Alones Creative Donald Trump said the United States would move to block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after negotiations with Iran unraveled over the weekend in Islamabad. In a social media statement, Trump said the U.S. Navy would immediately begin efforts to stop vessels from entering or leaving the critical shipping lane, calling it a necessary response to escalating tensions. P...
Alones Creative Donald Trump said the United States would move to block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after negotiations with Iran unraveled over the weekend in Islamabad. In a social media statement, Trump said the U.S. Navy would immediately begin efforts to stop vessels from entering or leaving the critical shipping lane, calling it a necessary response to escalating tensions. President Trump's statement about the Strait of Hormuz blockade (Truth Social) The announcement followed the abrupt end of marathon talks involving JD Vance, along with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who spent nearly a full day in negotiations with senior Iranian officials. The discussions, brokered by Pakistan, were aimed at halting a six-week conflict but failed to produce an agreement, leaving a fragile ceasefire in doubt. Iranian officials signaled that U.S. demands had been too steep, while the country’s foreign ministry suggested that further talks could still take place, noting that major disputes are unlikely to be resolved in a single round. Trump also accused Iran of threatening global commerce by considering measures such as mining the strait or charging ships for safe passage. He characterized such actions as coercive and said the U.S. would not tolerate them. Expanding on the policy, Trump warned that American forces would also target ships that comply with any Iranian-imposed transit fees, stating that vessels paying such charges should not expect protection in international waters. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for global energy supplies, handling roughly 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and any disruption there could have far-reaching economic consequences. Dear Readers: We recognize that politics often intersect with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion. More on Brent Futures, Crude Oil Futures Commodities: Oil Supported By Ongoing Supply Risks Rei...
Wrapped in bloodied bandages, seven-year-old Aline Saeed barely survived the Israeli strike on her home in south Lebanon last week. She was there to bury her father as hopes of a truce spread across the region, but a new strike killed her infant sister and other relatives. The strike on the Saeed family home in the village of Srifa took place on Wednesday, the first day of a US-Iran ceasefire tha...
Wrapped in bloodied bandages, seven-year-old Aline Saeed barely survived the Israeli strike on her home in south Lebanon last week. She was there to bury her father as hopes of a truce spread across the region, but a new strike killed her infant sister and other relatives. The strike on the Saeed family home in the village of Srifa took place on Wednesday, the first day of a US-Iran ceasefire that many in Lebanon hoped would apply to their country, too. Instead, Israeli strikes killed more than...
Wrexham missed the chance to move within a point of the Sky Bet Championship playoff places after they suffered a 2-0 defeat by Birmingham at St Andrew’s. The Red Dragons’ dream of an unprecedented fourth straight promotion was dealt a massive blow after they were beaten for a second straight match which leaves them four points behind sixth-placed Hull with four games to play. Continue reading...
