UK Finance’s recent "later life mortgage lending" data makes for an interesting read. It shows that, in the last quarter of 2025, a whopping 41,100 new loans were advanced to borrowers over the age of 55. This is up 15.1% year-on-year. The value of this lending was £6.8bn - up 20.5% compared with the same quarter a year previously. Of these, over 13,000 were on a buy-to-let basis, so it shows that...
UK Finance’s recent "later life mortgage lending" data makes for an interesting read. It shows that, in the last quarter of 2025, a whopping 41,100 new loans were advanced to borrowers over the age of 55. This is up 15.1% year-on-year. The value of this lending was £6.8bn - up 20.5% compared with the same quarter a year previously. Of these, over 13,000 were on a buy-to-let basis, so it shows that being a landlord remains a popular option for older borrowers. However, the vast majority, over 22,600, of these loans were residential - for instance, re-mortgaging or a new house purchase. It shows that, for many, the idea of entering retirement having paid off your mortgage remains a dream. Higher house prices There are very good reasons for this. Soaring house prices have made it harder to get on the housing ladder, meaning people either get on it later in life or not at all. Those who do manage it are often taking on longer mortgage terms, that may mean you are paying a mortgage well into your sixties or even seventies – the data show that over 5,000 loans were made to borrowers over the age of 70. Read more: How to save on income tax This has massive implications for our retirement planning. The latest data from HL’s Savings and Resilience Barometer shows that 64% of households, where the home is owned outright, are on track for an adequate retirement income. This compares to 46% where a mortgage is still being paid and just 32% of renters - so the difference is stark. It demonstrates the obvious yet enormous challenge at the heart of our retirement savings. If your working life outgoings are higher, it will make it harder to save for your retirement, and if you are carrying housing costs into your retirement years, that will also push up your outgoings. For many, it will be an extra bill that places severe strain on their budget. Data from UK Finance show that 41,100 new loans were advanced to borrowers over the age of 55 in Q4 2025, up 15.1% year on year. · aquaArt...
Europe woke to a fresh surge in energy prices on Monday as the escalating war in the Middle East disrupted oil shipments and natural gas production in one of the world’s most critical energy-producing regions. The continent’s benchmark natural gas price, the Dutch TTF, rose by more than 40 per cent at one point amid mounting reports of supply disruptions following American and Israeli attacks on I...
Europe woke to a fresh surge in energy prices on Monday as the escalating war in the Middle East disrupted oil shipments and natural gas production in one of the world’s most critical energy-producing regions. The continent’s benchmark natural gas price, the Dutch TTF, rose by more than 40 per cent at one point amid mounting reports of supply disruptions following American and Israeli attacks on Iran and Iranian retaliation against regional targets. Qatar’s state-owned QatarEnergy said it had suspended liquefied natural gas production following “military attacks” on its facilities. The European Union was already grappling with high energy costs after sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reduced its access to inexpensive Russian gas. Those costs have contributed to an erosion of EU manufacturers’ global competitiveness, particularly against China. Advertisement Analysts now warn of further strains on European industry amid renewed turbulence in international energy markets, as calls grow for the EU to accelerate its transition to renewable energy and reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels. “Europe’s exposure to geopolitical shocks remains rooted in its continued reliance on imported fossil fuels traded on volatile global markets – even if it has shifted dependency from Russia to other suppliers, not least the US,” Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, wrote in an article. Advertisement He warned that European gas prices could come under particular pressure because the EU began the year with significantly lower storage levels than in previous years – just 46 billion cubic metres (1.62 trillion cubic feet) at the end of February, compared with 60 billion cubic metres (2.19 trillion cubic feet) last year and 77 billion cubic metres (2.72 trillion cubic feet) in 2024. Any disruption to storage refilling could complicate supply planning and increase industrial energy costs across Europe, Tagliapietra wrote in ...
As judges in The Hague consider whether former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte ’s crimes against humanity case should proceed to trial, a parallel battle over the narrative has taken hold online. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have accused Duterte of overseeing a campaign of extrajudicial killings linked to his signature “war on drugs”. Rights groups say the campaign le...
