Key Points Energy Transfer's solid underlying business makes its distribution dependable. The master limited partnership has significant growth opportunities supplying natural gas to data centers. Energy Transfer expects to grow its distribution by 3% to 5% per year over the long term. 10 stocks we like better than Energy Transfer › High dividend yields don't necessarily imply high risk. I think E...
Key Points Energy Transfer's solid underlying business makes its distribution dependable. The master limited partnership has significant growth opportunities supplying natural gas to data centers. Energy Transfer expects to grow its distribution by 3% to 5% per year over the long term. 10 stocks we like better than Energy Transfer › High dividend yields don't necessarily imply high risk. I think Energy Transfer LP (NYSE: ET) is an excellent case in point. This master limited partnership (MLP) offers a distribution yield of 7.4%. And that distribution appears to be relatively safe, making Energy Transfer an ultra-high-yield dividend stock that income investors can't – or at least shouldn't – ignore. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » A solid business Energy Transfer's solid business makes its distribution dependable. The MLP operates more than 140,000 miles of pipeline spanning much of the U.S. Around 90% of its adjusted EBITDA comes from fees, meaning that Energy Transfer's fortunes don't hinge on commodity prices. Roughly 40% of Energy Transfer's adjusted EBITDA is generated by operations focused on natural gas. That's a good thing, because natural gas presents tremendous growth opportunities for the company. In particular, the booming data center market is driving higher demand for natural gas. The artificial intelligence (AI) applications hosted in these data centers require significant amounts of electricity. Natural gas is a top fuel source for powering the plants that generate this electricity. In recent months, Energy Transfer has landed multiple data center deals. For example, the MLP signed agreements with Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) to supply natural gas to three data centers. It also inked an agreement with CloudBurst to provide natural gas to data centers in Central Texas. Unsurprisingly, much of Energy Transfer's growth-related ...
China, the world’s largest soybean importer, has ramped up orders for Brazilian cargoes of the oilseed after meeting an initial shipment volume from the US as part of a trade truce with Washington. In the past week, importers have booked at least 25 cargoes of the beans for loading mainly in March and April, driven by margins, according to traders with knowledge of the deals. At the same time, sta...
China, the world’s largest soybean importer, has ramped up orders for Brazilian cargoes of the oilseed after meeting an initial shipment volume from the US as part of a trade truce with Washington. In the past week, importers have booked at least 25 cargoes of the beans for loading mainly in March and April, driven by margins, according to traders with knowledge of the deals. At the same time, state-owned companies have appeared to refrain from taking US cargoes, said the people, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to talk to the media. Soybeans emerged as a key point of contention in US-China trade relations, with Beijing initially shunning American cargoes as their ties soured, before agreeing to take shipments as part of a wider rapprochement. China has purchased about 12 million tons of US soybeans in the last three months, meeting a commitment outlined by the Trump administration in November. “It makes complete sense to step up purchases of Brazilian soybeans after meeting the US pledge,” said Meng Zhangyu, an analyst at Wuchan Zhongda Futures Co. “Brazilian supplies are much cheaper.” US soybeans delivered to China on a cost-and-freight basis are at steep premium over comparable Brazilian beans for February, according to the traders. That means crushing them would incur heavy losses, they said. Read More: China Soy Deal Lifts US Farmers But Spotlights Trade Limitations Over the longer term, the US said China has committed to buying at least 25 million tons of US soybeans annually through 2028, and the nation may come back for more American cargoes later this year. “As long as the agreed trade-deal framework reached between China and the US gets implemented smoothly, China should be able to carry out the agreement and continue to buy US soybeans,” said Hanver Li, chief analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co., a China-based commodity consultancy. “Even if this means sacrificing some economic interests, China can meet its targets for the next thr...
champpixs Stock futures showed a mixed performance early Tuesday as investors positioned ahead of major tech earnings and the Federal Reserve's upcoming rate decision later this week. Here are some of Tuesday's biggest stock movers: Biggest stock gainers Salesforce ( CRM ) +2% - Shares gained after its Computable Insights unit won a $5.6B, 10-year IDIQ contract to modernize U.S. military operation...