Wrexham missed the chance to move within a point of the Sky Bet Championship playoff places after they suffered a 2-0 defeat by Birmingham at St Andrew’s. The Red Dragons’ dream of an unprecedented fourth straight promotion was dealt a massive blow after they were beaten for a second straight match which leaves them four points behind sixth-placed Hull with four games to play. Continue reading...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Something has clearly gone wrong at UnitedHealth ( UNH ). The key question is how permanent it is. This is not a clean story, which is precisely why it is interesting. Following margin pressure in Medicare Advantage, weaker execution in Optum Health, and the withdrawal of guidance, confidence in the business has clearly been damaged. In my view, the curr...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Something has clearly gone wrong at UnitedHealth ( UNH ). The key question is how permanent it is. This is not a clean story, which is precisely why it is interesting. Following margin pressure in Medicare Advantage, weaker execution in Optum Health, and the withdrawal of guidance, confidence in the business has clearly been damaged. In my view, the current situation reflects a temporary margin reset and not a permanent impairment. What matters now is whether the underlying drivers (especially the medical cost ratio) begin to stabilise. If they do, the current setup offers an attractive risk/reward. Company Overview Koyfin, own calculation Over the past ten years, UnitedHealth has delivered remarkably consistent growth, with revenue increasing at a CAGR of approx. 10%. This was driven by expansion in Medicare Advantage and the rapid scaling of the Optum franchise. This growth came to an abrupt end last year. Guidance was lowered, management changed, and concerns around billing practices emerged. For 2026, management is guiding for a revenue decline of approx. 2% , which would mark the first decline in over a decade. Margins are expected to recover but to remain below pre-2025 levels. What Went Wrong The recent underperformance is not driven by a single issue. Utilization in Medicare Advantage moved higher, while pricing lagged due to the backward-looking nature of insurance. At the same time, the transition to the V28 risk model added pressure on reimbursement, and execution in Optum Health fell short as growth outpaced costs. What matters is not the individual factors, but the combination. These effects stacked on top of each other and pushed margins below their normal range. This ultimately broke investor confidence. Why I Think This Is Fixable UnitedHealth 10Ks, own calculations Let's start with what is working. Despite strong top-line growth over the past decade, UnitedHealth has consistently improved its operating cos...
Apple has not had many public labor fights, but its latest just got a lot harder to ignore. The company confirmed on April 9 that it will permanently close its store at Towson Town Center in Maryland in June. The store will not be replaced. The Towson location was the first Apple retail store in ...
Apple has not had many public labor fights, but its latest just got a lot harder to ignore. The company confirmed on April 9 that it will permanently close its store at Towson Town Center in Maryland in June. The store will not be replaced. The Towson location was the first Apple retail store in ...
Quant rankings for the upcoming earnings calendar show strength concentrated in financials and select technology and consumer staples names, while weakness is more pronounced across real estate, technology, and pockets of consumer discretionary and energy. This week’s top-rated names are led by JinkoSolar Holding ( JKS ), which holds a quant rating of 4.78, followed by a strong showing from financ...
Quant rankings for the upcoming earnings calendar show strength concentrated in financials and select technology and consumer staples names, while weakness is more pronounced across real estate, technology, and pockets of consumer discretionary and energy. This week’s top-rated names are led by JinkoSolar Holding ( JKS ), which holds a quant rating of 4.78, followed by a strong showing from financials including PNC Financial Services ( PNC ) at 4.67, First Horizon ( FHN ) at 4.63, and Citizens Financial Group ( CFG ) at 4.57. Consumer staples name PepsiCo ( PEP ), also at 4.57, features prominently alongside technology names such as Ericsson ( ERIC ). Additional financial heavyweights, including State Street ( STT ), Bank of America ( BAC ), and Truist Financial ( TFC ), round out the higher-ranked cohort, alongside industrial player Insteel Industries ( IIIN ), reflecting broadly solid factor readings across valuation, growth, and profitability. On the downside, real estate and select technology names dominate the weakest-ranked stocks. SL Green Realty ( SLG ) holds the lowest quant score at 1.55, followed closely by Badger Meter ( BMI ) at 1.59 and Lakeland Industries ( LAKE ) at 1.72. Other laggards include Great Southern Bancorp ( GSBC ) and MIND Technology ( MIND ), pointing to weaker factor trends across valuation and momentum. Additional names such as SurgePays ( SURG ), New Horizon Aircraft ( HOVR ), and Wipro ( WIT ) also feature among the lower-ranked stocks, alongside Autoliv ( ALV ) and Barry Callebaut ( BYCBF ), reflecting mixed but generally softer quantitative profiles. Other high-profile companies set to report earnings this week include Netflix ( NFLX ), Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ( TSM ), and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), all of which carry Hold ratings with quant scores of 3.22 , 3.44 , 3.49 , and 3.33 , respectively. Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating system grades stocks based on their relative performance on criti...
