Earnings Call Insights: Spok Holdings (SPOK) Q1 2026 Management View Spok’s leadership emphasized a cost-and-growth reset tied to its long-running strategy shift: "Since our strategic pivot we announced about 4 years ago now, our focus has not changed. That is to increase our
Earnings Call Insights: Spok Holdings (SPOK) Q1 2026 Management View Spok’s leadership emphasized a cost-and-growth reset tied to its long-running strategy shift: "Since our strategic pivot we announced about 4 years ago now, our focus has not changed. That is to increase our
U.S. stocks have managed an impressive turnaround since the Iran war trimmed 9% off of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) earlier this year. But since the war isn't over and oil prices are still over $100 a barrel, it might be giving investors some reason for concern. While I think that's fair, there's one overarching factor that gives me confidence to keep buying: corporate earnings. Since the market'...
U.S. stocks have managed an impressive turnaround since the Iran war trimmed 9% off of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) earlier this year. But since the war isn't over and oil prices are still over $100 a barrel, it might be giving investors some reason for concern. While I think that's fair, there's one overarching factor that gives me confidence to keep buying: corporate earnings. Since the market's leadership has spread beyond just megacap tech in 2026, I believe that Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI) is the no-brainer exchange-traded fund (ETF) to buy right now. While there are signs of weakness in the labor market and inflation is rising again, I think the S&P 500 will struggle to fall too far as long as corporate earnings hold up. But they're doing more than holding up right now. They're actually strengthening. Continue reading
France ’s government is not revising its growth forecasts despite a surprise stagnation in the first quarter on weak domestic demand and a fall in exports, Finance Minister Roland Lescure said Thursday. The economy failed to grow in the first three months of the year partly due to the impact of the start of the Iran war, and also because of temporary factors including a dip in public investment ah...
France ’s government is not revising its growth forecasts despite a surprise stagnation in the first quarter on weak domestic demand and a fall in exports, Finance Minister Roland Lescure said Thursday. The economy failed to grow in the first three months of the year partly due to the impact of the start of the Iran war, and also because of temporary factors including a dip in public investment ahead of local elections as well as lower demand for energy as a result of mild temperatures, Lescure said. The government already slightly reduced its 2026 growth forecast earlier this month to 0.9% to account for the impact of the conflict in the Middle East. “There are three quarters left in the year, if growth comes off pause and picks up in the two or three coming quarters, there is no reason to start afresh,” he said on RTL radio. “The conflict is very uncertain, must be followed very closely, and if we need to adapt forecasts we will do it but at this stage there is no reason to do that.” Euro-Zone Growth Slows as Iran War Brings Stagflation Closer France Sticks to 2029 Deficit Goal as It Trims Growth Forecasts
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Shares of Choice Hotels International ( CHH ) are limping through Thursday’s trading with a loss of 14% at midday as first-quarter results showed a significant deterioration in the hotel chain’s unadjusted profits, overshadowing record revenue and a 32% increase in room openings.
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images Shares of Choice Hotels International ( CHH ) are limping through Thursday’s trading with a loss of 14% at midday as first-quarter results showed a significant deterioration in the hotel chain’s unadjusted profits, overshadowing record revenue and a 32% increase in room openings.
Palantir Technologies has had a rough start to 2026. Analysts at Oppenheimer initiated coverage of Palantir stock with an Outperform rating and a $200 price target in a research note Thursday. Palantir stock was up 0.1% to $138.11 on Thursday.
Palantir Technologies has had a rough start to 2026. Analysts at Oppenheimer initiated coverage of Palantir stock with an Outperform rating and a $200 price target in a research note Thursday. Palantir stock was up 0.1% to $138.11 on Thursday.
Citigroup Inc. is stepping back from physical trading in industrial metals and has made a number of staff from its commodities team redundant, an employment tribunal in London heard. The bank has in recent years grown to become one of the biggest banks in commodities, challenging long-time leaders Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Morgan Stanley. It has made waves on the London Me...
