When it comes to what you can gamble on these days, all bets are off. On prediction markets — platforms where people bet against each other on the outcomes of real-world events — traders are wagering on the chances of a major meteor striking Earth before 2030, whether President Donald Trump will be impeached this year, and who the next James Bond will be. As demand soars for the ability to bet on ...
When it comes to what you can gamble on these days, all bets are off. On prediction markets — platforms where people bet against each other on the outcomes of real-world events — traders are wagering on the chances of a major meteor striking Earth before 2030, whether President Donald Trump will be impeached this year, and who the next James Bond will be. As demand soars for the ability to bet on almost anything, prediction markets are processing billions of dollars in volume every week. Traditional players are taking notice: a number of financial giants and sports-betting firms are getting in on the action . The relaxed regulatory environment under the Trump administration has fueled this growth and blurred the line between trading and gambling. Amid the rise of sports betting apps, novelty cryptocurrencies and meme stock speculation, prediction markets are yet another way for amateur traders to rack up losses quickly. Critics say that thin oversight also leaves markets exposed to insider advantages that can undermine their integrity. The sudden emergence of the industry in the mainstream is beginning to recast public life as a series of bets waiting to be placed. Here’s what’s important to know. How do prediction markets work? Prediction markets such as Polymarket , Kalshi and PredictIt allow people to bet on the outcome of real-world events. Traders bet either “yes” or “no” that something will or will not occur — that the Democratic Party will control the US House of Representatives after the November elections, that the Denver Nuggets will win the National Basketball Association Finals, or that Chicago will get more than 5 inches of rain this month. This is very similar to online betting, but unlike with gambling companies, there’s no “house” setting odds or taking the opposite side of your bet. When you buy a “yes” or “no” share — or an “event contract,” as the bets are known — someone else on the exchange is betting against you. The exchange matches buyers and...
Need a little ‘moon joy’? NASA just circled the moon in its record-breaking Artemis mission. Big Take guest host Stacey Vanek Smith and Bloomberg global space reporter Loren Grush talk about what it means for the future of space exploration. (Source: Bloomberg)
Need a little ‘moon joy’? NASA just circled the moon in its record-breaking Artemis mission. Big Take guest host Stacey Vanek Smith and Bloomberg global space reporter Loren Grush talk about what it means for the future of space exploration. (Source: Bloomberg)
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are booming. They also face a widening legal battle with US states and criticism over alleged user insider trading. Here’s how they got so controversial. (Source: Bloomberg)
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are booming. They also face a widening legal battle with US states and criticism over alleged user insider trading. Here’s how they got so controversial. (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks ended higher for a second day on Thursday as investors assessed the latest U.S.-Israel vs. Iran war developments after warnings from President Donald Trump of a major escalation if Iran did not accept the 10-point ceasefire deal. The benchmark S&P 500 ( SP500 ) ended +0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite ( COMP:IND ) finished +0.8%, and the blue-chip Dow ( DJI ) closed +0.6%. Over in the b...
U.S. stocks ended higher for a second day on Thursday as investors assessed the latest U.S.-Israel vs. Iran war developments after warnings from President Donald Trump of a major escalation if Iran did not accept the 10-point ceasefire deal. The benchmark S&P 500 ( SP500 ) ended +0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite ( COMP:IND ) finished +0.8%, and the blue-chip Dow ( DJI ) closed +0.6%. Over in the bond market, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ( US10Y ) was 1 basis point lower at 4.29%, while the 2-year Treasury yield ( US2Y ) also dropped 1 basis point to 3.79%. Crude oil futures ( CL1:COM ) were higher at around $98.9, while Brent ( CO1:COM ) was also higher at $96.8 per barrel. Now, here are three things to watch out for on the last day of the week: Two companies report earnings on Friday: Lotus Technology ( LOT ) and The Children’s Place ( PLCE ). Seeking Alpha gives an earnings revision grade of B and D- for the companies, respectively. On the economic calendar, investors will receive the consumer price index, which is expected to come in at 0.9% for March and 3.3% YoY. In addition, traders will also receive the factory order and the preliminary consumer sentiment for April, which is believed to come in at 52.0, lower than the previous print. The uncertainty of a truce between the U.S., Israel, and Iran remains at the forefront of the investing world. President Donald Trump agreed to pause attacks on Iran with the condition that Tehran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran alleges that the U.S. and Israel have violated the terms of the ceasefire mediated by Pakistan. Oil prices have continued to climb, although they are now off their highs. More on the markets Reinventing The Petrodollar: How U.S. Energy Dominance Is Shifting The Global Balance Of Power AAII Sentiment Survey: Pessimism Retreats Dow Jones And U.S. Stock Market Outlook - Ceasefire Uncertainty Clears And Wall Street Persists U.S. stocks gain for a second day while U.S.-Iran resolution is s...
