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A widening war in Iran has halted oil tankers, made targets of refineries and spooked investors worried about the cascading impact of spiking energy prices.In response, the International Energy Agency agreed on Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, with the Paris-based organization pledging to make 400 million barrels of oil available from its member nations’ stockpiles. The announcement marked a shift in momentum in government response to the war upending the flow of oil, with other global leaders previously indicating reluctance to tap into stockpiles.Here is a look at the energy supplies that countries hold and when they tap them: Many countries have reserves of oil Since war erupted in the Middle East on Feb. 28 with the U.S. and Israel’s joint attacks on Iran, the flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has all but stopped, cutting off a vital passageway where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil sails through on a typical day. Major producers in the region like Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also cut production because they are running out of storage space. And Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.That has sent prices soaring with dramatic swings almost every day. On Monday, Brent crude oil the international standard surged to as high as nearly $120 a barrel, before falling to under $90 after President Donald Trump suggested the war could be near an end. But attacks have continued to escalate since, pushing prices back to about $100 a barrel.Countries around the world hold vast quantities of oil that they can use in the event of a crisis.Because oil is a global commodity and flooding the market with a sudden stream of new supply has international implications, countries often talk to one another before tapping reserves. That includes coordinating with the IEA, an organization created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. It has 32 members including Germany, Austria and Japan, all of whom confirmed Wednesday that they would be tapping parts of their reserves. The U.S., Mexico, Australia and other major countries are also part of the IEA.IEA members currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The largest-ever previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Each of the IEA member countries promises to have a reserve at least equivalent to what they import in a 90-day period. The U.S. exports more than it imports, maintaining its own reserve known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve despite there being no requirement. But for other countries, tapping their reserves means that they will eventually need to replenish what was removed.“Because of that, countries tend to keep reserves for a last-resort scenario, should the disruption be prolonged,” said Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University’s Hydrogen Initiative. Timing a release is tricky Opting to use oil reserves is never a simple calculation, particularly when linked to a war with constantly shifting parameters and no clear timeline.When nations tap into strategic reserves in situations like the war in Iran, the oil is sold into the global marketplace, theoretically increasing supply and thus, lowering prices.“The key question on drawing down these reserves remains one of, ‘How long will this conflict last?'” said Tom Seng, an energy finance professor at Texas Christian University. “And, more importantly, ‘How long will the Strait of Hormuz remain blocked?'”Oil reserves have been tapped when the market has faced major disruption in the past, including wars in Iraq, Libya and, most recently, in Ukraine.Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said it’s not a matter of whether the current conflict is serious enough to merit intervention, but whether the precise moment has arrived.“The price is up but it could get worse,” Medlock said. “What happens if this drags on for two, three months? Then you run into a situation where you lose your buffer.” Shift in discussions and the impact on prices Before Wednesday, countries were reticent to tap reserves. Over the weekend, Trump downplayed the idea of turning to the U.S. reserve, maintaining that supplies were ample and prices would soon fall.But that’s changed. On Wednesday, the president told WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati his administration would tap into the SPR “a little bit” to bring down prices. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright later confirmed the U.S. would release 172 million barrels as part of the IEA’s effort.Representatives from the Group of Seven major industrialized powers previously held off on using strategic reserves earlier this week, too. But G7 nations also joined the IEA effort. French President Emmanuel Macron praised Wednesday’s decision and noted the amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels from France.Talk of tapping into national reserves helped ease energy markets earlier this week. But crude prices actually ticked up after the withdrawal was confirmed Wednesday, with Brent rising 4.8% to settle at $91.98. That is far higher than the roughly $70 it was selling for before the war started less than two weeks ago.Analysts maintain the IEA’s release of 400 million barrels is a short-term bridge, making up for just a few weeks of lost supply. Matt Sedensky and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Shares in Bumble Inc. (Nasdaq: BMBL), maker of the Bumble dating app, are surging this morning after the company announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. The stock price bounce will be a relief to investors in dating companies, an industry that has suffered severely in recent years due to so-called swipe fatigue among users. Heres what you need to know about Bumbles earnings and why its stock is surging this morning. Bumble beats on Q4 revenue Today, Bumble reported its Q4 2025 results. And on the surface, those results werent great. As a matter of fact, just purely based on a year-over-year comparison, many of the companys most important metrics were down across the board, including: Total Revenue: $224.2 million, down 14.3% from the same quarter a year earlier. Bumble App Revenue: $181.0 million, down 14.8% Badoo App and Other Revenue: $43.2 million, down 12.4% Total Paying Users: 3.3 million, down 20.5% Net loss: $611.1 million (versus a Net profit of $9.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Still, despite these poor year-over-year results, BMBL shares are popping this morningand there are two main reasons why. Bumble beats revenue expectations, and embraces AI The most immediate reason for Bumbles premarket stock bump is the companys total revenue of $224.2 million for the quarter. Yes, that sum is down more than 14% from the $261.6 million in revenue during the same quarter a year earlier, but critically, it still beat analysts relatively low expectations. As Reuters points out, analysts had expected Bumble to bring in $221.3 million in total revenue for the quarter. Bumble ended up beating this figure by nearly $3 million. And while that $3 million sum is relatively small, it signals to investors that things werent as bad in the quarter as many analysts expected. But investors are also likely feeling optimistic about another Bumble announcement today. On the companys earnings call, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd revealed that Bumble is revamping the app while also adding new AI tools to help users find more relevant matches. Wolfe Herd said that Bumble 2.0 will deliver a new experience designed to help address dating app users dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is