tawatchaiprakobkit/iStock via Getty Images Main Thesis & Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the Franklin FTSE Japan ETF ( FLJP ) as an investment option at its current market price. The fund "tracks a market-cap weighted index comprised of large- and mid-sized companies" and offers retail investors exposure to single-country ETF focused on Japanese equities. This is my first rev...
tawatchaiprakobkit/iStock via Getty Images Main Thesis & Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the Franklin FTSE Japan ETF ( FLJP ) as an investment option at its current market price. The fund "tracks a market-cap weighted index comprised of large- and mid-sized companies" and offers retail investors exposure to single-country ETF focused on Japanese equities. This is my first review of FLJP and has come about in the wake of increased market volatility in both the US and around the globe. Driven by a military conflict in the Middle East and a spike in oil prices, many thematic plays are getting punished. Japanese stocks are no exception to see and are down about 5% over the past month: 1-Month Performance (Seeking Alpha) I feel this is important for context because some of my followers may be asking - "why now?". The premise is that equities have been in sell-off mode and I generally view such environments as opportunities to buy. This includes US stocks, of course, but I tend to branch out and diversify when markets are getting rattled too. This brought Japan on my radar because it is an area that had been performing well and I think the fact it has been caught up in the recent market correction marks a reasonable time to begin a position. There are a number of reasons why I like this idea - and FLJP in particular as a way to play it. One, the fund sports a competitive expense ratio. Two, Japanese equities offer above-average dividends. Three, the country is reliant on oil imports from the Middle East and that is causing some short-term weakness. That latter point is one I expect to smooth out with time and is central to why I see buying-in now as a smart move. I will take each of these points in turn below and discuss them in greater detail to support my thesis. First - Why FLJP? Cost Is A Major Motivator To start I will make a simple point on why FLJP is a solid choice for those interested in Japanese equities. This is not the most popular of fun...
Long-Term Social Media Use Linked to Depression, Self-Harm in Young People: Study Authored by Jerry Zhu via The Epoch Times, An Australian-led study has found children and teenagers who spend more time on social media are more likely to experience depression, self-harm, substance use, and lower achievement later in life. Published in JAMA Pediatrics , the systematic review examined data from 153 s...
Long-Term Social Media Use Linked to Depression, Self-Harm in Young People: Study Authored by Jerry Zhu via The Epoch Times, An Australian-led study has found children and teenagers who spend more time on social media are more likely to experience depression, self-harm, substance use, and lower achievement later in life. Published in JAMA Pediatrics , the systematic review examined data from 153 studies consisting of over 350,000 children and adolescents aged between 2 and 19 years, for up to two decades. “The strongest pattern we saw was between social media use and later problematic media use, suggesting early patterns of engagement may become more entrenched and difficult to manage over time,” said Sam Teague, a senior research fellow at James Cook University. The study focused on longitudinal research, which follows participants over time and offers stronger insight into how behaviours and outcomes develop. Teague said previous research in the field often relied on snapshots collected at a single point in time, making it harder to determine whether social media use preceded negative outcomes. However, she stressed the findings do not prove social media causes harm. Instead, the results show consistent links between higher use and a range of developmental outcomes, including cognitive, social-emotional, physical health, and motor development. Amy Orben, a professor at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, said the relationship may be more complex. “It may be that children who are already struggling spend more time on social media, rather than social media being the cause of their difficulties,” Orben said. “Similarly, some personality traits or life circumstances might make certain children both more likely to use social media heavily and more likely to experience poorer developmental outcomes.” Adolescents Identified as Most Vulnerable Teague said one possible explanation is that time spent online may disp...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret to Pyongyang on Monday over drones sent into North Korea earlier this year, actions he called “irresponsible”. South Korea initially denied any official role in the January drone incursion – with authorities suggesting it was the work of civilians – but Lee said an investigation had revealed government officials had been involved. “Although thi...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret to Pyongyang on Monday over drones sent into North Korea earlier this year, actions he called “irresponsible”. South Korea initially denied any official role in the January drone incursion – with authorities suggesting it was the work of civilians – but Lee said an investigation had revealed government officials had been involved. “Although this was not the intention of our government, we express our regret to the North that unnecessary...
Ljupco/iStock via Getty Images Thursday’s opening for stocks started from the pre-market, were way down, and we could have easily tested the recent lows and stayed there. Instead, it reversed direction. Normally, market commentators will come up with a ready explanation of the market’s resilience, though in my opinion, often inaccurate ones. This time, I did not find one commentator offering a cog...