champpixs Stock futures showed a mixed performance early Tuesday as investors positioned ahead of major tech earnings and the Federal Reserve's upcoming rate decision later this week. Here are some of Tuesday's biggest stock movers: Biggest stock gainers Salesforce ( CRM ) +2% - Shares gained after its Computable Insights unit won a $5.6B, 10-year IDIQ contract to modernize U.S. military operations with cloud tools, AI, and data analytics. The deal, which includes a five-year base period plus a five-year option, positions Salesforce as a key tech partner for the Department of War, with completion estimated by June 2035. Analysts said the shift to a unified IDIQ framework signals the Army’s move from buying software to driving large-scale, outcome-based modernization. Zoom Communications ( ZM ) +1% - Shares rose after Baird drew attention to the company’s under-the-radar $51M stake in Anthropic, calling it a “hidden gem” that could add meaningful value as AI adoption accelerates. Analyst William Power, who reiterated an Outperform and a $95 price target, noted that while investors remain focused on Zoom’s efforts to reaccelerate revenue and expand its AI offerings, its early investment in the maker of the Claude models provides an additional upside lever. Biggest stock losers Humana ( HUM ) -12% , UnitedHealth ( UNH ) -8%, and CVS Health ( CVS ) -8% - Health insurers slumped after the Trump administration proposed nearly flat 2027 Medicare Advantage reimbursement rates, with payments set to rise just 0.09% (~$700M) versus the 4%–6% increase analysts had expected. CMS said that when factoring in risk-score trends tied to coding and population shifts, payments would effectively rise 2.54%, but the headline rate still marked a significant disappointment for the sector. Sanmina ( SANM ) -8% - Shares tumbled after the electronics manufacturer issued quarterly sales guidance that came in well short of Wall Street expectations, overshadowing upbeat FQ1 results. For FQ2, the...
A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer’s showpiece event Removing the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport’s pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked ...
A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer’s showpiece event Removing the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport’s pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked on. It would be a logistical and political nightmare on an international scale, the likes of which have never been seen before in sports. It would be eminently sad. And it would be entirely justified. It brings me no pleasure to say this. The United States has been eager to host a men’s World Cup for more than a decade and a half. The desire survived and even grew after 2010’s failure to out-bid Russia and Qatar (in public and behind closed doors) for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With hosting rights for 2026 later secured alongside Canada and Mexico, the US soccer scene prepared to show off that the sport is now part of the nation’s fabric, 32 years after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1994. Soccer’s growing popularity in America has helped inspire other US sports to try new formats, encouraged us to engage more fully with the world in a sporting context, and has been at the center of conversations about our society and culture. The 2026 World Cup was seen as the best chance for the world to fully experience not just how much the US has improved at soccer, but how much soccer has improved the US. Continue reading...
For the first time, a massive group of parents, teens and school districts is taking on the world’s most powerful social media companies in open court, accusing the tech giants of intentionally designing their products to be addictive. The blockbuster legal proceedings may see multiple CEOs, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, face harsh questioning. A long-awaited series of trials kicks off in Los ...
For the first time, a massive group of parents, teens and school districts is taking on the world’s most powerful social media companies in open court, accusing the tech giants of intentionally designing their products to be addictive. The blockbuster legal proceedings may see multiple CEOs, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, face harsh questioning. A long-awaited series of trials kicks off in Los Angeles superior court on Tuesday, in which hundreds of US families will allege that Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube’s platforms harm children. Once young people are hooked, the plaintiffs allege, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and other mental health issues. Approximately 1,600 plaintiffs are included in the proceedings, involving more than 350 families and 250 school districts. “The fact that a social media company is going to have to stand trial before a jury … is unprecedented,” Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and an attorney representing plaintiffs, said in a press briefing. The initial trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. It involves a 19-year-old who is identified in court documents by the initials KGM. She alleges that she developed mental health issues at a young age after becoming addicted to social media apps. Her case will be the first of around 22 “bellwether” trials, which are used as test cases to gauge juries’ reactions and potential verdicts. Ultimately, the landmark trials will cover thousands of lawsuits that have been coordinated together in what is known as a judicial council coordination proceeding (JCCP). The plaintiffs in these cases are seeking financial damages and injunctive relief that would change the design of the platforms and establish industry-wide safety standards. If they win and prove that millions of children have been harmed by social media, it could profoundly change how these platforms are designed and create new avenues for lawsuits against the tech behemoths. Key wit...
