Shares of RH plummeted toward a six-year low Wednesday, after the high-end furniture retailer’s latest earnings report and outlook suggested that even the super-rich have cut back spending on their homes.
Shares of RH plummeted toward a six-year low Wednesday, after the high-end furniture retailer’s latest earnings report and outlook suggested that even the super-rich have cut back spending on their homes.
Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF ( XLC ), which tracks the S&P 500 Communication services sector, saw a challenging first quarter as investor sentiment remained heavily rattled amid geopolitical tension in the Middle East. The communication services sector, which consists of stocks including Alphabet ( GOOG ), Meta Platforms ( META ) and Disney ( DIS ), declined 5.17% during the ...
Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF ( XLC ), which tracks the S&P 500 Communication services sector, saw a challenging first quarter as investor sentiment remained heavily rattled amid geopolitical tension in the Middle East. The communication services sector, which consists of stocks including Alphabet ( GOOG ), Meta Platforms ( META ) and Disney ( DIS ), declined 5.17% during the first quarter. This is almost in line with the 4.8% fall in the broader S&P 500 Index. Major U.S. indexes experienced a notable downturn during the quarter, with losses coming mostly in late February after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Sentiment weakened as oil supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz spiked oil prices and fueled fears of global inflation. However, sentiment improved from the expectation that the war with Iran could be nearing an end, with President Donald Trump preparing to wind down the military campaign against the country. Industries Q1 Performance Media & Entertainment lost over 13% in the first quarter, while Telecommunication Services gained nearly 15%. The Communication Services-focused ETF had a net outflow of $1.53B during the quarter. What are the top 5 movers in Q1? Gainers: Verizon ( VZ ) +23.25%. AT&T ( T ) +16.71%. EchoStar Corporation ( SATS ) +7.70%. Live Nation Entertainment ( LYV ) +7.02%. T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) +3.44%. Losers: Trade Desk ( TTD ) -40.23%. Paramount Skydance ( PSKY ) -32.69%. Take-Two Interactive Software ( TTWO ) -22.86%. Fox ( FOXA ) -20.08%. Walt Disney ( DIS ) -15.29%. What Quantitative Measures say? XLC received a Buy rating from Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating system, with a score of 3.66 out of 5. The sector got an A+ for liquidity and expenses. However, it got a D+ and B for risk and momentum prospects. What do analysts expect? One analyst surveyed by Seeking Alpha in the last 90 days gave the XLC a Hold rating . “Despite strong seasonality and solid fundamentals, high portfolio concentration and emerg...
Stanley Druckenmiller is a legendary Wall Street investor, and there are very few investors on Wall Street with such an exceptional record. He’s loading up on a stock called Sea (NYSE:SE), which is down significantly and could surge back. But before we look into it, let’s have a refresher on who Druckenmiller is. Druckenmiller founded ... Stanley Druckenmiller Loaded Up on This Stock That’s Down 7...
Stanley Druckenmiller is a legendary Wall Street investor, and there are very few investors on Wall Street with such an exceptional record. He’s loading up on a stock called Sea (NYSE:SE), which is down significantly and could surge back. But before we look into it, let’s have a refresher on who Druckenmiller is. Druckenmiller founded ... Stanley Druckenmiller Loaded Up on This Stock That’s Down 77%
Two of the points were measures on energy bills from the autumn budget, another restated the existing energy strategy “We have a five-point plan for the immediate crisis,” declared the prime minister during his remarks from Downing Street on Wednesday . Really? Two of his five points were measures on energy bills that pre-date the Iran war. One was a description of support for a sub-set of consume...
Two of the points were measures on energy bills from the autumn budget, another restated the existing energy strategy “We have a five-point plan for the immediate crisis,” declared the prime minister during his remarks from Downing Street on Wednesday . Really? Two of his five points were measures on energy bills that pre-date the Iran war. One was a description of support for a sub-set of consumers but dodged the key question of who else could get help. Another stated the government’s longstanding energy strategy in unchanged terms. The last was a diplomatic policy, presumably shoe-horned into the cost-of-living passage because a five-point plan sounds better than a four-point one. Let’s take them in order. First: “We’re cutting energy bills by over £100 per household today.” That, very obviously, is not a response to “the immediate crisis.” Continue reading...
