We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why are smugglers swarming East Africa for ants to send to China and Europe? 2. How a Tang dynasty tablet became a test for China-Japan restitution 3. Hong Kong passengers caught off guard by new air...
We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why are smugglers swarming East Africa for ants to send to China and Europe? 2. How a Tang dynasty tablet became a test for China-Japan restitution 3. Hong Kong passengers caught off guard by new airport limit of 2 power banks 4. Jiang Xueqin, the viral ‘prophet’ predicting the world’s fate from...
In October 2022, Elon Musk spent $44 billion to acquire social media platform Twitter. Subsequently, the serial entrepreneur took the company private and rebranded it to X. Next month, the platform is set to launch X Money as Musk continues his ambitions to build an "everything app." Now, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) finds itself at the center of new speculation as the meme coin has long ridden hype wa...
In October 2022, Elon Musk spent $44 billion to acquire social media platform Twitter. Subsequently, the serial entrepreneur took the company private and rebranded it to X. Next month, the platform is set to launch X Money as Musk continues his ambitions to build an "everything app." Now, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) finds itself at the center of new speculation as the meme coin has long ridden hype waves connected to Musk's influence. With X rolling out a payments feature, could this update finally deliver the utility and price surge that investors have been waiting for? Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
China has exported cargoes of diesel and other fuels to energy-starved countries across Southeast Asia over the weekend, in what appears to be a signal of support despite export curbs imposed earlier this month. Emerging economies in Asia have been among the most acutely impacted by a war in the Middle East that has upended the energy trade, pushing up prices and creating widespread shortages. Cou...
China has exported cargoes of diesel and other fuels to energy-starved countries across Southeast Asia over the weekend, in what appears to be a signal of support despite export curbs imposed earlier this month. Emerging economies in Asia have been among the most acutely impacted by a war in the Middle East that has upended the energy trade, pushing up prices and creating widespread shortages. Countries including the Philippines have indicated they would turn to others in the region for help through the supply crunch. Tankers Ding Heng 36 and Auchentoshan delivered more than 260,000 barrels of diesel to the Philippines at the weekend, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Great Ocean delivered about 100,000 barrels of distillate fuels to Vietnam over the same period, potentially alleviating shortages of oil products including diesel. The Philippines said on Sunday it was preparing to receive a first batch of diesel as part of oil diplomacy efforts, as the country grapples with a national emergency triggered by fuel shortfalls. Officials have not named specific suppliers, but China has been a top supplier of gasoil this month — accounting for more than half of Manila’s 158,000 barrels a day of imports. The ships were loaded in the past week, though it is possible that the sales themselves were cleared before authorities tightened restrictions. One of Asia’s most important fuel exporters, China banned overseas sales of oil products earlier this month to protect domestic consumers, with top refiners canceling some cargoes after being told to halt new deals and renegotiate existing ones. On the Wire Iran’s weekend strikes on Middle Eastern aluminum plants are threatening to send a fragile market into crisis, raising the prospect of record prices for the metal used in everything from airplanes to food packaging and solar panels. PetroChina Co.’s earnings fell last year, as softer crude oil prices and sluggish fuel demand weighed on profits. China is di...
Christoph Burgstedt/iStock via Getty Images The S&P 500 earnings yield (SP EY) jumped back over 5% on Friday, March 27, 2026 to end the week at 5.06%, the first time - per this blog’s internal spreadsheet - since early May ’25 that the S&P 500 earnings yield has been over 5%. On 5/5/25, S&P 500 earnings yield ended that week at 5.5%, the highest S&P 500 earnings yield this blog has noted since lat...
Christoph Burgstedt/iStock via Getty Images The S&P 500 earnings yield (SP EY) jumped back over 5% on Friday, March 27, 2026 to end the week at 5.06%, the first time - per this blog’s internal spreadsheet - since early May ’25 that the S&P 500 earnings yield has been over 5%. On 5/5/25, S&P 500 earnings yield ended that week at 5.5%, the highest S&P 500 earnings yield this blog has noted since late January ’24. As a market-timing measure, the SP EY is an imperfect or inexact timing measure, but it should start getting readers' attention along with investor sentiment. For historical purposes, the SP EY did trade north of 6% for most of 2023, after the FOMC started raising rates off 0% in 2022, so the SP EY can remain elevated for long periods of time. Energy sector estimates for 2026 start to rise Estimate growth rate source: LSEG.com Note the jump in the expected energy sector growth for ’26 per the LSEG data as of Friday, March 27th, 2026. Energy has largely been a dead sector since 2014, and the fact is without the Iran strikes, the world was convinced that the supply and demand for crude oil was largely in balance. The Big Problem with Technology Valuation Looking at the spreadsheet above, there is no problem with tech sector earnings; note the growth in “expected” ’26 tech sector earnings for full-year 2026. Remember though, free cash flow is not earnings (EPS) and doesn’t run through the income statement. This blog post from July ’24 tried to talk to readers about the difference between EPS and free cash flow, which is one of the fundamental underpinnings of a stock’s valuation. EPS is an accounting function, and frequently contains many non-cash expenses: the basic valuation formula is, without getting too deep into the weeds (extrapolating FCF forward, discounting it back, etc.): cash flow from operations less capex equals free cash flow The growth in capex for the hyperscalers is so large today, it’s historically unprecedented. But that capex doesn’t show up...
