Gary Gensler , overseer of Wall Street for significant parts of the last two decades, has a message for anyone arguing sports betting is a matter for federal financial regulators: They’re wrong. After seeing prediction market giant Kalshi and the federal agency he once ran, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission , argue that sports bets are swaps under federal oversight, Gensler decided to file ...
Gary Gensler , overseer of Wall Street for significant parts of the last two decades, has a message for anyone arguing sports betting is a matter for federal financial regulators: They’re wrong. After seeing prediction market giant Kalshi and the federal agency he once ran, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission , argue that sports bets are swaps under federal oversight, Gensler decided to file a brief in a federal appeals court in Ohio on Thursday. The issue — an age-old question of federal power versus the states — has become a major dispute across the country that will likely eventually land at the US Supreme Court. Kalshi and the Trump administration’s CFTC want federal oversight, while the American Gaming Association and dozens of states argue they are the real authorities. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which he helped implement after the global financial crisis, simply does not pertain to sports bets, Gensler said. The legislation was a direct response to the housing meltdown, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the lack of regulatory oversight of the multi-trillion dollar swaps market. “To see somebody trying to kind of tuck into that whole thing, wow, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was given exclusive jurisdiction and preempts the states for sports betting,” Gensler, a Democrat, who later headed the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in an interview ahead of the court filing. “Nothing could be further from what we were working on.” Representatives from Kalshi couldn’t be immediately reached to comment Friday. The CFTC argues in the Ohio case between Kalshi and a state agency that it is the primary regulator of the prediction markets industry, which includes trading around questions like who will win the World Cup or the National Basketball Association finals. The CFTC has treated those contracts as swaps. But Gensler said that Harry Reid , the veteran Nevada politician and Senate Majority leader when Dodd-Frank was adopted more than a decade ago...
Brandon Moser/iStock Editorial via Getty Images SpaceX is set to make its much-anticipated debut in a gigantic IPO valuing the company north of $1.75 trillion. I believe the main risk for SpaceX IPO investors is that they will own just 4% of the company, with early releases quickly adding to the public float. For the space sector and aerospace and defense as a whole, there could be some negatives ...
Brandon Moser/iStock Editorial via Getty Images SpaceX is set to make its much-anticipated debut in a gigantic IPO valuing the company north of $1.75 trillion. I believe the main risk for SpaceX IPO investors is that they will own just 4% of the company, with early releases quickly adding to the public float. For the space sector and aerospace and defense as a whole, there could be some negatives and positives driven by this massive entry into the stock markets. I wouldn’t want to claim that I know what will happen to the space sector as a whole, but it is interesting to discuss the various risks and opportunities. Rerating Potential For The Space Sector SpaceX assumptions and key metrics (The Aerospace Forum) I have brought my estimates for SpaceX in line with the estimates of Morgan Stanley , indicating $3.4 trillion in revenues and $2.7 trillion in adjusted EBITDA by 2040. The debate is not necessarily about whether SpaceX will be able to achieve those numbers. I do believe there is an opportunity for that. The company will need substantial cash to fund capital expenditures. I expect this to be around $240 billion through 2030. Around $140 billion will come from operating cash flow and $75 billion from the capital raise, and around $25-$30 billion would be needed from either additional raises or adding debt combined with refinancing existing bank debt. The EV/EBITDA for SpaceX will remain elevated, but by 2030 it will be at a 34x-45x multiple, which is high but also defendable. We also note that valuing the company as an elite growth company would drive the EV/EBITDA to 90x-100x, but this is harder to justify as long as the company does not generate positive free cash flow. The EV/Sales ratio, however, remains extremely high at 17x. The multiple is 4.4x that of aerospace and defense peers, and on EV/EBITDA, there is a premium of nearly 60%-100% on top of the 21.5x EV/EBITDA. The EV/Sales for the aerospace and connectivity part would likely be around 10x-12x. I as...
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence safety and security. "The partnership reflects both organisations' commitment to ensuring that AI development remains safe, secure and trustworthy," IMDA and Microsoft said in a joint media release. The scope of the MOU will includ...
