Tanja Ristic/E+ via Getty Images I've written several articles on the VanEck High Yield Muni ETF (BATS: HYD ) in the past. I've been bullish, due to the fund's good tax-advantaged 4.4% dividend yield. HYD has slightly underperformed since the most recent one, due to somewhat above-average losses earlier in the year, due to the ongoing events in the Middle East. At the same time, I've recently beco...
Tanja Ristic/E+ via Getty Images I've written several articles on the VanEck High Yield Muni ETF (BATS: HYD ) in the past. I've been bullish, due to the fund's good tax-advantaged 4.4% dividend yield. HYD has slightly underperformed since the most recent one, due to somewhat above-average losses earlier in the year, due to the ongoing events in the Middle East. At the same time, I've recently become aware of the Franklin Dynamic Municipal Bond ETF ( FLMI ), another muni bond ETF, but one with stronger past performance and higher credit quality, albeit lower 4.0% dividend yield. Overall, HYD seems like a weaker investment than FLMI, so I would not be investing in the former at the present time. HYD - Overview and Comparison Strategy and Portfolio HYD is a simple high-yield muni bond ETF, tracking the ICE Broad High Yield Crossover Municipal Index . Said index all dollar-denominated, tax-exempt, municipal bonds in the market, subject to a basic set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. HYD invests in almost 1,900 different securities, from over a dozen states and several industries. HYD HYD FLMI, my preferred choice right now, is somewhat smaller, with investments in only 1,100 securities, but with broadly similar industry and state diversification. FLMI is active, which increases risks, but also potential returns and income. Risk and Volatility High-yield bond ETFs almost always focus on, well, high-yield bonds, but that is rarely the case for high-yield muni bond ETFs. HYD itself holds a mix of investment-grade, high-yield bonds, and those without ratings. Excluding unrated bonds, HYD focuses on quality investment-grade securities. Although we can't know for certain the quality of unrated securities, these are generally of lower quality, which seems likely to be the case here (impossible to be certain though). Figures are as follows: HYD FLMI more clearly focuses on investment-grade securities, with single-digit investments in high-yield bonds, a bit under 20% on unr...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images One firm that has been doing really well in the financial space in the time that I have been bullish about it is Amalgamated Financial ( AMAL ). The last article that I wrote about the company was published in June of 2025. At that time, I said that I was impressed by the continued growth that it was exhibiting when it came to its balance sheet. There w...
Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images One firm that has been doing really well in the financial space in the time that I have been bullish about it is Amalgamated Financial ( AMAL ). The last article that I wrote about the company was published in June of 2025. At that time, I said that I was impressed by the continued growth that it was exhibiting when it came to its balance sheet. There were certain areas of weakness. On top of this, the stock was more expensive than I would like it to be when it came to its price-to-book and price-to-tangible book multiples. But at the end of the day, shares were cheap in relation to earnings, and asset quality was elevated. This justified, in my view, a bullish assessment. Since that time, shares are up 29.6%. That's almost triple the 10.4% rise that the S&P 500 saw over the same window of time. And since I originally rated it a 'buy' in May of 2024, the stock is up 50.9%. Since then, the market is up only 23.7%. This return disparity is encouraging. At some point, it is important to note that the company will justify a downgrade. I do think we are getting closer to that. But I'm not ready to pull the trigger on it just yet. Instead, I think that maintaining it as a soft 'buy' is the appropriate course of action. Growth Continues When it comes to the balance sheet, Amalgamated Financial has been doing a fine job as of late. The company ended 2025 with deposits, for instance, of $7.95 billion. That is well above the $7.18 billion that the institution reported a year earlier. Normally when deposits grow this rapidly, it's because of either an acquisition or a surge in high cost broker deposits. However, the company maintains almost no brokered deposits from quarter to quarter. And on top of this, there have not been any real acquisition activities since 2021. It is worth noting, however, that the deposits for this particular institution happened to be incredibly volatile by nature. Author - SEC EDGAR Data This is because th...
Industrial robot maker Shenzhen Inovance Technology Co. has picked banks for a Hong Kong listing that could raise as much as $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Inovance is working with Bank of America Corp. , China International Capital Corp. , Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. and Morgan Stanley on the planned share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified ...
Industrial robot maker Shenzhen Inovance Technology Co. has picked banks for a Hong Kong listing that could raise as much as $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Inovance is working with Bank of America Corp. , China International Capital Corp. , Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. and Morgan Stanley on the planned share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The Chinese company said in January it was planning a listing in Hong Kong, without giving further details. A wave of mainland China-listed firms is looking to sell shares in the Asian financial hub, in many cases to raise funds for overseas expansion. Such deals accounted for the majority of Hong Kong’s listing proceeds in 2025, when funds raised hit a four-year high of $37 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Read More: China’s Humanoid Robot Tech Gets Pulses Racing: Bloomberg Deals Considerations about a Hong Kong listing are ongoing and details like size may change, the people said. Representatives for Inovance, CICC and Guotai didn’t respond to requests for comment, while Morgan Stanley and Bank of America declined to comment. Founded in 2003, Inovance already trades in Shenzhen, where it went public in 2010. It now has a market capitalization of 182 billion yuan ($26 billion). The stock hit a record high in October but has fallen about 25% since. Inovance makes industrial automation solutions and robots for sectors including plastics, packaging and iron and steel production, according to its website . China has prioritized developing a strong high-tech manufacturing industry, and robotics has emerged as a strategic sector with uses in increasingly complex roles. Unitree Robotics , a leading humanoid robot maker, recently filed for a 4.2 billion yuan Shanghai initial public offering.
The 93-year-old says Sweeney ‘looks sexy all the time’ and that she ‘never approved’ Scandalous, a drama about her romance with Sammy Davis Jr Kim Novak has voiced her disapproval of the casting of Sydney Sweeney as herself in an upcoming biopic, saying she is “totally wrong to play me”. Speaking to the Times , the 93-year-old actor said she would have “never approved” the biopic Scandalous, about...
The 93-year-old says Sweeney ‘looks sexy all the time’ and that she ‘never approved’ Scandalous, a drama about her romance with Sammy Davis Jr Kim Novak has voiced her disapproval of the casting of Sydney Sweeney as herself in an upcoming biopic, saying she is “totally wrong to play me”. Speaking to the Times , the 93-year-old actor said she would have “never approved” the biopic Scandalous, about her relationship with the musician Sammy Davis Jr. Continue reading...