From soundtracking the silent era, via 50s rock’n’roll and the ‘symphonic pop’ of Henry Mancini to iconic works by John Williams and Hans Zimmer, movies are unimaginable without music. Ahead of the London soundtrack festival its artistic director picks 10 scores that moved the dial The music of cinema’s earliest years played a crucial role in how audiences – with a live pianist or organist soundtr...
From soundtracking the silent era, via 50s rock’n’roll and the ‘symphonic pop’ of Henry Mancini to iconic works by John Williams and Hans Zimmer, movies are unimaginable without music. Ahead of the London soundtrack festival its artistic director picks 10 scores that moved the dial The music of cinema’s earliest years played a crucial role in how audiences – with a live pianist or organist soundtracking the silent movie – experienced the stories on screen. But it wasn’t until the advent of synchronised sound that they were guaranteed the same musical experience. Even that moment, widely regarded to be 1926’s Don Juan – an otherwise silent film – wasn’t a true soundtrack. Warner Bros used the Vitaphone system, essentially a recording on disc that was played with the picture. The same system was used for 1927’s The Jazz Singer, the first film for which voices were synchronised to the picture as well. Playing a disc to picture was unreliable, and it wasn’t long before music could be printed directly on to the celluloid of the film itself and the soundtrack proper was born. Continue reading...
Last month was rough for growth investors. I decided to make the most of the downturn, initiating positions in three companies that I feel have fallen to attractive entry points. I bought shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) , Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) , and Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) in March. The stocks are currently trading 16%, 52%, and 55% below their 52-week highs. Is that opportunity knocking or ...
Last month was rough for growth investors. I decided to make the most of the downturn, initiating positions in three companies that I feel have fallen to attractive entry points. I bought shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) , Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) , and Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) in March. The stocks are currently trading 16%, 52%, and 55% below their 52-week highs. Is that opportunity knocking or the grim reaper of bad decisions? Let's take a closer look. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has climbed to its highest levels since the early days of the war, as more countries secure apparent safe-passage agreements with Iran. The waterway saw 21 ships transit over the weekend as more energy-starved governments negotiate to extract vessels, cargoes and crews from the Persian Gulf, strengthening Tehran’s grip on the waterway. That’s the highest two-da...
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has climbed to its highest levels since the early days of the war, as more countries secure apparent safe-passage agreements with Iran. The waterway saw 21 ships transit over the weekend as more energy-starved governments negotiate to extract vessels, cargoes and crews from the Persian Gulf, strengthening Tehran’s grip on the waterway. That’s the highest two-day total since the first days of March, when traffic was winding down. Of those vessels, 13 headed out into the Arabian Sea. Iranian vessels continue to dominate traffic, but on Sunday a tanker carrying Iraqi crude made its way through the strait, after Iran said it would grant an exemption to “brotherly Iraq”. India — which has negotiated the exit of some ships, and even taken Iranian liquefied petroleum gas for the first time in years — has now seen eight of its LPG tankers come through. Though the number of vessels is still a fraction of what it was before the war, when about 135 vessels were passing regularly each day, more countries are securing transits. Last week, two China-linked container ships made the crossing on a second attempt. Two Japan-linked vessels have also passed. The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow corridor connecting the Persian Gulf with the rest of the world, has become a focal point as the war enters its sixth week, with US President Donald Trump threatening to hit civilian infrastructure and bring “Hell” to Iran if it does not reopen the passage. Tehran has said it will only do so after the tolls that it’s charging vessels for transit can cover war damages. “Iran is responding to requests from its partners while reinforcing its grip on Hormuz,” said Muyu Xu , a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler Ltd. in Singapore. “Passage is still at Iran’s mercy and the situation could change at any time if the conflict escalates.” Iran is also advancing a law governing its control of the strait and fees for passage, a move that formalizes an idiosyncratic payment syste...