In this article LLY Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, speaks in the Oval Office during an event about weight-loss drugs at the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 6, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Eli Lilly opposes the White House's push to codify "most favored nation" drug pricing into law, CEO Dave Ricks said in an interview wi...
In this article LLY Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, speaks in the Oval Office during an event about weight-loss drugs at the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 6, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Eli Lilly opposes the White House's push to codify "most favored nation" drug pricing into law, CEO Dave Ricks said in an interview with CNBC. Lilly is one of more than a dozen drugmakers that signed deals with the Trump administration last year agreeing to charge similar prices for prescription drugs in the U.S. as other wealthy nations. President Donald Trump has long complained that Americans pay high prices to subsidize low prices for medicine in the rest of the world. The pharmaceutical industry thought the agreements would pacify those concerns and thwart attempts to make "most favored nation" pricing law. But the White House in recent months has pushed Congress to codify elements of the deals. The draft text hasn't been shared publicly, though the administration has said it's trying to get pharmaceutical companies back the effort. watch now VIDEO 22:24 22:24 Eli Lilly CEO: Our pill supply can 'reach the planet' News Videos Lilly doesn't support it, Ricks said. "When you throw it into the congressional process, what goes in is not what's going to come out," Ricks said. "And I think we see a lot of people who would rather reduce prices today and not worry about whether we have any new medicines tomorrow, not worry about whether America will have a robust drug industry and we'll be able to do research in this country. And I worry about those things, so I don't think that's a great idea, and we've been pretty clear with the administration and the congressional leaders about that." Ricks said he thinks the Trump administration and leadership on the Hill are listening to the company's concerns, but he said Lilly will use "all the tools we have to combat bad policy, and we think it would be bad policy." C...
NoDerog/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Buying MSFT stock at 22x P/E is a no brainer I last wrote on Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) stock on Feb 20 in an article titled “ Microsoft: Why I Set A $370 Buy Order .” That article was triggered by the changes in MSFT's implied volatility and Bollinger Bands at time. These changes have led me to see good odds for the share price to dip to $370 in the ...
NoDerog/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Buying MSFT stock at 22x P/E is a no brainer I last wrote on Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) stock on Feb 20 in an article titled “ Microsoft: Why I Set A $370 Buy Order .” That article was triggered by the changes in MSFT's implied volatility and Bollinger Bands at time. These changes have led me to see good odds for the share price to dip to $370 in the near future. And I further presented the following comments to argue why this price would be an excellent entry point for long-term investors: Any P/E around 20x is a no-brainer for a stock with ROCE (return on capital employed) around 65% like MSFT in my experience. At $370, MSFT would be priced around 22x FWD based on its latest EPS projections. At this level of ROCE, a 10% reinvestment rate would provide 6.5% organic real growth rates (and that is before inflation escalator). And a ~22x P/E would at least provide 4.5% of earnings yield in MSFT’s case as its owners ’ earnings yield consistently exceeds its EPS. Since that writing, the share prices have indeed touched $370 (and is hovering around $371) at the time of this writing. Following the above argument, I thus see an annual return potential in the double digits for the long term (around 11% consisting of 4.5%+ earning yielding and 6.5% growth rate), motivating me to adjust my rating to Buy. Besides the above valuation changes, another new catalyst that is on my radar is the company’s upcoming earnings report (ER) for FQ3 on April 23rd , which further supports the rating upgrade for reasons detailed in the next section. Seeking Alpha MSFT stock: FQ3 earnings preview and Rule of 40 MSFT is expected to announce its next ER on April 23, and the ER will be for its FQ3 2026. As shown in the snapshot below, based on the latest consensus estimates, the company is projected to maintain strong profitability and growth. Analysts have set the EPS GAAP estimate at $4.09 on total revenue of $81.36B. These figures represent a year...
