skynesher/E+ via Getty Images Investing Thesis A little over a year ago, I wrote an article on W.W. Grainger ( GWW ) for Seeking Alpha in which I sought to evaluate whether or not I should add shares of the company to my portfolio after having monitored it for the past several years. While I ultimately concluded that W.W. Grainger is a strong addition to many portfolios, "there [was] enough uncert...
skynesher/E+ via Getty Images Investing Thesis A little over a year ago, I wrote an article on W.W. Grainger ( GWW ) for Seeking Alpha in which I sought to evaluate whether or not I should add shares of the company to my portfolio after having monitored it for the past several years. While I ultimately concluded that W.W. Grainger is a strong addition to many portfolios, "there [was] enough uncertainty surrounding the company to keep me on the sidelines" last March. While I have remained on the outside looking in, however, W.W. Grainger's share price has climbed from roughly $980 at the time of my last article's publication to just over $1170 as of April 9, 2026. Despite retreating a little bit from an all-time high that crossed $1202 per share in February, W.W. Grainger's share price is still a solid 20% higher today than it was one year ago. Furthermore, the company hiked its quarterly dividend from $2.05 per share to $2.26 last May and looks poised to hike it for a 55th consecutive year in a few weeks. Thus, I have to ask myself, "Did I miss the boat?" In today's updated article, I will revisit W.W. Grainger and determine if now might be the right time to finally purchase some shares in the company. Macroeconomic Factors One of my primary concerns when evaluating W.W. Grainger last year was how U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies would "likely make it more expensive for Grainger to procure essential materials for its business" since so much of the company's business relies upon international suppliers . Indeed, Grainger did encounter challenges presented by the new tariffs, but sought to take a "proactive" approach to mitigating tariff-related expenses . By leveraging the company's massive purchasing scale to renegotiate contracts with key suppliers, actively working to diversify sources, and implementing a series of "targeted price adjustments " powered by AI and machine learning , Grainger effectively passed tariff costs to customers while stabilizing...
Investing.com -- Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the U.S. labor market at a rapid clip, though early data suggests the transition is more balanced than many bearish forecasts originally assumed.
Investing.com -- Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the U.S. labor market at a rapid clip, though early data suggests the transition is more balanced than many bearish forecasts originally assumed.
⚽️ News, discussion and buildup before weekend’s action ⚽️ Today’s matches | Tables | And you can also mail us here Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against mid-table Girona in La Liga, extending the hosts’ winless run to three games in all competitions and giving leaders Barcelona the chance to stretch their advantage at the top. Federico Valverde put Madrid ahead six minutes after half-t...
⚽️ News, discussion and buildup before weekend’s action ⚽️ Today’s matches | Tables | And you can also mail us here Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against mid-table Girona in La Liga, extending the hosts’ winless run to three games in all competitions and giving leaders Barcelona the chance to stretch their advantage at the top. Federico Valverde put Madrid ahead six minutes after half-time but Girona levelled in the 62nd minute through Thomas Lemar. Álvaro Arbeloa’s side are six points behind with league leaders Barça, who have a game in hand against Espanyol on Saturday and could move nine clear with seven games to play. Continue reading...
The head of a civil service union federation has warned that tighter disciplinary action risks becoming excessive as the government seeks to revise the penalty system to handle underperforming senior civil servants this year. Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, was responding to the Civil Service Bureau’s reply to a lawmaker’s inquiry this week about revising the r...
The head of a civil service union federation has warned that tighter disciplinary action risks becoming excessive as the government seeks to revise the penalty system to handle underperforming senior civil servants this year. Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, was responding to the Civil Service Bureau’s reply to a lawmaker’s inquiry this week about revising the regulations to further optimise the disciplinary mechanism, including tightening rules on withholding...
bymuratdeniz/iStock via Getty Images Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund [CEF] market activity from both the bottom-up - highlighting individual fund news and events - as well as the top-down - providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well as the relevant themes that look to be drivin...