As judges in The Hague consider whether former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte ’s crimes against humanity case should proceed to trial, a parallel battle over the narrative has taken hold online. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have accused Duterte of overseeing a campaign of extrajudicial killings linked to his signature “war on drugs”. Rights groups say the campaign left thousands dead during his 2016-2022 presidency, allegations he has repeatedly denied. Analysts warn that a coordinated network of supporters is working to reshape public perception and portray Duterte as a victim. Over the past 10 days, that effort has crystallised around three strands: undermining the ICC itself, targeting victims and witnesses, and normalising mockery of the dead. Images of victims of alleged extrajudicial killings during the term of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte are laid out during a rally in Quezon City in November 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE Delegitimising the court The most dramatic allegation surfaced on February 24, when 18 men presenting themselves as former Philippine Marines held a press conference alleging that from 2022 to 2025 they had delivered suitcases, boxes and bags filled with cash – amounting to 805 billion pesos (US$13.8 billion) – to President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr , his cousin Martin Romualdez and other politicians. Advertisement In an affidavit, the men alleged the money, which they said came from government flood-control projects, had also been used to bribe ICC investigators. The Philippine Navy later said four of the 18 had never been members of the Marines or Navy, while most of the remaining signatories had been dishonourably discharged. Advertisement One politician named in the affidavit, Representative Leila de Lima, questioned how she could have received the alleged cash when she had not yet been elected to office and was, at the time, in solitary confinement over drug-trafficking charges she has previously describe...
A young Chinese man who offered cat-feeding services during the Chinese New Year reported earning 160,000 yuan (US$23,000) over the holiday. The sizeable earnings generated by the feline feeding enterprise have highlighted that there is significant demand for such services. Huan Cong, born in 1991, and based in Shanghai, is a professional in the pet-care industry who has specialised in door-to-doo...
A young Chinese man who offered cat-feeding services during the Chinese New Year reported earning 160,000 yuan (US$23,000) over the holiday. The sizeable earnings generated by the feline feeding enterprise have highlighted that there is significant demand for such services. Huan Cong, born in 1991, and based in Shanghai, is a professional in the pet-care industry who has specialised in door-to-door cat feeding services for nine years. Huan Cong with just two of the many cats he has looked after during the holiday period. Photo: Baidu During this year’s Spring Festival, he and four employees stayed in Shanghai, caring for pets whose owners had travelled away for the holiday. Advertisement Over a period of more than 20 days before and after the festival, his team completed around 2,000 home-visit cat-feeding orders, with Huan himself handling about 1,000 of them. More than 80 per cent of orders came from clients returning to their hometowns, while about 10 per cent came from people travelling during off-peak periods. Many customers use his services year after year. Advertisement During the holiday season he leaves home at 3am each day and works until 10 or even 11pm, averaging only three to four hours of sleep.
Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images The 10-year US Treasury yield spiked by 14 basis points to 4.066% at the moment, from 3.925% in overnight trading amid massive volatility. It thereby backtracked on more than the entire plunge from 4.05% early Thursday to 3.95% at the close on Friday, despite a hot PPI reading Friday morning, to below 3.93% in overnight trading on Sunday, amid massive but sh...
Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images The 10-year US Treasury yield spiked by 14 basis points to 4.066% at the moment, from 3.925% in overnight trading amid massive volatility. It thereby backtracked on more than the entire plunge from 4.05% early Thursday to 3.95% at the close on Friday, despite a hot PPI reading Friday morning, to below 3.93% in overnight trading on Sunday, amid massive but short-lived demand, after the US and Israel had started bombing Iran over the weekend (hourly chart via Investing.com). Market memes flipflopped vigorously from searching for a haven, as stocks were getting rattled, and damn the inflation torpedoes that the hot services PPI on Friday warned about , and searching for more haven after the Iran bombing had started, to suddenly worrying about these damned inflation torpedoes all over again that could be made worse by the consequences of the Iran war on energy prices? Rising yields means falling bond prices; falling yields means rising bond prices. That may not be a big deal for regular bond holders, especially those intending to hold to maturity, when they get paid face value. But much of the Treasury market is tangled up in highly leveraged complex trades, and those sudden moves make substantial ripples. Markets do what they do because they do it. Why exactly they ignored the hot PPI inflation reading on Friday and went all in on the haven trade, then flipflopped like this today on the haven trade and refocused on inflation, or whatever, remains a subject of speculation. One thing is for sure: at these below 4% 10-year Treasury yields, demand vanished, and yields are having to move higher today to find buyers. And they could of course re-flipflop for whatever reason. But these still very low yields – amid rising inflation and massive supply issues facing the Treasury market – are mightily unappetizing to this bond investor. And look what that did to mortgage rates today: The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate spiked by 13 basis...
