Europe’s diesel futures benchmark hit the highest level since 2022, as the Iran war hits supply of the fuel that powers the global economy. Futures traded as high as $1,493.25 a ton, more than $200 a barrel, rising as much as 9.4% in London. With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz largely halted, flows of refined products like diesel through the waterway are blocked, while the hit to crude is fo...
Europe’s diesel futures benchmark hit the highest level since 2022, as the Iran war hits supply of the fuel that powers the global economy. Futures traded as high as $1,493.25 a ton, more than $200 a barrel, rising as much as 9.4% in London. With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz largely halted, flows of refined products like diesel through the waterway are blocked, while the hit to crude is forcing some refiners to also throttle back output. Traders around the world are scrambling for supplies, with shipments of the fuel being diverted and sent on epic journeys . Europe generally produces less diesel than it consumes. Several traders and analysts have said that the region faces supply shortages within the coming weeks if the strait is not reopened, with similar pressures also expected in Latin America.
alexsl/iStock via Getty Images Overview We are in one of the most unique market environments of the last decade. Technology stocks have sold off because of the rising threat of AI and when the indices experience a period of volatility, income-focused funds tend to serve as a hedge. However, the higher interest rate environment has also put pressure on the debt market and caused securities to decli...
alexsl/iStock via Getty Images Overview We are in one of the most unique market environments of the last decade. Technology stocks have sold off because of the rising threat of AI and when the indices experience a period of volatility, income-focused funds tend to serve as a hedge. However, the higher interest rate environment has also put pressure on the debt market and caused securities to decline in value. Since the BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund ( FRA ) provides exposure to a diverse range of debt securities, FRA has struggled to regain any positive momentum over the last few quarters. When I previously covered FRA, I issued a hold rating due to the threat of defaults and limited growth potential at the time. Since my last coverage, the fund has fallen by more than 16.4% and despite its high yield of 13.5%, the fund has severely underperformed the S&P 500. Due to the pullback in share price, FRA now trades at a discount to NAV of 5%. For reference, FRA has traded at an average discount to NAV of 3.3% over the last five year period. Referring to the red line on the graph below, we can see that FRA continues to fall to the more attractive end of its historical price to NAV range. Despite this, I do not believe that it is a good time to accumulate shares as additional downside risks remain. CEF Data Since my last coverage, the fund has released an updated annual report for the 2025 period. The report indicates that the fund is still actively paying out more than twice of what it earns. As a result, I expect the NAV will continue to deteriorate over the next twelve months unless management decides to cut the distributions. However, the decision to keep payouts unchanged may be to help artificially deflate the fund's discount to NAV valuation. Once the discount tightens, management may then reduce payouts. Fund Strategy According to the latest fund overview , FRA has total managed assets of $510M that are spread across 464 different positions. Unlike ...
JPMorgan Asset Management is buying government bonds including those from the US and the UK, betting inflation concerns have left some parts of the market oversold. Arjun Vij , a money manager based in Hong Kong, is finding value in shorter-dated debt that has been among the hardest-hit assets following aggressive bets on higher interest rates after the Iran war. The fund favors the two-to-five-ye...
JPMorgan Asset Management is buying government bonds including those from the US and the UK, betting inflation concerns have left some parts of the market oversold. Arjun Vij , a money manager based in Hong Kong, is finding value in shorter-dated debt that has been among the hardest-hit assets following aggressive bets on higher interest rates after the Iran war. The fund favors the two-to-five-year part of the curve, seeing opportunities in the US, Australia and the UK. “We think some value has been created and that’s the first place we should add,” said Vij, who helps oversee the firm’s global bond fund, which gained more than 14% over the three years to February, according to a factsheet. Yields on two-year Treasuries rose to their highest levels since June after surging oil spurred traders last week to price in prospects of Federal Reserve rate hikes. That’s a sharp reversal from before the war, when they expected two quarter-point cuts by year’s end. Comments on Thursday by President Donald Trump signaling more aggressive actions against Iran are further clouding the outlook for bonds as investors brace for more disruptions to global oil supplies. Already, a Bloomberg gauge of global bond returns lost 3.1% in March, the biggest monthly decline since October 2024. For investors like Vij, the dislocations are opening some opportunities to buy, albeit with caution. He reasons that staying nimble — preserving liquidity and risk capacity — is the best route. “The risk of further repricing in the front end is not completely over,” he said. However, “where we’ve gone from roughly two cuts in the US and two cuts in the UK to three hikes in the UK and flat in the US, you’ve got to start buying them.” Two-year Treasury yields advanced as much as six basis points in Asia Thursday after Trump’s remarks. Those on three-year Australian bonds surged as much as 15 basis points. Even so, Vij argues against rushing in all at once. “Would you fire all your bullets today? Probably...
