Douglas Rissing Federal Open Market Committee's voting members, Beth Hammack and Lorie Logan, do not think the forward guidance should have implied a bias towards a rate cut at this time. Cleveland Fed President Hammack and Dallas Fed President Logan supported maintaining the target range for the federal funds rate at the April FOMC meeting. However, they opposed the inclusion of an easing bias in...
Douglas Rissing Federal Open Market Committee's voting members, Beth Hammack and Lorie Logan, do not think the forward guidance should have implied a bias towards a rate cut at this time. Cleveland Fed President Hammack and Dallas Fed President Logan supported maintaining the target range for the federal funds rate at the April FOMC meeting. However, they opposed the inclusion of an easing bias in the post-meeting statement. The statement said , "In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks." While the statement doesn't explicitly say the next rate move would lean toward a cut, the use of the term " additional adjustments" could imply a reduction since the last adjustment was a cut. "I disagree with that assessment of the policy outlook," said Lorie Logan . "I am increasingly concerned about how long it will take inflation to return all the way to the FOMC's 2% target." "Even before recent increases in the prices of energy and other commodities, those measures had been running meaningfully above 2%, leaving doubts about how long it will take inflation to return to target," said the FOMC voting committee member. "The conflict in the Middle East raises the prospect of prolonged or repeated supply disruptions that could create further inflationary pressures. At the same time, the labor market has been stable, with low unemployment and payroll job gains keeping pace with labor force growth," said Logan. According to Logan, it could plausibly be appropriate for the FOMC's next rate change to be either an increase or a cut. Meanwhile, Hammack sees this "clear easing bias" in the statement as no longer appropriate given the outlook. "Uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased in 2026 and makes the future path for monetary policy more uncertain as well," said Hammack, adding there are upside risks to i...
Earnings Call Insights: Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (SHEN) Q1 2026 Management view Edward McKay (President & CEO) reported fiber expansion execution and customer growth, saying, “During the quarter, we released 22,000 passings to sales, bringing our total Glo Fiber expansion markets passings to 449,000,” and “We added approximately 6,000 Glo Fiber net customers in the first quarter... an...
Earnings Call Insights: Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (SHEN) Q1 2026 Management view Edward McKay (President & CEO) reported fiber expansion execution and customer growth, saying, “During the quarter, we released 22,000 passings to sales, bringing our total Glo Fiber expansion markets passings to 449,000,” and “We added approximately 6,000 Glo Fiber net customers in the first quarter... and we now serve a total of 94,000 customers.” Edward McKay (President & CEO) highlighted Commercial Fiber demand and construction timing, saying, “Our Commercial Fiber business also delivered a strong quarter with 196,000 in sales bookings and revenue growth of 4.7% year-over-year,” and “We remain on track to complete our Glo Fiber expansion in 2026, reaching 510,000 passings.” Edward McKay (President & CEO) emphasized penetration, churn, and mix, including “penetration rose to 20.9%,” “our average monthly churn was 0.92%,” and that “nearly 82% of our new residential customers in the first quarter, [selected] speeds of 1 gig or higher.” James Volk (Senior VP of Finance & CFO) said, “Revenues grew 4.8% to $92.2 million,” and “Adjusted EBITDA grew $4.1 million or 15% to $31.7 million.” Outlook James Volk (Senior VP of Finance & CFO) said, “We reiterate our annual guidance for 2026,” and “We expect revenues of $370 million to $377 million, adjusted EBITDA of $131 million to $136 million and CapEx net of grant reimbursements to be $220 million to $250 million.” Management framed 2027 free cash flow as tied to construction completion and capital intensity: James Volk (Senior VP of Finance & CFO) said the company has “3 catalysts converging that we expect will lead us to generating and growing positive free cash flow in 2027 and beyond,” listing “declining capital intensity as we exit the construction phase of our business plan” and “declining cost of capital after refinancing our debt in 2025.” Compared with the prior quarter, guidance figures and the 2027 free cash flow timeline...
