Key Points RSPS charges a lower expense ratio and has gathered more assets under management than FTXG. FTXG offers a slightly higher dividend yield but has lagged RSPS on one-year and five-year returns. FTXG includes a small allocation to basic materials and industrials, while RSPS is strictly consumer staples. 10 stocks we like better than First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI - First Trust Nasdaq ...
Key Points RSPS charges a lower expense ratio and has gathered more assets under management than FTXG. FTXG offers a slightly higher dividend yield but has lagged RSPS on one-year and five-year returns. FTXG includes a small allocation to basic materials and industrials, while RSPS is strictly consumer staples. 10 stocks we like better than First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI - First Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF › The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples ETF (NYSEMKT:RSPS) and the First Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF(NASDAQ:FTXG) differ most in cost, portfolio focus, and recent performance -- with RSPS charging lower fees, maintaining a tighter sector tilt, and outpacing FTXG over the past year. Both RSPS and FTXG target the U.S. consumer staples space, but with distinct approaches. RSPS takes an equal-weighted slice of the S&P 500’s consumer staples sector, while FTXG tracks a smart-beta index focused on food and beverage companies, allowing for a bit more sector variety. Here’s how the two ETFs stack up for investors considering a focused consumer defensive allocation. Snapshot (cost & size) Metric RSPS FTXG Issuer Invesco First Trust Expense ratio 0.40% 0.60% 1-yr return (as of 2026-02-10) 14.5% 9.5% Dividend yield 2.63% 2.75% AUM $249.67 million $17.9 million Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; beta is calculated from five-year weekly returns. The 1-year return represents total return over the trailing 12 months. RSPS is more affordable with a 0.40% expense ratio, compared to FTXG’s 0.60%. FTXG edges out RSPS on dividend yield, but the difference is marginal for income-focused investors. Meanwhile, both funds have below-market betas, with RSPS at 0.61 and FTXG at 0.52. Performance & risk comparison Metric RSPS FTXG Max drawdown (5 year) -18.60% -21.71% Growth of $1,000 over 5 years $1,215 $1,047 What's inside FTXG seeks to mirror the Nasdaq U.S. Smart Food & Beverage Index, resulting in a portfolio that is 91% consumer defensiv...
When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million in 1999, he suddenly had enough cash to buy just about anything. Faced with a choice of buying a house or buying a car, he went with the car. But not just any car, the ultra-rare McLaren F1. A Symbol Of Speed And Vision “19 years ago, when my 1st company got bought, I had to decide between buying a hous...
When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million in 1999, he suddenly had enough cash to buy just about anything. Faced with a choice of buying a house or buying a car, he went with the car. But not just any car, the ultra-rare McLaren F1. A Symbol Of Speed And Vision “19 years ago, when my 1st company got bought, I had to decide between buying a house in Palo Alto or a McLaren F1 (best car ever imo). Was no contest,” Musk tweeted in 2018. “I bought F1 & a small condo that was much cheaper than the car.” Don't Miss: The McLaren, one of the fastest cars in the world at the time, wasn’t just a flashy splurge. It reflected Musk’s obsession with pushing limits on the road, in technology, and in life. He even used the $1 million supercar as his daily driver. “I’ve never raced anyone with McLaren,” Musk told former tech journalist and entrepreneur Sarah Lacy in 2012. “I had it for several years. I put 11,000 miles on it, and I drove it from L.A. to San Francisco. It was my daily driver, which is a crazy car to have as a daily driver, particularly on the 405. “That spirit of boldness caught up with him in 2000. While showing off the F1 to PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) co-founder Peter Thiel, Musk crashed the car in dramatic fashion. It wasn’t insured. The two ended up hitchhiking to their meeting. The McLaren was repaired and later sold, but Musk’s desire to build something faster never faded. The Roadster Connection Fast forward to 2017, and Musk unveiled the next-generation Tesla Roadster, a car designed to beat everything the McLaren F1 represented, only electric. He called it “the fastest production car ever made.” Trending: Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share. But nearly a decade later, it’s still not here. Production has been delayed from 2020 to possibly 2027 or 2028. In early February, Tesla filed two new trademarks: a styl...
When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million in 1999, he suddenly had enough cash to buy just about anything. Faced with a choice of buying a house or buying a car, he went with the car. But not just any car, the ultra-rare McLaren F1. A Symbol Of Speed And Vision “19 years ago, when my 1st company got bought, I had to decide between buying a hous...