Dougal Waters Jeff deGraaf, chairman and head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research, characterizes the recent stock market gains as an “oversold rally” with limited upside remaining, warning that the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) faces formidable resistance at its 200-day moving average around 6,640. The rally, sparked by optimism surrounding potential progress in the ongoing geopolitical confli...
Dougal Waters Jeff deGraaf, chairman and head of technical research at Renaissance Macro Research, characterizes the recent stock market gains as an “oversold rally” with limited upside remaining, warning that the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) faces formidable resistance at its 200-day moving average around 6,640. The rally, sparked by optimism surrounding potential progress in the ongoing geopolitical conflict, has approximately 1.5% of room to run, according to deGraaf. “This is an oversold rally that was sparked by some news and some optimism, but there’s more to do,” he said in an interview with CNBC. Market breadth has fallen short of what deGraaf considers sustainable levels, with the percentage of advancing stocks recently ranging between 72% and 83%—well below the 90% threshold he prefers to see. The technical analyst noted that oscillators and other metrics were on the “cusp of being oversold,” which allowed for the initial mean reversion in prices. Without a significant improvement in breadth, however, the 200-day moving average will prove difficult to overcome. Iran headlines and oil prices ( CO1:COM ), ( CL1:COM ) remain in the “driver’s seat” for market direction, impacting risk premiums and real interest rates, deGraaf explained. While near-term inflation has risen due to elevated oil prices, longer-term inflation expectations have plummeted significantly, signaling tightening financial conditions. This improvement in the long-term inflation outlook, however, is coming “at the expense of growth,” creating a concerning dynamic for investors. The Federal Reserve faces a challenging balancing act as it navigates these crosscurrents, particularly with a new chair coming in. “I think it’s going to be a really challenging three to six months just to see how the Fed handles this,” deGraaf said. Recent PPI and ISM data showed prices jumping without corresponding growth, complicating any potential rate cut decision. DeGraaf drew parallels to the 1970s, describing a potenti...
Seasoned investors know that when the S & P 500 (SPX) experiences big declines, it coincides with spikes in the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) . Over the long term, neither consistently leads the other — that relationship is well understood. What's far less clear is how much the VIX actually needs to rise before volatility begins to peter out. More importantly, how do we really know that the market's...
Seasoned investors know that when the S & P 500 (SPX) experiences big declines, it coincides with spikes in the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) . Over the long term, neither consistently leads the other — that relationship is well understood. What's far less clear is how much the VIX actually needs to rise before volatility begins to peter out. More importantly, how do we really know that the market's character has flipped back to positive from a decidedly negative and bearish trading environment? We're breaking this down, along with another metric we use at CappThesis that, in our opinion, does a much better job of capturing true two-way volatility, rather than focusing solely on the VIX, which spikes only to downside pressure. First, here's a long-term chart that looks at the largest trough-to-peak VIX moves since 2007. There have been 12 instances where the VIX gained at least 100% from its intraday low to high. The current move — up approximately 165% from the late December low to the recent high — now joins that group. VIX – biggest trough-to-peak % moves since 2007: At least +100%: 12 At least +200%: 9 At least +300%: 6 At least +400%: 4 At least +500%: 2 At least +600% 1 The two largest spikes, not surprisingly, occurred during 2007–2008 (+820%) and the Covid crash (+660%). There are two very important takeaways: The current VIX move could still extend further from here. A bear market does not require an extreme 500% to 600% surge. In 2022, the VIX rose roughly 180% all in, which only is modestly more than the current move. Yet, the SPX continued to sell off for over 10 months before the low was etched. In other words, we never saw true capitulation like we last saw in 2020. This is why volatility should always be viewed alongside the frequency of absolute 1% SPX moves. Sticking with 2022, even though the VIX never reached 40, the S & P 500's daily moves were constantly elevated. As this table shows, there were at least nine absolute 1% moves every month in 2022,...