Earnings Call Insights: NPK International Inc. (NPKI) Q1 2026 Management view Matthew Lanigan (President, CEO & Director) said the company had a “strong start to 2026” and reported “total rental and service revenues setting another quarterly record at $52 million,” alongside “$23 million” of product sales revenue and “$22 million adjusted EBITDA.” Lanigan highlighted cash and capital actions in th...
Earnings Call Insights: NPK International Inc. (NPKI) Q1 2026 Management view Matthew Lanigan (President, CEO & Director) said the company had a “strong start to 2026” and reported “total rental and service revenues setting another quarterly record at $52 million,” alongside “$23 million” of product sales revenue and “$22 million adjusted EBITDA.” Lanigan highlighted cash and capital actions in the quarter: “$21 million of cash flow from operations and $5 million of free cash flow while also expanding our rental fleet by 4%, repaying our revolving credit facility and using $3 million to fund share repurchases.” Lanigan said the board approved a manufacturing capacity expansion: “increase our production capacity by approximately 50% from current levels,” with planned investment “$40 million to $45 million over the next 5 quarters” and “the goal of bringing the additional capacity online by mid-2027.” Gregg Piontek (Senior VP, CFO & Principal Accounting Officer) summarized the quarter’s mix and the Grassform impact: “Rental revenues grew 27% year-over-year, reflecting 12% organic growth, combined with a $4 million contribution from the Grassform acquisition.” Outlook Piontek raised full-year guidance: “we have raised the range of our full year 2026 outlook, now anticipating total revenues of $310 million to $325 million and adjusted EBITDA of $92 million to $102 million,” adding, “product sales remained relatively in line with 2025 levels.” On Q2, Piontek said, “we expect to deliver 20% year-over-year growth in rental and service revenues in Q2,” while “Q2 revenues will be fairly in line with prior Q2 levels” for product sales and “Q2 gross margin is also expected to be roughly in line with the prior Q2 results.” Versus the prior quarter’s call, management added specific manufacturing expansion spending to 2026 CapEx expectations, with Piontek now guiding “total net CapEx of $75 million to $90 million for the year, including $30 million to $35 million of current year ...
Last month, Anthropic made a big deal about the supposedly outsize cybersecurity threat represented by its Mythos Preview model, leading the company to restrict the initial release to “critical industry partners.” But new research from the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) suggests that OpenAI's GPT-5.5, which launched publicly last week , reached "a similar level of performance on our cyber evalu...
Last month, Anthropic made a big deal about the supposedly outsize cybersecurity threat represented by its Mythos Preview model, leading the company to restrict the initial release to “critical industry partners.” But new research from the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) suggests that OpenAI's GPT-5.5, which launched publicly last week , reached "a similar level of performance on our cyber evaluations" as Mythos Preview, which the group evaluated last month . Since 2023, the AISI has run a variety of frontier AI models through 95 different Capture the Flag challenges designed to test capabilities on cybersecurity tasks, such as reverse engineering, web exploitation, and cryptography. On the highest-level "Expert" tasks, GPT-5.5 passed an average of 71.4 percent, slightly higher than the 68.6 percent achieved by Mythos Preview (though within the margin of error). In one particularly difficult task that involved building a disassembler to decode a Rust binary, AISI notes that "GPT-5.5 solved the challenge in 10 minutes and 22 seconds with no human assistance at a cost of $1.73" in API calls. GPT-5.5 also matched Mythos Preview in its progress on "The Last Ones" (TLO), an AISI test range set up to simulate a 32-step data extraction attack on a corporate network. GPT-5.5 succeeded in 3 of 10 attempts on TLO, compared to 2 of 10 for Mythos Preview—no previous model had ever succeeded at the test even once. But GPT-5.5 still fails at AISI's more difficult "Cooling Tower" simulation of an attempted disruption of the control software for a power plant, as every previously tested AI model also has. Read full article Comments
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap of the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap about their new album Fenian . (Image credit: Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap of the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap about their new album Fenian . (Image credit: Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Ayush Babel and Hyun Kang European equities are once again moving into focus for global investors. Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have introduced a new layer of uncertainty for global markets, particularly through the potential impact on energy prices and global supply chains. While Europe is not directly involved in the conflict, the regio...