Citigroup Inc. is stepping back from physical trading in industrial metals and has made a number of staff from its commodities team redundant, an employment tribunal in London heard. The bank has in recent years grown to become one of the biggest banks in commodities, challenging long-time leaders Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Morgan Stanley. It has made waves on the London Metal Exchange taking delivery of physical metal as part of bold financing trades that put it in competition with large trading houses. However, the bank is now “reducing its physical footprint” and physical metals trading will no longer be a “core business activity,” according to a January 2026 letter warning employees of redundancy that was made public as part of the hearing. Jesse Crozier, a lawyer for Citi, referred to the “effective shutting down” of the bank’s physical metals business. Citi notified 11 employees in its commodities unit that they were at risk of redundancy in January and a number of them have since been dismissed, according to the bank’s submissions. “This (small) adjustment to our physical footprint was specific to the physical industrial metals marketing & trading business only and does not impact any other part of our industrial metals operations,” the bank said in an emailed statement. “Citi continues to have physical financing capabilities across industrial metals and to have a significant footprint in precious metals and across commodities.” The case was brought by Reagan Nettleingham, a former salesperson in Citi’s metals team, who claims he was made redundant as retaliation for blowing the whistle on what he says were “rogue sales” in agriculture in 2025. “I believe I was dismissed because I made protected disclosures,” Nettleingham said in a witness statement. “This is a straightforward case of a whistleblower raising concerns, and being stereotypically branded as unhelpful, a problem, or something that had to be managed out, rather than genuine...
In this article .SPX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Trinity Rodman #2 of Washington Spirit evades Sarah Schupansky #11 of Gotham FC during the NWSL Championship 2025 final between Washington Spirit and NJ/NY Gotham FC at PayPal Park on November 22, 2025 in San Jose, California. Lyndsay Radnedge/isi Photos | Isi Photos | Getty Images A version of this article first appeared in the ...
In this article .SPX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Trinity Rodman #2 of Washington Spirit evades Sarah Schupansky #11 of Gotham FC during the NWSL Championship 2025 final between Washington Spirit and NJ/NY Gotham FC at PayPal Park on November 22, 2025 in San Jose, California. Lyndsay Radnedge/isi Photos | Isi Photos | Getty Images A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Last week, the National Women's Soccer League awarded a new expansion franchise — in Columbus, Ohio — to an ownership group led by Haslam Sports Group for a fee of $205 million. This represents a $50 million jump from the $165 million that billionaire Arthur Blank reportedly paid for the league's Atlanta franchise in November. And that $165 million itself was a jump of $55 million from the reported $110 million fee Denver paid in January of last year. Rewind to 2022, and the expansion fee for a new NWSL club was just $2 million . On the surface, this appears to be a story about the NWSL's growth. Postseason attendance rose 11% this past season, according to the league. Nearly 1.2 million people watched the NWSL finals , up 22% from a year ago, including a whopping 70% jump in the 18-to-34 demographic, the NWSL said. It makes sense that investors would want to get in now given the league's growth trajectory. But, according to investors and bankers, something else is going on that's affecting the NWSL's valuations that has absolutely nothing to do with soccer. It has to do with a trickle-down investment thesis driven by the outsized businesses of the NFL and NBA. Wealthy investors have long been interested in sports ownership, trophy assets that have also produced outsized returns on investment. The introduction of private equity investment, first adopted in the NFL in 2024...
Galeanu Mihai/iStock via Getty Images By James Knightley, Chief International Economist, US Tech drives growth amid signs of cooling elsewhere Lots of US data today, with 1Q GDP growth coming in at 2% annualised versus the 2.3% consensus, the Federal Reserve’s favoured core
Galeanu Mihai/iStock via Getty Images By James Knightley, Chief International Economist, US Tech drives growth amid signs of cooling elsewhere Lots of US data today, with 1Q GDP growth coming in at 2% annualised versus the 2.3% consensus, the Federal Reserve’s favoured core
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images By Elior Manier We are officially concluding a massive, high-stakes week for global monetary policy, with the FOMC, BoC, BoJ, ECB, and BoE all revealing their interest rate decisions and forward guidance for the next month and a half.
adventtr/iStock via Getty Images By Elior Manier We are officially concluding a massive, high-stakes week for global monetary policy, with the FOMC, BoC, BoJ, ECB, and BoE all revealing their interest rate decisions and forward guidance for the next month and a half.
Readers respond to the news that people in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago A major cause of the fall in healthy life expectancy ( People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds, 27 April ) is austerity and the continued cuts to social and health spending. In our report Still Digging Deeper: The Impact of Austerity on Inequalities and D...