Iran's top officials pushed back against President Trump's deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, striking a defiant tone as the warring sides traded missile attacks. (Image credit: Ilia Yefimovich)
Iran's top officials pushed back against President Trump's deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, striking a defiant tone as the warring sides traded missile attacks. (Image credit: Ilia Yefimovich)
sankai/iStock via Getty Images The last time I wrote on Novo Nordisk ( NVO ), it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Novo Nordisk: CagriSema Sets Potential Obesity Drug Development Comeback ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that the company was gearing up to release results from its phase 3 REDEFINE-4 study, which was comparing the use of its fixed-dose combination of cagrilinti...
sankai/iStock via Getty Images The last time I wrote on Novo Nordisk ( NVO ), it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Novo Nordisk: CagriSema Sets Potential Obesity Drug Development Comeback ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that the company was gearing up to release results from its phase 3 REDEFINE-4 study, which was comparing the use of its fixed-dose combination of cagrilintide 2.4 mg and semaglutide 2.4 mg [CagriSema] versus that of tirzepatide [Zepbound] from Eli Lilly ( LLY ) for the treatment of patients with obesity. The reason for my "buy" rating I gave at that time was because there was the possibility that the company could stage a comeback with this other obesity drug. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as the primary endpoint of achieving superior or non-inferior weight loss for CagriSema versus tirzepatide was not shown. I will be going over the clinical trial in detail below. With this setback, plus the fact that Novo continues to face stiff competition in the GLP-1 drug development space, these warrant a downgrade to a "Sell" rating. This is not the only reason, though, as there are several other reasons why. A second reason is because even though Novo Nordisk was able to achieve FDA approval of oral Wegovy as a weight loss treatment in December of 2025, it is still going to face competition from Eli Lilly yet again. Why is that? That's because several days ago the FDA approved an oral version of orforglipron, known as Foundayo, as a weight loss drug as well. While Novo touted that its oral version of Wegovy achieved greater weight loss than that of Foundayo, the issue is that it was not a head-to-head study but instead a cross-trial comparison for starters. The advantage for Novo is that the Wegovy pill also may have fewer side effects. While this is good, there is one advantage that Foundayo maintains, which is that it can be taken without food restrictions. It's possible that Novo might be able to compete with its oral GLP-1 ...
Circle Internet (NYSE: CRCL) stock posted strong gains in March's trading. The cryptocurrency company's share price managed to climb 14.3% in the month despite the S&P 500 declining 5.1% and the Nasdaq Composite declining 4.8%. Circle stock continued to move higher last month thanks to continued momentum from the encouraging earnings results it reported near the end of February. Relatively strong ...
Circle Internet (NYSE: CRCL) stock posted strong gains in March's trading. The cryptocurrency company's share price managed to climb 14.3% in the month despite the S&P 500 declining 5.1% and the Nasdaq Composite declining 4.8%. Circle stock continued to move higher last month thanks to continued momentum from the encouraging earnings results it reported near the end of February. Relatively strong performance for the price of Bitcoin in March also helped boost Circle's valuation. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
The S&P 500 has stumbled in recent weeks and even delivered a negative performance in the first quarter of the year as it dropped 4.6%. Many investors hesitated to buy stocks, and the reason is clear: They worried about elements that could disrupt growth, from the potential for weakness in the artificial intelligence (AI) revenue story to the war in Iran. All of this has created volatility, with t...
The S&P 500 has stumbled in recent weeks and even delivered a negative performance in the first quarter of the year as it dropped 4.6%. Many investors hesitated to buy stocks, and the reason is clear: They worried about elements that could disrupt growth, from the potential for weakness in the artificial intelligence (AI) revenue story to the war in Iran. All of this has created volatility, with the index swinging from gains to losses depending on the news of the day. And this movement, too, has weighed on the minds of investors. Amid the turmoil, one particular stock is sounding a warning bell for investors. This company is very well known and is a part of daily life for many. I'm talking about retail giant Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) . Jim Paulsen, who retired as chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in 2022, continues to follow the market closely and recently highlighted this message from Walmart stock. Continue reading
'New Iranian Terror Group' Claims Responsibility For Attacks Across Europe A group that did not exist online or anywhere else before March 9, 2026, has suddenly claimed responsibility for a string of low-tech arson and attempted bombings at synagogues and US banks across Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and the UK. Police in Paris at the scene of the thwarted attack on the offices of Bank of Amer...