Glimpse of sun after weeks of unrelenting rain marks end of longest sunless period in area since records began Aberdeen has finally had some sunshine for the first time in 21 days, marking the end of the longest sunless period in the area since Met Office records began in 1957. Residents of the Granite city in north-east Scotland glimpsed the sun late on Thursday afternoon with sunshine last recor...
Glimpse of sun after weeks of unrelenting rain marks end of longest sunless period in area since records began Aberdeen has finally had some sunshine for the first time in 21 days, marking the end of the longest sunless period in the area since Met Office records began in 1957. Residents of the Granite city in north-east Scotland glimpsed the sun late on Thursday afternoon with sunshine last recorded on 21 January. The Met Office said that 30 minutes was officially recorded in the Dyce area in the hour up to 4pm. It followed weeks of unrelenting rain in the region and throughout the UK in 2026. More than 277mm of rain fell on Aboyne in Aberdeenshire in January, about four times the monthly average, while the first 10 days of the year brought heavy snow to the north-east of Scotland. In only the first three days of this month, south-east England received nearly a third of its average February rainfall. The wintry weather is expected to continue with a yellow warning for snow and ice for most of Scotland and northern England in place until 12pm on Friday. The Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge said an air mass called Arctic maritime air is bringing temperatures down. He said: “The snow and ice warnings that we’ve issued at the moment cover pretty much Scotland and northern parts of England. There may be some snow showers a little bit further south than that. “We’re not expecting any particularly impactful snow and the conditions will be quite brief before we get another system coming in from the Atlantic over the weekend, but for the next few days it will feel quite a bit different, as we’ve got colder air coming in.” BBC Scotland weather presenter Judith Ralston said: “With a change in weather type, we finally lose the stuck pattern of cloud, rain, and bitingly cold winds. “This finally breaks, allowing a northerly air mass to set in, bringing much drier, brighter conditions, sunshine on the way on Friday and Saturday and a few wintry showers on Friday.” Continue ...
Swiss franc banknotes in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Dec. 23, 2025. Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images Ask an investor to name safe-haven currencies, and most will say the U.S. dollar, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen. Investors historically expected them to hold their value during geopolitical or economic turbulence. But more recently, these currencies have experienced volatility themselves...
Swiss franc banknotes in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Dec. 23, 2025. Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images Ask an investor to name safe-haven currencies, and most will say the U.S. dollar, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen. Investors historically expected them to hold their value during geopolitical or economic turbulence. But more recently, these currencies have experienced volatility themselves. The dollar and yen saw sharp declines over 2025 and into 2026. The franc has strengthened, but this is challenging for a country with unusually low inflation and a reliance on exports. Declining dollar U.S. President Donald Trump reordered global trade with tariffs in 2025, sparking a " sell America " trade: a sell-off of U.S. assets, including the dollar, the world's reserve currency. The suddenness with which other tariffs have been imposed and withdrawn kept the pressure up. In a December note, Swiss private bank Julius Baer stated that "erratic trade policies" were just one cause of the dollar's woes, adding that Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" put the U.S. on "an unsustainable debt trajectory." Trump's pressure on U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell also undermined investors' confidence in the dollar, the note said. The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of peers, tumbled 1.3% on Jan. 29 after Trump said the dollar is "doing great," its sharpest drop in a day since Trump first announced tariffs in April. It took the greenback to its lowest level in almost four years. The index plunged 9.37% in 2025, and it has fallen further in 2026. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon In a Wednesday note, George Saravelos, head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, said the dollar's safe-haven status was "myth." He challenged the notion that the dollar "rallies during risk-aversion," adding: "A simple chart of the dollar-equity relationship shows this not to be true. The average USD-equity correlation has historically been closer to zero, and over the last...
On February 10, 2026, Reinhart Partners, LLC. reported buying 803,217 shares of Skyward Specialty Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SKWD) , an estimated $38.60 million trade based on quarterly average pricing. Skyward Specialty Insurance Group provides tailored commercial insurance solutions for U.S. businesses with complex risk needs. According to an SEC filing dated February 10, 2026, Reinhart Partners, L...
On February 10, 2026, Reinhart Partners, LLC. reported buying 803,217 shares of Skyward Specialty Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SKWD) , an estimated $38.60 million trade based on quarterly average pricing. Skyward Specialty Insurance Group provides tailored commercial insurance solutions for U.S. businesses with complex risk needs. According to an SEC filing dated February 10, 2026, Reinhart Partners, LLC. bought 803,217 additional shares of Skyward Specialty Insurance Group. The estimated transaction value was $38.60 million based on the average closing price during the fourth quarter of 2025. At quarter-end, the position’s value increased by $46.78 million, a figure that reflects both trading and price appreciation effects. Continue reading
US bond investors poured another $4.3 billion of cash into high-grade bond funds in the week ended Wednesday, the eleventh consecutive week of inflows, according to LSEG Lipper, as investors scramble to buy debt still offering decent yields. The latest inflows into short- and intermediate-term investment-grade bond funds come after January saw the largest monthly inflow in five years at $43.3 bill...
US bond investors poured another $4.3 billion of cash into high-grade bond funds in the week ended Wednesday, the eleventh consecutive week of inflows, according to LSEG Lipper, as investors scramble to buy debt still offering decent yields. The latest inflows into short- and intermediate-term investment-grade bond funds come after January saw the largest monthly inflow in five years at $43.3 billion. The persistent inflows into funds have helped fuel demand for corporate debt sales this year. High-grade companies have sold about $309 billion of US bonds so far in 2026, up nearly 30% from this time last year , fueled in part by big offerings from tech companies including Oracle Corp. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. Demand is strong enough that investors buying new bonds have placed orders for about 4.1 times the bonds that companies were actually selling on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. That’s up from 3.8 times last year. And the extra yield that investors get on new bonds compared with a company’s existing securities, known as the new issue concession, has averaged just 0.02 percentage point, or 2 basis points this year, another sign of strong demand. Last year that figure was 3.3 basis points. The risk premiums, or spreads, on US high-grade securities have narrowed 0.03 percentage point to 0.75 percentage point this year through Wednesday, close to the tightest levels in decades. That high valuation leaves little room for improvement, said Ayako Yoshioka , portfolio consulting director at Wealth Enhancement Group, who said she has a neutral outlook on credit. “We don’t see any catalysts to be bearish but there’s little room for bullishness given where spreads are,” she said. For now, demand from investors remains strong. Net flows into high-grade corporate bond exchange-traded funds in the week ended Feb. 11 rose to a 14-week high of $2.8 billion, the ninth consecutive week of net inflows, according to a CreditSights note. High-gra...