We Are/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Ayush Babel and Hyun Kang European equities are once again moving into focus for global investors. Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have introduced a new layer of uncertainty for global markets, particularly through the potential impact on energy prices and global supply chains. While Europe is not directly involved in the conflict, the region remains sensitive to energy market disruptions given its reliance on imported energy. In this environment, investors may increasingly focus on differentiated equity exposure, namely companies with strong fundamentals, disciplined capital allocation and the ability to return capital to shareholders while maintaining exposure to companies positioned to benefit from geopolitical and global policy shifts. Europe offers a particularly compelling opportunity in this regard. The region has long maintained an established culture of returning capital to shareholders through dividends, and companies are increasingly complementing these payments with share buybacks. At the same time, developments in the geopolitical space, technology trends and macroeconomic conditions are creating a new set of opportunities across the region. Against this backdrop, investors can benefit from a differentiated approach to accessing European equities through the WisdomTree European Opportunities Fund ( OPPE ). OPPE seeks to track the price and yield performance of the WisdomTree European Opportunities Index , which seeks to provide exposure to European companies focused on both value stocks and firms benefiting from geopolitical and global policy shifts, while dynamically hedging foreign currency exposure to the U.S. dollar. In a more uncertain macro environment, companies with strong fundamentals and disciplined capital allocation may offer an element of resilience compared to firms with weaker profitability or less predictable cash flows. The WisdomTree European Opportunities strategy provides expos...
Most people, including novice investors, have heard the expression, "Buy low, sell high." It's a simple concept, but very difficult to accomplish. That shouldn't necessarily dissuade you from looking at growth stocks . They typically have high valuations since investors have high expectations. As long as the company meets or exceeds them, the stock will perform well. Turning to Dutch Bros (NYSE: B...
Most people, including novice investors, have heard the expression, "Buy low, sell high." It's a simple concept, but very difficult to accomplish. That shouldn't necessarily dissuade you from looking at growth stocks . They typically have high valuations since investors have high expectations. As long as the company meets or exceeds them, the stock will perform well. Turning to Dutch Bros (NYSE: BROS) , the shares look expensive compared to the overall market and peer Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) . Do the company's growth prospects justify this valuation? Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are up roughly 5% in Friday morning trading, climbing to about $284 after the iPhone maker delivered a powerful fiscal second-quarter beat and bullish forward guidance following Thursday’s close. The rally caps a quiet stretch in which AAPL stock had quietly become the Magnificent 7 laggard of 2026. Through Thursday’s close ... Apple Pops 5% on Q2 Beat: Has the iPhone...
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are up roughly 5% in Friday morning trading, climbing to about $284 after the iPhone maker delivered a powerful fiscal second-quarter beat and bullish forward guidance following Thursday’s close. The rally caps a quiet stretch in which AAPL stock had quietly become the Magnificent 7 laggard of 2026. Through Thursday’s close ... Apple Pops 5% on Q2 Beat: Has the iPhone Maker Found Its Growth Story Again?
da-kuk/E+ via Getty Images Public sentiment on inflation remained weak, with approval ratings falling to 29%, just above the previous low of 28% seen during the Biden administration. The chart highlighted a steady decline across inflation, economic, and overall approval measures through early 2026, according to BofA Global Research. Inflation-specific approval deteriorated more sharply than broade...