Lower those expectations, Succession fans. The star plays a scientist who shrinks his wife (Elizabeth Banks) to 6in tall, in a screwball sitcom that should have been so much better I wonder what it’s like to be the go-to actor whenever anyone needs a morally questionable, sappy-looking, fundamentally weak character to play the whipped dog to someone else’s headline character? You’ll always have wo...
Lower those expectations, Succession fans. The star plays a scientist who shrinks his wife (Elizabeth Banks) to 6in tall, in a screwball sitcom that should have been so much better I wonder what it’s like to be the go-to actor whenever anyone needs a morally questionable, sappy-looking, fundamentally weak character to play the whipped dog to someone else’s headline character? You’ll always have work but … you’d have to be pretty secure in yourself, no? But all actors are, of course, so it’s probably OK to be Matthew Macfadyen, who started his career in a 1998 TV film adaptation of Wuthering Heights as Hareton Earnshaw – Heathcliff’s whipped dog – and has been giving us brilliant incarnations of beta cucks ever since. Even when he made it to Mr Darcy (opposite Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet) it was unfortunately 10 years after Colin Firth (opposite Jennifer Ehle and coming out of a lake) had rendered all future versions redundant milksops. Most recently, of course, he gave us the greatest – oh GOD, there is no single word for Tom Wambsgans unless it is in fact “Wambsgans”, so let’s go with that – Wambsgans there will ever be, courtesy of Jesse Armstrong’s masterpiece Succession. Jeremy Strong’s intensity drew the headlines, but Macfadyen’s performance, like a worm twisting round an oiled tightrope, was endlessly clever, subtle and just as astonishing. Continue reading...
FCC Set To Vote on Easing Satellite Power Rules, Boosting SpaceX's Starlink Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday it will vote on an order to revamp satellite spectrum-sharing rules that would benefit low-Earth orbit broadband providers - and SpaceX stands to gain the most. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying...
FCC Set To Vote on Easing Satellite Power Rules, Boosting SpaceX's Starlink Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday it will vote on an order to revamp satellite spectrum-sharing rules that would benefit low-Earth orbit broadband providers - and SpaceX stands to gain the most. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites is seen over Sebastian Inlet after launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2025. Sam Wolfe/Reuters “By discarding last century’s satellite regulations, we could see billions of dollars in benefits for the American economy and broadband speeds many times faster than what is available today ,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. “This overdue rethinking of space spectrum sharing rules will bring greater competition to the broadband marketplace and reduce the number of satellites needed to serve a given area.” The vote on April 30 could reshape how tens of millions of Americans, particularly those in rural communities, connect to the internet from space. The proposed order would raise the power levels that low-earth orbit (LEO) operators are permitted to use in frequency bands shared with incumbent geostationary orbit systems. For SpaceX, whose Starlink network already spans more than 10,000 satellites, the change would mean substantially faster and more reliable service. Not everyone is on board. Geostationary operators, including Viasat, SES, and DIRECTV, have opposed the move, arguing that allowing Starlink to transmit at higher power would cause damaging interference to their own networks. In a filing submitted Tuesday, DIRECTV told the agency that SpaceX’s interference studies contain “significant unresolved questions.” SpaceX has dismissed those concerns as a defense of the status quo. “The question of whether the [equivalent power flux density] framework harms consumers by unnecessarily constraining [LEO] services has been defini...
If you max out your IRA and don't have a 401(k) through your job, it can feel like you have no choice but to wait until 2027 to start saving for retirement again. But that might not actually be the case. Those who qualify for health savings accounts (HSAs) can stash thousands more away for retirement each year. But if you plan to use one of these accounts for this purpose, there are a few mistakes...