Flink SE raised funds in a round that values the firm at $900 million, in a sign that the grocery delivery startup has stabilized after a plunge in its valuation from a pandemic-era peak. The Prosus NV -led $100 million round included existing investors and new investor Btomorrow Ventures , the venture wing of British American Tobacco Plc , Flink said in a statement Tuesday. Its valuation has incr...
Flink SE raised funds in a round that values the firm at $900 million, in a sign that the grocery delivery startup has stabilized after a plunge in its valuation from a pandemic-era peak. The Prosus NV -led $100 million round included existing investors and new investor Btomorrow Ventures , the venture wing of British American Tobacco Plc , Flink said in a statement Tuesday. Its valuation has increased to $900 million, a person familiar said, asking to not be identified since the matter is not public. Flink has outstanding convertible loans that don’t define the company’s value but at points last year would have converted to equity at an overall valuation of $500 million, the person said. In 2024, the company raised money in a round that valued it at just below $1 billion, about a third less than in 2021. Quick commerce startups such as Flink, Getir and Gorillas expanded rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic as they pitched a vision of food deliveries in as little as 10 minutes. Billions of dollars of venture capital unlocked by low interest rates fueled these businesses, allowing their losses to spiral. Changing customer habits after lockdowns eased led to industrywide consolidation and a focus on profitability. Flink lost €515 million ($603 million) in 2022 and €213 million in 2023, according to the latest available filing in Germany’s corporate registry. Gorillas was bought by Turkey’s Getir, which later withdrew from international markets. Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to buy Getir’s remaining delivery portfolio in September. Others, like GoPuff in the US and Zapp in the UK, also cut staff and retreated from markets. Flink plans to use the new funds for “selective expansion” in Germany and the Netherlands, the two markets where it operates, Chief Executive Officer Julian Dames said in an interview, adding that the round should take the company to profitability. As part of the push to become profitable, Dames said he set a minimum order, which helped raise the ave...
vzphotos U.S. officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia Corp. ( NVDA ). can export to any one Chinese company, which would further constrain the chipmaker’s reentry into a crucial market. The Trump administration has talked about limiting Chinese firms to buying 75,000 of Nvidia’s H200 chips each, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News . Shipments of Advan...
vzphotos U.S. officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia Corp. ( NVDA ). can export to any one Chinese company, which would further constrain the chipmaker’s reentry into a crucial market. The Trump administration has talked about limiting Chinese firms to buying 75,000 of Nvidia’s H200 chips each, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News . Shipments of Advanced Micro Devices’ ( AMD ) MI325 chips, which have similar capabilities, would also count toward a customer’s cap, the report said. These accelerators — a prized commodity in the tech world — are used to develop and run artificial intelligence models. The Trump administration approved the sale of limited numbers of Nvidia H200 chips to China earlier this year. Sales have reportedly been stalled in part by the Chinese government, which has been mulling placing certain restrictions on their importation as part of a broader effort to encourage local companies to buy domestically. More on Nvidia Nvidia Just Exposed How Weak The AI Trade Sentiment Is (Downgrade) Nvidia: AI Fears Trigger Deep Value Buy Opportunity, Despite Competition Risks Nvidia: The Panic Buying Opportunity That I've Been Waiting Nvidia-backed Reflection AI in talks for $20B funding, FT reports Nvidia, telecom firms vow to build 6G on open, AI-native platforms
vzphotos U.S. officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia Corp. ( NVDA ) can export to any one Chinese company, which would further constrain the chipmaker’s reentry into a crucial market. The Trump administration has talked about limiting Chinese firms to buying 75,000 of Nvidia’s H200 chips each, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News . Shipments of Advanc...
