When InvestHK’s director general Alpha Lau Hai-suen recently said that companies using Dubai as a hub had mostly shifted to Hong Kong after the outbreak of the Iran war, the instinct to leverage the city’s position as a safe haven for investment was understandable. Hong Kong should absolutely try to capture capital and talent unsettled by instability in the Gulf. However, it should resist the temp...
When InvestHK’s director general Alpha Lau Hai-suen recently said that companies using Dubai as a hub had mostly shifted to Hong Kong after the outbreak of the Iran war, the instinct to leverage the city’s position as a safe haven for investment was understandable. Hong Kong should absolutely try to capture capital and talent unsettled by instability in the Gulf. However, it should resist the temptation to confuse a geopolitical opening with a strategic victory. Opportunity does not become a...
If approved, move is latest in series of buildings, warships, institutions, programs and currency named after president He has buildings, institutions, government programs, warships, currency, and now Donald Trump is getting an airport that bears his name even as he looks forward to a towering Trump presidential library in Miami. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, signed a bill on Monday saying the...
If approved, move is latest in series of buildings, warships, institutions, programs and currency named after president He has buildings, institutions, government programs, warships, currency, and now Donald Trump is getting an airport that bears his name even as he looks forward to a towering Trump presidential library in Miami. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, signed a bill on Monday saying the Palm Beach international airport was being renamed to the President Donald J Trump international airport. Continue reading...
In this article IDEF Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a briefing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026. Evan Vucci | Reuters A broker for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to make a large investment in major defens...
In this article IDEF Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a briefing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026. Evan Vucci | Reuters A broker for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to make a large investment in major defense companies in the lead up to the Iran war, according to the Financial Times. The Pentagon has denied the report. The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Hegseth's broker at banking giant Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in its iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF . The ETF, which has about $3.1 billion in assets, counts companies such as RTX Corp, — formerly known as Raytheon — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman among its largest holdings, Blackrock data showed. The Defense Industrials Active ETF has lost 12.4% in the past one month, about the time when the Iran war started, according to LSEG data. The FT also said that the investment discussed by Hegseth's broker did not ultimately go ahead as the fund was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy at the time. It was also not known if the broker had found another defense-related investment. Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell dismissed the FT report in a post on X , calling it "entirely false and fabricated," and demanding the FT retract the article. Parnell said that neither Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment. "This is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public," he added. The U.S. war against Iran has stretched into its fifth week, and the conflict does not seem to show any sign of abating. U.S. Marines have arrived in the region, with the Washington Post reporting that the Pentagon was "preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran." Trump on Monday had also sa...
Donny DBM/iStock via Getty Images Highlights • U.S. stocks extended a historically fast rebound that began in early April, although upward momentum slowed in the final quarter of the year. • The advance was supported by strong corporate fundamentals, a resilient economy, an ongoing boom in spending on AI, and the Fed's interest rate reductions of 0.25% in October and December. • Healthcare, a lagg...
Donny DBM/iStock via Getty Images Highlights • U.S. stocks extended a historically fast rebound that began in early April, although upward momentum slowed in the final quarter of the year. • The advance was supported by strong corporate fundamentals, a resilient economy, an ongoing boom in spending on AI, and the Fed's interest rate reductions of 0.25% in October and December. • Healthcare, a laggard for much of 2025, was the top-performing sector in the S&P 500 Index during Q4. Market review and outlook U.S. stocks gained 2.66% in the fourth quarter, according to the S&P 500 Index, extending a historically fast rebound that began in early April, but at a slower pace. The advance was supported by strong corporate fundamentals, a resilient economy, an ongoing boom in spending on artificial intelligence, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed's) interest rate reductions of 0.25% in October and December. Amid this favorable backdrop for higher-risk assets, the index closed the year just shy of its all-time high. Value stocks modestly outpaced growth in Q4, while large caps had only a slight advantage over small caps, as investors' appetite for risk waned versus the prior three months. In the fourth quarter, the index's narrow advance was driven by the defensive-oriented healthcare sector (+12%), which particularly shined in November. The growth-oriented communication services sector rose about 7%, benefiting from the transformative potential of generative AI. All other groups lagged the index. Notably, IT, which represented 35% of the S&P 500 Index in Q4, rose about 1%. International developed-market stocks advanced 4.89%, as measured by the MSCI EAFE Index. The discrepancy between value and growth stocks was more pronounced in this index, again in favor of value over growth. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index notched a 4.72% rise. South Korea (+27%) and Taiwan (+10%) were two strong components with sizable representation in this index, bolstered by the strength in technolog...