Chapter 1: What is Hunter Alpha and how does it relate to DeepSeek?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. It's always good to have you here. Today is Wednesday, March 18th. I'm Julie Morgan. An artificial intelligence model showed up last week on a developer platform. Now it's stirring talk that DeepSeek may be quietly testing its next system before an official release.
The free model is called Hunter Alpha. It surfaced on the AI Gateway platform OpenRouter on March 11th. without any developer attribution and was later described by the platform as a stealth model.
During tests conducted by Reuters, the Hunter Alpha chatbot described itself as a Chinese AI model primarily trained in Chinese and said its training data extended to May of 2025, the same knowledge cutoff point described by DeepSeek's own chatbot.
Chapter 2: How did Lululemon perform in its latest earnings report?
When asked about its creator, however, the system declined to identify its developer, saying, I only know my name, my parameter scale, and my context window length. Neither DeepSeq nor OpenRouter has identified the model's creator, and they did not respond to requests for comment.
HunterAlpha's profile page describes it as a 1 trillion parameter model, meaning it was trained using roughly 1 trillion adjustable values that determine how the system processes language and generates responses. While the overlap has fueled speculation, analysts remain divided on whether the anonymous system is linked to DeepSeek's upcoming release.
Lululemon Athletica beat top and bottom line expectations for the fourth quarter and exceeded estimates measuring comparable sales growth and profit margins. However, Lulu is down 2% in pre-market action on downbeat guidance, increased tariff costs, and continued weakness in its America segment. In order to revive its U.S. business, Lulu is trying something new.
The company just launched two new workout lines, Unrestricted Power and Show Zero.
Chapter 3: What changes is Amazon making to its shipping strategy?
Show Zero is designed to hide sweat. As for earnings, Lulu expects net revenue to increase 1 to 3 percent in the first quarter, to a range of $2.4 to $2.43 billion, and earnings of $1.63 to $1.68 per share, both of which are below expectations. For 2026, the company expects to generate $11.35 to $11.5 billion in sales, which is less than the $11.52 billion estimate.
Earnings are seen between $12.10 and $12.30, less than the $12.54 estimate. These estimates assume $220 million in tariff costs, which is up from 2025 tariff costs of $213 million. Amazon is planning to sharply cut the number of packages it sends through the U.S. Postal Service.
A person briefed on the matter told Reuters that USPS's top customer has been pulling back on its shipments and is looking to reduce them by at least two-thirds by September. which is when the current contract comes to an end. U.S.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the SEC's interpretation of crypto assets?
Postmaster General David Steiner told Reuters on the sidelines of a congressional hearing on Tuesday that USPS is still in negotiations with Amazon. Meanwhile, Steiner told lawmakers that USPS is set to run out of money in less than a year. He said a simple financial solution is to cut delivery days and locations. Another solution is to increase the price of a stamp.
I have a few items on our catalyst to watch for the day. Notable investor events include Invent Electrics Investor Day. The National Retail Federation will hold an event called the State of Retail and the Consumer, during which it will issue its annual sales forecast. BJ's Wholesale Club CEO Bob Eddy will participate in one of the sessions.
And the Bank of America Global Automotive Summit will begin. GM, LEA, and DCH are some of the notable companies due to participate.
Chapter 5: What upcoming investor events should we watch for?
On Wall Street at this early hour, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 1.7% at $94 a barrel. Bitcoin is up 0.4% at $74,000. Gold is down 0.2% at $49.94. The FTSE 100 is up 0.2% and the DAX is up 0.8%. Rocket Lab USA is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market.
RKLB is down 4% after the company entered into an equity distribution agreement, allowing it to raise up to $1 billion through the sale of common stock via multiple financial institutions, including major Wall Street banks. And on today's economic calendar at 8.30 a.m., PPI. At 10 a.m., factory orders.
And of course, it's Fed decision day, so an announcement will be made at 2 o'clock and the Fed chair press conference at 2.30.
Chapter 6: What economic indicators are being released today?
Which means Wall Street Lunch with Kim Kahn will be a little late today to make sure we include all the information from the announcement and the press conference. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. To take full advantage of Seeking Alpha, join the highest quality community of real investors discussing stocks and ETFs at seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions.
I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day.