vzphotos U.S. officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia Corp. ( NVDA ) can export to any one Chinese company, which would further constrain the chipmaker’s reentry into a crucial market. The Trump administration has talked about limiting Chinese firms to buying 75,000 of Nvidia’s H200 chips each, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News . Shipments of Advanced Micro Devices’ ( AMD ) MI325 chips, which have similar capabilities, would also count toward a customer’s cap, the report said. These accelerators — a prized commodity in the tech world — are used to develop and run artificial intelligence models. The Trump administration approved the sale of limited numbers of Nvidia H200 chips to China earlier this year. Sales have reportedly been stalled in part by the Chinese government, which has been mulling placing certain restrictions on their importation as part of a broader effort to encourage local companies to buy domestically. More on Nvidia Nvidia Just Exposed How Weak The AI Trade Sentiment Is (Downgrade) Nvidia: AI Fears Trigger Deep Value Buy Opportunity, Despite Competition Risks Nvidia: The Panic Buying Opportunity That I've Been Waiting Nvidia-backed Reflection AI in talks for $20B funding, FT reports Nvidia, telecom firms vow to build 6G on open, AI-native platforms
Two drones struck near the US Embassy in Riyadh, prompting President Donald Trump to vow retaliation, saying "you'll find out soon" what form that would take. Bloomberg's Stuart Livingstone-Wallace shares what we know on Horizons Middle East and Africa. (Source: Bloomberg)
Two drones struck near the US Embassy in Riyadh, prompting President Donald Trump to vow retaliation, saying "you'll find out soon" what form that would take. Bloomberg's Stuart Livingstone-Wallace shares what we know on Horizons Middle East and Africa. (Source: Bloomberg)
Got story updates? Submit your updates here. › New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 3.1% in the third quarter of 2025, according to a recent SEC filing. The hedge fund now owns 81,027 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock, worth approximately $13.6 million at the end of the reporting period. Why it matters Micron Technology is a maj...
Got story updates? Submit your updates here. › New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its position in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) by 3.1% in the third quarter of 2025, according to a recent SEC filing. The hedge fund now owns 81,027 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer's stock, worth approximately $13.6 million at the end of the reporting period. Why it matters Micron Technology is a major player in the global semiconductor industry, producing memory and storage solutions used in a wide range of computing and electronic devices. Increased investment from institutional investors like New Age Alpha Advisors signals confidence in the company's long-term growth prospects. The details New Age Alpha Advisors purchased an additional 2,431 shares of Micron Technology during the third quarter, bringing its total stake to 81,027 shares. This represents approximately 0.6% of the hedge fund's overall portfolio. Micron Technology's stock has seen strong performance in recent quarters, driven by robust demand for its products in data centers, cloud infrastructure, and other key end markets. New Age Alpha Advisors increased its Micron Technology position in Q3 2025. The players New Age Alpha Advisors LLC A hedge fund that has increased its investment in Micron Technology, a global semiconductor manufacturer. Micron Technology, Inc. A global semiconductor company that designs and manufactures memory and storage solutions for a wide range of computing and electronic devices. Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›
Bet_Noire/iStock via Getty Images The S&P 500 opened down more than 1% to start the week after the US attacked Iran over the weekend, but the index closed slightly positive by day's end. Earlier this week, we published a write-up highlighting the recent outperformance of international equities versus the US, but that script was flipped on its head today. As shown below, key international equity ET...
Bet_Noire/iStock via Getty Images The S&P 500 opened down more than 1% to start the week after the US attacked Iran over the weekend, but the index closed slightly positive by day's end. Earlier this week, we published a write-up highlighting the recent outperformance of international equities versus the US, but that script was flipped on its head today. As shown below, key international equity ETFs like CWI (all world ex. US), EEM (emerging markets), VPL (Pacific region), and FEZ (Europe) were solidly green through February, but they fell sharply today. China ( MCHI ) also fell nearly 1% today, while the US ( SPY ) posted a small gain of 0.05%. The reason for today's global equity divergence was a spike in energy prices due to the attack on Iran. With oil and natural gas prices spiking, countries that rely on energy imports got hit hard, while the US - which is energy independent - held strong. As shown below, oil prices spiked into the mid-$70s at the highs on Monday before pulling back to close just below $72. It was a fresh six-month high for crude. Even after Monday's spike, though, oil prices remain stuck in a downtrend dating back to 2022 highs: Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.