Hisense is first out of the gate with the UR9 RGB LED TV, which uses individual red, green, and blue LEDs for its backlight. RGB LED TVs have been the talk of the TV world this year, with models coming from all the manufacturers, and the first one of 2026 is here - the Hisense UR9. It's the first look at the viability of the new backlight technology outside of demo rooms, and it's a step above the...
Hisense is first out of the gate with the UR9 RGB LED TV, which uses individual red, green, and blue LEDs for its backlight. RGB LED TVs have been the talk of the TV world this year, with models coming from all the manufacturers, and the first one of 2026 is here - the Hisense UR9. It's the first look at the viability of the new backlight technology outside of demo rooms, and it's a step above the traditional mini-LED TVs of years past. HDR is colorful and accurate, it has great brightness, and it is capable of showing colors beyond the P3 color space for movies and TV shows that have wider color. But at $3,500, the 65-inch model I reviewed is priced comparably to high-end OLEDs from LG and Samsung, which is tough competition. Hisense released the very first RGB … Read the full story at The Verge.
Vice President JD Vance landed in Islamabad on Saturday tasked with ending six weeks of war and overcoming 47 years of enmity — 21 hours later, he flew home without a deal . The two sides left Pakistan with no resolution to thorny issues like Iran ’s nuclear program or its control of the Strait of Hormuz. It was always unlikely that they’d reach a breakthrough in a single day even after their high...
Vice President JD Vance landed in Islamabad on Saturday tasked with ending six weeks of war and overcoming 47 years of enmity — 21 hours later, he flew home without a deal . The two sides left Pakistan with no resolution to thorny issues like Iran ’s nuclear program or its control of the Strait of Hormuz. It was always unlikely that they’d reach a breakthrough in a single day even after their highest level meeting in nearly half a century. But by early Sunday morning, it was clear they weren’t much closer to resolving a war that’s killed thousands and roiled global energy markets. Read More: Netanyahu-Trump Divisions on Iran War Threaten to Box In US “We leave here with a very simple proposal — a method of understanding that is our final and best offer,” Vance said at a short press conference before departing for Washington. “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.” As Vance delivered his verdict in Islamabad — “they have chosen not to accept our terms” — President Donald Trump was in Miami, ringside at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match, where he was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice. Vance said the team had updated Trump up to a dozen times during the day, and the president delivered his take shortly before 9 a.m. Washington time on Sunday. In a Truth Social post , he said Iran’s team was “very unyielding as to the single most important issue and, as I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Read more: Who’s Who in Iran? Guide to the Islamic Republic’s Top Leaders That capped a chapter that began when Vance landed at 10:30 a.m. local time Saturday. The vice president was met on the tarmac by Pakistan army chief Asim Munir, who greeted him in a gray suit and green tie. By contrast, when Munir went out the night before to greet the Iran’s 71-member delegation — headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf — he was clad in full military regalia. While th...
AndreyPopov/iStock via Getty Images Major U.S. banks are on track to post more than $40 billion in trading revenue for the first quarter, as heightened geopolitical tensions helped drive sharp movements across financial markets, the Financial Times reported Sunday. Institutions including JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), Goldman Sachs ( GS ), Morgan Stanley ( MS ), Citigroup ( C ) and Bank of America ( BAC ...