bymuratdeniz/iStock via Getty Images Welcome to another installment of our CEF Market Weekly Review, where we discuss closed-end fund [CEF] market activity from both the bottom-up - highlighting individual fund news and events - as well as the top-down - providing an overview of the broader market. We also try to provide some historical context as well as the relevant themes that look to be driving markets or that investors ought to be mindful of. This update covers the period through the first week of April. Be sure to check out our other weekly updates covering the business development company [BDC] as well as the preferreds/baby bond markets for perspectives across the broader income space. Market Action The CEF market got a bounce this week in anticipation of a winding down of the Iran conflict. The sector price returns were largely a mirror image of the previous few weeks, with MLPs falling and every other sector finishing in the green. Discounts were mostly tighter. Systematic Income CEF discounts reversed their widening and are trading right on top of their historic long-term average. Systematic Income Market Themes Gabelli Equity CEF GAB is undergoing a rights offering. There are a couple of unusual elements in this one. First, it is a 10:1 offering, i.e., 10 rights (each existing share gets one right) can buy a new share. Much more common are 3:1 and 4:1 offerings, which result in significantly more capital raised for the fund. This small capital raise is likely why the fund’s price didn’t react as much to the news as a typical rights offering. A week after the announcement, the discount was only 2% wider. The second unusual element was that the subscription price is fixed. A fixed price makes it very easy to know where the subscription price is and, hence, whether to subscribe or not. Nearly all other rights offerings are a function of the price and the NAV, with discount caps and floors linked to price and NAV. A fixed subscription price creates a challen...
Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, is set to host peace talks today with leaders from Iran and the US, including Vice President J.D. Vance. (Image credit: Anjum Naveed)
Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, is set to host peace talks today with leaders from Iran and the US, including Vice President J.D. Vance. (Image credit: Anjum Naveed)
Midfielder on the prank-fuelled promotion at Bristol Rovers that kickstarted his career, confidence in Nottingham Forest’s survival and modelling for England ‘It was a brand-new car as well,” says Elliot Anderson, grinning as he relives the Gazza-inspired prank that sticks in the memory from his fruitful loan at Bristol Rovers. It is four years since a reserved teenager from Whitley Bay walked int...
Midfielder on the prank-fuelled promotion at Bristol Rovers that kickstarted his career, confidence in Nottingham Forest’s survival and modelling for England ‘It was a brand-new car as well,” says Elliot Anderson, grinning as he relives the Gazza-inspired prank that sticks in the memory from his fruitful loan at Bristol Rovers. It is four years since a reserved teenager from Whitley Bay walked into a dressing room of big personalities after signing on January deadline day and turbocharged the club to promotion. His soaring header was the last and decisive goal in an exhilarating 7-0 win on the final day of the League Two season. A lot has happened in Anderson’s world since that incredible climax, when Rovers pipped Northampton to third on goals scored. At the end of that four months, he was well versed in the culture of capers. Fridays meant forfeits and spinning the “wheel of fortune”. Practical jokes were never in short supply and on one occasion, as when Paul Gascoigne famously haunted Gordon Durie with trout, players planted fish in the boot and on the back seats of a teammate’s car. The analysts used training-ground CCTV to present a “Panorama” investigation and find the culprits. Continue reading...
For the super-rich with cash to burn, all those Rolexes and rare Labubus may not fill the void. But for me, a little goes a long way When wages have stalled for nearly 20 years and I recently came face to face with a tube of toothpaste that was nearly £7 in my local Sainsbury’s, the idea that money can’t buy happiness seems almost offensive. It ultimately comes from a blinkered concept of what mon...
For the super-rich with cash to burn, all those Rolexes and rare Labubus may not fill the void. But for me, a little goes a long way When wages have stalled for nearly 20 years and I recently came face to face with a tube of toothpaste that was nearly £7 in my local Sainsbury’s, the idea that money can’t buy happiness seems almost offensive. It ultimately comes from a blinkered concept of what money can do. Sure, if you only use your money to buy things , the happiness it provides will be shallow and fleeting. Having said that, I refuse to believe there’s a single person out there overpaying on rent who wouldn’t be happier if they owned a house outright. Loosely speaking, yes, Rolexes and rare Labubus have nothing on, say, spending quality time with the people you love. But sadly, the latter costs money, too. Free time is part of a growing number of basic human needs that have become more or less commodified, and under whatever wacky stage of capitalism we’re currently at, more money equals more time to pursue your interests and ultimately find meaning in life. Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva Continue reading...
Could I turn £10 into £1,000? I thought I could but was undone by the harsh reality and lost a little bit of my soul along the way Welcome to How I Beat The Bookies: My Gambling Journey. Yes, my extreme methods can work for you. But only in the usual way. Which is to appear very briefly to work and then not to work at all. First it is necessary to address the latest blow to English football’s othe...