Surachai Chaikit/iStock via Getty Images My regular readers know I have been quite optimistic about undervalued food stocks since last summer. Most have continued to slide lower in price. The biggest problem for many has been stagnating sales in the U.S. economy tied to rising GLP-1 weight loss drug popularity (and investor fears of lower food consumption growth overall in the years ahead). Packag...
Surachai Chaikit/iStock via Getty Images My regular readers know I have been quite optimistic about undervalued food stocks since last summer. Most have continued to slide lower in price. The biggest problem for many has been stagnating sales in the U.S. economy tied to rising GLP-1 weight loss drug popularity (and investor fears of lower food consumption growth overall in the years ahead). Packaged and processed foods are being purchased at lower growth rates, while fresh fruits and vegetables have actually witnessed better trends. Another problem for the sector has been a jump in short selling across the board. After a multi-year price slide in major food names, bearish confidence by shorts has jumped (from confirmation bias of ever-declining share quotes). It's been a reinforcing circle/cycle of selling, where companies have reported weak sales and come out with lowered guidance, convincing shorts to enlarge their position sizing (both putting pressure on equity prices). YCharts - Conagra vs. Major Food Peers, Rising Short Interest, 1 Year However, consumer staples in the food sector do have a storied countertrend and defensive history when the economy is close to recession and Wall Street has entered a period of bear market selling itself. So, we have these two diametrically opposed forces working each day to pressure stock quotes, one lower and one higher. I have remained in my favorite food stocks because the valuations and dividend yields have become perhaps the most compelling of any industry in early 2026. Against a backdrop of extended valuations and investor excitement in the Big Tech area of Wall Street, food companies clearly represent the opposite setup. If your goal is to " buy low and sell high ," it's easy to figure out how to handle both spaces of the market for long-term investors. Anyway, another of my largest food holdings I have not mentioned yet on Seeking Alpha is Conagra Brands, Inc. ( CAG ), a leading seller of frozen meals and snacks in Am...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: After a weekend with little positive news out of Iran, oil prices rose in early trade . Yemen’s Houthis have now joined in the conflict, escalating it further. In Japan, where stocks opened down 4.5%, the authorities threaten FX intervention. Aluminum stocks surged after attacks on Middle East producer...
To get John Authers’ newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here . Today’s Points: After a weekend with little positive news out of Iran, oil prices rose in early trade . Yemen’s Houthis have now joined in the conflict, escalating it further. In Japan, where stocks opened down 4.5%, the authorities threaten FX intervention. Aluminum stocks surged after attacks on Middle East producers. AND: Some music for Holy Week . The WACO World Markets have entered into a WACO reality: Will the Ayatollahs Chicken Out? Traders are concluding that they almost certainly won’t, and so prices enter Holy Week under the worst pressure of the now-month-old conflict. The acronym does a little violence to the facts. Iran’s new supreme leader isn’t technically an ayatollah , a title reserved for the most senior ranks of the Shiite clergy. But many find acronyms helpful, and TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) — which made a lot of money when the president backed off from his initial Liberation Day tariffs last year — has outlived its usefulness. The ayatollahs have very little left to lose after already suffering a military pounding. That reduces their incentive to quit. And analysts have started to look more than 50 years back into history. They realize that Tehran has found a way to exert control over what the once-seemingly-all-powerful Sheik Yamani of Saudi Arabia called the “oil weapon” during the embargo and crises of the 1970s. Iran’s leaders have also established that they can control that weapon — limiting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — at very little cost to themselves. With the weaponry now at their disposal, Tehran can make those who control tankers destined for unfriendly countries decide that it’s not worth the risk to attempt the crossing. With the power to cut off oil supplies selectively, rather than resort to mining that would also block their own exports, the leadership’s incentive to relent grows even lower. The obvious analogy is with the 1956 Suez ...
mustafaU President Donald Trump said he could “take the oil in Iran” and potentially seize the country’s Kharg Island export hub as tensions in the Middle East entered their fifth week. Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that his “preference would be to take the oil,” comparing it to the U.S. military operation in Venezuela earlier this year, where the U.S. effectively gained control of the ...
mustafaU President Donald Trump said he could “take the oil in Iran” and potentially seize the country’s Kharg Island export hub as tensions in the Middle East entered their fifth week. Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that his “preference would be to take the oil,” comparing it to the U.S. military operation in Venezuela earlier this year, where the U.S. effectively gained control of the Latin American country’s oil industry, following the capture of its leader, Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration has weighed sending ground forces to the Kharg Island, according to Reuters, with one of its sources warning that such an operation would be “very risky.” Tehran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones. In the FT interview, Trump said that “my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.” “Maybe we take Kharg Island, possibly we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump said. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.” Brent crude ( CO1:COM ) rose 2.3% to around $115 a barrel, putting it on track for a historic monthly gain, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate ( CL1:COM ) gained 1.7% to $101.37, posting similar increases. More on Crude Oil Futures, Brent Futures A Perspective On Why The Oil Price Is More Likely To Reach $150 Than $50 WTI Crude Oil Minor Pullback Over, Start Of New Bullish Leg For Breakout Above $102.25 What AI's Threat Might Do To The March 2026 Job Report Oil rises as Yemen’s Houthis enter conflict, supply risks deepen Pakistan offers to host U.S.-Iran talks as regional tensions intensify
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...