In many ways, Alex Pretti and Renee Good could have been any of the dozens of Minneapolis residents I met last week. Among them were teachers, store clerks, Uber drivers, charity workers and clergymen – a patchwork of humanity withstanding what many have called the Trump administration’s siege on their city, which began in December last year and has led to 3,000 arrests, two fatal shootings, and r...
In many ways, Alex Pretti and Renee Good could have been any of the dozens of Minneapolis residents I met last week. Among them were teachers, store clerks, Uber drivers, charity workers and clergymen – a patchwork of humanity withstanding what many have called the Trump administration’s siege on their city, which began in December last year and has led to 3,000 arrests, two fatal shootings, and routine rights violations in an operation defined by government brutality. What the administration has attempted to laud as the largest immigration operation in US history has instead become a fully fledged crisis, and the sharpest test of American democracy under Trump’s second term. The resistance here goes well beyond activism and protest, as thousands of residents organise, and document what’s going on. As my colleagues have been documenting for weeks, acts of solidarity between neighbours in the frigid cold range from mutual aid to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) watch patrols. Alex Pretti. Photograph: US Department of Veterans Affairs/AFP/Getty Images Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot and killed seemingly after rushing to protect a woman as she was pepper-sprayed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday morning. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was observing ICE activity near her home when an agent opened fire earlier in January. But what happened in the minutes preceding these two fatal shootings has effectively played on repeat throughout this mid-sized city as the Trump administration continued to escalate – rhetorically and physically – despite signs of a partial climbdown in the past 24 hours. Wild and false allegations of “domestic terrorism” are levelled against ordinary citizens, and thousands more immigration agents, many of whom lack experience and training, surge through the streets. Minneapolis has long been a target city for rightwing political agitation, known as a focal point for the Black Lives Matter movement and where resid...
The problem You brush past a favourite plant and hear that horrible snap as a stem bends or breaks. The break is rarely clean enough to propagate, yet not detached enough to ignore. You are left with a drooping limb and a sinking feeling. People on Reddit swear by a first-aid kit of drinking straws and cinnamon – can it save the day? The hack A straw acts as a splint to hold a bent stem upright wh...
The problem You brush past a favourite plant and hear that horrible snap as a stem bends or breaks. The break is rarely clean enough to propagate, yet not detached enough to ignore. You are left with a drooping limb and a sinking feeling. People on Reddit swear by a first-aid kit of drinking straws and cinnamon – can it save the day? The hack A straw acts as a splint to hold a bent stem upright while it heals. Cinnamon is sprinkled on the wound as a natural antifungal, said to help keep rot at bay. The method Cut a drinking straw lengthwise so it opens up, dust the damaged area of the plant with cinnamon, wrap the straw around it, and secure it loosely with string. Add a stake if needed, and avoid disturbing the plant by moving it. The test I used the splint on a bent Monstera stem. After a few weeks, the damaged section had callused and firmed up, and I was able to remove the straw without the stem collapsing. On a more severely damaged begonia, the splint simply delayed the inevitable. The verdict Straws and cinnamon will not perform miracles on a serious snap, but can buy a plant time to repair minor damage.
China is tightening approvals for intercity railways and urban metro projects – long-standing pillars of fixed-asset investment – as policymakers pay closer attention to debt risks while shifting the growth model towards consumption. The move comes as President Xi Jinping has specifically flagged operational strains at some high-speed rail stations and subway lines – a sign that the old growth dri...