Could I turn £10 into £1,000? I thought I could but was undone by the harsh reality and lost a little bit of my soul along the way Welcome to How I Beat The Bookies: My Gambling Journey. Yes, my extreme methods can work for you. But only in the usual way. Which is to appear very briefly to work and then not to work at all. First it is necessary to address the latest blow to English football’s otherwise watertight economy. People often talk about playing the world’s tiniest violin , a way of expressing sarcastic sympathy for bogus suffering, usually accompanied by a finger-and-thumb gesture that suggests, incorrectly, this is the size of the world’s tiniest violin. Continue reading...
Arslanbek Makhmudov shouldn’t be much of a test but Gypsy King and his battered old rivals are fading away “I’ll make this short and sweet,” Tyson Fury said in a brief video he posted online on 13 January 2025 . “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this: Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. I’ll ...
Arslanbek Makhmudov shouldn’t be much of a test but Gypsy King and his battered old rivals are fading away “I’ll make this short and sweet,” Tyson Fury said in a brief video he posted online on 13 January 2025 . “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this: Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. I’ll see you on the other side.” It was the fifth time Fury had retired from boxing in a professional career that began in December 2008 when he made his debut in Nottingham. So there was little surprise when, less than a year since that latest attempt to walk away from boxing, Fury announced his inevitable return. Four months ago he released a typical Fury message as he hollered: “Return of the Mac. Been away for a while but I’m back now. 37 years old and still punching. Nothing better to do than punch men in the face & get paid for it.” Continue reading...
Asian digital entrepreneurs that once saw Dubai as a safe, well-connected base for global expansion are now reassessing that view after the US-Israel war on Iran exposed vulnerabilities in the city’s appeal as a financial and technology hub. For many investors and founders from India, China and Southeast Asia, the strain is not just about physical security but also about what disruption around the...
Asian digital entrepreneurs that once saw Dubai as a safe, well-connected base for global expansion are now reassessing that view after the US-Israel war on Iran exposed vulnerabilities in the city’s appeal as a financial and technology hub. For many investors and founders from India, China and Southeast Asia, the strain is not just about physical security but also about what disruption around the Strait of Hormuz has revealed about liquidity, credit and market confidence. Dubai has in recent...
Lahiru Lakmal/iStock via Getty Images US managed care insurers saw a notable bump to their stock prices this week following news of higher than anticipated Medicare Advantage rates for 2027. On April 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a net average rate increase of 2.48%, representing more than $13 billion in additional Medicare Advantage payments to plans for calendar ...
Lahiru Lakmal/iStock via Getty Images US managed care insurers saw a notable bump to their stock prices this week following news of higher than anticipated Medicare Advantage rates for 2027. On April 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a net average rate increase of 2.48%, representing more than $13 billion in additional Medicare Advantage payments to plans for calendar year 2027. Since April 2, stock prices for major publicly traded managed care insurers have jumped, with Alignment Healthcare Inc. ( ALHC ) seeing the biggest bump of 14% by close of trading on April 9. Fellow managed care insurers also saw higher stock prices, with UnitedHealth Group Inc. ( UNH ) rising 10.7%, Humana Inc. ( HUM ) climbing 11%, Elevance ( ELV ) with a 5.4% bump, Centene ( CNC ) rising 6.9% and The Cigna Group ( CI ) increasing 3.1%. Of the publicly traded managed care insurers, only insurtech HealthEquity Inc. ( HQY ) saw a modest decline in price during the period, falling just 0.6%. Most managed care insurers outpaced both the S&P 500 and the S&P Insurance Index, which rose 3.7% and 1.9%, respectively, during the period. The higher-than-anticipated Medicare Advantage rates are an indication that CMS is engaging stakeholders, deferring to data and acting rationally, wrote Piper Sandler analyst Jessica Tassan in a research note discussing several managed care insurers, including UnitedHealth and Alignment. "This does not mean boom times for Medicare Advantage, but it does suggest a period of relative stability conducive to strategic planning and execution," Tassan wrote. For several months, managed care insurers have faced the grim prospect of near-flat Medicare Advantage rates following an Advance Notice from CMS in January. Medicare Advantage, which offers seniors expanded versions of government-subsidized health plans through partnerships with private insurers, has been a growing cost area for managed care insurers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Costs asso...