BlackRock Inc. has added to bearish positions on German bonds, betting that a “pretty large inflation uptick” across Europe will push borrowing costs back above the 15-year highs reached last week. Tom Becker , who manages the $6.5 billion Tactical Opportunities Fund, expects governments to increase spending in order to help euro-area households deal with higher energy prices, and to boost militar...
BlackRock Inc. has added to bearish positions on German bonds, betting that a “pretty large inflation uptick” across Europe will push borrowing costs back above the 15-year highs reached last week. Tom Becker , who manages the $6.5 billion Tactical Opportunities Fund, expects governments to increase spending in order to help euro-area households deal with higher energy prices, and to boost military capacity. That’s led him to increase his short position in 10-year and five-year German bunds since the war started in Iran a month ago. He was already short the 30-year maturity. “Markets might be under-appreciating the fiscal response from European policymakers to spend more money on energy security for the winter, along with making investments in military preparedness,” Becker said in an interview. “That means more bond supply in the coming quarters.” As investors start to demand a greater term premium on longer-maturity debt, he sees German 10-year yields rising above the 3.13% high reached last week, when the war and surging crude prices fanned fears of an inflation spike. The yield slid earlier this week as hopes grew for a ceasefire but rose back to around 3% on Thursday. That 3% level is “not a very high nominal rate, with inflation heading above target again and more supply coming with a larger fiscal response,” Becker added. The selloff in euro-area bonds since the start of the war has been less violent than in Treasuries and British gilts. Yet, the bloc will suffer a greater inflation shock than other regions, according to Becker, who points to its dependence on the Hormuz Strait for energy and relatively weak terms-for-trade profile. In addition, European countries have started to announce measures to cut consumers’ energy bills, while the European Commission is expected to present a package aimed at countering the effects of higher energy prices. All that is raising concerns that Europe will repeat the 2022-2024 playbook, when large energy subsidies introduce...
Sunshine Seeds/iStock Editorial via Getty Images China is ramping up its island-building efforts in the South China Sea, turning Antelope Reef into what could be its largest military base in the disputed waters, The Wall Street Journal reported. Satellite imagery showed that the reef — located in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea — includes jetties, a helipad, gray-roofed structures and a...
Sunshine Seeds/iStock Editorial via Getty Images China is ramping up its island-building efforts in the South China Sea, turning Antelope Reef into what could be its largest military base in the disputed waters, The Wall Street Journal reported. Satellite imagery showed that the reef — located in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea — includes jetties, a helipad, gray-roofed structures and a new coastline that looks suitable to be a runway. The Antelope Reef is also relatively close to the Chinese mainland, because of which China can increase civilian infrastructure there and bolster its claims on the area. To note, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims there. The area of reclaimed land at Antelope Reef spans about 1,490 acres, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' analysis of satellite imagery. That's almost the same size as Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands, which is China's largest outpost measuring ~1,504 acres. Military bases in the Paracels would be more useful to China than the Spratlys if fighting erupted over Taiwan. "If we are talking about a scenario where China might be preparing for potential, real high-intensity operations, then the Paracels buildup makes sense," Collin Koh, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told WSJ . The report comes as U.S. intelligence dialed back expectations of China invading Taiwan, now saying it won't happen in 2027 and there is no fixed timeline for achieving unification. "Beijing probably saw that the [Trump] administration's focus is not particularly on the South China Sea," said Harrison Prétat, deputy director at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS. More on China ASHR: Paying A Premium For Great Companies May Be Worth It How Interventions In Venezuela, Iran Are Reshaping China's Growth Outlook A Strait Problem For China: How The Iran War Could Squeeze Oil Supply U.S. Navy warns China’s submarine buildup could extend nucl...
Getty Images One of the most interesting REITs out there today has got to be Realty Income ( O ). With a market capitalization of $59.93 billion and an enterprise value of $88.98 billion, it is not the largest REIT. But it's certainly up there. Over the years, management has succeeded in steadily growing the company. They have done this without taking on too much in the way of risk. On top of this...
Getty Images One of the most interesting REITs out there today has got to be Realty Income ( O ). With a market capitalization of $59.93 billion and an enterprise value of $88.98 billion, it is not the largest REIT. But it's certainly up there. Over the years, management has succeeded in steadily growing the company. They have done this without taking on too much in the way of risk. On top of this, the company continues to pay out a hefty yield that is superior to what most other similar firms boast. And as time progresses, the company continues to make investments in growth opportunities, including a recently announced joint venture that will bring its significant amounts of cheap capital. In my last article about the firm, published in late December of last year, I decided to reaffirm it as a ‘buy’ candidate. This was in spite of the fact that the stock had underperformed the market leading up to that point. My decision to keep it rated that seems to have worked out so far. Shares are up 8.1% while the S&P 500 is down 5.4%. Long term, I do expect continued outperformance. Because of this, I firmly believe that maintaining it as a ‘buy’ candidate makes sense. A great business at a decent price From a purely fundamental standpoint, the only new data that has come out regarding Realty Income covers through the final quarter of the company's 2025 fiscal year. Because of how recently that data came out, it would probably be wise to dig into that first. During that time, revenue for the enterprise came in at $1.49 billion. That was up from the $1.34 billion generated the previous year. This increase in revenue is intriguing because the actual number of properties that the company has ownership over fell from 15,621 to 15,511. However, what the company did was focused on larger properties that would generate more in the way of revenue for it. Even as the property count declined, leasable square feet for the business increased from 339.4 million to 355 million. Author - S...