If you max out your IRA and don't have a 401(k) through your job, it can feel like you have no choice but to wait until 2027 to start saving for retirement again. But that might not actually be the case. Those who qualify for health savings accounts (HSAs) can stash thousands more away for retirement each year. But if you plan to use one of these accounts for this purpose, there are a few mistakes you definitely want to avoid. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Nvidia’s stock trades meaningfully below its 52-week high, suggesting to one analyst that it could see sustained gains if the AI trade comes back alive.
Nvidia’s stock trades meaningfully below its 52-week high, suggesting to one analyst that it could see sustained gains if the AI trade comes back alive.
ConocoPhillips has dispatched a team to Venezuela to evaluate the prospects for a return to drilling in the oil-rich Caribbean nation almost two decades after billions of dollars in assets were seized by the socialist regime. The undertaking makes ConocoPhillips just the second major US oil company to publicly disclosed an on-the-ground inspection in Venezuela, home to some of the world’s biggest ...
ConocoPhillips has dispatched a team to Venezuela to evaluate the prospects for a return to drilling in the oil-rich Caribbean nation almost two decades after billions of dollars in assets were seized by the socialist regime. The undertaking makes ConocoPhillips just the second major US oil company to publicly disclosed an on-the-ground inspection in Venezuela, home to some of the world’s biggest crude reserves. The purpose of the trip is to “better understand the potential for in-country oil and gas opportunities,” Dennis Nuss, a spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. “We will evaluate Venezuela against other international opportunities as part of our disciplined investment framework.” Despite President Donald Trump ’s call earlier this year for US drillers to help revive the Venezuelan oil sector, ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance has been telling investors his main priority is recouping roughly $12 billion it’s owed after its holdings in the South American nation were nationalized in 2007. Exxon Mobil Corp. , which also quit the country after asset seizures by the late dictator Hugo Chavez, said two weeks ago that it sent a team to assess Venezuelan opportunities. Rebuilding Venezuelan oil output to 3 million barrels a day would require “probably hundreds of millions of dollars” over a long time horizon, Dan Ammann , upstream president at Exxon, said during the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston last month. A lot has to happen to pave the way for more foreign investment, Lance has said on several occasions. “We’re trying to be constructive and help the administration think through what’s needed to incentivize the investments that will go into Venezuela,” Lance said during the CERAWeek event. “We have to see what’s the pathway to starting to recover some of what’s owed us.”
May WTI crude oil (CLK26 ) on Thursday closed up +3.46 (+3.66%), and May RBOB gasoline (RBK26 ) closed down -0.0052 (-0.17%). Crude oil and gasoline prices settled mixed on Thursday. Crude prices rallied sharply but fell from their best level on Thursday, and gasoline slid into negative territory on...
May WTI crude oil (CLK26 ) on Thursday closed up +3.46 (+3.66%), and May RBOB gasoline (RBK26 ) closed down -0.0052 (-0.17%). Crude oil and gasoline prices settled mixed on Thursday. Crude prices rallied sharply but fell from their best level on Thursday, and gasoline slid into negative territory on...
May Nymex natural gas (NGK26 ) on Thursday closed down -0.054 (-1.98%). Nat-gas prices added to this week's losses on Thursday, falling to a 7.5-month nearest-futures low. A larger-than-expected build in weekly nat-gas storage levels weighed on prices on Thursday. The EIA reported that nat-gas inventories rose by +50 bcf...
May Nymex natural gas (NGK26 ) on Thursday closed down -0.054 (-1.98%). Nat-gas prices added to this week's losses on Thursday, falling to a 7.5-month nearest-futures low. A larger-than-expected build in weekly nat-gas storage levels weighed on prices on Thursday. The EIA reported that nat-gas inventories rose by +50 bcf...
FactoryTh Solaris Resources ( SLSR ) closed up 3.9% on Thursday after saying it received the technical approval of the environmental impact assessment for its Warintza copper project in Ecuador, which followed a multi-year technical review process by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Solaris ( SLSR ) said receipt of the EIA technical approval triggered the second tranche under the existing U...