usually referred to as swipe fatigue, and it has turned many younger people off dating apps in recent years. Those users have grown tired of the endless swipes that turn individuals into commodities and often lead to few real-world meetups. Bumble 2.0 introduces a chapter-based structure designed to help members tell their stories more authentically and understand one another more deeply, Wolfe Herd said on the call, according to a PitchBook transcript. This will enable them to see matches with stronger compatibility signals, build confidence in the experience, and get to meaningful in real life dates more quickly. Additionally, Wolfe Herd said the company is embracing artificial intelligence, announcing a new AI chatbot that is in development, called Bee. The chatbot is designed to interact with Bumble users to find out about their likes, interests, and dating objectives, and then use that information to better match them with other users who share the same interests and goals. Bee, Wolfe Herd told analysts, is designed to become a personal dating assistant and matchmaker, learning members’ values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions through private conversations, then using those insights to identify mutual compatibility to find better dates with a higher degree of confidence and relevance. Bumble 2.0 and Bee are expected to roll out sometime in 2026. Some users in the key Gen Z age demographic have expressed skepticism about whether AI features will ultimately improve the dating app experience, as Fast Company reported last year. Still, as artificial intelligence is all the rage in the tech industry, investors are likely pleased to know that Bumble isnt sitting on the sidelines in the AI era. Bumble stock has had a horrible recent run After Bumbles Q4 results were announced, the price of the companys shares surged. As of this writing in premarket trading, BMBL shares are up over 23% to $3.51. Yesterday, the companys shares closed at $2.84. However, despite the massive stock price jump today, BMBL shares have had a horrible run in recent years. As of yesterday, the closing price of BMBL shares has fallen more than 41% over the past 12 months. And over the past five years, the companys stock price has collapsed by more than 95%. In March 2021, BMBL shares had traded over $74 apiece. But Bumble isnt the only dating app to see its stock price crash. Over the past year, Match Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MTCH), owner of Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and more, has seen its shares decline about 2.4%. But over the past five years, the companys shares have declined a staggering 80%. Likewise, shares of dating app maker Hello Group Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO) have declined by more than 63% over the past five years. The only major dating app to be up over that five-year timeframe is Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND), whose shares have risen more than 19% over the period. The declines of these major dating app makers coincide with increasing dissatisfaction among dating app users, who frequently argue that the apps have become too expensive and that matches are fewer and farther between. While investors may be rewarding Bumble today, the company will need to address this user disillusionment if it is to successfully turn around its business.
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E-Commerce
Since its founding in 2010, GoFundMe has become the go-to platform for helping others in need, with more than $50 million raised every week and more than 8,000 fundraising campaigns launched every day. But using the platform to raise money from friends, family, and generous acquaintances or strangers often doesnt come naturally, especially when people are already dealing with a traumatic situation like a house fire, medical problem, or other emergency. In order for help to occur, people have to do something quite difficult, which is asking for help, says GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan. Thats something that almost no one likes doing, so it’s a hard threshold to cross. To make the process a bit easier, GoFundMe has rolled out an AI-powered smart fundraising coach that can assist people raising money for themselves or others from the moment they begin to plan a campaign. The coach can chat with users to gather information about their situations, show some AI-generated sympathy, and help draft an initial fundraising message and set an appropriate goal based on GoFundMes wealth of data. While much of what GoFundMes AI offers is similar to smart features that have sprouted up across marketing and sales software, it is also specifically designed to help users through what can be an unfamiliar, stressful, and even embarrassing process. We spend a lot of our time thinking about and working on products that make it easier for people to believe that they can ask for help and be successful, Cadogan says. The coach also provides a set of suggestions for campaign titles, which Cadogan says most users end up adopting. They typically perform better than user-generated headlines, he says. It can also help fundraisers select appropriate and effective photos to use for their campaigns, again based on GoFundMe data. The automated assistance helps people make practical decisions about a sensitive subject at a difficult time and, perhaps equally important, relieves some of the stress around raising funds. Between 65 and 75 percent of the folks we’ve surveyed say that the smart fundraising coach helps them feel more confident, less stressed, and critically, less alone, Cadogan says. Once users launch a fundraising campaign, the coach can continue to assist them through AI-generated daily action plans and notifications via the app, text, and email. That assistance includes guiding users to share their campaign with people likely to give, since GoFundMes research shows fundraisers who send one-on-one messages to likely donors are more successful. Successful campaigns often raise a few donations from fundraisers inner circles, gaining momentum before reaching out to looser connections, Cadogan says. Users can now also import their phone contacts into GoFundMe and see in a dedicated tab which contacts have donated or shared their fundraiser, making it easier to customize appeals to specific people. A common strategy that does work very well is to start by texting one-on-one to the people you know best, build that momentum, and then share on your social media platforms, he says. The coach can also advise people when and how to thank donors, set up automatic thank-you replies, and follow up with potential contributors. It also offers advice on when to post updates and when and how best to share a fundraiser on social media. The AI can even draft platform-appropriate posts for various social media sites, including generating video material suitable for TikTok and other content for more photo- or text-oriented social networks. It is often easier for users to tweak AI-drafted content than to start from scratch with a blank page, and the auto-generated material can help with formats like video that not all fundraisers find intuitive, Cadogan says. Based on early testing, GoFundMe anticipates that the new AI features will help users raise an additional $125 million this year. Cadogan says the company will likely continue to iterate as it gathers more data about whats helpful to users managing successful fundraisers. The awesome thing about a product like this is we’re going to learn so much about so many different dimensions, he says. Expect it to evolve quickly.
Category:
E-Commerce
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