When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300 million in 1999, he suddenly had enough cash to buy just about anything. Faced with a choice of buying a house or buying a car, he went with the car. But not just any car, the ultra-rare McLaren F1. A Symbol Of Speed And Vision “19 years ago, when my 1st company got bought, I had to decide between buying a house in Palo Alto or a McLaren F1 (best car ever imo). Was no contest,” Musk tweeted in 2018. “I bought F1 & a small condo that was much cheaper than the car.” Don't Miss: The McLaren, one of the fastest cars in the world at the time, wasn’t just a flashy splurge. It reflected Musk’s obsession with pushing limits on the road, in technology, and in life. He even used the $1 million supercar as his daily driver. “I’ve never raced anyone with McLaren,” Musk told former tech journalist and entrepreneur Sarah Lacy in 2012. “I had it for several years. I put 11,000 miles on it, and I drove it from L.A. to San Francisco. It was my daily driver, which is a crazy car to have as a daily driver, particularly on the 405. The Roadster Connection Fast forward to 2017, and Musk unveiled the next-generation Tesla Roadster, a car designed to beat everything the McLaren F1 represented, only electric. He called it “the fastest production car ever made.” Trending: Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share. Musk, known for setting ambitious timelines, once again offered a hedged update. Tesla is planning a demo for April 1. “I have some deniability cause like, I could say I was just kidding,” he said at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in November. See Also: Why Billionaires Like Warren Buffett Prefer Real Assets Over Speculation—Institutional Real Estate Is Now Accessible to Individuals A Decade-Long Promise Even die-hard Tesla fans are skeptical at this point. The original unveiling in 2017, alo...
The Bank of Canada ’s governing council says recent US actions on trade, foreign policy and central bank independence are making the world “more turbulent” and escalating uncertainty. In January, the bank held interest rates at 2.25% for a second consecutive meeting, citing mounting unpredictability as the main reason policymakers aren’t sure whether the next policy move will be a hike or a cut. “...
The Bank of Canada ’s governing council says recent US actions on trade, foreign policy and central bank independence are making the world “more turbulent” and escalating uncertainty. In January, the bank held interest rates at 2.25% for a second consecutive meeting, citing mounting unpredictability as the main reason policymakers aren’t sure whether the next policy move will be a hike or a cut. “In the context of an unpredictable environment with little historical precedent, it was unusually difficult to effectively assign weights and probabilities to the various risks surrounding the outlook,” the bank said in a summary of deliberations released Wednesday, reiterating “it was difficult to predict the timing and direction of the next change in the policy rate.” Governing council squarely pointed to Canada’s southern neighbor as the most acute source of volatility — though it stopped short of mentioning US President Donald Trump by name. The council listed examples of the Trump administration’s international and trade policy as sources of unrest. For the first time, the deliberations of the central bank also included discussion of the president’s attacks on the Federal Reserve . “Recent geopolitical events — including in Venezuela, Iran and Greenland — and threats to the independence of the Federal Reserve had made the world more turbulent,” the bank said. “US trade policy, increasingly used for geopolitical aims rather than economic ones, had become more unpredictable.” In recent weeks, the bank has become more outspoken in its commentary on US government actions. Governor Tiff Macklem was among the first major central bankers to offer his support to Jerome Powell , after the Fed chair warned that a US Department of Justice investigation threatened the independence of the institution. Speaking to reporters in January, Macklem made some of his most definitive comments yet on the global economic consequences of Trump’s tariff policy, saying the era of rules-based fre...
SoundHound AI is the cheapest it has been in some time. SoundHound AI (SOUN 6.67%) isn't in a great place right now. The stock is down around 65% from its all-time high established in December 2024, and it has been on a massive downhill slide as of late. The stock looked like it was heading toward a new high in October when it crossed $20 per share, but now it trades for just a bit over $8. That's...