Readers respond to the news that people in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago A major cause of the fall in healthy life expectancy ( People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds, 27 April ) is austerity and the continued cuts to social and health spending. In our report Still Digging Deeper: The Impact of Austerity on Inequalities and Deprivation in the Coalfield Areas, which covers Scotland, England and Wales for the period 1984-2024, we highlight how public expenditure cuts since 1984 have disproportionately impacted coalfield areas of the UK. Since 2010, austerity has been stepped up, and we have calculated that welfare reforms and benefit cuts amounted to £32.6bn over the period of 2010-21. Furthermore, in 2025-26 coalfield local authorities had a combined funding gap of £447m. These are areas where a significant proportion of the working-age population is affected by long-term sickness and experiences poverty. Continue reading...
Jan Shapiro calls for a searching examination of the assumptions and culture that shape practice across the Send system. Plus Mary Smith sets readers and journalists a challenge based on her granddaughter’s revision sheet Your report highlights the impact of the inadequate funding of special educational needs and disabilities provision ( Schools forced to cut back on support for Send pupils in Eng...
Jan Shapiro calls for a searching examination of the assumptions and culture that shape practice across the Send system. Plus Mary Smith sets readers and journalists a challenge based on her granddaughter’s revision sheet Your report highlights the impact of the inadequate funding of special educational needs and disabilities provision ( Schools forced to cut back on support for Send pupils in England, poll finds, 23 April ). However, this moment should prompt not just concern about diminishing support, but a more fundamental examination of the system that produces these pressures in the first place. I lead a school with a significantly higher-than-average proportion of disadvantaged pupils with Send. For us, inclusion is not an add-on but a commitment embedded in relationships and practice. The issue is not solely financial. It is also about approach, language, culture and what schools are incentivised to value. Without that foundation, increased funding alone will not deliver what our Send children need. Continue reading...
Prof Amy Dickman, Prof Adam Hart, Dr Dan Challender and Dr Dilys Roe say trophy hunting benefits lions and many other species by conserving more land in Africa than national parks do The reason that trophy hunting bans have repeatedly stalled in parliament ( Letters, 26 April ) is because they are misinformed, hypocritical, ignore the rights and welfare of local communities, and would harm, not he...
Prof Amy Dickman, Prof Adam Hart, Dr Dan Challender and Dr Dilys Roe say trophy hunting benefits lions and many other species by conserving more land in Africa than national parks do The reason that trophy hunting bans have repeatedly stalled in parliament ( Letters, 26 April ) is because they are misinformed, hypocritical, ignore the rights and welfare of local communities, and would harm, not help, conservation. Campaigners should decide if bans are about morality or conservation. If the former, the UK should ban domestic trophy hunting of red deer, for example, but this has never been suggested. If it is about conservation, ministers should recognise that trophy hunting is not a key threat to lions or any other species. Indeed, it benefits lions and other species by conserving more land in Africa than national parks do. Biodiversity is far more threatened by habitat loss, which bans are likely to amplify by reducing income for protected areas. Hunting areas are usually not viable for photo-tourism, which brings its own issues of environmental impact. Continue reading...
Readers respond to Polly Hudson’s article decrying physical contact on meeting friends or strangers I’ve just read Polly Hudson’s piece about shaking hands and I disagree ( Teenagers are calling time on the handshake. I salute them, from a safe distance, theguardian.com, 26 April ). A hand contact is an open gesture, a mark of trust. It is meant to transmit our humanity. Being human is about learn...
Readers respond to Polly Hudson’s article decrying physical contact on meeting friends or strangers I’ve just read Polly Hudson’s piece about shaking hands and I disagree ( Teenagers are calling time on the handshake. I salute them, from a safe distance, theguardian.com, 26 April ). A hand contact is an open gesture, a mark of trust. It is meant to transmit our humanity. Being human is about learning to connect with each other and that can mean leaving our comfort zone, making the first step – or proffering the first hand – towards a stranger. That first encounter may lead nowhere, or it may be the beginning of an enriching relationship. Either way, to deprive yourself of all those possibilities because of hygiene worries would be so sad. Polly, you could always carry hand sanitiser in your pocket, but please be discreet when using it. Priscilla Packer Les Ponts de Cé, France • I can understand how Polly Hudson feels about greeting someone with physical contact. A handshake is not a hug, kiss or curtsey. It is a simple greeting, with the hand extended and a direct look at who you want to meet and converse with. The contact shows an appreciation for each other not shown by a fist or elbow bump. I find women I meet at work and socially are very comfortable with a handshake rather than any other greeting. It is true that the initial contact with someone defines the rest of the relationship, both good and bad. James Tuson Hertford Continue reading...