China is tightening approvals for intercity railways and urban metro projects – long-standing pillars of fixed-asset investment – as policymakers pay closer attention to debt risks while shifting the growth model towards consumption. The move comes as President Xi Jinping has specifically flagged operational strains at some high-speed rail stations and subway lines – a sign that the old growth driver may be further curtailed in the coming years. According to an online statement on Sunday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner said it was “strictly prohibited to covertly build high-speed rail lines or urban metro systems in the name of intercity railways”. Advertisement The remarks followed the commission’s guidance last week to promote the sustainable development of intercity railways. Proposed intercity rail projects must achieve projected two-way passenger flows of at least 15 million trips a year, the NDRC said. That is an average of 41,000 passengers per day. Regions where existing intercity lines fail to reach half of forecast passenger volumes after five years, or to achieve cash-flow break-even after a decade of operation, will be barred from launching new projects, the guidance said, citing debt-risk concerns. Advertisement For decades, large-scale infrastructure spending has powered China’s economic expansion, enabling the country to construct one of the world’s largest rail networks at remarkable speed. But overbuilding, weaker-than-expected passenger demand and rising operating and maintenance costs have increasingly weighed on local government finances.
Did your latest energy bill give you sticker shock? You’re not alone. Energy costs are surging nationwide and outstripping overall inflation. Last year, consumer prices rose 2.7%, but electricity costs jumped 6.7%. Fuel oil — the primary heating source in the Northeast — was up 7.4%, and utility gas spiked 10.8%. The weekend’s Winter Storm Fern and the preceding blast of cold arctic air are only l...
Did your latest energy bill give you sticker shock? You’re not alone. Energy costs are surging nationwide and outstripping overall inflation. Last year, consumer prices rose 2.7%, but electricity costs jumped 6.7%. Fuel oil — the primary heating source in the Northeast — was up 7.4%, and utility gas spiked 10.8%. The weekend’s Winter Storm Fern and the preceding blast of cold arctic air are only likely to add to the stress. Extra heating demand has already sent natural gas prices to the highest level since 2022. And consumers’ price fatigue is increasingly catching the attention of politicians: Earlier this month, President Trump noted that utility bills had gone up “MASSIVELY,” which he blamed on data centers. The rapidly rising costs are placing increasing strain on homeowners and renters. Utility debt was up 31% between the end of 2023 and mid-2025, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, and shutoffs have been rising, too, to an estimated 4 million last year, up from 3.5 million in 2024. The uptick in costs can’t be blamed on any single reason, energy experts told Yahoo Finance. Instead, a multitude of factors, including the cost of upgrading aging equipment, post-disaster repairs, lingering supply chain shortages, and yes, demand from data centers, all play a role. Ice covers power lines during a winter storm Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) · ASSOCIATED PRESS Aging infrastructure America’s power grid is aging. Many of the components that go into delivering power were built more than 50 years ago and are nearing the end of their natural life. The cost of replacing and updating technology like wires, poles, transformers, and towers ultimately ends up being passed on to consumers. Brattle Group, a consultancy that worked with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory last year to identify factors influencing retail electricity prices, estimates that spending on aging power transmission infrastructur...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang bought street snacks worth 65 yuan (US$9) at a market in Shanghai while giving its owner a lai see of 600 yuan (US$90), but the operator did not recognise the artificial intelligence (AI) chip mogul. Huang recently sparked a storm on mainland social media thanks to his down-to-earth and friendly demeanour during a visit to a wet market in Shanghai. It is his routine to visi...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang bought street snacks worth 65 yuan (US$9) at a market in Shanghai while giving its owner a lai see of 600 yuan (US$90), but the operator did not recognise the artificial intelligence (AI) chip mogul. Huang recently sparked a storm on mainland social media thanks to his down-to-earth and friendly demeanour during a visit to a wet market in Shanghai. It is his routine to visit his company’s offices in mainland China before flying to Taiwan before the Lunar New Year each year. One of the market vendors shows off the lai see she received from Jensen Huang. Photo: Jimu At noon on January 24, Huang and his entourage left their cars near Jinde Market in the city’s Lujiazui area. Advertisement Huang first bought some chestnuts and candied hawthorns at Haohao Chestnuts King, a small outlet near the entrance to the market. An employee with Huang scanned a QR code to pay 65 yuan for him. Advertisement Huang took out a New Year lai see bearing the Chinese character for his surname, signed his English name on the back before passing it to the shop owner, surnamed Xu. Xu said on social media that there was 600 yuan cash inside the packet, Jimu News reported.