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence safety and security. "The partnership reflects both organisations' commitment to ensuring that AI development remains safe, secure and trustworthy," IMDA and Microsoft said in a joint media release. The scope of the MOU will include joint research into agentic AI and the development of evaluation methods, tools, and benchmarks for AI models, including in the area of multilingual AI safety. IMDA, the Singapore AI Safety Institute and Microsoft ( MSFT ) will work together, with participation from other Singapore government agencies to explore a framework for how governments and infrastructure operators can responsibly structure access to frontier AI models for purposes such as safety and security testing, the statement said. More on Microsoft Microsoft: Why I Added To My Position And Why Through A Different Strategy Buy The Dip: Why Microsoft Is Heavily Tilted To The Upside Microsoft Remains A Generational Buying Opportunity In The Agentic AI Era Microsoft Copilot seats could be 'well above' Wall Street's outlook: BNP Paribas Wall Street may be lowballing hyperscaler capex - Goldman
Jazz Pharmaceuticals ( JAZZ ) traded lower in the premarket on Friday after announcing that its lung cancer therapy Zepzelca (lurbinectedin), developed with Spanish pharma company Pharma Mar ( PHMMF ), failed in a late-stage trial. The Phase 3 LAGOON trial testing Zepzelca as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy irinotecan in patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer as a secon...
Jazz Pharmaceuticals ( JAZZ ) traded lower in the premarket on Friday after announcing that its lung cancer therapy Zepzelca (lurbinectedin), developed with Spanish pharma company Pharma Mar ( PHMMF ), failed in a late-stage trial. The Phase 3 LAGOON trial testing Zepzelca as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy irinotecan in patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer as a second-line option didn’t meet the primary endpoint of overall survival, Jazz ( JAZZ ) said. There were no new safety concerns, and the on-drug arms demonstrated a tolerability profile consistent with the established safety profiles of individual drugs, the company added. Zepzelca is already available in the U.S. under the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway as a second-line therapy for adults with metastatic forms of SCLC, which makes up roughly 13% of all lung cancer cases. Its continued approval depends on positive results from a confirmatory trial. The company said it has already shared the data with the FDA and will discuss plans for post-marketing conditions for this indication in a future meeting. More on Jazz Pharmaceuticals Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (JAZZ) Presents at Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (JAZZ) Presents at TD Cowen's 7th Annual Oncology Innovation Summit: Insights for ASCO & EHA Transcript Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (JAZZ) Presents at RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript Highest and lowest quant-rated healthcare stocks above $10B cap after earnings season Jazz Pharma raised to Buy at UBS on Ziihera potential
Gaming handhelds are amazing. They make it so much easier to fit all kinds of games into my day. Sadly, they’re less affordable than they’ve ever been — due to an unprecedented, AI-fueled shortage of memory chips, an unforced oil crisis, rampant inflation, fallout from tariffs, and more. But that’s not going to stop you. You’ve decided now’s the time to buy one, before the next shoe drops. I won’t...
Gaming handhelds are amazing. They make it so much easier to fit all kinds of games into my day. Sadly, they’re less affordable than they’ve ever been — due to an unprecedented, AI-fueled shortage of memory chips, an unforced oil crisis, rampant inflation, fallout from tariffs, and more. But that’s not going to stop you. You’ve decided now’s the time to buy one, before the next shoe drops. I won’t talk you out of it! I genuinely don’t know when or if prices might come back down. So instead of telling you to hold off, I’ll try to help you navigate this “new normal” I keep hearing so much about. We’ll do this four ways: First , if you just want me to tell you what to buy and be done with it, grab an Xbox Ally X if it’s still $999 at the time you read these words. It’s the handheld I’d buy for myself if I were buying today. It’s the only top-tier handheld that hasn’t hiked its price, and it has a good mix of performance, comfort, and battery life. Second, let’s talk bargains. There are a few refurbished and open-box handhelds worth nabbing on closeout — if you can find them at all. Third, I’ll ask you some questions. Assuming you’re buying new, are you looking for the most powerful handheld? The one with the most battery life? The most affordable? The best screen? The easiest to pick up and play? Because all of those are different handhelds, and none are the Xbox Ally X. Click the links in this paragraph to find out which. Fourth, I’ll list every other handheld PC you’re likely to find when you shop around, and why you should probably skip them. I want you to know whether that seemingly good closeout deal is actually worth your money. But before I go down the list, let’s talk Windows and Linux . While I’ve dinged many of the handhelds I’ve reviewed for The Verge for Windows woes, that’s not as big a deal today — because you can install Bazzite or even SteamOS on many of them for a better pick-up-and-play experience. The same exact handheld is often more stable and perf...
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images I've spent a good part of this year scratching my head over why gold is doing what it is doing, namely, correcting hard after what felt like an unstoppable run to record highs. SPDR Gold Shares ETF ( GLD ) is down about 3% year-to-date. What was once euphoria is now a resigned shrug. But the reasons I was bullish on gold in the first place haven't gone anywhere; if...
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images I've spent a good part of this year scratching my head over why gold is doing what it is doing, namely, correcting hard after what felt like an unstoppable run to record highs. SPDR Gold Shares ETF ( GLD ) is down about 3% year-to-date. What was once euphoria is now a resigned shrug. But the reasons I was bullish on gold in the first place haven't gone anywhere; if anything, they've gotten stronger. Central banks are still amassing gold at a pace that would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago. Geopolitical fault lines are multiplying. Eventually, the Federal Reserve will run out of options because of fiscal reality. Sure, we could have a continued dollar rally or a true hawkish surprise from the new Fed chair that causes further pain. But I think we have a generational entry point in the GLD here, and I'm looking for gold to retest its highs before this cycle is through. If you have a smaller budget, you could potentially implement this idea using the iShares Gold Trust ETF ( IAU ). The Moment That Changed My Mind I will admit that I have not always been a gold guy. For much of my investment career, I viewed gold as something your uncle talked about at Thanksgiving dinner, right between his theories about the Federal Reserve and his fears about the national debt. It paid no dividend, generated no earnings, and just sat there looking shiny. I was a skeptic. It is not one piece of data, but a feeling, like when you have been studying the markets long enough that sometimes a trend just seems to jump out at you. I was sitting watching gold break through $5,000 for the first time earlier this year, and something about the move felt different from every other gold rally I had lived through. No, this buying wasn't retail mania or speculative froth. Buying had already begun from the biggest, smartest players on the planet, sovereign nations diversifying away from the dollar in real time. That got my attention. Then the correction: Gold ...
Even Western pundits grudgingly admitted the summit between President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a success. Both sides, according to Bloomberg, “appear to have walked away with what they wanted”. Given China’s rising pre-eminence while avoiding any damaging war, it’s no surprise that Xi had the upper hand in his recent meetings with US President Donald Trump and Russian Pre...
Even Western pundits grudgingly admitted the summit between President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a success. Both sides, according to Bloomberg, “appear to have walked away with what they wanted”. Given China’s rising pre-eminence while avoiding any damaging war, it’s no surprise that Xi had the upper hand in his recent meetings with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But with Kim, the stakes for Beijing were just as high, in light of Tokyo’s...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting ...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting with us, check out the Odd Lots Discord , where you can hang out and talk with us and with other listeners 24/7. Here’s what Tracy’s thinking about... Last week I wrote about a leveraged ETF whose entire raison d’être is to produce two times the daily return of SK Hynix. That turned out to be fantastic timing, because on Friday, the CSOP SK Hynix Daily 2X Leveraged Product plunged 20%, along with a bunch of other levered products that track Asian shares. But the point of writing about these things isn’t to highlight the volatility of the product itself. Everyone knows that it, erm, takes a certain type of personality to play around with these products. Instead I want to underscore the impact they have on the broader market, an impact which gets bigger the more inflows these products attract. Nomura’s Cross-Asset Macro Strategist (and frequent Odd Lots guest) Charlie McElligott points out that levered ETFs tied to single stocks in Taiwan and Korea have grown from something like $11 billion assets under management at the start of the year to $65 billion as of last week (before the big drop). Almost all of them are, of course, tied to some variation of the AI theme. But there are also plenty of levered ETFs outside of Asia. Over at Barclays, Stefano Pascale and Zhiyuan Fan estimate that in the US, levered ETF AUM peaked at $168 billion last week. The problem here, as we’ve discussed previously, is that to maintain their leverage these products have to rebalance their positions every day. Typically, this means selling shares when the underlying stock is going down and then buyi...
The sun is out, the sky is clear. It’s time to get outside and disconnect — from work, at least. This summer, we’re looking at all the ways to upgrade our free time indoors and out, from smart lights for the backyard to great gadgets to bring camping to ways to wind down at the local library. The Nintendo DS is still the best gaming handheld for travel This portable light is great for way more tha...
The sun is out, the sky is clear. It’s time to get outside and disconnect — from work, at least. This summer, we’re looking at all the ways to upgrade our free time indoors and out, from smart lights for the backyard to great gadgets to bring camping to ways to wind down at the local library. The Nintendo DS is still the best gaming handheld for travel This portable light is great for way more than camping So you want to buy a gaming handheld PC I went to the woods to drink surprisingly great espresso The library rules (and so do library streaming services)
Even with the looming specter of rising prices , there's never been a better time for portable gaming. The Steam Deck has ushered in a new era of handheld PCs, the Analogue Pocket and other Game Boy-style remakes are making retro games more approachable than ever, the Playdate has led to an alternate universe of weirdo portable titles, and Nintendo continues to chug along with the latest iteration...
Even with the looming specter of rising prices , there's never been a better time for portable gaming. The Steam Deck has ushered in a new era of handheld PCs, the Analogue Pocket and other Game Boy-style remakes are making retro games more approachable than ever, the Playdate has led to an alternate universe of weirdo portable titles, and Nintendo continues to chug along with the latest iteration of the Switch. If you want to play games on the go, you're spoiled for choice. But if you're planning on doing some traveling and want to bring games along with you, I'd actually recommend none of those devices. There's a much better, and older, opt … Read the full story at The Verge.
Pla2na/iStock via Getty Images Introduction CareTrust REIT ( CTRE ) has long been one of my favorite REITs since turning bullish on the company in 2023 . However, their strong performance in recent years led me to believe the stock was overvalued. With the recent pullback in price, down close to 5% in the past month, CTRE appears more attractive for long-term investors at the current price. But at...
Pla2na/iStock via Getty Images Introduction CareTrust REIT ( CTRE ) has long been one of my favorite REITs since turning bullish on the company in 2023 . However, their strong performance in recent years led me to believe the stock was overvalued. With the recent pullback in price, down close to 5% in the past month, CTRE appears more attractive for long-term investors at the current price. But at a forward P/AFFO multiple still close to 19x, I think investors should wait for another 10% - 15% pullback for a margin of safety. In this article, I discuss CareTrust REIT's latest earnings, fundamentals, and why despite the pullback, I'm reiterating shares at a hold. Previous Downgrade I last covered CareTrust REIT back in March in an article titled: This Overlooked REIT's Hot Streak Continues, But The Bargain Is Gone. Although CTRE showed strong growth and was expecting 2026 to be another breakout year, their forward multiple near 21x earnings led me to believe the valuation was stretched, putting new investors at high risk of underperformance. I indicated CTRE could trade anywhere between 18x and 20x going forward but suggested investors wait for a pullback to the mid-$30s or lower before considering. Moreover, the upside potential to their price target of $43.82 wasn't enough for me to remain bullish, and instead I downgraded them to a hold to wait for a better entry point. Since then, CTRE has underperformed, down over 9% in comparison to the S&P ( SP500 ), up close to 11%. Seeking Alpha Strong Activity Continues CareTrust REIT reported their Q1 earnings last month with FFO in line with estimates at $0.48. Revenue managed to beat analysts' estimates by a solid $8.92 million, amounting to $142.78 million. Year-over-year, FFO grew 14%, while FAD was up 13%. In Q1, management made an additional $245 million in investments at a blended yield of 8.8%. For comparison, although their yield declined from 10% the prior year's quarter, the REIT saw higher investment activity w...
Artem Peretiatko/iStock via Getty Images Co-authored with Hidden Opportunities Investors spend an enormous amount of time trying to predict where interest rates will be 6-12 months from now. The media adds to the excitement by being fixated on what the Federal Reserve will do in its next meeting and how many times we will see rate revisions in upcoming meetings. Countless hours are devoted to deba...
Artem Peretiatko/iStock via Getty Images Co-authored with Hidden Opportunities Investors spend an enormous amount of time trying to predict where interest rates will be 6-12 months from now. The media adds to the excitement by being fixated on what the Federal Reserve will do in its next meeting and how many times we will see rate revisions in upcoming meetings. Countless hours are devoted to debating every inflation report, jobs number, and central banker speech and interview in an attempt to gain an edge. There is no edge. Accurately forecasting short-term interest rate movements is exceptionally difficult, even for professional economists and market participants. Even the members of the Fed’s Board of Governors don't know what the monetary policy will be at the end of the year. Everyone can make an educated guess, even the best have been proven wrong time and again. Instead of building portfolios around a specific rate forecast, income investors are often better served by building a portfolio that can perform reasonably well across a wide range of outcomes. A rate-agnostic portfolio does not require investors to correctly predict the next move by the Federal Reserve. Rather, it emphasizes investments that can continue generating attractive income whether rates move higher, lower, or remain unchanged. This is how we invest at High Dividend Opportunities . Today, we examine two opportunities that fit our rate-agnostic philosophy from two angles. We will discuss fixed and floating-rate preferreds and securities with defined near-term maturity dates. Collectively, they demonstrate how investors can build durable income streams without relying on predictions. Let’s dive in. Pick #1: AGNC Preferreds – Up To 8.7% Yields AGNC Investment Corp. ( AGNC ) is one of our favorite mREITs that invests in agency MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities). Agency MBS carry minimal credit risk, and current mortgage coupons around 5.5% allow AGNC to earn attractive spreads even if short-term ...