da-kuk/E+ via Getty Images Public sentiment on inflation remained weak, with approval ratings falling to 29%, just above the previous low of 28% seen during the Biden administration. The chart highlighted a steady decline across inflation, economic, and overall approval measures through early 2026, according to BofA Global Research. Inflation-specific approval deteriorated more sharply than broader economic sentiment, suggesting that price pressures continued to dominate public concerns even as other indicators stabilized. This divergence underscored the political sensitivity of inflation in the macro environment, according to BofA. The timeline also pointed to a further weakening in approval metrics following the onset of the Iran conflict, indicating that geopolitical developments were amplifying inflation concerns, according to BofA Global Research. Strategists noted that reversing this decline in inflation approval was critical to sustaining the expansion. Persistently low approval could increase pressure for policy intervention, with potential implications for bond yields and broader financial markets, according to BofA. Here is the chart: BofA More on markets Median Household Income In March 2026 Powell To Stay In The Best Interest Of The Institution May Day: Market Looks For U.S. Leadership 30-year treasury yield nears 5% 'maginot line' as risk of breakout looms U.S. economy's nominal 'boom loop' - BofA
Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision via Getty Images It has been a year since I started covering Landstar System, Inc. ( LSTR ). And from its price of $143.40, it has already risen to the $180-190 range and delivered nearly 30% returns. This shows that it pays to be patient most of the time. This is in line with the recent recovery of the truckload market from the freight recession and overcapacity in the ...
Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision via Getty Images It has been a year since I started covering Landstar System, Inc. ( LSTR ). And from its price of $143.40, it has already risen to the $180-190 range and delivered nearly 30% returns. This shows that it pays to be patient most of the time. This is in line with the recent recovery of the truckload market from the freight recession and overcapacity in the past four years. Now, market dynamics and freight rates have already become favorable for the remaining players. However, increasing macroeconomic volatility and valuation concerns make it hard for me to take a position at this level. Technicals adhere to it as overbuying becomes more evident today. LSTR Q1 2026: A Fresh Start After Gradual Recovery Freight and logistics have faced multiple challenges in recent years, driven by truckload overcapacity, macroeconomic volatility, tariff wars, and oil price swings. The combination of these aspects led to softer demand and volatile freight rates. With that, it’s not surprising that bankruptcy filings of trucking businesses have ballooned in the past year. Despite this, many businesses stayed resilient and even took advantage of the situation with their effective business model and prudent trailer management. Landstar System, Inc. is a perfect example, as shown in its most recent performance. In Q1 2026, its operating revenue amounted to $1.17B , up by 1.6% YoY from $1.15B. This was not much considering the risk it faces. However, this is much better than in my previous coverage, with a YoY revenue decrease of 2.9%. In fact, this was the first time its revenue increased again YoY after its softer performance for the whole of 2025. This was also its best YoY performance in seven quarters. One aspect to consider was truckload capacity reduction and LTL undercapacity. This allowed LSTR to capture more demand and enjoy higher freight rates. This also offset the impact of softer demand. As you can see, the total number of loads, exclu...
Headwater Exploration press release ( HWX:CA ): Q1 AFFO of $0.41. Revenue of $169.9M. Achieved an operating netback inclusive of financial derivatives (2) of $49.90/boe and an adjusted funds flow netback (2) of $45.20/boe. Achieved net income of $35.6 million ($0.15 per share basic) equating to $16.51/boe. Executed a $66.7 million capital expenditure (3) program inclusive of development, explorati...
Headwater Exploration press release ( HWX:CA ): Q1 AFFO of $0.41. Revenue of $169.9M. Achieved an operating netback inclusive of financial derivatives (2) of $49.90/boe and an adjusted funds flow netback (2) of $45.20/boe. Achieved net income of $35.6 million ($0.15 per share basic) equating to $16.51/boe. Executed a $66.7 million capital expenditure (3) program inclusive of development, exploration and secondary recovery implementation. Declared a cash dividend of $26.2 million, or $0.11 per common share. To date, Headwater has paid out cumulative dividends of $343.7 million to shareholders ($1.45 per common share). As at March 31, 2026, Headwater had adjusted working capital (1) of $2.4 million and no outstanding bank debt. More on Headwater Exploration Headwater Exploration: A License To Print Money Headwater Exploration: Profits Continue To Roll In Historical earnings data for Headwater Exploration Dividend scorecard for Headwater Exploration Financial information for Headwater Exploration