Ljupco/iStock via Getty Images Thursday’s opening for stocks started from the pre-market, were way down, and we could have easily tested the recent lows and stayed there. Instead, it reversed direction. Normally, market commentators will come up with a ready explanation of the market’s resilience, though in my opinion, often inaccurate ones. This time, I did not find one commentator offering a cogent reason for the market turn. A market rejection of a strong leg down with no obvious catalyst, even an erzats one, is very bullish indeed. Just the hint of a “seller’s strike” is a great tell that market participants have discounted the worst news. When that happens, stocks should re-rate higher. Let’s start with a chart of the S&P 500 ETF ( SPY ) for 3 months. Seeking Alpha I am using the SPY because it’s a very good proxy for the actual S&P 500 index. We see a strong downtrend ending with an inverse “Head-and-Shoulder” formation. It is quite bullish, but lacks the granularity of what happened on Thursday. So here is the same chart, but using the candlestick style. Here is the same 1-year chart: Seeking Alpha I rarely find the need to use a candlestick chart, but it is useful in this instance. We have the same inverse-head-and-shoulders. Here I want to add that Wednesday night we had a presidential address, and the hope was that we would get more info about when the Iran war ends. Even though we were in a downtrend the day before, and going into the close, we see a nice lift off the bottom. “Stocks had opened lower after President Trump vowed to "hit Iran hard" and "send them back to the Stone Age" in a national address that failed to provide a certain end to the US-Israeli war in Iran. The President's speech suggested the US would escalate its military operations before withdrawing from Iran in two to three weeks.” ( cite ) When market participants went unsoothed of their concern about war, the futures on April 2, early before the open was quite low. I thought the nasc...
Foreign ministers Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov. Photo: VCG China and Russia are pledging to step up coordination at the United Nations Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, a sign of the deepening diplomatic alignment between the two nations amid a deteriorating security landscape. In a Sunday phone call, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Se...
Foreign ministers Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov. Photo: VCG China and Russia are pledging to step up coordination at the United Nations Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, a sign of the deepening diplomatic alignment between the two nations amid a deteriorating security landscape. In a Sunday phone call, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the escalating war and the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement published on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website. Both diplomats called for an immediate end to military operations and a return to the negotiating table.
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images SMCI stock faces lawsuit My last analysis on Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI ) was published on Feb 21. That article rated the stock as buy based on the earnings updates it reported for its FQ2 2026. Since then, a key catalyst has emerged and fundamentally invalided my last analysis. For readers not following this matter, on Mar 19th, Supermicro is...
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images SMCI stock faces lawsuit My last analysis on Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI ) was published on Feb 21. That article rated the stock as buy based on the earnings updates it reported for its FQ2 2026. Since then, a key catalyst has emerged and fundamentally invalided my last analysis. For readers not following this matter, on Mar 19th, Supermicro issued a statement that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of NY had unsealed an indictment of three individuals associated with the company. Two of them are SMCI employees and the other one is a contractor. These individuals were alleged for their connection with a conspiracy to commit export-control violations and selling servers with restricted Nvidia GPUs into China. Following the indictment, SMCI shareholders also filed a class action to accuse the company for concealing related information as detailed below. Seeking Alpha News: Shareholders of Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) filed a proposed class action on Wednesday, accusing the server maker of securities fraud for allegedly concealing its reliance on China-linked sales that violated U.S. export laws. The complaint, filed in San Francisco federal court, alleges the company overstated its business prospects and inflated its stock price by failing to disclose that a significant portion of its server sales went to China and that it had material weaknesses in export control compliance. The suit seeks unspecified damages for Super Micro investors between April 30, 2024, and March 19, 2026. With these developments, I anticipate SMCI to be surrounded by intensifying legal and regulatory pressures in the foreseeable future, which is a systemic risk that can threaten SMCI’s foundational operations. These risks are only partially compensated by the valuation contraction since, thus leading me to lower my rating to hold. SMCI stock: profitability brought into question To be perfectly clear, Supermicro itself was...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images In the last few years, I have written about several companies from the Transaction Processing Service Segment. This includes companies like PayPal ( PYPL ), Visa ( V ) or Mastercard ( MA ). One of the major companies from this segment is Fiserv, Inc. ( FISV ) - a stock I never covered before. But especially in the last few quarters, Fiserv suddenly becam...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images In the last few years, I have written about several companies from the Transaction Processing Service Segment. This includes companies like PayPal ( PYPL ), Visa ( V ) or Mastercard ( MA ). One of the major companies from this segment is Fiserv, Inc. ( FISV ) - a stock I never covered before. But especially in the last few quarters, Fiserv suddenly became very interesting although in a rather negative way. The stock, which was still performing well at a point when stocks like PayPal or Adyen ( ADYEY ) already struggled, also declined steeply in the last few quarters. Following a brutal 2025, Fiserv is trading 77% below its previous all-time high - the steepest decline at least since the early 1990s. Data by YCharts In the following article, I will argue why Fiserv is not necessarily a company with a wide economic moat around its business, but trading at such low valuation multiples that it is hard to overlook as an investment opportunity. Fiserv Business Model As always, when analyzing a business for the first time, I will start with a brief business description. If you are already familiar with the business model, you might skip this section. Fiserv was founded in 1984 and already had its IPO on the Nasdaq within two years after creating the business. Today, the company has about 38,000 employees and the company is offering payments and financial services solutions. The business can be split up in two business segments - the Merchant Solutions segment and the Financial Solutions segment. While the Merchant Solutions segment is offering mobile payment services as well as security and fraud protection solutions to mostly small-and- mid-size businesses, the Financial Solutions segment provides services for banks and financial institutions. This segment is providing digital payments as well as debit card processing services, fraud protection products, bill payment or person-to-person payments. Similar to other businesses, Fis...
