Are you a subscriber to Anthropic's Claude Pro ($20 monthly) or Max ($100-$200 monthly) plans and use its Claude AI models and products to power third-party AI agents like OpenClaw ? If so, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Anthropic announced a few hours ago that starting tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, 2026, at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET, it will no longer be possible for those Claude subscribers to use ...
Are you a subscriber to Anthropic's Claude Pro ($20 monthly) or Max ($100-$200 monthly) plans and use its Claude AI models and products to power third-party AI agents like OpenClaw ? If so, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Anthropic announced a few hours ago that starting tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, 2026, at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET, it will no longer be possible for those Claude subscribers to use their subscriptions to hook Anthropic's Claude models up to third-party agentic tools, citing the strain such usage was placing on Anthropic's compute and engineering resources, and desire to serve a wide number of users reliably. "We’ve been working hard to meet the increase in demand for Claude, and our subscriptions weren't built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools," wrote Boris Cherny, Head of Claude Code at Anthropic, in a post on X . "Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully and we are prioritizing our customers using our products and API." The company also reportedly sent out an email to this effect to some subscribers. However, it's not certain if subscribers to Claude Team and Enterprise will be impacted similarly. We've reached out to Anthropic for further clarification and will update when we hear back. To be clear, it will still be possible to use Claude models like Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku to power OpenClaw and similar external agents, but users will now need to opt into a pay-as-you-go "extra usage" billing system or utilize Anthropic's application programming interface (API), which charges for every token of usage rather than allowing for open-ended usage up to certain limits, as the Pro and Max plans have allowed so far. The reason for the change: 'third party services are not optimized' The technical reality, according to Anthropic, is that its first-party tools like Claude Code, its AI vibe coding harness, and Claude Cowork, its business app interfacing and control tool, are built to maximize "prompt cache hit rates"—reusing previously pr...
Getty Images Lately, I have been getting more and more into the for-profit education space. This is a bit odd to me because it's an industry I frankly don't like. It's not that I don't like the economics of it. Rather, I don't like the incentive structure. I don't think that education should be a for-profit endeavor. But regardless, it doesn't matter what I think. What matters is what is fundament...
Getty Images Lately, I have been getting more and more into the for-profit education space. This is a bit odd to me because it's an industry I frankly don't like. It's not that I don't like the economics of it. Rather, I don't like the incentive structure. I don't think that education should be a for-profit endeavor. But regardless, it doesn't matter what I think. What matters is what is fundamentally attractive for investors. And perhaps the best for-profit education firm that I have come across since digging into this industry is Phoenix Education Partners ( PXED ). With a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, it's not exactly a large enterprise. However, management has been growing the business rapidly in recent years. Add on top of this just how cheap shares are, and I see no reason to be anything other than incredibly bullish. Soon, investors will have more data that will hopefully show continued growth for the company. On April 7th, management is expected to announce financial results for the second quarter of the company's 2026 fiscal year. Because of when the company became publicly traded, we don't really have concrete data to compare it to for the previous year. But on the whole, the expectation for financial performance looks healthy. Unless something big and unexpected happens that negatively affects the picture for the business, I believe that assigning it a ‘strong buy’ rating is the appropriate course of action here. Time to learn about Phoenix Education Partners If you have not heard about Phoenix Education Partners before, you almost certainly have heard about its hallmark business known as The University of Phoenix. That institution was founded back in 1976 and has been continuously accredited since 1978. Unlike traditional educational institutions, The University of Phoenix is a for-profit endeavor that offers its students a wide array of educational experiences. Management claims that, in the five years of its operations ending in August of las...
A Workers’ Party disciplinary panel looking into secretary general Pritam Singh’s conduct has completed its investigation into whether the chief had contravened the party’s constitution, after his court conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. “The panel will present its finalised report and recommendations to the Central Executive Committee in April,” Singapore’s opposition p...
A Workers’ Party disciplinary panel looking into secretary general Pritam Singh’s conduct has completed its investigation into whether the chief had contravened the party’s constitution, after his court conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. “The panel will present its finalised report and recommendations to the Central Executive Committee in April,” Singapore’s opposition party said in a statement on Saturday. “The Notice of the Special Cadre Members’ Conference will be...
Maximusnd/iStock via Getty Images By Christopher Puplava As we close the quarter, geopolitical risk has moved to the forefront of global markets. What began as targeted military strikes on weapons and launch facilities has escalated into direct attacks on energy infrastructure - not only in Iran, but across key parts of the Middle East. That shift materially changes the macro landscape. Markets ar...
