Wondering if Apple at around US$253.79 still offers value or if most of the easy gains are already behind it? This article will help you frame that question using several valuation lenses. Over shorter periods, the stock has had mixed moves, with a 0.9% return over 7 days, a 3.9% decline over 30 days, and a 6.4% decline year to date, while the 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year returns sit at 14.2%, 55.4%...
Wondering if Apple at around US$253.79 still offers value or if most of the easy gains are already behind it? This article will help you frame that question using several valuation lenses. Over shorter periods, the stock has had mixed moves, with a 0.9% return over 7 days, a 3.9% decline over 30 days, and a 6.4% decline year to date, while the 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year returns sit at 14.2%, 55.4%, and 106.5% respectively. Recent coverage of Apple has focused heavily on ongoing product...
Wall Street’s biggest private credit houses — including Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corp. — are facing pointed questions from the Democratic faction of the House Financial Services Committee, prying into how the firms and their investment funds are marketing, valuing and handling the asset class. Their offices recently fired off inquiries to major firms, zeroing in on sensitive aspects of ...
Wall Street’s biggest private credit houses — including Blackstone Inc. and Ares Management Corp. — are facing pointed questions from the Democratic faction of the House Financial Services Committee, prying into how the firms and their investment funds are marketing, valuing and handling the asset class. Their offices recently fired off inquiries to major firms, zeroing in on sensitive aspects of how they run private-credit vehicles such as business development companies, according to people with knowledge of the inquiries. Those facing questions also include Apollo Global Management Inc. , BlackRock Inc. , Blue Owl Capital Inc. , Carlyle Group Inc. and KKR & Co. , one of the people said. Topics include sales practices, leverage, fees, incentives, audits, risk management and potential economic vulnerabilities, the people said, asking not to be identified describing the private communications. The questions show how worries about the $1.8 trillion private credit market are starting to creep from Wall Street investors to Capitol Hill. Lawmakers’ offices are gathering information after some funds enforced limits on redemptions by clients worried about incidents of alleged fraud by borrowers and the prospect that artificial intelligence might topple some companies, such as software makers. Spokespeople for Apollo, Ares, BlackRock, Blackstone, Blue Owl, Carlyle and KKR declined to comment or didn’t respond to messages seeking comment outside business hours. A spokesperson for the House Financial Services Committee Democrats didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Read More: Trapped in Private Credit, Investors Wait to Pull Out $5 Billion Democrats are ratcheting up scrutiny just as regulators in President Donald Trump’s administration take steps to make it easier for 401(k)s to invest in alternative assets. The Department of Labor proposed new rules for that this week. One document described to Bloomberg begins with more than two dozen general questions befo...
Energy-starved Asian nations are taking advantage of US sanction waivers to buy Russian oil to fill gaps caused by the Iran war. The Philippines took its first cargo of ESPO crude in nearly six years, while South Korea’s first Russian naphtha shipment this year has arrived at Daesan port and is awaiting discharge, according to ship-tracking data. Other countries including Sri Lanka are in talks wi...
Energy-starved Asian nations are taking advantage of US sanction waivers to buy Russian oil to fill gaps caused by the Iran war. The Philippines took its first cargo of ESPO crude in nearly six years, while South Korea’s first Russian naphtha shipment this year has arrived at Daesan port and is awaiting discharge, according to ship-tracking data. Other countries including Sri Lanka are in talks with Moscow over shipments. The war in the Middle East between the US, Israel and Iran has pitched Asia into a severe energy crunch, with the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz choking off supplies. The disruption has left the region’s refiners desperate to secure alternative cargoes of oil and products. “There’s no other choice,” said June Goh , an analyst at Sparta Commodities. “Refineries that do not have much flexibility will be the first to look for Russian crude, as they are relatively easy replacements for Middle Eastern supplies.” Russia has emerged as one of the beneficiaries of the war, with the conflict lifting crude prices and Washington easing long-standing curbs on its exports. The assault against Tehran — which began in late February — has also taken the global spotlight off Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Read More: Iran War Catapults Asia to the Frontline of a Global Fuel Crisis Asian countries are taking advantage of a pool of Russian supply made available by the waivers, which free up cargoes loaded before March 12. The US effort is meant to help contain rising oil prices, even as it has drawn criticism for boosting Moscow’s revenues. A similar step by Washington to release Iranian barrels has had less impact, with would-be buyers remaining cautious . In South Korea, it’s unclear whether local companies will be able to secure more Russian crude and naphtha as unloading and payment will have to be completed by April 11, when the US waiver expires, local broadcaster YTN reported on Tuesday, citing an official from the Industry Ministry. Naphtha is a key...
Earnings Call Insights: Aqua Metals (AQMS) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Stephen Cotton said 2025 included “deliberate adjustments to our commercialization approach,” including a decision to “simplify the first commercial plant around 2 core feedstock streams, NMC black mass and LFP black mass,” with “3 primary outputs: battery-grade lithium carbonate, nickel, cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate or M...
Earnings Call Insights: Aqua Metals (AQMS) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Stephen Cotton said 2025 included “deliberate adjustments to our commercialization approach,” including a decision to “simplify the first commercial plant around 2 core feedstock streams, NMC black mass and LFP black mass,” with “3 primary outputs: battery-grade lithium carbonate, nickel, cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate or MHP, and iron phosphate.” Cotton said the configuration is expected to “reduce execution risk, shorten time to market, lower upfront capital requirements and support attractive unit economics and a stronger payback profile.” Cotton highlighted product quality and partner evaluation activity: “Our lithium carbonate achieved fluorine levels under 30 parts per million,” adding that material at that threshold “has been produced at meaningful scale and distributed to strategic counterparties for evaluation.” Cotton emphasized LFP processing as a key milestone: “We moved from engineering analysis and bench scale work ... through to processing an entire metric ton of LFP cathode scrap at our pilot facility,” and said the lithium carbonate was “validated by OEM and third-party testing.” Cotton described commercial plant sizing flexibility: “we advanced our ARC facility design to support a processing range of 10,000 to 60,000 metric tons of black mass input feedstock annually,” and said the company is conducting “structured due diligence on several candidate sites,” with an expectation to proceed with “final site selection later this year as the remaining commercial conditions come together.” Cotton said the company will not start construction until prerequisites are in place: “what ready means is contracted feedstock, committed offtake and project financing that is genuinely bankable,” adding, “build once, build right.” Cotton said the company “remain[s] actively engaged in diligence with Lion Energy around a transaction structure,” and if completed it would provide “immediate comme...