Hong Kong’s housing authorities will expand the use of smart technologies, such as door sensors, in-home fall detectors and stair climbers, to enhance safety and convenience for elderly residents at public estates as the city’s population ages. Michael Hong Wing-kit, deputy director of housing overseeing estate management, said a pilot scheme to install sensors, which track door activity and send ...
Hong Kong’s housing authorities will expand the use of smart technologies, such as door sensors, in-home fall detectors and stair climbers, to enhance safety and convenience for elderly residents at public estates as the city’s population ages. Michael Hong Wing-kit, deputy director of housing overseeing estate management, said a pilot scheme to install sensors, which track door activity and send alerts, in public flats with elderly occupants would be expanded to include Tung Wui Estate in Wong...
Gold is likely to stabilise and resume its record-setting uptrend once Middle East tensions recede and new leadership at the US Federal Reserve adopts a policy of monetary easing, according to global financial institutions. The yellow metal would quickly rebound above US$5,000 an ounce as long as crude oil slipped back to between US$80 and US$85 a barrel, according to a report by William Blair, th...
Gold is likely to stabilise and resume its record-setting uptrend once Middle East tensions recede and new leadership at the US Federal Reserve adopts a policy of monetary easing, according to global financial institutions. The yellow metal would quickly rebound above US$5,000 an ounce as long as crude oil slipped back to between US$80 and US$85 a barrel, according to a report by William Blair, the US investment banking and wealth-management company. Lombard Odier, the Swiss private banking and...
JEPQ is an income ETF Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images The JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF ( JEPQ ) is a fund I have been covering on Seeking Alpha for a few years. Initially, I was skeptical of the fund, thinking that its covered call strategy simply capped upside in a collection of stocks (the NASDAQ-100 tech index) that was likely to deliver substantial upside. Later, as the mar...
JEPQ is an income ETF Andrzej Rostek/iStock via Getty Images The JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF ( JEPQ ) is a fund I have been covering on Seeking Alpha for a few years. Initially, I was skeptical of the fund, thinking that its covered call strategy simply capped upside in a collection of stocks (the NASDAQ-100 tech index) that was likely to deliver substantial upside. Later, as the market rose, I started to think that the NASDAQ-100's steep valuation merited some sort of hedge. For this reason, I started giving JEPQ more bullish coverage than I had previously, writing two articles with buy ratings on the fund. Since then, the NASDAQ-100 index has entered a near-correction, and we’ve had the chance to see how much JEPQ’s covered call strategy has reduced its volatility. The answer, so far, has been mixed. On the one hand, JEPQ (on a total return basis) is in fact down less than the Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ), the closest comparable non-covered call fund. On the other hand, JEPQ’s year-to-date return has still been negative at a time when the QQQ’s negative return has not been especially severe. I was hoping that JEPQ would deliver a positive return in a scenario like this one. The result we've seen has disappointed me. JEPQ vs QQQ YTD (Seeking Alpha Quant) I should mention one caveat to the reasoning above: We’re only one quarter into the year. If markets trade sideways from here, then JEPQ’s substantial option income will likely turn the fund’s return positive, with the QQQ remaining in a near-correction. Likewise, JEPQ will likely generate premium income exceeding the price decline if the selling seen this year continues to a very mild degree (let's say -1%). The question is whether JEPQ would be worth the investment in a truly severe scenario, such as the current downtrend turning into a real bear market. Unfortunately, the data we are seeing so far indicates that the answer to that question might not be the one that investors want to hear. At the end o...