FactoryTh Solaris Resources ( SLSR ) closed up 3.9% on Thursday after saying it received the technical approval of the environmental impact assessment for its Warintza copper project in Ecuador, which followed a multi-year technical review process by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Solaris ( SLSR ) said receipt of the EIA technical approval triggered the second tranche under the existing US$200M financing agreement with Royal Gold ( RGLD ). Warintza will now advance through the remaining stages of Ecuador's environmental licensing and development approval process; government officials conducted an initial site visit in 2025 to assess project readiness, and the formal consultation process is expected to begin shortly, the company said. The approval clears a pathway toward a fully permitted project by year-end 2026, which would uniquely position Warintza as a near-term globally significant copper development project. More on Solaris Resources Solaris Resources: New Economic Study Makes It A Prime Takeover Candidate Financial information for Solaris Resources
desifoto /iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Celestica Inc. ( CLS , CLS:CA ) has once again outperformed the market since my last Buy update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on CLS (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on CLS) Elevator pitch I am getting even more bullish on Celestica: Celestica is building capacity to facilitate long term demand HPS product mix shifts can...
desifoto /iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Celestica Inc. ( CLS , CLS:CA ) has once again outperformed the market since my last Buy update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on CLS (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on CLS) Elevator pitch I am getting even more bullish on Celestica: Celestica is building capacity to facilitate long term demand HPS product mix shifts can structurally lift margins High customer concentration is still a risk to monitor Valuations seem attractive for long term investors Technicals show an A+ bull-flag continuation setup. This article will use some Celestica-specific acronyms. If you are unfamiliar with Celestica, please refer to my initiating coverage article on Celestica to understand what CCS, ATS, HPS, and other things like networking switches mean. Celestica is building capacity to address long term demand Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG ) is one of Celestica's top customers. And this company recently announced a $180B AI capex plan for 2026 , up 97% from FY25 levels of $91B . Celestica is well positioned to benefit from this spending as one of the key assemblers of Google's TPUs: On this note, we are proud of our decade-long partnership with Google and are excited to continue supporting the acceleration of leading AI data center architecture. Celestica remains closely aligned with Google on the development of complex data center hardware and systems. As a preferred manufacturing partner for Google's Tensor processing unit, or TPU systems, Celestica is committed to making long-term investments in both capacity and capabilities both in the United States and across our global footprint, which includes our planned investments to expand manufacturing capacity in 2026 and 2027. - CEO Robert Mionis in the Q4 FY25 earnings call . This gives Celestica a flow of long-term demand that it is aiming to maximize by expanding capacity in a very big way, ramping up capex spend for FY26 to $1B from $200M in FY25: ... we are meanin...
Ashford Hospitality Trust ( AHT ) completed the previously announced sale of four hotels for a total of $252.5M in gross proceeds and signed agreements for the sale of two more hotels for $54.8M, the company said on Thursday. That brings the total gross proceeds for the property sales to $307.3M. The majority of proceeds will be used to pay down mortgage debt. Furthermore, the sales are expected t...
Ashford Hospitality Trust ( AHT ) completed the previously announced sale of four hotels for a total of $252.5M in gross proceeds and signed agreements for the sale of two more hotels for $54.8M, the company said on Thursday. That brings the total gross proceeds for the property sales to $307.3M. The majority of proceeds will be used to pay down mortgage debt. Furthermore, the sales are expected to result in more than $60M in future capital expenditure savings. "These sales accomplish all three of our strategic objectives: improved cash flow after debt service, significantly reduced future capital expenditure obligations, and lower portfolio leverage," said President and CEO Stephen Zsigray. Ashford Hospitality ( AHT ) stock fell 3.3% in after-hours trading. Ashford Hospitality ( AHT ) closed on the sales of Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront and La Posada de Santa Fe , as well as Hilton Alexandria Old Town and Embassy Suites by Hilton Palm Beach Gardens PGA Boulevard . The gross proceeds equate to $280K per key. When adjusted for the company's anticipated capital expenditures of $57.6M, the sale price represents a 6.0% capitalization rate on net operating income or a multiple of 14.5x h otel EBITDA for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. Excluding the anticipated capital spend, the combined sale price represents a 7.4% capitalization rate on net operating income or a multiple of 11.8x h otel EBITDA for 2025. Under the pending transactions, Ashford Hospitality agreed to sell the 168-room Lakeway Resort & Spa for $37.8M, or $225,000 per key, and the 150-room Embassy Suites by Hilton Dallas Near the Galleria for $17.0M, or $113,000 per key. Those sales are expected to be completed by May 2026. When adjusted for anticipated combined capital expenditures of $2.5M, the sale price represents a 4.8% capitalization rate on net operating income or a multiple of 16.2x h otel EBITDA for the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2025. Excluding the anticipated capital spend, the combined sale pri...