Trump to hold de facto midterm kickoff in Iowa focused on the economy, energy prices toggle caption Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images President Trump will hold a rally in Iowa on Tuesday to preview the administration's campaign message ahead of the midterm elections. It comes as polls show that voters are unhappy with many elements of his messaging so far. Tuesday's speech in Clive, I...
Trump to hold de facto midterm kickoff in Iowa focused on the economy, energy prices toggle caption Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images President Trump will hold a rally in Iowa on Tuesday to preview the administration's campaign message ahead of the midterm elections. It comes as polls show that voters are unhappy with many elements of his messaging so far. Tuesday's speech in Clive, Iowa, is expected to focus on energy and the economy — two areas where Trump's policy changes in the last year have negatively impacted the state. Trump was last in Iowa on the eve of July 4, 2025, where he kicked off a yearlong celebration of America's 250th birthday and touted Congress' passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which enacted sweeping cuts to taxes and social safety net programs. Sponsor Message As the tax season starts, voters will begin to see the impact of the law's signature policies, like no tax on tips and overtime and an expanded child tax credit. Later this week, the Treasury Department will hold a summit to release more details about the "Trump Accounts" created by the law, which will be seeded with a $1,000 government contribution for babies born between 2025 and 2028 and which will serve as investment accounts for newborns. Much has changed in those six months, though, as polling data suggests the American public has soured on the Trump administration's overhaul of the country's foreign and domestic agenda. That includes an aggressive immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota where federal agents shot and killed two people in two different incidents this month. Last week, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that his message for Iowa was "straight to the farmers," touting the billions of dollars the administration made available as bridge payments to farmers negatively affected by the president's tariff policies. "You know, the farmers like Trump, and I like the farmers," Trump said. "The farmers have been very special to me. Very succ...
A new risk assessment has found that xAI’s chatbot Grok has inadequate identification of users under 18, weak safety guardrails, and frequently generates sexual, violent, and inappropriate material. In other words, Grok is not safe for kids or teens. The damning report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides age-based ratings and reviews of media and tech for families, comes as xAI face...
A new risk assessment has found that xAI’s chatbot Grok has inadequate identification of users under 18, weak safety guardrails, and frequently generates sexual, violent, and inappropriate material. In other words, Grok is not safe for kids or teens. The damning report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides age-based ratings and reviews of media and tech for families, comes as xAI faces criticism and an investigation into how Grok was used to create and spread nonconsensual explicit AI-generated images of women and children on the X platform. “We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks, but Grok is among the worst we’ve seen,” said Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital assessments at the nonprofit, in a statement. He added that while it’s common for chatbots to have some safety gaps, Grok’s failures intersect in a particularly troubling way. “Kids Mode doesn’t work, explicit material is pervasive, [and] everything can be instantly shared to millions of users on X,” continued Torney. (xAI released ‘Kids Mode’ last October with content filters and parental controls.) “When a company responds to the enablement of illegal child sexual abuse material by putting the feature behind a paywall rather than removing it, that’s not an oversight. That’s a business model that puts profits ahead of kids’ safety.” After facing outrage from users, policymakers, and entire nations, xAI restricted Grok’s image generation and editing to paying X subscribers only, though many reported they could still access the tool with free accounts. Moreover, paid subscribers were still able to edit real photos of people to remove clothing or put the subject into sexualized positions. Common Sense Media tested Grok across the mobile app, website, and @grok account on X using teen test accounts between this past November and January 22, evaluating text, voice, default settings, Kids Mode, Conspiracy Mode, and image and video generation features. xAI laun...