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What is “Hunter Alpha”? AI model fuels talk of new system at DeepSeek. (00:14) lululemon athletica (LULU) beats top- and bottom-line but sets disappointing guidance. (01:39) Amazon (AMZN) plans drastic cut in packages it sends through US Post Office: report. (02:58)
This is an abridged transcript.
An artificial intelligence model that surfaced anonymously on a developer platform last week is said to be fueling speculation that DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) may be quietly trialing its next-generation system ahead of a formal release.
The free model is called Hunter Alpha. It surfaced on the AI gateway platform OpenRouter on March 11 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 2025, the same knowledge cutoff point reported by DeepSeek’s own chatbot.
When asked about its creator, however, the system declined to identify its developer, the report said. “I only know my name, my parameter scale and my context window length,” the chatbot said.
Neither DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) nor OpenRouter has identified the model’s creator and they did not respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
Hunter Alpha’s profile page describes it as a 1-trillion-parameter model, meaning it was trained using roughly one 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 (LULU) 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 premarket action on downbeat guidance, increased tariff costs, and continued weakness in its Americas segment.
To revive its U.S. business and regain its relevance in the highly competitive athleisure segment, lululemon (LULU) recently launched two new lines of workout gear called Unrestricted Power and ShowZero, the latter of which was designed to hide sweat.
Accordingly, lululemon (LULU) expects net revenue to increase 1% to 3% in the first quarter to a range of $2.4B to $2.43B and earnings of $1.63 to $1.68 per share, both of which are below expectations of $2.48B and $2.07 per share, respectively.
For 2026, the company expects to generate $11.35B to $11.5B in sales, less than $11.52B estimates. Earnings are seen between $12.10 and $12.30, less than $12.54 estimates.
These estimates assume $220M in tariff costs, up from 2025 tariff costs of $213M.
Amazon.com (AMZN) 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 the Postal Service’s top customer has been pulling back on its shipments and is looking to reduce them by at least two-thirds by September, when its current contract ends.
U.S. 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.
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Notable investor events include nVent Electric’s (NVT) Investor Day.
The National Retail Federation will hold an event called the State of Retail & the Consumer, during which it will issue its annual sales forecast. BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) CEO Bob Eddy will participate in one of the sessions.
The Bank of America Global Automotive Summit will begin. General Motors (GM), Lear (LEA), and Dauch (DCH) are some of the notable companies due to participate.
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 1.7% at $94. Bitcoin is up 0.4% at $74,000. Gold is down 0.2% at $4,994.
The FTSE 100 is up 0.2% and the DAX is up 0.8%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Rocket Lab USA (RKLB) -4% – Shares declined after the company entered into an equity distribution agreement allowing it to raise up to $1B through the sale of common stock via multiple financial institutions, including major Wall Street banks.
Economic calendar:
