In a combative press conference, the Pentagon chief dodged questions about the goals of the US military’s Iran operation Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Leave it to Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News host now leading the Pentagon, to reframe the massive US-Israeli military operation in Iran as an act of resistance against political correctness: the first ba...
In a combative press conference, the Pentagon chief dodged questions about the goals of the US military’s Iran operation Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Leave it to Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News host now leading the Pentagon, to reframe the massive US-Israeli military operation in Iran as an act of resistance against political correctness: the first based regime-change war of the Maga era. In a combative press conference at the Pentagon on Monday , Hegseth brought his anti-PC ethos to defend exactly what Donald Trump has said he did not want: to embroil the US in a major intervention in the Middle East with no clear timeline for exit. Continue reading...
US liquefied natural gas exporters stand to gain from supply disruptions amid the war with Iran, but the benefits may be tempered by the fact that American producers are already near maximum capacity for shipping cargoes of the fuel. Qatar’s decision to halt production at its giant Ras Laffan LNG plant following an attack Monday opens a huge opportunity for LNG producers. Yet those exporters have ...
US liquefied natural gas exporters stand to gain from supply disruptions amid the war with Iran, but the benefits may be tempered by the fact that American producers are already near maximum capacity for shipping cargoes of the fuel. Qatar’s decision to halt production at its giant Ras Laffan LNG plant following an attack Monday opens a huge opportunity for LNG producers. Yet those exporters have little spare capacity to fully take advantage of it. “Overall, US is exporting at capacity, so there’s not much wiggle room, maybe 5%, for additional volumes. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what Qatar produces at Ras Laffan,” said Ira Joseph, senior research associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Still, shares of Venture Global Inc . and top US exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. rose as much as 20% and 5.7% Monday, respectively. Shale driller EQT Corp . also hit an all-time high briefly after markets opened. “The events over the weekend have had a strong impact on global energy markets,” said Venture Global CEO Michael Sabel during a fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call on Monday. “With the largest available incremental LNG capacity in the world, the United States will play a critical role during this historic disruption in the market.” Venture Global and Cheniere are ramping up their existing facilities. Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG plant in Texas is incrementally adding new capacity. Venture Global is bringing online its second Louisiana plant, Plaquemines, and building a third, CP2, in the state. Read More: Gas Prices Surge as Qatar Shuts World’s Largest LNG Export Plant The uptick for US exporters may be shortlived as companies are already shipping almost all their cargoes and would need significant additional supplies to fill the gap opened up by Qatar. The price spike also would need to be sustained for companies with American LNG to take advantage of the yawning arbitrage, given that it takes at least two weeks for vessels to reach...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images As we move into the third month of 2026 amidst tense geopolitical conditions, b elow is a list of the best performing consumer discretionary stocks with market capitalizations exceeding $11 billion throughout the month of February. The list includes stocks with Quant Ratings ranging from Strong Buy to Hold, ranked by their one-month price performance. The l...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images As we move into the third month of 2026 amidst tense geopolitical conditions, b elow is a list of the best performing consumer discretionary stocks with market capitalizations exceeding $11 billion throughout the month of February. The list includes stocks with Quant Ratings ranging from Strong Buy to Hold, ranked by their one-month price performance. The list is topped by Tapestry ( TPR ), with a monthly gain of 21.90%. Five Below ( FIVE ) follows closely as the second-highest performer with a 19.38% gain. BorgWarner ( BWA ) and Hasbro ( HAS ) stand out as Strong Buy candidates based on their Quant scores of 4.50 and 4.51 respectively. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings ( NCLH ) rounds out the top performers with a Buy rating and an 18.84% monthly gain. Here is the list: Tapestry ( TPR ), 1 month performance percentage: 21.90% Five Below ( FIVE ), 1 month performance percentage: 19.38% BorgWarner ( BWA ), 1 month performance percentage: 18.87% Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings ( NCLH ), 1 month performance percentage: 18.84% Deckers Outdoor ( DECK ), 1 month performance percentage: 17.08% Hasbro ( HAS ), 1 month performance percentage: 11.04% PulteGroup ( PHM ), 1 month performance percentage: 10.75% Ross Stores ( ROST ), 1 month performance percentage: 10.56% Carnival Corporation & plc ( CUK ), 1 month performance percentage: 10.46% Toll Brothers ( TOL ), 1 month performance percentage: 9.90% Consumer Discretionary ETFs: ( XLY ), ( VCR ), ( FXD ), ( FDIS ), ( RSPD ), and ( RXI ) More on consumer discretionary stocks VCR: Vanguard's $6.1 Billion Consumer Discretionary ETF Has Some Major Fundamental Headwinds Consumer Discretionary In The Great Rotation FDIS: Consumer Discretionary Dashboard For February Lowest Quant-rated stocks from JPM's 'conflict laggards' list amid the U.S.-Israel-Iran War Treasury signals tariff strategy to continue as courts weigh potential refunds
In this article USO XOM CVX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Gas prices at a Sunoco gas station in Media, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Oil surged the most in four years as the first impacts of the war in the Middle East began to be felt, with a near halt to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and disruption at a big refinery in Saudi Arabia underscoring the threat to...
In this article USO XOM CVX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Gas prices at a Sunoco gas station in Media, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Oil surged the most in four years as the first impacts of the war in the Middle East began to be felt, with a near halt to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and disruption at a big refinery in Saudi Arabia underscoring the threat to supplies in one of the world's top producing regions. Photographer: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images Matthew Hatcher | Bloomberg | Getty Images Just as President Donald Trump has been insisting that inflation is on the run , the war involving Iran threatens another price spike that could undermine his central case for lower interest rates. Oil prices jumped overnight as markets reacted to the escalation in the region, following a joint U.S.-Israel strike . West Texas Intermediate futures rose more than 5% while Brent crude futures gained about 6%, both off their overnight highs but still sharply elevated. The increase in oil prices adds another layer to recent indicators that, while inflation is well off its highs of a few years ago, underlying price pressures remain. Historically, surges in energy costs have often preceded broader inflation increases. Generally speaking, "war has proven to be 'inflationary,' as it is associated with negative supply shocks," wrote Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group. "Indeed, even before the new U.S.-Iran war, oil prices were higher on hoarding, and since hostilities began, prices are being pushed up by higher insurance premiums and forced re-routing of maritime shipping." There also have been signs outside of energy markets that inflation pressures may be firming. watch now VIDEO 9:27 09:27 Famed energy investor Mark Fisher's take on oil prices, Iran conflict Halftime Report January's producer price index , a measure of wholesale costs and a proxy for pipeline inflation, rose a stronger-than-expecte...
Emirates Global Aluminum is considering using offshore stocks to counter ship-loading delays as a result of the war in Iran, while assuring customers deliveries will arrive in the coming weeks. The United Arab Emirates’ top aluminum producer acknowledged “delays loading finished metal on ships and to sailings,” in a letter sent to its customers seen by Bloomberg News. The company “is taking every ...
Emirates Global Aluminum is considering using offshore stocks to counter ship-loading delays as a result of the war in Iran, while assuring customers deliveries will arrive in the coming weeks. The United Arab Emirates’ top aluminum producer acknowledged “delays loading finished metal on ships and to sailings,” in a letter sent to its customers seen by Bloomberg News. The company “is taking every measure to mitigate this including opening additional ports and leveraging stocks already outside the UAE.” EGA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment made outside of regular business hours. The Middle East accounts for about 9% of the world’s aluminum production capacity, and the region’s major producers including EGA use the Strait of Hormuz - a key shipping passage off Iran - to ship metal and bring in raw materials. Qatar Aluminium Ltd. is also assessing ways to ensure it gets supplies and can deliver metal to customers, according to co-owner Norsk Hydro ASA . Concerns over disruptions to aluminum shipping saw the metal jump the most in more than eight months on the London Metal Exchange Monday as strikes across the region continued for a third day. EGA operates smelters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The UAE confirmed over the weekend that debris from an aerial interception caused a fire at one of the berths at Jebel Ali port in Dubai, just a few miles from EGA’s facility. EGA also said there are currently no disruptions to operations at its sites in the UAE, according to the letter. The aluminum producer is owned by overweight wealth funds Mubadala Investment Co. of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. Qatar Aluminium, known as Qatalum, is also producing normally.
Nvidia, Palantir and long-suffering Intuit were among the biggest gainers Monday as investors set aside tech fears. Investors have fretted in the first months of 2026 about whether the world's biggest tech companies are at risk of overspending on artificial intelligence or whether, conversely, the success of AI will displace more traditional software providers. Among the hardest hit stocks was Int...
Nvidia, Palantir and long-suffering Intuit were among the biggest gainers Monday as investors set aside tech fears. Investors have fretted in the first months of 2026 about whether the world's biggest tech companies are at risk of overspending on artificial intelligence or whether, conversely, the success of AI will displace more traditional software providers. Among the hardest hit stocks was Intuit, which dropped to a one-year low beneath $359 on Feb. 24.
narvo vexar/iStock via Getty Images Introduction and Investment Thesis Since the start of the year, Anthropic has triggered four separate selloffs. It started with the launch of Cowork plugins on February 3 that fundamentally challenged the predictable “seat-based” pricing model of Enterprise SaaS companies. This was followed by the launch of Opus 4.6 a few days later, followed by the announcement...
narvo vexar/iStock via Getty Images Introduction and Investment Thesis Since the start of the year, Anthropic has triggered four separate selloffs. It started with the launch of Cowork plugins on February 3 that fundamentally challenged the predictable “seat-based” pricing model of Enterprise SaaS companies. This was followed by the launch of Opus 4.6 a few days later, followed by the announcement of Claude Code Security on February 20, which hit the cybersecurity industry like a rock. It did not end there. A few days later, Anthropic published a blog post about COBOL modernization that sent IBM stock (NYSE: IBM ) down 13%, wiping out $31B in market cap, and the Dow Jones ( DJI ) dropped 820 points. Since the start of the year, the Software ETF ( IGV ) is down over 21%, hugely underperforming the S&P 500 ( SPY ), which is more or less flat for the year. However, over the last five days, we have been noticing an inflection, where the relative performance between IGV and the S&P 500 is improving, as can be seen below. SA: Performance of IGV vs. SPY over the last 5 days Whether this inflection is sustained remains to be seen. But, if I have to pinpoint these two compelling events from last week that might have marked the bottom of the capitulation, they would be the following. First, Anthropic held its event last week , where they said that they were developing new tools, or "plug-ins," for enterprise use cases with its partners that include Salesforce (NYSE: CRM ), Intuit ( INTU ), Docusign ( DOCU ), and more. Essentially, this event was the first step in successfully shifting investor sentiment in Enterprise SaaS from commoditization fears to optimism around “AI integration," given their data advantage and high switching costs. A similar sentiment was echoed by Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, after the company’s Q4 earnings later in the week, where he too dismissed concerns of Agentic AI replacing Enterprise SaaS and instead described the relationship as complementary r...