always have and they always will. And our services will always be needed.” 

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