Maximusnd/iStock via Getty Images By Christopher Puplava As we close the quarter, geopolitical risk has moved to the forefront of global markets. What began as targeted military strikes on weapons and launch facilities has escalated into direct attacks on energy infrastructure - not only in Iran, but across key parts of the Middle East. That shift materially changes the macro landscape. Markets are not just reacting to conflict - they are reacting to the growing probability of sustained supply disruptions. The difference matters. Energy Infrastructure Now at the Center Energy assets are no longer peripheral to the conflict - they are central targets. Damage to oil production, refining capacity, LNG facilities, and export terminals has meaningful consequences that cannot be reversed overnight. Even in a best-case scenario involving an immediate ceasefire and end to hostilities, rebuilding energy infrastructure takes months, not weeks. That reality suggests oil and natural gas prices are likely to remain elevated above pre-war levels. It is also important to remember that the Strait of Hormuz is not simply the world's most important oil chokepoint. In addition to carrying roughly 20% of global oil supply and 20% of global LNG trade, it is also a vital corridor for nearly 10% of the world’s primary aluminum output, roughly one-third of global seaborne fertilizer shipments, and a range of petrochemicals, sulfur, methanol, and other essential industrial inputs. A prolonged disruption would likely trigger sharp increases not only in energy prices, but in food and industrial input costs as well, while raising the risk of shortages across metals and chemicals and further straining global transportation, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing supply chains. Equity Markets: A Benign Decline - So Far The S&P 500 has broken below its 200-day moving average. So far, the decline has been relatively orderly and, in my view, benign. That may sound reassuring - but it actually...
Fly View Productions/iStock via Getty Images This analysis serves as an update to my coverage of Citizens & Northern Corporation ( CZNC ) that was published last December . The bank holding company that operates in the states of Pennsylvania and New York was able to complete its first full quarter following the acquisition of Susquehanna Community Financial at the end of 2025. The deal was one of ...
Fly View Productions/iStock via Getty Images This analysis serves as an update to my coverage of Citizens & Northern Corporation ( CZNC ) that was published last December . The bank holding company that operates in the states of Pennsylvania and New York was able to complete its first full quarter following the acquisition of Susquehanna Community Financial at the end of 2025. The deal was one of the smaller community bank deals from last year, with a total value just north of $44 million. However, CZNC is not exactly a banking giant itself, with a market cap of just $400 million. I decided to revisit the company to see what, if any, impact the newly acquired assets had on the financial results from Citizens & Northern. I also wanted to see what, if any, projections could be made for the company’s first earnings report from 2026 that is due at the end of this month. In my previous analyses, I have rated CZNC as a Hold, and the stock has exceeded my expectations with double-digit gains over the last seven months. However, the environment for all regional banks has become more challenging in recent weeks with energy prices rising and the odds of a Fed rate cut seemingly getting smaller every day. Compared to other regional banks that I have written about on this site, I still do not see a compelling reason to raise CZNC to a Buy at this time. Performance metrics for the company are improving but still below average. The company's asset quality has dipped slightly since my last article was published. The sizeable dividend may be the best reason to hold Citizens & Northern in the first half of 2026. Company Overview Citizens & Northern Corporation is the holding company for Citizens & Northern Bank, which provides traditional banking services for both consumer and commercial clients. The bank also offers investment products, insurance sales, and wealth management services through three smaller subsidiaries. All told, CZNC operates 35 banking and loan production offices,...
William_Potter/iStock via Getty Images Shares of KKR ( KKR ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about a quarter of their value and currently sitting near a 52-week low. The alternative asset management sector has been battered by fears swirling around private credit, amid reports of challenged loans in the software sector, elevated client fund redemption requests, and several la...
William_Potter/iStock via Getty Images Shares of KKR ( KKR ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about a quarter of their value and currently sitting near a 52-week low. The alternative asset management sector has been battered by fears swirling around private credit, amid reports of challenged loans in the software sector, elevated client fund redemption requests, and several large losses over the past year. Frankly, I think the market has overreacted in this case, given how KKR makes money, and there have been some recent developments that are more encouraging. Now, I last covered shares in February when I upgraded KKR to a “strong buy,” but that call has been premature with the stock down 8% since then. With private credit fears still raging, now is a good time to revisit KKR to see if shares can regain momentum or are likely to face more pressure. Seeking Alpha Redemption Requests Have Caused Fear Now, it is important to distinguish the impact of problems in private credit for asset managers vs. their end investors. KKR makes money by earning a fee on its AUM. Whether private credit does well or does poorly, it still collects that management fee. As a result, fund flows matter more than asset class performance. Of course, to an extent, there is second-round exposure, as fund performance in turn can drive AUM appreciation or depreciation, which in turn drives variances in fee revenue. However, it is not like KKR makes money by taking levered positions on private credit, leaving it exposed to large losses if there is a problem. This is why, in general, I think investors have overreacted to some of the stresses in private credit when it comes to punishing asset manager shares. My primary concern is less about private credit performance and more about fund flows (though, of course, flows will be somewhat correlated with performance). Now, every time a fund gates outflows, we see many headlines. Blue Owl ( OWL ) has been forced to , KKR has limited ...