AndreyPopov/iStock via Getty Images Major U.S. banks are on track to post more than $40 billion in trading revenue for the first quarter, as heightened geopolitical tensions helped drive sharp movements across financial markets, the Financial Times reported Sunday. Institutions including JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), Goldman Sachs ( GS ), Morgan Stanley ( MS ), Citigroup ( C ) and Bank of America ( BAC ) are expected to report their strongest combined quarterly trading performance in more than a decade, based on analyst estimates. Forecasts suggest the group’s trading income will rise roughly 13% compared with the same period last year, even against a backdrop of already elevated volatility in early 2025 driven by policies under Donald Trump. Middle East, Venezuela hot spots Market turbulence intensified further in the latest quarter, fueled by conflict in the Middle East and U.S. military actions tied to Venezuela, which triggered large swings in commodities, equities and currencies. Analysts say such conditions tend to boost trading activity, as clients reposition portfolios and hedge risks. The unrest contributed to a surge in oil prices alongside declines in equities, raising concerns that higher energy costs could stoke inflation and weigh on global growth. Recent data shows the conflict has indeed driven energy-led price pressures and market uncertainty. Within trading divisions, equities are expected to deliver the strongest gains, outpacing fixed income, currencies and commodities. Analysts project equity trading revenue growth in the mid-teens percentage range, compared with high-single to low-double-digit increases for FICC businesses. At the same time, banks are benefiting from structural shifts made after the 2008 financial crisis. Trading desks today are less focused on taking large directional bets and more oriented toward facilitating client activity and providing liquidity, which allows them to capitalize on periods of elevated volatility. Investment banki...
For years, even decades, virtually everyone in the United States had the same phone. Nobody really thought about it, it didn't even matter what it was called - it was just The Phone. Well, The Phone was called the Western Electric 500 , and when landline phones ruled the world, the Western Electric 500 ruled the landlines. It was so ubiquitous for so long that even if you've never touched a landli...
For years, even decades, virtually everyone in the United States had the same phone. Nobody really thought about it, it didn't even matter what it was called - it was just The Phone. Well, The Phone was called the Western Electric 500 , and when landline phones ruled the world, the Western Electric 500 ruled the landlines. It was so ubiquitous for so long that even if you've never touched a landline, you've encountered the 500. The Phone app on your iPhone? Looks like a 500. On this episode of Version History , we tell the story of the Western Electric 500, and the deeply strange world it came to represent. David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and pro … Read the full story at The Verge.
Norway’s largest trade unions reached a wage deal with employers for private-sector workers, preventing a strike in western Europe’s top energy exporter. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, or LO, and Parat agreed with the employer organization NHO on a pay increase of 4.4% for this year and a program for the advance payment of sick pay, NHO said on Sunday. The agreement covers about 250,...
Norway’s largest trade unions reached a wage deal with employers for private-sector workers, preventing a strike in western Europe’s top energy exporter. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, or LO, and Parat agreed with the employer organization NHO on a pay increase of 4.4% for this year and a program for the advance payment of sick pay, NHO said on Sunday. The agreement covers about 250,000 workers across various fields. The wage gain compares with Norges Bank’s forecast for an annual rise of 4.5% in 2026, which would be the slowest in four years. The agreement wards off the first major industrial action in the Nordic nation since 2023 and comes despite additional uncertainty over price growth posed by the war in the Middle East. In Norway, the outcome of these talks sets the starting point for the rest of the wage negotiations in other sectors. While Norges Bank policymakers in March already opened the door to interest-rate hikes to cool the economy, the deal is likely to ease their worst concerns that could prompt an accelerated tightening campaign. Read More: Norway Signals First-Half Hike on Rising Concern Over Prices Nearly 35,000 workers were prepared to go on strike from Monday if talks had failed following their demands for a clear increase in inflation-adjusted wages. Norges Bank last month forecast 2026 headline inflation at 3.4%.
Olivier Bron, CEO of Bloomingdale's, reported the disposition of 7,228 shares of Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M) common stock through option exercise and immediate sale on April 6, 2026, as disclosed in the SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average purchase price ($17.92); post-transaction value based on April 6, 2026 market close ($18.13). Note: 1-year price change calculat...
Olivier Bron, CEO of Bloomingdale's, reported the disposition of 7,228 shares of Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M) common stock through option exercise and immediate sale on April 6, 2026, as disclosed in the SEC Form 4 filing . Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average purchase price ($17.92); post-transaction value based on April 6, 2026 market close ($18.13). Note: 1-year price change calculated as of April 6, 2026. Continue reading