SoundHound AI is the cheapest it has been in some time. SoundHound AI (SOUN 6.67%) isn't in a great place right now. The stock is down around 65% from its all-time high established in December 2024, and it has been on a massive downhill slide as of late. The stock looked like it was heading toward a new high in October when it crossed $20 per share, but now it trades for just a bit over $8. That's quite a bit of movement in a short time frame for SoundHound's stock, and some may think this justifies picking up shares, as the last time SoundHound AI was this cheap was around the market lows experienced in April 2024 after President Donald Trump's tariff announcements. Market sentiment is much more positive now, so SoundHound AI's stock price should be higher. But is there more to the story? It's a long way away from breaking even SoundHound AI is a rare instance of a pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) stock available in today's market. The use case for SoundHound AI's software is simple: It combines generative AI and audio recognition technology. There are countless ways that can be implemented, but some of the initial industries it was launched in were restaurant and automobile digital assistants. Those are two important use cases, but they are far from its largest. The biggest area by far would be if SoundHound AI's product can make its way into customer service applications, and it is already seeing some adoption for this role in the financial, insurance, and healthcare industries. Expand NASDAQ : SOUN SoundHound AI Today's Change ( -6.67 %) $ -0.55 Current Price $ 7.70 Key Data Points Market Cap $3.5B Day's Range $ 7.58 - $ 8.40 52wk Range $ 6.52 - $ 22.17 Volume 461K Avg Vol 26M Gross Margin 30.02 % However, investors are unimpressed by SoundHound AI's losses. The market understands that young companies need to operate unprofitably to capture as much market share as possible. But there's a limit to how unprofitable a company can be before the stock is met wi...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Feb. 11, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Dikla Czaczkes Akselbrad Chief Financial Officer — Jonny Missulawin Chief Operating Officer, U.S. — Ori Warshavsky Investor Relations — Yehuda Leibler Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Phase III SHIELD II Trial Completion -- SHIELD II successfully comple...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Feb. 11, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Dikla Czaczkes Akselbrad Chief Financial Officer — Jonny Missulawin Chief Operating Officer, U.S. — Ori Warshavsky Investor Relations — Yehuda Leibler Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Phase III SHIELD II Trial Completion -- SHIELD II successfully completed, with D-PLEX100 meeting all primary and key secondary endpoints and delivering a meaningful reduction in surgical site infection. -- SHIELD II successfully completed, with D-PLEX100 meeting all primary and key secondary endpoints and delivering a meaningful reduction in surgical site infection. Regulatory Milestone -- FDA provided written support for a rolling NDA review for D-PLEX100; company expects to begin the rolling submission by the end of the first quarter. -- FDA provided written support for a rolling NDA review for D-PLEX100; company expects to begin the rolling submission by the end of the first quarter. Clinical Data Sufficiency -- FDA agreed that the existing clinical package, including Phase III SHIELD II data, is adequate to support the NDA submission and review. -- FDA agreed that the existing clinical package, including Phase III SHIELD II data, is adequate to support the NDA submission and review. Partnership Discussions -- U.S. partnership negotiations progressed to advanced, detailed, and operational stages during the quarter, reflecting market recognition and commercial readiness. -- U.S. partnership negotiations progressed to advanced, detailed, and operational stages during the quarter, reflecting market recognition and commercial readiness. Brand Evolution and Technology Introduction -- Corporate brand was updated, and Kynatrix was formally introduced as next-generation technology with expanded drug delivery capabilities. -- Corporate brand was updated, and Kynatrix was formally introduced as next-generation technology with expanded drug delivery...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images The First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF ( RDVY ) has a promising quality and pro-growth tilted dividend focus. But a deeper look at its methodology and performance data shows a lack of yield spark or consistent yield growth. It does not add defensive value to a 2026 portfolio. It is also unlikely to outperform SPY or other broader growth ETFs (lik...
Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images The First Trust Rising Dividend Achievers ETF ( RDVY ) has a promising quality and pro-growth tilted dividend focus. But a deeper look at its methodology and performance data shows a lack of yield spark or consistent yield growth. It does not add defensive value to a 2026 portfolio. It is also unlikely to outperform SPY or other broader growth ETFs (like QQQ). Methodology Implications RDVY tracks the Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index. The first quality filters for selection in RDVY are stocks with dividends higher than levels seen three and five years ago (dividend growth), an EPS that is higher than that reported three years ago (earnings trend improvement), a cash-to-debt ratio of above 50% (strong balance sheet), and a payout ratio below 65% (dividend sustainability). In other words, RDVY focuses on quality dividend growth, not just high yield. The selection is based on a combined score that looks at dividend growth, current yields, and payout ratio. There are four sub-portfolios - each comprising up to 50 stocks (at least 33 large caps) and a maximum of 15 stocks per industry. That imparts a primarily large-cap tilt to the portfolio, while rules also ensure sector diversification. Additionally, RDVY implements a refresh for 25% of the portfolio at a time, every quarter - each of the four sub-portfolios has a different reshuffle date (one every quarter) and an annual holding period guaranteed. That is patient investing, with staggered reshuffles every quarter for minimal but reactive changes. Stocks within each sub-portfolio are equally weighted, although some stocks may appear in multiple sub-portfolios, and hence their weights add up. This ensures that stocks screening as quality dividend growers show up in higher weight at the portfolio level, while ones that do not qualify in the next quarters are quietly phased out over a year (lowering weights over each quarterly refresh). That's a great way to smoothen p...
Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, attends the Milken Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2025. Mike Blake | Reuters Bill Ackman's Pershing Square revealed a stake in Meta on Wednesday. "We believe Meta's current share price underappreciates the company's long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one ...
Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, attends the Milken Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2025. Mike Blake | Reuters Bill Ackman's Pershing Square revealed a stake in Meta on Wednesday. "We believe Meta's current share price underappreciates the company's long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one of the world's greatest businesses," stated the fund's annual investor presentation. Meta shares are off by 16% over the last 12 months on fears it is spending too much on artificial intelligence. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Justin Paget/DigitalVision via Getty Images Delayed due to the partial government shutdown, but now released, the January Jobs Report from the BLS delivered good news, with the unemployment rate falling again, now down to 4.3%. This is still elevated but trending in the right direction. This headline U-3 figure came in under expectations, which sat at 4.4%. BLS Headline Beats on Jobs The actual jo...
Justin Paget/DigitalVision via Getty Images Delayed due to the partial government shutdown, but now released, the January Jobs Report from the BLS delivered good news, with the unemployment rate falling again, now down to 4.3%. This is still elevated but trending in the right direction. This headline U-3 figure came in under expectations, which sat at 4.4%. BLS Headline Beats on Jobs The actual jobs report came in way hotter than expected, a good thing, at 135K jobs added over the expected 65K. This continued an upward trend from the last few months, but ultimately is still dwarfed by the hiring pace from a few years ago. Compared to the whole of 2025, which was a fairly flat year for jobs, with the majority of jobs created being in healthcare, this first report of 2026 was positive. Joseph Politano We even saw an uptick in the prime-age employment rate, one of the metrics I was concerned about last year, as I watched the rate fall and declared that we had an economy not built for the young. We will see if further adjustments occur (revisions last year were particularly bad, but I don't expect them to be as extreme moving forward), but for now, it is a good sign for prime-age employment to be returning to previous levels. Joseph Politano The January BLS Jobs Report Here are the primary survey results, with some annotations in categories I've been watching closely: Annotations by author (BLS) One of the themes of the past year's jobs data is that unemployment had been rising primarily because of reentrants to the job market (one of the reasons why prime-age employment is rising). Workers were being shed out of the employment statistics and into different unemployed categories, like employed part-time for economic reasons. In Jan., we are seeing a drop in reentrants, as that figure is starting to fade, as well as a drop in both long-term unemployment (over 27 weeks) and unwilling part-time work. This means that these people, some of the most vulnerable in the unemploy...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) shares surged more than 3% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised its estimates and price target for the memory chip maker, citing persistent supply shortages. Analyst Joseph Moore noted that DDR5 pricing has climbed sharply this year, with spot prices up roughly 130% from January contracts. He expects further increases as s...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) shares surged more than 3% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised its estimates and price target for the memory chip maker, citing persistent supply shortages. Analyst Joseph Moore noted that DDR5 pricing has climbed sharply this year, with spot prices up roughly 130% from January contracts. He expects further increases as supply growth remains constrained in 2026, potentially pushing mainstream prices higher. Moore reiterated an Overweight rating on Micron and lifted the price target to $450 from $350, projecting earnings of up to $52 per share in 2026. He highlighted high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as a critical growth driver, particularly amid continued demand from Nvidia (NVDA) for AI-related applications. Micron confirmed at an investor conference that high-bandwidth memory production is on track, with HBM4 shipments already underway. The company said 2026 HBM supply is sold out and yields are meeting expectations, countering some recent market speculation.