The spotlight has been on Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) in recent years as the pharma player constructed a very valuable portfolio: one focused on diabetes and weight loss drugs. Lilly sells Mounjaro and Zepbound, available in injectable format, and each product has delivered double- and triple-digit percentage growth, with revenue at blockbuster levels. Mounjaro is approved for type 2 diabetes, and Zepbo...
The spotlight has been on Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) in recent years as the pharma player constructed a very valuable portfolio: one focused on diabetes and weight loss drugs. Lilly sells Mounjaro and Zepbound, available in injectable format, and each product has delivered double- and triple-digit percentage growth, with revenue at blockbuster levels. Mounjaro is approved for type 2 diabetes, and Zepbound is approved specifically for weight loss, but doctors have prescribed either for patients aiming to shed pounds. They're the commercial names for tirzepatide and are part of the now well-known GLP-1 class of drugs. Lilly is the leader in the U.S. obesity drug market, with 60% share, and has the pipeline and strategy that may keep it in the top spot. This is fantastic news for investors. But my prediction is the following area will be Lilly's next billion-dollar growth driver -- and it's not weight loss drugs. Continue reading
India Unveils AI Kamikaze Drone As Global Powers Rush To Acquire Cheap Loitering Munitions The most visible weapon in the wars across Eurasia, from Ukraine to the Middle East, is the low-cost one-way attack drone. It has forever changed the economics of war and how war is fought on the modern battlefield by enabling swarm strikes at a fraction of the cost of traditional air-delivered munitions. Uk...
India Unveils AI Kamikaze Drone As Global Powers Rush To Acquire Cheap Loitering Munitions The most visible weapon in the wars across Eurasia, from Ukraine to the Middle East, is the low-cost one-way attack drone. It has forever changed the economics of war and how war is fought on the modern battlefield by enabling swarm strikes at a fraction of the cost of traditional air-delivered munitions. Ukraine and Russia both proved this, and the last five weeks of the U.S.-Iran conflict have really confirmed it. In many ways, the war in Ukraine accelerated what could very well be warfare of the 2030s , driven by the hyperdevelopment of low-cost consumer technologies that can be dual-use or easily weaponized. From FPVs and AI-enabled kill chains to drone boats, ground robots, and one-way attack drones, the modern battlefield has been transformed by low-cost, scalable, and increasingly autonomous war machines. It is an emerging threat we warned readers about right before the Gulf conflict, because countermeasures against drones are lacking at scale and are unaffordable. In the Gulf theater, Iran has used these low-cost drones to strike data centers , U.S. military installations, and civilian infrastructure. In a prolonged war of attrition, mass-produced, cheap drones are increasingly likely to prevail over low-production, very expensive interceptor missiles in the long run. The Trump administration has smartly woken up to this new era of warfare and, secretly through the Department of War, deployed its own Iranian-style kamikaze drones (we reported in the first week of the conflict ). Military strategists around the world are now taking notes and copying the drone playbooks being written in real-time by active players in both Eurasian conflicts. As we noted the other week , China has likely already ramped up mass production of Iranian- and Russian-style one-way attack drones. Taken together, the speed at which these drones are proliferating across battlefields is very alarmi...
When you consider the fact that many people don't know how and where to place a comma, it's safe to say that AI is already better than most people at writing. It's clean copy. It can be surprisingly persuasive. And sometimes, it's even informative. But there's frequently still something about it that just seems... off. Many people can tell quite quickly when they're reading AI-generated text. So h...
When you consider the fact that many people don't know how and where to place a comma, it's safe to say that AI is already better than most people at writing. It's clean copy. It can be surprisingly persuasive. And sometimes, it's even informative. But there's frequently still something about it that just seems... off. Many people can tell quite quickly when they're reading AI-generated text. So how do you actually tell if a piece of writing was generated by AI? On this episode, we speak with Max Spero, the CEO of Pangram Labs, a company that built software to detect whether a piece of content was AI generated or not. We talk about the advanced techniques they use, the risk of false positives and false negatives, and what AI writing means in general for the future of the Internet. (Source: Bloomberg)